We went shopping yesterday for a new computer (at last). For the past couple of years we have been “surviving” at home with a rag-tag combination of bits of old (broken) computers, tacked together by myself to make one kind-of-working machine.
Rather than be “clever” and build a computer (which in reality is no more complicated than a lego kit these days), I just went to our local computer superstore and bought a bog-standard PC off the shelf. It’s pretty middle of the road as far as modern PCs go, but it’s plenty good enough for a home computer; 2.8Ghz, 750Mb RAM, and an 80Gb hard drive.
We opted for the flat screen rather than a monitor in order to get at least some desk space back. So far the only gremlin has been the USB card reader; when it’s plugged in, the computer doesn’t boot (although it works fine once the machine is up and running). Hmmm…
So far I’m pretty pleased with the computer - although I was less than pleased with it after leaving it on last night; it went into sleep mode and wouldn’t wake up. I have NEVER seen a computer that behaves predictably when it goes into hybernation… our Toshiba laptop behaves just as erratically. When I came down at 6am this morning (to watch the Grand Prix), the computer was thrashing away with the fans on full power… as soon as I pulled the plug on it and re-started it, it remained quiet… go figure.
Another slight worry is that the machine has XP Home Edition with it - while it shouldn’t cause too many hassles, it does mean that connecting to the domain at work is going to be a no-go.
I guess the other “thing of note” that I did this weekend was bought the book “Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell” - it sounds like a cracking book, so I’m looking forward to reading it