a new chromebook

london 11.24am 11.9C cloudy thursday 2024

this is the first time i am using this new chromebook and the first post written on it. there is always disorientation with a new gadget, and this one is no exception. this one threw me even more because i was expecting a 14″ chromebook and got this lenova ideapad flex 3i 15″ 7 chromebook.

i thought argos have made a mistake , sending me the wrong chromebook having mixed up another person’s order. when simon came back home, he said he ordered it because he felt it has a better screen . i was disappointed because i wanted that 14″. and this one cost £100 more too .

update 21.4.24. it was £300, but simon used my £50gift voucher so it cost him £250.  going into the argos website just now, i see it is now £449.

 

i only found out it can be folded right back to become a tablet. and i daresay it got lots of other functions that i dont know about. and that is the point, i dont know what they are , and dont know how to find out , i cannot find the help button. and even if i find out what they are, i dont know how to use them. for eg, how do i use a tablet?

ah well, my first reaction to all this unknown was to go back to my old chromebook and use that. back to the familiar. but i know that i should try this new one out, and just poke it about to find out what it is good for.

i think in the end,  i shall just use the chromebook setting that i can get into when i log onto the chrome OS (operating system) . 

buying a chromebook, check the AUE auto update expiration date

london 5.14pm friday 2019

this is important to know if u are buying a chromebook. i did not know it, but fortunately , after reading it and following the links, i find my chromebook hp 14″ bought in mar 2019, expires june 2025. it seems the expiration date starts from its installation, and not from purchase date. it only lasts 6.5yrs. here is the link,

it seems a good link to type in on any chromebook at the store, is chrome://version. that way u can find out the name of the stable channel of that chromebook . then go here  to find what your model is , and then go here to get the expiration date. so it looks like whether you like it or not, each chromebook has a built in obsolescence date… 6.5yrs from installation of the software. it is one way of getting u to buy a new one every 6.5 yrs or so. though from my experience, it is easy to find that u break something or have an accident with it long before then. of the 4 chromebooks i used, the first two lasted 2yrs each, the 3rd lasted 6months, (from an accident… i flooded it when i vomited into the bag carrying it) and now i am using my 4th, 5months now and counting… will i make it to 6yrs with this one? i wonder. i will be glad if it lasts 5yrs. will i still continue to buy chromebooks. the answer is yes. their ease of use and no need to worry about viruses is such a strong pull for me.added. 16.9.2019 also they are cheap. my first one 13″ was £199. the second was free, as it was under the john lewis 2yr guarantee and they replaced it without charge. my third was 11″ £159, and my present one 14″hp £199.

added 12.02pm 16 oct 2020 12C sunny.

i accidentally clicked on this post. dont know how i did it, but i read it and realised the chromebook i mentioned, hp 14″,  i am still using. so it looks like it is only about 18months old.  mind u , the 2 yr guarantee by john lewis expires mar 2021. so if past events are a quide, it might be it will kaput around then. i am glad i bought the 14″, as it is the perfect size for me. 

my new 14″ chromebook

london 13C sunny 10.12am friday 2019

i have just received my new chromebook .i ordered this new one yesterday from the john lewis store in oxford st and arranged for me to collect it today. so i am back with my own chromebook , instead of having to share simon’s laptop. 

it is a HP 14″ and i am now sitting in the john lewis oxford st cafe on the 5th floor, charging it up and getting onto my google account to install my data. it is very quick and effortless on my part, does not need me to know how to do it, and everything gets installed like before and so i can get going straightaway with all my favourites etc in place.

this is a bigger screen than i have , the one that got conked was 11″ , before that i had a 13″ screen. so this 14″ will be a new experience.

i have noticed when i was using the 11″ screen, i have to constantly enlarge the size of the script and have to scroll left and right and up and down as i read since the whole enlarged page just cannot fit the screen. now they can and so it makes for a much easier read. 

waterlogged chromebook is not covered by warranty

london 11.20am 13.1C sunny tuesdayb 2019 virgin lounge haymarket

so at last i made it to the john lewis oxford st store to their computer repair area and let them see what happened to my chromebook. the first thing they ask me is if i got accident cover. it seems the 2yr warranty covers only hardware and software. not accidents, and this one is considered an accident. and it seems to repair it will cost as much as my chromebook. he suggest i use a hdmi lead to connect to the tv screen and use that. which is a good idea. 

