EEEpc 701 gone

My friend updated the OS to Ubuntu version8 for me.

Much nicer than the original (Xandros?), but I simply couldn't get the wireless networking going.

I think there was a root password which he didn't tell me about, and I didn't want to pry...

Anyway, it's been returned to it's owner now.

Dust

I hate dust.

I did a big clean up today.

I can't believe there was so much fluffy dust behind my computer monitor, so much fine dust stuck to the cables, and so much crap lying around.

I'm tired after hauling and rearranging the room, but I think it is worth it. Lets hope the days of the overheating computers are over (My old crappy laptop overheated at the slightest temperature increase).

Cleaning PC #2

So - the untrusty desktop pc is playing silly buggers again...

Had to open her up again and clean out the video card. I realised that I had put absolutely heaps too much arctic silver on it last time around. So this time, I have redone the thermal paste with a more moderate amount, and tightened the screws a bit harder. I also cleared out a large chunk of dust that had gathered in the heatsink/fan of the graphics card.

I wonder how much longer this graphics card has got to go? I want a new beepy diary phone, but I think I _need_ a new desktop pc replacement sooner than that. Alternatively, I could buy a chunky laptop, but you dont get many upgrade options...

Times a wastin'

A marvellous time waster.

http://beta.www.mousebreaker.com/games/topspinner/playgame

After the event, no one wants to know!

So they make all these outrageous claims of "benefits".

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/state-government-hails-world-youth-day-a-success/2008/11/18/1226770451116.html

Now they are being asked to prove it, and they don't want to.

A reasonable person might ask "Why?"

A cynical response might be "Because they might be shown to have wasted the money."

No wonder NSW is doing so badly.

What next? They can't prove that spending millions of dollars on that V8 Supercar race in Homebush - we won't be surprised at that outcome.

Pirates, but of a different sort

So what have authorities been doing about piracy?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pirates-are-very-good/2008/11/18/1226770413138.html

Seems that they're just paying up and encouraging this behaviour...??

It was taken 730km off the coast - that is a loooong way...

Apparently its been taken to their lair/port.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/saudi-supertanker-taken-to-somali-pirate-lair/2008/11/19/1226770486149.html

More costs to business being passed down to the consumer, because the companies didn't stand up to the pirates in the first place. Paying them only gets them better equipped for next time!

The Poms are idiots

Just read this - they're absolute nutcases.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,24672187-23109,00.html

A parent should have the right to discipline their children and not have some nosey dim-witted twit report them for trying to get the child to behave properly. That the police get involved is even more stupid - go stop a thief, or even better - stop those teenage kids from stabbing each other!

These morons that let their children go wild should be the ones locked up now, because children raised without appropriate discipline will be the next generation of thieves, muggers, druggies, murderers, etc. Damn you slackers for dragging down the rest of society.

Useless nosey people, and useless cops!!

Desktop life expectancy?

So my desktop is starting to flicker and play silly buggers (small freezes, etc).

I suspect it may have been because the weather has been so warm recently, but who knows. The fans inside the case dont really want to spin, so they're not doing the job of drawing out hot air either.

I caved in last night, and opened up the computer, blew out loads and loads of dust, and then proceeded to remove the graphics card (7900GT) and CPU (E6600). I was lucky to have a tube of Arctic Silver and the cleasing stuff (Bottle 1 and Bottle 2, whatever they're called). Grabbed a couple of old rags, cut them up, and proceeded to unscrew, clean and redo the thermal paste.

Admitted today is a lot cooler than yesterday, so I am not seeing any(many?) artifacts at all.

I guess I will just have to wait and see how things turn out...

Eee PC 701 - my first opinions.

Okay, I am now posting this using the Asus Eee pc 701, white in colour (Im sure it will turn into a more standard beige over time).
The keyboard is tiny and not very good for touch typing. The keys are smaller, and slightly mishappen, and some keys dont quite register with the same uniform pressure as others.
Meh, my touch typing isnt the best, but even I think this little keyboard is just too small.

