Dysmey Post Archive > Pages for 1999 > 7 April 1999 Edition
Spring is when all things are new. On my part, this page is to celebrate two new things: My computer and my Internet account.
Originally I was to prepare my folks' old computer, so that they can give it to my brother. The PC ran off a i486 CPU and VESA Local Bus boards — a real clunker now. So I pulled out the old boards and put new ones in. Now it works fair.
The new boards came out of my computer, so now my computer needed some new boards. All the decent new boards nowadays need an ATX power source, which means a new case. In the end I found myself with a brand-new computer.
This would be great if my Windows 98 acted normally after I installed it. But no. It acted very flaky. I reinstalled it many times, and sometimes it would die in the middle of an install.
I was sure the new AGP video card was to blame. To test this, I pulled all cards except the video and reinstalled Windows 98. It worked for all available resolutions for a couple I have learned to avoid. The card also does not work well with my monitor (an Acer).
As soon as I found a stable video setting, I installed my modem. It worked OK. Then I installed my sound card. It came through fine. Soon I will try my multiple parallel port card.
Software installs that are video intensive (especially with the progress bars and background graphics) often crash. I learned to use the lowest video resolution before doing a software install.
Lately my phone bills have been getting hefty, so I have decided on an Internet account I can dial in locally. Where I live is rather isolated, but my local phone company has just been bought by another firm with its paws in the Internet, so I decided to give it a try. That way, my Internet and phone bills will be combined.
I called; I gave the service rep information; in hours my account was ready. I set up access to my account on my computer, and I was in. It was fast. I was impressed.
My only question is why the file name on the home page on my new web site must end in .shtml rather than .html as normal web pages do.