posted 2009/04/28 at 19:34
One of the things that has made it easier for me to put off posting to the .org is the fact that hardly anyone else I know seems to post very often these days. I've subscribed to nearly every blog I follow in the Google Desktop Web Clips app for Google Desktop on the side of my desktop, and over the past year or so I can't help but notice that so many blogs that were once updated two or three times a week are now updated only once a week, if that. Granted, a lot of these people now use Twitter, as do I, and I make it a point not to go a day without tweeting, but things are different for me because I'm a writer, and I can't very well market my writing skills without writing more often than I have here for the past four months. Now that my winter classes are over, I'm going to try to get better at posting regular updates here.
However, as I was thinking about how rarely I see a blog update on the RSS feed on my Google Desktop, I couldn't help but think about how rarely I even use Google Desktop any longer. I like having the time and temperature on my desktop at all times (I auto-hide my taskbar so I have more desktop space), but right now those are the most useful parts of my setup. I used to use the built-in MP3 player, but when I started using last.fm I had to switch to Windows Media Player because last.fm doesn't support the Google Desktop player. (Winamp once fired Bonnie, and Apple products are right out for me, so don't try to get me to switch over.) Worse yet, the Google news feed has only been sending me stories from ESPN.com for the past couple of months, and most of them are days if not weeks old. Given that I don't make much use at all of the indexing feature of Google Desktop, it seems to be a real waste for me at this point.
What makes matters worse is that I'm using an older version of Google Desktop, and I'm guessing that switching to a newer version might correct this problem. However, the new version of Google Desktop on the Google Desktop site only supports 32-bit Windows, and I'm running 64-bit right now. I don't understand why Google wouldn't choose to support 64-bit Windows, and why they would just drop it like they have when older versions of the software used to work fine for me. I'm used to seeing this kind of behaviour from other companies -- Hewlett-Packard refuses to release a Vista driver for my old scanner, so I'm stuck having to buy a new one some time soon -- but this isn't the kind of behaviour I'd expect from Google. Google Desktop was a great product for me at one point, and I feel like it may yet be of some use to me, but right now it's just taking up space on the right side of my desktop and not really being that useful. Maybe I should just get rid of it and start visiting the blogs I like manually; it's not like they update that often these days.
posted 2008/05/21 at 22:28
In the end I wound up giving Yggdrasil Mark II to the local computer store for them to fix; a reinstallation of the heat sink that came with my processor actually wound up fixing things. Unfortunately they screwed up my network settings, forcing me to reinstall Windows to be able to connect to the Internet again. After that, though, it's pretty much been smooth sailing. I'm probably going to be up very late tonight -- even by my standards -- getting programmes installed, and at some point I'm going to take the hard drive out of Yggdrasil Mark I so I can transfer all my old files over, but for now I'm just having fun here with my new computer, relieved that the problems that I've had for the past week are finally over. (Famous last words, Shannon ...)
I don't want to go into too many details about the computer's specifications, but let's just say that I didn't build this system like her predecessor. Yggdrasil Mark I was built using fairly low-end hardware for the time (2003), although I used top brand names for all the important parts. I didn't go top-of-the-line for Yggdrasil Mark II, but I was only one notch down from top-of-the-line at best. It's another Intel-based system (my one AMD-based system was a real disaster for me), and contrary to my previous assertions I actually wound up going with an Abit motherboard since I heard that Asus' quality was slipping when I did my preliminary research on parts. I loaded it to the max with RAM (RAM was so cheap I figured why not), and even though my new hard drive is half the size of the one I first bought, I doubt I'm going to run out of space on it any time soon. I actually have a good 3-D card in this system because I may need it for something at MCCC; now I just need something to really test it with. I'd like to think that this setup will last me as long as Yggdrasil Mark I did, but I've been around computers too long to place any bets on that.
Although I already pledged Yggdrasil Mark I to Mom, I'm probably going to want to make some changes to her before I hand her off. For one thing, instead of reformatting the old hard drive and putting it back in, I'd rather keep the old hard drive as an archive, so I'll have to buy a new one. (I think they've still got old models at Best Buy.) I'll probably want to max out the RAM on her since, again, it's so cheap right now, and I may even max out the processor as well (although even maxed out it'll still pale to most any new system on the market these days). I'll need to replace the fans as well, and I may try sticking the power supply that came with Yggdrasil Mark II's case into the old system to see if that helps with some of the problems I've been having with it lately. That will have to wait for a little while, though; in addition to just wanting to play with Yggdrasil Mark II here, I also want to make sure she is stable for a couple of weeks before I part with my old system. No sense in not being cautious about this.
Labels: computing
posted 2008/05/18 at 18:50
A week ago I finally went ahead and ordered all the parts for Yggdrasil Mark II, my new computer. Yggdrasil Mark I is starting to flake out on me, so it's kind of important that I get my new computer up and operating as soon as possible. I was hoping that all the parts would arrive on Wednesday (I only teach Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays this term), but for some reason UPS decided to deliver only three of the five boxes of stuff that day, one of the boxes being the one with my case in it. That meant Thursday was quite arduous, as I had to leave here to teach before it arrived, and I had a meeting in Bowling Green to go to after teaching, so it was quite late by the time I got back here and was finally able to start putting things together.
