New Toy

My new toy arrived - a netbook.

Needless to say, I've been fooling around with it.

The keyboard is small but workable - the larger keyboard won't plug in, so I'm keeping it with the now offline laptop. It doesn't have a dvd player, but it does have a card reader. I treated myself to one long Star Wars marathon... yes, okay and played some of the pre-loaded games.

It also has three times the hard drive space for all those nifty programs I like to use and for photographs.

I will use the netbook for surfin' and keep the laptop as a stand-alone computer for writing; that way, I shall have to change computers to use the internet. Inconvenient, but it will make me think before surfing willy-nilly.

For now, I need to get back to the Nano stuff... or maybe do some more exploring.

When old tech dies

The mouse, she is dead.

No, I didn't kill it, the poor thing was poisoned - by leaking battery acid. It's my second mouse in a year. The first has a partial failure; the cursor doesn't always highlight a complete sentence - which is annoying as hell when I'm trying to move text. So I bought a new one. It has a smaller USB... thingy and the cursor scooted around the page like a puppy on sugar. Marvy! But why do I have a separate mouse at all when laptops come with built-in ones?

Let me take you back in time, time, time...

I learned to type on a manual typewriter. A Remington. At business college. If we achieved our speed goals, we were rewarded with time on an electric typewriter, with a daisy wheel. Oh, how my fingers flew across the keys! But time was limited. In those days, no one had heard of RSI, or carpal tunnel syndrome. Why? Because manual typing teaches proper finger, hand and arm position. You have to lift your hands and arms for the correct pressure on the keys. None of this touch-typing which later caused so many problems.

Anyway, when computers came in I had to have one, clunky keyboard and all. Then the mouse appeared. Frabjus Day! No more memorising the F keys! Then laptops arrived, smaller, more compact, but I liked the full-size keyboard, so like a typewriter.

When my Pentium kicked the bucket - salt corrosion did for the motherboard (coastal living is dangerous, don't you know, to things electronic) - I decided on a laptop rather than a new desktop machine. I took the laptop overseas, something I obviously couldn't do with a desktop. While it was great, I found the keyboard annoying with it's lack of keys I like to use and the in-built mouse which I found awkward.

I have a full sized keyboard plugged in to the laptop so I can type as fast as I like without having to search for the right key (typwriter trained, remember?) and I have a mouse plugged in because I like the way it feels in the my hand and I'm not cramped up trying to use a small square and accompanying buttons. I can't use it one-handed like I can with a separate mouse.

Making computers smaller isn't necessarily a good thing, but I have to move on or risk moving to Ludditeville.

All things must come to an end. The laptop's system won't take updates anymore, it's becoming as slow as molasses and the memory is 1.5 gig with an 80 gig hard drive that's near full; with what I have no clue, nor will I buy one - a clue that is. Keeping up with modern technology is fast becoming a chore and a necessity. I refuse to buy an I-pad, it doesn't feel right and typing is, well, slow.

Instead, next week the new netbook arrives. It's smaller than the laptop and nearly half the width of my keyboard, but I'm plugging it in. All I need now is a you-beaut, new-fangled mouse to go with it.

But first, I'll remove the bodies of the other two; reverantly bury them and say a few words over their mortal remains - or simply toss them. This current mouse - the first one with the vanishing, temperamental cursor problem - is pissing me off.

I think I'll have just enough time to play with the new tech before Nano.

Just another scam, ma'am

Cool! The laptop has booted perfectly for two days in a row!

Still, I got another phone call from a company claiming to be an outsourced computer maintenance group while wrestling with the problem. I think that's four this year.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm not turning on my computer, logging on to the internet and giving remote access to a complete stranger with an accent I can barely understand. Especially when the name of the company calling is garbled, with only the word 'Microsoft' clear. I have defeated the virus causing problems, reset all my security - which is now legion, cleared out junk files, defragmented the drive, backed up and sorted out the Black Screen of Death from a software download. I don't need some putz to then tell me I have the same problem as three months ago.

