Sorry to have been out of the loop for a couple days!

photo credit: craigCloutier

What’s a gal to do?  After a long conversation with the husband yesterday, we decided to ditch the idea of a netbook and shell out the extra money for a new desktop.  I had been researching desktops for awhile, and we took the plunge (We got a solid deal, which I’m sure I’ll talk about in another post).

Why so soon?  A big part of it has to do with my husband’s scanning project that he has been working on.  His grandfather was a photographer, and he is creating a digital archive of all of his work.  Not to sound morbid, but there are only a couple of relatives left who can help us document some of the images, and they really look forward to our trips home so that they can see the work my husband has done.  This is something that we can’t put a price tag on, and the laptop (MacBook) was giving us a bunch of compatibility issues when we would name and transfer files from one operating system to the other.  He has actually stopped working on the project for awhile, and has been anxious to start back up.

Second, I got a call yesterday from a friend who I have been wanting to collaborate with for awhile now.  It’s been one of those things where we get together and toss ideas around, but due to conflicting schedules, nothing has really materialized.  His schedule has freed up, and this is the kind of motivation I need to get back into programming.  He works on Macs exclusively, and I will need to upgrade to Leopard in order to work with him effectively.  Having another computer in the house will make the Leopard upgrade a little less nerve-wrecking.    In addition, with VMWare Fusion (which allows other operating systems to run on a Mac) taking up a whopping 40GB of my 60GB hard drive, it was time to put it on an “application diet” and reinstall it.  Having a new Windows machine makes this about 1000 times easier.

But now, I’m dealing with the nasty repurcussions.  Vista 64 has no interest in running my XP applications.  That’s a lot of fun.  Then, VMWare Fusion vomited today, (ironically, it was immediately after I tweeted someone about how great Fusion was) and I lost my OS.  Recovery was pretty lame, and reinstallation of the .NET framework to run the one program I need for tutoring was a complete failure.  Awesome.

Not to mention, we have guests coming for New Years, and I need to set up all my sites with HostGator within the next couple of days.

Any suggestions to deal with the technological chaos?  I’d love to hear them!

We decided not to extend our warranty on our Dell Inspiron 9100 (from 4 years to 5 years) because of the cost. It would have been about $350, and we had just gotten a new hard drive, DVD drive, and motherboard while it was still under the 4-year warranty. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe the CPU could die?

That’s a possibility. At least, that’s what the error code said yesterday. I reseated the CPU in a lame attempt that it might have been knocked loose. This process took a little over an hour and countless numbers of tiny screws, but I still got the same error message after putting it all back together (hey, at least I didn’t break anything in the process).

So here’s the question: Should I purchase a refurbished CPU for about $120 and hope that this is what is wrong? It could also be memory, but I reseated both individually to no avail, and I doubt that both of them went bad at the same time. It could also be the motherboard, which isn’t even worth replacing (in terms of cost). From what I can find online, if purchasing a CPU doesn’t work, I would have to pay the shipping to send it back as well as a 20-25% restocking fee.

We could also start looking for another computer. This behemoth of a laptop is almost 5 years old, and my husband hates it (he’s the one that is the primary user). Ideally, I would like to find a new computer, and then try to repair the Dell and sell it online.

I want to be frugal, but at the same time I don’t want to pay money to temporarily revive a dying horse. What would you do?

It really wasn’t all that bad due to the fact that I had time and no distractions.  The extended instructions on the WordPress site were pretty straightforward, and it took me one hour from start to finish (including backing up the database and previous version of WordPress).

I’m getting used to the new dashboard, and am glad that it’s done!  Have you had any issues upgrading?  Are you putting it off?

Frequently, when dropping Entrecards, I will open 10+ blogs at a single time.  In some instances, the blog will load, but not the Entrecard “Drop” zone.  I just noticed that you can right click on the frame for the Entrecard widget, and just reload the frame (as opposed to the entire blog).  The Drop zone will appear, giving more time to read the blog entry instead of waiting for the entire page to reload.  Good stuff!

