Newstocks

New PC

So my new PC arrived on Friday. I've spent most of the weekend installing everything I need and restoring all my backed up data, and I'm still not finished.

On the whole, things have been smooth. Only one of my old applications, Sony Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 7, wasn't compatible with 64-bit Vista, so I had to shell out to upgrade that to the latest version.

Microsoft Money also refused to install, but that was thanks to its insanely restrictive DRM rather than any problem with Vista. I tried to contact support to get them to reactive my licence key, but after navigating several screens where I had to choose the name of my product, I was then confronted with a screen where I had to enter the product identification number. Where do I find this number? In the Help/About menu of the program I can't install. I was mad, but couldn't be bothered with the hassle so against my better judgment (to put it mildly) I just coughed up for the latest version. (I did check BitTorrent first for a cracked copy of the version I had bought, but alas, couldn't find one.)

When it came to restoring everything from my backup, the story was generally good. So far it looks like I'd backed up everything except about 10 songs I'd downloaded from iTunes and the edited version of the video from Aidan's second birthday. The latter hurts the most - even though I still have copies of the final edited version, I need the original Vegas project file if I ever want to export it again (e.g. in a different format). I think I'll probably end up re-editing it, which is going to be several hours work. Still, at least I did back up the original footage.

Looks like I just got everything off my backup drive in the nick of time, however - I was trying to back some new stuff up to it this morning when the thing seemed to die on me. Didn't have time to investigate the problem, but I'll be annoyed if the thing has packed in given that I only bought it in April.

The one thing I haven't been able to check out yet is how well my new PC plays the latest games. I realised only a week ago that the problem with my monitor flashing on and off, which I first noticed just before the hard drive on my old PC died, wasn't an issue with the graphics card in the PC, but was an issue with the monitor itself. So a week ago, I ordered a new one from Amazon. Thanksgiving conspired to slow its arrival, but now it looks like UPS may have lost it too - the online tracking for that package hasn't been updated since last Thursday, while another package I ordered from Amazon on Friday (that also shipped via UPS) has already arrived at my ZipX address. I borrowed my mother-in-law's monitor for the weekend so I could start setting the new machine up, but it's got a lot of display corruption and the refresh rate is nowhere near good enough for games. It's bloody typical - I've been PC-less for over a month now, and could have ordered a new monitor ages ago. Really hope it shows up soon.

The one thing I have left to do (apart from updating Microsoft Money for the last six weeks' worth of transactions) is get my development environment up and running again (in case Mandy needs any more changes to the program I wrote for her to manage Swimming Instinct bookings). Installing Visual Basic 2008 Express was simple enough, but SQL Server 2008 Express is inexplicably refusing to install the tool I need to develop the reports her program needs. Could be a bit of a headache, I think. I'm also going to have to update the version of SQL Server on her laptop (she's currently running 2005 Express), which doesn't fill me with confidence, and I'm anticipating problems as a result of me developing on 64-bit Vista and trying to deploy to her 32-bit XP machine too. Suddenly I can see why apps like this often just get developed in Microsoft Access.

Hello CellularOne, goodbye Digicel

So CellularOne expect to start offering 3G iPhones within the next few months, and they will finally allow global roaming too.

If they were offering the first, but not the second, Digicel would keep my business. Currently I believe you have to borrow a handset from CellularOne when you want to roam anywhere but the US, which is just pathetic.

My only concern is that CellularOne are still referring to their iPhones being "unlocked". Is that going to stop me applying firmware updates or using things like the iPhone App store? CellularOne COO Michael Leverock implied not, but I'd like some reassurance that CellularOne have Apple's permission to sell iPhones in Bermuda before I buy.

If it turns out that their iPhones will be fully functional, however, I'll be switching from Digicel to CellularOne faster than you can say "Steve Jobs".

New PC is ordered

Earlier this week I finally placed an order for my new PC with Falcon Northwest. They were one of the few US PC manufacturers with a decent reputation on resellerratings.com who were also willing to ship to Bermuda. They'll also pay $200 of the shipping cost each way should I ever need to return it to them for repair. I'm still praying I won't ever need to do that, though, given the $600 cost each way.

Anyway, kudos to them, and to their helpful sales guy for answering all my questions, getting my Bermuda address into their US-centric ordering system, and enabling me to pay with my Bermuda-issued debit card instead of having to go through the hassle and expense of organising a wire transfer. If this machine pans out well they could have my business for years to come.

The specs:

• Intel Core i7 920 processor (2.66GHz)
• 6GB of RAM
• NVidia GeForce GTX 280 graphics card
• Western Digital Velociraptor 300GB primary hard drive (10krpm), plus a bog-standard 750GB, 7200rpm secondary hard drive for my media.
• Vista Ultimate 64 bit

I wasn't going to go for the i7 processor initially, not really wanting bleeding-edge technology in my machine. But as it turned out, it was cheaper than the Core 2 Quad Q9550 that I'd originally specced out, and it meant I could go for 6GB of RAM rather than the original 8GB that I had been considering (the i7 is optimised for use with three sticks of RAM rather than the standard two), saving me an additional couple of hundred of dollars.

Expected ship date is sometime during the week beginning 17th November, and it'll take several days to get here. Can't wait.

Dell are idiots

Finally got a quote back from Dell. It seems they'll ship me a machine with 6GB of RAM in it, but "WE are not offering 64bits in this machine" (sic).

In other words, they're happy to ship me a computer with more RAM in it than the operating system can use.

Shame, because their quote was otherwise extremely cheap. Had they been willing to install the 64-bit version of Vista, they might even have got my business.

Instead, Falcon Northwest are looking pretty good about now. I was ready to place an order with them on Thursday, but the sales rep I spoke to advised me to wait until today as they would have some new options available that he thought I might be interested in. After reading Slashdot this morning, I'm guessing he was talking about Intel's new Core i7 processor, which was officially launched today. I'm unlikely to upgrade to such bleeding-edge tech, but with luck it might mean a price drop for the system I specced out, possibly allowing me to justify an upgrade to a Core 2 Quad Extreme processor. If so, that's going to push my opinion of Falcon's customer service much higher. Fingers crossed.

MarsPhoenix

In the last few months I've been following the Mars Phoenix lander on Twitter.

Its updates are being written by the folks at mission control, of course, but in a style that makes it seem like the lander is a real person. Now that the lander is about to be switched off, its final, elegiac updates are making me feel like I'm watching a friend die. It's a really odd feeling.

Kudos to NASA for using Twitter in such a creative, but still informative, way.