I don't know which is worse: Nigerians telling me they'll give me a percentage of a deceased estate - if only I would help them get the money out of the country; French/Canadian/Cameroonian e-mails telling me I've won the lottery in Spain, Holland or the UK, or sub-continentals with poor English skills wanting access to my very English laptop.

The tragedy is that many people will believe the scams, will send money to help out a Nigerian, will send their bank account details on the promise of wealth, and who will give these people access to their computers and find their identity or banking details stolen.

The solutions are to delete the e-mails and tell the callers you're a computer technician or there's one in the house and you'll just go get them. No one should be asking for remote access to your personal computer unless you absolutely trust them.

I'm sure this won't be the last time they call, but the next time, it will be.

Damn you, Murphy!

Still having problems with the computer.

The last thing I want to do is buy a new one, even as I know this laptop is considered ancient at five years old. (But the rapid turnover of technology is an argument for another day.)

Fortunately, I haven't lost anything. Everything has been backed up, a lot.

The Forward Motion story-a-day is coming up from 1 May and my schedule is tight enough. Still, Murphy's Law dictates that any annoyance you have, will worsen the closer to a deadline you are.

And it does no good to try to outsmart Murphy, he'll only sneak up behind you.

So. Time to reboot and hope the fixes have... ah, fixed the problem, or try fix number four...

BSD, or, WTF happened to the laptop???

I have been suffering from the dreaded Black Screen of Death.

It is definitely one of those things that sends a chill of fear down the spine. The white cursor arrow adrift in a sea of dark grey, like a lost glow in the never-ending night. Fear for all the work I've done this week. Gah!

I did a back up two days before the gloom arrived, and had an automatic download the morning of the big black - and that's what caused it. The f*&£$9 download.

The worst of it is wondering if you'll ever get Vista back, the thinking of the work lost, the inability to go online... and spending hours patiently watching the computer operating system search for the key to unlocking the madness.

Okay. I didn't watch, just set the system running and went off to visit with family - but it did take hours.

Finally, after, hmm, six hours or so? I came back and there was Vista, sitting innocently on the screen as if it hadn't caused me twenty-four hours of angst. The first thing I did was back up everything again, then run Spybot S&D as an administrator, then the anti-virus software and finally, searched on-line for a solution should it happen again.

All I can hope is, when I shut down, everything will boot cleanly tomorrow. At least all my important files are copied to an elsewhere should the worst happen.

Techno-panic

We live in such a modern age. *shakes head* I do actually recall the days before facebook, myspace and twitter; before the shining days of mobile phones, i-pods and mp3 players - I still have (somewhere) my first Sony Walkman. I even learned to type on a gasp manual typewriter.

I've had an e-mail account for ten or more years, so you can imagine my panic when I couldn't access the account. Through some weird, cosmic time-gap, I managed to get in and check the mail, then signed out - as you do - and now, nothing. It asks me to register the ID name since it's available!! Nooooo!!!

I've requested assistance in this matter and I'm hoping it isn't a virus (I have anti-virus software, updated constantly and security firewalls), but I know it ain't my fingers mis-typing. Something evil has happened and I'm trusting the Yahoo! staff to get to the bottom of it.

Given it's my main account - not author account - it's a major pain in the rear end. I am shuddering at the thought of creating a new account and address book.

Ooo, shiney...

...new printer! Oh, the joy. It has double-sided printing (squee....). No more manual duplex of reorganising hundreds of pages and feeding them through the printer again. No more white lines through the text, or scratches. No more awkward paper jams and ink malfunctions that are indicative of a failing system. It does everything the previous printer did and more - though I think I'll have to read the instruction manual to find out what and I'm not interested enough... yet.

Really, I bought it for the double-sided thing. And price; it's not the latest model, but does what I need. The only downside is that it is about a centimetre too wide for the alcove I have.

I am now merrily printing stuff out as if the ink tanks are never going to run dry. But what the hell: it's a new toy and I'm playing with it until it becomes essential equipment.

