Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Boy, that title is pretty long.
Yesterday, Laura and I went shopping. We first went up to Home Depot in Enfield, CT. I got a bunch of stuff, most of which I can hardly remember right now. I am sure I’ll write about it when I start using it.
Then, we went to Circuit City and got some stuff. After that, we went to Costco for food shopping. Just to let you know, Costco in Enfield has a gas station for members. Gas around here is $4.39 per gallon. I paid $4.05 yesterday at the Costco gas station. It averages about 30 cents less per gallon than regular gas stations.
Back to Circuit City. While there, I picked up some Sony bookshelf speakers that I am going to use for the new downstairs. I also picked up some new computer speakers. The computer speakers I was using up until yesterday were Altec Lansing and getting pretty old. I gave them to Laura as a hand-me-down. I got a hand-me-up to the new Bose Companion® 2 Series II Multimedia Computer Speakers.
When I was looking at them in the store, I kept asking the guy (kid) if they had an amp in them. I was worried that they might be like those cheap Dell speakers you get with a new computer. You should probably have someone standing next to you hitting two pans together than using those Dell speakers. Man, if I had a nickle for every pair of them I threw away.
He never gave me an answer. He just kept saying that these Bose speakers were the best brand they had in the store. Since I never quite got an answer out of him, I just bought them and decided that I would return them if they were horrible.
I got home and hooked them up. Right after that, I hooked up the Altec Lansings to Laura’s computer, which made her very happy. Now she can pump the bass. Back to my speakers. I turned on Media Player and was quite impressed. All that stuff Bose says about themselves is pretty true. The speakers are very clear and I can now hear sounds I never heard out of my old speakers. It’s pretty amazing what they can do with half the size and weight of something.
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Friday, May 30th, 2008
I decided to follow Joe’s advice. He has never led me down the wrong path before.
This morning, I received my new APC Back-UPS XS 1500. This is the best one Circuit City offered and it looks pretty good. I am not going to give all the specs here…I’m sure you can do a search for the model.
I am using this one for my system upstairs in my office and moved my old APC battery backup downstairs near the router and all that. Now, all that stuff is protected.
This one’s got all the gadgets. The interface tells me how much power I am using and the load on the unit. Also, the new APC PowerChute software is really neat.
There are tons of options and settings. I think I like it.
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Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
Seriously, this is as big as I am going to get. I have been using my 22″ monitor for the past few months, but we need that for the other office. I can’t work on two computers, one having a large monitor and one having only a 19″. I tend to get used to the large one.
I bought this Samsung 2693HM 25.5″ Widescreen LCD Monitor (2693HM) the other day and Circuit City delivered it to me today. I thought I would be ready for it. I have to say, it’s kind of big and bright. It’s going to take some getting used to.
I am sure I will, I did with the other one.
What I am going to do with the 22″? Well, as I mentioned above, I am putting that one in the other room. Then, I am going to take the 19″ and use it here, for the computer I am using right now. Then, when I get my new computer (just wait for that one), I will hook this big monitor up to it.
No more messing around.
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Thursday, April 17th, 2008
Boy, what a past couple of days. I have been getting some additional hardware installed on my servers and it has been keeping me very busy with support tickets and phone calls. Let’s just say that once you make the jump to the real deal, things require more attention. There are some clear benefits that I am going to have to implement soon, such as server clustering. I am just laying the groundwork for them now. Let’s just say it’s been a learning experience.
That’s not what this post is about though…that’s just what keeps me up at night. This post is about the 2GB of Kingston RAM I purchased the other day for my desktop.
I have been doing some reading on Windows Vista lately and the common thread is that you need a mainframe to run it. Not really, but you get the picture. The good ol’ days of thinking you were king with 2GB of RAM are over. Now, 4GB is more like the norm.
Since my machine came with 2GB already installed and 4 slots to put RAM in, I decided to get 2 more. I got them from Circuit City and popped them in. I started the computer up and really didn’t notice all that much of a difference. Some things are faster and some things (like Outlook) were much faster. Outlook now flies for some reason. The RAM I got is the Kingston 1GB, DDR2, PC2-5300, 667MHz. This RAM is backwards compatible with the 533MHz already installed. After I restarted the computer again, things seemed to pick up some so now the computer runs more like my old XP machine did.
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Saturday, April 12th, 2008
I ran out to Circuit City this morning to pick up a new router and wireless card for my desktop computer. We already had a wireless router, but I am afraid that one won’t go the distance in a larger house. Also, I wanted to make my computer wireless like Laura’s and the laptop.
When I got to the store, I browsed through the equipment. I had some stuff in my hand, but then started really looking through everything else. As I understand it, there are a few different speeds and ranges that routers and cards offer. There is the “b” speed that came out first. Then, there is the “g” speed that is now a few years old and a lot faster than the “b.” I thought that was as fast as things got, so that is what I was looking for. After reading boxes for a bit, I realized there is now a “n” speed. This offers 4X the range and 12X the speed of “g.” That’s what I’m talkin’ bout.
I bought the WMP300N Wireless-N PCI Adapter here…
…that came with this massive antenna…
Now, that’s no wimpy little antenna that sticks out of the back of my computer. That sucker sits on top.
The recommended product to go with this card is the WRT300N Wireless-N Broadband Router, which I got too. Now, remember, this router offers 4X the range and 12X the speed of its predecessor. It will also wash your hair in the morning. Here’s a pic…
I hooked everything up and it works well. I like the fact that there is a security feature that stops my neighbors from using my far reaching bandwidth. If you want to connect to my network, you need a long password key. I already set all the computers up with it. I don’t notice any extra speed with my current DSL because I was hardwired into my old router, but once we make the switch to cable, we should see a big jump.
Please write your opinions on this topic, I will try not to argue.
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