Those of you with a keen ear, will recognise the line from the Wizard of Oz, and one thing is for certain, this most definetly isn't Kansas anymore, by which I mean, things have changed.....
If you've been paying attention, you'll know that Winnie-the-Pooh and I have been on a great adventure. High up the hill above the village, we've seen woodland creatures of all shapes and sizes and we've run-off from the hedgerow in search of that mystic and majestic beast - the neliphunt. For our (sort of) first expedition, you'd expect this to be a ramshackle mess of a journey with nothing going right and everything going wrong. In truth, this hasn't quite been the case. There have been moments of danger, but generally speaking all has gone very well. So it comes as a great surprise to all and sundry about, that we have actually caught us an neliphunt which is as I speak locked up in Pooh's cellar while we decide what to do with it. I may have said too much already - although anyone with half a brain and a google search box might be able to figure it out.
We both need a bit of a rest ofter all the excitement, (Pooh probably more than I as he's had to patiently ignore my obvious observations and listen to my less obvious one's with apparant interest) so he will be off to the New World for a break, while I have the "Change is as good as a rest" option, to cover for him while he's gone. Luckily for me, the cover means I too, will get to see the New World by way of a handover. I think this means I'll have to be sharing the tusks with our cousins, but so far that's not being made very clear. It's been 4 years since I've been across the pond. I'm both daunted (Not sure how I'll get on with tusks in customs) and very much looking forward to it. While I'm not in love with it, I do realy quite like America.... a lot.... But that's in the future....
Our friends of the fruit - Mr Jobs & co, have unleashed Lion upon us. Now, me being a tigger (and tigger's are wonderful things) I'm not in the least bit daunted.
Many apple folks of old have warned that being an early adopter can cause pain - and having been an early adopter of technology for many years, I am all to aware of that fact. I only have to think of the agony of a failed recording of Coronation Street thanks to Microsoft's Media Center glitches to bring it all flooding back. Personally, I wasn't the least bit worried about a missed episode - but hell hath no fury... as the saying goes.
Still, unpreturbed - or perhaps that should be unhindered by hindsight - I was amongst the first to hand over my 20quid to download the latest offering for the App Store. A very interesting move by Apple to have walked away from traditional methods of software distribution. This is a first for such a major OS, and not something I could imagine MS doing (given their control freakery). Besides, MS probably want to justify the extortionate prices they charge - but what do I know?
So how did it go? Is my mac now a quivering jumled up mess of bits all over the floor, failing to boot up and awaiting new drivers for some piece of hardware I've owned for 5 years without any problems ??? (See MS Upgrades elsewhere for more on that). Of course not. It's awesome. And it's encouraged me to spend a further sixty quid with them on a magic touchpad. Now that my firends, is some darn clever marketing.
My interation with the OS is now all swipes and hand gestures (no, not that one) - and it really does feel surprsingly natural. Pinching and zooming (just like the iPad, iPhon and iPod) is great, and a two fingured swipe to the right while web browsing is the most natural back button in the world. I'm suitably impressed. On top of that, the full screen apps make great use of my desktop real estate and the whole system feels snappy and smart.
So - no pain at all??? Well, one thing - and it's a tiny one. Internally on my home network, I run a web server to share various things - and after upgrade - I wasn't able to get this working again. At this precise moment I still haven't figured it out - but that's due entirely to having to work for a living and not being able to procrastinate all day long. I'm sure I'll have it sorted on Sunday. I am tempted to take the "clean install" approach, just because upgrades are known for doing the unexpected. I'll give it some thought.
Google+ is also with us, and I've prattled about it here already. The iOS app arrived this week, which you can pick up here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google/id447119634?mt=8 . If you haven't got on it yet - it's up to 20million users now (in about 3 weeks - it took Facebook three years to do that) and I'd highly recommend that you become one of them: http://plus.google.com. Feel free to add http://gplus.to/golfyball to one of your circles.
Mrs G and I have had our Wedding anniversary as well - all good... Choclate and Iron. I didn't buy her an Iron as violence often hurts, and I would have been subjected to some if I had. Today however, will see us off to a food festival. and I'm starving just at the thought of it. http://www.gloucesterquaysfoodfestival.co.uk/
Toodle-pip old bean!
This post originally appeared here: Posterous
Tigger, I say Tigger, its making one hell of noise down there and the smell is dreadful. I say we cut off it's head and nail it to the wall.
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