Everyday Randomness

Ready To Throw It Out The Window

My happy computer moment has gone completely out the window.  I’ve spent the last 5 hours working with my new comp, and I still haven’t gotten it all fixed up.  Half way through the windows install it decided to stop working.  I cleaned the disk, and the next install seemed to go fine, but now I’m finding I’m missing windows files left and right.  It looks like my copy of Windows is bum.  I’m very happy that I’m running a copy of linux on it right now with no problems…as I expected, but unfortunately I’m going to need windows on this one.  I’ll probably end up going back to linux on my laptop once I get it set up.  Argh, I’m tired of working with it tonight, so I think I’ll leave it alone until tomorrow.

Computer Parts Everywhere!

I’ve had a nice little day full of goodies being delivered from the computer fairy, and it’s put me in a very good mood.  Right now I’m in the process of finishing the computer I’ve been building for myself for the past few months.  My 500GB SATA hard drive finally arrived today, so I’ve got to get things put together so I can start moving all my stuff over to the new pc.

On top of that I’ve got this laptop a friend of mine gave me a few months ago.  The DC Jack on it is broken, but that’s typical with the Toshiba Satellites.  I’ve had to repair a few with the same problem in the past, but it’s taken me months to find the part I needed for this one.  My friend gave me this one to use for parts for other laptops, but if I can repair it I will.  He’s got a new one and doesn’t want this one back, so even though it’s not the top of the line laptop, it’ll be a good travel companion for me.  I’ll finally be able to blog on the road without having to deal with blogging from my cell phone.  I found the part last night that I need, and I ordered it today, so hopefully I’ll have the laptop soldered back together and running by next week.

I also received a DVDr combo drive a friend of mine sent me.  The cd burner in my Dell is just about dead, and I’m stealing the combo drive from hubby’s pc for my new one.  At first I didn’t think it would be a problem because hubby never burns anything, but as soon as he noticed it missing he pitched a hissy fit. Luckily my friend is the same way I am about keeping tons of spare pc parts around, so he traded me a combo drive for a 128mb video card I don’t use any longer.  See it does pay off to keep boxes of random computer parts laying around!  You never know when you can trade them out for something you need!

It looks like I’ve got a full week of rebuilding ahead of me, and I’m going to love every minute of it.  Now I’ve just got to pick up another soldering iron because I hate the crappy battery operated one I have right now.  It’s great for crafts, but it’s just not hot enough for electronics and takes forever to heat up.  It looks like I’ll be swinging by Home Depot tomorrow to pick up the 40 watt Weller solder iron I’ve been eyeing for awhile.  It’s still not top of the line, but it’ll get the job done.

Stuck Up Visor Organizer

Are you always losing things in your car? I’m forever looking for where I left my pen or my chapstick, and things like that. I dig around through the glove box looking for my stuff all the time, and don’t even get me started on finding my insurance card. I keep it in the plastic folder that holds all our paperwork for the Blazer, but the folder is stuffed so full that I still have to dig through it to find the current insurance card.

What I need is one of the new Stuck Up visor organizers to keep all my stuff straight. I like these because you can design these the way you want them, and you can buy accessories like photo frames and mini led flashlights. You can also buy an accessories kit that lets you add the sticky connectors to your own items so you can store them on your visor in an easy to find place. I seriously need to order one of these!

Supermediastore.com

I’ve never really took into account how many blank CDs and DVDs I go through every month. First of all I make DVD backups of my system every week. I do the same for hubby’s pc. On top of that I’m always burning music CDs of music I’ve purchased online or DJ sets created by my friends. That’s just my personal use.

When it comes to my business I’m always using tons of CDs. When I build a custom computer for someone I always combine all the drivers they need onto one CD. That way when something goes wrong they don’t have to look through 30 CDs to find what they need. On top of that I convert VHS home videos to DVD, and I also make photo CDs and DVDs for my clients. That means I also go through CD labels, printer ink to create the labels, and jewel cases as well. From a business stand point I need to find the cheapest supplies I can if I want to make a decent profit.

I heard about a site I’m going to check into for ordering some of these supplies that I need. I especially need to find a good supplier for DVD-R, so I’m going to check out Supermediastore.com. The company was established in 2002, and they’re a major retailer and wholesaler of CD and DVD media as well as all of the other related materials I need. They also sell computer hardware as well as memory, so this might be a good store for me to get involved with.