Tag Archives: laptops

anchoa revived!

10 Monday Sep 2018

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In other home computer news… about two years after buying La Anchoa as a travel notebook option back in 2014 (instead of lugging my big 17″ guy around on trips) I began having problems with her screen. It starting flickering on one trip to Málaga, and in the end it got so bad I had to give up and just use my iphone. Then one day it went flickery-flickery-flickery and totally died. Damn. At the time I thought that it probably wouldn’t be worth taking her in to be fixed, but I also didn’t want to fork out for another small travel option. So oh well. It was adiós Anchoa and back to either taking massive laptop with me or working from the iPhone (NOT ideal) on trips.

Then the other day, while reading the specs on El Boquerón (shit, I’ve already named him!) I noticed that he has a touch screen, something I hadn’t noticed at the store. And then I thought… hey, Anchoa has a touch screen too. Hmmm, I wonder…

So after not having used her since 2016 I took my little Anchoa out of hibernation, revved her up, saw the old flickery-flickery thing start up… and then I TOUCHED THE SCREEN. And hey – problem solved! I mean, fucking DUH or what? Why hadn’t I thought of that before??

And the best thing? Picasa works just fine on her! I can upload my photos and they all show up, ready to be edited and sorted. Yay! There was a tense moment when suddenly Windows starting doing updates (well, it had been two years…) and I thought I might lose Picasa like I did on Sterling. But so far so good! Of course, editing photos is primarily why I want to have a nice big 17.3″ screen at home, so now having to do it on a tiny 11.6″ screen kind of defeats that purpose. But at least I can do it. So for now my little Anchoa is set up next to my desk, propped up on a stack of books, acting as my photo editing assistant.

Now I just have to decide if I’m keeping El Boquerón…

accidental upgrade

08 Saturday Sep 2018

Posted by in computers, devices, geekiness

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Oops, I did it again. Well sort of. Maybe. Before I went away to the Basque Country I was having some “issues” with Sterling, mostly to do with things bogging down and running slow, including frustrating totally unresponsive moments, requiring me to reboot, sometimes 2-3 times. So I started thinking about upgrading, then saw that Sterling is only 3 years old. I mean, shouldn’t these things last longer?? Mind you, The Greyhound was also 3 years old when I replaced him with Sterling. But Peter inherited The Greyhound, so that was okay, and he worked with him for another three years, glitches and all, until he died a sudden death in July, requiring the emergency purchase of Silver. But it also meant Peter lost everything, something that strikes a note of terror inside me, even though I do make backups frequently(ish).

This is all to say that, if Peter hadn’t already bought a new laptop, then at this point I would be happy to pass Sterling on to him, as he doesn’t spend as much time on his computer as I do. He also has much less content stored, etc. And then I would feel justified upgrading. But now I’m not sure what to do, especially as I actually purchased this new fabulous beast the other day as “insurance” while it was on sale at 15% off. It’s still in the box, so I can return it any time… but do I want to?

It’s weird because I have no qualms about updating my iPhones every three years or so. Then again I usually have someone who wants my old ones. But what to do with Sterling? I mean, he mostly works well. And perhaps if I stripped him back to factory settings, removing all my shit, he would be much friskier. Having said that, he has been behaving much better since I got home (figures).

How often do you upgrade your laptop?

Below you can see the specs …

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i5 vs i7

24 Thursday Sep 2015

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hp dilemma (1)

As some of you may recall, I’ve been going through a computer upgrade dilemma all summer, trying to decide whether to go with another 17″ laptop or an all-in-one 23″ desktop. That question has been decided – I’m definitely going with another laptop. But now another techy-geek dilemma has reared its baffling head… which processor should I get?

Behold two lovely laptops by HP. Both have 17.3″ screens, 12 GB Ram, 1 T memory as well as other similarities. The only difference is that the one above has the new Intel Core i7 processor and the one below has an i5. Oh, and the one above costs 300€ more.

My question is… is the i7 processor worth spending an extra 300€? I mean, I almost hope it is because the Envy above is way prettier than the Pavilion below, but I also don’t want to spend an extra 300€ just for a pretty exterior.

Help? If it matters, I do use my laptop every day for many hours, so speed is important. Also, I do a lot of photo editing and hope to be getting into video editing soon. The other thing is that if I don’t decide which one to purchase by Saturday then I’ll have to wait until another special offer comes along. Right now Fnac is offering a 20% discount.

hp dilemma (2)

backing up

05 Saturday May 2012

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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.