So I have finally done it.
I bought a new laptop, so that the Missus can inherit my old one.
It is a rather nice machine – a Packard Bell EasyNote LJ71
I have spent the last twelve hours transferring gigabytes of data onto it from the old one. Not a joyful task.
It has one or two quirks that will take a little getting used to – a very flat keyboard, that actually feels like a keyboard and not a slab of rubber, a smaller screen (same width as my old one but widescreen, so shorter) and keys in places I don’t expect.
The one major difference though is that it runs Windows 7.
I have never seen Windows 7 in operation before. Of course I have heard a lot about it, but as I didn’t have it on any machine, I didn’t pay that much attention. Now I am learning the hard way.
First impressions? On the upside, it is extremely fast.
On the downside, I find it terribly fiddly finding my programmes. I confess I always set my Vista to ‘Classic view’ menus, but this little feature is no longer available.
I suppose it is something I’ll just have to get used to?
The wheel was perfectly round.
Why did they have to reinvent it?
Filed under: Tech stuff on July 25th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
I had an interesting problem on the spare laptop the other day.
There were two symptoms – the screen would go blank and the laptop would lock up, or else the Windows bar would develop streaks, as if it had been wiped with steel wool.
My first reaction was that the video drivers had become corrupted, so I replaced them. No luck. It was during that process (when I had to reboot a couple of times) that I noticed that the problem extended beyond Windows. On boot up, the laptops loading screen was badly streaked with horizontal thin red lines. As Windows hadn’t even started loading at this stage, it had to be something more radical. Either the screen was on the way out, or the BIOS had developed a fault.
I wouldn’t have minded the screen failing too much, as it would have been a fine excuse to buy an upgraded laptop, but I decided to tackle the BIOS first.
I don’t like updating the BIOS for the simple reason that it is the core of the machine. Screw that up, and the whole machine is screwed. Also there is no rolling back. However, I took the plunge, and found an updated BIOS file.
In fact, the whole process was quite uneventful. The new BIOS loaded, and since then the laptop has been running smoothly. No more lock-ups. No more streaks.
It just goes to show – weird problems can easily be fixed with a bit of courage.
Now I have to think up a new excuse to upgrade my laptop!
Filed under: Tech stuff on July 19th, 2010 | 4 Comments »
I have been running advertising on Head Rambles for the last three years.
Growth in ad sales was quite spectacular up to March of last year, but then the recession hit. Since then, revenue has plummeted month by month.
Sales for last month were up on the previous month (only by 1% but I’m not complaining), and forecasts for this month show another slight rise.
Are we finally out of the storm?
Monthly sales.
Filed under: General on July 1st, 2010 | 3 Comments »