I also have some new image software to play with, which I freely confess takes up time - but I have to explore it's functions to use it properly. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. I'll have to search for some re-pixilating software that does what I meant, not what I told it to. I wonder if such a program exists?

In reverse

The simplest solution is often the best, or the K.I.S.S. scenario.

I'm sure I thought of that when writing this book - I mean, anything more complex during NaNo and you're gonna get into trouble! - and still it came out more complicated than I wanted.

Still, I've reversed out of the plot hole and backed up a chapter. This scene, while it has some nifty things, has to go. With a few tweaks to a previous scene, I think I can make the conflicts more realistic.

But before I do that, I have to go and sort out why the first chapters won't print and why I have a frelling 'Autoplay' search going.

Sigh.

Waiting...

Nope, the computer isn't ready for pick-up. In fact, it won't be ready until tomorrow.

I tell you, if I hadn't been so busy working on the edits, my brain cells would have suggested I simply buy a new video card and install the damn thing myself!

I cain't do nuffink at work until my baybee's 'ome.

Sassenfrassen...

Well, wonderful.

That hiccuping I mentioned yesterday? Video card. Phizzziittt. I also suspect it was the source of the vague scent of burning. sigh One of the things I didn't upgrade the last time.

All I can say is that it's had a long, fruitful and useful life; it should have enjoyed retirement somewhere, but no - I had to work it to death.

I'll take it to the shop next week. So much for the end of the month deadline I set for myself.

Sick? Nah, just old

Ah, yes. The cool sun moves slowly across a painfully blue sky, a light breeze brings the scent of wood smoke from chimneys, the sound of busy birds going about their daily business, the hush of waves on the shore and the spasmodic hiccups of the computer...

Just another glorious day on the coast.

Back up a minute, the what-ups of the... uh,oh; this can't be good.

This desktop unit is five years old. Yep, and some parts are even older. I'm guessing the Microsoft updates aren't compatible any longer and the computer is struggling to keep up or match what's happening out there in techno-land.

But what do you do with hardware that still works as it is, even though it's nearly an antique compared to what's on the market these days? I'm not a fan of replacing something just because it's old.

We had, until a couple of years ago, a waffle-maker bought in Germany when my Dad was based in England. It was thirty-plus years old before it turned up its toes and failed. The Kenwood mixer - bought at the same time - is still in use and shows no sign of stopping.

It's a sad comment that, in today's society, products don't last as long, nor does the technology when something newer and shinier comes along. How many people actually understand, let alone use, everything their mobile phone, pda, DVDR, cable set-top box does?

I recall being part of a test group used by my former government department, to decide which software package was the best for the staff: the new WordPerfect or current Microsoft Word? As a desktop publisher and journo, I duly put both through their paces and followed up with questions to staff.

The result? Seventy-five percent of people would use less than 25% of WordPerfect's capabilities and Microsoft came in at about 50-50. My results mattered not a jot. WordPerfect was the one they chose because it was newer and had a more attractive interface.

Then the IT complaints came in about staff not using WordPerfect to its full potential and how... different... it was to use. The Department then had to spend lotsa money training staff.

If they'd stuck with Microsoft Word and just updated it, money and time would have been saved.

But back to the computer. It's old and not getting any younger. I also have a laptop. It's loaded with Vista which sucks, so I sometimes avoid it.

The bottom line is I love my desktop unit, XP platform and all. I'm comfortable with it, physical size and all. I don't want anything else when I sit down to work. It isn't broke so there's no need to fix it. (Out and about, fine, I'll take the laptop - at home, I want to sit at my desk.)

Yet, I'll have to upgrade to a faster, shinier, newer unit. Again. A week without its comforting idiosyncrasies; it's humming and occasional beep, it's red flashing light and skip when I play cds.

With all the hiccups and pauses and odd noises, I don't think it's Swine Flu, nor a bad case of dementia; chances are, the next thing I see is The Blue Screen of DEATH. That's what happened last time and I lost a complete manuscript in the change-over.

