Passionately opinionated

I’m posting this from the usual place, in front of my stunning iMac.  However, there is one major difference.  Behind this website is firefox, nothing unusual there, but behing that is a Windows desktop, and not just any version of Windows, it’s Vista.

Previous readers will have read my opinion of Vista and Microsoft in general since I became a Mac user.

So, what happened?  Well, a friend sent me a link detailing the upcoming release of a new series of Monkey Island games.  To your average nerd, this is the best news since, well, the last Monkey Island game!  This presents a problem to the Mac user.  A productive, stable machine it is, but a games platform it isn’t.

So, Bootcamp was installed, and then Vista was dusted down and installed.  I am slightly concerned to say, that Vista appears to run quicker and more efficiently that Leopard.  I know that I need to install Anti-Virus etc, but I was expecting to install a great big turd of an operating system, as I remember it on my laptop, but it just doesn’t seem to be.  Maybe the service packs and general updates have improved it, but I am actually enjoying using it again.  Plus, I much prefer Photoshop and Dreamweaver on the PC.  They just seem to work nicer, however I’ve been using video capture recently, and also iDVD, and these run nicer on the mac than the PC…

I’ve been playing Guitar Hero on the PS3 for quite a while now.  I’ve never played a real music instrument, but I’ve just bought an electric guitar and intend (with the help of t’internet) to teach myself to play it.

Currently, the house is rocking to the tune of classics like, “a slowed down version of the intro of Smoke on the Water”, and “the first 5 notes of Enter Sandman”.

Still, when it comes to learning new things, I am a patient person, and if all else fails, at least it looks quite cool.

Today we woke up to a completely white Guernsey.  Guernsey hasn’t had proper snow in years, and needless to say, the entire island ground to a halt.  By about 3 in the afternoon, everything was closed.  I even saw 2 cars with snow chains on.  Snow chains, in Guernsey.

Still, at least all those people who’ve bought an expensive 4×4 to take the kids to school in could use them to their potential today, oh no, that’s right, they all stayed at home because the schools were closed.

I’ve been using my iMac for 5 months now and I can honestly say, I am completely converted to the simpler way of computing.

Never have I had any trouble doing whatever I need to do, and it’s been perfectly reliable.  So much so, that i recently swapped my Windows mobile HTC mobile phone, to an Apple iPhone, which is the most impressive little device I’ve ever seen.

Now, my first ‘real’ pc was a lowly AMD powered Windows 95 machine.  I have owned at least one computer with every major version of Windows since then.  Each one was a big step forward in terms of what you could do, and how easy you could do it.  XP is by far and away the leader in terms of amount of users with around 70% of computers on the internet using this OS.  Next in line is Windows Vista, presumably, because it comes pre-installed on almost all laptops now.

Now, I haven’t heard of a single place of work upgrading their office machines to Vista.  Being the sole person in charge of this at my place of work, I will never put Vista on any of our machines, and I know most others in my position feel the same way.

So where does this leave Microsoft for the future?  They have again extended the time they will keep providing OEMs with Windows XP.  They are never going to infiltrate the average office with Vista, their flagship OS, so what is their next move?  Windows 7 is in public beta, I’ve not installed it since I don’t own a PC anymore, but early tests indicate it is a vast improvement over Vista, with quotes like ’substance over style’ appearing everywhere.  It appears Microsoft is trying to remove all the annoying parts of Vista and start again.  Surely then, starting from XP would be a better bet than starting with Vista?

I’m also keen to see how they deal with keeping 3 versions of their operating system supported.  They can’t leave reluctant sysadmins with vulnerable XP systems, and they have to keep supporting Vista…

Apple’s market share is getting larger by the month, and with more accessible versions of Linux around, as well as the infamous Firefox, Microsoft is losing its grip on the PC world.  I am now a Mac user, but I wouldn’t like to see Windows die a painful death.  The fact remains however, if they shoot themselves in the other foot with Windows 7, they are going to find it very difficult to get back up.

Actually, that’s not true, but it got your attention didn’t it?

After much searching on the internet for the below issues, there is actually a known issue with quite a few laptops made by HP in which they eventually roast themselves to death.  A BIOS patch to combat this was released not so long ago, but for most this may have already been too late.

