Journal Chacham's Journal: Chronicle: Got new computers at the office. 12
So, at the office we all got new computers. It's not that our P4s couldn't do the job, it's that according to the finance department, out computers were worthless, and we had to get new ones. (And they say geeks defy reality!)
Can't buy the computers either, because they are worthless. Can't get them donated to school, because they are worthless. Of course, that makes my computers at home less than worthless, and the ones at the school archaic. The business world is insane.
So, they brought a new one to my desk, one of those fancy new Dell black things. They came to transfer data and "upgrade" (where needed) it from 2k to XP (which i don't want), so i took out the old hard drive (and bay) and put in an extra one we had lying around. Of course the Dell dude freaked out and told me he wasn't supposed to be working on 95 (tee hee)!
So, now it's me and mister new computer. I open her up to see what made her tick, and found SATA drives, and a sort of supported ATA interfeace. The bay didn't fit in well, and was a different color anyway. So far, so bad.
The keyboard had no rim, and the back did not have a PS/2 socket for my old KB. I bought a PS2->USB converter, and that failed. Now, the store (Micro Center) had two types of such converters, one for the mouse and one for the keyboard. I challenged the sales dude saying the spec was the same (and implying this was a ridiculous gimick) and he said he thought so too, but that's the way it is *and* the mouse one worked better anyway (for keyboards). I took it, and it failed. I feel like that Jamaican guy in Futurama (Lost city of Atlanta) when Bender finds his cigar burnt down the (underwater) seashell leaving just the metal frame. When Bender says something like "so *that's* where that was", he says somethign like "but that makes even _less_ sense."
But wait, there's more.
They gave me an LCD display (locked down to the desk with a good chain (but an easily breakable part of the monitor) with 10,000 combinations). It must be a 17" but demands a higher than 1024x768 screen (iirc 1280). With my eyesight, that's a bit too small. Oh? So change the resolution? You know how LCDs work. Crisp at one resolution, blurry at the others.
So, i put the box under my desk, the keyboard in an overhead, and the monitor next to the cube wall (it's still locked down), and grabbed an open computer, monitor, and keyboard in the area. Changed hard drives and all is back to normal.
Well, i did get an optical mouse out of the deal.
Oops (Score:1)
Umm, oh yah.
The reason your keyboard doesn't work is that those ps2->usb adapters ONLY work if the keyboard already supports USB. There are fancier onces, not just little dongles, that actualy convert the protocols over, but the standard cheapo ones don't do that, the keyboard has to already support USB.
The monitor is likely a Dell Ultrasharp, they are considered to be rather good. The resolution is a good thing, but a bit to low for my t
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I had a comment here, than I hit cntrl-w and closed the tab, doh!
Been there, done that. Really hurts when i lose a half-hour's (or more) thinking and typing.
The reason your keyboard doesn't work is that those ps2->usb adapters ONLY work if the keyboard already supports USB.
I did not know that. And here i am, thinking it was the same as PS2=>Serial. Thanx for the info.
The monitor is
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I used to agree, but the UI improvements in 2K and XP are just too much to give up. After using 2K for awhile, going back to 98 makes me realize that, yes, indeed, Microsoft *does* spend a good deal of money on UI studies!
I like being able to see information about my projects though, switch files easily and such. Though the entire "open in design view
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Yeah, but it's a resource hog.
Under 98, i'll use the graphical find files section. In XP its painfully slow, so i just open a command window and do a (still quick) dir
I associate XP with slowness and resource hogging. And no amount of eye candy will change that assesment.
I like being a
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Quick listing of functions, which files the project has (not all may be open at any one time!), and so on.
That and I like having my work more or less centered on my screen.
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I regionify *everything*!
which files the project has
Project Explorer. I have it along the right-side.
That and I like having my work more or less centered on my screen.
Oh you silly goose!
Re:Oops (Score:1)
Mostly helpful on 19 inch monitors.
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Like a previous poster, I use a 12" laptop that runs at 1400x1050--but it looks and feels like my old 13.5" laptop did at 1024x768 with the font size increased.
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I ought to check it out more seriously one day.
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Advantage of LCDs: After a few years, you can still read at all!
The eye strain difference is so gigantic, I can barely stand to use CRTs at all any more, and definitely not for extended periods of time like I used to!
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