You might have noticed a bit of a change to the look of the site. Hopefully it's a change for the better. There's more to come, but we figured that we might as well make a start.

It's made for a bit of reshuffling in how pages are organised, but overall there's very little change to functionality - more than anything this change has to do with looks. Improvements to functionality will come too, but all good things take time.

So what do you think? Do you like the changes? I'd be interested to hear from you!

I took a moment to play with Beta 2 of Exchange Server 2007 recently; it's been out a while, but there's been so much going on that I haven't had a chance. In a word - awesome! I'm really enthusiastic about the improvements and new features - Unified Messaging should make a huge impact on many organisations ... voice access to mailboxes, and especially the voice recognition, is really a great inclusion. Voicemail and fax integration are also great and could really change organisations in a way that I think Live Communications Server also has potential to achieve.

There's a lot of good to be said about it, and I couldn't pretend to have familiarised myself with everything - I haven't even reached the stage of building an XP or Vista VM with Office 2007 to look at the client end. But there are a couple of concerns for me.

The first is that they have dropped support for the Active Directory Users & Computers add-in. There are stated ...

I just found out yesterday that the Sci-Fi Channel is coming to Australia. It's possibly the only thing which can push me over the line to getting Pay-TV. That and the fact that free-to-air is getting so bad.

So can anyone guess what I'm looking forward to?

That's right, the possibility that new Battlestar Galactica episodes might air a lot quicker here than they have to date, and that the show won't get mucked around in the way that Channel 10 has done - especially Ten's latest trick of dumping BSG Season 2 to a very late night time slot with little to no fanfare (thank goodness the Season 2 DVD's were out relatively soon afterwards).

Anyway - I'm happy about the news, and it's quite likely I'll take the lowest package available on Foxtel or Austar, and then add whatever package is necessary to get Sci-Fi. There are other channels that come in the minimum package that I'd be happy to have too, but non ...

I've changed jobs after about 2 1/2 years. This is a significant shift back toward the old consultancy days, but I bring to it a very different attitude from before ... essentially that I've now seen both sides of the fence and therefore can emphathise more with the customer than previously possible.

It's interesting, and I'm still settling in, but the website might actually get some more time from me now - I've even managed to do some much needed software updates, with more to come.

As always, the mods and admins have been doing an awesome job regardless.

Anyway, apart from that, I'd like to highly recommend the Dell Latitude D420 which is my current notebook. I'm running a Centrino Duo model and it absolutely rocks. Except for the inbuilt Intel 3945ABG 802.11a/b/g card which is complete and utter crap - at least in terms of compatibility for the wireless router I currently use (and I believe some others). Luckily I have my trusty old Netge ...

Yes, I'm still doing the blog! I've been very busy (when aren't I) on a very critical project which has kept me very occupied. I'm also making an effort to spend more time with the wife and kids, but it's primarily work that's kept/keeping me away.

It really doesn't help that FredS gave me his copy of Elder Scrolls 4 : Oblivion for the XBox 360! On top of everything else, I've become addicted to that - admittedly I'm only succeeding in playing one or two hours late at night as a rule, but Fred: not helping mate!!! :-)

The project - well, I can't talk about what it is, but I've been working on the design for 2 years, and it's fairly nerve-wracking to see it all now taking shape (especially with various vendor delays and errors). It's an expensive project by our standards but will really benefit my work place in future.

Other things ... well, the site seems to be settling down with the new software. There are bugs, and I'm still trying to iron ...

It's nice in theory to divert your desk phone to your mobile, and most of the time it's convenient. However it becomes inconvenient, even troublesome, when you want to screen your calls against some vendor/telemarketer who keeps hassling you; the number doesn't get passed on to your mobile so you can't tell if it's someone you want to talk to or not.

Very annoying. So far the best option I have is to just ignore it and wait to see if they leave a message. Not particularly reliable.

What I need is a big red button to detect nuisance callers and obliterate them. Time for a Google search!

Well, I did wind up setting up and playing with the XBox 360 last night, since I had a bout of insomnia in the end.

All in all, very happy. Glad I bought the wireless adapter although I may have to look into replacing my beloved Netgear FWAG114 802.11a/b/g router. It's pretty old now - has served its purpose VERY well - and is not fully compatible with XBox Live. Not so worried by this since prices for XBox Live compatibles seem to be reasonably low.

Anyhow, I'm about to head home and try to get some time in with either Project Gotham 3 (fun game) or Perfect Dark Zero. I wanted Dead or Alive 4, but looks like I have to wait for now.

Any other game suggestions out there?

Well, strolled into The Gamesmen at just before midnight and picked up my XBox 360. Only a few people instore, so it was a nice smooth transaction.

But before I left the city at around 11:00pm, it was absolutely pouring down. So I wonder how the big launch in Pitt St Mall went. Did anyone go? Did anyone get drenched?

Of course, with any luck someone had the foresight to look at the weather and change plans - or already had a plan B. It's embarrassing to watch when that doesn't happen.

Anyway, for those of you who were crazy enough to do the midnight launch wherever you are - enjoy, you'll probably be playing it long before I do. I still have to work today, and I will therefore put off my XBox 360 setup to tonight. At least I found someone to take my old XBox, and they'll probably get it later today :-)

Yup - off to Gamesmen in Penrith tonight, just in case no-one else turns up so the guys won't be lonely, and getting my XBox 360.

O'course it's been a long day so I doubt I'll play it until the next day sometime - but I will still be going to work tomorrow (should be quiet if some of those media reports are to be believed?!?!?!)