The state of my computer(s) - the post-birthday edition.
It kind of got overshadowed by my health issues, but back in late May, my field laptop fell from the table and, as the result, stopped working. In my efforts to boot it up, I may have accidently erased the entire contents of the hardrive (the jury is still out on that, since vladiatorr still hasn't given me the connector that would let me look inside the hardrive). But the bottom line is that I took it to a local computer repair shop, and they replaced the hardrive and installed Windows 8 on it (as opposed to the Windows 7 that originally ran on it) without activating it. Which left me with half a working system.
And, since then, the damage the laptop originally suffered got worse as the metal pieces holding the screen upright came loose. As the result, the screen and the keyboard portion were essentially held together by nothing but wires. I couldn't really use the field laptop unless there was something keeping the screen upright (like a stack of books), which rather limited its effectiveness.
I still used that laptop in the field, since it was still way lighter than the "home" laptop. But the home laptop, the older laptop I had sine 2008, became my primary computer.
(When my mom gave me what I later dubbed a field laptop for Christmas back in 2012, she meant it to replace the "home" laptop, which by that point was starting to show its age. But it had the weird screen dimentions, and no CD drive to speak of, so I decided to keep using the older laptop at home and take the much lighter newer laptop with me. That lasted for a few months, until my home laptop slowed to a crawl, forcing me to use the field laptop full-time. But, in the back of my mind, I wanted to see if I could resolve the slowness problem, so I used some money I got for my 2013 birthday to buy more RAM. After installing it, tinkering with the settings and uninstalling some software, it started working much faster. I still didn't use it often, but once my field laptop crashed, that became pretty damn useful)
Anyway - when my field laptop screen broke off, I wasn't too terribly worried. My mom and annanov both healthily foreshadowed that I would get a new laptop for my birthday. If I wasn't going to get a laptop (because, let's face it, laptops aren't cheap), I was going to take the field laptop back to the shop and hope they at least wouldn't make it worse.
When my birthday came last weekend (it was on Sunday, but my family celebrated it on Saturday), I did get a laptop. As a field laptop, it's actually pretty great. It's even lighter than its prececessor. It had Windows 8, but I knew from experience with the previous laptop that a combination of some shell programs, tinkering with settings (since this one was registered, I wasn't limited in that regard) to get it closer to the experience I actually liked. It didn't have a working Microsoft Office, but for a field laptop, I needed some kind of a word processor/chart creator/power point creator, and Open Office does the trick reasonably enough (when I got the original field laptop, it didn't come with Office either. I downloaded Open Office and it worked just fine).
(The irony is that I go have an actual copy of Microsoft Office, but I can't install it on a new field laptop because it doesn't have a CD drive)
Anyways, digressions aside, as a field laptop, it's great. Especially now that I got a word processor and Microsoft Writer installed (a wonderfully useful software that lets me write and save Livejournal posts even when I'm not connected to the Internet. It came especially in handy during the DC-NYC trip). I'm particularly intrigued by the touch screen and its ability to covert into something resembling a tablet. I installed Gimp (a freeware approximation of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator), and I'm interested to see if I could draw things by hand rather than fussing with the curser.
But, as you can probably tell, there's a "but" coming.
I don't believe in bad-mouthing presents. They are presents, after all. Gifts. So I'm not going to try to badmouth the other gift my family got me... Try.
Because, you see, my mom seems to have meant for this to replace the home laptop as well. Which, to me, is a bit of a problem. Because things I can easily overlook in the field laptop become glaring issues when I think about using it full-time. Like the lack of a CD drive. Of the fact that parts of the keyboards I was used to are misssing (even the previous field laptop had "home/page up/page down/end thing. I've gotten so used to having those keys that I didn't even realize why the new field laptop wouldn't let me scroll to the bottom until I looked down on the keyboard and saw that those keys don't exist). Or the fact that some software I like - and which worked fine on Windows 7 - simply refuses to work on Windows 8.
Now, you may be thinking - no one is forcing you to give up the "home" laptop. Well, that's where the second gift comes in. Because annanov and vladiatorr apperantly pooled together their money to buy me a larger monitor. Which is pretty useful if I was going to use it as a home laptop. But as it stands... I can think of several things I would have rather had them spend a money on. Like, say, a CD drive I could attach to a field laptop (because, for starters, it's kind of a shame that I got a Microsoft Office installation disc just sitting there). Or a hardrive connectior. I'm fairly sure they would be cheaper, too.
Having said all that... I am aware that my home laptop isn't getting any younger. Its hardrive is reaching capacity. Another reason why I'm grateful for having a field laptop is because I now have somewhere to upload pictures and podcasts - something I can't do to the home laptop because there's literally no room. And there have been glitches, loading issues... There may come the time when the home laptop simply won't turn on.
So I may need that monitor later on... Except, knowing me, even if the home laptop croaks, I probably wouldn't use it. Since the laptop has a smaller, but still working monitor of its own. My mom got herself a similar set-up - a smaller laptop with a monitor she ould use at home, but she also has a keyboard, and a mouse. If push comes to shove, I suppose those thngs aren't that expensive. I can save some money and get them, hook the field laptop up to the monitor... And also get an attachable CD drive.
