Installing Vista

I got Vista:

Here are my impressions as I'm installing...

I'm waiting forever on this start up screen....Srsly it was like 10 minutes of nothing happening. No spinning no nothing.

I just clicked install now...apparently you can't determine what partition you want to you. All it says is "Install now". I clicked it. I think I just lost all of my data. Wow that would be fun.

Waiting....While I'm waiting I'll mention how I got it. Rit Academic Alliance....Still waiting.

No really...is it erasing everything?

I guess its moving. It just takes like 15 minutes between clicks to do anything....So I gotta enter the product key.

My dashes were added automatically.

I am formatting my drive. That was pretty brainless. Admitedly, I can't imagine anyone messing this up (famous last words). Now I'm copying windows files.

I put all the cds. Then it restarted...now its just doing stuff...

Ok so I'm fooling around with it. There are some fun things. The gadgets I feel are done better than Mac's widgets. They seem more relevant and are actually visible all the time. Thats a good thing. The liquidy feel of it is a big improvement from xp. But these aren't OS things in my mind.

In terms of actual OS stuff, its rediculously better at networked FS stuff. I just xfered a 1GB file at 7MB/sec which is HELLA faster than windows used to do with SMB shares. That was nice. The expose thing is fun. But if you have too many windows open (like it was designed for), I feel like you can't see the stuff in the back of the deck. Thats a bit odd. Anyway, its still fun to deek around with with it.

I went to the games folder. Its empty. What no Solitare in 3d? F....

Oh well...

I'll write more later. I'm le tired after all that work I had to do with installing.

Wii

For some reason, Kathy and I were going into a bestbuy a few weeks ago and we
just happened to go past a demo of a wii. I really had no interest in buying it
at all. Anyway, something clicked and I had to have one. So we went out Sunday
and got one. I figured we had a $160 BestBuy card, might as well use it.

It's pretty fun. I actually found that when I got to work monday my shoulder was
hurting a bit. The wii sports are hella fun. You get to play with your mii
character and make them look like you. Its just funny because there is a tall
Rod with a perma-5-o'clock-shadow, a little asian kathy and and very short asian
Sen. Its funny.

The story about how we got it was mildly interesting. We both went to different
bestbuy's. They handed out tickets before we got there. We went to Gamestops as
they all told me they's have em at 11. So I got there at like 10 till 11 and
there were like 23 people standing in line. They had made a list. Blah blah I
was 27 out of 21 systems so I'm not getting one. Anyway, we got inside (i
figured i still had a chance) and this choad came in and cut in line. He wasn't
on the list but he snuck in. When people realized this it got heated. The cops
got called. He was a choad. The cops came and took him away under the threat of
trespassing.

Anyway, then I went to EB games in the mall and there was no line. Kathy beat me
there and was in line when I got there. She was like 2 in line. She asked for
one. She got it. End of story.

In action.

So we got Zelda and thw Wii sports. Still haven't used the gift card, so I think wii are gonna get Ultimate Alliance and Rayman Raving Rabbids. Awesome.

I don't post often enough

IPhone


Its been quite awhile since I've been so excited about a product. I got an email about 20 minutes after it was announced from my roommate Sen. We had been looking into smartphones lately. To the point where he had actually ordered one but it got canceled. He sent me the e-mail about the latest toy. Paraphrased it said: "Get the iphone".

Its been out for like 3 days now so if you haven't heard of it you've basically been locked in a cave. Its all over the internet, tv and radio. I can't believe how stunning it is. The last time I was so excited about a product was google maps. This is the type of thing that is really going to revolutionize life. Maybe that is an overstatement, but the thing is a totally fresh perspective on a pretty stale market. My old philosophy on phones was that they needed only Bluetooth capability, quasi-reliable service, must be small, and must not have restrictions set forth by the SP (Verizon). That's about it. The last phone I got, the shoddy Razr was acquired specifically because I got paid to take it.

Anyway onto the phone. Its amazing. Just amazing. I guess I won't describe it, but it'll be the best thing ever. I'm getting one. Link. It comes out in June. My 18 month upgrade option comes around in July. I think Cingular gives you ~$150 off of a phone. That brings the price down to about $450 for me. Kathy said she would go in on some of a smartphone for an Xmas present. For me its a no brainer.

