So, yeah I am back on Vista, propelled by the superior support for MPEG-2, which was so sorely missing in Mac OSX. It is a shame, a bleeding shame that such a superior OS should be so tatty in its support for MPEG-2 playback or editing. Well believe you me, I tried everything from the paid MPEG-2 plugin for Quicktime to iMovie ’06 HD and ’08, to Final Cut Pro/Express. Search for a solution online and you get Mac zealots almost scoffing people who have this problem. The “solutions” they offer range from –

Why did you buy a MPEG-2 Camcorder?

Convert your files to DV-AVI and then import it in iMovie

… usual fanboi cr*p (pardon my French).

So, propelled by the lack of support for my hardware, I have finally given up. I am finally back on Vista, for the time being… I hope that this shift shall be the final one. I don’t wish to go through the whole debacle over what OS to use as my primary. However since many programs that I regularly used on OSX, have equivalents (albeit not very visually appealing front-ends) in the Windows world, the move shall not be a difficult one to manage. One program that I felt would not be available and would cause me unlimited nights of anguish, due to its counterpart in Windows, is Panic’s Unison. It is by far the most intuitive News client I have seen for either platform. Nothing in Windows even comes close to the functionality it delivers. Or so I thought.

Enter Newsleecher. It is commercial software, that offers a fast, lightweight news browsing and download functionality. The interface is not very intuitive. However, it can handle newsgroups with million+ articles and attachments and download the same, very fast indeed. It has a plethora of in-built functions, like verification of downloaded RAR files, as well as, decompressing the same, deleting the downloaded RARs after they are processed. Very impressive indeed.

Having been the recipient of some distressing news, it has been rather difficult to carry on the last day or so. Never had imagined it would come to such a long wait, one that seems interminable at this juncture. Needless to say spirits are down, and it does feel as if one is going through the motions. But I do hope and do sincerely wish that other avenues shall open up, for which I promise my love, I shall try my level best.