Month: May 2012

I have an old XP computer which has been behind some other stuff of mine. In it is a Western Digital 160gb IDE drive, made in March 2005, and presently all that I have on which to install the Windows 8 Beta. I see no point in re-installing the Consumer Preview, and the beta will be more representative of what the RTM will be Cooling will be paramount when using it, and I will most likely add a fan into the system case. There are two positions for a 120mm fan in front of the drive bays, but only one … Continue reading A hard drive for Windows 8..

Wireless connection integrity via the D-Link G132 USB adapter has been really good but the connection strength was not good at all, fluctuating between 50 and 66%. I have enabled the internal Realtek 8191SE adapter again, updating to the latest drivers from Realtek from their own website, and connection strength is back to 100%. I can only hope that the 8191SE maintains its connection better with the latest drivers. Past history with the 8191SE is a catalogue of dropped connections, something which has plagued Toshiba L500’s and later models for a considerable while. I thought about replacing it with a … Continue reading Cisco DPC3825.. an update..

I booted the drive with the Windows 8 installation a couple of days ago and all it wanted to do was disk check all three drives. Eventually, Windows 8 started and I played around for a while. Today, I attempted the same and everything went to plan except that Windows 8 would not start at all. Further investigation found that the Seagate 160 was running quite hot and obviously not well. Yes, I ran a Seagate extended disk check and that said the drive was fine. Yeah right. Somehow I just knew it would do that even though the drive … Continue reading No more playing with Windows 8 CP..

I have traded in my old Scientific Atlanta DPC2100 cable modem.  Rogers have a new modem which will allow for a nominal 18mb download on their cable networks, and my old modem  can’t do that apparently. although I have seen it reach that level on a good day. It will also have wireless capability. Trouble is that I don’t get the10gb extra download if I don’t take the new modem/router. and it only costs me an extra $3 per week.. On the back of the DPC2100, I had a D-Link DIR 628 running at 2.4mhz delivering Internet to two wireless … Continue reading A new connection..

.. but it works. I was asked to scan and send by email a photo which was taken a few years ago. It had been in a glass frame, and when removed for scanning, tiny bits of the picture were left on the glass. It wasn’t too bad but I wanted to improve it There were and still are five different photo viewer/editors installed. Windows Live Gallery Windows Photo viewer Microsoft Office Picture Manager Irfanview XnView All of them have the ability to change a photo in some way, even if it is only to correct the orientation. Some can … Continue reading It’s an oldie..

If you entered computing during the XP age, you missed out on all of the fun. Here is a piece of computer world history for you.. The title of the video says it all.. This spawned more humour like this photo on the right. It was particularly popular with Mac users. I must admit that when I first saw it, I did smile. Is it still funny? Not really, because computers and operating systems are way more stable than they used to be. The days of unrecoverable Application Errors, General Protection Faults and the more specific BSOD of late are … Continue reading All set up and ready to go.. down?

There is a Quick launch toolbar on Windows 8 but keep it quiet in case MS take it out as they did the hack to dump the Metro-o-o-o interface. Between this and Vi-Start or Start-X, Windows 8 might approach being a desktop OS after all. Vi-Start and Start-X both need more development, but even now they give functions which MS is feeling too spiteful to include. That and Quick Launch gets you access to applications and basic functions way better than jumping through the desktop/Metro-o-o-o interface. I still find it hard to believe that the company which brought affordable computing … Continue reading Pssssttt..