telophase | Entries tagged with computer decisions

Rearranged my office a bit a week or two ago--moved a table that was against the wall partly out into the middle, and moved things around so the table is free for doing non-computer things at it--and have finally decided that yes, I hate my current computer setup, which is a desktop at a desk that's a hair too high so that I have to adjust my chair up so that my feet don't touch the floor, so I have to have a small footstool, and...and...and.... So it's time to do something about that, and I think my next computing rig will be a laptop with a dock that I can use to easily make it a desktop by plugging it into a monitor. (And perhaps use the laptop as a second monitor in those cases.)

( Read more... )

Via

paulafrom2son: in the category of AWESOMETASTIC,
an article on open-source education where, basically, school give away courses for free. And a huge list of open-source courses offered by MIT Both grad and undergrad. (

yhlee! There is much math!)

And, since Himself emailed me the specs for my computer* I shall post them below the cut, for a wee bit of drama.

* yes I am a dork and the specs pretty much read like gibberish to me. I think I was amusing him by wandering around Fry's** saying things like "Look! It has 'EXTREME' on the box! That's good! And 'GIGABIT'!" Well, either amusing or embarrassing.

** If you are unaware of Fry's, it is the geek Mecca. I mean, they have an ENTIRE AISLE for TELESCOPES.

( READ 'EM and WEEP )

New computer set up. Wonky hard drive replaced.

Naturally there's another problem that might mean I have to take the case back and exchange it for anohter one - namely, that if you manage to touch the front of the case and spark it with static while it's on, it restarts. Er. Not good. Him Wot Does Not Want To Be Called The Boy had to catch his flight home before we could thoroughly troubleshoot this, and Himself says that he's never run unto this before. He thinks that there's something inside the case not grounded, but has no idea what it might be. (The outlet it's plugged into is grounded - I checked that.) Anyone run across anything like this before? I'll be calling friends of mine wot do computer installation stuff for a living at some point soon, but I'm hoping we can figure out the problem and fix it without taking everything out and putting it all in a new case, because that would be a bit on the tedious side. :/

(OTOH, I'd much rather have one component go bad and the ability to go buy a new one and replace it, rather than having to send the whole thing back. XD)

Will give y'all the specs so that you can drool over it later, after the immediate problems are fixed. XD

Due to the UTTER TIME_SUCKING STUPIDITY of installing Civ IV last night, I have discovered that my audio and video cards* are not up to snuff. I can still play, but I have to turn the audio off to SAVE MY SANITY. At any rate, I think this means asking for $$ to either upgrade or get a new computer for Christmas.

Now I need to work out whether I want to upgrade, or get a new one. Upgrading: my computer's a frankenstein anyway and I can purchase and install various bits and pieces myself. Pro: cheapest option, plus I can keep using my current software and hardware. (the scanner MUST still be useful, and I am very leery of trying to use any other OS than the Win2K I've got right now.)

New one: I can get a laptop! I can actually take the thing to cons and not panic abut not getting enough prints! I can hook into wireless networks! I can set up my own and go sit on the couch to surf the Web! Cons: EXPENSIVE. I'd have to either make sure I got one that my ancient scanner** would work with, which I am not optimistic about, or I'd have to keep my old computer on a LAN and use it to scan.

Decisions, decisions...

* 5 years old. I'm not surprised they're getting obsolete, I'm just surprised they've lasted this long.

** This is an Epson 836XL. It is a large bed professional-level scanner. They do not make them of this quality for the consumer market anymore. No scanner I can pay less than $1500 for will make scans of the quality this one does. Buying a new one is Not An Option.

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