Wednesday, February 18, 2009

I Will Have No System For A While......

Well it seems that my RAM lite issue was not the only issue I have to deal with.
There is a motherboard issue with my laptop that I use for all my publishing and A/V.
So the baby is going back to HP to have the motherboard replaced.

My shipping box arrived today from HP, so I will be sending her back before the week ends.
Alex and I are just finishing up some video formatting and uploading for my virtual classroom, and my future classes, and when I am done, I will remove the battery from my laptop and pack her up and send her back to HP.

They told me it will take 15 days to get it back.

So if my posts are a bit boring these next few weeks you know why...
My Son Alex has updated his blog and is promising open source release for some code he developed for part of the 4000 Project before the end of the week as well! See what he has going at http://automaticpixel.com/blog/

I will be able to do some work from one of the satellite units in the house.
I have spent the last few days jigging some of my apps so I can access them from my terabyte of external hard drive backup for my system and my 500 G external for my A/V. Yes, I am over backed-up. But boy am I glad I am......

I had to beef up my back up when I changed to my new camera. My new camera shoots in RAW format, and each file is quite huge. And, of course, I also have two copies of each photo. One in original format and one in JPEG that has been sized for the web through Adobe. I upgraded to the terabyte for my system backup because the 500G size filled up and I was having trouble backing up some of my stuff. Vista uses the majority of the 500G just backing up Vista. There isn't a whole lot of room for personal stuff. So it is easy to max out the back up.

I figure that possibly some other layman on the net may be having some troubles and might want to know what other regular ole folks use to combat the limitations of laptop use, so I figured I would share.....

Now I will tell you what happened to the laptop which was a clue the motherboard is going:
First the Wireless LAN device stopped working suddenly. My computer could not even find the wireless network to connect to and the wireless device indicator light glows orange instead of blue. I could still use a hard wire to hook up to the net, so I can still use the computer for the time being, but with no guarantees I can keep using it... Then the screen on the laptop was losing an array of colours and began to look extremely pixelated, yet my external monitor was fine. HP flashed the BIOS for me and I got my screen colour back temporarily but it began to deteriorate again and within hours - back to worst case.....
I run a Compac Presario that I purchased in 2007.

Carl did a lot of research on help from HP and on forums to see the symptoms, then we called HP...

The computer has been limping along all week while I finish up stuff and do some extra manual backups on some little things like email and games etc.....just in case.....

I Beta test games through Pogo and I have kept a few I really like, and I don't want to lose them.

I think I have to describe myself as the middle-aged not so tech geek. I am only Geek by osmosis. My Husband is one of the Original Geeks (he still has a working AppleIIPlus). He graduated from Computer Sciences at Seneca College in Toronto in the mid '70s and has been a very technical guy all through the years, even when he moved up the executive ladder he stayed true to his Geek heritage-LOL. My Son Alex is an Uber Geek! I think he will be someone to watch and follow for the next few yrs. At 19 he opened his own successful Web Development Company called Automatic Pixel Productions. He has contracted for big Canadian and American companies over the past few years while attending University, studying Computer Science. He is the only "kid" I know that worked 40hrs a week in 7 days while attending University full time. And the only "kid" I know who misses University to attend business and IT conferences and symposiums, instead of missing because of hangovers LOL. He is now 22, and a Computer Sciences student at Trent University.....


Now how did I get all my A/V knowledge? Well that is the other Son. My Son Cam is at Seneca College. He is just finishing his degree in Corporate Media Production. The first step for him. His second step will be TV production, and then film school. He has aspirations to be the next Kevin Smith....
Personally I think he will be a good screenplay writer and director. He has a gift for writing.
He is also a performer, and comedian. He studied standup at Humber College at 15. That's right...15!
I really got into photography while following his band around for a few years, and my early blogs were about that experience of shooting PR videos and photos as he was the Lead Singer for a Progressive Metal band. He is 20 now....

I think I am really really lucky that I live with some of the most Nerdy, Geeky guys on the planet. Without their influence I don't think I would have ever gotten into blogging, which ended up my own therapy for my recovery from my brain injury in 2005. And of course, now my other therapy for recovery was knitting and I walked into Needle Felting with that, and now I have my own web gallery and I teach knitting and needle felting from the virtual classroom and run my little life from my home in countryside north of Toronto (which is quickly becoming urban). Who'd of thunk that I would have left the trucking industry and then become a driving instructor and then become a web-based uber blogger and crafter.....not me! Perhaps one day I will have the guts to post a timeline of my career path. I think you would all be surprised where my education started, where it turned to new paths, and what I have gotten to do in my life.

Here are a few tidbits on the path (just for Bill my Loyal reader LOL)

I was a Junior Forest Ranger in 1980 in Thunder Bay.
ESL instructor
Bartender
I graduated high school in 1982 with an OSSHGD which is the highest of high school education in Canada. Which is a University bound qualification. I studied Arts and Sciences.
My first post secondary Degree is in Dental Technology...Basically I was a dental scientist.(my degree skills include health science degree, and engineering education in Metalurgy and Studies in ceramic and polymer technology
I had a family
Competitive Fiddle player and house band and studio violinist
I went back to University and studied at OBC/OTS (Ontario Bible College and Theological Semenary) How's that for a shock! Now all the witches are going "What?!" (It is easier to argue a theological point when you battle on common ground. Gotta become an expert some how.....)
I also went to Seneca College and studied part of a Computer Sciences degree.
Teacher and library assistant, and ESL assistant
Then there were the yrs as an online editor.... (ahah bet you didn't see that one coming LOL)
Sex Shop crusador!(that needs a whole other blog!)
Trangender Transformation specialist(yep, an interesting part of my life where I instructed Men who were Women inside to understand what it is like to be a woman, and to help them understand a woman's thought process so they had information from a real live woman that they could relate to and ask questions to)
Then trucker gal
YD instructor
And now what you get today.... middle-aged, retired, and finding her inner knitter and needle felter. Who writes about her weirdness for the world at large, or at small.....LOL...."Superstar!"


So now I have talked-up my family, and made you laugh with my CV, I will leave you to go back to work on my back-ups..... :)

1 comment:

RheLynn said...

nice post
I'm not nearly as geeky as I used to be. *sigh*