so my losing the receipt did not matter after all. ah well. i shall continue to make do as even the charging is getting better, still slow but at least it is charging. i was thinking if i can get a vibrating machine, i could vibrate the droplets so they merge , and get heavier and fall to the bottom of the screen. that would at least clear the screen so i can see things. as it is everything looks like it got a skin disease or something. 

i was on the bus to the store, and saw a leaflet telling of changes to the bus 88. it seems it is going to take over the C2 bus route, and extend itself to parliament hill fields. from 30march, it wont terminate at camden town but go further . parliament hill fields is near highgate ponds and is where there is a naked sunbathing area in the men’s pond changing room area. hmm, a direct route from my flat to that area. sounds lovely. its actually quite logical to close C2 route, as it is quite redundant. it is using those small buses , unlike the bus 88 which uses the new routemaster. 

whilst at john lewis i had a look at their chrome books, and one was selling for £199, 14″ too. reduced from £249. i dont see any 11″ chromebooks. now i am so used to a 11″, i dont really want a 14″ anymore. 

added 7.24pm i have a feeling i will have to buy a new one. this one, i noticed the charging is not working anymore. it tells me it is charging , but the minutes dont go up, and in fact is going down, even when i shut it down, because it does not shut down at all. there is a light on the side that comes on when it is on, and that light do not go off  even when the screen goes dark when i hit the shut off button. so it looks very likely i shall get a new one. i am sure i wont be able to stand this messy screen full of watermarks , as working long time looking at it, can give me a headache.

so i shall be thinking about what to buy next. that 14″, or another 11″. both will cost about £200. it will definitely be a chrome book because it is i think the best , no need to bother with an antivirus installed, and never have to worry about any phone call saying they are calling to fix my laptop. it seems some people are still fooled by this scam, i read a blogger saying she got caught by it. well, i shall enjoy myself shoppng around for another chromebook. 

what happens to old chromebooks?

london 11.54pm 23.6C sunny saturday 2018

its a lovely sunny day today, blue sky and cloudless. each year merge into the next so i have only a vague idea of each year, but i think this year has been really very pleasant weather wise.

added. 6.30pm i just realised it is in london i am referring to. the news certainly makes us all aware of bad weather news elsewhere in the world. now that we get 24hr news, it is difficult to escape reading about  bad weather news anywhere in the world.

if anything is to be learnt about modern lessons for living our lives today, it is that  man must separate bad news that do not affect him from bad news that affects him. and learn to act accordingly, putting bad news that do not affect him way back in his view of his life. 

i got an email from steve, asking me what i plan to do with my old chromebook. so i replied that i dont have any plans for it, and if he wants it he is welcome to it. i said if he can find someone who can scavenge another chromebook and harvest it for its graphic card, maybe he can use that to replace the one that is spoilt in mine and get it working again. though he is using a smartphone to get online now, so i wonder if he will find a chromebook that useful. 

i often wonder where old chromebooks or laptops go to when they are discarded. surely there must be a nice business there in harvesting them for spareparts. if a graphic card can cost £150 to replace i would think there is money to be made there. though the cost base must be low, if i can replace mine for a new one for £160, i dont think i want to buy a refurbished one for more than £50. added. i have been thinking if he had said that my old chromebook can be repaired for £50 , would i accept that? i think i would. so there might be a market for someone to repair it unofficially and that would depand on him able to get free or cheap recycled spareparts  salvage from old discarded chromebooks. the trouble is difficulty finding such a person. where can you go to advertise your services? it has to be word of mouth. maybe someone who does it as a hobby, or to start as that and see if there is a big demand for such a service.

added. i went into the john lewis website to find my chromebook. i must have bought the last one, because it is listed as out of stock. 

