So you have an icon on your desktop that can't be deleted. An example of this is the "My Bluetooth Places" which set up camp on my desktop of my netbook after using bluetooth to get some photos from my phone. I didn't want it there and it had no delete option when I right clicked it. Dragging it into the recyling bin yielded no results. Dragging it anywhere else just created deletable clones. The hive mother was still undeletable. What to do?
For Windows XP I did this.
Right click your desktop >> go to Properties >> select the desktop tab >> under the general tab click customize desktop >> under Desktop Cleanup click the Clean Desktop Now button >> click Next.
Now appears a list of desktop icons. Give a tick to all the ones you want to delete and then click Next and Finish.
Now all the icons you want to delete will be in a folder called unused desktop icons. Delete this folder from the desktop and any problem icons will be gone.
Showing posts with label computer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer. Show all posts
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Ebay Annoyances
I buy stuff on ebay occasionally. My annoyance is not with ebay itself but rather with people who I shall call micro-bidders. Micro-bidders are those people who make bids on items that are only a few dollars above the current winning bid. I have to admit that this is what I did when I first used ebay. Micro-bidding is time consuming and I believe it inflates the price of the item too high, mostly through petty bidding wars that develop from a win at any cost attitude. Great if you are selling, but annoying to other bidders.
Fortunately, as I'm sure most people realise, ebay will bid on your behalf. All you need to do is pick a price and as other bidders make bids under your maximum bid ebay will automatically bid for you. Once the maximum bidding goes above your maximum bid you are out of the race. If you wish to go on, enter a new bid, otherwise give up. Ebay has made the function available, use it.
To get the most out of this function you should do your homework first to see what similar items are going for and use that as your benchmark (indeed shop around elsewhere as sometimes the prices people pay on ebay are too high). When the item comes up again, bid early and make it your maximum bid. If I'm a bit desperate I will add a bit to my maximum bid, say 5 - 10%. If you get outbid so be it, but there is also the chance that you will win the item at a much lower price.
A trick I use to fool the micro-bidders is if they are really active for a particular item is to make a bid of an unusual amount. By unusual amount I mean instead of bidding a flat bid of $56, bid $56.37. I have won a few auctions by the skin of my teeth using this tactic. It is funny to look at the bidding history after the auction and seeing that the last bidder that tried to outbid you made a bid of $56, if they had gone $1 higher they would have won. The best bit is that you still get the item for a $56.
Moral of the story, micro bidding is annoying and can drive the bidding too high. Know your limit, stick too it, and bid smart.
Fortunately, as I'm sure most people realise, ebay will bid on your behalf. All you need to do is pick a price and as other bidders make bids under your maximum bid ebay will automatically bid for you. Once the maximum bidding goes above your maximum bid you are out of the race. If you wish to go on, enter a new bid, otherwise give up. Ebay has made the function available, use it.
To get the most out of this function you should do your homework first to see what similar items are going for and use that as your benchmark (indeed shop around elsewhere as sometimes the prices people pay on ebay are too high). When the item comes up again, bid early and make it your maximum bid. If I'm a bit desperate I will add a bit to my maximum bid, say 5 - 10%. If you get outbid so be it, but there is also the chance that you will win the item at a much lower price.
A trick I use to fool the micro-bidders is if they are really active for a particular item is to make a bid of an unusual amount. By unusual amount I mean instead of bidding a flat bid of $56, bid $56.37. I have won a few auctions by the skin of my teeth using this tactic. It is funny to look at the bidding history after the auction and seeing that the last bidder that tried to outbid you made a bid of $56, if they had gone $1 higher they would have won. The best bit is that you still get the item for a $56.
Moral of the story, micro bidding is annoying and can drive the bidding too high. Know your limit, stick too it, and bid smart.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Pixel Art
A Recipe
The perspective is completely out, the shadows are kind of weird, and all undercarriage detail is missing. For my first real attempt at creating pixel art, I'm quite happy. Supposedly you are meant to put everything in cartoon like black lines as well. It reminds me of the artwork in old DOS games.
