I recently added a new computer my family — a home theater PC named Scooter. I’ve been planning on getting a home theater PC for over a year now, but it was a long process of finding just the right device that met my needs. I had two main use cases for this PC: 1) […]
As I mentioned in my last post, Clementine recently evolved from being a computer just for my wife, into being a computer for both of us. As a result, she needed a boost in a few areas to better suit the needs of both of us combined. Also, with all the stuff going on over […]
Life has been busy recently, and as such, I’ve been lax in updating this site. But here’s a recap of the last couple months: My wife and I bought a house (hence life busy)! Which has resulted in several computer changes. Most importantly, we decided that instead of each having a separate computer, we’d consolidate […]
Fozzie got upgraded to Windows Vista recently, sort of by accident. It all started with the fact that I had been running Vista within a virtual machine for awhile, and wanted to finally try running it on the base hardware to see if my beloved computer could handle the notoriously resource-hungry Vista. So, I started […]
For many many years now, I’ve had a tiered approach to backups. On one tier, I do automatic nightly backups from one hard drive to the other, protecting against drive failure and accidental deletion. On the next tier, I have done manual monthly backups to DVD-RWs (and CD-RWs before that), protecting against power surges, malware […]
Clementine finally got an uninterruptible power supply. Specifically, an APC Back-UPS ES BE750G. I’ve long planned to add a UPS to Clementine, and finally got around to doing it. I think a UPS is a great addition to any machine; it adds an extra layer of reliability, and it just feels great when the power […]
Fozzie got a new set of speakers. I’ve been wanting to upgrade Fozzie’s speakers for several years now, but year after year I had a lot of trouble trying to find a new set that I thought would be a good replacement for what I had. Fozzie’s old speakers were a Klipsch ProMedia 4.1 set, […]
New laptop! My existing laptop, Camilla, is going on five years old soon, and is starting to show her age, so it was time for her to be replaced. The new laptop — named Beaker — is a Dell Inspiron 1420. As a 14-inch laptop, it’s slightly smaller and lighter than Camilla, but also significantly […]
Well, after a year of experimenting with using a Bluetooth headset on my primary desktop, Fozzie, I’ve come to a conclusion — the technology isn’t quite there yet. Even after adjusting to ensure line-of-sight with the receiver, the sound quality was never consistently good enough to rely on. When it was good, it was really […]
Waldorf got a new keyboard — a Microsoft Wired Keyboard 500. It’s a pretty nice keyboard, simple, but effective. It’s wired because this particular computer has no need for wireless peripherals, and the addition of batteries would really just be detrimental. And the keyboard is simple, no LCD screens or multitudes of media buttons which […]