HP 11-v001n Chromebook, Intel Celeron, 4GB RAM, 16GB eMMC, 11.6”, Grey link

 

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Digital StillCamera

my old chromebook failed

london thursday 2018 pimlico library

i am typing this in the library computer, using their wifi . this is because my chromebook finally gave up the ghost last night andthe screen went blank.

i went to the currys pc store in goodge st and was told that the graphic card has failed that is why there is no picture, just a white screen. and when i asked how much to replace it, i was told it can be £150, so easier to just buy a new one.

the store dont seem to have any 13″ chromebooks. just 14″ and one 12.1″. the 14″ is too big, and the 12.1″ is too expensive. they have a 11.1″ for £179. the store assistant went online on his laptop and brought up the john lewis website when i told him i like john lewis’ 2yr guarantee policy. currys dont have a 2 yr guarantee. and i noticed in the webiste the same chromebook selling for £179 in here was selling for   for £159.95 in john lewis. so that really clinched it for me. i allready wanted to buy from john lewis, and now i found out that the chromebook is even cheaper there.

i did a test on the 11.1″chromebook in the store, to see if i can tolerate   the picture and size, and found it was ok, i could get used to it, if i enlarge the font. and the whole thing is a smaller size, so will be easy to put into my gym bag and carry it around with me , unlike now when the 13″ i got can be quite big and bulge out my gym bag .

so i went to john lewis in oxford st to buy it, but i find that they only have 2 models of chromebook on display both very expensive.  and when i mentioned their online price, the assistant said i can get online to shop for that cheaper chromebook.

so i was wandering around, trying out the two models, both very expensive, and looking at the other models, and luckily another assistant, a lady  this time, asked me whether she could help and i said i am looking for a chromebook, but you only got two models. she then said she can order it for me if u like. well that is great. so she did that, just went online on one of the display models, brought up the website and i told her i wanted the £159 one, she found it and said right, wait here and i shall order it. and she came back and led me to the cashier, and he took my details, and asked if i want to pay by credit card. i said cash, and he sent me to the cash desk to buy a gift voucher, and i took that back to him and he entered it and that is that. i bought myself a new chrome book. collect after 2pm tomorrow at the same store. i could collect it from any waitrose store too. well, i am glad i got that assistant to help me. the first one was not on the ball, obviously. he nearly lost a sale there. not to mention, it would be real inconvenient for me to do it by myself, having to use this library computer to do it. and i only am allowed 1hr free to use everyday. in fact i allready use 30mins of my time. so i shall post this. 

bits of news

london 9.29am 17.6C cloudy/rain wednesday 2017

an article that says windows is making too many personal computers obsolete. 

You may have noticed that PC sales have been declining for years. Know why? PCs last for years. I’m still running computers that are over a decade old.

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Better still, don’t spend your IT money replacing it.

this one talk of social care. giving money to those who need it and let them buy it. better than the present system where council provides it and you have to take it and lump it. 

and here is another microsoft article about it stomping on its competitors by disabling the rival antivirus and installing its own when it upgrades to windows 10. that is why google is being fined so much by the EU … maybe the usa and uk might like to take a leaf out of the EU and be stricter with microsoft and google and all the other big guns .

 i still do not know why people dont just buy a chrome book and leave all this nonsense dealing with microsoft like upgrading, viruses, hardware, etc behind. i never have to worry about it anymore ever since i got my chromebook. i am into my 4th year of using chromebook. hope it can last 10yrs at least. haha. i hope they are not putting in planned obsolescence where it self destructs after 2 -3 yrs. like smartphones which seem to last about 2-4 yrs at most. my previous chrome book went kaput after 2yrs use. this one, given to me free to replace the other one that went kaput, is coming up to its 2nd year…lets see if it lasts me till my next birthday… in june 2018. but at £230 when i bought the original one, each year costs me £76 so far. and decreasing with each year that passes. 

added. here is another interesting article about the designers of the seat covers in the london underground trains. they are rather unusual and distinctive and made in such a way with patterns that hide the dirt very well indeed. they call it moquette. 

some dramatic pictures in the report on the wild fire in the med due to this hot weather they are having now. we are having a dull cloudy rainy day here in london i like it, but those who dont may take a look at what is happening over there from their hot weather and be grateful for our weather here. we dont know how good this weather is until u have something like that to compare.