There are no doors or windows on the side either, they are too hard to draw.
Oh and this is the rear of the train in case you didn't realise.
- Take one random photo.
- Open in image viewing/editing program, I used Irfanview.
- Crop the feature you want to' pixelise'.
- Reduce the colour depth to something manageable, say 16 colours.
- Reduce size of selection to something manageable, say 64 x 64 pixels.
- Copy into Paint (or other raster image editor).
- Remove dithering and smooth out areas using the basic set of colours.
- Add highlights and shadows (I actually did this as part of the above step, but not very well).
- Resize at will (do not re sample) making sure the aspect ratio preserved.
- Save as PNG. Or if you want an icon ICO (in Irfanview of similar).
The perspective is completely out, the shadows are kind of weird, and all undercarriage detail is missing. For my first real attempt at creating pixel art, I'm quite happy. Supposedly you are meant to put everything in cartoon like black lines as well. It reminds me of the artwork in old DOS games.
There are no doors or windows on the side either, they are too hard to draw.
Oh and this is the rear of the train in case you didn't realise.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Greener pastures
I know how boring, another computer post. I promise this is the last computer post I will make for a long time (unless something goes horribly wrong).
I have given up on the 8800 GT dream, I have since found out that there are ways to make it work, but I can't be bothered any more. So today I went and bought a cheap little 256 MB nvidia 8400 GS from ASUS for $52 (in case you were wondering that's a photo of it at the top of this post). Maybe I am easily pleased, but I'm impressed with it. I tried it out on MSTS, and I can now run it at full detail levels for the first time ever. I tried out Far Cry too, which runs pretty well at moderate resolution and detail. It certainly beats the integrated graphics I've been used to until now.
As you can see by the games I've tested so far I'm not much of a gamer, which is why I think this card will do fine. One other game I am interested in is the oddly named (yet totally obvious when you see it on the shelf in the shop) The Orange Box, which is really a compilation of games. I have heard good things about it, and know a few people who have it, so I want to play too. This card will run it fine.
I would never have thought such a cheap video card could perform so well if it weren't for the videos I found on You Tube. Most of the videos were of people playing games supposedly running on this card, I believed them, and I think it paid off. I have come to realise that You Tube could be a big help in purchasing decisions from now on. Of course some of the videos were a bit painful to sit through, but I usually go to another when boredom starts to kick in. I'm starting to really like You Tube actually
Monday, March 10, 2008
Roadblocked on the Boulevard of Crappy Motherboards and Incompatible Video Cards
So I fronted up to MSY on Friday after work and bought a generic (actually xpert vision) branded 512mb nvidia 8800gt for the low low price of $240. When I got home I realised that the 350 watt power supply in my computer wouldn't cut it. So on Saturday I went to CPL to pick up a nice new Coolermaster extreme 500 watt power supply.
When I got home I installed the power supply and tested it, everything worked fine. Then I installed the video card and changed the BIOS to use the PCIe slot instead of the onboard video card. When I powered it up I got nothing. I checked the BIOS settings and again nothing.
After checking the internet my worst fears were realised, my crappy motherboard does not support the latest video cards. The question is what to do now. Do I replace the motherboard or just buy a cheaper, older video card?
At this stage I am leaning towards the later, as I don't really feel like ripping the guts out of my computer. I would be willing to spend up to about $100 on a cheaper video card, something like a Radeon 2400 or 2600, I'm not sure about the nvidia 8600, or the 9600 in terms of compatibility I doubt it. Actually thinking about it, if I could sell the 8800 I could buy a new motherboard and cheaper video card with the proceeds and not be out of pocket at all (much).
Anyone want to buy a new in opened box xpert vision 8800GT 512 MB video card? $200 sounds pretty reasonable to me.
