Tag Archives: gadgets

my passport hd

26 Thursday Sep 2013

Posted by in computers, gadgets, retail therapy, work

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my passport hd

About a year and a half ago I bought a new Lacie external HD (that I named Scarlett), which I thought would be more than sufficient for my needs with 500 GBs. But no. Or at least, it’s fine for a couple of back-ups, but I realised I wanted/needed more space and have been waiting for FNAC to do one of their “member’s days” in which members like me get an extra discount. And today was the day! Don’t think I’ll name this guy… “Passport” is good enough. As it always goes with gadgets, this 1TB model cost 75€ while the 500 GB Lacie cost 100€ “back in the day”. I almost opted for the 2TB model but may start using more cloud options.

So on my way home from the hospital today, floating on the very happy news that I have another healthy six months ahead of me, I decided to stop in at FNAC to pick up this baby and also stock up on printer ink.

And now I am going to meet my friend Saray to partake of Croqueta Week at one of my favourite tapas bars, Becerrita. Well, why the hell not? There are seven special croquettes on offer: bulltail, jamón, chistorras (small chorizo), mussel, anenome, beef & gorgonzola, and anchovies & condensed milk… Me? I’m up for anything at this point. How’s your day going?

new printer! (again)

20 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in gadgets, geekiness, internet, retail therapy, work

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hp photosmart printer 5520
These home jet-ink printers are basically a joke, and the joke’s on us. You can buy a basic model for about 60€ with ink cartridges included (though they aren’t as full as the ones you buy off the rack) and then subsequent ink packages end up costing almost as much as buying a new printer. Whatever. Looking back I saw that the last printer I bought was almost exactly three years ago, and to be honest, it never worked well (though it worked better than the previous one I had).

This new HP model sounds fantastic. It’s WiFi accessable – no more pesky USB cords – and I can also send stuff to print via email from my iPhone. How cool is that? I also got a special offer at FNAC today with a special 20% off for members, and this particular HP printer also included a “gift pack” of 3 ink cartridges and some photo paper. And so I snapped it up, brought it home, set it up, and will now see how it performs.

Interesting when I read the post I linked to about the previous printer I bought. Back then, just three years ago when I was getting back to work after chemo, it was such a Big Deal to spend 65€ and I even mentioned borrowing from the tenant’s rent deposit to do so. Every penny I spent then was always balanced against this, that and the other. And although I’m hardly rolling in dough now I felt a sense of achievement to just be able to walk into FNAC today and pay cash for this new printer without batting an eye. Good to get a deal though. The ticket price was 99€, but with the 20% discount and the 30€ ink-pack gift it ended up half price.

What was the last great deal you got when buying something?

meet the greyhound

28 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in computers, gadgets, geekiness, retail therapy, work

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I had a feeling this was going to happen this week. On Monday after uploading more photos into Shadow I had less than 10 GBs of hard disk space left and thought that if FNAC put on one of their “Día de Socios” (members’ day) I would go and get a new laptop, as I would get 10% off. Two days later I got a text message from FNAC telling me about the next one and so on Thursday morning I showed up ready to get the steel-blue 15.6″ Toshiba I’d been looking at. And then I saw The Greyhound. It’s the same one that I mentioned here but as it was now in stock I could actually see what it looked like. And I have to say it looks pretty sleek and the cover is also quite attractive, like silver and grey tiny-square graph paper under glass. I think the salesclerk was a bit surprised when I asked him to confirm the specs for me and then said, “okay, I’ll take it”. The entire transaction took less than five minutes. But of course I’d done all my research previously.

I have to say I’m very pleased with the new beast, though it will still take me awhile to get him all set up (bookmarks are taking forever). It’s quite nice having a big screen (17.3″) again and, with all my photos and programmes installed, I still have 470 GBs of hard drive available. Yay! But it’ll take some time to get used to Windows 7. One very annoying thing about it is that it doesn’t come with Century Gothic installed, which is the font I use on all my websites, including this blog. It’s actually quite disturbing to think that everyone on a Mac or using Windows 7 doesn’t get to see my sites as I’ve set them up – in another font it just doesn’t look right and the spacing also goes wonky. So I immediately got online to download Century Gothic, somehow chose a dodgy site in my haste, and ended up with a malicious browser highjacker called Babylon, which was a bugger to get rid of. Thanks to Sledpress for the additional help with Firefox!

Also thanks to Sled for suggesting this name. I’d been going back and forth between a couple of possible computer names, but as this one is grey and sleek and fast “Greyhound” fits. It also fits because Pat used to foster rescued greyhounds, and was as gadget-crazy as I am, so this is yet another way of keeping her in my thoughts.

blu-ray

14 Saturday Jul 2012

Posted by in gadgets, rants, retail therapy, television

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After some surprising news from the gyno yesterday (I don’t have a cervix!) I felt so relieved to know that there was one less cancer-causing factor to worry about in my life that I decided to buy a blu-ray player. Yes, it makes sense.

Anyhow, was all excited about this new purchase (50 euros less than a slightly larger Sony model with WiFi I’d previously seen) until I got it home and discovered that it didn’t come with any connecting cords. WTF? I mean, bad enough there weren’t any cords in the box but why didn’t the salesclerk tell me this at the time so I could have picked one up while still at the store? And so, after a bit of delayed gratification while I went out to buy an HDMI cord I came home to set this baby up and… it doesn’t work!!!

I’ve tried everything but am pretty much stumped at the first step of any operation, which says “switch the input selector on your tv so that the signal from the player appears on your tv screen”. This doesn’t happen no matter what I switch. The only thing I’ve had appear on my tv screen is a notice saying there is no signal and that I should check my antenna. Huh? Maybe it’s the player? Or maybe I got a dud HDMI cord? Help?