theology&geometry » computers

Things that are wrong with my MacBook Pro

theogeo — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 17:11:35 +0000

• The optical drive won’t read discs or burn them
• The fan is on constantly regardless of the computer’s temperature or how hard it’s working
• The battery is bulging and the computer tells me it needs to be replaced immediately; full charge gets me 35 minutes of time unplugged
• The trackpad is malfunctioning and sticking, making it more or less impossible to actually do anything on the damn thing. It thinks it is being clicked constantly when it’s not, leading me to accidentally drag things around and into other folders, highlight everything, close and open programs, open and minimize windows, etc.

(For the record, the MBP was purchased in the summer of 2008. I have all of its files backed up, phew.)

Fortunately I’ve got the iMac to rely on so I won’t be computerless. But there are times when I travel and do work (especially photo stuff on the go) with a laptop so I am going to need another one eventually.

So. Try to get it repaired or just start saving (HA HA HA HA) for a new one?

Speak, nerds. Give me your wisdom.

Mousetrails

theogeo — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:00:17 +0000

No, this isn’t a picture of Ralph Steadman’s pen ejaculating all over a Jackson Pollock painting.

This is what it looks like when I work.

I’ve been seeing internerd scuttlebutt (that was for you, Chris) around the web about Anatoliy Zenkov‘s awesome and awesomely weird little application that records the movement of your mouse for as long as you let it, and had to give in and do one of my own. Dots indicate a mouse pointer at rest. The longer at rest, the bigger the dot grows (my biggest dot was no doubt from my 30-minute lunch break). Lines are obviously mouse movement.

It’s good clean nerd fun to see the areas of your desktop you utilize the most. You can overlay your mousetrails with a screenshot of what you were working on and get a good idea of what it is you were clicking and dragging the most.

This overlay is a super rough estimate for me, since my job requires switching back and forth between several windows and applications. I’m not just laying out pages; I’m copy editing stories, reading e-mails, scanning local blogs, posting to The Memphis Blog, and more. So I just zoomed out on the A1 I was working on. But still. You can certainly see how often I have to select applications in the task bar and then minimize them to switch to another one, and how much I rely on the tools around the perimeter of my window in Fred, our page layout program.

Nerd out for yourself and download the program: Mac or PC.

Nothing small-town about it

theogeo — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:06:57 +0000

Continuing his creeping yet unstoppable domination of all forms of media, my pal Nick Fowler gave David Letterman a chuckle over some Dyer County, Tenn., redneckjinks on Monday night’s episode:

Small-Town News Featuring Nick Fowler from Lindsey Turner on Vimeo.

You’ll remember Nick from his multiple appearances in this documentary about the unfortunately nicknamed Dyersburg “Tranny Nanny.” He also has a brief but no doubt industry-shaking appearance in the Billy Graham movie you might not have seen unless you hang out at church on Friday nights.

Don’t be surprised in 2012 when Nick has the entire news/media world conquered, because it’s going to happen. And then, when he is the King of All News and Media, he is going to kern the shit out of your horrible-looking Helvetica headlines. You hear me, world?!

Space

theogeo — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:04:00 +0000

When I got this computer in late 2004, I had no idea I’d be taking a shit-ton of pictures every day, with a camera that outputs very large files, even on its smallest file setting.

Which means that I am now within 3GB of filling up my hard drive. Which helps explain why the damn machine has been running so slow lately.

I spy an external hard drive/photo archive system in my future.