knock knock

the seductive call back to pc

timhu — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:02:31 +0000

Last weekend mum’s computer went all Exorcist on her – the mouse pointer would move unpredictably and the keyboard letters get swapped on screen.

Luckily her friendly and helpful IT Manager (i.e. me) knew it wasn’t a case of demon-possession, but the characteristic symptoms of early-stage-hardware-failure.

Initially I set my sights on a nettop to replace this aging beast, thinking that she can reuse her LCD screen and bring it over easily if something went wrong. But the Price-To-Power-Ratio just didn’t stack up – for the same $350 I can get a local computer shop to build something much better.

But I really didn’t want her to lug a beast of a machine everytime something needed fixing. So I turned my attention to laptops. To my big surprise they offered very good value for money IF you spend the extra $150 getting an additional 2 years warranty – which every big retailers offer now including JB, DSE and OfficeWorks.

So, a 14″ laptop with Win7 Home Premium, an ok processor, 4GB of RAM and 320GB harddisk (plus all the trimming like inbuilt DVD and webcam) for $830 from DSE including 3 years warranty. Thats only $277 per annum! Sure you won’t be able to run the latest-and-greatest games, but its a pretty good workhorse for the Office and internet.

And I must say, Win7 isn’t too shabby at all! Not bad looking, pretty responsive, fairly easy to administer/customise, and seems stable (although, I did manage to get a BSOD by running a 1080p 60fps video from my video camera – but perhaps that was a bit unfair).

I thought Macs had me at hello … it did! But at these sort of prices, PCs are getting a foot in the door …

listening to graeme across the table

timhu — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 03:32:05 +0000

its gold =) Hermeneutics in intensive mode over 3 days – exciting and tiring at the same time.

micaiah says mama and daddy

timhu — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:48:00 +0000

… except that he only says ‘mama’ when he wants something done (e.g. when he wants us to open a bottle screwcap) and we never use ‘daddy’ in our household – so its a real mystery as to what Micaiah means …

our car is a write off

timhu — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:51:40 +0000

Well, AAMI has officially declared that our car is a write-off from the flood. We’ve signed the purchase contract for a Hyundai, but it won’t get off the ship till late next week, and then it’ll be another 2 weeks till it gets to the dealer. Thankfully a generous brother has lent us his car for the meantime … God is kind.

scared (and excited) about 4th year

timhu — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:54:57 +0000

You would think that by 4th year I would’ve shaken off the trepidation that comes at the beginning of every college year. But greater the trepidation, greater the excitement! Pray that the numerous pages that we’ll read every week helps us to know God better.

even the cds are slimy

timhu — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:56:31 +0000

The AAMI guy came this afternoon and couldn’t drive his tow truck down to our garage. He’ll bring another one tomorrow. But he tried – but failed – to start the car, even with a jump start kit – so he reckons its a write-off. Just recovered our CDs from the glove compartment … soaked …

flood aftermath

timhu — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:11:19 +0000

We arrived home last night to find our car wet on the inside (yup, on the inside!) Apparently Anzac Pde was so flooded that it made the news, so needless to say our garage in the basement didn’t stand a chance. No car for a little while … will be tricky …

hiatus almost over

timhu — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 13:27:43 +0000

Havn’t posted much on our blog for the last two months … I’ve found it hard to reflect and blog when our travels makes the day-to-day rhythm irregular. But we are flying back tomorrow, so hopefully that’ll translate to more updates here – stay tuned!

micaiah’s movements over summer

timhu — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:23:18 +0000

micaiah driving and cousins pushing in Taiwan

[See post to watch Flash video]

micaiah examining a grapefruit in Shanghai

[See post to watch Flash video]

micaiah’s first successful ascend and descend

[See post to watch Flash video]

micaiah playing with the curtains

[See post to watch Flash video]

3rd year done

timhu — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:50:22 +0000

Thats not quite true. The richness and depth of any year at Moore means you are never ‘done’ – but will always have room for continual thoughts (not to mention catchup reading ;P). Disappointed at my Hebrew exegesis, and Doctrine definitely have room to improve. But I’ve passed – by the grace of God.