OK, so after some time in the workshop I have my computer back. It now doesn't take 20 minutes to start up when I turn it on and it has stopped crashing regularly. And I now suspect that I am receiving all my e-mails - before I have a strong suspicion that some e-mails just didn't reach me. I think the problem is that when you use your own computer regularly that you get used to it being there and you think it is there for all time. But this isn't true for me now. I find myself thinking that the life of this machine is finite and at some time I will have to replace at least the big box with the processor and all the hard drive. The thing that is worrying me is that I have so much stored on my machine that I just don't want to lose. On iTunes I have well over 6 GB of music and audiobooks, most purchased and downloaded over the web. I'd have real difficulty replacing that lot.
While the computer was away I spent a lot of time working in the garden, tidying up and hoping for rain. The UK is in a state of drought and the authorities expect it to last all year as the last two winters we haven't had enough rain to replenish the reserviors. As a result some areas of Southern England still have a hosepipe ban in place from last year (i.e. no use of hosepipes in gardens) and parts of Surry and Kent now have a water order, which means that they are banned from using water for non-essential uses, like washing cars or filling swimming pools. Everyone is hoping that no-one ends up with water rationed to the extent that water to houses is cut off and water has to be collected from stand-pipes in the streets. Fortunately we haven't a hosepipe ban yet where we live but looking to the rest of the year I am being careful with water now and only using a watering can on my pots and containers. We've had showers the last few days, and anticipated for the weekend also, which while not enough to have any significant effect on reservoirs has at least helped the gardens. Ours looks like a jungle, everything has grown so much.
The Husband is currently playing a new box set of all the Haydn string quartets which is certainly a change from the passion he has developed for minimalist music. For the past two weeks he has played nothing but Philip Glass, Arvo Part, Reich and John Adams. I must admit that I like this type of music also but am glad for a change after hearing it constantly for two weeks straight.
10 comments:
Hooray, Val, glad to see that you are back (and thanks for alerting me to the return comment on herbs!) When a machine get exasperatingly slow and cranky, it is easy to think of putting it out to pasture in favor of a new one. Are you shopping?
Cop Car
Well, not immediately but its problems reminded me that it is more than 3 years old now and my Stepson told me a while back that the average life span of a computer is 4 years. So eventually I will be looking for a new one. I would want, though, to have some means to transfer some of the data on this to the new machine, especially all of that stored on iTunes.
Your step-son would probably be on my case to shop for a new computer. Mine is at least four years old. I'm holding out until the new operating system comes out and has a chance to get de-bugged, a bit. This one takes a long time (5-6 minutes) to boot up; but, it is still doing a good job.
Cop Car
CopCar,
I had a wry smile at your comment that your current takes 5-6 minutes to boot up. Before I took it to the workshop it used to take a minimum of 20 minutes to get going. No more, thank goodness.
I was staggered when the Stepson told me that 4 years is a full life for computers. I suspect that technology will improve and increase the length of life odf computers. We really need something that will automatically delete unwanted files. Despite Internet Security programmes and firewalls it's surprising what gets stored on our p.c.c taking up room.
Err... what new operating system do you mean? Is something coming along to take the place of Windows XP?
Yes, Microsoft is tauting (and has been for a couple of years) the follow-on to Windows XP: Windows Vista--now in Beta 2 testing. (For a report on it, see http://www.pcmag.com/article2/ 0,1895,1965703,00.asp. You will need to remove the blank that I inserted between "article2/" and "0.1895" after copying the address into your web browser's address line. It was inserted so that the entire address would appear in the comment.)
Microsoft was supposed to have final release of Vista next December (or was it last December?), but they've had so many hiccups in its development that release has been delayed until at least next spring. As the article says, "It's been a long and arduous journey, but Microsoft continues to make progress in its plan to release Windows Vista. This week, at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle, Microsoft is unveiling Beta 2 of its next-generation operating system, marking a critical milestone on the release plan."
Cop Car
Well, yes, Microsoft is "touting". I need to read a comment before I hit "publish"! CC
Hmmm, any new Windows follow on to XP is intriguing but I well remember all the fuss and bother when XP first came out and all the "bugs" that needed to be sorted out. I think I would wait for at least a year before I'd risk buying Vista.
No, I hadn't heard about Vista but I assume that is because I no longer read all the computer journals as they got just too incomprehensible. I've come to the conclusion that computer techies are a distinct sub-culture of humanity. [grin]
Factoids from my life: 1) Intrigue with ENIAC (and with gyroscopes) led me into Physics as a chosen profession. 2) Dislike of actually working with computers drove me out of physics--into engineering (how stupid was that!!) When they were awarded their master's degrees in physics (in the early 1970s), one of my friends went to work selling main-frame computers, another went to work programming main-frame computers--neither idea of which appealed to me. 3) Twenty years ago, I was the "PC expert" in our family. 4) Now, Hunky Husband, Dudette, and Bogie have far surpassed my knowledge of PCs and their softwares. I don't know what that makes me--other than confused? CC
Hmmm, I think I know what you mean. Although never in the IT "business" I used toHave a pretty good idea about what was going on both in terms of hardward and software. Now I'm absolutely baffles by many of the terms used, especially for some of the new equipment available. For example this morning the Husband bought a micro system of CD and DAB radio and I was completely confused by some of the terms used to describe some of the things such systems could do. For example the blurb for one system (not the one he bought) said that it had CD, CDR-RW, MP3, WMA and Burr Brown DAC's, not to mention that "Inverted drive unit geometry places the woofer above the tweeter for optimum vertical dispersion and smooth phase and frequency response." : well I recognised some of that lot but certainly not all.
I think it's old age - when you gradually don't understand what the equipment you buy can do. ~grin~
It is system fatigue, with me, Val. I've become weary of figuring out system after system after system over the last 50-60 years. The first system is fun...the 3000th system, not so much. Like you, I don't understand anything about the reference to Burr Brown DACs.
I do take it that the sentence in parentheses is merely describing the placement (whether real or virtual) of the various frequency-range-response audio speakers. What a mouthful to say, though! They could just have said that the system sounds better for having the bass speaker above the high-frequency speaker, couldn't they? Cop Car
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