Back to my Desktop

I finally got my mouse and keyboard yesterday, and now I am back to my desktop :) It is always nice to work on your own workstation/desktop, even though a laptop is nice for its' convenience and portability. Well, not so with the laptop I was using (it's Jordan's). It is 6 other different old laptops scrapped and made into this one laptop. It has very limited RAM and HD space, not much software, a slow processor, battery won't work (which means it has to be plugged at ALL TIMES). Other than that, the wireless and internet browser works, which is mostly what I need to updating my blog. It is mostly for running the kids' educational learning software and sites using Linux.

Anyway, now that I have a mouse and keyboard again, my fans for my tower unit is all shut, meaning my computer would turn off automatically anytime when the components would overheat. We will need to get new fans to replace the old (unless we can see if we can get the other fans to work yet). *sighs* one thing after the other... it is wearing me out!

On another happy note, I got my early birthday present and late mother's day present from Jebby. He got me a really nice rice cooker/slow cooker/warmer/steamer all in one. Besides that, he got me a new digital camera. Our old digital camera is starting to retire on us. We have had it for almost 6+ years now, and it served its' purpose. It won't turn on and off like it should anymore and it is a little too slow to take pictures, especially for my kids! The moment the shutter shuts off, the kids are off the frame or the "moment" you want to capture is gone. Now, I have a really nice one that takes super fast pictures! I like it :)

One awesome thing Jeb did with my camera is install a little program called chdk on the chip where it would do tons more of functions and feature for the camera (besides the already built-in features). Normal camera's (mine is a Canon Powershot SD870 IS -- thanks to Newegg!) would take just so large of a picture. However, with this added little program that resides in your card it can take RAW formats for your pictures! I know maybe a lot of this techy stuff just goes over your head, but anyways... it is way too cool. My camera can act like an SLR camera now with that added little program. It can take time-lapse, HDR shots (click this link for examples of what HDR pictures are). HDR is pretty much a combination of all pictures taken of the same thing at different times and merging all the colors together. It is pretty neat. Well, at least that is the lay-man's explanation Jeb gave me. I still don't know how to use that function, but I thought it is pretty cool. I'll be reading the user's guide to know more about the features and functions of this little tiny thing we call a digital camera -- to get the most out of it.