I recently gave up on my several year run as a technician/computer builder at home when my desktop took a nosedive and I didn’t have the time or energy to resuscitate it. I built it I think 4 years ago, ore rebuild I should say. It had a good run. I wanted a reliable new machine that when it broke, someone else would fix it this time if I did not feel like it. So…. Dude, I got a Dell!
This is the first name brand computer (desktop) that I have purchased personally since 1998. WOW! Before that, I had built my first machine which was an Intel Pentium 133Mhz, with I think 64mB of RAM, and a 1.2GB hard drive. Something like that. I had also built a less powerful 486 for my mom. I hung onto that for quite a while and then passed it on to my nephew. Well, once I decided that i wanted something more powerful, I made the huge mistake of buying a Powerspec from Microcenter. All I can say is ICK! What on earth did I do that for. The hard drive died after I think one month. I had home repair service, but that did not help the stuff on my drive. Luckily, since I had not had it long, I had not added much and the old content was still on my old drive. I upgraded that one a couple of time to fix it, then passed it onto my mother and went back to building my own. It was certainly the best way to go at the time. Prices on parts were so low that there was no doubt that you could build yourself a really good machine for the same or maybe even lower than buying one.
Well times have changed, computers from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. prices are great and you can always find a great deal on the web.
So, I did some searching online for a few days until just the right coupon deal caught my eye. I got a great machine and a 22″ widescreen flat panel to boot. WOO HOO!! Along with this machine, I decided to be daring, bite the bullet, and get Windows Vista….
ooooohhhh….
So far things are going pretty well. I have to be honest. I don’t use that machine as much as I should yet. I am still all over the house with my laptop (Also a Dell, but with XP). But when I do use it, I am pretty happy with it. Yes, Vista has crashed a couple of times, and I did have to go through a couple of simple hoops to get some software to work, but nothing serious. All my hardware had updates from the manufacturers, so that was a relief. I still have some more things to install so I may encounter some problems. Here is what I dislike so far…
- No RDP server (Remote Desktop) - I used this heavily with my old machine to connect from work, friends houses, or just the laptop from another part of the house. Well, Vista Home Premium does not have this included, to get that, you have to purchase Ultimate. I have NO idea why MS thought this was a good idea. It is bound to just annoy people and then make us all get VNC. I have not installed that yet, but I MAY consider the Ultimate, I just don’t know. Sigh…
- The annoying pop-ups that alert me for EVERY FREAKING THING THAT I DO. The other day, all I was doing was renaming files and I had to accept and re accept to allow myself to do this. Oh, it is very annoying. I am not exaggerating when i say that it does this for EVERYTHING. (see attached movie)
- EVERYTHING seems to be in a different place now. Some are easy enough to find, but did they have to move it all??
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=UACsCvgkdbU[/youtube]
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May 31st, 2007
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kcain |
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I decided to write up the differences in the article. You can see those on my other site here.
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May 17th, 2007
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A local Suburban Chicago paper interviewed me for their Mother’s Day centerpiece story. It’s very strange to look at a paper and see yourself on the cover.
Check out my story here 
Kristopher got up at 5:24, so I went to the computer to look up the article. Eddie said “no, don’t read it there, it’s not the same”, so at 5:30 he got dressed and went to the store and bought 10 papers.
There are a couple of minor mistakes on details in the article, but no big deal. I think it’s great!
Enjoy.
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May 13th, 2007
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kcain |
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I have been noticing that things seemed mighty fast on the net at my house lately, so I decided to do a speed test.
EDIT(5/17): Well for some reason my link to the speedtest image died. But it was well over 13mb down and 1.5mb up.
Holy ^$**&(&$!! That is FAST!!!
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May 13th, 2007
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kcain |
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I swear it seems like just yesterday that I was 25, but 9 days ago I turned 33. My girls keep asking me if I am getting old. Well, yes I am girls! I wish I had the energy of a 20 year old.
I did not have a big party or anything. We had a few friends over at the last minute for bbq. I also watched my girls get their first crack at riding their new bikes. That was a riot!
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April 30th, 2007
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Hey, see my fancy new banner above?? I finally got off my lazy bum and signed up for the reseller account like I should have done long ago.
If you need to renew a domain or need hosting, check it out! Prices are great. Domain transfers start at 6.95 for a .com and include a FREE 1 year extension. Click the banner to get started.
Hosting starts at only 3.99 for 5Gb of space!! That is more than most of the other hosts on the web. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
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April 12th, 2007
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kcain |
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I found this on a forum, I don’t recall which one. But apparently, Cingular is trying to right the wrong of the super short battery life on the Blackjack and offering free extended batteries and covers.
I received mine yesterday. It does make the phone just a tad bit wider, but I guess it is worth it for when you need more battery time.
Claim your battery now before it’s too late!
https://www.web-rebates.com/cingular/blackjack/Step1.asp
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March 20th, 2007
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I finally bit the bullet and upgraded to the very latest Wordpress, 2.1.2. It went fairly easy and I was down in around 30 minutes.
Also, I have been working on getting content ready for another site. It is my Twin Blog which is linked above. There has not been much there because it has not been kept up recently, but I am fixing that and have lots of ideas in store.
It’s live now, but stayed tuned for the official launch!
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March 8th, 2007
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kcain |
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One of my good, amazing friends has just become a breast cancer survivor. She is such a beautiful, vibrant mother and wife and I am happy to support her.
If you know someone who has died from breast cancer, or if you know a survivor, or you feel generous and would like to support the cause, please stop by her page and donate!
If you do donate, post a comment here and let me know.
(((HUGS))) and Thanks!
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February 28th, 2007
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We have a fairly decent commute into work each morning. If the kids are not screaming at me, I try to get a few things done online by connecting either my Dell Inspiron E1705 (personal) or my MacBook Pro (work) to my Blackjack. The 3G speeds really are fairly good. Not for downloading, etc. but good enough to do some browsing, email checking, etc.
I just did a speed test on DSL Reports. and I got pretty good results.
That is comparable to DSL at a lot of people’s houses. SBC is pretty slow in my opinion, but to get that speed on a phone is fairly good.
I personally use Comcast High Speed Internet. I have since 1998. I started with Mediaone, and then I think ATT, and then Excite @home then to Comcast (I think I have that order right). I have had very little problems the whole time. I did lose connectivity for a week when Excite was going through $$ problems or something, but other than that, the service has been pretty solid. I pay for the higher speed service which comes in very useful. I like my speed I’ll add a speed test from there later since I am in the car right now. 
Edited: here is the speed test that I just ran while at home. Can you say fast??
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February 9th, 2007
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