More than 722,000 records were added to the DNA database last year, the largest ever increase in a year - so far. There are now more than 4 million DNA records held, or as the National Policing Improvement Agency charmingly puts it, the largest DNA database per head of population in the world. Utterly revolting. Read the rest of the linked article for the rest of the outrageous 'Police State' propaganda with which it is replete. The fact that it is thought largely to comprise totally innocent people is completely irrelevant to these quasi-fascists (I debated whether to leave the 'quasi-' qualification out of that, but have left it in just for the present; put it down to my boundless and probably misplaced optimism and continuing attempts to believe these people are not actually 'evil').
PS/ On a lighter note, this is the first blog article I have prepared using my new sub-notebook PC (an Asus Eee PC 1000), which I received yesterday and which I wrote about here. It seems nice so far and has been extremely simple to set up and use; I was online less than five minutes after switching the machine on and the 16 Gb SD card I got now holds all my backed-up photographs and documents with more space to handle quite a bit more so leaving the on-board memory free for other things. I'll write more about the new machine in due course.
Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot
Showing posts with label PC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PC. Show all posts
Friday, 10 October 2008
Saturday, 4 October 2008
My PC experimentations continue
I've just ordered myself a new notebook computer which I hope will arrive during next week. I've written before about my experiencess with Microsoft's current main operating system being marketed to consumers, Vista, (here, here [final 'PS/' paragraph], here, here, here, here, here and here).
It's only partly to do with my Vista problems, however - even if it's the main reason. In addition to that I've grown fond of notebooks which, because they have small screens, are very portable and pretty light; my current main notebook (the one using Vista) has a 12" screen and if it were not for the horrible operating system would be a terrific little machine. Another 'however' is that during one of my periods of extreme frustration with Vista I [probably not entirely inadvertently, if the truth be known] spilled a full sherry glass of Pedro Ximenez sherry (very sweet sherry indeed) over the keyboard and since then the keys have been very sticky, making it necessary to use an external keyboard, which is a bore. My sub-conscious has obviously been telling me to dump this innocent machine and 'get shot' of Vista!
Anyway, I've ordered one of these sub-notebook things which are becoming increasingly popular, without a built-in DVD/CD read-write drive and with a solid-state memory rather than a hard drive - the model I am going for is the Asus eee PC 1000, which has a 40 GB solid-state drive and runs on GNU Linux as its standard operating system; amongst the various other bits and pieces I've ordered at the same time is a mini external DVD/CD reader-writer to allow me to load other software into it as well as a 16 GB SD memory card to make use of the slot the machine is equipped with the extend the main SSD memory, plus a few other smaller add-ons. Apparently users of this model also get access to 20 GB of secure online storage (i.e. 'the cloud') to store files such as documents or photographs. Once I'm familiar with the machine, I'll probably get another 2 GB memory card to increase the RAM from the supplied 1 GB of RAM. The machine has a 10" screen and, because it has no built-in DVD/CD drive it is compact and pretty light, ideal for taking back and forth on the 'plane to Spain and of course solid-state flash drives are a lot less prone to damage than hard-drives. No doubt the next development will be increased SSD flash-drive memory (from the current 40 GB maximum) and I can well see myself getting another machine once this happens - they are relatively inexpensive and can now probably be regarded as just another easily-affordable consumer durable, unlike my first two machines which cost me around GBP2,500 each in 1982 and 1984 money, that would be a lot more now! I'm currently on my 8th PC and the Asus will be my 9th, if my recollection is accurate - I expect I'll be well over the 10th before too many more years pass!
YouTube never ceases to amaze me; there are a lot of video-clips there (as I discovered last night) demonstrating the Asus eee PC 1000 and other PCs - here's just one of the more interesting ones I found:
- unlike the fellow in the video-clip I shall NOT be putting Vista on it(!) although I might add XP in due course; there are lots of other video-clip reviews of people doing that and I found it was always a pretty stable system, even if it's a bit old-hat now.
Once I've received the new machine I'll undoubtedly be boring-on about it some more!
It's only partly to do with my Vista problems, however - even if it's the main reason. In addition to that I've grown fond of notebooks which, because they have small screens, are very portable and pretty light; my current main notebook (the one using Vista) has a 12" screen and if it were not for the horrible operating system would be a terrific little machine. Another 'however' is that during one of my periods of extreme frustration with Vista I [probably not entirely inadvertently, if the truth be known] spilled a full sherry glass of Pedro Ximenez sherry (very sweet sherry indeed) over the keyboard and since then the keys have been very sticky, making it necessary to use an external keyboard, which is a bore. My sub-conscious has obviously been telling me to dump this innocent machine and 'get shot' of Vista!
Anyway, I've ordered one of these sub-notebook things which are becoming increasingly popular, without a built-in DVD/CD read-write drive and with a solid-state memory rather than a hard drive - the model I am going for is the Asus eee PC 1000, which has a 40 GB solid-state drive and runs on GNU Linux as its standard operating system; amongst the various other bits and pieces I've ordered at the same time is a mini external DVD/CD reader-writer to allow me to load other software into it as well as a 16 GB SD memory card to make use of the slot the machine is equipped with the extend the main SSD memory, plus a few other smaller add-ons. Apparently users of this model also get access to 20 GB of secure online storage (i.e. 'the cloud') to store files such as documents or photographs. Once I'm familiar with the machine, I'll probably get another 2 GB memory card to increase the RAM from the supplied 1 GB of RAM. The machine has a 10" screen and, because it has no built-in DVD/CD drive it is compact and pretty light, ideal for taking back and forth on the 'plane to Spain and of course solid-state flash drives are a lot less prone to damage than hard-drives. No doubt the next development will be increased SSD flash-drive memory (from the current 40 GB maximum) and I can well see myself getting another machine once this happens - they are relatively inexpensive and can now probably be regarded as just another easily-affordable consumer durable, unlike my first two machines which cost me around GBP2,500 each in 1982 and 1984 money, that would be a lot more now! I'm currently on my 8th PC and the Asus will be my 9th, if my recollection is accurate - I expect I'll be well over the 10th before too many more years pass!
