Where Have You Been Les?

Well I have been on the Sunshine Coast while Trish is just back from almost a fortnight in Melbourne.  One thing has lead to another and putting a post up on Blogger hasn't happened.  But things have now settled a little so here we go.

Trish has returned with a cold, this is quite usual for us as it is sniffles time for families down south and when there are grand kids involved, they are keen to share everything and we invariably bring a cold home with us!

Well the old laptop from Mick is now being used to put the beginning of this post together.  Mick is delighted with his new machine. I have made several visits to set things up for him just as he wanted. Now his Toshiba laptop become my Toshiba.  I took it to the Computer Club last Saturday where one of the guys (who knows much more than I do) reformatted it to Windows 10 Pro for me.  He rubbed all Mick's stuff off and put a new copy of Windows 10 on for my use.  It runs well.

The big Tower PC refused to start yesterday, it would keep on trying to start but nothing would happen.  So off to the PC repairman (our Computer Club President) it went.  I usually replace my PC every 4 years or so and this one only had one month to go before I would have given real consideration to replacing it. I first bought it on Sept 19 2014!

The big PC has now (a little later) just returned home from the repair guy's home with the big PC running OK again.  It seemed that the video card in it wasn't functioning at all which caused the start up process to trip up.  Right now the video card has been taken out of it and it is running with graphics straight off the motherboard.  The letters are slightly fuzzy on my large 24" screen but great after paying $44 for the repair.

I have also blown the Ethernet port on the big PC and it now connects to the internet via a USB3 Ethernet converter.  As the computer guy said this morning, the incident that caused the Ethernet port to blow may have left some other damage on the motherboard and it is now just waiting for the right time to give up the ghost completely.

I have a mini USB hub stuck in the back of the main PC as well as I have run out of USB3 ports for all my external hard disk drives and the backing up that I do.

So I will get my Christmas present early this year, a new Tower PC.  I was going to get a laptop but really the one I have received at no charge  is OK.  Yes it is older but it runs fine for everyday purposes and with the recent Big PC crash emergency it more than covered for the big PC.  So I think I'll get another tower.

The weather has been bitterly cold here the last week or so.  This morning it was 3.2° with a feels like temperature of -0.2°.  So the bike has been put right away until the warmer mornings return.  I have been busy with computer the last few days anyway.

Afternoon Update: It is nice to have the big PC back and running fine despite the video card being removed.  I have ordered a new PC Tower from Dell and it should be here sometime over the next few weeks.  It has a video card, 8GB of RAM and a huge hard drive.  It is a bit light on for USB ports but I have a USB hub (or two) which will sort that hassle out.

Some of the black typing on the screen with the PC back seems a little fluffy without the video card but most things are fine.

Now back to the mundane stuff .... it has been freezing cold here as I mentioned above with very chilly mornings.  The house hardly heats up at all even though the doors are open to catch the warm afternoon breezes.

Both Trish' and my footy teams are still alive for the 2018 season finals with Trish's team 'definitely' in the finals and my team 'probably' in the finals.  This should result in some rivalry.

It has been so dry here with hardly any rain for the last month.  However there is a wet change on the way we have been promised a couple of inches to fall over the weekend.  Everything needs a good soaking so badly, especially the new little front garden!

At last I have sorted our Internet Plan for the upcoming switch to the NBN (National Broadband Network).  We are currently with Telstra and I paid extra to be off a contract back in December when they changed our plan.  I have decided to again go with Telstra, mainly as their new modem which they give at no charge to new customers but ask current customers to pay around $220 if they wish to upgrade is a part of the deal.

The guy wanted to confirm who I was with full name, date of birth etc.  He also asked if I was a pensioner.  So when it was all agreed to and everything he mentioned was OK by me he said I could expect some emails on what was happening.

I negotiated that I would go on a new contract with Telstra but only if they gave me the new modem and waived all charges.  To keep me with them, Telstra then agreed so I am getting the new modem (with 4G backup) for free.  It will cost me $79 per month, unlimited download at 50MBps speed and include a landline phone service, or so I thought.

So after discussing it all and then reading the followup emails, it 'seems' we may be paying $69 per month which includes the landline as well.  We will need to wait and see.  The new modem is arriving tomorrow and the NBN is due to be connected some time in October.  The NBN guys have been up and down our street on numerous occasions so we get the feeling things aren't far away.

So that's the news!