WiR 02.23.10

Well, I got my new Motion C5 freshly delivered from Taiwan, and it rocks! The solid state drive makes booting less tedious, and programs pop up quicker. A Intel Core 2 Duo processor and maximun RAM helps, too. Gone are the days when I go with low end tech; it's either time or money, and I'd rather spend the money than waste my time. Any desktop computer I build will have a solid state drive, though I may look at using a server at home instead. The screen on the new Motion C5 is quite a bit brighter, and new software lets the desktop orient automatically like an iPod touch. No more doing a manual screen rotation. Comcast has finally gotten to the greater Detroit area, and over the past week, I've seen a bump up in connection speed - at last. I had a Comcast technician over to the house to see why I had been having intermittent connectivity, and got a little schooling in the nuances of how not to put too many splitters and surge protectors between myself and the Internet. The type of splitter is important, too, with a -3.5 dB 5 - 1002 MHz splitter switched for the ones I had. Who knew? It does makes a big difference. In addition to the speed upgrade, Comcast has dumped McAfee for Norton for security, so I had to switch all the computers over. Norton doesn't support Windows 2000, which I have on 2 PC's, so I went with the free AVG security suite. I plan on consolidating my PC's - it getting crowded around here, I'm spending too much time keeping everything updated, and I've developed an aversion to working with slow hardware. Being able to schedule tasks is a huge help, but less is definitely more. Lastly, I've learned that defragmenting a solid state drive is detrimental, causing it to wear out quicker. Good to know!