YouTube never ceases to amaze me; there are a lot of video-clips there (as I discovered last night) demonstrating the Asus eee PC 1000 and other PCs - here's just one of the more interesting ones I found:
- unlike the fellow in the video-clip I shall NOT be putting Vista on it(!) although I might add XP in due course; there are lots of other video-clip reviews of people doing that and I found it was always a pretty stable system, even if it's a bit old-hat now.
Once I've received the new machine I'll undoubtedly be boring-on about it some more!
Thursday, 20 March 2008
More on the Vista PC saga - software incompatibility is the problem ...
... and, according to the diagnostics I've had carried out here over the past couple of days (when I was therefore PC-less), it is not just any old software which is at fault! The engineer tells me that my hardware is perfectly OK, though, so that's good of course. Anyway the software which is causing the problem is none other than the AOL software, the latest version of which is called 'AOL VR'. The 'VR' stands for Vista Ready - it is appears that it is nothing of the kind!
I have been using 'AOL VR' ever since I purchased this lovely Vista-equipped machine and, as regular readers will know, have experienced problems with it (the PC, that is) regularly almost since I got it in May last year. I had, I think perfectly understandably, thought that the magic 'VR' for this version of the AOL software meant that it was actually compatible with Vista; foolish, trusting person that I am!
I can still access my email which, because I have used AOL as my ISP for many years (8 or 9 I think) is on an AOL account, via web-mail but it is much less convenient than it was whilst using the AOL spoftware, because that integrates internet access and email in one platform - it always worked pretty well in XP.
However, because I must now access the web (and my AOL email) using another web browser (IE or Firefox) there seems little practical advantage in retaining AOL as my broadband ISP in the UK; it is by no means the least expensive service I am aware of for comparable broadband speeds, but I had left it with AOL simply because it was the easiest option as it was convenient to retain my AOL email address. Now I think when I return home to Scotland in May I shall have to switch my broadband to another supplier, which I understand is sometimes a time-consuming and not particularly easy operation. In fact I already have another web email address (@yahoo.co.uk) but have never used it apart from testing it occasionally. I think when I do switch my broadband supplier I will not use whatever email address I am given by the new people and instead start to use my yahoo account, as that is likely to be less-dependent on whatever ISP I happen to go with.
I am pleased I seem to have, finally, got to the root of the problem with this Vista-PC; the software engineer (an ex-Microsoft software developer who helped develop XP before he left the company to come and live in Spain, and who speaks quite highly of Vista, too, whilst accepting it does have compatibility issues with some software) told me they always avoided using AOL because it was so flaky and never recommended people to use it either. If anyone in the UK (north Scotland in particular) has any recommendations for suitable alternative ISP broadband providers in that region of the UK, I'll be glad to have them to help me make my choice (a few of my friends there who have gone with some of the cheaper providers have had no end of problems with them so I would prefer to pay a decent price for a decent quality of service).
PS/ The alternative, of course, is to stick with my instincts and be 'shot of' Microsoft once and for all and get myself an Appple MAC-equipped machine when I get home, stick with AOL, and rid myself of the prima donna Vista once and for all! I have really grown weary of having to accommodate myself to the whims of Microsoft with its continuing software 'improvements' which always seem to result in increasing complications in making things work and if you don't comply with their increasingly stringent 3rd-party software requirements you are right royally .... well things just don't work. Now I must get back to my dinner and the salad to follow the excellent steak I have just eaten and of ocurse the excellent Douro wine I am sampling this evening.
I have been using 'AOL VR' ever since I purchased this lovely Vista-equipped machine and, as regular readers will know, have experienced problems with it (the PC, that is) regularly almost since I got it in May last year. I had, I think perfectly understandably, thought that the magic 'VR' for this version of the AOL software meant that it was actually compatible with Vista; foolish, trusting person that I am!
I can still access my email which, because I have used AOL as my ISP for many years (8 or 9 I think) is on an AOL account, via web-mail but it is much less convenient than it was whilst using the AOL spoftware, because that integrates internet access and email in one platform - it always worked pretty well in XP.
However, because I must now access the web (and my AOL email) using another web browser (IE or Firefox) there seems little practical advantage in retaining AOL as my broadband ISP in the UK; it is by no means the least expensive service I am aware of for comparable broadband speeds, but I had left it with AOL simply because it was the easiest option as it was convenient to retain my AOL email address. Now I think when I return home to Scotland in May I shall have to switch my broadband to another supplier, which I understand is sometimes a time-consuming and not particularly easy operation. In fact I already have another web email address (@yahoo.co.uk) but have never used it apart from testing it occasionally. I think when I do switch my broadband supplier I will not use whatever email address I am given by the new people and instead start to use my yahoo account, as that is likely to be less-dependent on whatever ISP I happen to go with.
I am pleased I seem to have, finally, got to the root of the problem with this Vista-PC; the software engineer (an ex-Microsoft software developer who helped develop XP before he left the company to come and live in Spain, and who speaks quite highly of Vista, too, whilst accepting it does have compatibility issues with some software) told me they always avoided using AOL because it was so flaky and never recommended people to use it either. If anyone in the UK (north Scotland in particular) has any recommendations for suitable alternative ISP broadband providers in that region of the UK, I'll be glad to have them to help me make my choice (a few of my friends there who have gone with some of the cheaper providers have had no end of problems with them so I would prefer to pay a decent price for a decent quality of service).
