The Record Card

Dech Launches

2005-11-01T20:46:00.000Z

I've launched my new blog, Dech. It's going to be on design, technology, media and communication, and it'll aim to help you out in these fields. I'll be writing it with the usual Fintan touch :D

Please unsubscribe from The Record Card and subscribe to Dech.co.uk. The new feed address is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/dech

Thanks very much for reading the The Record Card. Bless y'all.

iMac Price Goes Up

2005-10-31T11:38:00.000Z

Well it turns out neither were correct when they gave me a price. It's £790 over the telephone (says Kevin), that's ££110 off (or, in US dollars, approximately $314159).

Joking! That's about $200. Significant, still.

I should be able to place an order by Friday. Should, given cheques and banks and stuff. Oooh I can't wait!

Educational Dosh

2005-10-30T11:21:00.000Z

If this site got sold by a 19-year-old for 1.25 million USD (what a result!), I can't wait to think how much this site will go for. Not that I'm selling it or anything. (Buster Tests is mine and I want it to stay that way for the foreseeable future).

iMac Test Drive - Conclusions in Breif

2005-10-29T21:50:00.000+01:00

With spelling-error amany. A veritable flow of consciousness.

I pestered the Apple centre in Bristol for about an hour today.
They don't have the new ones in, so I made do.
The iMac G5 20" is too big and heavy for me. Sort of. I like the 17"'s size and weight. I want to be able to take it with me to Uni, etc, so it can't be massive.
I also have issues with big screens and cursor control, especially when you're using a completely new OS.
Windowage in Dreamweaver worries me. I like the integrated, slidey approach. Having lots of mini control windows sort of freaks me out a little, but I can deal I'm sure.
Mighty mouse is rather good. Not entirely better than the trusty old MS optical Intelimouse (or whatever it's called). You have to release your left finger to right-click (or it all goes down as a left-click), and the ball in the middle isn't a ball. It's like a tic tac, fixed at the bottom. Sort of like a joystick. And it's easier to go up and down than any direction, so it work's quite nicely. Side button isn't so good. Too awkward for me. I'm unlikely to use them that much (although you never know).
Tiger is boring. Without a task, a bit like Windows, you won't be able to enjoy yourself.
Spotlight aint that fast. You have to click the little icon, the box drops down, and the default highlighted option is 'show all', so pressing enter doesn't launch/open. A google advantage, but also probably a changeable setting.
iMacs are very nice in person. They've got a 4mm (ish) clear plastic cover and opaque white rest. Nice looks.
They're a bit thick. Perhaps I'm not used to reaching behind the screen, but it is odd to do, and they're not all that thin.
Wigets can go mental if you don't get an instant response and you press F11 of whatever it is over and over again. You get the picture.
The bar at the bottom also causes some distress to the neat freak in me. He seems to raise his head every now and again (like in a minute with my room). He feels the visual clutter and changing, unorganised nature of the dock is a bit unsettling, and would like to find a way to fix it all the way along at least. Perhaps.
The 30" display Apple does is ridiculous. You have to move your head significantly to see from one side of the screen to another. Performs stunningly with a power mac, though.
The old isight looked nice. The image was quite small in reality, and I thought it would be larger (a setting? certainly wasn't 640x480 when I used it on the power mac). Great white balance, though.
I don't get a good vibe off of the mac shop keepers, even though I made off with their loot (an iPod shuffle :D).
He even said that 17% wasn't true. We'll see about that, sunny jim. Methinks your after a sale.
The smallest iBook is stupidly small. You can't do a thing on that machine. Don't buy them.
Mac minis look nice. I wish it was available for me to play with (they had a screensaver on).
I don't like the one button pro mouse, but I can get on with it.
Some parts of the iMac G5 experience did seem a little laggy. I plan to shove an extra 1Gig of ram into mine. Hopefully that will pep things up :D
Word is ug-lay.
Personally I'm looking forward to being an iCal master.
The mac can do waaay more out of the box than the PC can, but Google...
Lovely icons
I didn't win the lottery again. Bugger. Got number 5 though.
The Mac magazines in WHSmiths are now interesting!
The weirdos were out in force from 4pm today.
My rear is totally numbed by the bus, but springs back to life when I get off. Unusual.
Overall, nice. I feel less 'wow this is amazing' about apples. Certainly don't just go on hype... try them out and get a feel for it yourself.
I think I'm ready to leave the PC, although I am worried about not being able to play some games I want to.
But, I hardly ever play games on my PC now. And they port the best ones to the mac, like doom 3 and B&W 2, both of which I'm looking forward to.

