Plunge Taken

I have been able to install a Beta version of SP1 for Windows Vista for some time now, but as the first attempt to install the 1st Beta almost killed my PC, I have been somewhat reluctant.

Today, however, I took the plunge and installed Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2.  Initially it refused to install - a problem left over from the first abortive attempt - but a quick Google sorted that one out.

It took about 1 hour to install, and every seems to be exactly the same afterwards.  Hardly surprising as no new features are being shouted about by Microsoft on this SP.  In fact the only real indication that anything has occurred is the Kaspersky software firewall asking if it's OK to continue attempting to fire up a modified executable.

At Last!! Part 2

So much for lifting the barring within the hour...  No incoming or outgoing all day!

Called customer services tonight, who's system claimed that everything was working OK, was told by me that it wasn't, who's second system also told them everything was OK, was told by me that it wasn't - again, and who's 3rd system ran a diagnostic that confirmed everything was working OK... Guess what, It started working!

I can now make and receive calls on my new phone, as well as send text messages and access the internet..

AT LAST!!

At Last!!

Today I took delivery of a replacement SIM for my mobile phone, 6 weeks to the day since it was first requested!

What is even more amazing is that the order that finally worked, was only placed yesterday morning!  Seems the previous three attempts to order the SIM had 'failed' in the front-end system, the girl I spoke to yesterday decided to bypass the front-end and place the order directly on the back-end system.  Result delivery within 24 hours!

I have put the new SIM in my SLVR, and it has been activated, I am now waiting for the call barring on my number to be lifted so I can start to use it - should be within the hour.

Increasing Popularity

A Total of 2,008,870 Page Views for 2007, with a month on month growth.  It slowed a little in December as I had to remove the iPod 5G themes from the site to reduce my bandwidth consumption (They are the most popular themes)

Funky New Wallpaper

http://www.redbreva.com/Photography/Purple-Glass.jpg (1680 x 1050)

Looks *really* good with the Vista Aero transparency enabled.  Based on the "Colour of the Year" Pantone 18-3943, a clouds filter and a texture filter complete the work ;-)

Windows Updates

Paul Thurrott's Supersite for windows notes that there are two new updates for Vista, that are not yet on the official update site:

December 2007 Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update
The December 2007 Windows Vista Application Compatibility Update is a package of software updates that address common application compatibility issues in Windows Vista. This update is cumulative, and it supersedes update 935280. In addition to the fixes that are contained in update 935280, this update improves support in Windows Vista. This update also includes fixes that are contained in update 932246.

An update that improves the performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista is available
This update improves performance, responsiveness, and reliability of Windows Vista in various scenarios.

Useful Free Software

Any DVD Converter Professional is an All-in-One DVD ripper and video converting tool which helps you rip movie from DVD-Video disc to all popular video formats and convert video files between all popular video formats with fast converting speed and excellent video quality. It is a video converter which converts almost all video formats including DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI to MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, 3GP or FLV movie formats for iPod, iPhone, Zune, PSP or other portable video device, MP4 player or smart phone.

You can get a free version that does enough for most people, of pay $20/30 for a version with a few extra features - Feature Comparison page

very usefull for changing all those DivX / Xvid downloads into DVD ready format ;-)

Happy New Year

To my loyal and regular readers, have a very happy new year... yes, both of you.

Personally, I am glad the festive period is all over bar the shouting, and I can go back to a normal routine of enjoying my golf on my regular days off from work, between period of looking forward to having another couple of days off!

This year was a little different, we had Jackie, Pete & Matt over to 'See in the new year' which was nice.  I was on call, so not too much to drink, but enjoyed myself anyway, and didn't get called.

So what do we have to look forward to this year?
Amanda's 16th Wedding Anniversary (I was there too, but its always the girls anniversary!)
Alex turning 10
Amy turning 15
Amanda Turning 42
Me turning 47
Manchester United staying where they belong - Premier League Champions....
Me actually getting an official handicap, hopefully less than 28!

Yes, I have completely ripped this post off from last year, but so what :-D