PS/ The alternative, of course, is to stick with my instincts and be 'shot of' Microsoft once and for all and get myself an Appple MAC-equipped machine when I get home, stick with AOL, and rid myself of the prima donna Vista once and for all! I have really grown weary of having to accommodate myself to the whims of Microsoft with its continuing software 'improvements' which always seem to result in increasing complications in making things work and if you don't comply with their increasingly stringent 3rd-party software requirements you are right royally .... well things just don't work. Now I must get back to my dinner and the salad to follow the excellent steak I have just eaten and of ocurse the excellent Douro wine I am sampling this evening.
Monday, 10 March 2008
More PC problems today, but I'm cautiously optimistic ...
... foolish person that I am!
I 'knew' yesterday's reinstall of Vista wasn't going to be a very long-lasting affair; I've come to know this horrid operating system quite well and I know now when things are not going right, even if they 'work' after a fashion. I'm not going to bother going into the sordid details, suffice to say that if you are ever faced with a similar Vista problem, ignore all 'recommendations' to reinstall from the onboard 'factory settings' version - all that does is reinstall the system that, for whatever reason (*), caused the problem in the first place.
And so it proved. Earlier today (i.e. Monday) I decided that the freezing-up and general problems I was experiencing necessitated a complete reinstall from the back-up software supplied for emergency use by the PC vendor (in my case Fujitsu-Siemens) to do a 'clean' reinstall of the operating system. This is a long-winded process and necessitates a follow-on reinstall of all the drivers, etc. Plus all the other software that needs to be reinstalled (that I have with me here in Spain or can download from the internet) - the whole process takes many hours!
I suspect that this latest reinstall will be a little more durable than yesterday's, although given the fragility of the whole Vista 'catastrophe' of an operating system I have little faith that it will last beyond, say, four or five months - I last did this rigmarole in October 2007 and we're now only in early March, for heaven's sake! I think when I return to Scotland in May I shall be buying an Apple machine and going over to whatever its called OS-X?? - although I've heard that there are certain problems with 'Leopard', too.
So I am back online after a fashion - who knows for how long? Grrr!
I 'knew' yesterday's reinstall of Vista wasn't going to be a very long-lasting affair; I've come to know this horrid operating system quite well and I know now when things are not going right, even if they 'work' after a fashion. I'm not going to bother going into the sordid details, suffice to say that if you are ever faced with a similar Vista problem, ignore all 'recommendations' to reinstall from the onboard 'factory settings' version - all that does is reinstall the system that, for whatever reason (*), caused the problem in the first place.
And so it proved. Earlier today (i.e. Monday) I decided that the freezing-up and general problems I was experiencing necessitated a complete reinstall from the back-up software supplied for emergency use by the PC vendor (in my case Fujitsu-Siemens) to do a 'clean' reinstall of the operating system. This is a long-winded process and necessitates a follow-on reinstall of all the drivers, etc. Plus all the other software that needs to be reinstalled (that I have with me here in Spain or can download from the internet) - the whole process takes many hours!
I suspect that this latest reinstall will be a little more durable than yesterday's, although given the fragility of the whole Vista 'catastrophe' of an operating system I have little faith that it will last beyond, say, four or five months - I last did this rigmarole in October 2007 and we're now only in early March, for heaven's sake! I think when I return to Scotland in May I shall be buying an Apple machine and going over to whatever its called OS-X?? - although I've heard that there are certain problems with 'Leopard', too.
So I am back online after a fashion - who knows for how long? Grrr!
Sunday, 9 March 2008
PC problems again -Oh! my Lordie, Vista!!
When I powered down my PC last night, everything seemed to be fine. Switching it on this morning I was faced with a message telling me it could'nt start normally and was attempting to do repairs - and that I wouldn't lose data. Famous last words!
Some minutes (many minutes) later another message informed me that Vista would need to be backed up and I would lose data on the machine. As you can see I am back online, after a fashion. However, I have lost a lot of very recent data (not backed-up in the past few days), but more importantly, many items of software for which the back-up discs are back in Scotland. I've been able to download a few pieces of software from the web, but have not got them all configured correctly yet. However, there are a certain items of software that will have to wait until I get back home to Scotland in early May. Vista is an absolute pest!
Some minutes (many minutes) later another message informed me that Vista would need to be backed up and I would lose data on the machine. As you can see I am back online, after a fashion. However, I have lost a lot of very recent data (not backed-up in the past few days), but more importantly, many items of software for which the back-up discs are back in Scotland. I've been able to download a few pieces of software from the web, but have not got them all configured correctly yet. However, there are a certain items of software that will have to wait until I get back home to Scotland in early May. Vista is an absolute pest!
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Problems with PC ...
... and this time it's not my Vista-equipped laptop, but my XP-SP2 one. I was offline yesterday evening, doing some work on databases and graphics design, then decided to go online again briefly. The AOL browser software owuldn't load - my anti-virus software ('Norman') informed me a particular '.dll' file had been sent to quarantine; it's a file required for AOL to work I believe. After a while I contacted AOL helpline (in India) and thought I was getting somewhere, but the line ('phone line, that is) went dead and when I called back I got a different lady.
Long boring story, but the result is that not only will AOL not load, nor will IE7 now (the latter did work until I did something the second lady in India suggested I do)!!
I'm actually on the XP-laptop right now, online via Firefox, and it seems otherwise to be working fine, online and offline, except for AOL and IE7 not wanting to do what I ask. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to resolve this pest of a problem, but meantime I've done another back-up of all data onto the other laptop; that applies to everything expet the AOL email files stored on this PC, which is a real nuisance, but I don't know how to do that; the AOL email files on my newer Vista machine are not nearly so complete except in very recent months.
I'm off up to Culloden Battlefied in an hour; W're going to be shown around the new NTS visitor centre, just completed before Christmas and due to be opened officially in April - I hope to get a few photos, and may post some here later.
