My PC adventures

I am pleased to report the the PC that I created from old parts and a £10 motherboard from eBay has been working perfectly (if not a little slowly) whilst my main PC has been at the menders...
I got a call from the computer shop to say that he had a spare mobo with CPU and RAM left over from a recent upgrade (ironic because the 'old' kit left over from the upgrade was actually better than my original one..). He fitted the new mobo and got it all running for a grand total of £50 which I am more than pleased with.
I have three new 512MB SDRAM chips coming from eBay to add the final touches to my spare PC and I am considering putting another GB of RAM onto my recently refurbished main machine. I was mightily relieved to find that we didn't need to reload the Operating system and all my programs and data are intact..but the lesson is learned and I was glad of the trial run at recovering my online 'life' after a major PC crash. One thing I discovered is that certain parts of my backup system had not been working properly, so that has been all put to rights now. I can certainly see the value of having a 'spare' PC and keeping it up to date in case the same type of thing happens again, and you don't need to spend much to acheive this. Another discovery is that actually computers are not as scary to fix as you might think, and OK we are not getting down to component-level here, but when you consider that parts that make up the whole, ths system is relatively simple to grasp.
Maybe I will start building that dual-core machine...the only thing that stops me is that it is so damn cheap to buy on off the shelf anyway at todays prices.

Moving on from text-speak..

The latest dNeero survey introduces the idea of using images to convey a meaning for those that find typical internet abbreviations or text-speak a bit of a turn off.
The 'talk it up' survey involves a new website that allows you to create visual messages online and then send them to your freinds. Is this the type of service you would enjoy using, are you fed up with text-speak... Well RU ??
Have your say by joining in the conversation and being compensated for your trouble...

Formula one push chairs

The culture around children has changed out of all recognition in the last few decades whether it be as targets for the lastest games and gadgets (PSP, Wii, X-Box etc...) or the amount of effort that now goes into producing some thing like the Maclaren stroller. The equipment that your child wears or travels in is now under scrutiny for development in terms of state-of-the-art materials, technology and most of all...fashion.
In years gone by, the teenager emerged as a target for producers to create products such as the Sony Walkman. In more recent times, this target has widened to include Nike trainers for those that can't yet walk... As with everything, there are upsides and downsides. On the downside is the proportion of our diminishing disposable income that is now ring-fenced by toddler-funding. On the upside is that push-chairs riddled with carbon-fibre and proper tyres with air in them are quite pleasant to use.

A bit fishy....

Well everyone has to have a hobby, and if you take your hobby seriously, you will spend time and money in the pursuit of it. Combining a hobby with a pet or pets is a neat way to have a hobby with added interest. If that involves an aquarium, then it's guaranteed that this is a pursuit that will keep you happy at home, apart from those frequent trips to the aquarium store.
In fact there is a lot of technology involved in keeping a good quarium going, and my preference is to consume rather than observe sea-creatures. However I can see the attraction of maintaining the best conditions to keep those beatiful tropical fish healthy and happy. There is the cleaning and the aeration of the tank to consider, the lighting and heating too. It's not just a case of whether to go for the sunken galleon or the figureine of King Canute resting on the bottom of the aquarium.
I prefer the great outdoors myself and would plump for a dog rather then a home-bound pet, but then you have to spend a lot of time exercising a dog, so the fish are starting to look more attractive.

Budget Software

No, not a post about cheap programs, but a post about budgeting software. In the days of tightening finances, we need all the help we can to run a tight financial ship. It's not just our personal budgetting that we will need to be creative with, businesses that don't budget will not survive the coming recession.
The current financial crisis will result in less spending which means that the businesses that survive will be those offering the best value for money whilst still being able to make a healthy profit. Businesses that have got fat and lazy in past years will find themselves squeezed out of the market. Sharpen your pencils if you want to be trading in two years time...

Ups and downs

I have had one of those 'good news..bad news' weeks this week:

Good News.. I reached payout from Google Adsense for the third time this year and am already three-quarters of the way towards my next payout.
Bad News.. I lifted something far too heavy at work and have suffered chronic pack pain all week.

Good News.. I successfully fitted a 'previously enjoyed' Motherboard and CPU to an old PC, upgrading (just a little project really) from a 300mHz P2 to a 533Mhz Celeron to use as my 'spare'.
Bad News.. I managed to 'blow' the Motherboard on my main PC when fiddling with the RAM. So now I am using my spare as my main PC while it is getting fixed by someone who knows what they are doing!!

Not such a bad week when considering that I will have had a welcome cash injection (even if I have to pay it all out on a new MOBO..), and my back is getting better. Overall Adsense performance seems good at the moment with one of my blogs in particular getting some good PPC results (Hey you CAN make Adsense on a blog!!).
I am also happy that the PC upgrading project went OK, I have not exactly brought my old PC into the 21st Century, but I have brought it through from 1995 to about 1998, and the MOBO only cost me £10 ($20) on eBay including postage... Maybe I will attempt a dual core next time!

Looking for another dollar...

Since paid blogging is getting harder and Adsense doesn't really bring home very much bacon, other avenues for earning cash via the internet will no doubt become popular.
Maybe you will be tempted into Forex or and futures trading but these particular routes involve an element of financial risk which does not appeal to me. My views on risk investment is that you should only get involved if you are using money that you can afford to lose, and that definitely isn't me!
That said, the current financial crisis will prove to be a big earner for some lucky investors, and if you gauge the market right, you could end up profiting from the credit crunch.

