As a blatant Microsoft fan-boy, and for someone who gushed when he bought a new Zune, you'd have thought that I'd be perfectly happy in my cosy MP3 world.

Alas - I have a dirty confession to make...  See the new toy that arrived yesterday...

Yes - I can confirm that this is Apple's new iPod Classic 120GB, which was launched a few days ago.

So - why have I seemingly betrayed my poor Zune?  Well, it's thanks to Apple's ubiquity.  You see, my shiny new car has a media interface that allows MP3 players to be hooked up to the rather nice Bose surround sound system.  Any ordinary MP3 player (Zune included) can be plugged in via a 3.5mm mini-jack.  However, there is also an iPod interface, which then allows the iPod to be powered and controlled by the car.

Alas - the appeal of being able to access my entire music collection through the Audi MMI is too much to resist...  It is fairly convenient, after all, to be able to skip tracks and navigate music through the MMI controls, or the steering wheel controls.  Oh - and not have to worry about plugging it in and out all the time, or having to remember to charge the bugger...

And thus, I have bought an iPod for the car.  Let me make this very clear - it will stay in the car, hidden away in a small tray inside the glove compartment.  It will never see the light of day (unlike the Zune, which will still be my constant travel and gym companion).

I rue Apple's ubiquity, but I concede to it when necessary.  Ack - if only people were so accepting of Microsoft in the space where it is dominant...!  In short, I'm advocating less fan-boy-ism, and more pragmatism.  If a die-hard Microsoft proponent can make the leap to another (competitive) vendor when his needs dictate, then surely the anti-Microsoft brigade can be pragmatic enough to do likewise...?

(PS - If you want to see more photos of the iPod, plus more side-by-side comparisons with the 80GB Zune, then head here...)

Not, as you might have first thought, the sound that my mum makes when she's going down on me (that's another story for another day), but rather my impression of my new car's fairly voracious appetite...

OK - so I'm hardly in a position to complain given the type of car I've just bought, but I can feel my wallet flinch every time I commute to work, and the on-board computer is showing an average fuel consumption of 10.9mpg!

I've so far covered around 500 miles, and have needed to fill my 80 litre tank twice to be able to do this distance.  So, on average, each £85 full tank of petrol gets me about 250 miles.

But yes.  I'm frankly astounded (although well impressed) that such a car can be made in this day and age.  What a great two-fingers up to the hippy environmental types...!

Yet another indication that I'm a selfish bugger.  If I can't rule the world, well, I may as well try my best to destroy it... ;)

It's a pretty well-known universal law that people with small pee-pees buy fast cars, as some sort of surrogate pee-pee extension.

As South Park rightly points out, we oriental-types have "vewwy, vewwy small penises".  I'd have to concur, given the amount of fumbling I go through to get "Little Stan" out...

Thus, I obviously need to buy an extremely fast car to make up for my deficiency in, er, other areas.

So, after nearly a year of waiting (I pre-ordered the car last September), I have finally managed to get my grubby mitts on my new car!

Although I can't go mental in it just yet (running in the engine), I can already say with certainty that "it's fun"... :)

As if a 5-litre, twin-turbo engine capable of 572bhp with 650Nm, all of which propels the car from 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds, was going to be anything other than fun!

If you're interested in such car-related nonsense, photos of Old vs. New here...

As a quick FYI to all you budding SharePoint developers out there...

A lesser-known resource (or maybe I'm just the last to know!) is the SharePoint Developer Introduction for .NET Developers resource.

If you're interested, toddle along to http://www.microsoft.com/click/SharePointDeveloper/

I could be talking about my new car...  I could be talking about the end of my life...  Given that the new car has 580bhp on tap, it's likely to be describing both.

Yes - almost a whole year after I first pre-ordered it (way back on 12 Sep 2007!), I'm due to pick up my Audi RS 6 Avant tomorrow morning.

Having practiced for months, I am now proficient at delivering my chosen war-cry ("Get out of the way, peasant!").  Having said that, I'm a little disappointed that Road Tax hasn't been raised to £10,000 per year, as I'd had predicted (probably because I haven't been installed as Prime Minister yet - personal goals slipping as always)...

If I survive until Saturday, I may run riot with the digital camera, taking snaps that no-one will care about of my old Audi A3 Sportback and the Audi RS 6 Avant side-by-side...

It's been a while since I've last blogged (busy and all that usual excuse), but I thought I should make you aware of the investment opportunity of a lifetime!

After all, and I quote, "someone has to get rich from PIICRON's exponential growth and imminent market dominance".  I encourage you to be that someone!

So - what does your hard-earned investment money get you...?  Why, a stake in a company which will manufacture a console billed as "being capable to play all games released to all their competing consoles and every console predecessor".  Quite simply - PIICRON's machine will play just about every home video game...  Ever!

The console is scheduled to be released on Q2 09, so get your investment in now!  More details at: http://www.piicron.com

* Note: RandomStan cannot be held responsible in the event that fools are parted from their money...  RandomStan is not authorised by the Financial Services Authority.