Long boring story, but the result is that not only will AOL not load, nor will IE7 now (the latter did work until I did something the second lady in India suggested I do)!!
I'm actually on the XP-laptop right now, online via Firefox, and it seems otherwise to be working fine, online and offline, except for AOL and IE7 not wanting to do what I ask. I'm not sure what I'm going to do to resolve this pest of a problem, but meantime I've done another back-up of all data onto the other laptop; that applies to everything expet the AOL email files stored on this PC, which is a real nuisance, but I don't know how to do that; the AOL email files on my newer Vista machine are not nearly so complete except in very recent months.
I'm off up to Culloden Battlefied in an hour; W're going to be shown around the new NTS visitor centre, just completed before Christmas and due to be opened officially in April - I hope to get a few photos, and may post some here later.
Friday, 17 August 2007
Skype on the blink ...
(Please see UPDATE at end)
... I thought initially that my difficulty in getting online to Skype was a problem with my Vista laptop (which I wrote about on Wednesday), and although I have had a few continuing glitches with that (see below), it seems that the problems logging on to Skype have a quite different explanation - the whole network has been down since at least yesterday morning, and I think probably since the evening before. Latest report I read, says that some users in Asia (not in India, it seems) and Europe are now able to get online, however I haven't so far succeeded in doing so, so my little bit of Europe is obviously not one of the fortunate bits that can.
As for my Vista laptop (which it so happens I'm not on right now, but was until a few moments ago, as I wanted to check my Skype access on my XP machine and I can't get online there either), I'll write about that in due course, particularly if things starts to go 'hay-wire' again. The problem I alluded to above seems to have corrected itself, for the moment, after it started its 'St Vitus Dance' rolling-screen routine I've become far too familiar with, which requires it to be switched off with the power button. Then it wouldn't start. It then went into an automated Vista CHKDSK routine (you know, the very utilitarian white print on a black screen that Windows goes back to when things go very wrong with its front-end 'pretty bits' such as Windows) which seems to have dealt with whatever problems caused it to happen. I await with trepidation what might happen next, without warning.
I've got quite used to the convenience and low-cost of Skype since I first used at about 20 months ago - I hope it gets back to full-functioning quickly.
Update: (Friday 17AUG07 13.53) I've just got back online with Skype and successfully completed a test call; none of my online Skype contacts are yet showing on the system, though - it's obvioulsy getting back to functioning, but it will probably be a while before it's fully up and running. I've had the impression that the service has been a bit 'clunky' and slow for the past week or so - perhaps it was building up to a crisis; I hope they've got to the root of the problem, unless it's just a simple case of network congestion as the service becomes increasingly ubiquitous. In which case I suppose one might expect further problems once they think they have everyone connected again. I'll wait and see ...
... I thought initially that my difficulty in getting online to Skype was a problem with my Vista laptop (which I wrote about on Wednesday), and although I have had a few continuing glitches with that (see below), it seems that the problems logging on to Skype have a quite different explanation - the whole network has been down since at least yesterday morning, and I think probably since the evening before. Latest report I read, says that some users in Asia (not in India, it seems) and Europe are now able to get online, however I haven't so far succeeded in doing so, so my little bit of Europe is obviously not one of the fortunate bits that can.
As for my Vista laptop (which it so happens I'm not on right now, but was until a few moments ago, as I wanted to check my Skype access on my XP machine and I can't get online there either), I'll write about that in due course, particularly if things starts to go 'hay-wire' again. The problem I alluded to above seems to have corrected itself, for the moment, after it started its 'St Vitus Dance' rolling-screen routine I've become far too familiar with, which requires it to be switched off with the power button. Then it wouldn't start. It then went into an automated Vista CHKDSK routine (you know, the very utilitarian white print on a black screen that Windows goes back to when things go very wrong with its front-end 'pretty bits' such as Windows) which seems to have dealt with whatever problems caused it to happen. I await with trepidation what might happen next, without warning.
I've got quite used to the convenience and low-cost of Skype since I first used at about 20 months ago - I hope it gets back to full-functioning quickly.
Update: (Friday 17AUG07 13.53) I've just got back online with Skype and successfully completed a test call; none of my online Skype contacts are yet showing on the system, though - it's obvioulsy getting back to functioning, but it will probably be a while before it's fully up and running. I've had the impression that the service has been a bit 'clunky' and slow for the past week or so - perhaps it was building up to a crisis; I hope they've got to the root of the problem, unless it's just a simple case of network congestion as the service becomes increasingly ubiquitous. In which case I suppose one might expect further problems once they think they have everyone connected again. I'll wait and see ...
Wednesday, 15 August 2007
Another couple of days hassle with Windows Vista!
Yesterday morning I did as I often do - quite early on, about 7.30am or so, I switched on my Vista-enabled laptop and sat up in bed browsing the web, checking emails and writing a couple of blog posts. After I'd done all that I closed the lid of the laptop (putting it into 'hibernation' mode), got up out of bed and did all the usual things - showered, shaved, dressed and then went through to get my breakfast. Nothing out of the ordinary. Later in the morning, after I'd been using my other laptop (which uses Windows XP) in the study, I wanted to use the Vista machine again for something else - so pulled the lid up as usual. After the usual password screen things started to go downhill fast. Oh, I got online OK, but after a few moments the keyboard locked-up. Switch-off, re-start - same nonsense after a few moments; tried it a couple of times after that and got same result so thought I would do a 'restore point' to an earlier date suggested by the system. That seemed to work, but pretty soon the whole thing locked-up again. After my experiences last month (see here also), I was becoming pretty fed-up with this machine and as I had other things to do yesterday I switched it off and used my other machine when I needed to. It was becoming clear, though, that I would probably have to do another re-install, but I simply didn't have the time (or the stamina) to contemplate that yesterday.
