I did it. Earlier this year I caved and purchased a MacBook Pro 15″ Retina after being Mac-less for a few months despite some reservations about the lack of upgrade options.

Finally I had a lovely unibody machine. Now I needed something to prevent the beating my 17″ acquired over the years — something with a bit of padding to prevent the occasional bump as my backpacks tend to be very thin.

My eagerly-awaited Chromecast arrived a couple of weeks ago. Despite the reports that Google had run out of Netflix codes my 3-month streaming code arrived a few days before by email — a great deal given that it is also valid for current Netflix customers too.

The requirements for using a Chromecast are:

Given my new focus on Windows 8 apps and the loss of my MacBook Pro I was in the market for a Windows 8 laptop.

My requirements were that it had a touchscreen display with at least 1080p resolution, fast (i5 or better with an SSD) and very slim. You’d be surprised at how such simple requirements leave you with such a small selection right now.

As you may have guessed I enjoy books and movies very much and so when I hear that a book I loved is getting the film treatment I’m filled with excitement and apprehension as to whether it will live up to the imagery in my head.

Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series were both spot on, Paycheck was very much off the mark.

I just got back from an advanced screening of Hot Fuzz — the new cop buddy comedy from the same trio behind Shaun of the Dead and three-quarters of Spaced.

Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel — one of the Metropolitan Police’s finest. The problem is he’s so good he’s making the rest of the forceforce service look bad in comparison so he is quickly dispatched to the idyllic village of Sandford out in the countryside.

I’ve just finished reading Guy Kawasaki’s The Art of the Start and I must say I’m quite impressed.

For the last two years I’ve been working for at a start-up on an interesting product. We’ve got the core of our ‘magic sauce’ working just great but now I’m relying on business people to make it happen and I should probably have some idea of what that involves and how I can help.

For some time now I’ve been on the lookout to replace my aging Sony Ericsson P900 with something just as powerful but better equipped. With a keyboard high on my wish-list too the choice kept coming down to Danger’s Sidekick II, the Blackberry or the iMate K-Jam.

Reviews of the K-Jam suggested it was a little slow and the Sidekick II has been an age in coming. The Blackberry is a closed platform and looks like a cheap 90’s PDA.

In an attempt to quench my thirst for all things C# and having already torn through the great .NET Framework Design Guidelines and less-great Effective C# I grabbed a copy of Applying Domain-Driven Design and Patterns (With Examples in C# and .NET) by Jimmy Nilsson.

The book is obviously based around domain models but also gives some coverage to test-driven development, NHibernate, design patterns, refactoring, code-smells etc.

Having now spent the best part of a month beneath the shadow of Dell’s 24″ wide-screen LCD behemoth, the 2405FPW, I thought a mini-review might be in order.

Twenty four inches might not sound big for a monitor when compared a TV but bear in mind you’ll be sitting only a couple of feet away. It will take up most of your vision without moving your head. In fact RSI of the neck could become an issue here if you are not sitting far enough way to take it all in one go.

Okay so my current munchy reads Great ExpectationsGreat Expectations but those who’ve visited my Zen-like abode will have admired the un-Zen-like bedside tower of pulp that rivals the best Pisa has to offer in the way of leaning towers. For a few days Pip has been taking a back-seat to a tome of non-fiction…

One Hit WonderlandOne Hit Wonderland comes from the multi-talented and under-exposed British writer, musician and comedian Tony Hawks. When not appearing on TV and radio shows he takes to writing books that chronicle taking on unlikely bets in the hope of impressing a friend or, most lately, getting laid. This book, his latest, starts with such a bet made at a dinner party where Tony takes on the challenge of creating another musical hit…

I really like Hitchhikers Guide, a lot. I’ve read all five books and listened to the radio series on CD far too often. I then put them on my iPod and listen to them regularly. I’ve got the original TV series on DVD, it replaced my VHS copy…Recently things got moving again with a new radio series and the long-awaited movie…

The original radio series was published on CD imaginatively titled the Primary and Secondary phases. The radio series continues this tradition with installments packaged as the Tertiary, Quandary and Quintessential phases.

I’ve just been to see this little ditty at the local cinema (well, 20 seats in front of something a little bigger than a plasma screen that’s a story unto itself).

So, to the film… The visual style is very slick and Burton-esq, the cast are well chosen and the details fantastic (an old style car with remote central locking and a tape-reel audio system….) but ultimately let down a little by the script.