Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Today's glimpse:

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!

Velly velly happy.

Just been out and spent 400 quid on a new PC, as the old one's been wheezing and groaning for months and frequently just gave up altogether. And I didn't realise how bad things were until I got this new one up and running. It's fantastic - it's... it's... fandabbydozy!!! It's got a tyrannosorousbite of something with an inteli3 thingy, 4 gbs of RUM and Windows 2053. Can you see me metaphorically flexing my virtual pecs at you...? Is mine bigger than yours, or what??? I thought my ponderous movement through the ether was down to a slow connection, but I'm skipping from site to site like a 9-year-old.

The computer shop chappy was wonderfully helpful, full of info and when I explained what an IT idiot I was (don't think he really needed me to tell him...) he lent me his assistant to come and set everything up for me. Bless him. I said to Bee that it would have taken me 3 days of cursing and sweating to get it sorted - he had the whole lot set up in 40 minutes! It would have taken me that long to get it out of the box... It's got sobyappers so great sound, and now I plan to start exploring the world of movie downloads (again well behind the times, but never mind!) We have a nice big tv and the CD/DVD player has a plug'ole for my memory stick, so I can transfer and watch film etc with that. I only discovered that yesterday... Oh I know, but it's all wonderfully new to me!

When I told the boss at the shop that my pc was about 5 years old his jaw literally dropped. Now, I know that technology is moving on and up at a fair old lick, but it prompted me to wonder just what the expected working life of a pc is now? If I think about it, 5 years is probably the longest I've had a pc, but I only started in 1998. And I think that one cost me about 1600 quid!

I've just downloaded firefox 4 - I had Maxthon before, so was this a wise move? Does it matter at all? I've lost all my favourites, am I just going to have to build them up again as I go?

Life could be worse - new pc today, and Bee's buying a new bed tomorrow

Pah! You're only an amateur at living in the Stone Age, mate.

I'm still using a 20-year-old PC at home - a truly ancient 486 with no CD drive or USB ports, running a prehistoric version of Windows (Windows for Workgroups 3.1) and quite incapable of being connected to the Web or interacting with modern peripherals including printers. I strongly suspect that if I donated it to a charity which sends old PCs to Third World countries, it'd be sent straight back to me from darkest Africa, accompanied by a very indignant note written by a man in a loin-cloth who felt that I'd insulted his entire family, including his ancestors.

For accessing the InterWeb, I now use a laptop, but most of the buttons and most of the sockets are a complete mystery to me....which is alright by me, because I'm not looking for trouble.

Downloading movies off the Web? Good luck with that, mate. I can't even open a Pdf, me.

I'm glad I'm not alone! A computer is a magic box over which I have no control at all. Mine even decides what i shall do,eg in the middle of a game of sudoku it will decide it doesn't like it, and switch to emails that I have already read.

My boss (42 years old yesterday) has just finally succumbed to my threat to resign if we don't get a new computer system (the one we have is 9 years old).

We were cabled yesterday and just putting in new cables (and router) has made such a difference to internet and server access. the hardware comes next week and the software the week after.

englishangel wrote:My boss (42 years old yesterday) has just finally succumbed to my threat to resign if we don't get a new computer system (the one we have is 9 years old).

We were cabled yesterday and just putting in new cables (and router) has made such a difference to internet and server access. the hardware comes next week and the software the week after.

............. and the instruction book sometime in November !!

It comes with a day's training. An upgrade on the software we currently use so if I can also upgrade my brain.....

Today's glimpse.

Even more ecstatic. Did I mention I had a new computer? Well, I have quite a lot of translation work at the moment (just as well, the way I'm spending money... ), but it's slow going, because I've just discovered online radio. I know it's been available for ages, but my old pc really was a pile of pants. I've been listening to Radio 3 for a couple of hours and have just switched to Ken Bruce. It hasn't exactly been my ambition to access Radio 2, but you have to understand I've been away nearly 8 years now, and it's all very nostalgic. I was going to try Classic FM, but they want everything from my d.o.b. to my address (blimey, they wouldn't believe it anyway) to my inside leg measurement, so I'll do without.

Next thing I want to explore is e-books. I've always been a bit sniffy about the idea of reading for pleasure from a computer screen. Most of my leisure reading is done in bed or on the.. well, never mind, but the laptop wouldn't fit in well. But books are hard to come by here, and expensive to boot. But you can download almost anything from the internet. Free. A bloke on the local forum here has a Sony something e-reader. 1000 books on it, dozens of videos and oodles of music, and loads more space left. Screen size same as a paperback page. I think I might be able to cope with that. It's Mrs Ajarn's birthday next week - perhaps I could buy myself one then?

Speaking of Bee's birthday, now that I have a new pc (oh, did I mention that before?) that is skipping around the web like a spring lamb, I want to follow up on something midge suggested ages ago - cross stitch websites, downloading programs for patterns, etc. Advice/recommendations from anyone with experience in this area would be much appreciated.

Also advice and comments on e-readers, kindles, etc.

Must get back to work. If you want to know anything about poverty in central Africa, feel free to ask... Oh, and back to university in 2 weeks. These 11-week breaks can be very unsettling.

I Googled 'cross stitch patterns free' and there were over 7 million hits, so I would suggest you add another keyword.

My offspring bought me a Sony e-reader for Mother's Day and although I haven't downloaded anything except the free classics (the local librarians are my best friends for novels) I am sure I will soon find a book I can't resist. My 22 year old son (who couldn't read until he was 12) is never without his. He gets most of his from Waterstones but he does get loyalty points which may not be a big thing for you.

I see from the press that HMV are shedding Waterstones from their portfolio.

Could be interesting. We do have one in Dorking, but if Waitrose get the go-ahead to expand, Waterstones will go, as Waitrose who are next door, own the site !

I wait with bated breath, JR!

My son bought a second hand Sony e-book thingy, complete with a load of sci fi books, which he enjoys. it worked fine on plane trips etc, and then suddenly the screen gave up. It means he has no access to all his unread stories, which is a bit of a pain. I suggested it was one of the stories trying to eat its way out, but he's not convinced.
On a recent long distance car trip, (Guildford to Belmullett via Holyhead and Dublin), we wondered if there was now a machine in book stores where you can download e-books directly on to your reader. Browse the paper version, pay for the e-version and lock and load in the store. Rather like those machines where you can print your photos in store.
We assume they do exsist but we have just never seen them. Would work in music stores as well.

Ajarn Philip wrote:I wait with bated breath, JR!

There was some talk in the financial pages of The Mail last week about a foreign company taking Waterstones over. Can't quite remember who. Eith a Russian or Chines conglomorate !

Chrissie Boy wrote:Pah! You're only an amateur at living in the Stone Age, mate.

I can't even open a Pdf, me.

Yeah? Well I'm so stupid I don't even know what a pdf is!

Come on Phil! I am pleased to know that you are excited by your new computer (sounds very exciting) I don't know what 'pdf' stands for, but it is a file created in Adobe Acrobat, which no-one else can change once the original file has been created. Taking my place as an example... we convert External Examiners reports to pdf before publishing them, in the knowledge that no-one thereafter can tinker with them......
Does that make sense?
Kerren

Adobe Acrobat. Doesn't that do high wire tricks with photos or something?