This morning after breakfast I switched on the pesky machine again and as expected the same problems recurred - keyboard lock-up. I had to go out for a good bit of the morning until mid-afternoon, but when I got back I decided that I would set about doing the re-install. It's done and I'm on the Vista machine now. It all seems to be working OK for the moment. I did, however, decide that one thing I was definitely not going to do was to re-install the Norton anti-virus programme disk that came with the machine - its interface is one I have never found user-friendly and since I re-installed it after doing the full Vista re-install last month, Norton has never really functioned properly. I've already spent whatever it was (£60 or so!) to updgrade early from the trial period, but frankly it was money wasted and I'm writing it off. I didn't quite have the courage, however, to dispense entirely with A/V software entirely (as was suggested to me last month by one of my fairly regular visitors to the blog), so searched in the Windows Vista help screen for suitable software providers - there are 7 or 8, one of which is Norton, but I've gone with Microsoft's own effort 'Windows Live OneCare' and am currently on their 90-day trial period. It seems to work a lot more smoothly than Norton A/V ever did and the interface seems to be a lot more intuitive. It's too early to say everything is fine, but I am cautiously hopeful.
The latest re-install went quite smoothly and a little more quickly than the last time because I knew better what was happening. I am also more aware now of how the re-install works; basically it stores everything from before the re-install in a back-up folder, so I now have two of those (one this time and one from last month). So I was able to copy all the contents of the 'Documents' and 'Pictures' folders from the latest backup straight into the current installation's folders and not have to copy everything laboriously from my other machine using a USB stick. I was all done in about 10 minutes, rather than the 1hr+ it took last time.
Right, so I'm watching the latest episode of 'Heroes' on BBC3 right now, so I'm going to get back to giving my full attention to that - it's one of the better series to come out of the US of late; I think I'm becoming addicted! The other recently-started US import, 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip', which shows on Thursday evenings on More4 is quite good, too, but I'm of the view that I can take it or leave it - I'm not bothering to record it and if I miss an episode then it's just too bad.
¡Hasta luego!
This morning after breakfast I switched on the pesky machine again and as expected the same problems recurred - keyboard lock-up. I had to go out for a good bit of the morning until mid-afternoon, but when I got back I decided that I would set about doing the re-install. It's done and I'm on the Vista machine now. It all seems to be working OK for the moment. I did, however, decide that one thing I was definitely not going to do was to re-install the Norton anti-virus programme disk that came with the machine - its interface is one I have never found user-friendly and since I re-installed it after doing the full Vista re-install last month, Norton has never really functioned properly. I've already spent whatever it was (£60 or so!) to updgrade early from the trial period, but frankly it was money wasted and I'm writing it off. I didn't quite have the courage, however, to dispense entirely with A/V software entirely (as was suggested to me last month by one of my fairly regular visitors to the blog), so searched in the Windows Vista help screen for suitable software providers - there are 7 or 8, one of which is Norton, but I've gone with Microsoft's own effort 'Windows Live OneCare' and am currently on their 90-day trial period. It seems to work a lot more smoothly than Norton A/V ever did and the interface seems to be a lot more intuitive. It's too early to say everything is fine, but I am cautiously hopeful.
The latest re-install went quite smoothly and a little more quickly than the last time because I knew better what was happening. I am also more aware now of how the re-install works; basically it stores everything from before the re-install in a back-up folder, so I now have two of those (one this time and one from last month). So I was able to copy all the contents of the 'Documents' and 'Pictures' folders from the latest backup straight into the current installation's folders and not have to copy everything laboriously from my other machine using a USB stick. I was all done in about 10 minutes, rather than the 1hr+ it took last time.
Right, so I'm watching the latest episode of 'Heroes' on BBC3 right now, so I'm going to get back to giving my full attention to that - it's one of the better series to come out of the US of late; I think I'm becoming addicted! The other recently-started US import, 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip', which shows on Thursday evenings on More4 is quite good, too, but I'm of the view that I can take it or leave it - I'm not bothering to record it and if I miss an episode then it's just too bad.
¡Hasta luego!
Monday, 16 July 2007
Further update on my Vista laptop trials and tribulations
Well I re-installed Windows Vista and all the drivers and utilities (an amazingly lenghty process!) and then fired the thing up and it seemed to install correctly. I re-installed my ISP utility and that, too, seemed to work fine.
That took me up to about 2pm this afternoon - when I had to go out for a few hours.
Although I had already, of course, put on the firewall, etc - I hadn't at this stage re-installed the anti-virus software (Norton). That's what I've just been doing and that seemed to work OK - LiveUpdate, etc, anti-virus software switched on. All seemed to be OK. Last thing to do was to run a full scan - and this too seemed to be working OK, until roughly 270,0000 files had been scanned (see * below) then the whole thing freezes up!
Switched off at main power button and back on - told it to do a normal re-start. OK. Did a further full scan and it blocked up AGAIN after roughly 230,000 files. Frankly, I'm completely fed-up with Vista! I want to go back to XP!
* I recall from a full scan before this whole nonsense started a week ago that there were something like 170,000 files in all for my anti-virus software to scan. Looking at the window as it was scanning today it is clear that ALL the software and files from before I re-installed Windows Vista this morning have been stored in an 'old' section - so the re-formatting has not in fact booted anything out at all - so the re-scan is possibly still coming up against whatever the problem was before.
To repeat: I'm completely fed-up with Vista! I want to go back to XP! (For information this post is being done on my Vista machine - yes, it works after a fashion, but is obviously still not 100%>)
Right, I'm off to get supper. Tomorrow I'm taking a test-drive of a possible replacement for my existing car - maybe I'll be in a better mood after that. Sigh ...
That took me up to about 2pm this afternoon - when I had to go out for a few hours.
