Blooming technical issues!

Over the last week or so, I have been having more than a few 'technical' issues with my laptop. It has been (for a little while) not good with SKYPE, and over the last week, really slow to start up. In fact, on Monday night when I finally decided to get off all my data, and do a clean install (thinking of W7), it took nearly 5 hours to transfer nearly 80GB. OK, I hear what you're saying, that's a lot of data... But it had a very slow bit rate as the processor was running at 100% on other things!!

After it was all done, I restarted the laptop (made a coffee, and watched the David Letterman Show as it was 11.45pm) and it was finally ready to start the reload of Vista. Following the instructions to use the recovery DVD, I got a message in big red letters ERROR! Can not read image on disc... ASUS, here we come! It is now back in at the tech desk, they know of the problem, and I should have it back as early as today!

BUT, in other bits around the house, some of the 'Hippies' L had planted have come into flower, the Dranuculus is about to flower again, and just for good measure, here is a pic of the pets... Do you think they are trying to tell me something (Jas looks comfy and resting after our trip to the vet, whilst Macc is excited; do you think he wants to come in?):

Comfy Kitty, originally uploaded by AussiePomm.

Jumping Macc, originally uploaded by AussiePomm.

Garden Flowers..., originally uploaded by AussiePomm.1. Passion, 2. Hippie1, 3. Hippie2, 4. Hippie3

------

Out with the old and in with the new...

Three and a half years ago, we purchased our FIRST laptop. It was a Samsung X20. We took it everywhere with us, New Zealand twice, Bali as well as to Brisbane, Melbourne etc... It was a sturdy little thing, but alas, it had been slowly failing... There was the odd 'crunch' under a couple of keys, a couple of start-up failures and program 'hiccups' but enough was enough when, looking at websites, the up and down arrows did not want to work, the mouse pad was becoming eratic and it was generally becoming slow!

So, on Sunday (before going to see Benjamin Button) we went and looked at a couple more laptops. Guess what, we found one that was fairly well spec'd up, in our price range AND looked pretty flash (L really liked it...)! But, you will have to wait until tomorrow (Wordless Wednesday & Thematic Photographic) to have a look!

With this, and a 'gift' from our phone prividor, we will have a very wireless home! I will be able to shift music from PC to xBox 360 and vic-versa, I already surf the net wirelessly and we are also able to get on the net, go to the TV guide and tell our TiVo to record a show if we are out!!! I do love technology!!!

------

We have a new PC!!

Well, after 8 glorious trying years, the old PC had finally given up the ghost! Over the years, I have replaced hard drives, video cards, RAM and even installed a Wireless Network Card not that long ago (6 mths) so as it can work with our new provider. BUT, alas, on Saturday afternoon, it finally 'spat the dummy' with it not wanting to boot up.

So, what were we to do? I went off to get another one of course, and even though it is an ALDI model (MEDION), I could not be happier!

The specs are as follows:

• Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
• Phenomenal performance - Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor Q6600
• Massive - 2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM
• NVIDIA® GEFORCE® 8600 GSgraphics with HDMI connection
• Huge 500 GB SATA hard disk
• High Speed Wireless LAN 802.11n Draft
• 8 Channel High Definition Audio
• Network controller Ethernet LAN
• Integrated USB memory card reader
• ...and much more

So, now with access renewed upstairs, I will need to put it onto the home network, and the I have more than enough storage and speed, for the photos etc, so normal blogging will resume shortly.

Here are a couple of pics of the old beast, cabling and of course, the new beast!


Old PC

Cabling

New PC