When I got home I installed the power supply and tested it, everything worked fine. Then I installed the video card and changed the BIOS to use the PCIe slot instead of the onboard video card. When I powered it up I got nothing. I checked the BIOS settings and again nothing.
After checking the internet my worst fears were realised, my crappy motherboard does not support the latest video cards. The question is what to do now. Do I replace the motherboard or just buy a cheaper, older video card?
At this stage I am leaning towards the later, as I don't really feel like ripping the guts out of my computer. I would be willing to spend up to about $100 on a cheaper video card, something like a Radeon 2400 or 2600, I'm not sure about the nvidia 8600, or the 9600 in terms of compatibility I doubt it. Actually thinking about it, if I could sell the 8800 I could buy a new motherboard and cheaper video card with the proceeds and not be out of pocket at all (much).
Anyone want to buy a new in opened box xpert vision 8800GT 512 MB video card? $200 sounds pretty reasonable to me.
Friday, February 29, 2008
The time is nigh
...for a new video card.
When I got my new computer I mentioned getting a video card to replace the not so good graphics it came with. Until today I thought I would get an Nvidia 8800GT when the prices get pretty reasonable.
Well, today I did my weekly check of prices at MSY (the website is really crap but this is the place to go to get computer hardware, plus it's around the corner from work) to find that you can get a generic branded 8800 card for about $260 and a Gigabyte branded one for $290, which to me is pretty reasonable. What I also discovered was that the new 9600GT has been introduced. Going by price (about $240) it would sits between the 8600 (which it is a direct replacement of) and the 8800. Reading a review it would seem to be right in the sweet spot for me. The 9600 is based on the 8800s technology, but has some features and processing power missing, but it's cheaper, and better than an 8600. Sounds good to me.
Whether I get one or not is another issue. Thinking about going on Monday after work if I can wait, otherwise it's off to a swapmeet this weekend.
When I got my new computer I mentioned getting a video card to replace the not so good graphics it came with. Until today I thought I would get an Nvidia 8800GT when the prices get pretty reasonable.
Well, today I did my weekly check of prices at MSY (the website is really crap but this is the place to go to get computer hardware, plus it's around the corner from work) to find that you can get a generic branded 8800 card for about $260 and a Gigabyte branded one for $290, which to me is pretty reasonable. What I also discovered was that the new 9600GT has been introduced. Going by price (about $240) it would sits between the 8600 (which it is a direct replacement of) and the 8800. Reading a review it would seem to be right in the sweet spot for me. The 9600 is based on the 8800s technology, but has some features and processing power missing, but it's cheaper, and better than an 8600. Sounds good to me.
Whether I get one or not is another issue. Thinking about going on Monday after work if I can wait, otherwise it's off to a swapmeet this weekend.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Update 2: Random day out
It was Saturday the 2nd February. I resolved to go to a computer swap meet at Bundoora RMIT just to have a look at prices and stuff like that. At 9:30 I left the house and walked down to the bus stop to get the 9:38 513 to Greensborough. From there I intended to get a 566 to Plenty Road in Mill Park. I had no idea of the timetable for this route, and was prepaired to wait. As it turned out a bus was due shortly before 10 AM so I had relatively short wait. After 10-15 minute bus ride I was at my destination.
Navigating the grounds of RMIT to the sports centre was no mean feat, but I eventually found my way. As with every other computer swap meet I've ever been to I came out more confused than I was when I went in. It took me a few minutes to get my thoughts in order I walked back across the grounds to Plenty Road and over to the University Hill development.
After walking around the small, but considerably well used shopping area (considering most of the development is still under construction or in planning stages) I made my way to the tram stop and caught a number 86 tram towards the city. I hadn't been on this tram for a while, so it was interesting seeing what had and hadn't changed along the way. The corner of High Street (route 29)and Clarendon Street in Thornbury is still more or less unchanged from 16 years ago, when my nana lived there (in Clarendon Street). I can see that Thornbury, like Northcote before it is undergoing a "trendification" as the later becomes more expensive. Halal butchers are still the norm in both suburbs though.
