Here we go

Gparted is doing its thing as I type. Hopefully this will all work out. Just using Gparted has kinda made me want to go back to Linux again, it's just a really nice experience. And I love fluxbox!

I'll update as I progress.

Edit: Gparted broke Vista, but I think a repair of it is fixing it. Doing CHKDSK now. 

Nearly there...

Decided to do a full backup before I messed around with partitions for installing Windows 7. Didn't realise it'd take so long. I've got 5 minutes left on my music collection, which has been going for over 2 hours! Just my pictures to backup now, which shouldn't take too long. 

I'd forgotten that I had Synctoy setup to just copy new and updated files, which would have saved so much time. But instead, I just copied the whole directory. Stupid.

It's given me a bit of time to do some tidying though, done a bit of cable organising behind my desk. On the cheap, too - I didn't want to pay for cable trays and stuff, so I stapled wire twists to the underside of my desk and used that. Seems to be working quite well so far. 

Might be a long night if I want 7 installed by tomorrow...

Edit: seems Vista doesn't want to let me shrink my partition by more than 98mb. Going to bed, I'll sort it out tomorrow. 

Dear Microsoft

When planning to let 2.5million people download a 3.5gb file, maybe invest in some better infrastructure. Or, use torrents. They have been proven to work!

Finally got a download, it’s going about 500kB/s (off the Microsoft site, using the download client, which incidentally works quite well). I’ll post later on once I’ve got it installed, probably tomorrow.

Belated Christmas/New Years Post

Merry Christmas/Happy New Years, everyone!

I’ve been a bit busy, not really had time/inclination to update recently. But I have a little bit of free time, so I may as well now.

Christmas went well, not white as was planned, but still really nice. I got some awesome gifts, and people seemed to like what I got them. I highly recommend Photobox and Mpix if you want to get prints of photos ordered. I ordered a poster of one of my NYC pictures from each of these companies, based in the UK and US respectively, and the service was great! Fast delivery, even close to Christmas, and the quality turned out brilliant. Photobox seemed to have a slightly better system for uploading photos, and telling you how big you could enlarge them, but they both turned out great anyway. Decent pricing, too. I now have 40 free standard prints from Photobox that I have to use by tomorrow…

I got a cordless mouse that I’m having a couple of issues with. I’m an idiot and threw away the packaging in the states, but I think it’s a Logitech LX8. It seems to be lagging a bit shortly after I plug it in, but seems to sort itself out after a while. Made it annoying when I was playing Left4Dead with some friends and couldn’t control myself though! It may be a driver issue, but the only download the Logitech site seems to have is 55mb! I’m not sure I need that much just for a mouse!

When it works though, it works great. Nice and comfy, and really precise. Now I need to get a wireless keyboard, and I’ll have a much cleaner desk.

Christmas

I can’t be dealing with all this Christmas malarkey at the minute. I don’t know whether it’s just me, but it seems to be getting harder and harder to find decent presents. I know people would be happy with a lot of things, but I like to get stuff that is nice, or individual. Seems like the big companies like I Want One Of Those and Firebox seem to not only be selling the generic crap that you could get anybody, but the cool stuff that was new/hard to find last year.

On another note, I’ve been playing Gears of War 2 pretty much all afternoon, after spending some time putting Christmas trees and lights up. I have a thing for co-op games, some things are so much more fun when you’re playing with a friend, and you get some decent teamplay going on. It’s nice to have a change from all the competitiveness of most other multiplayer games, and it seems to keep my interest a lot longer. Having said that, I’ll probably buy a 360 and Gears 2 soon anyway, and play through on my own. Chainsawing baddies never gets old!

 

The search for presents continues…(I’d disclose what I’ve got people, but you never know who’s reading)

Games on a mac…

Yes, I know it’s wrong, and that I should be using Boot Camp to boot into Windows. But, I can’t, because I don’t have Leopard.

I got a free copy of Crossover Games from their giveaway last month, and I’ve only just got around to using it. Or, trying to use it. I’ve successfully installed Steam, and downloaded and installed Counter-Strike. I can’t seem to get it working properly though, it will just show a black screen when I try and join a game. I’ll have another tweak with it, and have a go with some other games. Otherwise, I’ll have to shell out for Leopard and make myself an nLited install of XP.

I’m running short of hard drive space, too. My Macbook Pro is pretty much out of space, and my main PC is running short. Have to get some more drives pretty soon.

While I’m on the subject of games…you have to have been living under a rock if you haven’t heard of Left4Dead. I haven’t got around to buying the full game yet, but the demo had me sold within 10 minutes. The gameplay is so addictive, and it seems to have a really high replay value too.

Just as I was writing this post, I managed to get Audiosurf working under Crossover, so maybe not all hope is lost.

Long time, no see

Yeah, I haven’t updated this in a while. Sorry. I’ve been busy!

I finally got a job! Working in a local pub, in the restaurant and behind the bar. It’s enjoyable: nice to get out of the house, and you meet some great people. I’m hoping to get something more after the Christmas season though, I need something else to do during the day!

Flying to the US in around two weeks, spending Christmas there with my family. Been trying to get presents sorted, but I’m stuck for a few people. Any ideas?

I should probably update about some tech stuff that has me interested. The main thing I can think of is the new RED Cameras. Well, I say cameras – camera system. Details haven’t been finalised yet, but the idea of it being a completely modular system has me really interested. The idea is that you buy a “brain” which has all the camera sensor and processing inside, and then attach accessories to it depending on what you are using it for. There are millions of combinations. If you’re shooting a movie, you choose a configuration that’ll let you shoot film steadily. If you are shooting stills, you swap the components out and you have a DSLR. The beauty of it is, once they come out with a better sensor, in theory you just swap out the “brain” and keep the accessories, saving you money in the long run. The EPIC will obviously be out of most people’s reach, but the Scarlet is apparently within rage of the Canon 5DII (according to Engadget). If this is true, with the RED accepting Canon and Nikon lenses, then the fight for the prosumer’s money could become very interesting indeed. Personally, I can’t afford either, and I’d be waiting to see image results from the RED, but I’ll be following the battle closely.