Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Making progress!

With the new computer, that is.

I guess it's like a lot of things that seem different at first -- you just have to spend some time with them and before long you'll climb that learning curve and wonder why the thing was ever uncomfortable. I'm still climbing, and parts of it are still uncomfortable, but I think it's all going to be OK before too long.

I've been inside the case already. Decided to try just taking the twin hard drives I had in the old computer out and installing them in the new box. No, I don't need the storage, but with the drives installed I can transfer files to the new hard drive and keep all my old saved emails and other data. I can even run programs that were loaded on the old drives and so far they work just fine on the new machine -- even under the Vista OS.

I'm still getting my desktop icons set up and finding my way around Windows Explorer. With three hard drives, plus two cd/dvd drives. plus an external drive for backup and a USB flash drive I have lots of drive designations to keep up with. Oh, and don't forget I'm networked through the wireless router with Carol's laptop, so it shows up as a network drive on Win Explorer.

I'm still happy with my new purchase. Mainly because it's FAST! Well, compared to the old machine at least.

But it still doesn't write emails and book pages for me. Maybe someday I'll upgrade to that new wireless headset that picks up your thought patterns and types words on the screen and launches programs when you think about them.

What, you haven't heard about that?

I'm thinking about including it in my new thriller I'm working on. It may be SciFi today, but by the time the book is finished it'll probably be old news.

Since I'm making it up for now, I'll give it a very minimal learning curve. Totally intuitive! That'll put Vista out of favor in a hurry.

6 comments:

kenju said...

Good luck with all that, John. If you can write about it - it will happen sooner or later.

Anonymous said...

Duke,

YOU OPENED THE CASE !!!!

You crazy man, did you know that all computers are mini pandoras boxes. As soon as you open the case it knows, believe me. It sends a secret message to the dell tech support and initialises a forthcoming breakdown procedure.

They'll be trouble soon I can feel it.

Peter said...

I don't think I would want my computer to type what I'm thinking after reading your reason for dual monitors in the post below, better include a censor when you launch that program.

Duke_of_Earle said...

Rob: WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME BEFORE!!?? I think it's already started. Carol called me at work today to tell me I had a weird error message on my screen at home about a possible hard drive failure, and warning me to back up all my data or I might lose it. WHAT HAVE I DONE!??

Peter: I'm thinking of calling it the "Cyber Psychic." The device will look like a small headphone set, but connect to the computer wirelessly. Parental controls will be available to screen out words and images(!) unsuitable for children.

John

Candace Williams said...

"Since I'm making it up for now, I'll give it a very minimal learning curve. Totally intuitive!"

Oh, you mean a Mac?
:)

-Scruffybutt's Mom

Anonymous said...

Boy, you are set up to do some serious blogging now! You are very brave and talented also to be able to "tweak" your new computer. Very cool. Color me jealous.