We have snow :-)

And perversely, it actually seems a degree or so warmer than it was last week.

I had the instincts telling me that it wouldn't be worth me coming in to work this week, so I took a couple more days off. I reckon I know what they were getting at now :-) Instinct can be a very powerful thing, although it doesn't often talk language that we're likely to understand. With the moving around at work, I'm kinda in limbo too not wanting to really kick something off there before Xmas. I like to tie up all the loose ends before I move on from a place so I don't get distracted too much and moving before Xmas would have meant too much rush to get away clean like that.

Saying that though, there's a few amazing people in my project who I'd drop everything to help out if asked. I think they know who they are :-)

It's not much snow today, although at an inch or so settling it's enough to snow in those people who usually jump at the chance of a freebie day out of work. Possibly enough to build a snowman, will have to see about that later :-) I have a couple of pictures from last night that I must get processed and put on here ...

Which takes me to yesterday's bit of excitement. Got up, put the cricket on the telly and started up the laptop. It was suspiciously quiet ... My old laptop has been struggling for a few months now due to a failing cooling fan. Bit like the hamster wheel coming off its axle and making a racket. Well, I think the hamster itself gave up the ghost yesterday, so it was off to the local places to find another one.

Prices seem to have gone up since last year, although that could be due to me comparing with how little my old HP laptop cost me. Only £370 for a 17" laptop ... Think I know why now, HP used to be known for bombproof quality, as demonstrated by their printers and my more ancient laptop. That's suffered in recent years though, while it wasn't falling apart the build quality on the HP G70 left a lot to be desired. Aside from the fan, there were issues with how the laptop was put together. I also have one of their all in one printers, which has a faulty page feeder.

No more HP for me for a while ...

So what did I get ? Acer's Aspire 7540 was the new machine of choice. Bit more expensive than I'd have liked to commit too (especially with thoughts of new telly) but it felt like one of the better options in the shop. 17" screen too :-) With PC's, actual spec doesn't matter much alongside ease of use. Bigger screen and keyboard (the two are tied together on laptops) are far more important than a cpu that takes 0.9secs instead of 1sec. That said, there's always a minimum spec but you won't go far wrong if there's 2GB in a machine. It's a heavier machine too, feels far more solid than the HP.

Not so sure about Windows 7 though. It feels a smoother OS than Vista, looks like it eats less memory too. The memory gadget says 50% of memory is being used at the moment and I have the usual round of apps loaded. That'd be Messenger, Outlook, a bunch of Firefox windows, iTunes and Evemon. On the old HP, that would take up 60%. Both machines have 3Gb of RAM. It looks a bit nicer and the taskbar has seen some improvements (better after I figured out how to deselect the grouping of windows option!). Aero is a pretty interface, although it seems geared towards letting you see your desktop picture more.

Multitouch and gestures ...

Hmm. How to say this ? It's a bit broken and gets in the way. That's probably related to me getting used to them and how they are activated though. I'll do better when I discover exactly what triggers them. At the moment though, I think the OS looking for trackpad gestures tends to make the machine ignore normal clicks.

Until we get a fully functional neural interface for our computers, any form of prediction is going to make wrong guesses and I think that's what is happening with the Windows 7 gesture features. I'm quite close to turning it off, as keyboard commands are usually far more effective for things like Zoom and Pan. I get the feeling that a few Task Analysis Ergonomics "experts" have given people the wrong ideas on what features are actually used and useful.

It'll probably come into its own for large touch screens but I'm definitely unconvinced as to its application on trackpads. As is usual for me and IT, it'll have as long as it takes for me to either get used to it or get sick of it before it gets disabled. Put it in a table and get it working with a big TFT touch screen and it'll be awesome for gaming.

Liking the laptop so far :-) Although it took a few reboots and cooldown periods to get the data (iTunes library is now 15GB!!!!) off the old laptop. I actually gave up copying the iTunes from the old laptop as it wouldn't stay alive long enough, 3 cheers for "desktop backup".

Right - iTunes is currently going through the Kill Bill soundtrack, this Wall of Text has gotten long enough and I'm resisting the urge to play Mass Effect through again (it's waiting for new telly). So it's time to sign off but not before wishing people :

MERRY XMAS !

Hope you get lots of cool stuff, good company and that any travel plans you have don't get too badly disrupted by the white stuff outside.