Monday Visitors
Internet Service Provider – Part II
I talked to the IT guys at work today about my idea of dumping Earthlink and going with the local phone company for internet services. The head of IT said I may not want to do that since the trouble seems to be with the copper wire that runs from the local phone company central office to my place.
The IT guy said it doesn’t matter what label is on the broadband service. The copper wire is still the same, regardless of what the phone company sales people will try to tell you.
It looks like I will be staying with Earthlink for the time being. There is no benefit in changing providers now. Staying also means I do not have to go through the email address change process; that is a major plus for me.
New Laptop
My Handspring Visor’s calendar function shows that I ought to be buying a new laptop about now. The existing ThinkPad is closing in on five years old. The IT guy and I were talking about brands and what is out there. He liked Dell, IBM, and Toshiba. I have always been an IBM guy since my very first personal computer, the IBM PCjr.
He said I should wait until August so or since he believes prices will drop then. He also estimated the cost of the machine that I want to buy at around $1,500. That made sense and I believed that I could easily wait four months for August to roll around.
Then, I got home and read the newspaper.
I saw an advertisement from Lenovo for IBM ThinkPads. These computers were attractively prices and naturally all were well under the $1,500 mark. I was intrigued and interested.
I spent close to an hour exploring the Lenovo web site and playing with various machine configurations. I found one that I liked and is not that much over the IT guy’s price estimate.
I configured the machine to run on Windows Vista if I want to make a change from Windows XP Professional that I have been running since I got this machine. XP works fine and I don’t see any real need to upgrade to Vista yet. The machine would have 2 GB of RAM and a 60 GB hard drive. I have no idea what I will use all of that storage space for. I know Vista is a RAM hog so I ought to be set.
In the event I stay with XP, I feel safe with that decision since Microsoft only now is dropping support on Windows ME and 2000. Microsoft should continue to support XP until I need to buy a new laptop.
Tomorrow, I will talk with the IT guy and see if I missed any useful optional equipment or features.
Now, my potential next challenge will be what to do with the soon to be replaced laptop and the other old laptop that I still have. I suppose charitable donations are the simplest solutions after I wipe the hard rives clean first.
Wrist Watch
I am one of those old fashioned people that still wears a wrist watch. My watch is on the old fashioned side. It only tells time with moving hands and Roman numerals.
I don’t think one can get much simpler than that. Well, one could be like Doug and not wear a watch at all. He relies on his cellphone for the time and calendar.
Anyway and more to the point, I had to take my watch band in a notch. This means that I am losing weight on my arms. I had not expected this to happen so this is a pleasant surprise for me. I am also losing weight all over so that my jeans now will slide down further than ever before.
This is a nice problem to have.
Monday Visitors
The blog had 18 visitors on Monday. I wonder what was it that I wrote that was so compelling for these visitors to read the bog. If I knew what caught their interest, I would probably focus on those topics more.
Oh well, life goes on and so will the blog.
Be well and stay happy.
I talked to the IT guys at work today about my idea of dumping Earthlink and going with the local phone company for internet services. The head of IT said I may not want to do that since the trouble seems to be with the copper wire that runs from the local phone company central office to my place.
The IT guy said it doesn’t matter what label is on the broadband service. The copper wire is still the same, regardless of what the phone company sales people will try to tell you.
It looks like I will be staying with Earthlink for the time being. There is no benefit in changing providers now. Staying also means I do not have to go through the email address change process; that is a major plus for me.
New Laptop
My Handspring Visor’s calendar function shows that I ought to be buying a new laptop about now. The existing ThinkPad is closing in on five years old. The IT guy and I were talking about brands and what is out there. He liked Dell, IBM, and Toshiba. I have always been an IBM guy since my very first personal computer, the IBM PCjr.
He said I should wait until August so or since he believes prices will drop then. He also estimated the cost of the machine that I want to buy at around $1,500. That made sense and I believed that I could easily wait four months for August to roll around.
Then, I got home and read the newspaper.
I saw an advertisement from Lenovo for IBM ThinkPads. These computers were attractively prices and naturally all were well under the $1,500 mark. I was intrigued and interested.
I spent close to an hour exploring the Lenovo web site and playing with various machine configurations. I found one that I liked and is not that much over the IT guy’s price estimate.
I configured the machine to run on Windows Vista if I want to make a change from Windows XP Professional that I have been running since I got this machine. XP works fine and I don’t see any real need to upgrade to Vista yet. The machine would have 2 GB of RAM and a 60 GB hard drive. I have no idea what I will use all of that storage space for. I know Vista is a RAM hog so I ought to be set.
In the event I stay with XP, I feel safe with that decision since Microsoft only now is dropping support on Windows ME and 2000. Microsoft should continue to support XP until I need to buy a new laptop.
Tomorrow, I will talk with the IT guy and see if I missed any useful optional equipment or features.
Now, my potential next challenge will be what to do with the soon to be replaced laptop and the other old laptop that I still have. I suppose charitable donations are the simplest solutions after I wipe the hard rives clean first.
Wrist Watch
I am one of those old fashioned people that still wears a wrist watch. My watch is on the old fashioned side. It only tells time with moving hands and Roman numerals.
I don’t think one can get much simpler than that. Well, one could be like Doug and not wear a watch at all. He relies on his cellphone for the time and calendar.
Anyway and more to the point, I had to take my watch band in a notch. This means that I am losing weight on my arms. I had not expected this to happen so this is a pleasant surprise for me. I am also losing weight all over so that my jeans now will slide down further than ever before.
This is a nice problem to have.
Monday Visitors
The blog had 18 visitors on Monday. I wonder what was it that I wrote that was so compelling for these visitors to read the bog. If I knew what caught their interest, I would probably focus on those topics more.
Oh well, life goes on and so will the blog.
Be well and stay happy.
posted by Chuck Reinhardt at 6:51 PM
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