COMPUTING
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June 2008 Frightening! ... because a massive change had seemed inevitable since we relocated from Dewsbury a couple of months ago. Consolidation seemed the new watchword and so a drastic 'restructure' has taken place in the past few weeks. I have 'downsized' from the PC that's been running WIN98SE so satisfactorily for so long, at last! My Laptop/Notebook running WINXP has gone also; its wondrous 256Mb of memory, ample of its time, had all too quickly become too slow! So, I now have just the one machine again: a nice new DELL, 19" widescreen Laptop, this time running Windows VISTA OS, giving better mobility and taking so much less space. Its massive 250Gb hard drive will surely be enough for my needs?! Seriously, since I don't download films or albums full of songs I was sure all would be well. Yet already the OS, the programs installed and my data all takes up over 130Gb of space (including local backups) -- so, who knows?! The only downside to this overhaul so far is that my Black Widow Scanner -- that worked fine on WIN98 -- just will not work with Vista. Nowhere has there been found a suitable driver ..... and that includes the manufacturers. Hence I've found myself an Epson DX 4450 All-In-One Printer/Scanner etc. which will be used mainly for its Scanner capability until such time as my trusty 'workhorse' Epson 830U printer 'dies' on me. (That makes me 'one ahead' at least!)
July 2008 was when .... it was realised that files were becoming so large these days that my essential Backup regime has had to be 're-thinked' too. Even the 4 or 5 Flash Drives (from 512Mb - 2Gb in size), acquired over the past couple of years haven't been enough. Hence, having jumped the stage of backing to DVDs instead of CDs, I've recently taken the bigger and better step of acquiring a Maxtell External Hard Drive of 500Gb capacity! It was inexpensive (being in a sale) is fast and very easy to use. So far, I certainly recommend it: well done Argos! Now I can regularly, incrementally back up: midweek to another area of my Laptop's Hard Drive, essential data to Flash Drives where & whenever appropriate and, at the end of each week, everything to the External HD. It's envisaged that the Flash Drives will be mainly used for local portability (transferring data between locally residing family and PC colleagues) in future. Have you followed all this? .... I may be asking questions later!!
August 2008 Software these days? --- I have to say that Windows Vista is so much more streamlined than earlier Operating Systems that many auxiliary programs I used to need are now surplus to requirements. For email I use the built-in Windows Mail (no longer needing Mailwasher); for security I find the built-in Defender along with free 2008 programs of AVG, Spybot 2009 and Ad-Aware 2009 absolutely 1st Class. Internet Explorer v7 is my browser and I've stayed with my trusty MS Office 2000 for general office work; there being no point in paying to upgrade because the latter suits me fine.
September 2008 Back to Hardware. Pleased to report that the new backup regime (using the fast External Drive) is giving great Peace of Mind. For nearly four months now I've been using Mobile Broadband too -- so much less fiddly than worrying about Ethernet cables, external modems etc. It's been so inexpensive and reliable, I've almost forgotten how convenient is its use. To be able to (for instance) go to the beach, a relative's house or on such as a train and still have instant, fast access to the Internet has been a boon. My thanks to the company 3 who've provided me with such a terrific and economical service -- that I no longer have (or need to pay rental for!) a landline. For those who haven't tried this yet, as long as you have an OS of XP or above --- the hardware required is an external modem (the size of a USB Flash Key) which you plug into a convenient USB port. 30 seconds later "you're on!"
January 2009 Talking of USB Drives, I recently 'won' an 8Gb Flash Drive/Stick on Ebay (Auction site) for the princely sum (incl. p&p) of just £9! It works beautifully, is slim and compact and is therefore an ideal (and so portable) secondary back-up tool for essential data & photos. Indeed, I now literally carry an up-to-date copy of my 'Office' in my wallet!
May 2009 On the Software front again, I've found that the free programs Mailstore Home and Update Notifier have been a safe and ideal boon this past few months: the former backs up one's emails -- for easy reading in any other format or PC -- whilst the latter automatically advises me whether/when any installed program has an update available on the Internet ... and can install said update at the 'touch of a key'! Both these programs are extremely efficient (on Vista anyway). Auslogics Disk Defrag has similarly been found to be a useful and speedy, free Optimizing utility to date. I unreservedly recommend all three programs just mentioned. (Just search in Google, in case you wondered!)
July 2009 To give you a break from catching up on my own work (above) - quick change of subject! Fancy some free, SAFE Software?! Perhaps you'd like to visit the 'Giveaway of the Day' site for "just wot it sez on the tin" type of non-commercial and useful PC Programs! Please 'click' on the link below:
This section last automatically updated: 14 August 2009 14:40