I don’t usually do the whole list thing, hell for anybody that visits here regularly you’ll know I’m far from a prolific blogger… but this year I feel the need to put down the things I want to achieve in the coming year… something I can refer back to. So here’s my list… it’s not cast in stone and I’m sure I won’t get to everything but I’ll try!

In no particular order these are some of the things I want to focus on:

BuddyPress
I’d like to write some plugins and/or themes and really get back into the BuddyPress scene as well as emersing myself more fully in the WordPress community.

Develop and Release!
I’ve been sittting on a number of personal projects for far too long that I want to get off the ground this year so watch this space.

Blog
Yes, this blog! I plan to be a better blogger and blog more regularly. If I start to achieve some of the other things in this list at least I’ll have more to talk about!

Photography
I’ve had my Nikon D80 Digital SLR for nearly 3 years now and I’ve yet to spend any time experimenting and learning to really use it for anything but point-and-shoot style photography, mainly of my son which to be honest was a large part of the reason for puchasing the camera in the first place! This year I’d like to get back to my creative roots and really start to push the envelope a little.

Piano
I started learning Piano (for the third time) last year and while I’m still on the folksy beginners stuff I’d like to be able to play some “real” music before the end f this year… music like this.

So there it is… there are a few other things I’d like to do such as learning Italian but I think the list above will keep me more than busy enough, and there are some other upcoming developments that I think might consume rather a lot of my time… but more on that later

Having moved from a MAC around 10 years ago (yes I know… I moved too Windows) one of the few things I missed, actually probably one of the ONLY things I really missed, was the ability to create a new folder in the file system with a keyboard shortcut. It stuns me that until now this has not been a core feature of Windows. I’m sure it has previously been acheivable via macro editors and OS scripty magic, but seriously…. not a standard feature?!?!

So as you can imagine, I was so frikin’ happy when I stumbled upon CTRL+Shift “N” in Windows 7! I’ve been using the RC since it’s release, and the Beta prior to that and while I cannot speak highly enough of the OS generally this is, by far, the single best feature in my mind.

Another features in I’m loving is window snapping. The ability to snap windows to various parts of the screen, eg. left and right  halves for file copying. You can also cycle through all available positions via keyboard shortcuts (Windows key + arrow keys).

While some may consider Vista to have been an abject failure, Windows 7 is in my mind the polar opposite, a well thought out, fast, stable and get this “Mature” operating system…  arguably the most compelling upgrade in Windows almost 25 year history.

I meant to do this last year, and I know I’m a couple of days late this year but I finally managed to pink up for Breast Cancer Awareness month.

http://pinkforoctober.org/

A while back I posted about my long search for the perfect laptop. After a great deal of research and indecision I had settled on a Dell Vostro. Although it didn’t meet my criteria for a slim, sexy or super cool laptop it did meet my requirements on cost and features.

Well for various reasons I delayed the actual purchase until a couple of weeks ago by which time Dell had released the much slimer, sexier, dare I say “cooler” XPS M1530, the big brother to the M1330 that I had drooled over some months ago. So I’m pleased to say I am now the proud (ok, MAC fanboys, as proud as a PC owner can be!) owner of a top of the line Tuxedo Black XPS M1530.

It arrived a couple of weeks ago, the day I was scheduled to leave for a 10 day holiday in the South Island and having just returned I am yet to really get to put it through it’s paces, but it looks pretty nice. It weighs less than it’s Insperon and Vostro cousins and has a much nicer finish. The build quality is a little suspect in places, the camera bezel above the screen is fairly flimsy and looks like it is a prime candidate for breakage and I actually had to remove some screws and refit one of the bottom panels when I first unpacked it as they hadn’t been slotted in correctly. It performs pretty well and battery life seems good for both the 6 cell and 9 cell batteries. I’m still not convinced about the glossy screen but it seems that the non-glossy versions are getting fewer and further between.

I’ll post some more thoughts as I get the laptop setup and start using it but I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve seen so far. I wouldn’t call it “Legendary Design” but hey, it’s designed and it looks pretty good amongst it’s competition so I’m not complaining.

So all too quickly another year draws to a close, for me a busy year, a year of change.

The year started with a new job, then in February I was my friends best man and in March we moved into our new house. We spent a couple of months travelling in Thailand, the UK and Italy through June and July and have spent the remaining months working on our new home. I have a new niece (in NZ) and a new nephew (in the UK) and am soon be a father myself.

Work wise, I have been busy improving my CSS and JavaScript mojo and have spent a lot of time wrangling MOSS.

So here’s looking forward to 2008 and all the new challenges and discoveries it will no doubt throw my way. Hopefully I’ll be able to devote a little more time to maintaining this blog!