Cold frosty evening
Dec. 28th, 2010 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoRelatively speaking anyway.
Gary's new laptop present arrived today, a day ahead of UPS's delivery estimate. He's going through the setup now. The pre-installed demo of Norton (which he's going to trash anyway because his Norton 360 license allows him to install on more than one machine) failed its own update twice before getting it done. He's now run Windows Update about five times and each time it finds more patches for the patches it already has applied. Who knows when it will end. Still needs to add Adobe Reader, Firefox, and OpenOffice, none of which were preinstalled, of course. The widescreen display is impressive, at least if you plan to watch DVDs on your laptop, which is something neither he nor I would be likely to do. The four Kg weight of the thing is not impressive. I wouldn't want to haul it around, but this is the one he asked for, so he's happy and that's good.
It did find my badly located wireless router without difficulty, and connected as soon as the passphrase was provided. Interestingly enough, it also found the neighbors across the road. I knew they were there, but my Zipit doesn't see them from this far away. Evidently his new machine has a better antenna or more sensitive receiver. They're WPA protected just as we are, so I don't know whether he could actually connect to them.
As is so typical for things these days, it comes with no printed documentation, no manuals, no restore CD or media at all. Those things are all "pre-installed" on the HD and you have to figure out how to get them off.
My own netbook (much less impressive I'm sure) is in transit via US Mail Priority so should be here in a day or two. Should be much more portable and slimmed down, which is to my liking but wouldn't do for Gary.
One more workday this week, tomorrow. Late shift as usual for a Wednesday, but then four days off. Yay! I think.
Red has been very good. Of course we've gotten better at guessing when he might misbehave and preventing it, but he's also becoming more aware of house rules, like "Don't put your chin on the dinner table" and "Wait until you're called by name to get your supper." This morning when Gary was out feeding the horses, he went out through the dog door and sat watching the whole process through the fence. He didn't come back into the house until Gary was on his way back as well. This I think is a sign of the attentiveness we want him to have. Gary is his primary leader, and he should be watching for instruction or clues just like that. I'm happy to say this has all been achieved so far without any negative reinforcement other than an occasional sharp word. He also goes into his crate on request, without argument or coaxing needed. Now if I could just get him to stop knocking poor old Simon over by rushing to get through the door first...
Gary's new laptop present arrived today, a day ahead of UPS's delivery estimate. He's going through the setup now. The pre-installed demo of Norton (which he's going to trash anyway because his Norton 360 license allows him to install on more than one machine) failed its own update twice before getting it done. He's now run Windows Update about five times and each time it finds more patches for the patches it already has applied. Who knows when it will end. Still needs to add Adobe Reader, Firefox, and OpenOffice, none of which were preinstalled, of course. The widescreen display is impressive, at least if you plan to watch DVDs on your laptop, which is something neither he nor I would be likely to do. The four Kg weight of the thing is not impressive. I wouldn't want to haul it around, but this is the one he asked for, so he's happy and that's good.
It did find my badly located wireless router without difficulty, and connected as soon as the passphrase was provided. Interestingly enough, it also found the neighbors across the road. I knew they were there, but my Zipit doesn't see them from this far away. Evidently his new machine has a better antenna or more sensitive receiver. They're WPA protected just as we are, so I don't know whether he could actually connect to them.
As is so typical for things these days, it comes with no printed documentation, no manuals, no restore CD or media at all. Those things are all "pre-installed" on the HD and you have to figure out how to get them off.
My own netbook (much less impressive I'm sure) is in transit via US Mail Priority so should be here in a day or two. Should be much more portable and slimmed down, which is to my liking but wouldn't do for Gary.
One more workday this week, tomorrow. Late shift as usual for a Wednesday, but then four days off. Yay! I think.
Red has been very good. Of course we've gotten better at guessing when he might misbehave and preventing it, but he's also becoming more aware of house rules, like "Don't put your chin on the dinner table" and "Wait until you're called by name to get your supper." This morning when Gary was out feeding the horses, he went out through the dog door and sat watching the whole process through the fence. He didn't come back into the house until Gary was on his way back as well. This I think is a sign of the attentiveness we want him to have. Gary is his primary leader, and he should be watching for instruction or clues just like that. I'm happy to say this has all been achieved so far without any negative reinforcement other than an occasional sharp word. He also goes into his crate on request, without argument or coaxing needed. Now if I could just get him to stop knocking poor old Simon over by rushing to get through the door first...