Oh, the screen is too small too - just not wide enough.

Seems pretty quick to boot and shutdown, and only 1 instance where i had to hold down the power key :)

Cheap Aussie dollar

Well, the Aussie dollar has fallen significantly over the past month, and this seems to have started with higher prices appearing in the shops. I can see that Dell and some other shops have jacked up prices, and this can only be a bad thing... I was looking at a cheap netbook and some cheap IT stuff, but having kept an eye on websites like fluidtek and ccpu, I have seen them put prices up week by week.

If this keeps happening, I can only assume that plenty of people are going to delay any sort of purchse until after the new year. (Thats providing that they are still in the position of considering spending money on these things, as opposed to just chucking it in the mortgage)

Netbook and cheap mobile internet?

So when I do eventually go on holidays, I think I want to stay connected to the internet. Therefore, which service provider will I go with to get this mobile internet? Having been looking for a new beepy phone diary, I think there are some pretty good combo deals out there where you can combine a standard phone deal, and get 1gb of data per month. Given that I have broadband at home, I don't anticipate wanting to download too much stuff when mobile :) Now to do some more research on this...

Cheap Laptop #2

Looking at cheap laptops, my friends pointed out this apparent bargain - A Toshiba A300 for only $849 (plus shipping costs). Hmm - looks like they sold out of the "good one", and have posted up a cheaper laptop - this one is not so appetising. The original one had a bigger HDD, XP Pro downgrade rights, a better looking case (shiny black fingerprint magnet), a fingerprint scanner, as well as wireless A/B/G (this cheap one doesnt have A). Plus other stuff which I probably have forgotten about now. What a shame...

Cheap Laptop

I have been looking at getting myself a new, but cheap laptop.

Not sure if the eeeeeeeee pc is really the right way to go, or some "budget" style equivalent from Acer, Dell, etc. Alternatively, I can look at something a bit more exxy.

For now, I've been offered a loaner - a friend of mine is going to loan me his 7" eeeeeeeee pc to try out. Now lets see if I get hooked on this concept or not :)

TomTom XL GPS

TomTom released a new version (v4?) of their XL GPS.

This is a 4.3" widescreen GPS unit, basically just a stretched version of the TomTom One GPS unit. For people with "fat fingers" like me :) this is a good thing!

I bought this unit as I was sick and tired of the typical in-car arguments that arise from late or unclear directions. This little unit is also good for advising you what the expected speed limit is for where you are driving (note: it is not always correct).

We took this unit up for a drive into the countryside, and it worked brilliantly. One weekend of driving, and not one argument. I would thoroughly recommend getting one of these if you experience any sort of heated discussions during street directory direction giving/taking. This unit will tell you when to turn, AND before hand (like in 200 metres). The best thing about this version 4 unit is the TTS feature (Text To Speech). It will read out the street names for you.

The unit is nice and thin, and the suction cup thingamyjig is nice and sleek. It mounts ok to the windscreen - although in our case, my wife was holding it so she could see it. I tried it out in my dads car, and I stuck it ot the front passenger window, which worked fine too.

All up, I reckon its a great buy - saves a ton of aggravation :)

If you don't have one, get one!

HTC Touch Pro - I want one!

One of the guys at work I know has one and it looks very nice.

He had the HTC TYTN II, but then he lost it.

It was good timing in a sense, as the HTC Touch Pro had just been released in the UK. So he ordered it online and got it shipped over. Did I say it looked nice?

Awesome phone, better than his old one. It looks to be slightly smaller, but perhaps a bit thicker/chunkier. The black finish is nice, although I am not sure if I am a fan of the keyboard, as I currently use the O2 Atom Exec, and I'm used to not having a physical keyboard (after all, if I need one, it can display one on the screen for me :)

Apparently it was supposed to be released on Friday, but the store I went to said there was a delay/problem, so probably not until next week. I wonder how cheap they can make it - what kind of deal can they do for me. I don't think I need one, but I would definitely like to buy one. The question is how much, and can I justify it to the minister of finance...