Upgrade it is. Sigh. Maybe a new system will write what I mean, not what I've keyed in... something to think about, techno-geeks.

Simplicity

Okay, so me and the desktop computer have reached an agreement: if I plug the keyboard into the right USB Port, it will work for me.

Quite simple really...

Late to the party

I'm no Luddite, but it's finally dawned on me to upgrade. But not in any major way.

So, I spent the morning trying to track down the scent of melting plastic that's been hanging around the desktop computer.

I duly unplugged everything and checked all the leads - did some dusting, too - and rearranged plugs and cables, all to no avail. I could not find the problem.

Defeated, I put everything back and fired up the computer to see if it was just the dust (you know how dust bunnies are: feral, belligerent, ferocious). Everything worked perfectly... until I tried to log into my main e-mail account.

Uh-oh. No keyboard. Yer... what?? Nothing I did would connect the damn thing - it kept asking me for the software. Now, I keep all my software CDs filed, but do you think I could find the blessed thing? No. Not. HAPPY!! At all.

I shut everything down and went away to think about it. Have coffee, will brainstorm.

The solution was simple: "Use the laptop, my young Padwan, yooose the laptop!"

So I've connected the laptop to the broadband and I'm somewhat mollified. Of course, most people I know have rid themselves of the bulky tower unit and separate monitor; not me, I like the beast, but I fear it's time is at an end.

Sure, I'll find the keyboard software, but is it worth it? The system is slowing - my guess, because I can no longer get the automatic upgrades I need - installing new hardware, like a motherboard, extra ram, memory, etc, will be expensive since it's been, oh, four years since the last upgrade, and I have a perfectly good laptop that's less than eighteen months old.

I'll be saving space, too, and power connections, and I have mobility with the smaller unit.

This means I'm catching up with the modern trend of the laptop and printer only on a desk. All I need do now is remove the files, and bookmarks, I need from the desktop unit and move them.

Bummer.

Oh, and the burned plastic smell? I'll be damned if I can find it!

Defrag

After a month - and a bit - of writing, I figured it was time to do some computer maintenance. I usually do it every week or two, but for November I didn't.

And woe... defragmentation took hours, hours I tell you! Once upon a time, I had a computer that had a whopping 25 megabyte hard drive. I could not imagine needing more and the defrag zipped through like a rat on crack.

But with the advancement of technology, hard drives became larger. I now have a 40 gig hard drive and the defrag is more like a rat on Prozac.

Before, I had no excuse not to write; yesterday I did. And what did I do with my new found time? I watched Mamma Mia! Finally. It's a bit of a giggle - who knew Meryl Streep could sing and Pierce Brosnan... not?

The effect was that I felt a desire to put on one of my Abba CDs. Yes, I have a four CD set from years ago, when they were considered daggy.

Now the beast that is my computer should be back to it's natural zippy self.

Blog Up

As you may have noticed, I've upgraded the blog. What you may not have noticed were the curses and creative swear words in doing so.

The books I read didn't come across, so I had to type them in again; nor did the stat counter move and I re-posted that too. Disappointingly, it won't let me have my coloured gradings of the books I've read - but I shan't give up, I'll find a way to post the icons.

The upgrade hasn't done much other than prettify the sidebar. I'm wondering if it was worth it; so far it's a 'no'. I'm sure there are some interesting widgets out there to put in, but I haven't had the time to search... yet.

One question is whether widgets distract from the content of the blog. I've visited a number of other sites and checked out the add-ons. I'm of the opinion that less is more. I'm also of the opinion that a blog space is for personal preference; like a house, the decorating is up to you. Although, coloured text on a black background is annoying, as is a multitude of photos.