Although I had already, of course, put on the firewall, etc - I hadn't at this stage re-installed the anti-virus software (Norton). That's what I've just been doing and that seemed to work OK - LiveUpdate, etc, anti-virus software switched on. All seemed to be OK. Last thing to do was to run a full scan - and this too seemed to be working OK, until roughly 270,0000 files had been scanned (see * below) then the whole thing freezes up!
Switched off at main power button and back on - told it to do a normal re-start. OK. Did a further full scan and it blocked up AGAIN after roughly 230,000 files. Frankly, I'm completely fed-up with Vista! I want to go back to XP!
* I recall from a full scan before this whole nonsense started a week ago that there were something like 170,000 files in all for my anti-virus software to scan. Looking at the window as it was scanning today it is clear that ALL the software and files from before I re-installed Windows Vista this morning have been stored in an 'old' section - so the re-formatting has not in fact booted anything out at all - so the re-scan is possibly still coming up against whatever the problem was before.
To repeat: I'm completely fed-up with Vista! I want to go back to XP! (For information this post is being done on my Vista machine - yes, it works after a fashion, but is obviously still not 100%>)
Right, I'm off to get supper. Tomorrow I'm taking a test-drive of a possible replacement for my existing car - maybe I'll be in a better mood after that. Sigh ...
Update on problems with my Vista equipped laptop
I wrote last week about the major headache I am having with my very recently-purchased Vista enabled laptop. I've been doing quite a lot of research since then and apart from confirming what I had already found out (that I am not alone in having problems with this new operating system - the range of problems is many and varied and I seem to have a lot if not all of them!), I have been in touch with various people more expert than me.
In summary, the 'solution' appears to be to re-install the whole operating system, drivers and utilities. I am pretty good about doing regular back-ups anyway, but it seems that provided I stop the machine going on-line (by switching off the wi-fi connection) I can use it in a limited fashion, so have been able to copy various items that hadn't already been backed-up, so I got that done about an hour ago.
Right now I am in the process of doing a full re-installation from the back-up disks supplied with the machine; obviously all the anciliary software (some free, some paid for disk versions, some paid for and downloaded over the internet [let's hope the product licence keys will let me download again!]) will need to be re-installed and of course all my data will be lost from this machine and will need to be restored from my back-up copies.
Possibly part of the problem has arisen because Vista is (apparently) so different from earlier versions such as XP that a lot of anciliary software does not work on the new operating system - so I will not be re-installing certain software I have used for a while and wished to continue to use; I'll have to find other options for this. If the re-installation works, well and good, but if there are recurrent problems I may consider trying to 'downgrade' back to XP; all this is for later, though ...
In summary, the 'solution' appears to be to re-install the whole operating system, drivers and utilities. I am pretty good about doing regular back-ups anyway, but it seems that provided I stop the machine going on-line (by switching off the wi-fi connection) I can use it in a limited fashion, so have been able to copy various items that hadn't already been backed-up, so I got that done about an hour ago.
Right now I am in the process of doing a full re-installation from the back-up disks supplied with the machine; obviously all the anciliary software (some free, some paid for disk versions, some paid for and downloaded over the internet [let's hope the product licence keys will let me download again!]) will need to be re-installed and of course all my data will be lost from this machine and will need to be restored from my back-up copies.
Possibly part of the problem has arisen because Vista is (apparently) so different from earlier versions such as XP that a lot of anciliary software does not work on the new operating system - so I will not be re-installing certain software I have used for a while and wished to continue to use; I'll have to find other options for this. If the re-installation works, well and good, but if there are recurrent problems I may consider trying to 'downgrade' back to XP; all this is for later, though ...
Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Major problems with a laptop using Vista!!
I have two laptop PCs - the one I am writing this on right now, which uses Windows XP (purch Feb06) - and the other uses Windows Vista (purch Jun07).
I had been using the Vista machine yesterday evening with no problems (the XP model too) and switched it off normally last thing at night. I wasn't aware of any problems then with it. I had been doing all the normal things I usually do - a bit of browsing, reading blogs, updating a couple of my websites (I use IPSwitch Professional for FTP transfers) and all seemed to be happening just as usual, i.e. normally.
This morning I switch the thing on and get to the point where a passowrd must be entered to get it to start-up, it accepts that, up comes my screen saver and then it just sits there. Although I can move my mouse around the screen, none of the basic software has loaded so there is no way of even closing it down again in the proper manner. After 10 minutes waiting I take the plunge and switch off at the power button and a little later try to boot it up again. I'm then taken into the 'startup normally' or 'safe mode' options screens (because I couldn't close it down normally a little earlier) and I try 'start-up normally'. Same things happens each time I try this - precisely nothing! (I tried it 2 or 3 times just to be sure) Next time I try the 'safe mode' option and do a restore to an earlier date.
This seems to work and I get booted-up and online to update Vista (because I had to go back to a notional 21JUN) - that seems to work. I get online and find that Norton Internet Protection/Anti-virus says it needs attention. I get online updates for that and that seeems to work except it says that the anti-virus part is switched off - I try to switch it on, but it keeps returning the same message. It takes me to a screen saying I need to buy an update and I wondered whether the initial 3-month period 'free' is up - which I was surprised about - but anyway - so I buy the update and install it. It seems to install except it won't switch on the anti-virus part of the software, although the internet protection part says it is on. I check to find out if my Windows Firewall is on - discover with alarm it is not, so switch it on pronto.
I seem to be able to get online briefly, then the key-board freezes. Every time I re-boot it works for about 5 minutes, seemingly normally, then the keyboard freezes. I think I have reached the end of my abilities to solve this problem alone, so the next step will be to seek assistance from a 'PC doctor'. I just got back from a minor shopping trip and a short walk to try and clear my thoughts and am really writing this as a 'mind-dump'. I shall not swtich on the other machine again until I get it looked at by someone who knows more about it than me, as I fear I may only be making the situation worse with each 'solution' I try. A short while ago I did a 'Google' search for problems with Vista and discover there seems to be a lot! Other people seem to have this freezing-up problem, too. Luckily I've got the XP machine to work on meantime, but inevitably I'll be putting blogging way down my list of priorities until I get the other machine up and running normally.
