Tag Archives: computer

Computer Woes

January – February

Settle in and start dealing with a computer (XP-Pro P4 5 years old) that needed just a bit of tlc.
Long story short, my computer guy (who built this and past systems) essentially killed it.
Many trips to Eureka, many days trying to fix long distance. Was up and down for 4 weeks or more.
Finally I had a new build done by someone else (Vista 64 dual core2 yada yada yada) and I am still learning my way around that one.

The XP system is fixable and has life left in it, I just need to find the right person to tune it up.

Lois Lane..

I remember a line in one of the first Superman movies, where after Clark took away her memory, she comes into work and asks “What’s happening in the world?” There’s a feeling I get from that line, not that I am not aware of what’s happening in the world, but that my life has been so busy and full, that I sometimes wonder just where I am at.

That said, still trying to learn my way around my new computer system, see Zippadeedodah!. Going to load Mozilla this week end, need to hook up the new Canon i960 printer and the new Canon LiDE 80 scanner.
I haven’t even transferred the email or favorites as I want to wade through a lot of stuff and keep it off this machine.

We just got back from the bay (SF-VA) again seeing Russel’s doctor. He gave us a sort of diagnosis, it still is not a for sure.

“Eosinophilic bronchitis is a recently described syndrome. Subjects with eosinophilic bronchitis have cough with eosinophilic airway inflammation characteristic of that seen in asthma; however, these patients have normal lung function, negative methacholine challenges, and no evidence of variable airflow obstruction. The cough in this condition responds nicely to inhaled corticosteroids.”

We need to do more research on this, but at least at this point he feels a lot better and hasn’t taken pain killers for 3 weeks. The chest congestion is still there and the inhalers make his voice sound hoarse and weird.

The Garberville farmers market started today, to my surprise.. but i am glad. The Catching Cactus and Succulent folks were there once again with just wonderful displays. Next week I will take my camera and try to get better shots than i did last year.

We are working on the house, more painting, I will scan new colors when i get the new scanner hooked up. I hope to put the garden in next weekend. We are having some problems with all aspects of our water system which has Russel stressed, we will get it fixed, it’s all just part of homesteading.

ZIPPADEE-DO-DAH!!

IT’S HERE!

Processor: P4 3.2 GHz / FSB: 800MHz
Motherboard: Asus P4P800 SE
Memory: 2/ 512 DDR 400
Harddrive: WD 120 SATA Hard drive
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce FX5600xt 128mb -dv in
Sound card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2/zs-firewire
Speakers: Creative T2900 2.1 speakers
Case: Enlight Tower case w/350w ps, 2 USB2 ports on front/
4 USB2 on back
DVD: Sony 8x DVD/cd burner (with Nero software)
DVD: DVD rom drive
zip: 250 Zip drive
modem: 56k Modem V.92
keyboard: Microsoft Elite (old split style)
floppy: floppy drive
mouse: Optical
ethernet: yes on
operatingsys: XP-PRO
Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 191t 19″ LCD black-pivots

What can I say? This system so ROCKS!! I was living in the dark ages .. I have come into the light 🙂

Did I mention that it is fast? Even with dial up the internet is faster? Don’t know why really but it is, and multi-tasking… can burn and work and surf all at the same time.

Still lots to figure out and relearn and find, only made one coaster so far! My eyes don’t hurt and my usual afternoon head ache is gone!

One very happy geek wanna be here!

New Computer coming!

Well finally the build on my new computer is happening, we are scheduled to go pick it up on Tuesday. Actually, we are taking the CPU from this ‘W98 system up so they can transfer the 4.3 gig hard drive onto the the new 120 drive and then I will take my time transferring any data that isn’t already backed up off that machine.

I will finally have a cd burner, not to mention a dvd burner, so a lot of backing up will be happening for sure once it is all in place.

I will be off line for at least a couple of days if not longer.

Spring Cleaning

I mentioned here about getting a new computer. It has been ordered but not built yet. Which is a good thing in a way, see the small (tiny) town house we live in is filled to the max and one 15′ wall is an assortment of shelves with tapes,books,cds, misc junk, pictures, baskets etc… well the whole thing has to come down and be reformed to fit a small computer desk in the back corner so this old computer can go there for Russel to use, and I can use it for testing sites and such.

Any way almost some of every day in the last week has been spent unloading shelves and vacumning (ugh… places that haven’t seen the light of day in 8-10 years!). To do this also meant that the house on the land needed to have certain areas painted so that storage out there could start with a clean slate so to speak.

We ended up buying a 6′ x4′ chrome rack for some hallway storage at the land, after I spent hours looking for some kind of pre-fab pantry or closet unit I could use in this particular place. There is really nothing like what I wanted out there at a price I was will to spend.

Yesterday I finally started to put things back in place in town. I have several tubs full of stuff yet that was intended to come back in here, but I am having my doubts as too just what will fit and leave room for future storage needs..now that I am getting a cd burner… I will have lots more of those!!

Tomorrow we go to Eureka again, lots of little errands. The greenhouse is coming together, out garden beds have been built but not planted. We transplanted into a larger pot one of 6 peach trees, only 5 to go 🙂

I have a friend talking to me about the wonders of XanG0, as a cure all for most that ails ya. It’s expensive, but maybe worth it. I am still thinking about it.

