Upgraded to Windows 7

February 7th, 2010 Chris No comments

Last night I finally made the transition from the annoying Windows Vista to Windows 7. Although it was an upgrade on top of Vista, I’m still really impressed with it. The upgrade was really easy. I had to reboot before the upgrade as Vista had some updates to install, but other then that, it went really smooth, apart from taking good few hours. :(

I haven’t had a lot of time to play with it and try out all the new features, but there are a few that I have and I think the one that I’ll use the most is moving a window to the left or right, and it filling only half the screen. It’s certainly a lot easier then manually resizing two windows to just 1/2 the screen, and will make it really handy when doing HTML/CSS coding on my 23″ screen.

Categories: Software Tags: , , , ,

Sent iPhone away for repairs

February 3rd, 2010 Chris No comments

Well, today enough was enough. I took my iPhone 3G in to my local Optus store and got them to send it away for repairs (or replaced, hopefully). It was mostly work normally as one would expect, except for one major feature, the speakers would stop working, and when on a call, would have to use speaker phone.

Turns out that it would think that a set of headphones where connected, but there weren’t. I have no idea why, but it was rather annoying when I was in the middle of a call, and it would do this.

There were a few other little issues, but nothing as major as this. There was a crack on the back, but it was only cosmetic, but seeing that it was near the accessory port, could explain some of the problems.

So, now for the wait until I get my iPhone back. Hopefully it’s a quick turn around, but I have a feeling that it’s going to be a while. So for the time being I’m having to resort to my really old Nokia N70 (it’s just not the same!!).

Categories: Mobile, Technology Tags: ,

Hitler responds to the iPad

January 29th, 2010 Chris No comments

Gotta love how people come up with so many different products to use this with.

Categories: On The Web, video Tags: , , , , , ,

Apple iPad

January 28th, 2010 Chris No comments

Apple’s long awaited iPad was finally announced today. While it looks like a huge iPhone/iPod Touch, it can do so much more.

From what I’ve seen so far, the features that I like the most are the new redesigned apps like calendar, email, contacts, iTunes, well, pretty much all of them. They have been redesigned to take advantage of the 9.7″ display and make use of the multi-touch screen.

I can think of many uses where this would be a great device for myself, but with a starting price of US$499 for the 16GB wifi model, I’m still undecided. There has not yet been any international pricing announced as yet, but given Apple’s track recorded with pricing here in Australia, I got a feeling this could be a pricey device.

Visit Apple’s website for more information on the iPad.

What are your thoughts on the iPad?

Categories: Mobile, Technology Tags: , ,

Happy Australia Day

January 26th, 2010 Chris No comments

Australian FlagHappy Australia Day everyone. The day were we all take a day off work and celebrate the landing of the first fleet on the shores at Port Jackson in 1788.

Usual celebrations often involve getting together with friends for drinks and a BBQ, and later on going and watching the local fireworks, though this year, I’m working for a few hours over lunch, then heading home to the BBQ with friends that my wife organised.

For more information on the history of Australia Day, click here.

Categories: Sidenotes Tags: , ,

Happy New Year

January 1st, 2010 Chris No comments

Happy new year everyone. Hope you all have a great year. I know for me that it should be good as 2009 was pretty crappy for me.

Categories: Moblog Tags: ,

Early Christmas…

December 19th, 2009 Chris 3 comments

In my last post I mentioned that my wife and I are going away on Monday for two weeks, so today we are celebrating Christmas with my family. As we look after my neice and nephew a lot, we decided to buy them a swing set for as their present. The only downside is that I had to assemble it myself. No worries, I’ve become quite the DIY expert since we brought our house.

It was rather easy to put together, but the trickiest part was the slide. It was just so awkward to work with, and I think that some of the parts are not aligned properly. Below is a photo of the finished product.

Swing Set

Categories: Personal Tags: , ,

Road Trip

December 16th, 2009 Chris Comments off

This coming Monday my wife and I will be embarking on our Christmas Road Trip to Mackay to spend Christmas with her family. Usually we would just take to 2.5 hour flight north, but this year we decided to drive the 22 hours 2000km trip. Lucky for us we have some friends in Brisbane that we will be stopping in at to spend a few nights with.

Personally I can’t wait. The longest trip I’ve made was 18 hours in one go th Port Agusta, but this time we are stopping half way.

If you want to follow me you can do so by following me on Brightkite, Facebook or twitter. I will endeavor to update these sites as often as I can. Unfortunately I wont be using any GPS tracking software as I have an iPhone and it’s restriction to not allow apps to run in the background will prevent tracking from working correctly.

Categories: Personal Tags: , ,

Logitech MX1100

December 14th, 2009 Chris Comments off

My New MouseFor the past 9 years I have been using my good old trusty Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical and have found it to be a great mouse. Unfortunatly the scroll wheel has started to not work, and it’s currently unable to scroll up, and has difficulties scrolling down.

I spent a few days shopping around, try a few different ones out, and reading reviews online. I was originally going to go with the Logitech MX Revoluion, but discovered that it has been replaced with the Performance Mouse M950, though it is a bit out of my price range with an RRP of AU$199 and not yet available everywhere.

Eventually I came across the MX1100 which is a slight revision of the MX Revolution, but not as crazy of a mouse. I must say that at AU$89 this has been a great buy. It is by far the most comfortable mouse I’ve ever used. The precision, comfort, and everyday use is amazing.

The other nifty feature is that being a wireless mouse, I can unplug it from my desktop and use it with my notebook. Finally a way to ditch that crappy trakpad.

Categories: Hardware, Technology Tags:

Nothing for 2 months…

December 12th, 2009 Chris Comments off

I just noticed that it has been 2 months today since I have made a blog post.

Categories: Sidenotes Tags: