I was working at my desk at the weekend and turned to see what the family were doing and then I heard it… A load thud as something hit the deck. I quickly turned to see what it was and my EOS 350D was lay on the cartpet. I winced as I slowly picked the camera up thinking what could be wrong with it and how much would it cost.
The Lens cap was jammed into the UV Filter, when I finally pried the cap off I saw the damage….
Inspiron Notebooks: SAVE up to £100, FREE Shipping & FREE Hard Drive Upgrade
Offer valid on selected Inspiron notebooks. Due to end 14/03/07. More Details
Dimension Desktops: SAVE up to £100, FREE Shipping & FREE Hard Drive Upgrade
Offer valid on selected Dimension desktops. Due to end 14/03/07. More Details
Servers: Custom Configured & Cost-Effective
Available on selected servers, only valid until 28.03.2007. More Details
SAVE up to 25% on Electronics & Accessories
Discounts on flat panel monitors, printers, handhelds and more. Due to End 28/03/2007. More Details
“Windows Vista Hardware Assessment Solution Accelerator is a centralized and agent-less tool designed to assess the readiness of client computers for Windows Vista. It quickly inventories computers, identifies the supported Windows Vista experience, and recommends specific hardware upgrades as appropriate. This network-wide assessment tool is designed to run from a single networked PC to assess all PCs within the network with proper network credentials.” Microsoft
A very handy tool, as some people I’ve spoken to have trying installing Vista and had the handy message of “You need to upgrade” Saves you forking out for the software and then running to the shop for upgrades when it doesn’t work.
As Computers progress through the years all components have greatly improved, I remember at college going and buying a 2Gig Hard Drive for £50, which at the time wasn’t to bad.
We’re now in the days where you can pick up a relatively high spec computer, but what about storage? I am a firm believer that storage is key, and for someone in my line of work, storage on the move is very important. Here’s what options are available.
External Hard Disk Drive, the highest in capacity for your money, but can be a bit on the big side. Not ideal if your contantly on the move, and HDDs aren’t really designed for the contant movement, being knocked around can cause fatal problems.
Pocket Drive, unlike the External HDD, the Pocket Drive is designed to be on the move. Most boasting a light weight and small design, but the price can be in the region of £50 plus. These can be quite expensive depending on the storage required.
Flash Drive, also known as a pen drive, these are very small, around the size of a lighter, and range from £5 depending on what size you’d like, Currently the largest i’ve seen is 4gig for £21.99. The only problems i have found with flash drives is that they can be damaged, or lost.
Which one then?
Flash Drives suit my needs, i currently have 3 512mb drives, 1 for software, and 2 for work. They work for me, but i will be getting a larger size soon. It all depends on what your demands are, for lite office work that you’d like to take home the Flash Drive would be the way, if you were a graphics designer you may want a Pocket Drive or possibley an External HDD. The Main thing would advise is not to rely on what you get, back it up regulary.
Will you be upgrading to Vista? or just buying a new PC from your favorite retailer?
Here’s What to look out for. There are four different versions, Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. All boast Microsofts most secure windows ever, aswell as advanced searching options and IE7, but most users will be opting for the higher packages.
For Your Home
For the home user “Basic” probably won’t be enough to fill your needs. Most people use their PCs as media centres to watch their TV and Films, Premium would be the one for you including all the media functions you’ve come to expect as well as the added function of connecting to your XBOX 360 (via wired or wireless) to view your programs on your TV.
For Your Business
The Business People out there will be wanting to protect against failure, advanced networking and Remotely connecting to your office when your out and about. Vista Business would be your version. Although Business doesn’t come with the entertainment applications, so those long train rides will be quite dull.
For Everything
Vista Ultitmate is for the Person who wants everything (myself included), From the Media experience to the networking and remote desktop, Ultimate includes everything with one little extra, Windows BitLocker™ Drive Encryption. BitLocker Drive Encryption is a hardware-enabled data protection feature that addresses the growing concern that corporate and customer data could be accessed from lost or stolen computers. By encrypting the entire Windows system volume, data is better protected, which prevents unauthorised users from compromising Windows file and system protection on any lost or stolen PCs. Using BitLocker also helps your organisation comply with data privacy regulations.
The Specifications
After Choosing which version of Vista you need, you may need to upgrade?
Windows Vista Capable (minimum)
Windows Vista Premium-Ready (recommended)
for more information visit the Windows Vista Get Ready website
This weekend I decided to remove a removable hard drive caddy from my machine thats been playing up. Upon doing so and restarting my machine I was met by a message from Microsoft, Your PCs hardware has changed considerably, you will have to re-activate your copy of Windows XP.
So I clicked to activate over the internet as it was a legal copy of windows. To my surprise I was then told that the CD-Key used to activate windows had be used to many times and I would have to aquire another, in three days you computer will cease to work. Thanks Microsoft.
So for the first time I went to activate over the phone, I was pleased to see it was a toll-free 0800 number. Ten Minutes, two 36 number codes (one typed into phone, other given to me by operater to type into computer) and a little bit of explaining later, my computer was genuine again, no more threats of it shutting off in 3 days.
My advise if this ever happens to you is to make sure you have everything you need infront of you when making the call , especially the Windows Genuine Product sticker on your pc, and you should have a hassle free call.
Dell’s XPS range are the top of the range £1000+ gaming machines, but is the M2010 Notebook the best choice for people on the move?
Simple answer Yes, if you don’t mind the fact that it weighs the same as a 7 month year old baby, starting at 8.2kg.
That said, it does boast a 20.1inch screen, full size rechargeable wireless keyboard, eight built-in speakers and subwoofer, Integrated 1.3 mega pixel web cam and array microphone, upto 400gb hard, the list goes on.
If your Laptop is your main machine/TV/Games machine and you don’t mind the £1,849 price tag, this would be the one to get.
With “Affordable” HD-DVD and BluRay-DVD just coming out in the forms of XBox 360 HD-DVD add on and the PLAYSTATION 3, will Hitachi-Maxell’s upcoming announcement about their 300GB holographic CD’s become a problem.
Not for the moment as the cost of these Holographic discs would be between $100 and $125, and the optical drive somewhere in the region of $15,000. But with plans of second-generation 800GB rewritable optical disc with data transfer rates of about 80MBbps, and more plans to expand its capacity to 1.6TB by 2010 could this be the media our children will be using.
My money is on larger hard disc drive for the moment and larger internet bandwidth, although this would be the best media of when it comes to backing up all your data, rather than hundreds of DVDs.
Sometimes PenDrives just don’t cut it, and for those people who need large amounts of space on the move Western Digital’s 6GB Pocket Drive could be the answer.
Able to work with both PC and Mac, and with its 6GB capasity (1700 digital photos, 1500 songs (MP3), 100 songs (Uncompressed CD quality), 2 hours of DVD quality video) it really can hold anything from a few Word Documents, to a backup of your system. It is powered by your computer, so it doesn’t need a power supply.
Only costing £54.99 inc vat, Western Digital’s 6GB pocket drive is a good buy for those needing that sort of storage on the go.
ianhulme.net Powered by WordPress