Holly’s Happenings

All I wanted to do today was rest. It’s been an extremely exhausting and emotional week, I had one night where I didn’t sleep at all, and two other nights where I slept no more than 4 hours. So all I wanted to do was sleep in and rest.

The morning started off with what I thought was someone pounding on the front door, which turned out to be one of the dogs thumping the floor with their foot while scratching themselves. I hate waking up like that, ya know? And besides waking my husband and I up, it also woke up brat gurl, and she wasn’t one bit happy about being woken up like that either…LOL!

So we get coffee going, let the dogs out and turn the computers on, you know, our normal morning routine. Things were going along pretty well, brat gurl decided to kick back on the couch with a puppy, I finally got my coffee and the news was on.

It wasn’t until brat gurl decided to get up and turn her computer on that things went down hill. The computer she’s using is the one I replaced when I bought my current computer. It’s a few years old, but when I gave it to her, it had plenty of life left in it! But for some reason, she’s completely incapable of treating a computer right. Even though I completely reformatted the hard drive when I set it up for her, within just a few days she was already having problems with it. After some careful investigating I soon discovered that she had deleted the anti virus program off it and had managed to pick up a pretty nasty virus.

Over the past 8 months the hard drive has been reformatted two more times. I could tell by the sound of it when it’s running that it’s honestly not going to last much longer, but I just kept hoping it would hang in just a little longer. This afternoon she came back and sat down at hubby’s laptop, I asked her what she was doing and she said “MySpace”, so I asked what was wrong with her computer and she said “It won’t start up”. Hubby went out later to check it out, he could get it to start in safe mode, but not regular mode. So I guess he’ll be spending tomorrow trying to see if there’s any chance it can be salvaged enough to get her by a few more weeks. Cross your fingers for us please! He still hasn’t found a job and things are bad enough as it is, there’s no way we could even think about replacing a computer right now!

Last fall it became obvious to us that putting off replacing our old router was no longer an option! With two of our 4 computers being capable of being on a wireless connection, we looked into wireless routers, but because of the layout of our house, we were a little nervous as to just how good of a signal they’d be able to get. It probably wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if both of the computers that had wireless capability were in the same room, but they are actually on opposite ends of the house.

But after doing our “homework” we soon discovered that the wireless technology that’s available today gave us an extremely good chance of both computers being able to pick up a strong and solid wireless signal! We looked into several different brands of wireless routers, including Belkin, D-Link, and Linksys before making our final decision.

Which one did we end up choosing? We went with the Linksys WRT 54G and we absolutely LOVE it! Not only do the 2 computers that have wireless capability get a strong and solid signal, we’ve found that we can even pull in a good signal if we decide to take my husbands laptop outside! And not just outside on the deck, we’ve even taken his laptop out to the picnic table and have successfully gotten almost as strong of a signal as he does right here in the family room where the router is.

So, if you are at a point where you need to replace your old router, and have been considering replacing it with a router that offers you the convenience of a wireless signal, don’t be afraid like we were! Take the plunge and I have no doubt you’ll be completely thrilled like we are! Do your research and find out which router will work best for your situation! You’ll be happy you did!

I’m not sure about where you live, but this time of the year in NW Ohio, we have frequent thunderstorms. Sometimes they’re quick with no major weather, just a few rain showers, but lately we’ve had some very strong storms pop up out of the middle of nowhere!

A couple of weeks ago we had three strong storms come through in a 12-15 hour time frame. All three storms packed some fairly heavy winds and rain which caused brief power outages for us, and all but one were in the middle of the night. I was watching the local news and keeping an eye on the radar maps I stalk online when I know storms are coming in, and I warned my son both times that it really would be in his best interest to shut his computer down before they came in. Did he listen to me? NOPE!

So rather than be safe and shut down, he stayed on his computer and over a period of about 15 minutes, our power went on and off at least 5 times. Since his computer was on when the power went out, when the power would come back on, it would try to restart. Just as it was finishing the power up cycle, the power would go out again and the whole “cycle” would start all over again. I finally took over and simply pulled his power cord from the computer because I knew if I didn’t, his computer would totally fry, and I can’t afford to replace it right now!

Unfortunately, when the power finally came back on for good and we plugged the power cord back into his computer and allowed it to fully power up, we realized we hadn’t completely avoided damage to his computer. I’m not sure if it was related to what happened from the storm or just one of those things that happens, but his computer wouldn’t recognize one of his ram sticks and he ended up with too little memory to properly run his OS. Thankfully we had other ram sticks in the house and were able to fix the problem right away!

