burnaby t wallace

As soon as I got word that my Blackbird was somewhere in San Diego on its path to my house…my wife and I got ready. She was at the window, ready to alert me of the UPS man. I was doing stretches because I heard this thing was heavy and gigantic…like it’s owner.

Get ready for a ton of pictures. This may very well be the longest picture blog post I have ever done.

The UPS man was like “is this a server?” The box is huge. It should come with wheels.

2 stick figure people needed to lift this computer.

That’s me…all excited, but still needing to cook dinner.

Ah, releasing the Canadian air.

The installation poster–pshhh.

Lifting box one. The accessories were in here (keyboard, mouse, manual, and cables).

Sweet…the Razer Keyboard. It’s the Tarantula model that VoodooPC includes with the Omen machine.

A look at the software and manuals.

The Razer DeathAdder mouse, VoodooPC branded, no less.

In case I had crazier video card needs (past my 8800GT SLI setup that this includes), here are the cables.

My CD of drivers, all Blackbird looking.

Some Blackbird schwag.

All the manuals come in this neato Blackbird-branded box.

And now to open up the Blackbird itself.

First to stand up the box with the system in it.

I am trying to lift it. I knew it was going to be heavy, but seriously–this is heavy.

Liquid-cooled. Nice.

Corsair Dominator RAM.

The motherboard has a little LCD screen in the back.

Seriously…am I the only person who likes Vista? Why is it being panned by everyone (including possibly Bill himself?).

For me, it’s as fast as XP…looks better. Sure, the UAC got annoying, but disable that. And it runs my programs that I’ve been running for years.

Leopard, yeah–that was a disappointment. I still can’t login to my Apple account without repeatedly mashing my buttons to try to login with my strong password. And it’s been like this for a couple months now. Apple! You are making me swear on the inside.

Anyhow…that’s a previous post.

To add, it looks like Vista fewer flaws than any other OS last year. Yeah–check it out. Sure it didn’t have very much driver support during the first few moments of its release. People! Vista is built on Windows 2003–a server OS. If you work in the industry, try running a server OS with anything less than 2 gigs along side your gaming video card and Sound Blaster audio card. It’s unheard of, though Vista is trying. It’s rock solid, which is more than I can say about the OS from that fruit company that shall remain nameless.

So I have been staying at the W Hotel New Orleans in the French Quarter for the past week. As a hotel itself, it’s not bad. I mean, it’s not the best place—I would probably relegate that to the Andrews at Long Island, New York—but I would say that it has the best friggin’ shower I have ever used.

The best shower that I have ever used.

Just to get the point across. The best shower that I have ever used.

In a city where drought isn’t an issue (I am a couple blocks from the Mississippi River), in a modern hotel, taking a shower in my hotel room is akin to being a young child on a hot summer day on the corner of the street playing in the water of the fire hydrant. Just that it’s not a hot summer day. And instead of a street, you’re standing on gray slate. And you’re naked.

It’s not a bath tub. It’s just a gigantic shower room with a glass surround. It’s quite a beautiful bathroom (especially since I am in the middle of remodeling our own at home), but as soon as that shower head starts spewing water, the shower floor begins to fill with maybe one inch of water. It doesn’t go beyond that, and it’s enough water to kick up and splash on the wall. And the water is a nice bubbly warm water. And it smells good (the W Hotels always give out this set of expensive soaps and shampoos that have a bit of a eucalyptus aroma). Every time I use the shower, I am in there for nearly an hour.

Am I recommending that you stay at a W Hotel? Sure…the hotel is nice. Here , in the French Quarter, it’s fun. If you like the sort of thing that the French Quarter atmosphere exudes (drinking late, walking around with alcohol in your hand, partying, looking at art galleries), then stay here a night or two. Frick, though, as valet is $30 a day. The pillows are very large and filled with feathers, the pool is heated and the courtyard is among the best in a standard hotel.

But it’s the shower that will bring me back here.

