JamesX

Well I never, another new product has managed to sneak (unannounced) onto Apple’s website - the MacBook. The smaller brother to the MacBook Pro, it’s basically a suped up iBook. And by suped up, I mean five times faster. But what’s really cool is that it now comes in black as well as the old frosty white.

Interestingly enough the black one has better specs than the white counterparts, placing it in the middle of the notebook family. Either way, they look really cool and for the price, it might just be worth buying one. I’m not quite sold on the keyboard and the new glossy screen - designed to make viewing colours more vibrant. I always find that those glossy screens on notebooks cause a lot of unnecessary reflection.

Along with the product release, the MacBook Pro had minor speed upgrades to 2.0 GHz. I’ll probably get one in the next year or so, depending on how long my poor old dying PowerBook can last.

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.

It’s been a long time coming, but there’s finally an been an update to the PowerBook range - the MacBook Pro. Sporting the new Intel Core Duo processors, the MacBook Pro seems to be a nice piece of work. I think the new name might take a little while to grow on me, but the machine packs some great new features. The best part being that the new laptop is four times faster than the current PowerBooks. The Intel processor has also been launced in the iMac range too, with 2x speed improvements.

As if the announcement of the new hardware wasn’t enough, there are also some great new features in the software line-up too. Both the iLife and iWork suites have been updated with a vast array of features. The newest software to join the iLife suite is iWeb, a simple web editor that looks like it can create some really nice pages. I’m interested to see how it generates the CSS to outlay some of the things you can do, particularly the image placement and rotation. But I’ll know more about that when I get the software in my hot little hands.

The real question now is what to buy. So I think I’m just going to have to get one of everything. :)

Well it seems that after many a hurdle, I’ve finally been able to upgrade to Blackboard 7. The process by itself was rather complex, but the fact that I needed to move it all to a new server at the same time posed some interesting challenges. But after a few days tinkering around, it’s happily working on it’s new server - Token! For those who are wondering, Token is one of the characters from South Park, which is the inspiration for our server naming conventions. Token joins a complement of new servers including Timmy, Butters, Stan and Barbrady.

Ever thought about working at Google?

“At Google, our strategy is simple: we hire great people and encourage them to make their dreams a reality. We believe in hard work, a fun atmosphere, and the sort of creativity that only comes about when talented people from diverse backgrounds approach problems from varying perspectives.”

Google have always been renowned for their great, laid back work environment, but what really goes on behind the walls of the “Googleplex”? I stumbled across this video today that gives a little insight as to what working at Google is really like. I think I could get used to that!! Try beating 5 weeks annual leave, unlimited sick leave and 20% of your working day devoted to “you time”.

Watch the video

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.