Impetus
Posted: Wed 5 June, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Technology, Writing Leave a comment »One interesting side-effect (currently) of the new laptop is that it seems to have caused a resurgence in writing, or at least the desire to write.
I don’t know why though – although I guess some of it is down to having a nice new clean (and reliable) keyboard that makes things a bit easier.
I’ve also installed a couple of bits of writing software – Scrivener, and my old fallback, CeltX – as well as the LibreOffice package. (an open-source version of Microsoft Office, and much better in my opinion)
We’ll see how things go with a potential writing resurgence, but at least it’s starting off pretty well.
Data Migration
Posted: Tue 4 June, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Organised, Technology, Thoughts 3 Comments »Every time I get a new computer – laptop, PC, work machine, whatever – and/or change jobs, one of the biggest challenges is always taking existing data and moving/copying it to the new device. And it’s not just the data, it’s also the applications – the programs that make use of the data.
But it’s also always getting easier. The process this time was the smoothest to date, and a lot of that is down to ‘cloud’ services. I store a lot of my stuff now with Dropbox, although there’s also plenty of other services. I store my data in an encrypted fashion, so it’s also secure – while I like the ease of storage on Cloud-based services, I don’t trust them with my information – but it means that once I’d installed Dropbox on the new laptop, then my key files were all being synced and downloaded.
The other thing I like about using Dropbox and it’s ilk is that if you save your files there immediately, it’s not just a saved file, it’s automatically backed up. The risks of my losing important documents is pretty much gone, because I save everything to the folder on my machine that links to a cloud-based service. All my work stuff (which is also backed up with Subversion Version Control) goes to one service, all my personal work, writing etc. goes to a different one. But the key thing is that everything’s safe, and I don’t even need to remember to do a backup.
For larger stuff, it’s still a case of “copy onto portable hard drive” – I prefer the speed of that to doing it via wi-fi – but even that is easier now with the much larger sizes of portable drives. At some point, I could add a NAS (Network Attached Storage) box, so all the data is in one central location, and the machine(s) just access it off that box/server. But for now that investment isn’t worth the time, energy or money.
All told, getting New Laptop sorted out has probably taken the best part of a working day – but that includes learning the idiosyncracies of a new Operating System and downloading/installing the apps, odds and sods that I want/need, as well as getting the data over. It’s been a pretty easy process, I have to say.
Equipment Longevity
Posted: Mon 3 June, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Geeky, Technology, Thoughts Leave a comment »As part of yesterday’s post about equipment failures, I realised just how long I’d actually had the previous laptop, which was quite surprising.
Looking back, I should have realised it was quite a while, thinking back to where I was and so on at the time I got it.
I’m pretty tough on technology, so it’s actually quite impressive that the Dell laptop lasted just under four years. I do a lot of travelling (as has been written about too many times to mention) and the laptop will always just get shoved in my backpack, rather than using a ‘proper’ laptop bag. (Mainly because I’ve seen too many idiots carrying laptop bags over one shoulder, seen how easy it is for people to steal them, and how much it makes you a target, a sign of visible wealth/gadgetry)
I dread to imagine how many hours of use the Dell laptop has had, but I’m pretty sure that it’s more than paid for itself over the four years.
Equipment Failure
Posted: Sun 2 June, 2013 Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, Domestic, Finances, Geeky, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, iPhone, Shopping, Technology, Thoughts, Weirdness 1 Comment »Don’t worry, this isn’t another post about the joys and pitfalls of getting older…
No, instead it’s about technology, and why the bastard stuff all ends up failing at the same time.
First of all, this post is being written on a new laptop – which I really could’ve done without having to get, but needs must when the devil drives (and/or you’re a web techie and wannabe-writer). The old Dell laptop – which it turns out I bought back in September 2009, so I shouldn’t whine so much, I guess – had been getting flakier over the last six months, but I’ve been eking out the life of it since then, suffering the occasional (and then more regular) hard-drive crash, and the ropy keyboard with some keys that only worked intermittently.
This week though it’s been crashing every time it was in use, and was obviously getting to the point where I needed to a) pull all the relevant data off it like NOW, and b) replace it with something else. And with a trip up to Manchester this week where I’m *really* going to need a reliable laptop, this was the weekend for it.
So I’ve bitten the bullet somewhat, and the new one is a (dirt-cheap) Asus thing, running the already-much-disliked Windows 8. To be fair to Windows 8, the old laptop was on the much-loathed Vista, which I never really found all that annoying. Eight annoys me more so far, but I’ll get used to it.
The other two equipment failures are both iPhone related, allbeit power-related rather than device-related. (Although I did think one of them might’ve been the phone being fucked, which was a real worry) First the Mophie battery case has failed. Again. (More accurately, the cable/charger for it, which will no longer charge) I love the Mophie cases, but they do seem to be somewhat crap, and only last about a year. And then the normal iPhone charge/sync cable also went kerfut and wouldn’t charge the phone. So I’ve had to get a new cable for that as well – considerably less expensive than the laptop purchase, but still, why all at the same time?
Oh yeah, and the fridge in the house also played up this week, with one day where it didn’t appear to be working all that well. Fortunately it’s now back up and running.
But why the hell would four things, two fairly major, all decide to kiff out within the same week? Weird things, I tell thee, weird things.
Phone Security
Posted: Tue 5 March, 2013 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Geeky, Technology, Thoughts Leave a comment »Yesterday there was a load of stuff on radio news with police warning about people who don’t secure their phones with a PIN code.
Supposedly it makes them more valuable (to thieves) if they’re unlocked, and also means all your personal information is available – which is obviously usable for nefarious purposes.
Personally, I’ve always had a PIN-lock on my phones, and don’t really get why most people don’t – yet apparently only 20% of people use a PIN-lock at all.
I do understand the concerns of some people – that, for example, they may be in an accident and emergency services would need contact numbers – but at the same time I’ve always got that elsewhere in my wallet etc.
As it is, I’d rather keep my primary information safe.
Under Attack
Posted: Sun 10 February, 2013 Filed under: D4D™, Technology Leave a comment »Over the last few weeks, D4D has been getting a really heavy load of spam hitting it, and I don’t really know why. Akismet is installed for antispam, and reports itself as working, but the load is getting ever higher. It’s been two to three hundred a day, and while none of them get to show on D4D itself, they’re still a pain in the tits from my side.
As it turned out, a lot of it was coming from a small collection of IP addresses, so I spent a little bit of time today blocking everything from those IPs – and lo, the spam has fallen massively.
It may be that with time they’ll change IPs again, but if I see it happening, I’ll just add those IPs to the blocked list too.