Tag Archives: Hardware

Apple WWDC Announcements

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If you are not a techie at heart, you may not have paid any attention to Apple’s WWDC that is going on. This is the World Wide Developers Conference, where Apple announces upcoming hardware, software and development kits for developers to use to create new products.

As you may remember, when the iPad came out, I re-entered the world of Apple. At the same time I bought an Apple Mac Mini to connect to a large screen TV for movie streaming.

However, my main PC was a very powerful Gateway running Windows 7. I loved that system too, but soon having different technologies made it more difficult to keep my contact lists up to date and moving information from one device to another.

I bit the bullet and bought an iMac and it replaced my desktop. I had thought if the need arose, I would just add Windows to the system, since it has a built-in feature to dual boot into Windows. To this point, I have never found the need to buy Windows, but that always remains a backup plan. Continue reading →

Hyper Media in David

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I had to do some maintenance on a backup PC the other day, which I was selling, and Kelvin King introduced me to Hyper Media. I guess this store has been here a couple of years, but I didn’t know about it. It is sort of David’s answer to YOYTEC in Panama city.

Here are a couple photos in the store. Continue reading →

A Great Purchase Today

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I made a great purchase today. One of the things that has annoyed me is that the USB connection with my Olympus camera is slow on loading photos into the PC. The other day I was in the ACER Computer store and I noticed an internal card reader.

It accepts all current camera memory chips and it even provides a USB port. I just installed it on my primary Linux PC and it works like a charm. It cost me $13. The case is high quality and it came with face plates for black, white or beige cases.

Wouldn’t You Just Know It!

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Yesterday, I decided that the new PC had been online long enough and I could take my older PC and turn it into a Linux box. When I did the install my hard drive started failing. I could hear a slight squeak every time it moved the access arm. Before I was able to complete the Linux install the hard drive had completely stopped working.

I turned it off and let it rest for the night and decided to try it one last time. The install stated fine and the hard drive didn’t make any noises, however after about 3 minutes of loading from the DVD to the hard drive the noise is back and I type the Linux install failure message has appeared.

Now I have a new worry. The hard drive in my primary PC is the same age as the failing hard drive. Worry, worry, worry.

Seek And Ye Shall Find – Maybe

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I was just looking at some of the statistics related to the search phrases that have brought visitors to Chiriqui Chatter. I can understand some of the searches and the visitors probably got information related to their search. However others most likely were disappointed and I would imagine have never returned. Let me describe some of the searches that have been made. Continue reading →

Gonna Be A Lazy Day

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I really don’t have much on my agenda for today. I plan on finishing the new PC today. I got a new LG DVD and floppy drive with a black faceplates and an extra case fan from Alex at INFOX that I need to install. Following that I will probably just take it easy and read a few chapters in STATE of FEAR by Michael Crichton. The last few days have been hot enough I have felt that staying locked up in the bedroom with the AC running was the best thing to do. While the mornings are really nice and fresh, it has been getting pretty warm in the afternoons.

The Secondary Is Now The Primary

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After a few frustrating days of working with Linux on the new motherboard, I decided to take a new approach. It seemed a shame to dedicate the most power I have to Linux and not take advantage of all the increased memory, improved video, improved audio, increased speed and built-in firewall that I had on the new motherboard.

So yesterday, I installed Windows XP from scratch and moved all of my applications to the new PC. Everything went pretty smooth with the exception of moving the data from Microsoft Outlook. I have moved from one PC to another before, so I wasn’t expecting problems, but the new PC did not want to accept the Outlook pst file.

After an hour or so of cursing, ranting and raving, I finally got it installed. It is so nice to have an XP system running after a clean install. I can really tell a difference in speed moving from my Athlon 1200 to the Athlon-64 3500.

After I give this a few days to make sure there is nothing I have forgotten and get to the new DVD writer that I ordered installed, I will put Linux on the old PC and see if I can get farther with that project. At least I won’t be thinking that I have a lot of power that I am not using.

Maybe when Vista is released, I can buy a new motherboard for the old PC and it will once again be the primary PC.

With that plan in place, I think I will refocus on the problem I have with Coppermine on my Web host. I am about of the mindset to uninstall it and reload the entire set of photos on the latest version. There is probably an easier way, but my old motto is “Hard is Better”.

Carnaval Is Over – Did You Survive It

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All stores should be open after eleven this morning. I saw no reason to get out into the fray this year. I just played with the PC systems.

I am still not able to configure the Linux system without problems. I don’t know if it is the system or the user. One would expect it is the user, except that I have pretty well checked what I have done and done several things more than once. This is probably going to require a fair amount of time on the SuSE forums.

ASUS BIOS Department Finally Replied!

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Yesterday, I did receive the following reply from the ASUS BIOS Department:

I AM SORRY FOR THE INCONVIENCE, I HAVE BEEN OUT OF THE OFFICE ALL WEEK. PLEASE PROVIDE ME WITH THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION.

NAME
SHIPPING ADDRESS
PHONE NUMBER
MODEL OF MOTHERBOARD

THANKS!

SARAH M HOLLIS
ASUS TECHNOLOGY
HEAD OF BIOS DEPARTMENT
(502)995-0883 EXT. 7172

I guess I am happy that she was on vacation for a week as I probably saved myself a lot of time and perhaps a different set of headaches. I encourage other ASUS A8N-VM CSM motherboard owners to just have faith and perform the EZ Flash to bring the board up to current standards.

ASUS A8N—VM CSM And SuSE 10.0

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After solving the problem of upgrading the BIOS, SuSE 10.0 went on without a problem. It took about an hour to load all of the updates that have been issued since I purchased version 10.0 of SuSE. The one area that will take some time to get operational will be to get sound activated. I had expected that, so it is really no surprise. Now I will have to start another search on the Net to see how to get sound going.

The time to download the Linux updates did make me investigate the new Internet Service being offered by Cable Onda. Cable Onda currently has a special going on to offer a discount of 1/3 for a six-month period on the cable TV portion of their service. The speeds and prices of the Internet portion of their service appear to be equal to or better than C&W and I think the prices are better. In addition they are offering speeds much higher than C&W’s ADSL service. Getting cable TV for less than $15 for their Gold level for 6 months is really a temptation.