I know Windows Vista is older now and Windows 7 is supposed to fix problems that Vista had. But Vista has left a sour taste in my mouth I can't get rid of.
When Windows Vista came out I rushed off to the store on launch day to get myself a copy.

From memory it was about AU$320 for Ultimate.

I got home and installed it. There were a few problems at first, somethings didn't work but overall I was happy with the installation experience.

As I started using the system things started annoying me. A few days later the system died forcing me to re-install.
I re-installed, the same annoying problems came up and the system was just not performing like you would expect with a brand new top of the line custom built box.

After a few months I got sick of the problems and went with Ubuntu. Best thing I have ever done.

On my Ubuntu box I setup Windows Vista in a Virtual Machine and ran it in seamless mode. It worked well for what I needed it for.

A few days ago I needed Windows Vista again so I went with a Virtual Box install.

Windows installed fine, then complained that I had already activated so it wouldn't let me do it online.
I called the number provided, typed in all the numbers then it said I have activated my copy 3 times so I couldn't do it via the phone system. Hang on, what, wait? My full version $320 copy is only allowed to be activated 3 times?
I got transferred through to a person where she asked a few questions and confirmed my number. Then she gave me the confirmation code which activated it. So it wasn't too bad. But still annoying.

The system was up running for a few days when the system suddenly popped up saying it detected a hardware change and was deactivating itself. Wtf??

I hit activate again, it ran through and reactivated the copy.

With Microsoft software it just feels like you have to try so hard to prove who you are even though you have done the right thing. Even though I could go out, get a pirate copy and not have to suffere any of these activation or licensing issues. As a programmer though, I won't pirate software, so I am stuck suffering.

This brings me to Linux and Mac OS X which I have never had problems with activation

I did a mistake of installing Windows Vista to a 10gig partition under VirtualBox.

It was enough to install but it was constantly complaining about lack of space.

To overcome this problem I resized the VDI then set Windows to use all the space.

To do this you can follow this process

1. Make sure you are running the latest VirtualBox. I am not sure what version the functionality came in but I successfully used version 3.1
2. Create a new VDI file the size that you want the new drive using the VirtualBox tools
3. Navigate to the folder containing your VDI files. On Ubuntu this is usually

~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks

4. Run the following command  replacing the file names

VBoxManage clonehd --existing oldhd.vdi newhd.vdi

This command will take awhile to run.

5. Once it is finished update your Virtual Machine configuration to use the new VDI then start the Virtual Machine
6. In Windows click your start menu
6.1 Right click on "Computer"
6.2 Select "Manage"
6.3 Select "Disk Management"
6.4 Right click on your main drive it should be Disk 0 if you only have one VDI
6.5 Select "Extend Volume" 
6.6 Select "Next" and you are done!

My new setup is now stage one complete.

This setup consists of 
1 Ubuntu PC controlling the left and center screen
1 MacMini controlling the right screen
Synergy allowing for seamless PC and Keyboard usage between the Ubuntu and Mac box
Virtual Box running on the Ubuntu Box allowing full screen Windows running on the left screen when I need it.

The next step will be to get another monitor so I can have a Windows VM running full screen while still having two screens for Ubuntu apps.

The new screen also needs to be widescreen!

Thursday 4th March started early for my girlfriend and I. We had to be up at 5 am for an early flight. I have the problem when I know I have to be up early, that I constantly wake up every few hours thinking its time to be up. So I was incredibly tired.
We caught a cab at 5:30 am and arrived at the airport in time for our flight. The airport was a lot more busy than I had seen other times but luckily we only needed to do a bag drop rather than check in.
It was the 2nd VirginBlue flight of the morning ( 7:05am ) and it was already running late. It ended up only being 15mins late and they gave us free Foxtel during the flight for the inconvenience.
The cab ride from Melbourne Airport to Melbourne CBD was insanely expensive. I think the cab driver screwed me over.
The meter said $53.00. I went to pay for that, but then he said no its $63.00 including the toll road fees.
I said fair enough and handed him two $50 notes. He said he didn't have change. I said just round it to even notes then. He said that I had to pay by card. So I said fine. He swiped my card on one box, then put it down, then swiped my card on another box which seemed dodgie.
He handed the POS system to me where it was waiting for my pin. I put it in and asked for a receipt.
He was reluctant to give me a receipt but he finally gave me one. It said $73.00. I asked why its more he said for the tolls. So suddenly its gone up from $53 on the meter, to$63 with tolls, then to $73 with what ever else. I gave up arguing with him and got out as I had already been sitting there for about 10 minutes with hotel staff holding the door open for me.
Interestingly enough the cab ride back to the airport was only about $55 including tolls.

