I am a freakin genius!

This afternoon when I turned on the Toshiba it completely refused to reach out to the internet! And the problem seemed to be with the machine itiself- the wireless on/off switch on the face of the machine would not turn the connectivity on or off... This did not look good and I tried a few things to get it going to no avail. I even called the Toshiba tech support but because my machine is out of warranty, any work they attempted over the phone was going to cost me 50 bucks- not good!

So I left it and the BSU and I went to a movie. When I got home, I started Google searching for solutions and in a few minutes I found a forum that offered a couple solutions. The 2nd solution offered up actually worked! Sweet! I just saved myself 50 dollars! I have to admit I was pretty surprised to be able to resolve this by myself but I'm tickled by my results.

If only every problem in life could be solved with a Google search...

This is cool and I can't wait to try it-

My new job requires me to use a keyboard and mouse 9 hours every day and the equipment I've been using are standard issue HP pieces of kit. But they are pretty horrible for all-day use.

So I ordered this Logitech wireless, solar powered keyboard which arrived from Amazon today. This thing is slick! It's just 1/3" thin, never requires batteries and has slick, fast keys like a good laptop computer. I'll be putting it to work on Monday and I'm anxious to give it a shakedown.

I'm also going to be pairing it with a Logitech wireless mouse that I can program to do the actions I take all day with the programmable buttons but I will have to wait until payday to order to order that neat tool. But I expect that my work will improve with some new quality tools.

Anybody else using Open Office?

I decided to try something new with my laptop when I bought it a few weeks back so I installed Open Office Suite for my word processing and spreadsheet work. I've found it, so far, to be fast, intuitive and easy to use and since you can save files in Microsoft formats, the files I've created open equally well in Word or Excel. I haven't used it extensively and really dug into every feature but I'm enjoying this very professional yet free software.

You might give it a try if you don't want to pony up the funds for an expensive Microsoft package.

RIP my trustworthy Compaq

My first post from my new, shiny, bigger Toshiba Satellite laptop that I just unboxed an hour ago. My 5 year old, and until now, very trusty laptop died on me last night. Dragging it into a couple shops this AM determined that the hard drive had died and perhaps taken all my data with it. Argh!

I finally had 1 tech advise me to buy a replacement hard drive and a external box to put my old drive in to try to keep the old machine alive and to recover my old data. So- I tried that and I couldn't get Windows reinstalled and got stymied.

And I went out and bought a new machine... It's pretty and modern and I managed to get connected to my wi-fi the first time. It also takes up much more kitty napping space on my lap and she does not approve of that but the fan exhaust is blowing warm on her so the intrusion is being tolerated.

Next thing is to try and recover my very important data!

My laptop's back already!

Yeah! I must say, overall I am very pleased. I had the work done through Easy Tech at Staples and everything (almost) has turned out perfect. My Outlook Express address book has gone AWOL and that makes me cranky but I may still be able to recover most of it through importation from my Gmail account. I'll try that in a bit. I've already re-installed Bit Defender so my machine is secure and there is a small pile of program discs that I'll procede onto next. And I have to call Comcast for assistance in setting up my Outlook Express email.

My internet favorites file is missing and my Internet Explorer view looks terribly 1990's. I have the majority of my favorites on a memory stick so I haven't lost everything, just anything I've added in the past several months. And I suppose I'll figure out the appearance issue soon enough too.

But at least the registry problems are fixed and my Bit Defender will update every day as it is supposed to and lots of unused junk has been swept into a pile and vacuumed out of my computer. And that makes me pretty happy.