Tag: computers
New work “game”
Here’s a fun game we’ve been playing at work this week. Never mind Xbox 360 achievements or PS3 trophies – it’s all about getting green piecharts on Windows Services Update Server!
MacBook mini
Finally! Apple have a MacBook mini! A 9-inch screened, netbook-style laptop! Perfect! OK, so they haven’t really. What I actually have here is a normally lovely-but-OS-X-less Dell Inspiron mini 9, with OS X installed on it. Leopard, in fact. It was very easy to do, as well. I just followed the instructions here.
Magic toner
A student came and asked me: “My teacher said she needs a pink and blue toner for her printer” “Pink and blue? Together?” “Yes” “Spots or stripes?” “I don’t know – should I go and ask?”
Adobe Red Pill
If you hold down Command (on a Mac) or CTRL (on Windows), and then choose “About Photoshop…” in Photoshop CS3, you get this: I have no idea why.
Things I wrote ages ago #287
System Administration for Girlies (SAG): You can download it here! (Windows only, probably needs VB6 runtime libraries).
Round and round and round
I finally got round to renaming my new (now six months old) PC to its perminent name today. Or at least, I tried.¬¨‚Ć Normally, I’d go to System in the Control Panel, and rename from there, but when I tried that… (click it for bigger!) It seems that Windows found an error, and to fix it wants me to try renaming the computer (like I’m doing) using System, in the Control Panel. You know, like I’m doing.
Dell software piracy
Today at work, I took delivery of a shiny new Dell Mac mini Studio Hybrid. I booted it up, and was confronted with this: That’s nice, isn’t it? I’m accused of being a criminal before I’ve even started using the thing. Amazing! So I clicked “Go online and resolve now”, which took me to this message: I’m not surprised it was invalid. I haven’t typed anything yet – it’s not given me the option!¬¨‚Ć I tried typing a “different” product …
Redirecting Application Data causes IE settings headaches
The time came to finally trial redirecting user Application Data folders to a network share, rather than have them roam on the network. I knew how to do it, but it never seemed to work properly, so I’d not done it previously. This week, I gave it another crack. And it works! Sort of. Unfortunately, although it correctly maps Application Data back to the server, all the settings in Internet Explorer (like the branding and, most importantly, proxy stuff) fail …
Dell Inspiron Mini 9 shinyness
Our batch of new Inspiron Minis arrived at work today. And very, very lovely (and shiny) they are too. Strange quirks include no F-keys (there are replacements via the Fn button and home row) and some difficulty getting sound drivers working when replacing XP Home with XP Pro, but they’re working now and run pretty fast and cool. Some obligatory pictures: Things of note: The Mini is almost the same size as the 701, only very slightly longer and slightly …
I need a new MacBook
Of course, I don’t need one at all. My two and a half year old, first generation, bought at launch, Core Duo (not even Core 2 Duo) white MacBook is still my favouritest computer I’ve ever owned. And I’ve owned a lot. It’s still just as nippy as it ever was, and bar a bigger hard drive and an upgrade to Leopard it’s still the same as it was when I bought it.¬¨‚Ć I’ve never felt the need to buy …
Subscribing to WMV podcasts
A couple of days ago, I was asked, again, to download more Teachers TV programmes for staff at work. I don’t mind doing it, and it doesn’t take long, but I did wonder if there was a way of automatically downloading them.¬¨‚Ć Looking on the site, it seems they publish all new videos in a podcast. You can find out more about that here. So I fired up iTunes, and subscribed to the new videos RSS feed. And then the …
Low IQ Genius
You know that there iTunes, what recently got an upgrade to version 8? I finally got round to installing it this morning. The “big thing” with this release is Genius, iTunes’ way of looking at what songs you’ve got, and using that information to recommend other songs and artists. It’s been well documented that it makes some slightly… confused suggestions. Perhaps recommending Sepultura when the majority of your library is Kraftwerk or something. But I’ve not heard of it being …