Category Archives: computers

quite interesting

23 Saturday Jun 2012

Posted by in computers, gadgets, television

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OMG! I have just got hooked on a tv programme that’s been running for 8 years! If there is anyone other than me who has never seen QI, it’s a BBC quiz show hosted by the super fabby Stephen Fry (heh, he’s one of my followers on Twitter).

Apparently QI is a 26-year-long project with each series covering topics that begin with a different letter of the alphabet. So instead of “series 1” the first series is called “series A” and so forth. I wonder if they will keep going until the end of the alphabet.

The other day I was looking at getting a new Blu-Ray player to replace my 12-year-old DVD player. A slightly more expensive model had a WiFi option so I could watch YouTube stuff on the telly and I thought “pah! don’t need that!”. Now I’m not so sure, especially as QI and lots of other older programmes can be found on YouTube these days. Technology, eh?

computer clean up

14 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in computers, gadgets, photos

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Time to bite the bullet and spend most of the afternoon doing what I’ve been dreading… cleaning out my photo files. Yes, I know I could just delete entire files without looking at them since I have them backed-up on an external hard drive but I’m loathe to do this for two reasons: the hard drive back-up might fail, and I prefer having easy-access to all my photos by keeping them in the laptop files. But poor Shadow is clearly overburdened and has been slowing down a lot lately. Funny how I remember thinking how massive his 250GB memory was! These days the norm is 600GB.

Of course that is my other option – to upgrade my laptop. Which is probably what I should have done before splashing out on a new iPad, but that one has already sailed.

And so there will be several hours of mind-numbing tediousness ahead of me (after I get back from the gym). Here I go…

backing up

05 Saturday May 2012

Posted by in computers, gadgets

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How often do you back up your computer files? I’ve been doing  back-ups on this cute little external HD quite regularly, about once a month. Is that enough? And do you then erase what you’ve backed-up to HD in order to make more space on your computer? I’ve always been a bit nervous about doing that – just in case! – until now. Mostly because I’m really running out of space on the laptop.

Hmmm… maybe it’s time to buy a new laptop? People keep telling me I should get a Mac Pro but I’ve never had a Mac before. Would rather have another sexy Toshiba.

behind in my correspondence

28 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by in blogging, communication, computers, friends, websites, work

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The last couple of months or so I have been falling behind in my correspondence. And also my blog reading and interaction there. What can I say? I am online almost all day long, mostly flitting here and there getting work stuff done for clients, and also checking my own social media and websites and trying to keep them updated. So it takes a special effort sometimes to just sit down in front of the computer for some “me time”.

This is just to say to those I haven’t been in touch with enough lately that I’M SORRY and that – truly – you are on my mind, in my heart, and very much valued.  I just can’t seem to focus long enough to write down all the little conversations I’ve been having with you in my head.

I kind of miss just being able to faff about on the internet doing a whole lotta nuthin at times, but these days I am mostly working and trying to find more work (still not quite there in terms of making ends meet). But it’s good that I’m so busy, doing things I enjoy. I should maybe get a voice recording app for my iPhone to remember all the little things I think of telling this or that person when they come to mind, then write it out later. Because another reason for not writing back is that I often go blank not knowing where to begin. Gotta get more organised… or something! What do you suggest?

password problem

19 Tuesday Jul 2011

Posted by in computers, gaaaaa!!!, geekiness

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Oh noooo!

Two nights ago I was shutting down my laptop Shadow (a Toshiba Satellite L-300) and suddenly the screen went wonky and then a page like this showed up asking me for a password. Except I don’t use a password for Shadow. And then I remembered that the same thing happened to my friend Flor a couple of years ago with her almost new Toshiba. Apparently there is a company-set password that exists in each Toshiba computer and sometimes something sets it off – have never been sure what. Anyhow, Flor had to have her laptop memory replaced and lost all her data, photos, etc. because she hadn’t made a back up. Disaster.

I have no idea what happened the other night but it could be the very stupid shut-down process on Windows Vista. As you can see, there are various options given, the first three being “change user”, “close session” and “block”. Block?? Who the hell would want to block their own computer? In any case, ever since hearing about Flor’s problem I have been very careful when signing out, but I must have hit block instead of close session and then got the scary screen above asking me for my password.

I tried one of my usual passwords (even though I knew I hadn’t set one – panic!) and then remembered that when Flor tried doing this, after about three tries her computer shut down totally. Aack. So then I tried rebooting by holding down the off button and turning it back on again and … phew! It worked! But later when I tried shutting down by closing my session I got the scary password screen again. So I did the same re-start thing and haven’t dared turn my laptop off since. It has a sleep button, so I’ve been using that.

Luckily I had just reorganised all my photos and had done a back-up of all my important files on my external HD. But now what do I do?