The tram passed through the uber-hip (anyone know how to type an umlaut?) Westgarth (aka vegan/organic central) and crossed the Merri Creek into Queens Parade through Clifton Hill and North Fitzroy before turning south into Smith Street Collingwood. Smith Street is still very much rough around the edges. It's an intriguing mixture actually, as you've junkies rubbing shoulders with bargain hunters at the factory outlets. It was interesting to note that there are two Kathmandu factory outlets in Smith Street. One at the northern end and one at the southern end.
Along Gertrude Street and into Nicholson Street. I got off the tram at the intersection at Albert/Lonsdale Streets near the northern entrance to Parliament station and walked along Lonsdale to QV. Oporto for lunch at QV, and an obligatory trip into Big W, where for some reason I tried on a couple of pairs of shoes, Dunlop Volleys no less and some sort of skate shoe that didn't come in my size.
I wandered on along Lonsdale Street, stopping in a hobby shop and JB HiFi. It was here that I decided to just have a look at the computer shops in the Lonsdale/Queen Street area. The story goes that this particular shop had a large order, but the client wasn't ready to take delivery of the assembled PC's. So rather than have them sitting around the office they would rather sell them at cost price (I didn't buy that one for a minute). Apparently what I got was an upgraded version of the standard model they advertise (sort of, they advertise in every Tuesdays MX too). OK sounds good. I haggled a bit, took a few options out of the package (no monitor, kb, mouse etc) and within 15 minutes of walking in, I was walking out the door a brand new computer. I spent about what I thought I would, and got around about what I wanted. I'm still not sure if I got a good deal though. Doesn't matter now anyway.
I had to carry the computer to Melbourne Central where I stopped in the food court for water and a sit down. This computer buying and carrying business was thirsty, tiring, and not to mention awkward work. Feeling revived I went down to the station and soon boarded a train home. Thankfully I arranged a ride for the 1.6km trip from the station home. I've carried mice, keyboards, routers and monitors (LCD) that distance, but I don't think I could have made it with an actual computer.
In sumary:
walk-bus-bus-walk-swap_meet-walk-tram-walk-eat-walk-
computer-walk-drink-walk-train-car
Navigating the grounds of RMIT to the sports centre was no mean feat, but I eventually found my way. As with every other computer swap meet I've ever been to I came out more confused than I was when I went in. It took me a few minutes to get my thoughts in order I walked back across the grounds to Plenty Road and over to the University Hill development.
After walking around the small, but considerably well used shopping area (considering most of the development is still under construction or in planning stages) I made my way to the tram stop and caught a number 86 tram towards the city. I hadn't been on this tram for a while, so it was interesting seeing what had and hadn't changed along the way. The corner of High Street (route 29)and Clarendon Street in Thornbury is still more or less unchanged from 16 years ago, when my nana lived there (in Clarendon Street). I can see that Thornbury, like Northcote before it is undergoing a "trendification" as the later becomes more expensive. Halal butchers are still the norm in both suburbs though.
The tram passed through the uber-hip (anyone know how to type an umlaut?) Westgarth (aka vegan/organic central) and crossed the Merri Creek into Queens Parade through Clifton Hill and North Fitzroy before turning south into Smith Street Collingwood. Smith Street is still very much rough around the edges. It's an intriguing mixture actually, as you've junkies rubbing shoulders with bargain hunters at the factory outlets. It was interesting to note that there are two Kathmandu factory outlets in Smith Street. One at the northern end and one at the southern end.
Along Gertrude Street and into Nicholson Street. I got off the tram at the intersection at Albert/Lonsdale Streets near the northern entrance to Parliament station and walked along Lonsdale to QV. Oporto for lunch at QV, and an obligatory trip into Big W, where for some reason I tried on a couple of pairs of shoes, Dunlop Volleys no less and some sort of skate shoe that didn't come in my size.