Anyway, in their defense, they are replacing the motherboard in all defective laptops for free, or at least that’s what I’m led to believe.  We’ll see what happens when I phone them…

Yes, I’m sorry, but that could be true.

“Why do you say that?”  I hear you say.  Well, because I’ve determined that HP laptops are actually programmed to self destruct after 14 months.

Now.  I’ve always been a fan of HP laptops.  I had 2 of the older generation, which lasted me for over 3 years, and as far as I know, are still going now.  So where does the problem begin?

A member of my family bought one of the newer HP DV models, one of the last models to be sold with Windows XP installed.  It worked perfectly for 14 months, and then, just failed to work.  I determined that it was a graphics card problem within minutes of looking at it.  Unfortunately for him, the computer shop in question that looked at it for him, are (I have learnt) incredibly stupid, completely ignorant, and entirely un-interested in everything they sell, unless it’s an iPod.

To keep them anonymous, lets call them WNES.

Anyway, the computer was sent away repeatedly, only to discover that it was indeed the GPU at fault, and he was charged an obscene amount of money, as the computer was 2 months out of warranty.

This was about 3 months after we purchased 2 HP DV6000’s on the same day.  Both identical, pre-installed with Vista Home Premium.  Fast forward some months, to guess what, month 14.  Laptop number 1, which was absolutely immaculate, lost it’s screen.  Again, a fault that had to be paid for by the new owner as it was out of warranty.  Only 1 week later, laptop number 2 has lost its wireless network card.  Completely.  It doesn’t physically exist on the computer anymore.  The switch on the front shows an orange light, whatever position it’s in.

So there we go.  3 HP laptops, all pronounced dead at 14 months.  My theory is based on conclusive proof, and I’d like to hear from you if you’ve had the same thing happen to you!

Well, the day has finally come.  I bought my new iMac 20″ yesterday.

First impressions?  Well connecting my network hard drive and copying my stuff over went very easily.  The most impressive thing I’ve found so far is that copying my entire photo collection (18GB) over to the mac’s hard drive was relatively painless.  In Windows Vista, trying to copy such an absurd amount normally resulted in either an estimated time of about 3 days, an error, or just a complete lockup.  The mac just settled down and did it over about half an hour.

The second thing, is so far, I’ve managed to replicate all the software I had on my PC.  Obviously all Adobe stuff is the same, Filezilla, and there’s even a handy little app that uploads to your Picasa web gallery.  OpenOffice has been replaced by NeoOffice, and all my old documents open fine.

Oh, and the joy of unwrapping it was nice as well.  As usual, Apple’s packaging is nearly as good as the product itself.  The setup was very easy too, was very nice not to have to start installing drivers from disc before you can get on the internet.

My only gripe so far?  I was looking forward to having Time Machine functionality.  However, it doesn’t work with a network hard drive.  There is a hack, which lets TM see your network drive, but on trying it, it gives a “Failed to create image” error.

UPDATE: Found a tutorial on the interweb, and now my machine is successfully backing up to my network drive via Time Machine.

So, I guess that means no gripes then…

By the way, if you’re having the same trouble making Time Machine work with a NAS, then try this link, this is what sorted it for me.

http://www.readynas.com/?p=253

It’s something I’ve always been against, but I’m finally about to make the move to Apple.

I’ve been comparing it to ‘getting old’ in the computer world.  Gone is my desire to play games on the PC, I just want a computer to do what I need it to, without any issues.  I think this has come about due to Windows Vista.  On XP, making a computer do what you wanted was easy.  It’s (comparatively) simple and streamlined.  You put hardware in, you download the latest drivers, and you play your games, or do whatever you need to do.  Vista just seems to complicate things, for no good reason.  All the programs you might have got used to don’t seem to work the same, and due to the way technology is going, it’s even more difficult to build a futureproof computer.  Also, I HATE, when you buy a new windows machine, and it has been customised for the manufacturer, and there’s rubbish software all over it.  Dell for instance, you buy a new work machine, and the first thing you need to do is uninstall more than half of the software that comes on it.

So, enough about Windows…

I’m looking at the higher specced of the 20inch iMacs.  I had a play with the 24inch the other day, and while it would be nice, I can’t really justify the extra money for a very similar spec machine but with a bigger screen.  I’m currently selling anything in the house that’s not been used in a couple of days to buy it.

I can’t wait!