. Spinning .

Same day, same peonies, within minutes of each other, these two photos are affected by the lighting.  The warm, natural sunlight alone is on the top image, while I believe the flash went off on the second.

I haven’t Photoshopped these at all, but there’s the wonder of the program: I’d be able to match the colors of the two if needed.

God? Nature?  We don’t need to depend or settle for that anymore.

There’s a lot to consider when a computer has a major problem.  In looking over costs and types of motherboards, I’m keeping in mind that if I spend X, I may as well spend X more to upgrade the system to a super duper machine that will take the graphics I’m planning.  For one thing, I think I need to go with a separate video card rather than the onboard I’ve been used to.  That’s another major expense.  In looking at the Mac, the machine I’d want runs about $2500.  It gives me everything I could possibly wish for, but that’s a helluvalot of outlay right now.

So it looks like this project isn’t going to be done quickly and on impulse.  The only problem with the main PC being down right now is the couple of programs such as Quicken that are not on any other computer here and my accounting for the shop and personal is all on that (and sales tax is due the end of July).  One thing leads to another to another to another. 

Lord knows I don’t resent Bill Gates and his money–btw, since that shooting at VA Tech, shouldn’t the shooting of rich people require another bias law?–but there’s a certain amount of greed that overshadows all the good his company has done.  When Microsoft’s loyal (translation: dependent) customers are asked to upgrade every three to five years and pay a minimum of $200 to do so with each program, isn’t that a bit much?

The problem is that a user must upgrade eventually, and that’s because Microsoft makes it impossible for prior programs to work.  Right now I’m working on a problem with my neighbor’s Windows Media Player.  It suddenly prevented her from ripping a CD and as I suspected, required her to upgrade to WMP 11.  WPM 11 doesn’t come with the codecs necessary to decode MP-3, so that a further purchase of a decoder, anywhere from $10 third party to $20 from Microsoft. 

The worst: Office Word 2007 now produces files with a .docx extension that Word 2003 cannot read without a download.  I’ve already come across this problem in receiving files via e-mail from a friend on vacation.  I’d love to read them, but am truly hesitant to download the program that will allow me to do so with my Word 2003 because knowing Microsoft, it’ll mess something up with my own Word files unless I go for another download, or purchase the 2007 Office Suite at anywhere from $200 to $500.

And knowing Bill, that purchase would only be useable on a single computer unless I pay more for a networking license for all four computers.

Mac is starting to appeal.

I’m diagnosing the main pc, which is in the house, while I’m working here in the shop.  This book by Morris Rosenthal is one that I keep handy although this is the first time I’ve used it to work on a non-working system.  Usually I don’t need a reference book when I’m up to my elbows in computer guts, but since my suspicion points to a dead motherboard, the smart thing to do before entering into any major decisions and expense is to make sure, short of poking it with a stick, if it truly is gone to the great computer heaven in the core of earth.  I’m already checking on boards and CPUs for price and compatibility with what’s in the computer although it’s often cheaper just to get a bare bones setup and use the memory, drives, etc. from the dead unit.

In truth, I love doing this kind of computer work and since I haven’t built or rebuilt a pc in a couple-maybe three years, and the laptop came complete of course, I’m looking forward to this project.  Through my husband’s job I can get an older Dell real cheap, but when you look at the lack of memory and small capacity hard drive, I’d end up cheaper I think with just a new motherboard and the parts I have.

Damn.  I was really hoping it was the monitor; now that I’d love to upgrade.

While I’ve taken advantage of Typepad’s new Pages feature in Hypercompendia, with the advanced template it hasn’t as yet shown up on the main page as a linked module so that’s something I have to figure out.

The Pages module may be exactly what I need to keep things better organized on Spinning.  It could probably clean up the sidebar lists with a nice single link for each section.  It also may be possible to better organize the category postings.  Right now, even though I have the separate categories, within each category–Literature and New Media in particular–there are subcategories that are not presented in a clear manner, i.e., a particular novel is reviewed and basically is within a week’s postings, but interspersed are other book commentaries and literature-related postings not related to that novel.

Looks like I may be playing around in here again–though don’t expect to see that hot pink logo flying by again.  That was merely a sarcastic whim of a aggravated creative mind.

Haven’t had the time to simply sit down and tear apart the main computer so I’ve been checking it out a bit at a time, but things don’t look good.

I believe I may have a fried motherboard.

I have a few shelves full of computer parts downstairs: monitors, cases, keyboards, mice, power supplies, memory, and yards of connectors, bowls of itty-bitty "things."  Still, "things" get outdated and no longer fit together so it may be time again to start from scratch.  What bugs me is that the pc in question was just built about two, maybe three years ago so it should’ve lasted longer than it has.  I was really hoping that the problem was the monitor, since that’s about seven years old and I’d’ve liked to justify a new flat panel purchase instead of a motherboard buy. 

While I use the laptop almost constantly–even when the main pc was working–it’d be a good idea to have the main one loaded with all the latest and largest since the laptop is a couple years old and limited in space.  It’d be nice to get some of the software, especially the large programs like Adobe and the games off the laptop and onto the main system.

Under consideration as well is a Mac, but then I’d have to really start from scratch with big bucks when I do have plenty of working parts around and can get a super system back up with only a couple hundred dollars’ worth of new parts.  It’s going to take some research and some planning to decide which way to go.