In the doghouse and out again

I ended up in the doghouse for a couple of days ... It's birthday season at the moment and I hadn't sent a card to either my mum or my nan.

Doh !

Fixed that by heading up there this weekend just gone. Decent weekend, we headed off to my sister's place to check out one of the pubs down there. My techie knowledge expanded a bit too.

Windows Vista - is an obscenity (knew that already, remembered it this weekend). My sister's Vista laptop got rebuilt a couple of months ago (hard disc failure) and she's looking to get her iTunes library back on it. iTunes has a very nifty feature called Home Share, which lets you sync libraries between different machines. I use it to progressively back up my library, taking advantage of the "show me what isn't in my library already" feature.

Works well if Vista allows it. Which it wasn't. (iTunes application, reckon Vista was blocking it). Vista was also not allowing our other Windows 7 laptops to see it.

In the end, not so much of an issue, because there is a workaround that dates back to before Home Share became available. Awkward to use but it does the important thing - it Works.

Apple reliability - Apple used to have a rock solid reputation for quality. Dunno why but they've been allowing that to slip in recent years. Maybe it's because the workers in their Foxconn factories aren't happy bunnies. My original iPod was 100% reliable, plus my LittleWhiteBox Airport Express worked 100% before I allowed a firmware update. I refuse to allow iTunes to update now due to issues.

iPod - my 4th Gen 16GB has let me down a couple of times. There's the can't sync error which is solved by emptying it and refilling it. I was about to head off home yesterday, only to find "Shuffle - 0 songs" on an iPod which was full. Cue factory reset to fix that. Shouldn't happen if the software was up to the job.

Airport Express - This either works standalone, setting up its own wifi network or it can join in on a wifi network that is already there. It switches to standalone just fine but you have to put passwords in when you're making it join another network again. Those settings should be remembered, those software flaws are making it forget.

iTunes - the last 3 times I've allowed it to update itself, I've had to uninstall/reinstall to have it talk to the Airport Express over Airplay.

We expect better from a premium brand like Apple, it's disappointing when these silly software flaws spoil the experience. It definitely means that I will not consider changing my computing to Apple machines.

What else ? Volvo cars.

Yes. My dad retired and bought a Volvo. Don't tell anyone.

To be honest, it's not a bad car. It's plush, solid, well put together and has a decent amount of toys. It should also last well. What is it ? It's a C30 2.4 litre with an automatic box.

I found driving that to be quite a useful experience as it allowed me to give a Long Cruise test of an automatic gearbox car with cruise control :

Auto box - Gotta be honest, looking at the specs of the C30 the autobox cripples the performance it gives. It goes from 7.5 secs to 60 up to 8.5. That's a huge drop in performance and it shows behind the wheel. A 2.4 litre engine car shouldn't feel laboured, although that could be my reluctance to ever use 100% throttle. I.e. There's a mismatch between what I want the car to do on a lean throttle and what the car thinks I want it to do. The 100 mile trip told me I could happily live with an automatic, you can't really do 100 mile test drives as the garage starts up the search party.

I'm getting on with the Focus much better there, since the service it's been feeling very Perky indeed. Almost like it's giving its full power instead of something like just half that. The Focus has become far more responsive and that's going to delay my jump into another car for a couple of months at least. (I'm enjoying it while it lasts)

The Volvo isn't a terrible car, I could definitely get used to having Cruise Control (as long as there's a place to rest my right foot, which the Volvo doesn't really have) and I could live with the auto box, as it would help out a left leg that likes to tense itself up (dunno why). The only time I've really driven an automatic was a Jeep in the USA, which I had as a hire car for a fortnight.

Would I get a Volvo ? No. What they currently offer doesn't fit what I'm looking for. They're all too big and heavy.

Anyway - decent weekend and I learned stuff that I'll put towards my next car. That's still likely to be a Prius T Spirit but with what's happened in Japan where they're built, they need a bit of time to get themselves right again. Plus more time before buying gives :
More Payment Holiday
Enjoyment of a Frisky Focus
Time for something better to appear ...

Will add something in when I (eventually) decide to jump for a new car.