do u like to make your life difficult? use windows

london 8.59am 12.8C sunny thursday 2017

simon has a windows laptop and he is getting trouble connecting to the home wifi router. my friend who uses a apple laptop, and i , using a chromebook have no trouble connecting to it, but he is .

his laptop has forgotten the password to connect to my router and have connected to another person’s router in the same building. how that can happen when he have not got that person’s password is a mystery. though i suspect he is not really connected because he cannot get onto the internet with it.

maybe i am wrong to blame it all on windows. but it is a fact that ever since i stopped using windows, i have no trouble with gaining access to the internet. no virus to bother about. so that whenever i get telephone calls from people with foreign accents telling me i got a virus in my computer and telling me what to do, i can tell them i got a chrome book so no need and put the phone down on them. it saves a lot of bother.

i would say to anyone who dont want to bother with all that virus and stuff, just get a chromebook. make your life simpler why dont you. unless u are the type who wants to make your life difficult, than carry on using windows. 

added. 12.26 sunny 14.4C looking out onto a bright calm blue sky sunny day makes me wonder why people want to live permanently on a yacht and sail all over the world. this thought came to me because i read this article about a couple who were rescued from their yacht during rough seas when their rudder broke . they have been living life on the sea for 7yrs and this thing happen to them. they were sailing in the southern hemisphere where it is summer, so you would think those storms associated with winter wont happen. but of course there are no rules that say winter storms wont happen in summer haha… i guess even if they are not getting too old for it, (they are very experienced sailors so they will be ok), their yacht is getting past it. even if u maintain it in tiptop condition there is no guarantee that your new rudder wont break, the sea can be very strong and break things even if it is new.

it makes me think… i have been living in this flat for 25yrs and hardly need to worry about maintaining it in tiptop condition. this is because there are other people whose job it is to worry about those things. haha. that is the beauty of living in a  flat as opposed to a house. (all those who are growing old in a house now, might seriously consider downsizing to a flat. it is much warmer than a house for one thing. )

 unlike a yacht where u have to otherwise this kind of thing happens.living life dangerously. it does not appeal to me. and having to rely on a piece of floating ‘coffin’ does not appeal to me actually. but i guess it takes all sorts to make a world.

i know everyone says to live u must experience everything. hence people make up bucket lists and lists on things u must do before u die… but to me i only want to experience nice things and even then not all of them; i dont mind if i dont ever experience those bothersome/nasty things. 

 

black friday

london 2.44pm 12.8C sunny blue sky. friday 2016

i suppose i must be of another generation where the word black denotes death and that something horrible has happened. that is what i always feel when i read  or see ‘black friday’ anywhere. but it seems this generation thinks of it as a great day, when it is time to splurge out, or that after today they are working for themselves rather than for the taxman, or that today is a day they start getting the profit.

well i thought i shall get into the mood of it and join them by buying something. but it was a half hearted attempt really haha.  i had thoughts of wondering what it will be like to own a smartphone so i went to the nearest carphonewarehouse at victoria, and looked at the cheapest thing on the wall display… an alcatel with 3.5inch screen . £49 to buy outright. a young kid came up to me, he was looking so young and asked me if he can help me. i asked if it takes a ordinary sim card… and he said i shall find out. and came back to say it takes a micro sim card. there is another size called a nano that is even smaller. so i thought oh well, that is that then, because i got a standard size one from talktalk which i am using on my nokia mobile.

then he said round the corner there is another carphone warehouse who could chop it to size for £2. that is news to me. u can chop it smaller? and sure enough, he showed me a picture of the standard size, with the actual chip pasted in the middle looking much smaller than the cardboard that fits the standard size slot. i suppose there must be some skill in cutting it , otherwise anyone could do it themselves right? but it is good to know that i could buy one of these smartphones without fearing my standard size sim card wont fit. or having to order a micro sim specially.

