Happiness is a warm computer...

The Satellite of Love (my Toshiba Satellite laptop) got a well-deserved overhaul last night. I archived big files, got rid of bloated programs (good bye Nero and BitDefender!), defragmented the hard drive, and ran CCleaner to get rid of unnecessary files and fix any registry problems. It's so nice to have a clean computer again, but the bloat was only part of the problem. My real problem is RAM. I have only 1 gig, but I'll have to upgrade to 2 soon. Of course, maybe if I wasn't running resource hogs like Photoshop that would help.

Now that my computer is clean, of course I added a bunch of new programs. I downloaded Avast (because I'm too nervous to go without) and CDBurnerXP (a free and much, much lighter DVD burning software) to replace the horror that is Nero. I had to install a torrent client in order to download the new Nine Inch Nails album (more on that later) and I finally got around to installing that free version of Bryce (3D modeling software). That last one is the least necessary and may be uninstalled depending on how much I like it.

The Satellite will be 3 years old in June and I'm hoping to squeeze a few more years out of the old boy yet. :)

Catastrophic Computer Failure

me: did you ever use Macs?
the little ones from way back?

DM: my wife had an LE 2

me: I used to get the little bomb message
like all the time
that's what I was thinking today
I was watching Toad
(Oracle database software)

DM: uh huh

me: after I did something I shouldn't have done
and I just saw the little bomb in my mind
that happy little error message
my computer was so messed up
I had to hard reboot
and even then and I had to practically unplug the stupid thing

DM: damn

me: you how just after you do something on your computer
I mean like 1 second after you click on something
or hit return
and you just realize
oh man
I really shouldn't have done that
I am so bad
I will have Photoshop

DM: yep\

me: Toad
Homesite

DM: happens to me every damn day

me: Firefox
and Visual Studio all running at the same time
I know I shouldn't
then I'll do the one thing that send Toad over the edge
I think my programs have personalities
Photoshop is a really demanding artist
that gets passive agressive
Toad is completely neurotic
Word is the IT guy who thinks he knows more than you
Outlook is the guy who thinks he's really organized but is really totally a mess
Excel is the guy you have explain something to three times
and he still doesn't get it
task manager is the guy you used to room with who leaves all the lights on in the house and the TV blaring in the other room

A Very Enlightening Web Site

Like so many other great sites, I found this one by accident, while searching for something completely different. It is a site for a company called FluidEffect, which specializes in photographic retouching, site design, etc.:

http://www.fluideffect.com/

Go to this URL. Click on the Portfolio link. Agree to their site terms and choose "Before and After." Choose any of the thumbnails, which will show the "after" part. If you want to see the "before" image, click and hold the "before" link (it's in tiny type above the thumbnails).

The results are startling. I always knew that magazine photos, especially those of celebrities, were touched up, but until I saw the before and after, I really didn't know just how much.