PC Memoirs

Here is another funny post, just in time for the Christmas holidays and end of the year. It is finally time for some rest, fun and games after a difficult year, a year full of serious things. This time I have to recommend to you a post with some funny cartoons. Remember those PC vs Mac commercials? Well, someone made an effort to find cartoons with this theme. Rahul from Cool Tips and Tricks found 30 of them! They are all pro-PC and not Mac-friendly, so don’t go there if you are a Mac-lover 🙂

I see it as ‘the revenge of the PC’! Here is an example:

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Today I have to show you something special. While visiting a fellow bloggers’ websites, I stumbled upon a funny post at Willem’s Internet Blog.

Willem wrote a nice check list which may help you decide if your computer needs an upgrade. It reads something like: “You know you have to update your PC when…” and my favorites are:

• your computer store can’t supply any more 5 1/4 inch floppy disks
• your 10 MB harddisk starts making rattling noises you never heard before
• when you try to install Windows 3.1 and it complains your system isn’t supported anymore
• your computer tells you that March 26 2009 isn’t a valid date
• the only organisation offering spare parts is the local computer museum

For more funny ‘checks’, please visit Willem’s Internet Blog. Enjoy!

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Few days ago I experienced my first Windows 7 problem. My dad’s Toshiba L300 laptop, which was upgraded from Windows Vista to Windows 7 recently, suddenly started showing the Blue Screen Of Death. It appeared randomly and all I could see before the laptop restarted was the PFN_LIST_CORRUPT message. The error code that followed was 0×0000004E.

I could see no reason for it, since the laptop was new, no new software or hardware was installed and the only change was the Windows system upgrade.

This error message means that the Page Frame Number is corrupt, and it usually has to do with bad memory or bad drivers. It comes up in Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7.

In my case the memory was brand new, but I still ran the Windows 7 memory diagnostic tool, just to be safe. To access this program, you’ll need the Windows 7 installation DVD. Boot from this DVD and follow the instructions on the screen to ‘Repair you computer’. At the next screen, you’ll see some new options on the menu, one of which is the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. For detailed instructions on how to get there, please go here.

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Have you heard about Ecosia, the new search engine that has just been launched? It’s powered by Bing and Yahoo search technology, but what makes this search engine special is that it’s environmentally friendly! 80% of its revenue goes to the World Wildlife Fund to protect rainforests and fight global warming. That means, that by using this search engine, Internet surfers can save 2000 square meters of rainforest per year!

Ecosia has been developed by a group of friends in Berlin, Germany, who are concerned about the environment. They set up this search engine to try and do something to save it.  I think this is a wonderful idea and a great cause. Hopefully Ecosia search engine will become as popular as the ‘big three’ some day.

To confirm Ecosia’s ’green’ status, its data centres are run on electricity from alternative sources that do not emit carbon dioxide. In addition, it has been launched in time for the Copenhagen climate change conference (7-18 Dec 2009), which may give it some more exposure.

Each search in Ecosia will protect about 2sqm of rainforest, so by using this search engine, we can protect the environment one search at a time. Everyone who surfs the Web will use search engines at some point, so why not use Ecosia and save the world 🙂 At least this little part is not difficult.

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