i suppose the nano one will have to be ordered specially . but i think only very expensive models like iphones , or the top brands will be using those. and if u got the money to spend £700 on them, u can afford to splash out on a nano sim, dont you think? but in the end i did not buy from them . even though he said u can pay just £19.99 and top up with £10 and it is yours. you dont have to use the sim, just use yours… and keep the other as a spare. but online i have seen one that you can buy outright for £39, and another which they say just top up with £20 and it is yours. and that one is 4 inch. i cant remember which online store i saw it, now. but i am sure it will pop up on my outlook express as an advert . haha.

the thing is i am not sure what a smartphone do. i mean apart from making like an ordinary phone, does it work like my chromebook? only smaller? and if that is the case i allready got my chromebook so why should i need it? are there other things that it will do that my mobile , and my chromebook separately does not? if so, what are those, and is it worthwhile to buy one?

questions, questions, and no one to answer them. maybe because the answer is oh just stop asking the questions allready, and just buy one and try it out. haha. maybe deep down i am just not convinced i want one. 

added 10.45am 1 dec 2016. cloudy 3.9C. read this about more than 1million accounts breached , via android devices. 57% were in asia, 9%in europe. it then can access google accounts like google drive, google docs, gmail. it makes me hesitant about getting a smartphone, because if i get one i want an android device. the malware has not infected europe that much …yet. it might be if i get one i should go for the latest product as it might have better security. well, the main reason i got chromebook was for the security, and i am not willing to have to bother again with potential security breaches that would by pass my chromebook security  if i get a smartphone. so i shall postpone getting a smartphone for now. it affects 

Android 4 (Jelly Bean, KitKat) and 5 (Lollipop). so another way of countering it is to get smartphones with android 6 marshmallow or higher.

 

 

this one is a porcelain horse that my friend covered with gold leaf to make for his father’s 90th birthday. it is to suggest he is still going strong like that horse, at the ripe old age of 90.

added. 10.49pm 7C dry . mustbe quite a eerie sight in central london tonight, seems there is a power cut affecting only soho and westend. certainly i was not affected. i am sure all those businesses there would have preferred they are not affected, as it is the busiest part of london.  it seems it started around 5pm, and lasted about 4hrs. the daily mail had some pictures showing the huge advertising board at piccadilly completely dark. and all the streets are dark. on a friday night too when people will be out and about on the start of their weekend revelry. the tube network was not affected, but the theatres have to cancel their performances. 

i cannot get skype on my chromebook

london 1.24pm 16.1C light rain, wednesday 2016

a friend have been trying to get me via skype from his hotmail acccount. he said he can see me online and tried to call me but i said i dont get the call and i cannot activate it to talk to him or to hear him. i thought it might be my fault, and that i have not activated my loudspeakers.  so i said i shall go to the curry’s (a high street electronic shop)  in tottenham court road where there is a google chrome chap there to help.

so i did this morning. the guy who works there says it is not available on chrome, and though i have read that  there is an android app that is available to download by chrome, it is only available on certain chromebooks like the acer. mine is a toshiba. so that is that. cant say i am put out by it as i dont really fancy chatting online.

there are lots of things that i dont mind not getting. perhaps that might explain why i like the chromebook, even though it dont seem to be able to do these things.

the journey there was not entirely wasted however, as the chap showed me how to store pictures in the google photos. i have been storing it on the cloud in google drive, which they gave me free for 2yrs when i bought the chromebook. it has expired now, but it seems i can still store pics there as i have not used up the storage capacity. but the google man i consulted at the store says i should add them to google photos as that is unlimited. ah well, the pics are not that important anyway. i use it to upload the pics from my camera so that i can put it in this wordpress blog. 

on the way back i saw a woman cross the road in front of the bus, and she was looking the other way, and the look of surprise and horror on her face when the bus driver hooted her and she turned to look and saw the bus right on top of her as it were … is priceless. i thought so that is the reason why  i keep reading pedestrians being hit by buses in the news. it is the proverbial saying isn’t it? that u can be hit by a bus… it is supposed to imply the event is unlikely… but with all these continentals used to driving on the wrong side of the road, ( i know… to them we are the ones driving on the wrong side hehe) they come here and forget and that is when they walk straight in front of the bus. in this case she stepped out far enough from the bus for the driver to see her and  avoid her. 

 

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the rather pretty seat design on the routemaster bus.