I was watching a house renovation programme yesterday, and what struck me was the ideology that 'themed' rooms are no-no. I'm thinking your blog space uses the same idea. Fussy, over-the-top spaces throw me off, and I'm less inclined to visit again, no matter how interesting the host is. Plain, simple stuff with accessible archives is what I look for in a space. Of course, that's just me and I'm not up-to-date on all the fabbo stuff out there I can put up.

I think I'll keep it simple and easy to read. I'm not part of the blogging generation and I'm happy not to be; there are some things in your life, you really, really shouldn't be posting about. I'm sure you can think of a few. Things that defame, things that come under the heading of 'too much information' and things that are just plain ugly - racist, sexist, spiteful and generally unpleasant. You've also got to remember copyright issues. It might be a big world out there, but bloggers have friends that have friends, that have friends, and so on and the original blogger will find out if you've nicked someone else's work.

Still, it's a great exercise in writing, in finding like-minded people, and help when you need it. I think I'll keep the blog after all...

A brave new world

I didn’t go near the computer yesterday: no surfing, no music, no writing, no editing, no research, no e-mailing, nothing.

Every time I saw the computer, I was tempted, but… no, not enough to make me turn it on.

Why? Because sometimes you need a break, be it enforced or not. I decided I needed a day off and sat down in the morning to a M*A*S*H* marathon on the teev. In the afternoon, I went to my niece’s, um… third birthday party and in the evening, I read more crime short fiction.

This morning, I’m more relaxed than I have been in a couple of weeks. It makes me wonder about the Internet and how much stress it contributes to daily lives.

Why, I recall [insert image of an oldie in a rocking chair, gazing off into the distance] the days before the web explosion. When I picked up a telephone to talk to someone, or wrote a letter or postcard. There was none of the immediacy of today; none of this ‘reply now’ business.

It gives rise to the question of how much technology influences our lives and how fast. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, it’s great, if in small doses.

I wrote a essay while at university on ‘Futurology’, that is, a prediction of future technology based on the evolution of current and past standards. When I look at it now – and I wrote this ten years ago or so – it is woefully inadequate. What I saw then for the future, is passé now, and my predictions were based on twenty and thirty years in the future from centuries past.

What does this all mean? Well, for sci-fi writers, it means their imagined creations are fast becoming fact and that will have to think harder on keeping the ‘fiction’ relevant, in keeping the fantastic away from the fact. It means technology is developing at a faster rate than ever imagined. What you buy today is obsolete tomorrow.

The consequences are far reaching in many arenas, from global warming, to bed warming. And it’s a constant source of amazement and intrigue for me; and also worry that I won’t be able to keep up.

Who knows where we’ll be in ten years or twenty? Or what we’ll be doing, what kind of toys we’ll have to play with, how fast communications can travel or on what, cars, aeroplanes, how you listen to music, watch entertainment, work?

It’s a brave new world every day.

Snarly snarl!

Yesterday, I decided to do some 'management' work on the computer. You know, getting rid of temporary files, running the virus check, the spybot check, the all-in-one check and then defragmenting the hard drive.

Well, bugger me if it didn't take all bloody day! And it's only a 40 gig drive - positively archaic given the prodigious amounts now available. If I had an 80 or more, the programmes would still be running into the depths of night.

But, I think I've worked out why it takes so long: some people, out there in cyberland, have too much time on their hands; that or they're simply arseholes who love to create little diseases that take time and effort to destroy. The worst of it is many virus checkers have constant updates of megabytes and dozens of new immunisations. If you have thousands of files to check, this, of course, is time consuming - and annoying while you wait. And wait. And wait for the checker to finish.

Then there are the spybots, malware, spyware and any number of byte-sized irritations to constantly update and search for. Yes, the programs I have do that automatically, but it's the need to do a complete scan that gripes my buns.

Of course, defragmentation is just as time-consuming as it is necessary - and I have two different programs to do it - but neither are completed quickly.

I'd probably do it more often if it didn't take so long. [Insert pout here.]

It's done now, [insert gnashing of teeth here] so I should be happy... except I'll have to do this all over again next month.

Sigh. The computer age is such a joy, don't you think?