Unfortunately, the good luck I had getting Yggdrasil Mark I up and running right away did not seem to come to me this go-around. After I got Yggdrasil Mark II put together, the system wouldn't even power up. I suppose this is what I get for trusting the power supply that came with the case (power supplies that come with cases are invariably second-rate, and from the looks of this one was even last-generation), so I wound up having to wait until yesterday to go out and get a better power supply from a local computer store. As if that weren't bad enough, after I got the new power supply home and started installing it, the power cord plug on my hard drive literally broke off, rendering the whole thing useless. I had to turn right back around and head out to Best Buy to get a replacement hard drive, half the size of the one I originally bought. (I only hope I can return the old hard drive because it was not put together well.)
At long last I was finally able to get Yggdrasil Mark II powered up, but it would automatically shut itself off after only a minute or two. After a bit of research and testing, I discovered that the problem was with the heatsink; I was using the heatsink assembly that came with the (Intel) processor, and it wouldn't plug all the way into my motherboard, so it wasn't making a good connection with the processor to help dissipate its heat. I spent most of the night last night just trying to get it to fit as best as I could -- the tip of my right thumb is still numb -- but in the end I only lengthened how long the system would stay up for a bit. I was able to get my OS installed, but trying to install anything else, or do anything processor-intensive at all, results in the system shutting itself off.
Now I'm forced to wait until tomorrow to go out and find a better heatsink; either that, or I'll order one online and have it shipped here Tuesday, since I'm kind of already booked up for tomorrow and probably won't have too much time to work on the new computer. I should have known that I'd have a harder time getting a computer assembled now than I had last time (Yggdrasil Mark I came together perfectly the first time, much to my surprise), and between the frustration of finding part after part that doesn't work, and the cost of buying new parts to replace the broken ones, this really doesn't seem like it was worth the effort to me. The next time I need a new computer, I'll probably go down to the local computer store and have the people there assemble it for me; as it is, I'll probably need their help just to get Yggdrasil Mark II up and running now if the next heatsink I buy doesn't solve my problems.
Labels: computing
posted 2008/04/23 at 21:03
As much as I used to follow computing news and trends back in the 1990s, the combination of leaving the Website design business, going back to college, and losing access to Tech TV after the fire caused me to kind of withdraw from that whole scene. Later, when I stopped working for Dad's business to focus on my studies, I lost access to the computing magazines he always subscribed to. I still knew enough to build my own computer (Yggdrasil Mark I) back in 2003, but then I got into grad school and I started teaching, and of course these past couple of months my life has been turned upside down. (I promise, once the current semester ends next week and I have one last weekend of reviewing student work, I will make a strong effort to return to blogging on a regular basis, not to mention other things that fell off of the radar after Dad died.) I have to stay up on Internet stuff just because of my job (in addition to teaching and researching online I also need to know the "Internet culture" of my students to be able to communicate effectively with them), but as far as the hardware stuff goes I kind of haven't paid attention to that for a long time.
I've mentioned here for a long time that I need to start making Yggdrasil Mark II soon. However, Mom says that she wants a computer so she can do Internet stuff, and as soon as she suggested that, she also suggested that I give her Yggdrasil Mark I and she'd buy me the components for my next computer. Well, unfortunately I'm beginning to have problems with Mark I -- I think she needs a new power supply and new fans -- and I don't want to have to perform major surgery on Mark I until it's time to get it cleaned up for Mom. At the very least it is now time to start pricing things out for Mark II, and yes, I'm building another PC, so Mac loyalists are advised to save their breath trying to get me to switch.
Unfortunately, my lack of knowledge of current tech trends is really coming back to bite me in the butt now. As I did with Mark I, I'm going to use an Asus motherboard at the heart of my system, and I'll probably get a current low-end Intel model. Unfortunately, PC architecture has changed so much that I find myself lost looking at the specs for motherboards. (Right now I'm looking at the P5N-E SLI, but I may get a higher-end model depending on how much money I can save up.) I look at the specs for the motherboard and what kind of RAM and hard drives it can support, and then I look at the RAM and hard drives that are on sale, and it seems like the components have all these additional variations that I can't match to the motherboard's listed specifications. I've tried to puzzle these things out on my own, but I'm having no luck, and it's getting to the point where I've given serious consideration to having a local computer store just build a computer for me, even though I'll probably spend at least an extra $250 just on price markups and labour costs.
I could use some guidance, if any of my readers have advice on components and stuff to get (apart from "Get a Mac"). Unlike my old computers which were mostly full of bargain-basement (but reliable) parts, I actually want something "nice" here because I'm past my "all I need to do is write papers in Word and look up plain text Websites" stage of my life; I plan on doing a lot of music and 3-D stuff with this new computer, so I'll want things to be nice but not go overboard buying bleeding-edge stuff. I don't want to overclock, and I don't need to burn Blu-ray discs (I already have a DVD burner from when I was going to put a new computer together for Dad), but I'd still like to know that I can run current-generation software quickly and be able to do a fair amount of multitasking. As I said before, an Asus mobo and Intel processor are givens (the one AMD computer I owned didn't work out too well for me), but otherwise I'm fairly open to suggestions.
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