Month: February 2014

My Canon Lide 30 scanner has decided not to scan finally. It was only managing monochrome text for the last month, but it can’t do that anymore. I have had it for eleven years and it owes me very little. I liked it because it was compact, didn’t require a mains outlet, and it was supplied with good software. The only Lide models available now are the 110 and 210, but I will not be replacing my scanner with either of these. The  HP 5150 printer is almost out of colour, and because there is a deal on at my … Continue reading The end of an era..

.. and you know who you are.. Thanks to Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, who makes my day every day

I am not too sure what the full implications of this phrase will be or if I want any of them. As I understand, it is about everything being connected. A while ago, I looked for a child car seat to replace the ‘out of date’ seat that I already had. Eventually, I found the make and model that I wanted and purchased it online. The photo shows a Britax Parkway SG and the colour is called ‘Confetti’ It is the latest model, with improved head and upper body protection, but I did add extra padding to the seat and … Continue reading The Internet of Things..

Coming.. Windows 8.1.1 has yet to appear, next months ‘Patch Tuesday’ is earmarked, and it will bring more improvements for desktop users and slim some things down for lower power tablets, all more than welcome for a wide range of users. Also rumoured are some Metro apps ported to the desktop side, The traditional MS games would be good candidates. Windows 9 rumours suggest April 2015. There is a lot riding on this OS, make or break for the Windows OS on desktops and laptops. I am hoping that Microsoft release it as a core with interchangeable interfaces. and I … Continue reading Coming and going..

It is this.. A kernel power ID 137 event – The system firmware has changed the processor’s memory type range registers (MTRRs) across a sleep state transition (S5). This can result in reduced resume performance. I don’t think that anything can be done about this. To come out of hibernation, I press the ‘power’ button on top of the case, and it is this ‘event’ which causes Windows to think that something is wrong. Operationally, it makes no difference to me, doesn’t put up a BSOD, and doesn’t affect anything else. So, the upshot is that I will NEVER have … Continue reading The last recurring error..

.. as in Compaq CQ56 c/w the AMD v140 processor. I have one sitting to the side of me, and it is the budget model of the range with the accent on BUDGET.. The owner bought it new on the premise that it was a decent notebook, but this CQ56 hides a nasty secret. It is a notebook with NETBOOK performance, and is guaranteed to annoy the owner. Everything it does is in slow motion. The hard drive is a 250gb Seagate with two thirds of its space still free. There are four partitions as is usual with anything from … Continue reading Watch out.. there’s a CQ56 about!

It is useful to be able to send messages over a local area network. I do it quite often when I am working across all of the machines on the home network here. I started off with: ‘Stickies’ from Zhorn Software in the UK. It is basically a ‘stickies’ utility but it has network capability too. It proved to be an excellent ‘post-it note’ utility, but not so much a network messenger. Lantoucher Messenger. This is ok, but it was awkward to use and very easy to shutdown accidentally. Softros Messenger.. I liked this one but it costs after a … Continue reading LAN messengers..

Google Glass You too can look like you are about to pilot an attack helicopter at night, except that you can’t do that just yet, not with Google Glass anyway. What you can do is get info and record info. Trouble is that others with the same technology can do it to you. It takes stalking to new levels. NYPD are testing it out, but Google doesn’t like that idea at all. It puts a negative slant on what is presently being marketed as ‘fun stuff’. In my opinion, this scenario just about says it all. I can see NO … Continue reading Wearable computing..

Success.. The computer is up and running again.. Event Viewer shows no critical errors in the last 7 days, and the number of regular errors is diminishing quickly.. Everything important is working, peripheral devices included.. Work in progress Setting up my other blogs in Windows Live Writer Installation of Mesnews and the setting up of MVPS newsgroups. Ewisoft Website Builder is working, but importation of the backup sees some of the graphics missing in action.. Fail I can’t get my favourite YouTube video downloader to work. It installs but that is as good as it gets. Me in general. I … Continue reading A mixed week..

Satya Nadella is the new CEO of the Microsoft empire and I must admit to not knowing him, his existence even, but then I don’t pore over Microsoft staff lists and management structure. All I care is that Microsoft produce a product that I can use personally and have enough faith in the product to support and recommend publicly. Hey, I am just one very small cog in the machine. Will the new CEO do better than his predecessor? I can’t make a guaranteed statement based on anything I have not seen, but from what I have seen since 2001, … Continue reading The new boss..