Not Happy

Pretty pissed off, actually.

I got tagged by that nasty, invasive, irritating as a fruit fly in your redwine, pain-in-the-ass, Spylocked!

Spylocked, for those of you who haven't had the dubious pleasure, is a spyware virus that automatically loads onto your computer and constantly gives you a message that spyware is getting in through the back door of your security system. And if you don't buy this Spylocked software, you'll be doomed. Doomed it tells you.

Not willing to be sucked in, I went to one of the so-called 'testimonials' from PC Weekly. It actually says Spylocked is spyware and to download a spyware killer.

And I did. SpyHunter first. It did an excellent job of identifying the spyware - and others - but I had to buy the software before it could be removed. My Search & Destroy software came up with SpyHunter being Spyware itself. No thank you.

Next, I tried Stopzilla. Downloaded the software, allegedly free like SpyHunter, with the same result. Found the nasties but I had to pay for the privilege of getting rid of it.

The worst thing is that this shitty stuff got past my Windows firewall and Trend Micro PC-cillin - I shan't be renewing.

Over at C-net, I found what I was looking for: CyberDefender. It's freeware, 11.5mb, and so far, has killed SpyLocked and has a warning system for viruses, spyware and spam, and it monitors my system, which is working much better, thank you very much.

I am fed up with this shit, and I have to wonder if some companies produce spy-and ad-ware simply so they can sell the software to kill it.

Of course, I could be seeing conspiracy where none lie, but damn, I have spent enough time and money on downloading empty solutions.

Insert grumble here: and it's put me behind on the marathon. Ass wipes.

I'm just sayin'...

Language

Or 'slanguage' as SMS text is now called.

I saw an interesting item on slanguage this morning and its effects on modern day language. One woman - I can't remember her name - said it was interesting that, for all the abbreviations, kids using text language had a good grasp of grammar.

A college English teacher said he'd yet to see the language in his class, but it would be unacceptable. But some high school papers were being turned in with the abbreviated language.

For those of who are... not of the text era, deciphering text can be laborious:

cul8r is simple: see you later.
whatru ^2?: what are you up to? starts to get complicated.
wru? tmbtam: where are you? Text me back tomorrow morning. Well, you can see the increasing difficulty. Whole conversations are carried on like this.

Do I like this stuff? Um... it takes a while to decipher, but it's here to stay and it serves a purpose given telcos charge by the letter or word. The English language is an ever evolving one, but will it take over the world?

Can you imagine picking up a book written totally in slanguage? The next two or three generations may think nothing of it; the generation I belong to would be horrified, and only read a book like that with an sms dictionary beside them.

I can see it coming; but only in a minor, alternative fiction way. After that who knows?

poahf, icbw, knim?

techno-t!

I consider myself fairly well versed in technology, but sometimes, I wanna just [insert lots of expletives here]!

At first, the mouse - the backup - was a little stiff (the arrow, actually), then it stopped completely. It's an infra-red mouse and still glowing, but this time with malice. It refused to work. I tried to reconnect to my cordless; again, that malevolent little light gleamed at me, but refused to work. The arrow was stuck up in the corner of the screen. Neither would work, no matter what I did.

So, I'm using the third back up (you guessed it, I can't seem to throw anything away no matter how antiquated). If this one fails, I'll be right back to the original mouse: two buttons and a mouse ball.

Then... the infra-red, cordless keyboard went on strike.

I swear, I did nothing to offend them! Well, okay, the cordless keyboard no longer has print on some of the letters, like, um, the 'n' and the 'l'; the 'o', 'p', 'k', 'm', 's' and 'e' are showing wear, too, but I would have thought them more robust!

The back up keyboard works just fine: no wearing on the letters (though I think they'd protest about that). The feel is good, too, better than I expected and just as fast.

I wonder if I should buy another new keyboard and mouse? The mouse, in particular, is important because I'm running out of usable, software-compatible mouses. (Maybe they just need a rest...)