This Weekend in Geekdom

[bjarvis]

We went to a local computer flea market in Annapolis, MD, Saturday morning with the intent of obtaining some toys and expanding the economy. Both were achieved.

I was looking for a copy of Adobe Acrobat since I'll shortly lose access to my office version. I didn't find one, but I did find PDF Converter 4 Professional for $60... that's close enough.

I also got a new CD case for all of the data and software installation CDs sitting around our home computer room. I also now have a handheld thumb roller mouse which I hope to use for faster & more subtle screen scrolling when I'm reading square dance choreo from a computer screen.

kent4str needed a replacement hard drive for his XP workstation and a backup drive for his MacBook: his XP box now has a 320 GB drive and I'm currently working on installing it in the workstation. His new 500 GB USB-based external backup drive has already made a full backup of his MacBook.

cuyahogarvr's needs are simpler than ours: we got a replacement card reader for his digital camera's memory card and a CD holder for his car's sun visor.

Alas, I was unable to find some items I wanted: a PCMCIA audio card for my laptop (my audio jack has been misbehaving lately), a 100 GBps switch for our home network and a hip holster for kent4str's cell phone. We'll have to continue shopping for those.

Comments

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

Ooo I need one of those CD visor thingys...

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Do you just need to save files as PDF? There are a number of free applications to do that, including OpenOffice.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

The first headache was converting a handful of Word docs to PDF but it would be nice to be able to modify & update PDF files directly as well as perform additional mark-ups. The package I got does everything I needed and a few which will be nice to have.

[rlegters.livejournal.com]

A while back I fried my headphone jack (puff of smoke and everything!) and I've ended up using the Turtle Beach USB sound card. It's not perfect (it doesn't always work when the PC has been hibernating for example), but it's only $30.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I'm using right now, but being attached to the USB port just doesn't feel physically too secure: I fear it coming detached in mid-dance. As well, the only other USB port I have is immediately adjacent so I worry about an external mouse cord becoming entangled.

The PCMCIA card slot is on the other side of my laptop from the USB ports and the card could be more securely seated.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

A while back I fried my headphone jack (puff of smoke and everything!)

now THAT's more excitement than anyone needs.

did you use a fire extinguisher on it? was it attached to your head at the time?

[I'm hypersensitive to hardware malfunctions at the moment, my laptop having decided on Friday evening not to turn on. At all. Grrrrr. never miss the water till the well runs dry]

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

we hit best buy on Saturday and everything was on obscene sales - i almost got Mr. IDon'tNeedACellphone to buy one of the new Blackberry Storms. but - no cigar. We got my antivirus updated (i am virus and malware/spyware paranoid) and new cartridges for the kateydog doggybag dispenser next door at Petco. :)

[apparentparadox]

a hip holster

Why bother? It will take more than that to make him hip.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

:chokes back laughter:

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

Laugh it up, luddite.

[paigemom.livejournal.com]

You say that like it's a bad thing...

[kent4str.livejournal.com]

No, a holster to hold my hips.

[apparentparadox]

Honey, they're still gonna sway when you walk no matter what you do.