It's mine, all mine!

Right, so, how did I start that last post? Oh yeah....So it's been a while since my last post....

A lot has happened in the technological macrocosm. iPhone's have been announced, Vista's have been released, megalomaniacal rants have surfaced about how "the record companies made me use DRM". In all of the insanity it's hard to stay focussed on the truly important things in life...like how I got my 24" iMac finally!

My lack of writing these past 6 months or so has presented me with the unenviable task of trying to figure out exactly what to write about. Do I tackle Vista? Do I berate the iTunes 7.1? Do I jump on the "10.4.9 killed my Mac" bandwagon? Or do I simply brag about my own private accomplishments of late. You know what? I think the latter.

I'll start with my Vista experiences so far. Having sworn not to I made my way down to DickSmith at around 11am on the day Vista was released. As fortune would have it, or rather commonsense on the part of consumers nation-wide, there were plenty of copies of all the Vista versions left on the shelves. I chose Vista Home Premium for no other reason than all I wanted it for was the new Media Center UI and functionality. A quick Google that morning told me that the only versions I could purchase that actually gave me new functionality were Vista Home Premium Upgrade at $349, and Vista Ultimate Upgrade at $850. Steep pricing I thought as I found my arm autonomously reaching for the shelf.

Back in the office I quickly realised how much of a geek I truly am, as I opened the DVD case for the fifth time to see if I had missed anything inside it on my first inspection. How sad I thought, also realising that if I didn't already have a girlfriend it was likely I never would again!

After work I walked in the door at home and quickly unplugged my media center PC, bringing it into the study to begin the Vista upgrade. Now, there's a few things Micro$oft don't make clear when you enter into a venture like this. They add these small details to legal documents called End User Licence Agreements. I've seen these "EULA's" before, mythical tomes with magic writing on them that requires several thick layers of magnification to read. I've even read one or two of them, with their shape-shiftery words that never actually say what they are meant to say - until after you have done what you're not meant to do. It's at this stage that they form a cement like "told you so" form similar to Moses' tablets.

An example of this EULA witchcraft happened to me when I installed Vista. It turns out that once you upgrade a version of Windows XP you automatically void your installation code for that version. So, when I upgraded the version of Windows XP Media Center that was installed on my Media Center PC, I lost all rights to use that version of Windows ever again. I was GUTTED! I've used Vista a lot over the last 2 years while it was in beta and RTM mode, but I still didn't know if I was actually going to use it in production on my Media Center. I would have liked the option to roll-back to XP Media Center should things have gone awry. Nope, not allowed. More so than that, I really wanted to flick my old XP copy up on TradeMe for a tidy profit!

It wasn't until a week or so after my install experience that I found some information that would have been helpful before I did the install. First was the EULA section that told me I can't use my version of Windows that had been upgraded, second was that you can do a clean install with an Upgrade disc, the latter being the more important of the two. With an Upgrade disc that is several hundred dollars cheaper than a full version disc, you can do a full clean install of Vista. Essentially, you install Vista with no key and let it install an evaluation version. You then upgrade the evaluation version and add your key, then delete your evaluation version. How and why this got through Microsoft's rigorous testing is beyond me, but I'm starting to think it was left in there for a reason. Either way, after several weeks of tinkering a tweaking I now have a fully functional Vista Media Center DVR (with episode guide I might add!), and I'm loving the new version compared to XP.

The completion of my Windows Media Center PC project - all 12 months of it - leads me to my second piece of news, arguably more exciting than the first but equally as geeky. I bought myself a 24" iMac...finally. I say finally because I've been wanting to get back into the world of Mac for quite some time, ever since I sold my Mac mini and started my Windows Media Center in fact. We do have a Macbook in the house, but it's not mine and its not strictly powerful enough for the applications that I wanted to run on a Mac.

For those who are interested, it's a 2.16Ghz Core 2 Duo (Intel of course). 1.5GB of DDR2 memory, 250GB SATA-2 hard drive, Integrated BlueTooth, 802.11n Airport, 8x Superdrive, with a wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse (dumbest....name....ever....). There's 128MB graphics and, of course, a 24" high definition display.

The first thing that you notice is the display. Not only because of its sheer size, but also the quality of the picture. I think the first thing I did was grab some 1080p movie trailers from the Apple website. I've never, ever, seen The Simpsons look so vibrant and colourful! Match the display with the speed and power of the computer itself and I have to say I'm very happy with my buy!

Since the Vista / iMac work was done I've found myself with a lot of redundant gear. So I've managed to weed out a few old computers, and other bits and bobs like a wireless G router that I replaced with wireless N, and other miscellaneousness. Having an iMac makes you truly understand what it is to be clutter-free, so check my TradeMe account from time to time for cheap PC parts :)

Thus concludes my bragging. Next post will be very soon, and on more topically relevant matters. Now frack off!