But anyway the hotel was insanely fancy. We stayed at the Hyatt Grand overlooking Federation Square.
We had access to the Grand Club Lounge. This was really nice with awesome views over the city.

I was in Melbourne to setup a ticketing system for an event on Friday night so I had Thurs and Friday morning to do touristy things.
My girlfriend had never been to Melbourne before so I tried to fit in as much as possible.

The first place I took her to was the Bourke Street Mall. Its a nice mall, but I feel that it does not have the same atmosphere as other open air malls around Australia, Rundle Mall in particular.
I think it could be because of the tram tracks in the middle, which in other malls would have stalls there instead. Also it seems to split the mall in two.
But, it gets the job done. Lots of up market shops.

On Thursday night we wanted to just get something cheap but good for tea like a Schnitzel. Another thing I find about Melbourne is that you have to know where anything is to find it. Adelaide has cafe's and clubs in plain view for everyone to see. Where as Melbourne they are all hidden down little side streets.
I went to find an ATM one day, I found an ANZ bank, walked around a narrow alley way for the ATM and found lots of cafes.
For tea we ended up going to a place recommended by the hotel staff, Mrs Parma's ( http://www.mrsparmas.com.au/ ). The meal was good and not bad for Melbourne prices. The number one thing I have to say though is finally a place that DOESN'T put the schnitzel on top of the chips!!
The schnitzel takes up the entire plate, then they bring out two separate bowls with chips and salad.
Restaurant owners, take notice!

We also visited Federation square and the Melbourne casino.

The best thing was the Eureka tower. Rialto observation deck is now closed, I hear they are turning it into a restaurant. But now I have seen both I think Eureka is better.
We went with a Day and Night pass. $4 extra to get two trips in one day.

There wasn't enough time to travel out anywhere to far so we kept within walking distance of the hotel for everything which kept us busy anyway.

Friday night my work project went well which helped me sleep a bit better

Saturday we had a lazy day around the hotel before we headed to the airport. It was nice, sunny, warm, bit humid, on the drive to the airport. We checked in at 2pm and got some food.
While we were eating the sky started getting dark. By the time we finished eating the rain had started and the airport had started leaking. One place was actually like a waterfall. I had never seen so much water running inside of a building.
We made our way to our gate waiting for our 4pm flight. As we were waiting airport sirens were sounding. An announcement said sirens mean that there is lightning within 8kms of the airport so all airport ground staff are required to stay indoors. This grounded all flights leaving.
About 30mins later flights started getting cancelled. Planes that were supposed to come into Melbourne were being diverted to Canberra and Sydney, which ment that those planes would not be available to take people from Melbourne to other destinations.
Then it was our call, flight was cancelled.
I let my boss know and he got onto the phone to Virgin. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to get us onto the last flight of the day, but there was still an 80% chance this flight would be cancelled also.
A guy I know just happened to be on the same flight as me, he called Virgin after, the earliest he could get was 4pm the next day.
7:55pm came and our flight was delayed but only by 5 minutes. We boarded and took off 15mins late.
Flight out from Melbourne was actually pretty smooth. I was expecting it to be crazy bumpy.
The guy that was on the same cancelled flight as me had a cousin that was on a flight that boarded just as the storm hit. They boarded, but were not able to take off for about 2 hours. There was a short break in the storm when two planes took off, his and another. Apparently it was the scariest thing he had ever done in his life. It was so bumpy, up and down all over the place. After hearing this I was expecting the worst. Lucky for me though it was fine

After we arrived we had to make it home to pick up tickets for a Fringe event, then to the fringe event. We arrived to the Fringe event 10minutes late. Couldn't have timed it better though, as the event started 10minutes late

We then got home at about 1:30am and crashed out.

It still makes me laugh!

This is one of my favorite documentaries.
It is on Peak Oil. Peak Oil does not mean there is no more oil. It just means we can't keep producing enough to keep up with demand. Its a simple concept to grasp, you can only keep increasing your production of something until you hit a peak. After that peak production will start to fall. Everyone agrees that Peak Oil does exist, no one can agree on if we have already hit the peak, if we will hit it in 5 years or if it will be 30 years.

This documentary may be a bit alarmist, but it shows how much we really do rely on cheap oil.