The only way that this has any tie-in to Busse is that I recall a comment from Tom (Private Klink) comparing how much it cost for a meal at Fogos (people meet there at Blade) with going to the Olive Garden. I ate at Olive Garden for the first time yesterday, and the food was excellent. Olive Garden is a little higher priced than the restaurants I normally go to, but I wanted something a little different so decided to give them a try. They push overpriced wine pretty hard, which I passed on, but I ordered the Parmesan - Polenta Crusted Steak, with the Chicken & Gnocchi soup as my side. The Parmesan - Polenta Crusted Steak is a limited time item; I think they said it'll rotate off the menu in a couple weeks. It was was a very tasty, but it was the Chicken & Gnocchi that really impressed me -- is was the best soup I can remember ever eating. I might even just go for the Soup & Salad next time.

While I'm off topic anyway, other news is that I'm about to make the switch from a PC desktop to a Macbook Pro. I've been a server-site Java webapp programmer for several years, but my company has made a strategic decision to move from Java to Python (using the Django web framework).

A couple of the developers got new 64-bit Windows 7 computers recently, and have had horrible times with them; especially with file line-ending issues when checking projects in and out of our (Git) code repositories. Additionally, while some Python developers use Windows, most use Macs (or even Linux), so we've encountered problems installing Python libraries. Rather than continuing to go against the grain, my boss got approval to outfit the development staff with new 15-inch Macbook Pro laptops (i7 processor, 8-Gig of RAM, 500-Gig / 7200 RPM drives). Our programmers who support .NET apps can use VMware Fusion with performance comparable to working on a Windows box, but development new non-IIS projects should go much more smoothly. This'll be a huge transition for me because I've never owned a laptop or a Mac, although my boss said that it only took him a couple weeks to get comfortable with his Mac, and that since the underlying OS is BSD Linux, my exposure to supporting our UNIX Web servers will help.

oh man i think youre gonna love the mac. i went through 3 pc laptops before i decided to pull the trigger on my first macbook. it will take some time getting use to, but once youve got everything sorted out youre gonna love it. the apple site also has a bunch of tutorials and tips and tricks.

Good call on Olive Garden. The wife and I ate there when we were at the AG Russell how. I had the same except mine was chicken..................yummy!

So Jim,are you going to beat on the old PC with a bussekin?
Test out the Izzy or B11 maybe,just to get back on topic ya know. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Way to go Jim! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Olive Garden is great! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Congrats on the switch to Mac and the New Mac Book. I've been using Macs since the late 80's and never regretted it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

And you can still run windows if you need to just get Parallels or VMware.

Nah -- the one that's being replaced is a work computer, so it's not mine to destroy. I bought a new Dell Studio XPS 435MT for home earlier this year (i7-920 [quad core] @ 2.67Ghz, 64-bit Vista, 6 Gig of triple-channel memory) that I use for little but surfing the web. I also have a 640 Gig internal HD and one 2TB + a 1 TB HDs in a dual ESata dock -- I got a follow-up Windows 7 upgrade DVD in the deal, but haven't wanted to go through the transition. I've considered upgrading to 12 Gig of memory, but suspect I'd be wasting my money for what I use that computer for. As with the folks at work, I've also had issues with 64-bit Windows in a world where 32-bit software is still the norm -- I seem to have more memory leak issues than I did when running 32-bit Windows.

However, I still have my previous 4 computers (dating back to 5-1/4 inch floppies), but the hoarder in me doesn't want to throw them out. Each was a pretty good computer in its day, and they still worked when I upgraded -- they just became obsolete. I doubt that I'll ever power any of them up again -- I even have several boxed DOS games; it's kind of sad really.

I run 32 bit windows 7 on my laptop,it is much better then when I had vista on it.

Or why not just get a cheaper, more powerful, easier to upgrade PC and just run OSX on it. Since the switch to Intel chips I really don't see the point to the hardware side of Apple computing in any regard other than aesthetic (ooh, I need to inflate my own self worth by having half eaten fruit on my computer.) A coworker of mine was looking at the Apple mini's (little box you plug a monitor & keyboard into, whatever they're called) I went online and showed him he could build basically the same thing in his choice of colors (I am seriously surprised the NAACP has not got on them about making only white computers, with their long expired relevancy I'm amazed they hadn't gone after Apple years ago) with over a gig faster processor, double the memory, over 3x the HD space, a decent graphics card (and upgradable, seriously how often do graphics cards come out for Mac's?) and yet the Apple box still cost a bit over double the price of what I had spec'd out for him. Guess which route he took? He ended up going with a laptop, but went PC and multiboots OSX, Windows XP and Linux (an other than Apple GUI unix shell that you can legally get for free) don't ask me which flavors he runs though, I can't keep track of all the distros. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

its not about aesthetic looks or having to inflate my own self worth, my 3 previous pc's didnt work out for me so i tried out a mac and it has worked perfect for me for over 6 years without one crash. thats all there is to it. to me thats worth the extra cost of a mac and i would gladly pay that extra again in a heart beat.

if a pc is for you and they work for you, thats awesome. honestly if my pc's would have worked for me i would have never gone to mac.

Olive Garden is one of my favorites! The salad and breadsticks are GREAT! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Goodluck with your switchover! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />

Heading there tonight ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/thumbup.gif" alt="" />