Author: iandick

Re-installing XP

The new PC (who am I kidding – it’s 6 months old and out of date) was struggling with Windows. Seemed to have a lag at the start where no matter what program I selected it would wait for a couple of minutes before launching. After that it was fine. Shutdown also had the odd blue screen. I spent the last 2 or 3 weeks trying to find the problem but gave in at the weekend and formatted it again.

I’ve always been against re-installing everything every 6 months or so but the results have been dramatic. No startup lag, no shutdown problems and I’ve got most of the programs I use re-installed. Only snag was that I forgot a couple of things before formatting. I had an electronic download of Half-Life 2 via Steam. 3 gig download later and it was sorted (apart from the game save – swine). Also, I was sure I had moved my Outlook folder to My Documents (which is backed up and on a separate drive). Nope – looks like I hadn’t. SWINE. I still don’t understand why something like Outlook keeps the main pst file outside My Documents but that’s an excuse really for my fools rush in attitude. Got all important e-mails re-sent though so nothing lost. One utility that is a nice find is Startup Control Panel. It’s a small download and install which allows you to easily control what will be automatically started the next time XP boots. Accessible via Control Panel it’s and essential app.

So I thoroughly recommend that you do a proper (format the drive and re-install) refresh of Windows and applications at least once a year. Also – sort out a good backup regime. I’m trialling Norton Ghost with a main backup and incremental’s (weekly) onto my old pc. So far so good. End of public service announcement.

Daisy

For just under 12 years we’ve had the most lovely cat in the world called Daisy. She was so good natured and the perfect cat, only slightly ripping the wallpaper but where else could she sharpen her claws….apart from my shoulders. But I didn’t mind – she was part of the family. She was always small but in the last few weeks she seemed to be getting thinner, but she was at least 3 when we got her so that makes her at least 15-16 and we thought it was just her age. But last week we saw a sharp decline. Not interested, hardly eating, struggling to digest so a trip to the vets was arranged for tonight. Our worse fears were realised – she had damaged kidneys and it was downhill from here. We took the difficult but only decision to have her put down which was really difficult to watch but I knew deep down it was the right thing to do.

Bye Daisy…you’ll be sadly missed.

Playlist meme

From d2r, select whole music library and list the next random ten tracks that are automatically selected by your music app.

Mine are (thanks to the grammer Nazi):

Whatever Happened To Corey Haim – The Thrills
Johnny Come Lately – Catatonia
Don’t You Want Me Felix – Felix
The Drugs Don’t Work – The Verve
Shes The One – Robbie Williams
Flowers In The Window – Travis
Escape – Muse
…Baby One More Time – Britney Spears
I can’t give it up – Artful Dodger
Start Me Up – The Rolling Stones
With Or Without You – U2

Band Aid

Watched the documentary last night and finally came to the conclusion that I should have made ages ago – the quality of the song is irrelevant. It’s all about the money. It doesn’t matter who sings, how it’s arranged or whether the rap should have been included (although thankfully Justin from Darkness didn’t get to sing Bono’s line as what I heard last night was awful). We need to buy it and we need to contribute what we can and hope that one day the politicians will one day make a sensible decision and write off third world debt which I know is over simplistic but the millions that will be raised will not even dent the problems in Africa.

The original Band Aid was my first ever record purchase…20 years ago. To mark this anniversary I made it my first purchase from iTunes Music store…and then bought the Band Aid 20 version.

PSP – First Hands On

Play-Asia won a PSP in an auction in Japan and has provided some of the first hand on impressions, pictures and videos. While I still worry about battery life (2-6 hours depending on task and whether you follow……the law) it looks good, will hopefully play good and unlike Apple gear will hopefully not cost the earth when released here. Roll on March.

Apple…bad press?

Looks like for once Apple isn’t flavour of the month. Firstly their refusal to sell Do They Know It’s Christmas and then their inevitable climbdown. Now the EU & Which are after them for selling songs from it’s music store at a higher price in the UK than anywhere else. Overcharging in the UK is nothing new and as usual I can see no change being made to the pricing structure.