I guess just thinking of the possibilities. You can switch to a wifi connection if possible and use a VOIP client and not use any of your minutes. OMG, how ridiculous is that? Its running OSX. So you can write software for it or install select COTS products. Sick. They have a graphical vmail interface. Its rediculous. It just makes more sense. Its Cingular (WAHOO). Its great


Anyway, not so boring for reader things:
I started a website. I want to see how much money you can get from ad revenue. Googles ad program doesn't tell you how much you get until you sign up. So I signed up. I'll figure it out once the site gets ramped up. I won't link to it here. And I won't have my name on there anywhere. Someday I'll link it. Its just an experiment.

San Diego
I'm going to San Diego today. That'll rule. I think I'm gonna get some surfing in this week. Its supposed to be ridiculously cold, so I got a 7 mil wetsuit. I've never had one on in cold water so I'll see how that goes. The real reason I am going is to see Meredith, George and their baby Maya.

New position
I started back in Silver Spring last week. So far the commute has been way more tolerable. Not that the metro sucked, but I have much more time to myself at the house. That's cool. Though I get less reading time in. That sucks. I feel like now I have a ton more to read too. Double suck.

New Years
The most relaxed uneventful New Years ever. I did kill a bottle of sparkling white though. That was eventful.

Wii
How could I forget. I've decided to get a Wii. I returned my PS2 to bestbuy under warranty and they sent me a $160 gift card. Why not just shell out the extra $100 and get a nice new must have system? Oh I know why not, because even God couldn't find one for sale anywhere. No worries, I'll just wait till they are more available. I have enough ish to do without worrying about that right now. But if I wanted to, there is a pretty good

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Lan Party, Turkey and Scuba

Bob
Bombs over Baghdad. Also, Bob got a job down in the DC area. Sounds like he will be my nieghbor (Cue in Thin Lizzy).

Teh Lan Party |20><0|2
We had a Lan party at the house a few weeks ago. That was sweet. We had like 15 people from work and work contacts in the living room, stress testing our network. It was fun. We had minimal problems and maximum fun. It was a pretty decent spread of people including some who rarely played video games but who play quite often now and some lifers (doit).

As you can see, I got a chance to practice making websites with the Mac. That was fun and easy. I'm gonna have to redo rodericj.com with that. Cuz right now it is like the 2nd lamest website ever. iWeb really does a ton for websites for those of us who have no right brained ability at all.

Additionally, who is the tool who has a 1) Lan Party and 2) a website about the Lan party? What a tool!

Since we had all of the computers and stuff in the dining room/living room, we decided to move the office into the spare bedroom upstairs. Its so sweet now. We actually get to see light when we do marathon game sessions. Plus its helping us keep the room/the house(to some extent) much cleaner that rules. Of course, now the basement is a friggen trash heap.


Thanksgiving
Christie and Dave came over, and Sen and Kathy and they and I all had Thanksgiving dinner (2 days late). It was great. It was the first time I reached into a turkey's sliced open neck to grab its liver and heard and neck and stuff. It was totally gross but totally cool. The Turkey came out AWESOME! We had TONS AND TONS of food. It ruled. We are still enjoying the food. Also, it was totally great to see Christie and Dave finally making the trek down to the house.

Other Family News
My sister Meredith spawned on November 19th. She had a small human female named Maya Ashley. That was pretty cool. I'm planning on heading out there in January to check her out and see Meredith's *new* place. Should be fun.

Scuba
I'm getting PADI certified soon. I'm taking the class this weekend. I'm totally stoked. That and skydiving are things I've ALWAYS wanted to do. I am 100% stoked. While everyone tells me that its unlikely that you will drown, I still run through the scenarios of like a swordfish stabbing not me, but my regulator hose, thereby making it impossible for me to breath. Well hopefully the Marlin fishers will get them all out of the pool by the time we dive Saturday. But man, that would suck.

We have some HW assignments due Saturday for the class. We just started Monday with the book and its like 250 pages long. So basically, no starcraft for me this weekend. I guess we didn't realize how much we'd have to know BEFORE we showed up. Oh well. This week is especially hard for Kathy as she has TONS of work stuff going on this week. Its a bit easier for me as I've got that 2 hours of train riding every day which I can use to read.

I think thats it.