Archive for the Computer & Gadget Talk category
January 12th, 2007
Did you know that having an MP3 player is a “Green” Lifestyle choice?
I was surprised to learn this. Apparently, according to 
It’s Easy Being Green, if you download music rather than buy CDs, you are already making a “greener” lifestyle choice…even if you are only doing it some of the time. It’s still better than the alternative.
CD-Roms and DVDs are made of polycarbonate plastic which is not biodegradable. Think about all of those CDs that came to your
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Tags: recycle, green living, CD-rom, DVD, biodegradable, landfill, crafts, iPod
December 26th, 2006
I’ve always had a little issue using my iPod mini with my home theater. Despite the fact that my home theater has a usb slot just for playing MP3 players, when I plugged in my iPod mini, the display on the t.v. would show bizarre file names like “F03N” rather than song names and the directories wouldn’t match the playlists. I couldn’t control what I was playing from the iPod mini so I would have to basically plan ahead and remove everything from the iPod mini except what I wanted to listen to on my stereo.
Except since the last iTunes
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Tags: iPod, electronics, home theater, gadgetry
June 20th, 2006
Coincidentally peskyapostrophe is planning an international vacation of her own this year and she happened to post today about what she takes with her on the airplane. She had some things on her list I hadn’t thought about taking with me.
The idea of a flight kit is to put in not just what you are going to need like any medicines you might need to take during the journey but also what things you are going to need to keep you sane on the journey. For example, I can’t make it through a flight without music and
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Tags: travel
June 6th, 2006
No, not that kind of world power…
O.K. First, I gotta thank Big Dog. Last night I checked my HP power adapter that came with the laptop and it does read 110-220, so I’m good there. I don’t need a power converter, just a plug adapter since it’s a 3-prong.
Now, I’m trying to decide if I want to invest in the 
Kensington 33117 International Plug Adapter but Meg and Peter seem to be recommending
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Tags: electricity, travel, UK, England
April 14th, 2006
I would like a few new Smilies:
- One that gives the person I’m talking to the bird. I have found a need for that one in particular this week.
- One that has a little vise on it’s head to represent having a migraine so other people will know how I feel.
- One that looks like Wednesday Adams or injects the other chatter with a sense of humor because apparently even when I put a smiley after my sarcastic dark smartass remark, I’m still attacked for being serious and too negative.
I would also like to be able to selectively choose which Status message to
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Tags: Y!M
March 23rd, 2006
Well, if you’ve been by in the last 24 hours, you probably didn’t see anything. I mean, it was a virtual cyber-wasteland over in the exit-23.net hosting-land.
And it’s not a pretty story either. And it’s not over either.
It started yesterday morning actually. I woke up late because the power had been out at my house and when the power comes back on, my microwave makes this horrible screeching sound, which is way better than any alarm clock at waking up the masses at the Mallory abode anyway. When I left for work, the internet at my
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Tags: blogs, Lunarpages, web hosting
October 14th, 2005
O.K. This is really starting to annoy me. When my computer comes back from hibernation/sleep mode, it always goes to a splash screen where I must select my session before “waking up” completely. Since I’m the only one who uses the computer and thus there’s only ever one session running on it…how can I make it bypass this annoying feature?
Tags: none
October 7th, 2005
- I just discovered that I can subscribe to The Signal podcast via iTunes. Shiny.
- I’ve felt nauseated all day and it has nothing to do with politics.
- The new maple coffeecake muffin at Starbucks is so sickeningly sweet, it made me feel ill the moment I opened the bag.
- I’m all signed up to try NaNoWriMo again. Hopefully I’ll make it past the first few days this year.
- I’m toying with writing a vampire/hunter story in the midst of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.
- I’m still annoyed at PW but now for even more trivial things. She’s just slipping into
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Tags: none
September 25th, 2005
I’m not very good at this “rendering” stuff and I find this to be a very expensive hobby, but here’s what I put together using Daz Studio. I wanted to do me, but they don’t seem to have a chubby cheek map and I can’t figure out how to add the blonde highlights to the red hair or the nose ring and I can’t seem to find a skin map pale enough. 
Tags: 3D imagery
September 21st, 2005
Seriously, you’d think someone would be selling them. I know they exist because there was a gym in New Orleans who had laptops on their treadmills and stationary bikes. *sigh*
Tags: none
September 19th, 2005
After learning my parents’ passwords last Christmas vacation, I’ve been looking for a good article to forward to them on password creation. TipMonkeys has a great one today.
