Stripping Herself
Grandad October 20th, 2008
So what have I been up to over the weekend?
Not much.
It’s that time of year when I contemplate the joys of hibernation. Why humans can’t just wrap up in a ball and sleep until April, I don’t know. Mind you, I know a few people who make a damned good attempt.
I spent most of the weekend starting into space while Herself’s laptop did things.
I used to use that laptop, but it began to annoy me. It had developed a somewhat psychotic personality and I decided to get rid of it. I gave it to Herself. I thought it would be a match made in Heaven.
Lately however she has been complaining about it. She says it takes half an hour to load up. That was a gross exaggeration though. I timed it and it only took 25 minutes.
I was getting tired of the complaints, so I decided to strip it down and reload everything.
I have done this kind of thing before. I have loaded Windows 3.1 when it came on two floppy disks. Those were the days. I couldn’t find the floppy disks for Windows 3.1 so I had to make do with a CD thing for Windows XP.
What with backing up things and formatting things, I spent most of my time staring out the window, as I said. I even went down for the papers at one stage, and came back to find 30% had turned into 35%.
It’s done now. It’s going like the clappers, and seems to be behaving itself.
Herself is not pleased though. She’s still complaining.
She admits it’s faster….
But she can’t get into eBay any more.
*heh*
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Could not get on e-bay. I didn’t realize that Windows XP included Artificial intelligence. Just to be safe you might want to check and make sure it will still obey a shut down command.
I have an unreasonable amount of respect for a man who stares into space and simply sits. Doing nothing is the new black.
Jim C – I found one of those Firefence things, or whatever you call them that allows blocking of sites!
Radge – I thought pink was the new black? I could never understand that expression anyway. Black is black.
Patience is a virtue my friend! But I’m sure it was borne out of the ‘giving out’ you might be subjected to from herself if you didn’t sort it all out. Maybe you should have bought her a new one……..?
Ah, I love husbands who HELP their wives in ways we can’t even imagine.
Had she been spending money, or selling off your stuff?
Kate – If there is a new laptop entering this house, she can have this one! There is a natural order to things that must be observed.
Susan – Spending. Does anyone want a house-full of junk?
It does a system good to blow out all the cobwebs every once in a while. I rebuild my laptop every six months. Ahhh Windows 3.1. The GUI for DOS 5.0. Thems definitely were the days!
another passing of a “great” (not really) American?, Mr. Blackwell. Thought I would see what you have to say, its all so related?, relevent?, who gives a shite!
That title is very misleading.
In fact, I’m waiting on word back from the false advertising body about legal action.
Jack – Every six months? Are you a masochist?
John O – As you say – relevant?
Maxi – For the life of me, I cannot see how you could read anything else into that title?
A computer slower than mine. I didn’t think that would even be possible.
TheChrisD – In this house, all things are possible, though not probable.
What’s a floppy disk?
What’s WIndows 3.1?
No, seriously, I’m lost,
I’m needing an education in last century’s technology, on the other hand. maybe not??!! Its all very confusing
let the education begin!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7671677.stm
g’wan, see how much you, er, remember
Charmed – A floppy disk is a disk that isn’t floppy. The one that came before the floppy disk was floppy. Clear?
That BBC thing is for geeks. I’m proud to say I scored 3/10 without cheating. So I’m not a geek. Though I don’t think there was any question of that?
Yes they WERE floppy and 8″ square. They were often used in student flats on SCR as “coasters”…not always for cups of tea, I add….
And there was more than one secretary blasted for putting them on the post with a covering letter stapled to them!
The 8′ discs had capacity for about 3 x A4 pages of information. All in DOS. But when we slotted them in to the beige master…….we listened and waited for the knowledge….
Fustar explained this brilliantly: http://www.fustar.info/2008/07/27/20-goto-10/
Computer Archaeology at it’s best.
Windows XP was not designed to cope with the Internet of today. I wish more people would install Linux on their old PC’s.
Recent versions are friendly enough for my 70 year old mother, and everything is geared towards the Internet and security. She can click on anything now without worrying about viruses and keyloggers and such. Runs great on a PC with 256mb RAM.
Just make sure you pick a “light” Linux distribution such as Xubuntu: http://www.xubuntu.org/
They put up a new version for download every six months, and the next one is 9 days away.
If you can’t burn your own, you can request free Ubuntu CDs on: http://www.ubuntu.com/ (They don’t ship Xubuntu CDs.)
Maybe I should have done something similar to block my other half from having eBay items shipped to arrive on my one day off – Saturday (and a postman with a loud knock as well!).
It was either block eBay on the firewall or introduce her to something new. Enter Facebook, now all I hear about is Pokes and other people’s photos!!
Welcome, Norwegian! It was only a matter of time before someone shouted Linux. It’s hard enough getting Herself to use Windows……..
Facebook? Moan. I’ll have to buy her if I can find her!