Thoughts for: Sunday 1st June 2008

Exodus a :: [10:30:40]
As some people may be aware for a long time I have been having problems with my dear old laptop. Problems which basically made it a nightmare to use and seriously put me off doing anything other than what I absolutely had to on it. Which of course is very little. Especially after we downloaded the internet channel for our Wii which made most day to day internet use easier and more pleasurable on the Wii. Which is of course a shame for the poor old laptop. To be fair the thing is over five years old now and quite frankly has fared pretty damn well. The trouble is that it's an old model Toshiba Satellite, which are infamous for their cooling problems. The result of which is that it emits a high pitched whine and then does a hard shutdown. Not fun really. The only way to use it without this happening was to avoid doing anything processor intensive at all and to try and keep the machine as cold and well ventilated as possible. Not as easy as you would think as that paticular model only has a couple of fans and they are positioned in one of the most retarded locationss you can imagine. Added to this problem was of course the fact that the processor was struggling to do anything at a speed greater than a legless tortoise because of the cooling failure. Not fantastic.

Now though there has been a new beginning as Vicki's parents have kindly bought a new laptop for us. Partly because of our dire need and partly because of a promise of one many years ago which was until now not fulfilled. Thankyou Vicki's parents. You have improved our situation muchly. The new one is an Acer Aspire 7720. Which is hardly top of the line but it is a strong machine capable of doing everything we need it to do and it is a very far cry from my old Toshiba. This thing is literally covered with cooling vents underneath and to date runs in absolute silence and usually actually feels cold to the touch! I kid you not, no matter what I put this thing through I have not heard the fan once other than when I pressed my head against it to make sure it was working! An absolute bonus is that the machine has the relevant connectors I wanted for all of my external equipment and in abundance. Not to mention a number pad! Which is always a bonus. One of the things I always missed on my old laptop was a number pad and it feels very good to have one back at my fingertips. It's just a useful tool to have. Oddly though, I am so used to not having one that I am having to adjust my touch typing as it makes the shape and size of the keyboard somewhat different to what I am used too. This means I had the wrong key from time to time. Shouldn't take me long to get used to it. Vicki is pleased as well but most of the technical aspects of the computer are meaningless to her as long as she can browse the net, etc, she is happy.

So, now I have a new laptop that is a pleasure to use, I can see myself spending a lot more time on the internet and the computer in general. Which in effect means I will feel a lot more inspired. Which means I may finally get around to designing my new website. WOO. Don't die of shock please. It also means I can do some posting on here without waiting years for it to boot up and having to worry about it possibly shutting down half way through. Excellent.

I have a couple of other ongoing projects which were put on hold by the inadequacies of my old computer which I can now hopefully carry on with. Watch this space.

Oh and finally I must point out two things.
1. Mario Kart on the Wii is absolutely and utterly fucking awesome.
2. Windows Vista is a fucking pain in arse joke which is obviously designed with people in mind that need help finding the on switch. Very, very annoying.