On another note, the last round of Prednisone that Russel used, along with 3 different inhalers, seems to have knocked the severe pain out of his chest. He still feels a slight congestion feeling there, and the cough is getting better with the inhalers, so that is a good thing. He has been much more his good ole self the last week or so. It’s really nice to not have him in agony all the time.
But I feel it is just symptoms that have been repressed and we still know nothing about the cause or how to really cure it.

Watched a feel good movie and had a good laugh Something’s Gotta Give. Especially could relate to the glasses things.. I hate that I can’t see what I used to be able too!

Leo Laporte’s Gone

Leo’s Gone 🙁

I’ve been so busy, I was missing many of the Call for Help and Screensavers shows. When I tuned in finally last week, I noticed a lot of repeats, and NO Leo. Sad. LeoVille.com.
I wish the best for Leo.

I will still watch, while they are on, Call For Help and SS, I really do like Patrick Norton and Kevin Rose and the whole gang at both shows.

Tech-Tv being bought by Comcast just adds to the stress, that all we know and love about TT may be lost.

My cable system just picked up Tech-Tv last year. I learn a lot from the shows and will really miss Leo. Call For Help will never be the same level of fun.

I like Patrick with Leo, I do like Kevin, but have to say that half the time I barely understand what he is talking about 🙂

***********
Note: (2010)
Call For Help
Leo Laporte
The Screen Savers
and you can Google any of these guys and shows and find them still doing great techy stuff on the web.

Busy Planning New Computer!

I am really here !

I have been busy.
It’s no excuse for not blogging, but that’s the one I am using 🙂
After the Bruce Cockburn show, I was tied up in getting the report up for the
Cockburn Project, then I had more pictures to get to, then there was a let down of it all being over.

I had a ton of work to do and often was not any where near my computer. We also had over 2 weeks of sunny 80 degree weather in March, and that long streak just ended a few days ago when we got a good supply of rain…now it’s sunny and 80 and the wild flowers are peaking.

But the really big thing that happened in these silents days,
I was gifted enough money from my Dad to buy a new computer!
So I was no longer just wondering what would I get if I could,
but spending days comparing and figuring out what I wanted and could afford.

I am having a local Eureka business build it for me, they built our first (this one) over 5 years ago, and we trust and like them. Yes I will pay more than at Dell, or if I knew how to put one together myself, but customer support and supporting the local economy is a big deal to me.

I have spent hours reading and comparing between LCD and CRT monitors. I guess I will just have to make the jump and hope for the best. I am going for a 19″ LCD, (more specs later) this will be interesting getting used to for web design. Not to mention I will finally have XP Pro, (which I don’t really know if that’s a good thing?) I’ll be going from a W98 233 to P4 3.2 🙂
Lots of learning curves in here.

I will also finally have a cd burner, in the Sony DVD burner,
and all the learning how to’s that go along with that. So I expect that once the system is here, I will be spending lots of hours just finding my way around it. Too bad there is still no high speed here, unless you count satellite.

And because we live in a very small one room home while our house in the hills is being built, we have to take apart a wall of shelves (15′) worth, and reconfigure, so the old computer can go into that corner and Russel will have his own space.

This is a major undertaking as the house in the hills is not yet fully painted or ready to ‘store’ things in without having to move everything later. So I am busily trying to get certain spaces done out there to put up/ buy shelving for.

In case you wonder, Russel is about the same. He had 2 really bad feeling weeks, but the last 2 days he has felt somewhat better, not that ‘it’ is gone, just not dominating all. I spoke with his SF VA doctor over 2 weeks ago, who was supposed to send different meds (mostly allergy stuff and prednisone) again, and he was supposed to set up a pain clinic appointment, none of which has happened.
We are frustrated. We are getting a copy of his records from the VA, and I hope he decides to see some one else, who will be willing to look them over and not ask that ALL THOSE TESTS BE DONE AGAIN!

Not Good News

We have a ’90 Toyota extcab pickup.. it is our main vehicle. Russel needs it for work and we need it to drive out to our home in the hills. I have a ’71 VW bus that is still running but stays close to home (town house). The Toyota was showered with funds earlier this year..just to make it better, nothing was broke.

Now though, it has an oil leak, we thought rear-main seal…ouch $800..but NOOOOOOOOOO… it’s leaking in the head gaskets…. we’re ok as long as we keep the oil up, and it stays leaking where it is, down a gully in the engine wall and out the back, but to fix… a new rebuilt engine is $5 grand. 🙁

We are not happy.
We cannot buy a new car.
We will have to fix this one.

That’s my petty gripe for the month i think.

This means that I can put away plans for the new computer..
this one is a PII 233mz (slow) 4gig hd 314 ram. Old. Dinosaur. Not even a cd burner (I may have to change that though if no new system is in sight). I need storage for my digital photos.. I have a zip drive, but those little buggers are expensive too, and fill up fast as I only have 100mbs ones.

This means that the trip to visit 82 year old Dad in Michigan (i am in California) won’t be happening any time soon either.

Oh well, I know it could be much worse .. it’s only money and only a truck. But it does suck.

On My Beat

Living in the hills of southern Humboldt