But I think this is the year that Apple can kiss my ass. For the past several years, we all have drooled over Apple products–me perhaps more than anyone. I have been thinking of this for a while…I figure now is a good time. I have to say this.

Apple Company–you suck.

For several reasons really.

Let’s see, last year I bought my iPhone only to find that it dropped $200 mere weeks later. OK…early adopter’s tax, I suppose. OK, OK. I’ll let that slip. That, after coming out with a "smartphone" with no tasks list. C’mon. And don’t get me started on the deep sunken headphone port. I am beginning to not like my iPhone. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it’s large screen, email client, and true-web surfing, but it sucks at replacing the devices it was supposed to. Once the other companies come out with these items (like Windows Mobile 7 or Google Android), my iPhone will be simply another music player with a low-rate audio chip.

Then I remembered the whole $2.00 upgrade fee to get the 802.11n that my Macbook already had. What?! Seriously, on the PC side of the fence, this would never have been an issue.

Also, after I installed Leopard (which, by the way, sucks more than Vista–but why is Vista getting all the hate?), I couldn’t login to my account on my computer because half of my keyboard stopped working and I couldn’t apply my "strong password" anymore. What was Apple’s fix? Use an external keyboard. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? It’s a laptop–there’s a keyboard there already!

Leopard sucks. I know I mentioned it earlier, but dude. It sucks. What does it do that Tiger didn’t? Oh yeah, have bugs in the hundreds! Stop my keyboard from working. Drop support for a ton of great apps. The one app, THE ONE APP, that I was hoping would bring happiness in my PIM life on the iPhone failed to deliver. Mail.app–still no task list on my phone. Today, as I write this, I am still perturbed that a task list has not been implemented for the Apple iPhone (jailbreaking, not withstanding–yet even those tasks lists blow). Dude. my Visor PDA from the mid 90’s had it. I thought the Mail.app would somehow unlock it. Nope. So what does Tiger have that I like? Time Machine sucks. And Apple even had nearly half a decade to copy it properly from Microsoft Windows Server. So what? A see-through menu bar? Stupid.

Then, to top it all off–the news we got from this past week’s keynote. OK, the iPhone got cell phone triangulation–OK, the Apple TV is having a second chance to prove itself as a tethered iPod to the TV. But to charge $20 to iPod Touch users to get an update for their device? That’s crap. CRAP. Dude, when the new Microsoft Zune’s came out, Microsoft gave out the firmware to flash the first generation Zunes so that they did not lose any functionality. Oh–and it was FREE!

Then my wife tells me about this blogger who approached Steve Jobs this week to ask for a picture. He dismissed her with a "That’s rude" reply and had a small circle of people surrounding him snigger at her. Boo to Steve. You and your uppity entourage can kiss my ass. Not that I ever expected him to be a nice guy (at least Bill Gates gives some money to charity and seems as approachable as my college mates).

Robert Scoble got the reaction mere seconds after this and it’s published for all to see here. Think Rude.

I like Apple computers. Yes. I do. The Mac Mini introduced me to green computing. The Macbook Pro is small, fast, and neat looking. But you know what? I enjoy running Windows Vista on it more. Their machines continue to be beautiful and sexy. But much like the cheap department store, Walmart–once you have a problem with the executives, you begin to have a disdain for the rest of the organization.

2008 is going to be my year of Apple detoxing.

Oh yeah. I have the best wife ever. Even before last week, when she let me get this mutha!

This is the HP Blackbird. Better than a Mac Pro.

Sorry for the dearth of updates. What with all the home remodeling going on, I barely have time to sit in front of this machine and write up one of these things.

I miss it.

That being said, I had fun doing everything else. We’re still redoing the bathroom, but here’s a peek at what we’ve been doing the past month.

Got some Rock Band action going on…
 

Saw Billy singing…actually, we all sang the entire night away…

 
My most important person opening up her little Spencer gift…

…and taking one of these "from my family to yours" lawyer pictures.

I hope your Christmas was great, mine sure was.

Happy New Year to all of you.