wow. One of the perks of moving to a new OS is that I can really go to town with my inner geek and learn the hell out of it. It's what I think is most fun about computing, learning new things and doing new stuff. Plus, it would be nice to be totally 'up' with both systems.

Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. I haven't actually had much of a nice day, otherwise. Missed my bus back back by 30 seconds (saw it going) and had to wait two hours. Left at 9 and got back at 6. Rubbish! Didn't even eat anything until 2/3!

Going to try it out

2005-10-29T08:09:00.000+01:00

I'm taking the Godawful bus into Bistol today to give the iMac G4 sans Front Row a try. They don't have the new ones yet, unfortunately. 40% there on the real funding now... give it a week.

So I'm going to also watch Wallace and Gromit, a film made right here in Bristol by Aardman!

Support the local economy, troops, etc.

(ps. Dech? Hosting issues...)

It's only a matter of time...

2005-10-27T23:19:00.000+01:00

(If only I had infinity white desk space.)

The Mac shal be Mine!

2005-10-27T15:04:00.000+01:00

Alright, I've decided. I'm going to go for the £900 iMac G5.

I think it's a great deal, and it's right for so many reasons. Not least because I'm going to be doing computer science and it runs unix apps, or that I'm a web designer and it's kind of the industry standard, or that I'm using video more and more and it runs it very well indeed WITH a remote.

It even comes with wireless, so I'm going to get a new router and modem after my move from AOL to PlusNet.

I'm working out how I'm going to raise the funds now. Luckily for me I've sealed two website deals which should bring me up there quite nicely, along with an AdSense payout and the returns for a website which as been done for a while now. I also expect a contribution from my parents, but that'll be a challenge!

It'll sill be a couple of weeks, though. I have to get one of these sites done fast before I can get it, and I'm sure that's going to be the Spanish property one. It's going to be interesting...

Update: I've just placed a call to Apple in Cork (lovely people always) and they've told me I get a 17.5% discount because I'm in further education! Yaaaay! That's VAT off! Whoooo! That's £134 off!

Proposed January Goal: Buy an iMac

2005-10-25T02:11:00.000+01:00

I've wanted one for soooo long.

But I want to know what you think. Should I buy one as soon as I have the dosh (I have 2 sites on the go and 2 prospective ones which would do it by Jan), or should I wait, agonisingly, until next September, paying for it with work money (quicker I imagine) and possibly using a student discount.

Christmas is round the corner, and although I can't just ask for one (O - the uproar), I can ask for a little help.

If it buy it in Jan there's no way I can get a car, but do I really want one? I have a bike (and friends with cars :D). Driving lessons might take a backseat, too...

And, I want to make use of it now if it's going to be updated in a year. I would be horrified to buy a mac, only for it to be replaced the next month. Horrified.

So I really would consider your opinion valuable.

To spend or not to spend... tis the dilemma of our society.

2l2b

2005-10-24T18:20:00.000+01:00

I just want to pass on mention of the existance of 2 Lazy 2 Blog, a blog of which I am 2 lazy 2 post to. Correct grammar? I don't think so.

Didn't win the Wednesday lottery with my luck dip

2005-10-19T23:34:00.000+01:00

Damn.

Google Mail goes official

2005-10-19T09:00:00.000+01:00

I liked Gmail, though! It's two syllables to three/four. Ahh well...

2005-10-18T16:46:00.000+01:00

It's on it's way.

The Driving Contines

2005-10-18T14:27:00.000+01:00

Well I had my second lesson the other day, and I'm still liking driving.

