Decided my old trusty i7 920 pc has had it's day, so, time for something new. Very new. Very... radical. A totally silent PC! That's right. Silent. 0db. No moving parts at all (save my 5Tb removable back-up drive). Here's the bits: Nofan CS-80 Fanless Computer Case Nofan P-500A Silent 500W Fanless 80+ GOLD PSU ASUS PRIME H370-A ATX LGA1151 Motherboard Intel 8th Gen Core i7 8700 3.2GHz 65W UHD 630 12MB 6 Cores 12 Threads CPU Nofan CR-95C Black Pearl IcePipe 95W Fanless CPU Cooler Co...
Another ransomware attack is underway. Batten down the hatches! BBC - Global Ransomware Attack
A new version of the WannaCry ransomware is hitting organisations worldwide. It's already affecting some major organisations, such as the UK's NHS. Lock down your PCs now and update any anti-ransomeware programs you have. Better safe than sorry as they say.
Whenever I try to post something using Firefox I get the above message. I don't get this with other browsers and, I don't have problems with any other sites - just WC.
Well, maybe not - but it felt like it. Friday morning I started my PC as usual, except I got an error message from SDtray.exe - that's the background scanner for Spybot. Having rebooted, it did it again. I searched the online forums which suggested solutions. After numerous attempts at clearing some files, then numerous attempts at clean installs - it wouldn't even install - I decided to give up. The log file was telling me the program was unable to access its own .tmp files. I tho...
The fan in my Coolermaster V8 recently turned its toes up. It had been noisy for a while. It was still keeping my overclocked i7 920 cool at idle, but I daren't play games with it failing. Yesterday I did something insane - I put a Jetflo in. The CPU is now, at idle, running 12°C cooler... It's not what you would call silent though...
So what's the fuss about. Windows 10 installed earlier today and, that's it... I can still do everything I need to with the minimum of effort. I still have my taskbar toolbar 'Programs', so I don't need that ugly start menu. Everything seems easy to find and nothing's broken. The only thing I need to fix is the fugly look but, isn't that what we skinners do best (WB10 - where are you?)
Currently I'm on W7 but will be going W10 shortly. For system backups I've used Acronis for years. The 2015 version is so seriously dumbed down it's unusable. You can't even select which backup versions to delete; you either use their automatic cleanup, or, delete the files manually and suffer the program not finding the versions you've deleted. I've gone back to 2012. At least there I can see the backup's timeline and delete which ever versions I want. Time ...
Saturday morning my pc suddenly shutdown. It went off like the power cord had been pulled. In a fraction of a second, as it was going, I though I saw a pop-up bottom right of the screen. It took me four attempts to get the pc started. A few minutes later it went again. The shutdown was so dramatic I started thinking of hardware issues such as the graphics card failing - especially as a few reboots suggested Windows was running but with a blank screen. This happened a number of times the sa...
I've been visiting Austria for many years and one of my favourite places is Grossglockner. Apart from the mountain itself, the highest in Austria, one of the main features there is the Pasterze glacier. Sadly in recent times it hase been retreating at an alarming rate. Here's some photos I've taken of the glacier. The first was in 2005 and the second was taken last week. For scale I've added a close-up of the 2013 with arrows pointing to people. When you look at the size of th...
I'm looking for some recommendations for a new monitor. As a photographer, it's important for me to have plenty of height for portrait. With that in mind I've had my hands on a couple of 24" 1920x1200 monitors. 1920x1080 isn't big enough. The first one was a Samsung, a 450 I think. After a few months it developed a large bright spot and had to go back. I got a refund as they said that particular monitor had been discontinued. Shame - up to it failing it was quite good. The ...
I seem to be having problems accessing the forum via Firefox 8. About 80% of the time clicking on the forum tab causes FF to stop responding. This is only on the WC forum, no other website does this, including other Stardock websites such as SOaSE. While I've been typing this (in IE) I've been trying again - 5 times = 5 'not responding' messages - make that a 100% failrate! This gobbledygook is probably of no use, but I'll post it anyway:- Prob...
A few days ago (the 4th) we had some clear skies (yay! no cloud!) so I got my telescope out to do some stargazing. The mount is one of these clever goto things, you type in your location, time, date etc, select some alignment stars and away you go. Just type in what you want to look at and the scope 'goes to' it. So, I selected Arcturus as my first alignment star. Scope slewed off in completely the wrong direction. Tried again, no joy. Switched everything off and on, re-entered all the data, ...
Somehow, don't know how, my PSP x2 disc managed to get seperated from its sleeve. You know, that flimsy little thing with the serial key on... However, It's now installed and working thanks to assistance from Corel support. After sending them proof of my purchase, and a photo of the box and disc, the sent me a new serial So, all's well that ends well. But it would be nice if serial keys were put on something more substantial. Some do, but far too many go somewhere I can lose ...
A few years ago when I updated from XP to Vista, I learned to my dismay that my Nikon software wouldn't work on Vista with no plans for it to be updated. So, I spent £90 on Nikon's CaptureNX. A brilliant piece of software for editing NEF files. Guess what... Nikon has no plans to update CaptureNX for use on Windows7 This means I have to either buy new software, or use one of my old PCs. Dual boot isn't an option uless I want to reinstall everything. At the moment I can't access...