The best thing about this is that we’re currently under a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, and when I told him, he shut his computer down without my even having to ask….LOL! Now if I can just get him to learn how to bring his dirty dishes to the kitchen sink in a more timely manner, I’ll be happy!

It wasn’t until my first semester of college classes that I was introduced to the handiest piece of technology I’ve ever come across. And it still amazes me that something the size of my little finger can be a lifesaver. But I honestly don’t know what I’d do without the convenience of my usb flash drive! It saved my butt more than one time in my classes because I’d always back up my homework onto it and if something happened and I couldn’t find the already printed version I’d just pop my flash drive into one of the computers in the classroom and print it up right there!

They also come in handy when you want to transfer files between computers that aren’t on a shared network or when you need to transfer files to a new computer, like I did just a few months ago. And when I was doing various paperwork for my boss, I could work on it here at home, upload it to my usb flash drive, take the flash drive to the office and download it on my work computer.

So I’m a big fan of these handy, dandy little pieces of technology, and I’d like to suggest that you invest in one if you haven’t already done so. They’re inexpensive and once you’ve used one, I’m sure you’ll wonder what you ever did without them. And there are so many different types and sizes of them, I’ve even seen usb flash drives that are ink pens, how cool is that? And if you’re starting a new business or just promoting one that you’ve ran for a while now, usb flash drives printed with your company’s logo and information are a great tool to help promote your business!

I’ve noticed lately that I’ve had several visits from people looking for info about the HP w2207 monitor. Some are looking for cleaning instructions, while others are looking for the owners manual. Since I had some of the same questions after I purchased my monitor, I thought I’d do a post here to talk about the information that I’ve come across and found useful as well as links to site that I feel may be helpful.

First off, you can go to this page for basic information about the HP w2207. Support and drivers from HP can be found here. If you’ve come here looking for a users manual, you can find it here. If you’re considering purchasing an HP w2207, you can find reviews about it here, here and here.

Now that we’ve gotten the “technical” stuff out of the way, I can tell you about my personal opinions and the things that I’ve discovered, like how to get this thing clean…LOL! First I should let you know that I have had this specific monitor for a year now and I absolutely LOVE it! It is by far the best computer monitor I have ever had! The brilliancy of the colors never ceases to amaze me and I’ve learned to deal with the glare from the screen by making sure I have my monitor situated so that it doesn’t have a window near it. If you do not like a glare on your monitor from time to time or don’t have the facilites to put it where it’s not near a window, then this might not be the monitor for you.

I also love the fact that I have the pivot option on this monitor! Most of the time I keep it so that it is wider side to side, but occasionally I do pivot the monitor so that it is vertically taller. Yes, I admit I don’t know the techincal terms, and I apologize for that, but I think you know what I’m talking about. I’ve seen in some reviews where people complain that the speakers that are built in are cheesy, I’ve never used mine, so I can’t give you any information on them.

Probably my biggest peeve with the monitor is how difficult it is to clean. Over the past year I’ve tried several different types of products to clean it and have only come up with one method that actually works well without leaving streaks on the monitor. What words best for me is first, to have the monitor powered off, then I use 2 different products. First I use an anti-static/alcohol free cleaning wipe that is made for monitors and other types of electronics. I clean a small area with that, then follow up behind it with a dry lint free cloth. The one that I use is almost like a terry cloth material. I use this for “polishing” the monitor and removing the streaks left behind by the wipes. I’ve tried other products to clean the monitor, but none worked as well as this one does. The one thing that you absolutely cannot use to clean the monitor is paper towel because no matter what brand it is, it always leaves behind lint. I also try to dust the monitor off with Swiffer dusters at least a couple of times per week.

One tip that I’d like to pass along about the pivot feature is to make sure your cords are in a position so that when you pivot the monitor they won’t snag on something and pull free from the monitor. Also, if you plan to use the pivot feature, you MUST have the driver that allows you to do this, which you can find here. If you don’t have that installed, when you pivot your monitor, the display will not turn. I’ve also found that some downloadable games will not work if the monitor is pivoted so that it is taller. I’m not sure why and I never have been able to fix this.

