Tech-knowledge-y

I'm ok with computers. I can format a hard drive, troubleshoot software problems and feel my way around most programs. I find it reasonably intuitive, which suits me because I'm an intuitive learner. Thing is, I'm hopeless when it comes to hardware. I don't understand what can go wrong where and how that will manifest itself. I simply don't have the tech-knowledge-y.

My computer has been having troubles almost from day 1. Instability, programs crashing and generally locking up. I assumed it was because I needed to download a bunch of updates that were too big to do over dial-up. Then things got a lot worse - blue-screen of death started making semi-regular appearances and files were geting corrupted. Lots of serious error messages - you know the story. So I determined I had a virus and reformatted the hard drive. Twice. Still had a few issues when I got it back up and running, but not so bad.

Then we got broadband (yes the DSL is on!) and I could finally download all the updates and get everything up to date. Ho hum, still crashing and blue-screening. So I gave Windows error reporting a shot: told me I had driver problems. Checked all my drivers and downloaded a new graphics driver. Worse than ever! Now on top of the shut-down my screen kept locking and going blank! [subliminal message] die microsoft! [/subliminal message] I was at wits end, no idea what was wrong or how to solve it.

Enter nickthecheese, man of tech-wonder! Nick patiently spent hours with Alex and I (on the phone) working out what was wrong and helping us fix it. Legend! So now I'm back in the land of the connected. The lesson: never, ever buy cheap-arse RAM. I'll be buying some new stuff rather soonish, but in the meanwhile, slowing the RAM timing has worked a treat. Three cheers for Nick!

Textures

A big thankyou to the_karma_army, who's random act of kindness gave me two month's paid LJ access. Also a welcome to a few new friends - I hope you enjoy your stay! These images are all from North Stradbroke Island, where the rich textures of nature consistantly drew my eye. Despite living in a relatively green city, such textural richness is missing from my day-to-day world. Still, the human richness of Brisbane generally keeps me happily stimulated. ( Read more... )