Monday 20 January 2003

Pic of the day: Did I really buy a new computer just to see shiny mirror images in the river when I play Dark Age of Camelot? Not quite, but it's easy to make pictures of.

Changes

Today stuff actually happened. Or rather, I happened. I did stuff. Good or bad? Time will show.

Talked with boss. Gave boss my application for reduction of job to 90% (with a commensurate reduction in pay, of course). I've been working approximately that much less for the last year, but not in any formalized way, and therefore pay would vary from month to month. Let's see how this works. I think I can say this much without talking about work.

***

Bought new computer. It is not a dramatic step up, but then again it was fairly cheap. It runs at 1.7 GHz and in this computer the GeForce 3 Ti graphics card actually works. This means that DAoC runs smoother in populated areas, even with the expansion pack. (It is also prettier, now.) The same for Morrowind. (The sluggish response to controls meant more strain to my hand.) New PC has a DVD player rather than a CD player. It has several more USB ports for external units, and needs one less since it has a built-in network card for my ADSL. The connection seems to run more smoothly like on the portable, but unlike the previous desktop. I am not sure whether this is because of a weakness in the USB network card or in Windows ME. This one runs XP too, which has built-in support for ADSL.

Setting up the ADSL connection was a snap. Admittedly I had done so before, on the portable, but it was still easy. After this, I started Windows update. First Win XP service pack 1. After that, other critical updates. And my favorite browser, Opera. MS Chat for IRC, not that I have used that much lately. I did use it for a while today though. PFE32 for editing my journal. And OpenOffice.org 1.02 for my other writing needs. (It also covers many other needs, but I have only used oo.o for writing. It is quite good for multi-chapter stories, as it handles chapters in separate files easily and can convert them to HTML if I ever feel the need to upload them.)

Plugging my pocket PC's cradle into one of the USB ports made the PC recognize the Pocket PC, but it did not automatically install software for synchronizing. I had to search for "Microsoft Activesync" on the Net, then download the latest version (currently 3.5). When it searched for a connection, I had to turn my pocket PC back on, as it had fallen asleep meanwhile. But still, not something that requires college level engineering.

In another USB port I put the connector from my USB hub, and in it was currently connected the Zip drive. The computer automatically and correctly identified the hub, then patched through to the zip drive, which it also identified. Only the contents of the actual cartridge caused pause: The computer asked if I would open it as a disk of files, or play it as a media file, or show it as pictures. Once told that it was files, it opened correctly and I could work with it as an extra disk. This was nice, because to it I had copied my mail program (Agent) with its contents, as well as the journal archive as per this morning. I forgot to also transfer the novel in progress (I'm on chapter 3) but I haven't actually gotten rid of the computer. If I ever want to put the whole story together, I should be able to. There are also various other writings that exist on that machine only. Not much, just a little.

I installed two games, Morrowind and Dark Age of Camelot, with their respective expansion packs. I tested both of them. I don't think it is really worth paying hundreds of dollars just to see sea and river surfaces that are blank and reflective. But it is an extra, nice thing in addition to the better performance.

***

With all the downloading and testing, the evening kinda went. It is midnight now. I spent much of the evening with my windows open, because of the chemical stink from the new computer. It is much lessened now. It cannot possibly be healthy. I've heard bad things about the brominated stuff they use to coat printed circuits with, but it is supposed to make them more proof to fire in case of overheating. I don't expect this machine to overheat for a long long time, but better safe than sorry.

It is still winter, but at least it is above freezing. Still, I wasn't exactly overheating either.

I hope something of this may be of use or interest to one or more of you. Changing computers is something that happens. This transition is one of the easier ever. So far, at least. ^_^