When I originally switched to my Mac I just took over some one else’s account, installed Boot Camp etc. When I installed Windows I did so with another copy that was already installed, so I was never able to activate it. One month later and I decided to not only re-install Windows, but to install OS10 from scratch as well. In this past month I have merged my contacts into Address Book and created calendars in iCal.

That is where .Mac came into play. I created a trial account, downloaded Backup 3 and started getting into it. I read a number of articles that ripped Backup 3 to shreds, but also learned that most of the issues being ripped have been resolved so I went for it, backing up my documents and personal settings like Address Book, iCal and my Cyber Duck bookmarks.

After the very long but easy install of OS10, I set up my .Mac account in the os and downloaded my calendars and contacts. Low and behold it works! Very easy.

I am currently restoring my backups from DVD and its all going very smoothly.

OS10 does a terrible job of connecting to and maintaining network volumes. Today, I switched network connections from wireless to wired and my network volume lost its connection and wouldn’t resolve the connection automatically. I had to physically navigate and mount the volume again.

In windows you can attach a network storage drive, and when your switch connections it resolves fine, not only that but it will reconnect every time you login if you want it to. No deal with OS10, you have to mount the volume every time I come into the office.

I have Windows XP installed on a Boot Camp partition which I can boot into and use Windows as I normally would. Then, while booted into OS10 I have Parallels installed and I use that same partition as my virtual machine. So all my data, applications, fonts etc are exactly the same as though I was booted into Windows proper. I am only using Windows for Flash at this point and its way faster like this than the real Mac version of Flash. Its good stuff and the main reason I am switching to Mac.

I am using a MacBook Pro laptop and on it there is a key labeled “delete.” But this key is not delete at all, its a backspace. I had to download a application called DoubleCommand that remaps certain keys to what you want. Since there is a second “enter” key I remapped delete to that. There is also a shortcut, if you hit “fn/delete” it acts like a forward delete key.

Is this the way you would expect a delete key to work? Every keyboard I have ever used, backspace was the key if you wanted to delete moving backwards, the delete key went forward…

If you are ten directories into your hard drive or network you can’t tell what directory you are in unless you trace back through the folder structure. In Windows Explorer you can always tell exactly where you are just by looking at the title bar or the url bar, I like that.

I ran out to Best Buy to grab Hotel Dusk for the DS and ran by the computer department to see if they had Vista running. They did and I checked it out, my impressions…

the new apps

The new apps are really great, they mimic Apple’s iLife suite and work together really well. One example is with Outlook Express. I opened “Outlook Express” and created a new message, I then opened “Contacts,” created a new contact, saved it and went back to my “Outlook Express” message, found the contact and added it to the message. I didn’t have to re-open Outlook or the message window.

aero and glass

I don’t love the new UI. Its very busy with all the transparencies and blurring going on, but its still a better option than what Windows users have now, that and you can turn it off and go old school if you wanted.

A few things that are really nice about it is the “Windows/Tab” menu, the new search and all of the context sensitive meta data it displays. You can resize thumbnails in real time with a slider, you can search from anywhere. Vista organizes really well. I dig it.

conclusion

I personally can’t wait to get Vista, not sure when I will, but I will sometime soon. I love the way it organizes files, and I love the new apps and how they work together. Its worth the upgrade, especially if your getting it with a new PC, I question the worth when your paying $200 for Home, but in the end, I think I will be happy with it once I do buy it.

I have been a member of Gamefly for a few months and overall its been cool. Lately though, none of the games I actually want to rent are available and in the case of the Godfather and Just Cause, the games I add because everything else is out are not even available.

Monica and I purchased a new TV three weeks ago, the 32″ Sharp Aquos LCD. We found it at Best Buy as an open box deal and $200 of the list price, which already came way down since x-mas time. We were trying to hold out for a 37″ or above, but the price jump from 32 to 37 was too much to justify.

We arrived at LCD after months and months of research and viewing. We looked at CRT, DLP, Plasma, Rear Projection and ended up with an LCD because of their nice cost to size ratio. CRT is too big, DLP is nice but needs to be viewed at a perfect angle or else you loose picture quality, the same thing with rear projection. Plasma is nice, but only come in larger sizes and are more expensive than what we wanted to spend.

HD cable looks great and I have the cable box running out via optical to the receiver so Lost, 24 etc are in 5.1 and sound great. I have the Xbox360 hooked up and that looks incredible too.

The only knock I have against it is when there is a dark scene playing, you loose a lot of the detail that you would normally see with a CRT or Rear Projection. Other than that now that I have it, I want it to be bigger. Like 100″ big.

I created a ma.gnolia account which is a new social bookmark manager to one up with del.icio.us. The experience is a little nicer on the surface, but it doesn’t really seem to add anything to the del.icio.us formula.

I want

• in-line editing of bookmarks so when I am viewing my list of bookmarks I can edit things like title and tags quickly and keep jamming through them all
• proper page titles so I can use my browser’s history. Every page is titled “Ma.gnolia Social Bookmarking: Search and Find Web Sites & Build Community Online” which does not help me when I am looking through my history or have multiple tabs open
• better searching and sorting of tags so I can search for all bookmarks tagged with “pug” and “play” and see just those bookmarks tagged with those two tags. Or more options like the ability to sort a list of bookmarks by tag, by date, by popularity etc.
• discussions in groups, I am not sure what the point of ma.gnolia’s groups feature when I can’t discuss any of the bookmarks added. I suppose it is nice that the links are edited so in theory you will only see the very best of the bookmarks out there
• speed, Del.icio.us is really really fast, ma.gnolia should be too. Its text!

I like

• that it backs up every bookmark I add so when that tutorial I bookmarked a year ago is taken offline I will still have a copy of it.
• the design, it’s very easy on the eyes, every piece of content is spaced perfectly and the colors are calming.
• the tagging system and that I can tag my bookmarks with more than one word.

Check out ma.gnolia and decide for yourself, and while your at it give me some advice on what LCD TV to buy.