I added the following code to my archives, index, and single post files:

<div style=”float:left; margin-right:10px;”>
<script type=”text/javascript”>digg_url = “<?php the_permalink(); ?>”</script>
<script src=”http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>
</div>

I inserted the code immediately above the <?php the_content (‘<p>Read the rest of this entry &raquo;</p>’); ?> line in each of the files.

The div style lines puts the button floating (instead of above the post) and to the left with a 10 pixel margin.

The permalink line makes sure that the correct link is used for Digg submission – before I put in this snippet of code, the Digg button on my main page referenced the home page instead of the post. This meant that that Diggs could possibly be split across multiple submissions for the same content. For example, prior to inserting the permalink snippet, the Digg button on my main page for a prior post showed a “Submit” option instead of the Digg count.

Hope this helps someone out!

I’ll post back as soon as things are fixed.  I also wanted to apologize to Entrecard droppers – things were just too slow over the past two days to keep up; I promise to make it up to you as soon as I have reliable and fast internet access again!

Take it easy

What I didn’t know (until yesterday) is that the old girl is still under warranty!  Four years ago, I was able to get a really nice Dell Inspiron 9100 through work, and I did not know that it came with a 4 year warranty (that will expire at the end of June).

I have called Dell Technical Support before, only to be continually frustrated by offshore communication issues.  This time, I contacted online Technical Support, and was pleasantly surprised.  After a brief chat, I am getting a new hard drive sent, and a Tech Support guy is coming to the house tomorrow to install new fans (this particular model is famous for having issues with overheating, which I have experienced firsthand).

After these issues are resolved, I’ll be contacting them again, since my CD/DVD burner died last year (might as well get a replacement while still under warranty) and I have a small red vertical stripe that runs down the right side of the screen (this is unacceptable only because this machine was optimized/purchased to handle graphics).  I have also read that some people with this model have been able to get replacements since their computer runs so hot (mine runs at about 70C when surfing the net!).

Overall, it is a great relief to know that we shouldn’t have to purchase a new computer anytime soon.  Perhaps I will consider upgrading the RAM (currently at 1GB) if everything starts to work.

Have you had any experience with Dell Technical Service online?  Has your experience been as good as mine?

I have taken one course so far; I didn’t participate in the forums, but I found the information to be useful. I just signed up for a course on Flash animation (it starts on 8 May if you are interested). Just thought I would share in case you are looking to update some of your computer skills!

The thought of traveling over 1.5 hours to the Apple Store tomorrow after my son’s class was not appealing, so I decided to take matters into my own hands – after backing everything up, of course. Turns out that a couple of gentle knocks to the bottom of my MacBook with a rubber mallet has solved the problem.

This whole thing got me thinking – should I purchase an extended warranty for my MacBook? I can’t believe that I am really thinking about this. I still do not understand why Apple stresses customer service and the quality of their machines but wants you to pay $250 to extend your warranty from 1 years to 3 years. If this MacBook dies, I would have to fork out roughly $1000 for a new one. Right now, I cannot justify forking out 25% of the cost of a new computer for a warranty on an older (but perfectly functional) one.

Why get a Mac in the first place? I am really smitten with the iLife applications for creating home movies, and have been thinking of trying to sell my services locally. I recently made a dvd using the pictures from a relative whose wedding was in the 1950′s, and it was really rewarding to be able to give her such a timeless gift. I also love having a machine that runs multiple operating systems at the same time.

One other thing is that we don’t feel the need to have the newest technology right away.  We like to keep computers for as long as possible – my old Dell laptop is on her way out after 6 years. We cross our fingers every time we have to reboot, since it doesn’t always like to start up. The Inspiron 9100 is a great computer, but the processor was made for a desktop. Despite adequate ventilation, it overheats and shuts off periodically, and it has been doing this more frequently. We’re putting aside Best Buy gift cards from Boomertowne towards the purchase of a new desktop (hopefully we can find one that still has Windows XP!).

What would you do if you were in my shoes? The warranty for this one doesn’t expire until September (I think), so I still have some time to think about it.