Last camera purchase - Canon Powershot G9

So it transpired that my relatively new Canon Powershot G7 (which I purchased on an overseas trip in 2007) decided to give me grief and die...

Well, at least it was under Japanese domestic warranty, so I had to ask a good friend of mine (who happened to be visiting Australia) to take it back to Japan with him for a warranty repair.

But what would I do for a camera in the mean-time???

So I decided to give Canon another go. So this time I bought the Canon Powershot G9 (since the G7 has been superceded). Is it much better than the last one? I guess so, I can't really tell that there is much difference - I still like the sharp images that my 5 year old Sony DSC-V1 puts out.

I am happy that I got the G7 back from my friend, and I am happy that it works without dramas.

Let's see how long this keeps up.

'tards driving big 4wd's in the city

So I'm driving through the north side of Sydney this morning, and its rainy and all....
Some freakin r*tard in a White Mitsubishi Pajero runs straight into the freakin roundabout and nearly causes an accident! You b*astard - you know who you are. You should not be driving a damn 4wd in the city, and with your obvious lack of regard of the road rules, you should not be holding a drivers license at all.
I really hate how so many 4wd drivers drive as if they own the road. For those of you who never take the vehicle off road (especially you soccer mums) you should be ashamed of yourselves. I hope you squirm every time you fill up your (massive) fuel tank, or have to replace your expensive (semi off-road) tyres. I wouldn't have such a problem if most of the people who drove them actually used them in the bush most of the time (driving the thing on the beach once in 10 years does not count).
Thank you for adding extra greenhouse gasses, guzzling up the fuel, and being so selfish.
It's days like this that you have to be thankful that you can see the light, and that there is hope - there is so much room for these guys to improve!

Australia Day

January 26th is Australia Day.
Brilliant.
Have a great Australia Day - And enjoy.

Samsung S1050B

I thought I'd comment on this digital camera.

I saw it on sale at Dick Smith Electronics (DSE), for the very cheap price of AUD $248
After reading up on the specifications, and also having a quick chat at DP Review, I thought I would try it out (The brilliant thing about buying from Dick Smith is the 14day money back guarantee).

Anyway, this camera is very impressive on paper. The specifications state 10Megapixels, and it records MPEG at 800 x 600 at 20fps. This is better than most other compact digicams.

Actually, I should mention the reason I was looking at this camera in the first place. I purchased a Canon Powershot G7 back in June 2007, when I was on a business trip in Tokyo. The price was good - in fact, much better than any price I could get back in Sydney, Australia. Unfortunately, ours is now broken (the lens will not retract - Google says E18 error!). I am quite sure that is most probably due to Exceptionally POOR design, manufacturing process, and/or quality control on Canon's behalf. They must know it, since my camera is only covered by a domestic Japanese warranty. A quick call to Canon Australia's service centre, and they reckon it would be AUD $450 to replace the lens (the comment from a service guy says "the error involves the lens, therefore we must replace it!").

Anyway, I am ranting and raving.... Getting back to the Samsung S1050B - just don't think its going to be anywhere near as good as the Canon, because it is not. I took it back to DSE, where they happily refunded me. I think I'll either look at getting a Canon Powershot G9 (the replacement model for the G7 - funny that it didn't stay on the market for very long before being replaced!!!!!), or look at something else.

Pressed for time

Don't you often feel pressed for time...
Too many things that need to be done...
Too little time to give each task the attention it deserves...

Well, I haven't got any solution to this. Just blogging about not having enough time to do everything that ought to be done. Maybe I'll figure out a better strategy than using beepy diaries :)

RIP Heath Ledger!

So Heath Ledger passed away - thats another Aussie Legend passing away at a young age.
-i meant to post this a few days ago, but got caught up with a few things.