Gimme A Break

I thought we’d bought everything we needed for our home computers at the last computer fair in August. Apparently not. The kids are now maximizing their computers to the max playing games and trying to learn up some software.

Now they’re complaining their computers are lagging and oh so-oo slow and that they need more computer memory . Seriously these games are getting more power hungry and I’m having a hard time catching up to their hardware requirement .

The next computer fair won’t be till next year. That’s a few months’ wait and the kids know I normally don’t buy computer stuff unless there’s a sale. Right now, I really can’t afford to blow my meticulously-planned budget. Looks like my kids might just have to give up their computer games for a while.

• besieged by wires
• back to basics?
• not going anywhere?
• great being a kid
• buying up the PC Fair

by minutechaser - 1 Comment →

Believe it or not, I’ve got my own MP3 player. So far, the only place it’s been is to the gym with me .

I only listen to it if the volume of the gym TV is turned too low for me to hear what’s going on. Otherwise, I’d be watching the news.

Ever since the gym manager got fired, things are so disorganized. Like some of the TVs and air-conditioners are sometimes not on, and we have to run around looking for the switches ourselves.

Anyways, I was thinking I might download some free audio books to listen to. I’m not sure if it’ll work on my MP3 player but it’d be a nice change to listening to the head-banging music my kids have loaded in for me .

Not that I don’t appreciate what they’ve done but sometimes I need a little peace and quiet, ya know.

• don’t read, listen to these books
• a nice, low-key day
• role model of a son
• the long crawl
• stress-free day

by minutechaser - No Comments →

I gotta tell you, the thing I hate about sending my computers to the store is the thought that the repair guy will be able to see everything I’ve on on my hard drive.

Yes, I think it’s only a matter of time before I’ll have to send my night-time laptop to the shop to get the screen fixed or replaced.

Rightly or wrongly, I’m worried about all my personal information that he’ll have access to in the days my laptop spends at his store.

I’ve read of instances where celebs send in their computers for repair only to discover soon enough their personal photos plastered all over the cyberspace.

Of course, I’m no celeb and I don’t have any photos in my laptop that should not see the light of day but I certainly do have files and information in there that I consider private and confidential.

Darn, technology is supposed to make your life easier, not to stress you out even more!! *sigh* Maybe I should just pull my hard drive out before I send my laptop in. You reckon I’ll easier at night?

• cyberjunkie
• night laptop is out
• night-time laptop is back… for now
• that elusive carry-all bag
• a degree from home

by minutechaser - 1 Comment →

Guess what, I’m still using my night-time laptop, yes, the one that apparently gave out a couple of nights ago.

Turns out it didn’t exactly give out, the battery just went flat on me. See, the battery used to last quite a while but now it goes flat after about half an hour of use and I have to keep it constantly plugged in to work.

If I forget to plug it in, ta-powww! Laptop batteries are not made to last these days!

As for the screen, well, I’ve got some random thin lines running down the screen and one thick white one where all the pixels have died. Duh! It’s really annoying.

What I’ve done is to make my browser window narrower to avoid part of it being white-out. Ingenious, eh? At least now I can still use it lying down until I procrastinate long enough to take it for repair .

• night laptop is out
• technology is stressing me out
• car battery goes flat on me
• fried battery
• changing batteries

by minutechaser - No Comments →

It seems we’ve acquired more than enough two Apple products this year. DH has gone on an Apple rampage and bought himself an iPhone and an iMac.

The kids and I are very happy with our Windows PCs, thank you. At the rate we’re maintaining and upgrading our PCs, it makes more sense using the standard PC hardware rather than having to buy separate components like Mac memory for just that one PC, know what I mean?

But I guess the big boy’s gotta have some new toys to entertain himself now and then. So yes, we now have a Mac in the house .

• power-hungry games
• besieged by wires
• knobs and handles
• bid for cool prizes
• the invasion of the stuffed toys

by minutechaser - No Comments →

Last weekend, DH sneaked out and came home with a Playstation 3. Now I’m not quite sure who he bought it for but one thing I know for sure is that my teens are not into these games.