July 2008

My blogging earnings for July have been $147 raised from a variety of sources including PPP, PayU2Blog, Creamaid and Adsense. My Adsense earnings have been building nicely, I think last time I got paid, there was already about $30 in the pot towards my next payout - this time there will be $70 already in the pot so I am hoping to get paid out much quicker this time. I should point out of course that the majority of my Adsense earnings comes from sources other than blogs... although my newer blogs have contributed recently.
I also get payouts from fixed adverts which raise around another $50 per month, and the occassional privately requested advert/text link which sometimes brings in an extra $40 or $50. I have been impressed this month with the amount of traffic that it is possible to drum up via StumbleUpon, and next month I am going to try another method of raising traffic levels and generally pursue some networking ideas to build up 'readership' of my various blogs.

PC update

My 'one-step-at-a-time' approach to PC maintenance has proved quite successful so far and I am installing Windows onto my newly 'created' PC today. I still have some extra RAM and a spare hard-drive coming from eBay auctions next week, bringing my total expenditure on this project to about £50/$100. This is not the first time I have embarked on this type of project, and am happy to say that without the cost-cutting advantage that eBay offers, there is no way that I would even attempt this type of PC customisation..
There is still the chance that this project could fall flat on it's face, but the fact that I may get a perfectly workable PC that will probably be twice as quick as it's previous incarnation, is worth the £50 spent even if I end up just learning a lot more from the experience and end up dumping the PC.

Strange brew

The world seems full of potions and medications and treatments to correct defects caused mostly by our unhealthy society. Along with the myriad diet plans, come the fat burner, the anti-aging cream and the little blue pill...
It is as if we can fix every little quirk with some treatment or other. You can even get a cream for if you have dry skin around the heel of your foot (as if it mattered..). I have noticed that the market has turned it's attention to men in the last few years. In my book real men couldn't care less about wrinkles and grey hair, but it's clear from the advertising that I have got it all wrong.
I'm not even concerned about wrinkles openly displayed by the fairer sex and am frankly more disconcerted when confronted with those elderly women who appear to have a face made from extra taut cling-film with a trout pout stuck on top.
I digress..... the market (especially the internet) is awash with tablets and powders, potions and creams, would it be too revolutionary to say 'lets eat properly and do some exercise'?

TV Lifts

The sheer size of the modern TV means that you have to put some real thought into how you are going to mount the thing in whichever room you intend to view it. The modern TV doesn't just sit in the corner of the room any more, it is often the centerpiece of the room, mounted impressively as the main feature. This is when you might start to consider tv lifts and dedicated furniture and fittings specifically designed to integrate your new modern flat screen HDTV into your living area.

Messin' with computers

I have reported before that I have 're-invested' my online earnings into extra bits and bobs for my PC. I have almost (but not quite) optimised my current PC - the last thing I had to buy was a new power supply to cope with the extra drives (internal 320GB, external 250GB, external DVD-RW and internal DVD-RW...). It only remains for me to replace one of the RAM boards to take it from 1.5GB to 2.0...
So, while I am waiting for SDRAM to get cheaper, my attention has been turned to my old 'spare' PC - we all have one right? The truth is we spent so much cash buying these PC's 10 years ago that we can't face throwing them out even though they are useless...
This PC has been a bit of a playground for my forays into PC ‘frankenstein’ation in the past and sports a 20GB drive alongside the original 8GB (that was huge 10 years ago!!) and has the maximum RAM that it can stand (128MB x 3). I found out long ago that the motherboard cannot easily take a more modern CPU, and recent weeks it has become apparent that buying a new mobo (recently learned this slang for motherboard!) CPU, RAM and power supply would almost cost as much as buying a new PC. For a short while this put me off until I started browsing for Motherboards on Ebay and bagged one for £10 including delivery ($20). This is not exactly a dual core model, but it is about twice as fast as my old CPU and can take 1.5GB RAM, so I am expecting some improvement in performance if I can ever get it working. And this is the point of the post (finally)... Have you noticed how every time you decide to carry out maintenance on your PC it takes at least three days longer than you thought it would. You will be familiar with this if you ever tried to set up a wired network....
So far I have taken the whole PC to bits - the first thing I had to do was build a bench out of bits in my workshop so I could assemble all the components outside of the PC casing. Naturally the first few times I fired it up nothing happened, but once I found out where the 'on' switch was on the mobo (sticking a screw-driver across the correct pins works like a dream..). I was fortunate to find a manual for free on the 'net for the board I bought, and I have enough spares (screen, mouse, keyboard and about half a dozen CD drives...) to make up a complete system.
There are always contingencies that you don't allow for and so far these have run to: Having to 'reset' the mobo (instructions found in the manual) to default settings, the original hard-drive has decided not to work, and for some reason I can't get the CDROM to boot even though I have selected it in the BIOS and saved the setting.
So far I am adopting the method of making one considered change per day and then thinking long and hard before making the next change - hopefully, this will mean that I will make better decisions than when I sit down and try and do the whole thing in one go. Yesterday I fitted a spare hard-drive and was pleased to see that it was at least recognised in the BIOS settings, today I will try another CD drive to se if I can boot from that one. Admittedly, this approach would not work if I was maintaining my 'main' PC, but I find this method of working relatively stress-free. I have already started bidding on another hard-drive, so I will HAVE to get the system working somehow....