I wandered on along Lonsdale Street, stopping in a hobby shop and JB HiFi. It was here that I decided to just have a look at the computer shops in the Lonsdale/Queen Street area. The story goes that this particular shop had a large order, but the client wasn't ready to take delivery of the assembled PC's. So rather than have them sitting around the office they would rather sell them at cost price (I didn't buy that one for a minute). Apparently what I got was an upgraded version of the standard model they advertise (sort of, they advertise in every Tuesdays MX too). OK sounds good. I haggled a bit, took a few options out of the package (no monitor, kb, mouse etc) and within 15 minutes of walking in, I was walking out the door a brand new computer. I spent about what I thought I would, and got around about what I wanted. I'm still not sure if I got a good deal though. Doesn't matter now anyway.
I had to carry the computer to Melbourne Central where I stopped in the food court for water and a sit down. This computer buying and carrying business was thirsty, tiring, and not to mention awkward work. Feeling revived I went down to the station and soon boarded a train home. Thankfully I arranged a ride for the 1.6km trip from the station home. I've carried mice, keyboards, routers and monitors (LCD) that distance, but I don't think I could have made it with an actual computer.
In sumary:
walk-bus-bus-walk-swap_meet-walk-tram-walk-eat-walk-
computer-walk-drink-walk-train-car
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Update 3: New Computer
I don't care if I'm posting these updates out of order. This is the easiest one to do...
Last Saturday during my random day out (see Update 2), I happened apon a computer shop and bought a new computer, just like that. It's big and black and very noisy because of all the fans. In comparison my old computer was silent. It's not a top of the line gaming rig but it serves my purposes very well. Did I mention it is fast, I like it.
Oh yeah the specs well lets see
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 4500 2.2GHz
Motherboard: MSI P4M900M3. - That's a Via chipset not Intel or nVidia possibly the major weak spot in the system, but we'll see...
RAM: 2 GB of 667 DDR2 ram of some generic flavour.
HDD: 250 GB SATAII Maxtor.
Optical: LG DVD burner -Lifes Good!
Case: In Win EA002
Notice I didn't mention graphics? Being a cheap computer it's got an integrated chipset. Believe it or not it's an S3 chipset, which I thought went out in the stoneage, Pentium 1 with Windows 95 and all that. Thankfully (or not) Via has decided to re-release an all new graphics chipset under the brand Via Chrome. I plan to replace it believe me. A guy at work was trying to talk me into an NVidia 8800GT, but I'm not sure if the motherboard would take it. We'll see.
As far as operating systems go I opted for Windows XP home. It's OK I guess. My old PC had Windows 2000, which is basically XP without all the eye candy. It's pretty similar except everything got moved around and I'm still finding my way around. Now this may shock people, but after using Vista on my laptop, and then XP on this computer, I'm thoroughly convinced that Vista is actually an improvement. Sure things look nicer but I think it is a better operating system, or will be once all the bugs get ironed out. Hopefully Vista SP1 fixes them. I actually wish I had gone for Vista Home Premium, and I still might.
It took me a week to get all my music, files, email and photos transfered over as my old computer has an ancient very slow network card (complete with a co-axial BNC connector), but as of yesterday this is now my main computer.
Now all it needs is a name...
Last Saturday during my random day out (see Update 2), I happened apon a computer shop and bought a new computer, just like that. It's big and black and very noisy because of all the fans. In comparison my old computer was silent. It's not a top of the line gaming rig but it serves my purposes very well. Did I mention it is fast, I like it.
Oh yeah the specs well lets see
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 4500 2.2GHz
Motherboard: MSI P4M900M3. - That's a Via chipset not Intel or nVidia possibly the major weak spot in the system, but we'll see...
RAM: 2 GB of 667 DDR2 ram of some generic flavour.
HDD: 250 GB SATAII Maxtor.
