Jaffa Cakes and Sodomy

People I have on FaceBook might have noticed I'm having computer trouble. Basically, the "Drives? What are those?" thing has started happening again, so I'm stuck on the half-dead Mac once more (annoyingly... I was going to cannibalise it for its hard drive to upgrade the PS3 and then sell the rest for parts, but that's out of the window). This has been one huge source of stress over the last 2 days that REALLY HASN'T HELPED with the whole depression (which is feeling more like a mixed state now... fml) thing. But I have a solution!

Going to apply for a budgeting loan from the Social Fund. I should get around £300. Now, the problem with the computer is either the motherboard or the hard drive. If it's the hard drive, I can get a new one along with a non-OEM copy of Windows 7 (I'm wanting to do a major upgrade in the future, so will need this) for £175. Problem solved. If it's the motherboard, I'll need to get non-OEM Windows 7 anyway, as you can't change motherboards with OEM copies. If I want to keep my files (which I do, TYVM) I'll need a new hard drive too. So no money wasted. My CPU and memory, while not exactly high spec (2.33GHz Core2Duo and 2GB DDR2 respectively) are in good working order. So all I'd need is a Socket 775 motherboard, which will cost around £40 (oh, and some thermal paste, but that's like £2 or something). Well within budget.

...when did I get so good at thinking my way around problems? Why aren't I crying and having a panic attack? Go me!

( note: I’ll probably carry on that meme eventually – it kind of got held up. First Will was here so I was too busy having sex and eating pizza, then I needed to catch up on my sleep, then I was at my mam’s fixing her computer, then I ended up getting adware that fucked up my sidebar gadgets and kept launching IE so I had to deal with that (first virus since my Acorn days – yay! Not as elegant as Module or Extend though, sadly ). Also I’ll admit that I haven’t exactly been taking my meds properly – why bother when they’re not working anyway?)

 

After a couple of weeks faffing about with emulators, I realised something. I seriously miss my BBC Micro*. Sure, computers can do much more stuff nowadays, but were they as fun? I used to love writing stuff for the Beeb, whether it was typing in listings from Acorn/Micro User or making my own stuff up (which was much easier to do back then – BBC BASIC and 6502 assembler were way easier to start doing useful stuff in than what we have now). Plus IDK… the fact that the computer was so primitive (32k RAM/128k on the posh ones, 4 sound channels, 8 screen modes that were all compromises) made people more creative – why bother with “clever” programming when you have near-endless resources available?

*goes to scour eBay for a Master 128*

_{*note to Yanks: the Beeb was the UK’s answer to the Apple ][ – similar specs and just as popular in schools.}

I have a mobile phone now. My brother got a new one and gave me his (minus SIM card, but I went out and got one of those today).

So long since I had one... I'm probably showing my age when I say my last phone was a Nokia 3210 (green & black screen, monophonic programmable ringtones, snake game...)  - this is going to take some getting used to.