Pages Tagged “upgrade”
Blog Posts
- Must be Tuesday
“Update all the things!” the stick figure from Hyperbole and a Half shouts enthusiastically.
- Overload the Cores
I finally got around to trying out No Man’s Sky a few weeks ago. I started on a super-hot planet, where you need to find shelter and/or resources to recharge your suit’s hazard protection system to keep cool. Got killed a few times trying to figure out what I was doing. And after about 20 […]
- Upgrade Frustration
A few years back, we replaced our aging Windows PC with a newer system, figuring on using it mainly for office-type applications, casual games, and kids’ games. (Both of us had drifted out of playing the sort of game that really pushes a system’s specs, largely because there was a small person in the house […]
- Finally Upgraded!
After way too long, I finally upgraded the processor on my desktop. I’d held off because that always involves upgrading the motherboard, which is major surgery on the computer, and with a small child who wants to grab everything, that wasn’t really a good idea. Replacing phones and tablets, and replacing the Windows box, sure, […]
- Out with the old tech, in with the…slightly less old.
I finally removed the floppy disk drive from my desktop. I don’t know why it took me so long, except that it wasn’t in the way of anything. Living with a small, inquisitive child means either making hardware changes at night or keeping the work brief, and timing it so that he still has enough […]
- New Look for WordPress 3.0
WordPress has been making a big deal out of their new default theme, Twenty-Ten, released with WordPress 3.0. Meanwhile, I’ve been watching this site get more and more cluttered, and I keep having to tweak the existing theme to be able to deal with new WordPress features like nested comments, custom menus, etc. Last week […]
- Election/Patch Day
My calendar lists last Tuesday as “Election Patch Day.” I guess you could consider elections to be patches keeping the government up to date.
- Out with the Old
OK, I think the new server is tested enough for now. Time for lunch. And, I think, a walk. … Odd: I just watched two people tossing things over the edge of the roof of an office building in the distance for several minutes. … I’ve just turned off our oldest internet-facing server. I’m not […]
- Impressed by Smooth Fedora 11 Upgrade
A few days ago, my Linux desktop at work popped up a message saying that Fedora 11 was available, and asking whether I wanted to upgrade automatically. Well, I didn’t have time to deal with it then, and in the past when I’ve upgraded Fedora (either from a CD or from a downloaded image), it’s […]
- Gone Widescreen
Last month I finally got around to a major rebuild of my computer, something I’d been meaning to do since May when I traced some display problems to the motherboard*. I finally bit the bullet when I started seeing signs of disk errors, and dragged the machine into the present day. (64-bit, dual-core, 2 GB […]
- It Pours
My desktop computer has been a bit flaky for a few months now. Well, more than that. There’s the problem where it won’t display anything in plain-text mode, but that’s not really a big deal. It was when it stopped running anything higher than 1024×768 that I started getting annoyed. That turned out, oddly enough, […]
- Apple Updates Software Update, Addresses Criticism
In conjunction with the Safari 3.1.1 security release, Apple has also released a new version of Apple Software Update for Windows. With version 2.1, they’ve taken the opportunity to fix one of the problems that caused so much criticism last month. It now shows two lists: one for updates, and one for new software. This […]
- Apple Software Update: a Simple Solution
I appreciate the fact that Apple provides a single updater for all their Windows software. It’s nice to consolidate things a bit with the profusion of updaters for what seems like each and every application (sort of like how every mobile device seems to need its own charger). But it has its flaws. I’ve mentioned […]
- Mac OS X: Leopard Pouncing
It’s funny: When Microsoft releases a new OS, my inclination is to sit it out and wait for the first service pack, usually a year or so in. When Apple or Fedora releases a new OS, my inclination is to upgrade as soon as I have the time. Even though all of them have had […]
- Most intrusive PC upgrades
Just some thoughts on the top 3 most intrusive pieces of computer hardware to upgrade or replace: Case: You have to take everything out, completely disassembling the machine. Motherboard: Disconnect every data cable, pull out every card, and sometimes even move the spacers that connect it to the case. Power Supply: Disconnect power from every […]
- Pumpkin Patch Day
Well, it’s the second Tuesday of the month. With Microsoft’s regular update cycle, that makes it Patch Tuesday. It’s also October, the month leading up to Halloween. I hereby declare today to be Pumpkin Patch Tuesday.
- Reinventing the Upgrade Wheel
The internet is a hostile place. Viruses, worms, and worse are constantly trying to break or break into your computer. Software developers are constantly fixing the holes that can let them in. It’s become critical to keep your system up to date. Unfortunately this can be very frustrating, even for a power user, for one […]
- Setting up Windows
We finally replaced our 4-year-old Windows Me computer with a new Dell (I’d had enough of building computers a few weeks ago) and it arrived yesterday. Katie had already asked me to upgrade her Mac while she made pizza for an office party. I had planned to finish installing Tiger first, but once you get past […]
- Restart your computers!
Microsoft’s automatic update system is now offering an update to the Windows Installer. That’s the program that handles all those .msi files you use to install new applications, keeps track of what’s currently installed, and lets you uninstall them. And it needs to reboot after installing? WHY? What low-level system file did they have to […]
- Subtle Update Hint
Something that could help with the ever-shrinking window between turning on a new (Windows) computer and getting hacked by some automatic probe is to just make downloading security updates part of the setup process. I installed two Linux distributions this weekend, Mandrake 10.1 and SuSE 9.2, and both did this. What I liked about the […]
- Spec Check
I’ve been thinking about adding memory to the PowerBook for a while now, and for various other reasons we ended up at Fry’s last night. I figured, we’re here anyway, why not at least price the RAM? Well, here’s a big fragging “Why Not:” I couldn’t remember the exact specs required. There was, however, a […]
- Zero Downtime
This morning I upgraded the mail servers at work. They were down for maybe two seconds each. I doubt anyone even noticed. If you’re used to installing software on Windows, you probably think I’m kidding. Didn’t I have to shut the service down before installing the upgrade? Didn’t I have to reboot when it was […]
- Insecurity updates
Last month I finally got around to installing antivirus software on the one Windows computer we have at home. While I’ve found Norton Anti-Virus has worked well on my system at work, I ended up choosing McAfee Internet Security Suite for two reasons: (1) unlike Symantec, they don’t use a product activation scheme, and (2) […]
- Always check the requirements
We have a “yours, mine and ours” set of computers at home. My system started out as a Compaq Presario in 1994 and has been upgraded piecemeal over the past decade, Katie replaced her Power Mac with a G4 last year, and we picked up an eMachine to use as a dial-up server when we […]