Lose the Computer Room?

Now that my daughter is entering the 'tween' stage, I am seriously considering moving her computer downstairs. Right now, all the computers are in the computer room with the exception of my notebook which is in the kitchen counter. We use a wireless Linksys router so I'm still connected to the internet. Back to the kids' computer, since we all hear about these horor stories of kids and the internet, I want to be able to monitor their computer use. She doesn't use any chat programs and she's not in any social networking sites. She's not interested and even if she is, I won't let her use those. I don't know how long I can keep it this way but I want to take all precautions necessary.

An External Drive for Me

The worst thing that could happen to someone with a computer is the hard drive crashing. That's my worst fear because all my photos are in it. I've burned some disks but I'm not up-to-date with it, sad to say. I thought of online storage too. Since I've been thinking of getting an external drive for quite some time now, I leafed through the Sunday ADs and saw one on sale at Best Buy. So I was planning to get that when while at BJ's I saw an external drive offered at a good price. What's better, it has a 1 terabyte capacity. Well, I don't know about you but I know that is one heck of a huge storage. I googled it to be sure and found that a terabyte is 1,024 giga bytes. Holy macaroni! My notebook has a hard drive that's almost 150GB so I can imagine how big 1T is. Well, as you can guess, I bought it since the price is right too.
Now, I can rest easily knowing that all my family's photos and videos are safe and backed-up. Do you have your files backed-up?

Good News!

For me! I just received a call from Dell that my notebook is on it's way back. Yipee! I checked FEDEx and found out that it is out for delivery. I hope I will get it today. please please please... :o) I wrote a post about my notebook going out to the computer doctor HERE. I am surprised and pleased that it is fixed this fast considering it's not even a whole week. Great job Dell! Considering how much I paid for it, I did not expect anything less than stellar service.

Getting my notebook means I will be back to my regular programming schedule very soon. So my daily EC drops will commence shortly. :o) I'll be able to catch up with my daily blog reads and find out about this Lipovox which my friend mentioned the other day.

Now, the waiting game starts.

Off to the Doctor

It's amazing how we become dependent on our computer. I use it everyday in every aspect of my life. My notebook has all my files, recipes, photos and whatnot. The wireless capabilities makes it very valuable since I can do household chores and multi-task at the same time. i.e. drop ECs
When we went on vacation to Europe, I brought this with me so I was able to check emails and confirm reservations. It is small and compact. It measures roughly under 12in. x 9 in. and weighs under 5 lbs.
Now, I will be without my trusty notebook for a couple of weeks. I'm shipping it today to Dell to have it fixed. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I prefer to keep this notebook rather than get a new one. It'll cost me more $$ to pay for a model with the same capabilities since it's a gaming laptop that has all the bells and whistles(Dell XPS). It has 2 GB of memory, gotta love that. I enjoy playing computer games and this notebook is powerful enough to run even the most complicated game. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed and will drop it off to FedEx this afternoon. I hope I'll get it before the end of this year since I need to make sure that our membership cards are good through next year.

Our Love of Computer Games

Dh likes to play computer games. He's into the role-playing games. I remember his first game was Myst and this was a decade ago. He played all of the succeeding version and I think it's one of his favorite series. The games these days are more complex and the graphics are amazing. To be able to play these games, you need a lot of computer memory and the processor must be fast (like the Intel Centrino Duo or Quadro.) I know, that's a free plug for dh's company. LOL I also like to play games although I prefer a different kind. I played Roller Coaster Tycoon, Lemonade Tycoon, Cake Mania, etc. I enjoy it and is just one way to relax unless I'm playing Collapse, then I'd be so wired up. :) Do you play and what game do you like?

Build and Upgrade Your Own Computer

Computer technology changes so fast and usually the computer we use lags far behind. New programs use up a lot of memories and buying a new computer everytime Intel rolls out a new processor gets so expensive. I found a website called www.easyasmypc.com that will help you solve that problem without causing a lot of money. Having had the experience of building my own computer, I can tell you that it is very easy.

They have custom build pc kits, these kits include all you need to build your own computer. The instructions are written in plain English, not in a hard-to-understand technical jargon. It also has illustrations which show step-by-step instructions. You just need a screwdriver and the Easy As My PC Kit to build your own computer. Easyasmypc.com also has kits to increase your computer's memory or RAM or even replace your old CPU.