Updates, delays, and a new laptop!

Time is a precious commodity, and one which should be spent wisely - something I'm not very good at (I'm easily side tracked).

You'll no doubt have noticed that the hpHosts release is way over due, and this is true, but I've got a good excuse - really I have. Although a week over due, I'm hoping to get the next release out by Tuesday.

On a more positive note, I've made a few changes to the hpHosts website in an attempt to clean it up and speed it up a little. I'm not going to tell you what they are - I'll see if you notice ;o)

On yet another positive note, thanks to an extremely generous donation from an anonymous source, I was finally able to get myself a new laptop to replace the old and dying Toshiba Satellite Pro 4200. The laptop I went with, was a Toshiba Satellite L300-1DN, 3GB Ram, 250GB HDD etc etc, and Windows Vista Home Premium.

Let me just say though, after the last couple of days, whilst I love Toshiba's hardware - I detest their staff. I called them yet again today to ask them to send me the original Windows CD that goes with the licence for this laptop - they refused, telling me they weren't obligated to do so (claiming all they were obligated to do as far as the Microsoft OEM agreement goes, was to provide means to restore the system - which they did, via a program I had to use, to create my own restoration DVD's). Not satisfied with this, I informed them of the OEM agreement, and the fact it mentions the OEM must provide the original CD - something I had Microsoft themselves clarify when I called them earlier today.

Toshiba however, don't think this is true - they told me Microsoft was wrong (err guys - it's THEIR OS and THEIR agreement - I'm pretty sure they'll know it a bit better than you do). Needless to say, I'm apparently not getting the original CD that goes with this machine, so am slightly miffed (even more so given they charge for the restoration CD's that they used to give out (still got the one that goes with the old laptop)), and won't be getting anything else from them in the future, nor recommending anyone else do so. I can't actually seem to find the agreement I came across last time that referred to OEM's being required to give the CoA label itself, the documentation, and the original Windows CD itself, the information on the following page is the closest I could find;

http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentpage.aspx?PageID=552846

http://oem.microsoft.com/script/contentpage.aspx?pageid=552814

As far as the laptop itself is concerned, I've sorted out most of the issues that came up, such as problems with the development environment (wasn't Vista compatible, so had to be installed using a series of work-arounds), and removed all of the garbage that came with it (oh and Google - if you're going to force installation of stuff, at least provide a means of uninstalling it (specifically, the GoogleEULALauncher, that is NOT uninstalled when ditching Picasa and Google Desktop)), and am very happy with it so far :o)