Lighten up matey. Don't be so possessive of something that you got from the British. ;P BTW, I am fully aware of the differences between English in different countries. I agree that US English isn't "proper" English.. but what can you do - I spent a considerable amount of time writing research papers for conferences in the US, worked in Customs department in US territories (Palau and Guam).. so please allow a mistake (or two). Please. Especially in a global forum such as this.

Boohoohoo. We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color.

Yes, I am very lucky indeed that my work is limited to 8 hours a day, 5 days a week with little or no overtime. While I don't intend to give up my day job, I completely agree that developing Android/iOS and even Windows 8 metro apps would be a great learning experience. I am also pondering setting up a website soon. Thanks.

I fear I may have already reached that point - done nothing substantial over the past 3 years.

In addendum to my previous post, it is interesting how Microsoft is trialling the beta versions of their next set of exams: Clickety The deal is that you can take the beta exams for free (as opposed to paying for them when they finally come out). If you pass, you get the certification. I think I may have missed the boat..

I need some advice on what to pursue next.. a bit of a background first. I finished my Bachelor of Technology (IT) in 2003. Then started working as a .NET developer in a government agency in New Zealand. They were kind enough to fund me for Masters (MSc) as well, which I finished part-time in 2009. I worked there for 6 years, and now I work for a private software company in Australia (have been for 3 years). As far as study goes, I have had enough of theory (which was what my Masters was steeped in, being a research thesis). I would like to do something different, something more practical (and dare I say, useful). I am quite interested in psychology and would like to pursue a diploma at some point. It would be a refreshing change from math, and programming which I have been involved with for the best part of the last 15 years. Although a part of me thinks I would be better off sticking to career development and do (MCPD) or similar to get familiar with the latest .NET platforms. But it just seems to me that MS qualifications just keep changing so quickly (a lot of the old exams are about to "retire"). Even the title I get would be obsolete in a couple of years unless I give upgrade exams. Just seems to be too much hassle for little gain. Of course I could laze around and do nothing for a while :). But I would feel a bit stagnant. What do you think?

I like Java - maybe I am biased as it was one of my first languages (apart from C++) that I had learned. I used it a lot, both at university and professionally. This was before Microsoft.NET was around. Personally, I think it is a great language to get the basics right.

Thanks, I hope this is the case.. but no official news from HTC (apart from the fact that they removed Desire HD from the initial upgrade list) worries me (and thousands of other Desire HD users).

Yes, a couple of my friends with Desire HD did this - but one of them didn't have much success.. I guess I will have to go down this path eventually.

OK, I did weeks of research back in mid-2011 when I wanted to upgrade to a smart phone, and chose HTC Desire HD. I thought I knew what I was in for - a bad battery life, but the other features were well worth it. I used to get regular Android OS upgrades on it, then all of a sudden they stopped a few months ago. Looking into it, HTC have taken the Desire HD off their list of upgrades. I am one of thousands of customers who are quite disappointed with HTC's decision to block updates for what still is a top of the range phone in their line-up, and which was marketed extensively over here in Australia even earlier this year. It is especially worse for me as I also do a bit of Android development and was looking forward to the Android 4.0 platform. The emulators are just not upto the task yet. I guess I have learnt my lesson - to stay away from HTC. Have you been in a similar situation? Where you bought a leading edge product only to find that it dated even more quickly than than its (more inferior) competitors?

Terrence Dorsey wrote:

Too bad this is available for... almost nobody.

Yes, my HTC Desire HD is not going to be upgraded to Jelly Bean. :( http://blog.htc.com/2012/03/ics/#disqus_thread[^]

I have worked enough years as a software developer to know that what can go wrong usually does go wrong. This usually compels me to unit test each small component as I develop. Today, I felt a bit reckless and wrote a stored procedure, data class, other business logic and the UI without testing. Ran it, expecting to find logical errors, and voila! Everything runs as expected! I become highly suspicious - "This was not supposed to happen! How and why did it work? Surely there is still something not quite right." I think that was a bit too optimistic (and adventurous) for my comfort. Now I am back to tediously testing each small component..

A Pessimist

Telerik are pretty good too. Not super fast grids, but rich features with good out of the box AJAX support.

Now, some days I can type quickly without errors. Now I admit I don't touch type, but I am not slow either. But on other days, I type complete rubbish - "great" becomes "grtea", "profit" becomes "rpoift", and so on. Thankfully, the bad typing days are few and far between. And thank God for Intellisense. I was wondering, is it just me or do any of you have similar "bad typing days"?

I htae typos.

An End of Financial Year sale (gives me 40% off on the machine, not the monitors). But if have waited this long, maybe I can make it to the next big sale.. All up, the machine, 2 24 inch HD monitors, and few extra bells and whistles would set me back by about AUD 1700.

Thanks! I am tending towards saving up. In response to your questions:

Quote:

What of the other 20GB?

I believe its 4GB X 3 slots configuration, leaving only 1 (or 3?) slot(s) free. Good point. I would rather have 8GB X 2 slots, leaving an extra slot free for future upgrades.

Quote:

In addition to the 512GB SSD?

Yup, just confirmed there is also the 512GB SSD.

Quote:

Which you will promptly replace with a 2GB GeForce GDDR5 graphics card?

Not much of a gamer, so no.. as long it supports two monitors, I am ok.

Quote:

Per HDMI port, 2 per card, 2 cards in an SLI setup, for a total of 8 monitors?

Just a total of 2. :(

I am really tempted by one of the machines I see online: Intel Core 3rd Gen i7 Processor 3.4 GHz, 12 GB RAM, 1 TB SATA HDD, 1 GB AMD Radeon Graphics Card The OS is Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. A big plus is the fact that the graphics card supports dual monitors - I have gotten used to dual monitors at work, and would like the same at home. OTOH I can't justify spending money when I am still going by fine with my trusty old XP laptop (and the fact that we have just bought a new place, leaving us to lead frugal lives in the foreseeable future). Also, given the impending release of Windows 8, should I wait till it comes out and get my machine preloaded with windows 8 then? This way, all my drivers would be guaranteed to be windows 8 compatible. What do I do?

Confused.