Further forward chaps!

The various bits and bobs needed for several projects are beginning to arrive. The carputer is detailed in the janis blog so go there for that information. The five metre USB extensions are for use in the attic and they have arrived along with a couple of ten foot VGA cables for various long term projects. I also have ideas about the new desk and drawer units I need there, I am thinking Ikea, possibly. I must talk with number one daughter about that.

A frustrating week made better by an old frustration.

Very devious that, eh?

I have had a very irritating few days because of the problems already shared both on this blog and my janis blog. On Saturday evening, I was due to chat to my friend Russ. The attic, where all the PCs etc are, was unbearably hot. I had a brainwave, steady! I set up the new USB monitor with the built in camera and took it out on to the terrace that, as detailed previously, took us nearly two years to get planning permission for. It was great, I even got a bit chilly towards the end of our chat, magic. I will try to install a permanent presence sometime this week.
The post has just delivered my power adaptor for the small playback PC and very nice it is too. I shall fit it this evening and, from then on, I hope to never touch it again. It should just work!

I hate computers!

Actually, I don't but the bu%%er factor is rampant in computer technology.

My new SATA optical drive arrived this week and I fitted it yesterday evening. All but the power connector. The power connector is a new type that is much smaller and is now used on optical drives for laptops etc. I don't complain about the supplier of the drive, they are in the same predicament as me, I simply wonder whether the same smaller connector could not have been used on all SATA drives in the first place. I have had to order a new connector on Ebay in order to make my new drive a useful member of the community.

New smaller power connector, 6 pin slimline on left and standard SATA data connector on right.

The keyboard, on the other hand, is just wonderful. Once batteries are fitted and the dongle plugged in to a computer, any computer with a USB socket, it just works really well. It's also very light in weight but still quite rigid and the track pad works a treat as well. This is an ideal buy for anyone who needs to access PCs on a regular basis but doesn't want a keyboard and mouse plugged into each one. Simple but very effective.    

PS I couldn't stand that horrible green any longer. This looks a bit better but I'm not finished yet!                

Isn't our Post Office wonderful?

I placed an order, I was told, "Delivery on Wednesday at your home address." I organised people to be in the house all day Wednesday to receive the parcels. The Post Office delivered on Monday. Life just keeps on getting better.

The goodies were, my new HD 23" monitor, The sound system for same, a wireless keyboard with touch pad and a new portable style DVD drive for the playback PVR.
I saw the LG monitor on the web site and liked the look of it, then I read the reviews and got quite excited at the amount of praise. Now I have it, I can see why it got all that praise, the picture is wonderful. I also now know why most reviewers single out the on/off switch for particular mention, it's really great and very clever and you really need to use it to fully appreciate it. The sound system is a cheap Sumvision, less than £40.00, but very good value for the money. I have yet to do anything with the keyboard or drive so more about them elsewhere.

Normal service may be resumed later.............

It will be obvious to anyone reading this that I have indulged myself and tried the new design stuff here. It will either work or not, but it will be fun playing for a while. The janis blog was easier to fiddle with and I feel that it works quite well, this one must be considered as a work in progress I am afraid. The current style is meant to reflect my hay feverish life at present and when that situation changes, I will change the style again.

Eerrrrcha!!!!!

Hay fever is with us in a big way today. I felt it coming yesterday when I left work with a headache but, this morning, I woke to a sneeze and it's just gone on. As I sit here, my eyes are itching and my head feels dull. I am achieving my goals at work still but I am also feeling the strain a bit today. Having the building work going on next door is not helping.

I did some work in the attic yesterday evening and I have taken the first set of pictures for the "Build your own carputer" article. All I need now are the adaptor cards and I'm away. 

Rolling along........

Back a week already and longing to be on holiday again. Not a lot of chances of that happening though. I have blogged my weekend with janis elsewhere so you will have to look there for detail. 

What I did on my holidays 2010

Have a look at some of this years holiday snaps, click on the glacier.

That's another one under the old belt then!

Or some such nonsense.

Back home from a holiday that should have been in Italy but was, in fact, in France. Passports were stolen, along with a lot of cash and a Swiss vignette. We ended up doing all the things Hazel has been planning for years and never got around to doing............... no, I don't think she nicked the passports. We had a pretty good time anyway and Paul, brother-in-law, and I got to do some stuff that we would never have been able to if we had not been together. Hazel has a problem with high places. She has a tendency to  panic on the top deck of a bus and going up the side of a mountain in a rack and pinion rail car was not easy for her, so visiting a glacier was a very big deal for all of us. Paul and I had already visited the largest gorge in France in the first week so we were hardened to all this by now.