Optical: LG DVD burner -Lifes Good!
Case: In Win EA002
Notice I didn't mention graphics? Being a cheap computer it's got an integrated chipset. Believe it or not it's an S3 chipset, which I thought went out in the stoneage, Pentium 1 with Windows 95 and all that. Thankfully (or not) Via has decided to re-release an all new graphics chipset under the brand Via Chrome. I plan to replace it believe me. A guy at work was trying to talk me into an NVidia 8800GT, but I'm not sure if the motherboard would take it. We'll see.
As far as operating systems go I opted for Windows XP home. It's OK I guess. My old PC had Windows 2000, which is basically XP without all the eye candy. It's pretty similar except everything got moved around and I'm still finding my way around. Now this may shock people, but after using Vista on my laptop, and then XP on this computer, I'm thoroughly convinced that Vista is actually an improvement. Sure things look nicer but I think it is a better operating system, or will be once all the bugs get ironed out. Hopefully Vista SP1 fixes them. I actually wish I had gone for Vista Home Premium, and I still might.
It took me a week to get all my music, files, email and photos transfered over as my old computer has an ancient very slow network card (complete with a co-axial BNC connector), but as of yesterday this is now my main computer.
Now all it needs is a name...
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Computer Updates
About a month ago I made a post about my laptop not receiving Windows updates. I haven't done anything about it since. Until today when I came up with an article that simply solved it. What was it? Turn off the windows firewall and then hit "look for udates".
So easy.
After the updates install and the computer restarts turn the firewall back on, and it should work from then on. So far so good.
Lesson learned.
So easy.
After the updates install and the computer restarts turn the firewall back on, and it should work from then on. So far so good.
Lesson learned.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
No updates for me
My laptop doesn't like updates, Windows Update has been broken for about 5 weeks and has been reporting an 8024402c error. I've Googled it but I just can't seem to find any fixes. Windows Defender can't even get updates because of the error. I don't know if to reload windows or what, at the moment I just don't care.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Classic Mac
So I found this article on a Mac emulator and followed the instructions and voilla. The above is the result. I ended up using a different ROM to the one suggested, which didn't work (use google to find a different ROM). You do need a 68K or PowerPC Mac to extract the Mac OS disk images too. Not sure why I needed to do this, probably just to see if I could.
I found the original link to this on portableapps.com when I was checking out what I could put on my new USB flash drive (a post about my old USB Flash drive). It's a SanDisk Cruzer micro (with skins!) 2GB, I would have looked harder for a 4GB drive, but I was in Officeworks and the price was right. Officeworks is one of my favourite stores, I could spend hours looking at all the stuff in there. It's a bit like the office version of Bunnings.
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Haven't got there yet...
So I made to the local angling shope to buy an angling licence, and then I made the mistake of going to the shopping centre. For some reason I made my way directly to K Mart to look at the finshing tackle, strange considering that I had just come from a shop full of the stuff. I did't buy anything.
While at the shopping centre I bought some lunch, then I went and bought a USB keyboard at dick smith (like this one) and a bag for my laptop at rebel sport (the black one on the left).
Now my laptop has a home, which is good, because until now it's been a vagrant with no fixed abode, moving from suface to surface, place to place, lap to lap, with no regard for it's wee being.
The keyboard is good too, I'm using it now. Now I'll be able to play Flight Simulator 2004 properly on my laptop!
Now I'm really going fishing, I swear. I'll just go throw some lures around in a local lake I know is stocked with trout.
While at the shopping centre I bought some lunch, then I went and bought a USB keyboard at dick smith (like this one) and a bag for my laptop at rebel sport (the black one on the left).
Now my laptop has a home, which is good, because until now it's been a vagrant with no fixed abode, moving from suface to surface, place to place, lap to lap, with no regard for it's wee being.
The keyboard is good too, I'm using it now. Now I'll be able to play Flight Simulator 2004 properly on my laptop!
