Here’s my fist post about my xbox360 issue / repair / and hopefully getting it back.

Because of a mutual agreement for confidentiality I will not go into the details. But still want to discuss it a little bit. Over the last month I’ve been in discussion with a few parties that showed an interest in the web site I started last September; wetalk.tv

A small update about my ISP account. I do not have an HDTV and won’t be getting one any time soon (unless I get lucky and get a load of money suddenly) so now that my ISP (UPC.nl) has introduced new accounts with discounts it was worth looking into it to see if I could save some money. Not really, just a bit, but I got more in return for it.

When dealing with data such as a video file, audio file, text document, spreadsheet and such, I have always been told to use a office solution of some kind. Something that ties things together. So when I moved away from Windows to a Mac solution I have purchased additional software solutions to replace for example Microsoft Office. I’ve also tried out a lot of open source solutions. And while there are great programs out there that do the job, I still felt like I was perhaps missing out on something. Leopard provided the solution.

Through the last summer and especially the last few months I’ve had a bit of a rough spot when it comes to my finances. And I won’t go into detail to ensure that I won’t bore anybody with the specifics, but .. now that the holidays are over it’s time to revisit my pile of bills and my small pile of income. Since it’s January 1st today I guess this could be my new resolutions. Getting my financing in order.

At this moment I can not browse the web without running into a Top X list, and some are fun or nice to read, but the majority of them are just made without any thought. For example, there was an article on Digg about top25 movies from 2007, but a good handful were all made and released in 2006. But ok, maybe the author meant the ones he’s seen in the last year. What I haven’t seen yet is an Apple Top 10 list of products and services they offer through their stores. So I guess here it is. Yes, I am not doing any research either. I am going to wing it, but I will try to provide some arguments why I made the pick.

The categories are Software, Services, Accessories, iPhone, iPod, Laptops, Computers, Underdogs, Failures, and Rumored.

## spoiler ## And if you think ‘damn this blog is long’ let me spoil it for you. The winners in my eyes are for handheld devices and iPod, and media experience the iPhone, no doubt. And as computer system the new 24″ iMac has no competition. ##spoiler##

My Mac Pro has a bunch of hard drives right now, and I have been adding, swapping, and removing drives the last few months. It was time for me to get a bit more organized and I think that’s a great tip for everybody. It gives you a much better understanding of what is on your computer system.

You might think “What is so hard about finding stuff on your hard drive”, well .. let me give you a simple example: Your browser might store downloaded files on your Desktop, while you have an OS ‘Downloads/’ folder, or perhaps your torrent client stores it in ‘programs/client/downloads/’, making it a bit annoying having to browse around while a single link on your desktop to your ‘Downloads/’ folder might make it a lot easier for you.

After much anticipation Steve finally introduced to us his latest addition to the Intel powered Mac family, the new 2x Xeon dual core powered Mac Pro and, with an reasonable price of only $2499 I was ready to make a purchase. However, as always, the prices in Europe in Euros are the same as the US prices in Dollars.

Setting me back over $700, which I could have used to upgrade the Mac Pro, or purchase additional hardware, how honest is this gap? As a consumer I must say it does not feel that honest. Maybe ‘honest’ is not the right word, try ‘reasonable’ instead then.

Over the last six months I have spend quite a bit of time and money into updating my home entertainment system and my little office. Changes included upgrading my internet service provider account and purchase new hardware, and most recently replacing a few ugly wooden planks with a new, more shiny, bigger one. And there is more to come.