Thursday, July 05, 2007
I haven't been posting much here lately, and one of the reasons for that is that my main computer has been out of action for the better part of a month now. it all started when I found my system started simply rebooting itself with no rhyme or reason. And then it just up and died, and wouldn't start no matter what. I took it back to the place I bought it from, they diagnosed that the motherboard was the likely culprit, and I waited the better part of a month for a replacement mobo to arrive. I then got my computer back but after a weekend where it would only stay stable in Safe Mode, it too up and died the same way as its predecessor.
Knowing that I would have to go through the same rigmarole again, and not wanting to waste another month while things got up and running, I took the plunge and basically bought a decent computer (an Acer Aspire T180) on sale at FutureShop.
The interesting, and unavoidable difference is that the OS is Windows Vista (the Home Ultimate edition if I remember right; there are so many variants it's hard to keep them straight). My only other choice was to go with Windows XP Media edition on a decidedly lower-end machine. So I took the plunge into an OS which I certainly have been less than impressed with in my brief forays with it in the lab at work.
First impressions of the OS so far is that it's pretty, but so far doesn't offer a compelling improvement over XP. It's also not as bad as some of the horror stories I have heard about -- for example, file transfers (something I have been doing a lot of since getting the machine) doesn't seem significantly slower than under XP. The "gadgets", such as the analog clock or the picture slide-show viewer and weather bug are cute, but not significantly different from anything I could have had under XP. Once I had transferred the files to the new machine, I pointed the picture viewer to show my various photos, and found and installed a dual core/memory-usage monitor, which has been interesting to watch (the load seems evenly spread over the two core processors for the most part; the system is at least efficient at processing and distributing the computing load). The other continual annoyance is being prompted repeatedly whether I approve of particular actions, such as installing a new program or transferring a file with read-only properties that I am moving. The way the OS does this is more annoying than in the past, briefly blanking the screen and greying out everything save for the approve/deny control. While I can understand that the developers intend this to be as "in your face" as possible in order to highlight the action of potential viruses on one's system, I wish the OS would simply allow me to get on with the common business of installing new programs with a minimum of hassle turning off that type of notification for that type of clearly user-initiated action would be a distinct improvement.
There are some minor improvements I do like though, such as the OS checking first whether or not there are duplicate files in a target directory the same as the ones I am trying to copy into it, whereas XP would only notify me of the conflict only when it encounters the match in the transfer process. Many is the time I've copied over a DVD's worth of data and walked away to find upon my return that the transfer process got stuck on the third or fourth file in. Unfortunately Vista scuttles this slight advantage by throwing up the annoying system-wide screen-blanking "are you sure?" message.
Since I am suspicious of the components of my old system, I plan on simply installing software on this new system -- including email, arguably the most critical thing I've been missing out on for the past month -- and not tinkering with things too much over the weekend.
Labels: Acer Aspire T180, computer, Microsoft Vista
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Well, most of one anyway. One of the nice perks of my work is that it is possible to get some very nice video cards at a reasonable price. And free is even better if and when it happens, which happened today as I lucked out in a draw for surplus motherboard (with integrated video) and a decent video card. So all I need is a CPU, power supply, case, and memory to put together a system.
Though I can hardly call myself a hard-core gamer any more (I buy maybe a couple of video games a year for my PC, typically of the Half Life 2 first-person shooter variety) I do appreciate a game that invests itself in a strong visual appeal. I have made arrangements for "Santa" to put a copy of Red Orchestra in my stocking for Xmas this year.
My problem is that I don't actually *need* another system at the moment. I upgraded my main system to a dual-core AM2 when I had the opportunity earlier this year. And while the X600 I won is a decent card, it is last year's, and I bought something considerably more advanced when I got the new system not long. In addition to my main system, I already have a good music/MAME server, Erika inherited my "old" system (that has about the same specs as this "new" system), and I don't anticipate having to get Vanessa a system for another year or two (and then my old notebook might be more appropriate). So until I figure out what to do with it, I have the makings of a decent new machine that will likely remain in its box until I figure out what I need it for.
Labels: computer, Half Life 2, MAME
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