Now I'm really going fishing, I swear. I'll just go throw some lures around in a local lake I know is stocked with trout.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
What do you do when explorer disappears?
First time I've had it happen in Vista, hope it doesn't happen too often (or ever again). When explorer.exe quit, the first thing I did was minimize all the windows and hit "print screen" because it looked so weird without any icons or task bar and start menu. The above image is the result.
To get the show back on the road I hit ctrl-alt-del and opened the task manager, then chose File>New Task and typed "explorer.exe" in the box. In a second everything was back to normal.
A lot of people probably already know this, but I reckon a lot of people would also reset when something like this happens. It's probably sensible to reset in order to get everything stable again. In my case I wanted to save the screen dump as an image in my favourite graphics program and blog about my experience. Then as soon as I post this I'm shutting down and going to bed.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Flying Toasters!
They're back! The classic screen saver from the early 90's, part of the After Dark series is back. Download from here for PC and Mac.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
False Alarm - disaster averted
My ADSL connection got approved today. I'm in a happier mood now. I like the idea of always on internet, even better is that the phone will no longer be tied up(I've already tested with my mobile to make sure) and certain siblings and in laws won't have cause to make me feel guilty for it.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Technical Dificulties
No broadband for me I'm afraid. While it is technically possible for me to have ADSL connected, it appears that ADSL is so popular in my area that there are no ports available at the telephone exchange, and apparently Telstra have no plans to install any more until 2011 or something. So after my old dial up account dried up I signed up to cheaper plan for the time being with Beagle Internet.
I'm not really sure what I'm going to do now. As far as I can tell I have two options ADSL 2 and cable, in both cases supplied by Optus. Although on consultation of the Optus website it would appear that only cable is available at my address. $49 a month for measly 2gb worth of downloads is a bit hard to swallow though, so for now I stay on dial up, and remain on the waiting list for ADSL as ports become available at the local exchange.
Third world telecommunications and monopoly at work...
I'm not really sure what I'm going to do now. As far as I can tell I have two options ADSL 2 and cable, in both cases supplied by Optus. Although on consultation of the Optus website it would appear that only cable is available at my address. $49 a month for measly 2gb worth of downloads is a bit hard to swallow though, so for now I stay on dial up, and remain on the waiting list for ADSL as ports become available at the local exchange.
Third world telecommunications and monopoly at work...
Saturday, July 28, 2007
>>The world of tommorrow>>
Four letters for you "A" "D" "S" "L". I finally made the move onto what is tentatively described as broadband. I signed up this morning, and will hopefully be permanently tethered to the net within 5 working days. For now I am sticking with my dial up ISP, and am on a pretty reasonable 20GB download plan. I can't see myself ever downloading 20 GB, but for only $5 extra over 1GB of downloads, it seemed like a good deal. Interestingly after signing up I found that my ISP has a usage meter that I've never seen before. On checking it, it says that I've downloaded 75mb in the last month. I can't see my internet habits changing that much, but I guess it is coming at me a lot faster so who knows?
The speed however is only 256/64 kbps, which is slow by todays standard but beats the pants off my nominally 56K dial up connection. It works out to be something like 40 times faster, assuming that I get the full 256kbps download speed. A friend up the road is on an over 1028kbps plan and only gets about 100, so I hope my phone line is a bit better.
My brother is unlucky as he lives too far from the exchange to get ADSL and ended up getting cable from Bigpond. Sure it's faster, but it's a lot more expensive. I suppose the sweetener to the deal was the bundling of phone and internet, so it's not too bad. It also helped that his house was already wired for cable.
As for a modem, I bought a Netcomm NB5Plus4W wireless modem/router last week. Wireless so I can use it with my laptop and desktop. I am not looking forward to setting it up. I've tried some networking before, and it confuses the crap out of me. Oh well, time will tell.