That is about all I can think of now. If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post and I will be happy to answer it if I can! Thanks to much for stopping by, I hope you have found this post informative!

OK, I’ll be totally honest with you! When I realized that I actually was going to be able to replace my old computer, the thought of switching from Microsoft XP to Microsoft Vista scared the bejeesus out of me! I had used XP for most of the years that I have used computers and frankly, it was like an old security blanket. It was something I was totally familiar with and something that I was completely comfortable with. I was able to experience Windows Vista the few times that I was on my son’s computer. But since I didn’t use his computer that often, I honestly had no clue as to how well I would like it once I started using it regularly.

Since it’s been a couple of weeks since I purchased my new computer I decided that I’d let you know how things have gone so far! First, I have to admit that I actually like Vista, although maybe not as much as I liked XP…LOL! But I think some of it’s features are really neat! It gives off a very sleek appearance, making me feel “high tech”…LOL! I like the look of the “all programs” section under the start button. (Sorry, not quite “techie” enough to know the technical name for it) Rather than the menus popping out like they have in every previous version of Windows, they function more like a drop down box and open in a column below the name of the file and/or program, which, in my opinion, makes it much easier to find what you are looking for. Windows Vista also comes with a few new games, my favorite is Mahjong Titans!

The tool bar for Windows Vista comes with this nifty little button titled “switch between screens”. If you have several pages open and click on it, it gives you a view of them out on the desktop and you just click on the page you want to view. Granted, it’s something very “trivial”, but it’s still a neat little feature!

As for the cons, trying to figure out how to disable having to click “allow” for everything you do is about as difficult as deciding which term insurance policy is the best one for your personal needs! The other thing that’s been driving me crazy is trying to figure out how to share files between the three computers we have that all have Vista. I have a friend who has had a Vista computer for quite some time and know from talking ot her that sharing with a computer with XP on it is virtually impossible, so I didn’t even try to figure that part out. The biggest thing that stinks about that is the fact that my daughter has to now email me any homework that she needs printed since she can’t access my printer now.

But over all, I’m actually pretty happy with Vista! I haven’t had any major problems with it and dealing with the quirky things can be kind of a hassle, but once you get used to them, you kind of stop noticing.

Since we know we’re going to have to replace our router this week, hubby and I have spent some time today looking around on line trying to decide whether or not we should consider going with a wireless router this time around. I posted this question with my concerns at a message board I frequent and got some EXCELLENT information, and found out several things about wireless routers that I honestly didn’t know about!

For instance, I had NO idea that wireless routers also offer wired ports, which is a HUGE plus because it would offer us the ability to go back to wired if we found that wireless just didn’t work well for us! I was also thrilled to hear from several people about how well their wireless routers allow connections in various areas of homes that are much bigger than ours as well as outside of their homes! I also got a comment there from someone that had actually just recommended a wireless router to a friend of theirs. The router was from the same company as the routers we’ve owned and had awesome luck with and the price was AWESOME! Since I have a couple of days until payday that will give me plenty of time to shop around and find out where I can get the best buy on that router or at least one similar to it!

Current Mood: Alarmed

Mondays have always been one of the days of the week that I’ve actually looked forward to for a while now.  When I was working, it always seemed like I managed to get Mondays off, and for school I’ve made sure not to schedule any of my classes on Mondays either.  So once the hubby leaves for work and the kids are off to school Monday has kind of turned into my day for me.  Some days I spend it doing things around the house, some days I spend it doing homework and some days I actually spend it doing as much nothing as I can!

Today is my son’s 15th birthday, so my first goal today was to have a decent morning so that his birthday wouldn’t start out on a bad note.  It was “bad enough” that for the first time in a few years, the kid actually had school today.  All was going well until it was time for me to head out the door to take my daughter to school.  My son said something about having his keys which made my daughter realize that she didn’t have hers.  Now, normally that’s not that big of a deal, but since last week, her key ring also includes the key to her gym locker, which she shares with two other girls.  So not having the key meant that they wouldn’t be able to get into the locker and get their gym clothes which meant points off for gym.  We looked for nearly 20 minutes for those keys until I finally told her that I we HAD to go or she would miss the bus.  Wouldn’t you know it, since I was getting a later than normal start to her bus stop, I got behind another school bus that had to make several stops on a very narrow road.  This meant that it was not possible for me to pass the bus, which ended in her missing the bus.