Other things to do this month include making a decision about replacing my car at the end-August/beginning-September year change or whether to leave it for another year (my car is 2 1/2 years old so will need an MOT next February, but I shall be in Spain then with a car from here so if I keep it I'll have to get the MOT done before I leave). I'm coming to the view it will be simpler to change the car now and be done with it; the model of Honda I was thinking of getting (to replace my Honda of a different model) didn't get a very favourable review in the latest 'Which?' car guide, surprisingly to them and to me, so I'm looking at my options. A switch of make is possible, perhaps to a Mazda6. We'll see. Other problems are to do with the building management where I live, not so much with the Factor as with dealing with other residents; I'm the Chairman of the Res.Assn. and frankly it's a real pain dealing with certain individuals - they seem to think I have nothing better to do than to deal with their pointless 'gripes'.
OK? You get the picture? Bill is one frustrated person right now. I'm off - updates as and when.
I had been using the Vista machine yesterday evening with no problems (the XP model too) and switched it off normally last thing at night. I wasn't aware of any problems then with it. I had been doing all the normal things I usually do - a bit of browsing, reading blogs, updating a couple of my websites (I use IPSwitch Professional for FTP transfers) and all seemed to be happening just as usual, i.e. normally.
This morning I switch the thing on and get to the point where a passowrd must be entered to get it to start-up, it accepts that, up comes my screen saver and then it just sits there. Although I can move my mouse around the screen, none of the basic software has loaded so there is no way of even closing it down again in the proper manner. After 10 minutes waiting I take the plunge and switch off at the power button and a little later try to boot it up again. I'm then taken into the 'startup normally' or 'safe mode' options screens (because I couldn't close it down normally a little earlier) and I try 'start-up normally'. Same things happens each time I try this - precisely nothing! (I tried it 2 or 3 times just to be sure) Next time I try the 'safe mode' option and do a restore to an earlier date.
This seems to work and I get booted-up and online to update Vista (because I had to go back to a notional 21JUN) - that seems to work. I get online and find that Norton Internet Protection/Anti-virus says it needs attention. I get online updates for that and that seeems to work except it says that the anti-virus part is switched off - I try to switch it on, but it keeps returning the same message. It takes me to a screen saying I need to buy an update and I wondered whether the initial 3-month period 'free' is up - which I was surprised about - but anyway - so I buy the update and install it. It seems to install except it won't switch on the anti-virus part of the software, although the internet protection part says it is on. I check to find out if my Windows Firewall is on - discover with alarm it is not, so switch it on pronto.
I seem to be able to get online briefly, then the key-board freezes. Every time I re-boot it works for about 5 minutes, seemingly normally, then the keyboard freezes. I think I have reached the end of my abilities to solve this problem alone, so the next step will be to seek assistance from a 'PC doctor'. I just got back from a minor shopping trip and a short walk to try and clear my thoughts and am really writing this as a 'mind-dump'. I shall not swtich on the other machine again until I get it looked at by someone who knows more about it than me, as I fear I may only be making the situation worse with each 'solution' I try. A short while ago I did a 'Google' search for problems with Vista and discover there seems to be a lot! Other people seem to have this freezing-up problem, too. Luckily I've got the XP machine to work on meantime, but inevitably I'll be putting blogging way down my list of priorities until I get the other machine up and running normally.
Other things to do this month include making a decision about replacing my car at the end-August/beginning-September year change or whether to leave it for another year (my car is 2 1/2 years old so will need an MOT next February, but I shall be in Spain then with a car from here so if I keep it I'll have to get the MOT done before I leave). I'm coming to the view it will be simpler to change the car now and be done with it; the model of Honda I was thinking of getting (to replace my Honda of a different model) didn't get a very favourable review in the latest 'Which?' car guide, surprisingly to them and to me, so I'm looking at my options. A switch of make is possible, perhaps to a Mazda6. We'll see. Other problems are to do with the building management where I live, not so much with the Factor as with dealing with other residents; I'm the Chairman of the Res.Assn. and frankly it's a real pain dealing with certain individuals - they seem to think I have nothing better to do than to deal with their pointless 'gripes'.
OK? You get the picture? Bill is one frustrated person right now. I'm off - updates as and when.
Tuesday, 5 June 2007
New laptop finally connected wirelessly!
Yes, it's taken me this long since I last wrote about my difficulties here to get both my laptops connecting wirelessly to the internet, although admittedly I became so irritated with the whole thing a few days after the new machine arrived (on 17th May) that I reverted to using my other machine (a 17" wide-screen quite bulky laptop using XP) wirelessly and the new machine (a 12" wide-screen laptop using Vista) with the LAN cable plugged in. OK so far as it goes, but it's not really what I got the new machine to achieve, which was better portability.
A couple of days ago (over the weekend) I launched myself back into further attempts to set it up - and failed. Then I realised I needed outside help so I sent an email to AOL (my ISP) on Sunday evening, as I've never liked using their online 'live' help, and a response came in yesterday evening, which I decided to do nothing with until this morning, as I thought it better to get a good night's sleep first. Anyway, I followed the instructions in their email this morning and got online wirelessly with the 12" laptop very rapidly. But part of the instructions involved changing the settings in the router (one of their recommended models, which I got through their supplier about 15 months ago), so of course now my 17" laptop would no longer connect!
