Used PCs from Calgary

I've recently bought via eBay several desktops and laptops from a nice outlet in Calgary. Great prices, a fraction of new retail. And these items are new enough that their performance is much better than we're used to: e.g. i5 processors in the 3+ GHz range. You'd have to pay a great deal more to match their performance.

And they generally come with Windows 7 Professional, part of our 'Ignore Win 8 Until They Fix It' program.

There have been a few minor glitches along the way, such as the loose heat sink, an incorrect disk drive, and a bad RAM stick. But everything is working out great.

I'm learning a great deal about IT Support along the way. Reinstalling Windows from the iso download (legal), diagnosing RAM faults, all the new Video Port standards and converting between them, etc.

Great deal on "Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 32/64-Bit Full Retail DVD Sealed Brand New"

Too bad the Product Key inside the factory sealed package was invalid.

(Thanks to PayPal, we extracted a 100% refund from the seller. And left bad eBay Feedback.)

Lenovo T510 laptop unexpected shutdown

After you've checked for viruses and other possible causes, download and run CPUID's HW Monitor and monitor the CPU temperature. If it reaches +100 degrees C, then the CPU may turn off the laptop and leave no event logging trace that I could find. In my case, it was as simple as a loose screw on the heatsink.

Old Bell PVR 9200 made obsolete

Bell (ExpressVu) Satellite TV sent us a replacement PVR, and told us to dispose of the old one. I opened it up and extracted the 250GB HDD. Not to mention the power cord and other hardware. After some fettling with Diskpart to Clean and so on, I installed into the free HDD into my PC and I used it to make a backup. UPDATE: I ran some tests on the old recycled HDD, and it may be the slowest HDD ever made. I got 5 Mbps I/O. That's a dozen times slower than any old HDD. Not sure why. Maybe Bell Expressvu or Echostar made some firmware changes to make it better for PVR use.

Apple Mac Mini (an old one) on the way

Used, refurbished, loaded with a bunch of software. About $100 shipped. Should be fun.

Update: Arrived.

Increased RAM from one-half GB to one GB for $9.

Frankly it's a bit boring. The OS is 10.4.9 Tiger from 2007, and it's amazing how out of date and useless the OS actually is. I think that Apple computers go obsolete significantly faster than PCs. We still have a couple of PCs from the same era (2007, Vista) and they're still perfectly usable and practically useful, just a bit slow.

"4K" TVs down to $600

Newegg.ca via eBay.ca again. They had a Chinese branded 4K TV for just $599. At one point, shipping was just $7. One big issue is that there are few sources of 4K (2160p) video available. Even at this price, probably not worth bothering with. But maybe next year... UPDATE: Price went up to $780 plus S&H. No longer giveaway pricing.

Changhong TV

Newegg.ca was offering 50" TVs for $385 shipped!! Plus only Ecomental fee and Free Health Care. The black levels are nothing to write home about, but otherwise perfectly fine. Outstanding.

FibreOP

We finally got REALLY connected to the Interweb a few weeks ago. Bell Aliant FibreOP at a reliable 175 Mbps down (30 Mbps up). Wonderful. Plus really nice phone service. But not TV since they're missing key channels. I've connected a total of three routers to provide three WiFi hotspots across the 2.4 GHz band. Plus I'm wiring up some devices with Cat 6 (Cat 5e is so 'last year', LOL). The wired PC confirms 175.04 Mbps. It's nice. Really nice.

Yaesu FRG-7 is on the way

Arrived slightly dead. Mostly dirty switch contacts, some wiggling of the knobs brought it to life. The thing needs a complete alignment, even the main tuning dial is way off and runs out of dial in the wrong place. Oh well, good price. I'll fix it up later.

Prediction coming true...

Ref. http://www.ve1bll.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-moores-law-certainly-does-apply-to.html Yep... http://phys.org/news/2014-04-pixels-nanowires-paradigm-digital-cameras.html