A little less, though. I'm not so good at controling that clutch, and apparently I do everything too fast. Driving on a proper road on the way to Clevedon was like a living nightmare, I was very worried I was going to hit other cars. Steering also seems to be getting me down. It's rather hard to come out of a T-junction and keep to your side of the road AND push-pull steer AND keep it smooth.

Damn you, GTA III!

I have it!

2005-10-16T18:44:00.000+01:00

I've been talking about it for a while, and have arrived at my new, better (hopefully) and far more public (which means I use my full name very often) blog and doodlepad.

Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause for...

Dech.co.uk

It's about Design & Tech!

Oh the marketing joy!

Big letters! Colourful colours! Loud! Bang! Whoosh! Whooooo!

I own titofthemonth.info

2005-10-16T18:35:00.000+01:00

...and have done for a while.

Go on, guess how I thought I would use it.

It's not mine from tomorrow.

Oh Dear

2005-10-16T17:11:00.000+01:00

Well rumour has it Google is steps away from lauching Google Purchases, and something has just clicked.

I don't want to be extorted for Gmail! google gmail google+wallet google+purchases

Won a tenner on the lottery

2005-10-15T22:31:00.000+01:00

From 3 Â£1 lines... it's quite unlikely I know. Of course me and my brother are repaying the loan and will be reinvesting it in two scratchcards tomorrow, one pound on Wednesday's draw and four on Saturday (the big draw day).

Completely unmathematical and perhaps even (dare I say) arbitrary, but - like the adverts say - you have to be in it to win it!

What's hiding on your microchips?

2005-10-15T18:09:00.000+01:00

Driving Along

2005-10-13T12:36:00.000+01:00

Buster Tests
Result

Driving Theory
Safety
Alertness 1

100%

Yay!

I'm turned into a vegetable

2005-10-13T12:23:00.000+01:00

I really have.

I've got a cold or something similar, so my ability to do anything other than snot is severly limited.

However, something amazing, fantastic and wonderful happened on Sunday which I did want to share (and I meant to right away, but I was all up on sugar, then came the cold...)

I won an iPod Shuffle! Yay! £70 of cool electronics is no small prize, and I am extremely thankful to all the people who chipped in for it.

Why did I win this, you might ask? Well, a quick trip over to Market West will explain that to you in much more detail, but it was basically because of my Media Studies coursework (see an image from it on Flickr, the whole thing [with dodge colour reproduction for some reason]).

I got some amazing feed back from the judges and about a million photos were taken of me. My cheeks still hurt from the prolonged smiling!

My First Driving Lesson

2005-10-08T23:29:00.000+01:00

Wow. Today I had my very first driving lesson, and it was pretty much amazing.

I love driving. What can I say. I really, really had a good time. I think I progressed quite well, and I can't wait till my next one.

It was two hours and, just to put it out there, was £42 (quite average).

Great stuff. Anyways, I would like to point people to a little something which I produced today.

I've written a test for driving theory on alertness. Please do go ahead and take it and see how far you get. It would be interesting to see how you did, especially if you are a licenced driver or not.

Conservative Outrage

2005-10-07T18:42:00.000+01:00

From Popbitch:

What's happened to Conservative outrage in USA? In the first quarter of the year, there were 157,016 indecency and obscenity complaints to the FCC. But from April - June, only 6,161.

Error

2005-10-05T18:18:00.000+01:00

Sent an old email to lots and lots of people I know by mistake.

Tut.

It wasn't even mine.

Here beginuth the evils of mass 'to' entries.

Westminster Underground (watch out for the Daleks)

2005-10-04T11:20:00.000+01:00

Oh, my surprise at the new look tube stations.

Talk about Dr. Who stylings! I really like all of this station's looks, because it feels like we're actually in the 21st century! Amazing!

Shake it all about

2005-10-03T21:35:00.000+01:00

Some of 37Signal's newest work has just inspired me to add some of their own quite excellent functionality to my own website. I'm not talking about their entire applications, but rather the ease with which you can have your password emailed to you. Exceptional stuff, really.