If you don’t or can’t go check out their version, here’s the “Mal’s Notes” on the subject:
- Choose a password with at least 8 characters.
- Use a combination of different types of characters, including uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Check your password against a password strength checker.
- These services will look and your password and tell you if they are strong or not. SecurityStats.com has a good one, right here.
- Do not
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Tags: none
September 15th, 2005
Well, for some reason Spamkiller isn’t blocking any spam. Sometimes it tags stuff as “[spam]” but sends it on. It doesn’t even tag or block the things I told it specifically was spam. I’m not sure why it’s not working on the new computer but it’s annoying.
Meanwhile, Thunderbird is getting on my nerves. I set up filters, but it still dumps half the stuff in the inbox and half of the stuff in junk — even the stuff I specifically said wasn’t junk. Plus, it marks stuff in the inbox as “junk” but doesn’t filter
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Tags: none
September 13th, 2005
After I forcibly acquired my laptop from FedEx yesterday, I spent about 3 hours trying to get the old laptop, Pyewackett, to talk to the new laptop, Jayne over the wireless network. I finally got it set up so that Pyewackett could write to Jayne but I never could get Jayne to have access to Pyewackett which is what I really want.
Anyway, I copied over Pyewackett’s “My Documents” and “Downloads” directories and some stuff cluttering the desktop. There’s one more directory with the plump fairies from Nothing Tastes As Good that I need to copy before I
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Tags: none
September 12th, 2005
As of yesterday morning, FedEx tracking said my new laptop is sitting in Boston, Ma…just 2 hours or so away. I’m all a tingle with excitement. (Well, I would be but for the Katrina depression.)
I’ve discovered that getting a new computer is a bit like getting a new apartment or home or car. I’m full of promises to keep it clean (meaning the file structure and the stupid useless programs) and not screwed up like the last laptop. Mind you that less than 3 years ago, I made that same promise…I’d also made that same promise
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Tags: none
September 3rd, 2005
So, I bought an HP Notebook this morning. It should be built by Sept 13th. I can’t wait. I’m so excited to have a brand new laptop. Now I just have to resist the urge to look at some software someone recommended to me yesterday. At least I’ll have it way before NaNoWriMo.
HP Pavilion dv4000 customizable Notebook PC
* – Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Professional with SP2
* – Intel(R) Pentium(R) M Processor 725A (1.60 GHz)
* – FREE Upgrade to 15.4″ WXGA BrightView Widescreen!
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Tags: none
August 31st, 2005
OK I don’0t know h7ow to fix th7is but as you can see my keyboard h7as some keys th7at are double mapped. I’0m using4 XP on a laptop. I apparantly h7ave no viruses. No idea wh7y th7is h7appened. All I did is sh7ut down normally th7is morning4 and wh7en I booted up tonig4h7t — Foobar!
If anyone knows h7ow to fix th7is, I’0d appreciate it.
Tags: none
August 23rd, 2005
After reading about Jeff Jarvis’ problems with Dell, I’m rethinking buying another Dell. I mean, this lock-up problem has been a problem from the beginning and it’s just gotten worse and worse until it’s intollerable. In the beginning, I called their tech support but the language barrier of me speaking English and them not was a real issue. I got so frustrated I never called back and just lived with the problem, which is probably what they wanted in the first place. As much as I like the laptop, I have to wonder with Jeff’s
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Tags: none
August 22nd, 2005
My mother wants me to have remote access to her PC now that they have a satellite internet connection so I can “fix” things. After all, I have the computer science degree and she has a psychological block against technology. 
Anyway, I don’t want to buy PC Anywhere for this. I’ve heard there are good free remote access software packages out there.
Has anyone tried any of these?
myWebExPC
GoToMyPC
LogMeIn
Tags: none
August 22nd, 2005
So, I’ve started looking for a new laptop reluctantly. If it weren’t for the annoyingness of the current one locking up and then not wanting to boot back up, I wouldn’t bother. It pretty much does everything I need it to and I still have hard drive space.
Anyway, this is the one I’m considering from Dell…It’s on sale and I get an employer discount with my company, but it’s still more than I want to pay. Worse, I’m a bad geek because I really don’t know much about hardware these days. I’ve sent an email to
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Tags: none
