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The computer, she is working. The machine came in on thursday evening. It is a HP debranded refurb machine with a pc turner card and dual core intell processor. It also does not have an OS on it. Or anything for that matter. When i loaded my OS on the computer I still needed drivers and there were none.
Going on from other computers I was unable to find the drivers on HP's site. The computer itself did not have any serial numbers and deliberately the manufacturer for the mother board was marked out. I called HP tech support and that was a comedy of errors, literally. My roommates took a certain of enjoyment out of watching this whole process of 2 and half hours. Ultimately it was pointless.
The bios was set to be unviewable as was the the name of board manufacturer. I went through a lot of different sites to find out what I needed . I had to go buy a ethernet card to actually connect to the internet. It turns out that Asus makes most of the boards for the HP pavilion line. That being discovered I had to go through the various chip manufacturers untill I found the drivers for the onboard graphics, onboard sound, on board ethernet and the pc tuner card. I got the last of them found yestday. I began then to load up some essentials.
First up is the best free anti virus out there, namely AVG. I have used it for years and it is solid. Then I loaded spybot, Skype, Firfox, open Office 2.0, Audacity, Trilian, iTunes, and paint.net. I did download the software install of WOW but have not installed yet. To be honest I am not certain how it will interact with the intergrated graphics. I guess i will install tonight and find out. I am still on putting a proper video card eventually so it wont be an issue long if it is one at all.
As to the non computer related conerns. I went to check out a potential new place to live. the offer of a coworker to move me into his trailer had to be investigated. It is not a bad trailer though I have seen(and lived in) some much better. My current roommates have shortened the time till moving yet again. They gave notice to the complex we would be out by the 15th. I thought I would have till the end of the month but that has changed. it turns out to be easier on them due some school schedule stuff which is fine. No hard feelings there.
Anyways the trailer is an option and certainly is cheaper though the situation is not ideal. Even the guy offering said that if I can find a nicer place I should go with it. The trailerer will cost me 215 a month but the guy said that may vary due to sometimes he is late in paying the lot fee and they charge a late fee. There are a couple of dogs as well. Now I like dogs just fine but one of them is potty training which you can tell from the smell. The roommate is pleasant enough though and I would be literally around five minutes from work and therefore a lot less gas would be used.
Now the other option is spending 370 a month on an apartment in the same complex I am in or move to another one in Oak Ridge proper and pay almost 500 for a place. Add another 150 to the utilities and you between twice and three times as much. The upside though is having a much nicer enviroment and no roommates I can iritate. Also my moral will be better in my own place. Living in trailers was coralary to some sadder periods in my life. Transitioning from being homeless sleeping on a couch that the dog in the house routinely pissed on because he did not like me was not a happier time.
on a related note, I have discovered across the board in knoxville area the cost on apartments has gone up at least a 100 dollars since 2003. One of the places told me their rent went up twice this year alone. This may be in keeping with inflation. However my salery has not gone up much at all over the past 3 years to match. Whats more with the exception of people leaving college for real world jobs, no one I know has had a marked increase in salary either. When the cost of living increases and the amount of money people make is not then there is an issue.
Whichever I decide to do i will be trying to work over time this weekend and on christmas day because I need the money. If i moveout on my own in particular as i need to make deposits and hook up fees.
Oh well thats my weekend. How was yours?
Going on from other computers I was unable to find the drivers on HP's site. The computer itself did not have any serial numbers and deliberately the manufacturer for the mother board was marked out. I called HP tech support and that was a comedy of errors, literally. My roommates took a certain of enjoyment out of watching this whole process of 2 and half hours. Ultimately it was pointless.
The bios was set to be unviewable as was the the name of board manufacturer. I went through a lot of different sites to find out what I needed . I had to go buy a ethernet card to actually connect to the internet. It turns out that Asus makes most of the boards for the HP pavilion line. That being discovered I had to go through the various chip manufacturers untill I found the drivers for the onboard graphics, onboard sound, on board ethernet and the pc tuner card. I got the last of them found yestday. I began then to load up some essentials.
First up is the best free anti virus out there, namely AVG. I have used it for years and it is solid. Then I loaded spybot, Skype, Firfox, open Office 2.0, Audacity, Trilian, iTunes, and paint.net. I did download the software install of WOW but have not installed yet. To be honest I am not certain how it will interact with the intergrated graphics. I guess i will install tonight and find out. I am still on putting a proper video card eventually so it wont be an issue long if it is one at all.
As to the non computer related conerns. I went to check out a potential new place to live. the offer of a coworker to move me into his trailer had to be investigated. It is not a bad trailer though I have seen(and lived in) some much better. My current roommates have shortened the time till moving yet again. They gave notice to the complex we would be out by the 15th. I thought I would have till the end of the month but that has changed. it turns out to be easier on them due some school schedule stuff which is fine. No hard feelings there.
Anyways the trailer is an option and certainly is cheaper though the situation is not ideal. Even the guy offering said that if I can find a nicer place I should go with it. The trailerer will cost me 215 a month but the guy said that may vary due to sometimes he is late in paying the lot fee and they charge a late fee. There are a couple of dogs as well. Now I like dogs just fine but one of them is potty training which you can tell from the smell. The roommate is pleasant enough though and I would be literally around five minutes from work and therefore a lot less gas would be used.
Now the other option is spending 370 a month on an apartment in the same complex I am in or move to another one in Oak Ridge proper and pay almost 500 for a place. Add another 150 to the utilities and you between twice and three times as much. The upside though is having a much nicer enviroment and no roommates I can iritate. Also my moral will be better in my own place. Living in trailers was coralary to some sadder periods in my life. Transitioning from being homeless sleeping on a couch that the dog in the house routinely pissed on because he did not like me was not a happier time.
on a related note, I have discovered across the board in knoxville area the cost on apartments has gone up at least a 100 dollars since 2003. One of the places told me their rent went up twice this year alone. This may be in keeping with inflation. However my salery has not gone up much at all over the past 3 years to match. Whats more with the exception of people leaving college for real world jobs, no one I know has had a marked increase in salary either. When the cost of living increases and the amount of money people make is not then there is an issue.
Whichever I decide to do i will be trying to work over time this weekend and on christmas day because I need the money. If i moveout on my own in particular as i need to make deposits and hook up fees.
Oh well thats my weekend. How was yours?
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I shouldn't tell you how to spend your money. But. That first place sounds good on rent ($215 is unbelievably cheap) but those surprise late fees would make me nervous. They don't inspire a lot of confidence in the landlord. Can you afford the other place?
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I'd definately go for the 370 appartment. That's a good price and sounds like a much better situation that the trailer.
You could always cut costs by getting dial-up. :-)
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