Apple breaks own record.

Apple reports that in the last quarter they shipped:

• 22,121,000 iPods
• 2,315,000 iPhones
• 2,319,000 Macs

There are certainly a lot more Macs around. This time last year I didn't know anyone with an Apple computer and only a couple of people even with iPods. Now I can name at least five people I personally know that own Macs and iPods seem to be everywhere. iPhones are yet to make it to Australia but the way we are with bleeding edge technology I reckon it'll be only weeks of it's release before we see people showing them off to each other.

Vista is popping up here and there but very few people I ask about it are enjoying the experience. Only one Vista user I have ever spoken to has actually claimed to "love" it so there are some admirers out there. The majority of people don't think very highly of it at all and most express a desire to go back to Windows XP.

I don't see the point in buying a PC or laptop with Vista on it. It's like buying a tape measure with inches and feet on it or a ... something else that's old and useless. It's too late, we've got better stuff now.

It must be hard to steal good ideas these days...

On the 1st of January this year a reviewer called Erika Jonietz published an article at TechnologyReview.com that is being quoted by like minded Windows users around the world.

Ironically, playing around with Vista for more than a month has done what years of experience and exhortations from Mac-loving friends could not: it has converted me into a Mac fan.

-Erika Jonietz, TechnolgyReview.com

With the fact that Windows Vista has had so many bad reviews it surprises me that people still go out and purchase a computer with it simply because, well, what else are you going to have?

Harvey Norman have even started selling a very cheap Linux based laptop.

Few people may remember a version of windows called Windows Me. Basically it was the last version of Windows98. Officially Me stood for Millenium Edition but ended up being known as the Mistake Edition. Never was there a more unstable and buggy operating system. WindowsXP was released very quickly after and everyone pretended that WindowsMe didn't happen.

It's happening again.

Vista is the new Me.

Hang on, that didn't come out right...

There is already talk of Windows 7. It will come out quickly and Vista will disappear. Microsoft will need to get this one right. 7 will have to be the new XP. Maybe they will...

hope not...

Postal service's "Snail Mail" label fair cop!

The Poles eh? You are always wondering what they're going to do next.

Here's a story about a guy that actaully calculated that his surface mail took longer travel that it would've taken a snail travelling at 0.048 km per hour.

Happy Australia Day.

---

Christmas card takes 93 years to arrive.

We'll miss him...

While I remember Heath Ledger most fondly from "A Knights Tale". Most of the world will probably remember him from the controversial film Brokeback Mountain. He had just finished filming his part in the upcoming Batman film which I'm sure he would've accomplished with the strength of character and passion that has always shone through in every role he's played.

My thoughts are with Matilda, his daughter who has lost her father at such a young age.

Goodbye Heath, you will be remembered.

Australian

Spore

Will Wright, the creator of The Sims, SimCity and a plethora of life simulation games is supposed to be releasing a game which looks incredibly cool. You play a "species" which starts off in the primordial ooze of an alien planet and you control its evolution all the way to interstellar travel. An amazing concept that has been executed with a stylish and intuitive interface like those we have come to know in his other games.



The guy speaking in this video is the man himself, Will Wright, taking us through the many stages of the game. The video is an hour long so you might want to fix yourself a cuppa before you watch it.

Oh, and apparently it will be simultanously released on Windows and MacOS.

MacSweeper.com

MacSweeper is a website designed to coax install their spyware cleaning program but is being reported by f-secure to be fake. It seems that the Apple fanboys are seeing it as a right of passage proving that Macs are popular enough to have malware written for it. The f-secure researcher quotes a journalist he had an interview with on the subject.

“I visited the macsweeper.com website. I know I probably shouldn’t have but I used a Windows PC so I knew I wouldn’t get infected.”

LG take over 6 months for warranty work.

I have a new air conditioner installed and working. It's a different but equivalent model. It makes cold air. LG still suck for taking over six months to get the problem fixed. I noticed that Google searches for phrases like "LG Warranty Problem" are pulling up posts from this blog.

I wonder if LG have noticed?

The service call was logged at LG on the 25th July, 2007 and didn't have a working air conditioner until the 4th January, 2008.

Well done LG, the world leaders in air conditioners.

First Hand Bad Experience

I just got a phone call from the service agent who has been battling LG to get my air conditioner fixed and they tell me that they've received an entire new unit. So they'll be taking the old one away and installing a completely new system, bot outdoor unit and head unit.

For those of you that haven't kept up with this blog, since I called LG on the 25th July 2007 my 36,000 BTU air conditioner has been waiting for repair. It has taken them several spare parts and service calls over a period longer than five months to come to the conclusion that it's stuffed and I need a new one. Hurrah!

Let this be a lesson for all my readers.
I am writing from my own first hand experiences.
Don't buy Microsoft Windows Vista.
Or LG air conditioners.

Happy 25th Internet

Today we celebrate the new year of 2008 and also the 25th anniversary of the full switchover to TCP/IP on the ARPANET laying the foundation of what we know as the Internet today which took place on the 1st of January, 1983. This was the Internet's birthday.

For the Internet's a jolly good network,
the Internet's a jolly good network,
the Internet's a jolly good network,
and so say all of us!

Hip Hip,
Hooray!

Wii Olympics

The Nintendo Wii is a fun console. Sure, Xbox 360 and Playstation3 have more power, better graphics and HD video capabilities, but they don't hold a candle to the Wii for pure fun. I've been a fan of the Wii Sports Tennis game that comes with the console since it came out and boxing is always a lot of fun. Golf, Baseball and Ten Pin Bowling, the other three games in the Wii Sports title never really grabbed me though. Wii Sports seemed to lack a bit of polish.

For the last two days however my arms are just about dropping off from playing a new game called "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". Now this game is very polished. I was surprised to see Nintendo characters sharing a game with Sega characters and even more surprised to find that Sega actually published the game under Nintendo's licence. It's also an official game of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

There are the track events - 100m, 400m 4x100m relay, 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles.

Field events - long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault, hammer throw and javelin.

Swimming event with 100m freestyle and 4x100 freestyle.

Gymnastic events with the trampoline and vault.

There is also skeet shooting, archery, fencing, table tennis and rowing

And if that wasn't enough, is has a special category called "Dream Events" which have souped up versions of table tennis and fencing as well as a cross-country track event and a weird show sky-diving event.

This is a truly great game. If I was a game reviewer, this title would get a really good score from me. Not a perfect score though. Some things in the game are a little disappointing like the high-jump and the pole-vault which we managed to compete until the bars wouldn't go any higher, maxing out our opportunity to keep pushing each other.

One thing I'll give it though. Play this game for any length of time and you are going to get a decent work out.

If you have a Nintendo Wii then this game is one of the better titles I've seen for this console. Get it. If you don't have a console and you're considering buying one, consider the Wii. If you can get one. It's so good it sold out mere hours after it's release before Xmas last year and it's still nearly always sold out now, over a year after it's release! No, really! You should have seen the trouble we had to go through just to find a controller for it! Of course, if you already have an Xbox or Playstation, you probably don't want a Wii. And I feel sorry for you. You're missing out.

No joke.

Happy New Year

Hope you all have a prosperous and safe 2008.