Now, normally this wouldn’t have been a bad thing except for the fact that my husband left me his truck, which was SUPER low on gas.  There was no way there would be enough gas in the truck to make it all the way out to her school, and he had what cash we had, so I couldn’t go and put gas in it.  So, I ended up with a brat child home with me today.

The rest of the day wasn’t going that bad until I went to put in the DVD for my one online class into my computer so that I could watch the assignment for this weeks assignment.  For some reason the DVD wouldn’t auto play, so I went in to try and manually start it and discovered that somehow I had lost all the drivers for it.  So I went to Gateways website and downloaded the drivers, installed them, restarted the computer, and NOTHING.  The DVD drive still wasn’t recognized!  I then talked to my best friend who is one heck of a computer guru and she suggested that I may have possibly lost my software to actually play the DVD’s.  So I downloaded a trial version of a program to play DVD’s, installed it, restarted the computer, and NOTHING!  I went directly into the DVD program and tried to add what I needed to play and got an error message saying I needed a DVD player installed on my computer.

I’ve known for a while now that I either needed to reformat this computer or replace it!  Only 3 of the 8 USB ports are working, my card reader for the card from my camera keeps needing to be reformat every time I’ve taken it out of the card reader and it’s simply totally bogged down considering the size of the hard drive, the amount of memory and the processor I have on it, all of which are VERY good and not low.  But the fact of the matter is, it’s a Gateway computer and it’s a HUGE P.O.S.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I ended up watching my DVD on the portable DVD player at my desk and taking notes so that I would be able to answer the questions that I needed to.  But it was just a HUGE amount of stress that I really didn’t need right now!  I’ve had a couple of very crappy nights sleep along with a HUGE amount of stress from a situation that happened with my daughter over the weekend and all I wanted today was a quiet day so that I could get my homework done!

They say that you learn something new every day.  Most days, I can’t remember what it is I’ve learned, if I learn anything at all….LOL!  But today I learned something that made me go WOW!

Last spring I purchased this monitor:

I have loved this monitor since the day I hooked it up!  It is an HPw2207 22 inch wide screen monitor.  Rather than having the matted screen like most newer flat panel monitor have it instead has a glossy screen.  I do love the clarity of the glossy screen, but my biggest peeve with it is that it is the most horrible thing to clean!  I have yet to find a way to clean it that doesn’t leave streaks.  But that’s NOT what this post is about, I didn’t learn a way to clean it today, I instead learned that it can do THIS

This is the most AMAZING thing I have ever seen!  I loved my monitor when it was horizontally wider, but it made many websites look “odd”, especially if it was an off centered website or one that only used the far left side of the screen.  With my monitor now being vertically wide, OMG, not only do sites look better because they’re not being stretched out so badly, but I actually get the full length of the page, which is a better option in my book!

Now, if you’re wondering what too me SOOOOOOOOO long to realize that this monitor flipped like it does, well, as embarrassed as I am to admit this, I never read the owners manual…..LOL!  I found out because I was at HP’s website checking out computers and seen that if I ordered a monitor identical to mine with a new computer from HP, the monitor would be well over $100 less than what I paid for mine.  That made me curious so I went directly to the monitors page where I seen a graphic showing it being flipped…LOL!

That made my day!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE my monitor now…LOL!

Since we moved into the new house, we’ve had one problem after another with our DSL connection. At first it was because the phone lines in the house had been struck by lightning so they had to replace all of those. Once they replaced all of those they discovered that there were still problems and the eventually discovered that the phone line from the phone box to the house must have also been hit by lightning so they replaced that as well. Once that line was replaced we finally did get a dial tone, but there were still problems, so they came back into the house and started testing all of the phone jacks. One by one it was discovered that they all needed to be replaced as well. All of that cleared up the majority of the problem but last week they discovered there is now a problem with the fiber optic cables that run to the phone box outside. Unfortunately we’re going to have to sit on that problem for a while because they’ve said they won’t replace those until spring. I love living in the country, but I sure do wish we had the option of cable!

As sad as it is, it’s about time for my computer to go to the computer hospital! With the various things that have recently stopped working on it (i.e. NIC card, graphics card, USB ports), I have no doubt that my mother board needs to be replaced! While I have it in the shop I’m going to also have them do some upgrades on it! I found a good deal on memory, but not only do they carry the type of memory I need, they also have memory for all other computers including IBM memory at great deals!