da tomāto

I have a partitioned HDD, partitioned while we still used XP. The man allocated 20 GB for the system. Did maintenance work regularly and kept that baby running smoothly. Fast-forward X years, I updated to Win7. Problem is most of the system partition is used even with the bare minimum of programs installed (only what i need, the biggest hog is adobe reader), free space was only 3.+ GB. Boot up was fast enough but still, it may suffer if it gets any lower. So, I still go through regular disk cleanup for a few megabytes of space (and peace of mind). Then Glenda happened. After the power flickered, it created a system restore point which ate up memory. After a normal start-up and restart, it deleted itself. But memory was down to 2.4 GB -- not OK. I didn't want to start over (format, etc.) for more space which typically takes a very long time. After defrag+cleanup it was still a low 2.6 GB. I could try extending the partition but no, too chicken. So, what else could I do for n

7/15 Tue Typhoon Glenda came here early evening. Strong winds followed. Howling winds. 7/16 Wed 2am Power flickered twice. Restarted desktop to properly shut it down, fingers crossed power keeps steady till it finishes. Gone to bed. Howling wind. Power went out around 4am. Weather was OK by mid-morning. No running water. Power restored 8 pm. 7/17 Thu Power gone a couple of hours before dawn. Gone again before noon until 4 pm. Still no water. Started raining early afternoon. Little to no water by early evening. 7/18 Fri No scheduled power outage today - thank goodness (Meralco started rotating power shutdown yesterday due to low generation daw ). Trickles to no running water. Globe cell reception still iffy since Glenda hit. Electricity situation desperate in areas where strong winds took down poles and damaged power lines. Overheard: some people out there taking advantage, offering to charge devices for a fee. Sad.

Search the words - dada blog - on the big G and there I am, on page 1 (with the movement/philosophy, a music band, a dad blogger, doctor...). Then last month, I am still on the prime numero uno page but the bottom half, and sometimes on page 2... kicked off by a nice craft blogger. Where was she all this time? We started blogging about the same time but I did not notice her till she shot up to number 1 of page 1. I'm glad she caught up, she has a business and a niche -- hers is an income source. Mine is not even close, just a personal journal with one google ad running on a small box in case a visitor decides to click on it which sends a few cents my way. Why do I want my blog to be on page 1 for anyway? I want to find it quickly, I back-read. Have you heard about bookmarks? Pfft! Seeing myself on top of SERP is awesome! Who the heck searches for "dada blog" anyway? ME!

... because I had to. Someone said our custom-built desktop computer's hardware and parts have a useful life of four to six years, and then, you'll either have to upgrade or replace something. That was six years ago (2008). He was right. The motherboard died last year . Useful life: five years. We replaced it with Gigabyte A75M-UD2H and upgraded the memory and processor. Last week, on June 26, the bottom display of the AOC 16" widescreen monitor went bad. The bottom 1/3 of the display was covered with a white, not-totally opaque row where image changes rendered in slow motion. Did it look like that at startup? Yes. Take a screenshot (print screen button) and paste it on Paint, is it still there? No. Definitive test: We hooked it up to another machine and the white row did not disappear -- the monitor is shot. Useful life: 6 years. Go and buy a new one. The recommendation? HDMI for higher resolution (min. 1080p) AND buy an HDMI cable too because it doesn