Rantings of a Lunatic

Well, I pulled into the parking garage after lunch today, and then I looked down at the odometer.

I guess its time to get rid of this ancient thing. I have had it for about 20 months now, and have rolled over 20K miles today. Not too bad, I am averaging 1K miles/month. Well, really, I am not sure about that, I know I put the first 5K miles on it in the first 3 months I had it, and I am sure I put about 1,800 miles on it the weekend I moved from WI to Texas. I probably put about 8K miles on it over the last year here in texas, so, that would lead me to believe in the 8-9 months I drove it in MKE I only put about 5K miles on it. All in all, thats not too bad. So, yeah, I guess its not for sale. I would like to get 100K+ miles out of it, hopefully 150K+, but I am not gonna hold my breath if it rolls over 100K.

So, last night, I was working around with some friends, looking into this app called Hamachi, which seems really cool. We played with it for a few hours, and when it works, it works really well. We were able to use Bonjour based IM’ing and even video chat across Bonjour through this encrypted network and were getting the same speeds we normally get. Sometimes it acts a little wierd, such that three of us were able to get into a Warcraft 3 game together, though I for some reason was not. I think this sort of technology has a little bit of work to go, but it was really cool. I predict that in about 4 years, with the onset of full IPv6 utilization, this sort of technology will be a base level connectivity capability of every advanced OS. If they aren’t working on it now, well, shame on them, and get into gear. As it is, this implementation works pretty well, and is cross platform, so filesharing was possible as well. Oh, and iTunes libraries shared seemlessly across this “virtual interface”.

So, on yet a third note, I have been thinking about upgrading my computer system again recently, as all of my machines are 3+ years old. I went up to the local computer store over the weekend, looking at replacing the seagate drive thats about to go bad in my PC. Thanks to SMART technology I can see it in advance. Anyway, after deciding that they are overly inflating their prices, I was just wandering about the store, as happens to a geek in a, ahem “Candystore”. Well, thats when I fell in love with a new machine. Now, I have never been a big fan of Sony, because of the way they always make their technology proprietary. Thats just not my style. And I have traditionally never been a huge fan of ultra-portables. But, I didn’t even notice what I was doing when my hands glided onto this machine. I realized how long it had been about 10 minutes later. I was just impressed. Granted, I would like to play around with Gimp on it, and a little more than just Windows XP, but I enjoyed the way it felt, the screen was good, and as for weight, man it is light. Something like 3 pounds with the regular battery, which lasts for 4.5-7 hours. So the integrated graphics card isn’t the best, but I would learn to deal with it, and that edge antena is kind of wierd, but, all in all, I liked this machine. And it even has a dual layer DVD burner built in. The display is 1366×768, which is shorter but wider than my 15″ powerbook, so no real loss there. Oh, and Emporer Linux sells the same model, so I know that there are drivers & kernels for it. That brings me to the biggest problem with it, it is Vista Capable, but not OS X capable. Now comes the dilema, do I have the machine that makes me happy, and run my choice of OS, or do I have an OS that sometimes makes me happy, and sometimes furiates me to no end where I am locked into a specific platform that just doesn’t see my oppinion of what a computer could be. Why is it that when Apple releases an “ultra-portable” form factor, they hobble it with 1024×768 resolution? Not that I really consider the 12″ an ultra-portable, its sort of bulky, and very heavy for that title. I would love to see apple make a machine close to this Vaio. But, I doubt that will happen.

My other option that I have been looking into is a sweet new desktop (none in the queue right now), and a Sidekick. I have been looking at those a little more, and, well, if its true that there is a terminal application for them, then with SSH, I can do anything I really need to, and anything else can wait until I get back home. I would still have my Powerbook for trips to my parent’s house or whatever, unless I turn it into a Picture Frame. More on that later though.