Year Anniversary

Wow. It's hard to believe but today marks the one year anniversary of Wandering Sidhe so I thought it might be due time for a recap of the major events. (Not that with my prolific blogging style [sarcastic] you couldn't just read the last year for yourself.)

We kicked off just before the semester last year let out, probably one of my many attempts to study for finals (which would have included lots of searching through my handwritten notes). After giving you a warm welcome and a rundown of all the tech history I could think of we moved on to my dilemma, ultra-portable or ultra-mobile tablet.

Both platforms have their advantages and disadvantages. After much soul searching I determined that even though the first generation UMPCs had promise, they weren't the power computer I needed to replace using Avalon on a regular basis. Most normal sized tablet users remark again and again about how they need X amount of screen real estate for everyday use. I already knew that I didn't need as much as most because even when I use a computer every day, I keep it clean and generally use no more than five 'windowed' applications at a time.

By early August I had made my decision and bought the LS800, quickly dubbed "Lisa". For 11 days I posted the many ways that I thought I might use my new computer and things I was looking forward to and then it arrived on Day 12. At this point I think we can enter what we might call (if we were technological egyptologists) the first intermediate period of my blog which lasts about 3 months. Learning to use a tablet as an extension of my daily activities was a hard thing, made harder by my own foolishness.

Anyway, since the end of the first intermediate period I have been sporadically blogging things that I'm doing with relation to technology and I anticipate that this will be the continued state of this blog. Of course, with becoming a first time homeowner and having my own yard to garden in for the first time in many years I will probably spend most of my summer with something a little less technological and a little more down to earth... and of course, I have finals to think about. ^_^

Warranty Woes

Sorry for the titles lately. I've been in an alliteration sort of mood.

Anyway, Motion Tech Support was very fast and very nice, unfortunately pens only come with a 90 day warranty and mine was nearly twice as old as that so I'll have to buy a new one when $35 is something I'm able to spend.

Once I have the new one I think I might do a bit of a dissection of my old pen and see what I can come up with. After all, the pen works, and why should I flippantly throw out working tech? Maybe I'll make a finger glove for a little faux touch screen action.

"Breaking" News

Unfortunately I may now be able to test the quality of Motion Computing customer support. Today the button on my stylus failed, literally caving in. I have contacted them about a replacement (under warranty?) and we will see how that goes. The outcome here will likely have a large impact on whether I send Lisa in for a tune up this summer.

In other news today, my small Chemical Hydrogeology class used Lisa before the button meltdown. The projector we were given didn't "just work" with the Mac laptop that was brought by the Professor so I plugged Lisa into it and seconds later we were able to proceed with class.

Slow, slower, slowest...

This past weekend I had planned to be uberproductive with regards to writing papers for a semester which seems to be flying to a close. However, the best laid plans...

Saturday I was getting ready to work (honestly) I really was) and my husband expressed frustration with Avalon. She was taking anywhere from 3-5 minutes to load basic programs, but her startup time seemed normal. We did some of the usual things (disk clean & defrag) and uninstalled old cluttery programs, but nothing really seemed to work. After a few hours of troubleshooting I gave up.

Sunday my father-in-law handed me his laptop and in a mock pathetic whine voice asked me to fix it. He is using a very old Compaq Evo which I've dubbed "Grandma Eva" since at one point I was using an Evo myself. After a few hours and lots of deleting I'm pretty sure things are all sped up. It still bothers me though. Thorough Spy-ware, ad-ware, mal-ware & virus checks and nothing to blame the slow down on.

So scared...

Today I had my first real senior moment. My husband and I had lunch at McD's and about 25 minutes after we left I realized that my purse was left behind with, you guessed it, Lisa still inside. My guardian angel came through and 25 minutes later Lisa & the rest of my purse were safely back in hand. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried with relief. But it really makes me reconsider getting LoJack.