But unless or until my home laptop loads one last time (*тьфу-тьфу-тьфу*), I got a large monitor I'm not entirely sure what to do with. Except leave it in storage. Which seems like a crappy way to handle something your siblings spent money on.
What to do, what to do...
And, since then, the damage the laptop originally suffered got worse as the metal pieces holding the screen upright came loose. As the result, the screen and the keyboard portion were essentially held together by nothing but wires. I couldn't really use the field laptop unless there was something keeping the screen upright (like a stack of books), which rather limited its effectiveness.
I still used that laptop in the field, since it was still way lighter than the "home" laptop. But the home laptop, the older laptop I had sine 2008, became my primary computer.
(When my mom gave me what I later dubbed a field laptop for Christmas back in 2012, she meant it to replace the "home" laptop, which by that point was starting to show its age. But it had the weird screen dimentions, and no CD drive to speak of, so I decided to keep using the older laptop at home and take the much lighter newer laptop with me. That lasted for a few months, until my home laptop slowed to a crawl, forcing me to use the field laptop full-time. But, in the back of my mind, I wanted to see if I could resolve the slowness problem, so I used some money I got for my 2013 birthday to buy more RAM. After installing it, tinkering with the settings and uninstalling some software, it started working much faster. I still didn't use it often, but once my field laptop crashed, that became pretty damn useful)
Anyway - when my field laptop screen broke off, I wasn't too terribly worried. My mom and annanov both healthily foreshadowed that I would get a new laptop for my birthday. If I wasn't going to get a laptop (because, let's face it, laptops aren't cheap), I was going to take the field laptop back to the shop and hope they at least wouldn't make it worse.
When my birthday came last weekend (it was on Sunday, but my family celebrated it on Saturday), I did get a laptop. As a field laptop, it's actually pretty great. It's even lighter than its prececessor. It had Windows 8, but I knew from experience with the previous laptop that a combination of some shell programs, tinkering with settings (since this one was registered, I wasn't limited in that regard) to get it closer to the experience I actually liked. It didn't have a working Microsoft Office, but for a field laptop, I needed some kind of a word processor/chart creator/power point creator, and Open Office does the trick reasonably enough (when I got the original field laptop, it didn't come with Office either. I downloaded Open Office and it worked just fine).
(The irony is that I go have an actual copy of Microsoft Office, but I can't install it on a new field laptop because it doesn't have a CD drive)
Anyways, digressions aside, as a field laptop, it's great. Especially now that I got a word processor and Microsoft Writer installed (a wonderfully useful software that lets me write and save Livejournal posts even when I'm not connected to the Internet. It came especially in handy during the DC-NYC trip). I'm particularly intrigued by the touch screen and its ability to covert into something resembling a tablet. I installed Gimp (a freeware approximation of Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator), and I'm interested to see if I could draw things by hand rather than fussing with the curser.
But, as you can probably tell, there's a "but" coming.
I don't believe in bad-mouthing presents. They are presents, after all. Gifts. So I'm not going to try to badmouth the other gift my family got me... Try.
Because, you see, my mom seems to have meant for this to replace the home laptop as well. Which, to me, is a bit of a problem. Because things I can easily overlook in the field laptop become glaring issues when I think about using it full-time. Like the lack of a CD drive. Of the fact that parts of the keyboards I was used to are misssing (even the previous field laptop had "home/page up/page down/end thing. I've gotten so used to having those keys that I didn't even realize why the new field laptop wouldn't let me scroll to the bottom until I looked down on the keyboard and saw that those keys don't exist). Or the fact that some software I like - and which worked fine on Windows 7 - simply refuses to work on Windows 8.
Now, you may be thinking - no one is forcing you to give up the "home" laptop. Well, that's where the second gift comes in. Because annanov and vladiatorr apperantly pooled together their money to buy me a larger monitor. Which is pretty useful if I was going to use it as a home laptop. But as it stands... I can think of several things I would have rather had them spend a money on. Like, say, a CD drive I could attach to a field laptop (because, for starters, it's kind of a shame that I got a Microsoft Office installation disc just sitting there). Or a hardrive connectior. I'm fairly sure they would be cheaper, too.
Having said all that... I am aware that my home laptop isn't getting any younger. Its hardrive is reaching capacity. Another reason why I'm grateful for having a field laptop is because I now have somewhere to upload pictures and podcasts - something I can't do to the home laptop because there's literally no room. And there have been glitches, loading issues... There may come the time when the home laptop simply won't turn on.
So I may need that monitor later on... Except, knowing me, even if the home laptop croaks, I probably wouldn't use it. Since the laptop has a smaller, but still working monitor of its own. My mom got herself a similar set-up - a smaller laptop with a monitor she ould use at home, but she also has a keyboard, and a mouse. If push comes to shove, I suppose those thngs aren't that expensive. I can save some money and get them, hook the field laptop up to the monitor... And also get an attachable CD drive.
But unless or until my home laptop loads one last time (*тьфу-тьфу-тьфу*), I got a large monitor I'm not entirely sure what to do with. Except leave it in storage. Which seems like a crappy way to handle something your siblings spent money on.
What to do, what to do...