(no subject)

[rushthatspeaks]

A reminder: I am showing Evangelion Friday. Since Syona Keleste and I do not have Scottish, we will be starting at the reasonable, sane after-dinner hour of 7:30 PM, no Bryn Mawr time, if people are late I will start anyway. The location will be one of the Rhoads North TV rooms, barring weirdness; if I can't get either of them we can use that room in the basement of Canaday. There will be as many episodes as people feel like watching (bearing in mind that it is easy to overdose on Eva) and then possibly if I can come up with something there will be something light and fluffy afterwards by way of contrast.

In other news, something I've been expecting and dreading for some time now has now happened: my computer has reached the phase in its slow death where it can no longer actually access my non-Bryn Mawr email account nine times out of ten. This means that the actions I can now still perform on this machine are: 1)access LJ and (very small) portions of the rest of the Internet; 2)Bryn Mawr email; 3)word processing, bearing in mind that it no longer does footnotes and no longer recognizes the printer so that I have to email everything to myself and go to a computer lab to print anything. That's all. (Oh-- it will play rips of Infocom text games if I spend an hour setting it up and praying, but honestly-- not worth it.)Consequently, the tendency I have noticed in myself to use LJ in place of emailing groups of people-- I would ordinarily have set up the Eva showings over email-- is probably going to continue, because I have to go somewhere other than my room to access my primary email address. If you need to contact me, be aware that the BMC address is now the only one that I am able to check whenever I want to check it, and hence will be checked far more frequently.

Sigh. This computer has had a good long run, even after the first hard drive fried, but I really think she's basically dead. What tenebrous life she has left is centered around laughing at me. I want a new machine, pretty badly, but the difficulty is that at this point I do not have the time or energy to do comparison shopping for one. Given that: I want a laptop next time round, I want something that will still be compatible with my HP Laserjet 1100 printer which is still in perfect working order, I am sadly and persistently unable to learn how to deal with any operating system other than Windows, and I would like a DVD player and CD-burning capacities, does anyone have any suggestions?

Comments

[khava.livejournal.com]

I suggest C:Net hardware reviews. http://www.cnet.com

[wayman.livejournal.com]

Probably not what you want to hear, but given the age of your computer, you may have to learn a completely new operating system even if you buy a new Windows machine, since it sounds (from the age) like you're probably still running 98. So unless you're already comfortable with XP, there may be no particular familiarity bonus for Windows computers vs others.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

In which you may as well just go the whole way and switch to a Mac, either an iBook or a PowerBook. There are even convenient guides available for Windows users who are switching; there's one in the help system in OS X, and there are others online.

[wayman.livejournal.com]

I was trying to be subtle :-)

But yes, that's what I was quietly suggesting. 'specially since gaudior has an iBook, not to mention the rest of us Applephiles, so you'd never lack for any sort of computer help from people you live with. So it may be worth at least considering.

[thespooniest.livejournal.com]

i'm going to have to agree with Will. Given what I saw of your machine when I visited, I don't think there's going to be any real hardship learning any new OS over XP at this point; they're that different.

Of course, price is still an issue. I did a little homeworn on Mryn Mawr's educational discounts for Macs, and you can get an 12-inch iBook 800MHz for $999 even (they have a $949 model as well, but that one doesn't come with a DVD player or CD burner; the $999 one does, and for fifty bucks I'd say it's worth it). It should continue to work with your printer too. BMC's bookstore should be able to hook you up, or you can go with Apple's online store (be sure to click "education" on the left side of the screen, in order to get the discount).

I'd suggest this course of action for one reason above all others: the Apple Store at King of Prussia. If you go for the iBook, you can take both your computers there, and they'll transfer all your files from the old machine to the new one. Given that you're in the middle of a thesis, I'd say that getting all your files transferred by professionals is worth the effort. Last I checked the service wasn't expensive either.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

if it hasn't closed in the year and a half since i left, there's actually an apple store in bryn mawr propper.

gallian.

[wayman.livejournal.com]

There was a Mac Outfitters (a small local chain), but it closed about a year ago, due to competition from the (real) Apple Store.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

i have clearly lost touch with the mac-user-at-bryn-mawr world. i sit corrected. <:) gallian.

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

I will not be able to make this Friday's showing due to the spontaneous joining of a RPG one-shot during SWILtable, but am planning to come to the others :-)

[fiddledragon.livejournal.com]

I will not be able to make this Friday's showing due to the spontaneous joining of a RPG one-shot during SWILtable, but am planning to come to the others :-)

[eredien]

Let me help you clear stuff out of it, that might help it at least. If you want I can help you reformat over a day or two and reinstall the OS.

[ghostsphoenix.livejournal.com]

Actually, I disagree about the differences between 98 and XP; I really think they're minimal. I have Millenium on my computer, which is hardly different from 98, which is hardly different from XP, from what I can tell. Or maybe I'm just strange. I'm also a stalwart PC user (although Ghost's new ibook may be changing my mind...), and I think it's difficult to change from PC to Mac from any version of teh Windows operating system. There are some very significant differences that really get on my nerves, though they seem not to bother other people.

-Phoenix