Luckily the email contained a reminder of the telephone help number, however, so I have just spent about 40 minutes speaking with an agent in a call-centre in New Delhi and he took me through the procedures required, which involved changing my wireless network name and encryption key and then getting both my laptops connected up. I have always found AOL telephone help-lines to be excellent, unlike their online 'live' help, altough this is the first time I have spoken to someone in an AOL call-centre in India as it has always been in Waterford, Ireland, until now. However, the person I spoke with in New Delhi certainly knew his stuff, thank goodness, and we had a pleasant few minutes conversation at the end to round off the call
Now the pay-off; I can be online in bed, or in the kitchen, with a very compact high-performance laptop rather than my other much more bulky machine (excellent in it's own way, though, as it has a marvellous screen), which will now be in its rightful place in my study to act as my 'desktop'.
A couple of days ago (over the weekend) I launched myself back into further attempts to set it up - and failed. Then I realised I needed outside help so I sent an email to AOL (my ISP) on Sunday evening, as I've never liked using their online 'live' help, and a response came in yesterday evening, which I decided to do nothing with until this morning, as I thought it better to get a good night's sleep first. Anyway, I followed the instructions in their email this morning and got online wirelessly with the 12" laptop very rapidly. But part of the instructions involved changing the settings in the router (one of their recommended models, which I got through their supplier about 15 months ago), so of course now my 17" laptop would no longer connect!
Luckily the email contained a reminder of the telephone help number, however, so I have just spent about 40 minutes speaking with an agent in a call-centre in New Delhi and he took me through the procedures required, which involved changing my wireless network name and encryption key and then getting both my laptops connected up. I have always found AOL telephone help-lines to be excellent, unlike their online 'live' help, altough this is the first time I have spoken to someone in an AOL call-centre in India as it has always been in Waterford, Ireland, until now. However, the person I spoke with in New Delhi certainly knew his stuff, thank goodness, and we had a pleasant few minutes conversation at the end to round off the call
Now the pay-off; I can be online in bed, or in the kitchen, with a very compact high-performance laptop rather than my other much more bulky machine (excellent in it's own way, though, as it has a marvellous screen), which will now be in its rightful place in my study to act as my 'desktop'.
Friday, 18 May 2007
New laptop tearing-out hair alert!
Note: I have almost no hair! OK, my new laptop seems to work fine and I have been able to get online with it whilst the LAN cable is connected. However, so far I have had no success getting it to connect wirelessly. I thought earlier on that I had corrupted the profile in the router itself so I wouldn't even be able to connect wirelessly with my older laptop - luckily I was able to sort that out with a factory-reset of the router and reconfiguration.
I think my next port of call will be my ISP, through whom I purchased the router, to see if there are any compatability problems because my new laptop uses Vista rather than XP; the router manufacturer's website seems to indicate that there may be, but as it is written in a kind of tech-speak jargon I am not entirely sure.
Off for a long walk on the beach!
I think my next port of call will be my ISP, through whom I purchased the router, to see if there are any compatability problems because my new laptop uses Vista rather than XP; the router manufacturer's website seems to indicate that there may be, but as it is written in a kind of tech-speak jargon I am not entirely sure.
Off for a long walk on the beach!
Thursday, 17 May 2007
Bill has a new notebook PC
I just took delivery earlier this afternoon of a new notebook PC, to supplement the notebook I have already. The new machine has a 12" screen and is amazingly nice to use (I'm using it right now) and amazingly small whilst still having a good and very sharp screen and a full-size keyboard; it is going to be a lot easier and practical to carry this machine around. It is the first machine I've had which uses Microsoft Vista ('Home Premium' version). Currently I'm online using a LAN cable, as that is pretty straightforward to do. I haven't yet set up access through my home wi-fi network; I expect I'll get round to doing that tomorrow as I recall when setting it up for my existing notebook that it took me quite a long time to get it operating correctly - I prefer to be 'morning-fresh', so to say, for that kind of task!
My existing notebook is only slightly over a year old and uses Windows XP; it is perfect, too, but as it has a 17" screen I found it a little bulky for truly portable use; it took up rather too much room in my overnight luggage, for example, when I was travelling to/from Spain recently so I decided some time ago that I would get myself a smaller notebook and use the 17" notebook as my principal 'desktop' machine in my study. I have semi-retired my main desktop last October or November, although I still use it sometimes when I need certain files which I didn't bother to transfer across to the laptop; it's also useful when I need to check-up on my archive emails.
All my recent PCs have been Fujitsu-Siemens; my latest notebook is the 4th of the brand I've had and I like them (I tend to replace PCs after about 3-4 years and think I'm now on my 8th machine since starting down the PC route in 1982). Really I've had no problems of any kind with any of the machines I've had, apart from the normal 'getting to know' phase when new - I've always gone for decent-quality brands and have avoided certain brands like the plague when I read reliability reports about them in PC magazines. Obviously I'm going through the 'getting to know' phase right now with the new 12" machine! And on that cheery note I will bid you farewell, probably for the rest of the evening.
My existing notebook is only slightly over a year old and uses Windows XP; it is perfect, too, but as it has a 17" screen I found it a little bulky for truly portable use; it took up rather too much room in my overnight luggage, for example, when I was travelling to/from Spain recently so I decided some time ago that I would get myself a smaller notebook and use the 17" notebook as my principal 'desktop' machine in my study. I have semi-retired my main desktop last October or November, although I still use it sometimes when I need certain files which I didn't bother to transfer across to the laptop; it's also useful when I need to check-up on my archive emails.
All my recent PCs have been Fujitsu-Siemens; my latest notebook is the 4th of the brand I've had and I like them (I tend to replace PCs after about 3-4 years and think I'm now on my 8th machine since starting down the PC route in 1982). Really I've had no problems of any kind with any of the machines I've had, apart from the normal 'getting to know' phase when new - I've always gone for decent-quality brands and have avoided certain brands like the plague when I read reliability reports about them in PC magazines. Obviously I'm going through the 'getting to know' phase right now with the new 12" machine! And on that cheery note I will bid you farewell, probably for the rest of the evening.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)