JamesX

Well it seems there’s been a few updates around the web these past few days…

Chris has revamped his website, YoursTRULY, with a sleek new design (pictured left). I have to say, I’m quite impressed overall, it’s very clean and easy to navigate. I can’t believe how far he’s come in just 12 months or so!

In the tech news world, Richie managed to get an appearance on Engadget with his recent blog entry on PSP clones. I mean really, how dumb do you have to be to fall for that? I can picture all these grandmas buying those for their grandchildren thinking they’re the best thing ever! :)

And in other news around the blog circuit, Addo has finally started to update again, Chris D can’t seem to get enough of posting, and everyone else is pretty quiet. I guess it’s a busy time of year all round.

This post is a continuation of Happy New Year…

July
War of the Worlds and Live 8 were making headlines in July and semester 2 and GigManX continued to roll along. Around mid July, grandma returned from the UK and Richard and I began to move into the Widget arena with the new assortment of ISP Usage widgets. Stu M managed to injure his back (obviously *cough* working too hard!) and Muppets Inc. was born in my Organisational Behaviour class. We celebrated birthdays for Ed and Gronow and capped of a relatively busy month with System Administrator Appreciation Day.

August
Uni was powering along well and my results were higher than ever. Podcasting was starting to make it’s debut and the ski season provided a perfect opportunity to get away for a weekend. Houses were burning down, the weather was crazy and the WordPress Tiger Style caught my attention.

September
September was a time for many developments. JamesX 5.0 was launched and rekindled the blogging spirit. September also saw the return of The Bitch Box and the surprise release of the iPod nano. eBay acquired Skype and my thoughts turned to how much snow would be awaiting me at Perisher. Returning just in time to expand my gadget collection with the Harmony 880 and RAM upgrades on the table.

October
October was quiet as the uni year ended (for RMIT anyway :)). James Blunt was in our ears and we had new iPods to listen with. Addo’s blog made a comeback along with my gallery. And that was it for October, but not before the clocks went forward and my new office was ready.

November
Spring Carnival fever hit Melbourne in November and it was Cup Day and Stakes Day that kept me busy this year. Dennis got older and I finished exams. The question now was what to do next. Two days at home and I had my gadget fix - TomTom GO 500 was here at last! Of course, November is always an exciting time for me, but this year was extra special for it was my 21st!. The party was huge and is still a fun topic. But it was tiring and some serious resting was in order!

December
December was seemingly busier than most with enrolments and concerts, birthdays and Christmas it was as packed as it could get. But I did get some toys along the way, new plates for the car and iPAQs for work. Then came the K600i to wrap up season, just in time for organising Boxing Day, it seemed it would never end. But it did, and it was time for a break, escaping to Bright for the last few days of 2005.

And so there you have it. The whole year in one (well two if you want to be picky) little package. For those who were here for the journey, thanks for your support. 2006 looks to be a promising year.

2006! Happy New Year!

It’s time once again to look back upon the year that was 2005…

January
Work started early on in January in preperation for the new school year and it wasn’t long before the heatwave hit Melbourne. January saw the least blogging by people and it was time for me to rant about it. It was also the month when I finally managed to get my eBay blue star, we celebrated Marc’s 20th birthday, and that horrible deer roadkill was unleashed upon the world. We continued to slug through the mountain of boxes at work and it’s also the same week that the RodentJet was born.

February
By February, uni was starting to appear on my radar and the timetabling gods seemed to be on my side. Either way, it didn’t phase me much as before long, the great South Pacific adventure had begun. It was one of the best, if not the best, holiday I’ve been on and by the end of it, I had taken almost 1,100 photos! The AFL footy tipping season was about to begin, Richard finally cracked the RMIT wireless problem and a new game was on the horizon…

March
Yes March is where it all began, World of Warcraft was taking centre stage at it began to occupy more than a little of everyone’s time. Our family friend Jean was over from England visiting and in between all of this, work and uni were plodding along nicely. As if it wasn’t already enough, No Worries, the latest play at work was a huge success.

April
It was a time for new things when April came around the picotux, Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the list of 200 things, “never have I ever”, and the release of Tiger (although I didn’t get it until later) were enough to keep me busy. I also got to celebrate Oscar’s birthday and I uncovered the mystery behind the Graphinc Calculator application.

May
May Day was when Tiger arrived on my Powerbook and brought with it a host of new features to help convert those who still believe Windows is a better OS. Hitchhikers hit the movies, and a day later it was Andrew’s birthday. Then came Remember Ronald Ryan and the fifth season of Big Brother began in earnest. It was also the time to launch the new backend on the site. It would still be some time before it all tied together, but having grandma away for 7 weeks was sure to help.

June
It was semester one exam season around the time that my relations were visiting from England. I took them to the football and showed them around Melbourne - including Phillip Island. June was also the month that GigManX was born. It had been a long while since my last gadget purchase and it was time for something new. FOXTEL iQ entered the household and it hasn’t stopped recording since! Exams were over and reports were printed just in time to finish the month with dinner at Han’s.

So that’s the first half of 2005. The second half can be found in Part 2.

Just in time to brighten up anyone’s holiday season, WordPress 2.0 has been officially released. Boasting some very impressive new features, it’s the latest generation of the popular blogging system. Codenamed “Duke”, WordPress 2.0 includes features such as:

• Completely redesigned backend
• Faster administration
• Improved editing interface
• User roles
• Theme functions
• and much more…

The update from 1.5 was painless (I’ve already done it) and the old themes seem to play nicely without any changes. You should head over to the WordPress site to grab a copy and get installing!

Well the NOS exam today was pretty easy. I’m confident of getting around 70% for it which is reasonably good considering the types of questions that were asked. So that’s two courses down for this semester, and only two more to go before I can say goodbye to uni for another year.

My next exam, the Novell one, is on the Wednesday after Cup Day. At 9.15 in the morning it doesn’t really leave much in the way of partying the night before so I think I’ll have to start early on Tuesday!

Also, Chris Davies has moved his blog to http://www.daviesh.com/wp/ so update your links! Another one to chalk up to the Wordpress conversion revoultion!!

So it’s taken me a while to get around to it but I’m pleased to report that the gallery is back up and running. Well it’s been running for a while, but there are now actually pictures in it! And for those who have been hanging out - Mel - to see them, the pictures from the cruise are up there. See it only took eight months to do it!

It’s takes a lot of time to resize and upload all the pics so I’ve tried to take a selection for each album as it’s just not possible to upload them all. To put it in perspective, there’s well over 1,000 photos of the cruise alone. You’ll want to be logged in when you visit the gallery pages too because depending on who you are, you will get a different set of pictures. So for those who still haven’t signed up, do it now.

I’ve also been tinkering with the blog and drastically expanded the list of categories. I’m nearing 500 posts now so I figured it’s time to add a little more organisation into the mix. As always, feedback is welcome.