They’ve got their own favorite online games which they much prefer. So I’m guessing he bought it for himself. Yep, I’m pretty sure of it. He even canceled his golf game to stay home and play . Funny guy!

What may not be so funny is that we’ve already got a heap of white elephants in the store room. He just likes to buy these big boys’ toys but he also abandons them pretty quickly.

I’ve been threatening to call in the moving services guys to cart them away. On second thought, I might just decide to auction them off on ebay or something and make a little spare change while I’m at it.

• collecting coins instead of stamps
• boy talk
• looking up the Backstreet Boys
• win a Wii and Charter High-Speed for life
• baby gift shopper, that’s me!

by minutechaser - No Comments →

My friends know I’m a blogaholic. They ask if I blog when I’m out shopping. Don’t be ridiculous, I tell them, I’m a serious shopaholic too, so when I shop, I shop, nothing can stop me, not even blogging .

The real reason though is that while I love the convenience of being able to blog on the go, I will only feel safe doing it if I have some reliable data protection solutions to secure my computer on a public domain internet connection.

I know businesses and companies have data protection systems firmly in place to safeguard their security and privacy and to protect against attacks from viruses and malicious elements. Do we?

I mean sometimes I, um, we don’t even bother making backups of our computer. Okay, guilty as charged!

• is your computer protected?
• leaving your front door wide open
• computer clean-up
• unnecessary stress on the customer
• using technology fearlessly

by minutechaser - No Comments →

With the Olympics 2008 coming up in a matter of days, my kids are pestering me to get our satellite tv fixed. Well, I called the satellite TV operator and after walking me through their standard checklist, they decided it must be caused by loose cabling on my satellite dish.

We don’t believe them for a minute, so last night, DH took the decoder to his friend’s place to test. Well, all we did was plug in our decoder, got no transmission and that was our problem child right there.

At least that’s a relief. I can just replace my decoder instead of having the repair man come out and charge me 50 bucks to check the wiring on my satellite dish. But where and how much to get my decoder replaced, now those are the big questions .

• call mr fix-it
• which satellite TV deal?
• technology is stressing me out
• let there be light
• am I doing anything wrong?

by minutechaser - No Comments →

One of my ex-staff caught up with me yesterday over the phone. It’s been a while since I heard from him and well, it’s usually when he’s feeling less than happy with his job that he calls me for advice.

He’s getting bored with his job. Understandably he’s been at it for a few years now but his job description hasn’t changed and things are getting a little too mundane for a young man like him.

He’s thinking about taking up a course that will get him a Cisco certification that will hopefully launch his career into high gear. Good idea, I told him.

There’s no question Cisco skills are in high demand and there’ll be plenty of good jobs waiting for him when he gets certified. These are skills that can be applied in a broad range of IT areas. I think if he’s looking for growth in his career path, this is definitely the route he should follow.

I asked him to check out Cisco.com if he has any questions about what courses are available and what’s in store for him after he’s done. In fact, there’s tons more information there about resources and career options that will be very useful to him.

• movin’ on
• Forget New Years Resolutions. Play Games Instead.
• the price of a mom?
• like a scene from a Bond movie
• the stumbling cook

by minutechaser - No Comments →

On the way back from dinner on the weekend, we usually stop by at our favorite computer shop to see what’s new. Last weekend, we stopped by to pick up some video cards and a couple of other things that our friends had ordered through us. Guess what, we found the store closed. At 6pm on a Saturday night?

These days, it seems that four times out of five that we decide to stop by the store, it’s closed even during the stipulated business hours. Business must be really good for our dear friend. It seems he only works when he wants to.

But for customers, it’s become a guessing game. We can’t count on him to be open and it’s seriously becoming a major inconvenience. Maybe he’s not interested in doing business any more. Maybe we should take our business elsewhere.

• garnering up webloyalty
• hiccup remedies
• an exceptionally great wedding dinner
• an Angelina Jolie
• add another white elephant to the heap

by minutechaser - No Comments →