First of all, I just wanted to wish everyone who comes to this blog a Happy New Year...I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted!! The New Year did not started well for Australia due to floods and North Queensland being hit by the biggest cyclone in Australian history, Cyclone Yasi. I won't go into details here but Mum has some details on what happened on her blog, along with links to other informative sites about the floods and cyclone.
Secondly, I want to announce that my sister Michelle gave birth to a beautiful baby girl called Mikayla Rose in December 2010. You can read all about her and see pictures on Michelle's blog and also on Mum's blog! That makes me an Uncle to Mikayla and, while I know I'm already an Uncle, Mikayla will be the first niece I'll have a lot more involvement with! I'm so happy! Michelle came over to visit on Monday and I didn't want to stop admiring Mikayla. She is so beautiful! It's going to be weird but feel great at the same time, hearing little Mikayla say "Uncle Bradley" or "Uncle Brad" when she starts talking! Below is a picture of me holding Mikayla 2 days after birth! I love her so much!
Me holding Mikayla 2 days after birth!
Since July last year, I'd been having a lot of computer problems, where my computer would either restart on me without warning, show a Blue Screen of Death (what we Windows users call the dreaded blue screen error message that renders your computer useless until a restart is done), even a complete computer freeze, sometimes with nothing showing on the screen. Mum and I kept trying to solve the problem, but to no avail. We also noticed that my computer seemed to be getting very hot after being on for a while. My computer was a Windows XP desktop (not a tower case) PC, probably built between 2002 - 2004, and given to me second hand by a friend of the family who also gave Mum the exact same type of computer. We were given them around 2007 - 2008 and have had a lot of use out of them upgrading the RAM once to help them run faster.
The funny thing is that while my computer was playing up for a while, Mum had absolutely no problems with her computer at all until, one day out of the blue, it went out with a bang while she was using it. Luckily Mum was able to get a brand new HP Pavillion computer with Windows 7 that very same day. It took Mum a little while to get used to but she seems to love it now. A week and a half later, I went to turn my computer on at the wall, heard a bang, and then realised my computer had finally given up too. Thankfully, I was able to get a new computer as well, exactly like Mum's new one so, she and I have twin computers again. The only difference is that Mum's one came with a 20 inch wide screen LED LCD screen as part of a bundle deal from Harvey Norman, our local computer store. I only needed to buy the PC tower as I was able to use Mum's SONY 19 inch LCD (not wide-screen) from her blown computer.
So far, I'm loving my new Windows 7 PC and, thankfully, all my data was on my external hard drive so I didn't lose anything when my computer died! I know I've said in a past post that I'd be getting a new computer and putting some form of GNU/Linux on it after what I've read about Microsoft and the bad things they've been doing (look for the Windows 7 Sins banner in my sidebar and click it to go to the website to see what I mean) however, given the circumstances, my plans changed for now. The only way I'd feel safe enough putting Ubuntu (my choice of GNU/Linux operating system) on my new computer without voiding the warranty is by installing VirtualBox and running Ubuntu as a Virtual Machine, which I did in Windows XP for a short time. The only way I'd feel safe enough putting Ubuntu fully on the computer is by waiting for the warranty to end. I eventually plan to buy a custom built computer and I'll definitely be putting Ubuntu on that alongside whatever version of Windows is out at the time. With Ubuntu being released every 6 months, who knows what it'll be like when that happens which is why I'll continue to buy both the monthly Linux Magazine and quarterly Ubuntu User (both published by Linux New Media AG). I totally recommend these magazines to people wanting to know more about Ubuntu and Linux in general.
I'm really sorry about the wait between my last post and this one (nearly a year) but I can assure you I'm back with plans to post more regularly so watch this space for new posts. There will be CD reviews, games reviews and whatever else I'm into at the time! So stay tuned.....