The speed however is only 256/64 kbps, which is slow by todays standard but beats the pants off my nominally 56K dial up connection. It works out to be something like 40 times faster, assuming that I get the full 256kbps download speed. A friend up the road is on an over 1028kbps plan and only gets about 100, so I hope my phone line is a bit better.
My brother is unlucky as he lives too far from the exchange to get ADSL and ended up getting cable from Bigpond. Sure it's faster, but it's a lot more expensive. I suppose the sweetener to the deal was the bundling of phone and internet, so it's not too bad. It also helped that his house was already wired for cable.
As for a modem, I bought a Netcomm NB5Plus4W wireless modem/router last week. Wireless so I can use it with my laptop and desktop. I am not looking forward to setting it up. I've tried some networking before, and it confuses the crap out of me. Oh well, time will tell.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
New Computers Part 2
Long story short, a few weeks ago I went out rather stupidly with the intention of buying a Laptop with specs rivaling my potential new desktop PC for about $1600. Due to events conspiring against me (in hind sight I think fate was on my side that day) I came home in possession of a "budget", yet fully capable of what I really want from a laptop, laptop. After finding out about the nuances of daily withdrawal/EFTPOS limits and the fact that no Bank branches in the city are open on a Saturday (they open on Saturdays in the suburbs!), and then having a good think over lunch, I went and purchased a Compaq C554Tu . The clinchers of the deal being that the memory was expandable to 2 GB, and the $100 cash back on the already ridiculously low price.
So for $700 (after Cash back) I got:
As with anything labeled as "budget" there are a few compromises. The largest being the amount of ram, 512mb is just barely enough to run Windows Vista. Other compromises are no DVD burner, my current desktop doesn't have one either, but at least I'll be able to read DVD rom disks now. From what I can tell the battery life is absolutly dismal , and as I've been using it plugged in mostly, so I wouldn't know how long it lasts, except that it went down to about 85% after what only seemed like 10 minutes when the power plug was accidentally pulled out. Other minor issues are the size and weight, but at least it's portable.
While being fairly basic it handles day to day tasks well (word, photo editing etc). Today I purchased an extra 1gb of ram (for much less than the $100 cash back), and it now goes like a champion. I'm pretty happy with my purchase, and certainly less out of pocket than more expensive models. Now all I need is a wireless router and we are in business for some lunge chair web browsing!
Some reviews of the C554Tu:
So for $700 (after Cash back) I got:
- 1.86ghz Celeron 440 (it's a Core Solo with a smaller Cache and something else turned off)
- 512mb ram
- 80gb HDD
- 15" screen
- DVD Rom/CD RW combo drive
- 802.11 b/g wireless
As with anything labeled as "budget" there are a few compromises. The largest being the amount of ram, 512mb is just barely enough to run Windows Vista. Other compromises are no DVD burner, my current desktop doesn't have one either, but at least I'll be able to read DVD rom disks now. From what I can tell the battery life is absolutly dismal , and as I've been using it plugged in mostly, so I wouldn't know how long it lasts, except that it went down to about 85% after what only seemed like 10 minutes when the power plug was accidentally pulled out. Other minor issues are the size and weight, but at least it's portable.
While being fairly basic it handles day to day tasks well (word, photo editing etc). Today I purchased an extra 1gb of ram (for much less than the $100 cash back), and it now goes like a champion. I'm pretty happy with my purchase, and certainly less out of pocket than more expensive models. Now all I need is a wireless router and we are in business for some lunge chair web browsing!
Some reviews of the C554Tu:
New Computers Part 1
I've been looking at getting a new computer for a few months now. A desktop that is, I pretty much know what I want, but it's the finer details that get me, once I get the specs sorted I'll go ahead and order it. I originally had ideas of buying all the parts and building it myself, but I think that I'm too impatient for that. The basic specs are:
- Dual Core processor
- At least 1gb of ram
- 256mb graphics card
- 160gb + Hard drive
- DVD burner
Saturday, May 26, 2007
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