Month: March 2013

How about putting the classic Start menu back in like it used to be? No? Awwww, go on, do it.. How about addressing the ‘Modern UI’ reliability? It would be nice if the tiles always worked and didn’t throw up errors about updating and installing. How about a bit of text editing in the warning about what Windows 8 Refresh will actually do? Former Windows 7/Vista users are used to the word ‘programs’, not ‘apps’.? Yes, that would be nice too The truth is that very few people know what it will do. Presently, it is all speculation out in … Continue reading Windows Blue, what will you do?

I have received notification today that a new Coolermaster CM690 II case has started the journey to London Ontario, eta being April 2nd ‘by the end of the day’. The new case will have USB 3.0 ports, two of them,  Needless to say, my 880G motherboard knows nothing about USB 3.0. It was ‘on sale’ at a good price, and it was not long before I found out why. A USB 3.0 version was on it’s way. Oh well… For the duration of my motherboard’s life, I will have to pipe USB 2.0 to the super-fast ports, and I will … Continue reading Back in business.. soon

Two great waits actually.. Wait #1. My old case arrived ‘home’ at !0:45, Monday, 18 March. It now has to be checked out by Coolermaster technicians, and in time I will get an email telling me that something is being sent back to me. Due process is probably the worst phrase in the world to somebody like me who doesn’t like to wait. It will have to be taken from the delivery point unpacked identified labelled as to what happens to it next join a queue behind other units checked out the condition noted down the worksheet then passed on … Continue reading The Great Wait..

While my Coolermaster CM 690 II is on its way to California, I have squeezed as much of my PC as possible into a totally inappropriate case.It has less structural integrity than the average aluminium food container but is a better option than leaving the parts loose on top of my desk. The heat sink and fan assembly, a Coolermaster Hyper 212 sporting two fans protrudes beyond the perimeter of the case, forcing me to leave the side panel off. There is no side panel on the back either because I can’t fit enough fans into the case to keep … Continue reading On the production front..

This is my first Netbook powered blog post ever. The core of this system is presently a Toshiba Mini, my production PC internals being scattered around two desks. For now, they are homeless as my original Coolermaster CM 690 II case makes its way back to its maker. The UPS tracker tells me that the case left London Ontario at 21:45. There was no fanfare. Fortunately, I am not working directly on the Toshiba Mini. The 19″ widescreen monitor and MS 5000 Desktop set are connected and I can actually see what I am typing. I couldn’t work on a small keyboard … Continue reading Netbook powered..

It’s the title of a book written by Giles Colborne, who has been designing interactive user experiences since the early 1990s. When he’s not doing that he he’s busy with cxpartners, a design consultancy based in Bristol and London that specialises in web and mobile user interface design for companies such as Marriott, Nokia and eBay. Giles and Richard Caddick founded cxpartners in 2004. This is a small extract where Colborne breaks down the following: A tiny percentage (say one percent) of users are experts, with a high tolerance for learning. A few more (say nine percent) of users are … Continue reading Simple and usable..

Microsoft is in trouble again for not promoting other browsers over its own in EU versions of Windows 7 SP1. As you can plainly see from the graph, Internet Explorer is streets ahead of all of the competition and rising. Well, it would be if the green line was Microsoft’s in house browser. It looks to be Google’s Chrome browser that is winning. Could this be because all Android mobile devices run Google Chrome by default? I haven’t seen a browser ballot on my wife’s Android powered smartphone. Where is the option to choose either Firefox or Opera Mini when … Continue reading Browser wars..

Starting with an upgrade to Windows 8 over the top of Windows 7 which is already running FrontPage and Twinbox ..  Windows 8 + FrontPage 2003 + Office 2010 + Twinbox (latest or any version) = OK, No major issues..   Starting with a fresh, clean install of Windows 8.. Windows 8  + FrontPage 2003 + Office 2010 = OK, no major issues Windows 8 + FrontPage 2003 + Office 2010 + Twinbox (latest or any version) = Not OK. Twinbox knows about the tweets but Outlook is unable to display them. OK, so I use FrontPage 2003 now and … Continue reading Windows 8.. Incompatibility

One minute everything is fine, and the next? All shut down. The problem persists, but I have nailed it down to the case top/front panel headers, the panel itself. Coolermaster added a ‘ground’ cable to the later panel headers, but the fix doesn’t work, at least for me it doesn’t. I know this because they kindly sent me a complete new top + panel for it. I have since had a discussion online with a Coolermaster techie guy and he suggested that there is a bad ground somewhere, maybe in the surge protector or power supply. I might have taken … Continue reading An ‘open and shut’ case..