Oh yeah, by the way… I bought a condo yesterday

I’m now a proud homeowner. Well, technically, I will officially be in about two weeks when I get the keys and can move in.

Woooooooooohoooooooooo!

We’re just one day away from the consumer launch of Microsoft Windows Vista, and most mainstream hardware manufacturers don’t yet have final drivers for the operating system. I’m talking to you, Creative, nVidia and ATi. I don’t care how much you have to change your driver structure for Vista; it still stinks for consumers who go to install the operating system only to find their hardware is half-supported.

Right now, I’m experiencing a lot of joy with my ATi Radeon X1900 Pro video card and my Creative X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card in this respect. My ATi card seems to be okay in Direct3d, but runs quite slower than it did under XP, which I hope is just temporary, considering I dropped more than $500 for this video card. OpenGL doesn’t work at all under these beta drivers, so any games that use it (think Doom3, Quake, Far Cry, etc.) are a no-go right now.

Don’t even get me started about the beta Creative sound card drivers; they constantly “glitch up”, sending nasty noise through my speakers while I’m playing music. And sometimes they’ll forget they’re in 5.1 surround mode, and suddenly start playing the music out of just the rear channels. Huh?! And did I mention all EAX acceleration in games is going away? A feature that Creative has touted for years as giving them an advantage is now moot under Vista’s driver architecture, and Creative loves to whine about it. Supposedly they’re working on a wrapper to automagically wrap EAX calls to the newer OpenAL logic.. but I’ve yet to see anything work like that.

And in the end, Microsoft will be blamed for these driver problems, because no one wants to educate the public about the value in keeping your drivers up to date for all components of your system. The concept isn’t even in most people’s heads. And it probably shouldn’t be. It should “just work(tm)”, you know? Vista has advanced driver support under Windows Update, which looks promising at keeping everyone’s machine up to date with the latest drivers. And you have companies like Dell with support programs that run in your tray to check vendor-specific updates — Dell’s will even tell you when a BIOS update is available. That’s cool, but what about people without a Dell? etc…

Anyway. That’s my rant of the morning. Here’s hoping the Vista launch tomorrow comes with a minimum of problems. Are you planning on upgrading? Do your friends or businesses?

I did a fresh install when the final was released months ago, and I love it. I don’t miss XP in the slightest. I think after goofing with it for a day or so, you’ll feel the same.

Just got back from NAMM, and I’m so exhausted. I put up some photos online here, if you want to check them out:

http://picasaweb.google.com/iransofaraway/20070120NAMM

Hah. Apparently I’m 59% like Marky Mark? Rock on!

Click them to make them bigger..

So much to go over… hrm. Let’s see.

Well, I bought a new car, a 2007 Nissan Altima 3.5SL, fully loaded. It’s dark blue. Yep yep yep.

I love it so far, no complaints. And it gets great gas mileage.

Life is busy, but good. My review is any day now, so cross your fingers, pray, or do whatever it is you do to impart good wishes upon someone else, please!

I returned my Zune, but not for the reason(s) you think. I did so in order to help pay my down payment on my car. I’m also selling some other things.. debated selling my XBox360, but decided to keep it for now. I plan on buying the HD-DVD drive later on to enjoy movies on… and I’m sure by the time I get around to it, it will be cheaper than the current $200 price tag.

And now, for some completely random stuff that I think is way cool.

• Chris Pirillo’s wedding reception music. I like the list, and it’s sometimes hard to find a well-thought out selection. I’m keeping it for ideas on my own wedding..
• Vanishing Point, an online challenge/game by Microsoft, for a buttload of prizes. Microsoft started it off in Las Vegas, taking over the Bellagio’s fountains to give away clues to solving the first “box” of puzzles. Check out the video from that event! Crazy. I love how they synchronized everything.. the lights, the water, the projections.. heh.
• BauerCount.com, a website that aims to list every person that Jack Bauer kills while saving our country’s butt. The details are amazing, listing the weapon and method used, as well as including video and pictures. Almost a bit too fanatic, hrm? But awesome.
• Disneyland now has a special “night-time” mode for the Space Mountain and California Screamin’ coasters. Who doesn’t want to rock out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers while riding a coaster? “Higher Ground” is supposedly on Space Mountain, and California Screamin’ plays “Around The World”, kind of like the Disneyland commercials are now…
• Speaking of Disneyland, I found a site detailing Club 33 in its entirety. It’s that door next to the Blue Bayou, with the “33” plaque next to it. Maybe you never noticed it?
• Bruce Campbell smells good, thanks to Old Spice. If you have it, you don’t need it. If you need it, you don’t have it. If you have it, you need more of it. If you have more of it, you don’t need less of it. You need it, to get it. And you certaintly need it to get more of it. Just watch. Bruce is awesome.
• Season 3 Battlestar Galactica bloopers! (PG-13 rated) I don’t get the random Bush stuff thrown in there, but whatever. Pretty funny if you’re a fan of the show.
• If you’re making minimum payments on your loans/credit cards, you’re dumb. Use this online calculator to see just how much money you’re throwing away. Really opened my eyes a bit. Even paying just $10 more a month will help lots in the long run.
• JkDefrag — one of the best freeware defragmentation programs for Windows 2000/2003/XP/Vista that I’ve ever come across. It’s now replaced Microsoft’s defragmenter on all of my machines. Why buy a product like Diskeeper (which helps fund Scientology, by the way) when you can get something better for free?

My 4Runner just got back from the shop, and I’ve been informed that my engine is… not so well. It looks like the previous owner didn’t really take care of it, and an oil change is showing just how “dirty” the inside is. Bummer. So I’m looking for a new (yes, brand new) car.

I’m crazy, I know. My mission is to find something I like, but don’t end up paying more than $600/month for. And I’m $5000 upside-down on my current loan…

So yeah, fun times! Hopefully Jeff can help me out, since he works for Nissan, and maybe get me a deal on one of those new Altimas. They are looking pretty spiffy right now. My boss just got an Infiniti G35S (Infiniti = Nissan’s luxury line) and it is the cat’s meow of features. The new Altimas have most of them, and cost $20k less. Sign me up for some of that!

I just quickly priced out two Altimas… one for $28,965 and another for $32,175. The more expensive one has bluetooth phone capability as well as MP3 playback, etc. which would be nice, but is it worth $4k?

Does anyone have any advice for car shopping? What not to fall for, etc.? I’ve learned a little bit, having bought two cars in my lifetime from dealerships, but I still end up walking away feeling like a sucker.