she's given us the old heave-ho

[muladhara]

It's currently very windy outside, and Do Not Want. I guess at least it's not raining as well, but ugh.

~

Anyway, in other news, I bought a new computer and external HD (4Tb)! I've been meaning to for some time, and I could afford a cheap one, so that's what I did!

I got a Dell Inspiron, which is a make I've had before (my first ever computer was Dell, so I know they're good/reliable). It's not the best Dell ever, but it will suffice for how/what I want to use it for.

It came with Windows 11, and I'm surprised to report that, at the moment, I don't hate it! It reminds me more of classic Windows than whatever the nonsense that was 8 did (screensavers are available, and that just threw me right back to 2002, y'all. Honestly surprised the maze and pipes ones aren't in there).

I have downloaded most of the things I think I will need thus far (I don't use my computer very much these days, except to do a bit of internet/image edit). I am about to download the Steam app, because eventually I want to buy Dorfromantik and probably Loop Hero (thanks, Johnny Chiodini!) and I am aware this is a terrible and dangerous thing and also they have a Lunar New Sale on right now oh my frogs.

But anyway, my question is this! What other things (not games) are good to download? I have a video editor/image editor/Libre Office/Firefox/Discord/VLC. What are your recs for antivirus programs? What are good add-ons for Firefox? I have an ad blocker and spell checker, and IDK what else I might need, since it's some time since I've done a fresh install like this (I haven't used Windows in EIGHT YEARS OMG. It will be so nice to see what I'm scanning as I'm scanning it, though).

I don't regret using Linux, but there were definitely a bunch of things I couldn't/didn't do because the means weren't available to me, or were too complicated for me to get my head around. It's great for some things, but not so much for others (imo). I am kind of sorry to see it go, but also I'd like to be able to know what I'm doing if someone asks me for help with their computer, heh.

~

Thanks to that bullet journalling video I linked the other day, I got out my Stabilo highlighters, and colour coded the days in my planner and...it's like a magic trick. Suddenly, everything stands out where it had all kind of blurred together before.

But because I only had six highlighters, and there are seven days in a week, I decided I needed more, so I went and bought six more, oops? Although now I have 12/14 of the current pastel range so yay? And I'll use them for other things besides highlighting, as that's the thing I use them for the least.

I also rearranged how the journal's laid out, as my current way wasn't cutting it, and it's nice to have a space to write any notes if I need to at the bottom right. Not that I write notes all that often, but it's nice to have the option?

I also sorted out all my stickers, in the hopes I will use them more. A lot of the videos about journalling/collaging I've been watching use stickers quite a lot, and ofc I want some of them (wouldn't be addicted to stationery if I didn't!), but I thought I should use up some of the ones I have. I thought it would be an absolute mission since there's a lot of stickers, but it only took around an hour to sort everything out into broad categories, so that wasn't so bad at all.

~

And that's everything I have for now! I'm still playing FXIII, but I might make a separate entry about that at a later date!

Comments

[althea_valara]

Dell Inspirons are what my mom has had. Both her last computer and her new one are both Inspirons, and we've been happy with them. I kinda wish I had just splurged and bought a Dell laptop when I bought my computer, but when I bought mine I was still thinking "if I keep costs down, I can buy a PS5 as well". But then I OOPS! spent all my money, woe.

I use Vivaldi browser rather than Firefox, as someone in my circle recommended it to me, and I've been happy with it. I'd be interested to hear any recommendations you get for anti-virus software, as right now I don't use anything other than Windows Defender on my own computer, oops. We have used Malware Bytes on mom's computer though! Just the free version - which seems adequate because every time there's a major update to the software, they offer another free trial for it, hah. Think I'll go download it for myself, too.

I can't think of anything else you might need. One of my first acts on buying my computer was to also download Steam, and I have bought two games for it: Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster, as I really like that game but my favorite version of it (the GBA version) doesn't save any longer, and a game called ChessLocke which I bought because it was made my a Twitter friend of mine and I was excited that I could support him in a small way! I still need to play the game, though; I am really bad about not playing anything other than FFXIV and FFBE, oops.

[althea_valara]

Oh, one piece of software I use that you haven't mentioned: Notepad++ which I use when I want to make a document that doesn't need a more fancy word processor. I keep my Nerdopolis team notes in a text file in it, and also do things like draft DW posts sometimes in it (which can be useful rather than a word processor because word processors like to use curly quotes which DW doesn't always like.) You may not need something like this, but I thought I'd mention it just in case. If you do download it, you probably will want to (a) turn on word wrap, (b) turn OFF auto completion of words (which can be found in Settings->Preferences->Auto Completion.)

[honigfrosch]

Some Firefox addons I find useful:

- Privacy/safer surfing: NoScript, ClearURLs (removes tracking elements from URLs), HTTPs Everywhere, Cookiebro, Ghostery & Privacy Badger as additional adblock/tracking-blocker/cookie-manager

- Convenience: for feeds I use Feedbro, for tab management & session saving it's Tab Session Manager

[muladhara]

I've wanted a Dell since my first one, but this is the first time a laptop's been within my price range.

I'm not tied to using Firefox, so I have also downloaded Vivaldi to give it a try. I was using Opera on Linux, so it's not like I need to transplant bookmarks or anything.

I saw Malware Bytes was still around! I remember it being very good when I last used Windows. A techy friend of mine says Windows Defender is all right these days, so technically we should be fine, but they also said they use Bitdefender, which is a paid program :(

I was just telling a volunteer at work about the pixel remasters! I might get one or two of them to play, but not sure right now. I am awful at playing new games! As you may or may not be able to tell by my comments to Rina about playing things that aren't Final Fantasy...

[muladhara]

I used to write DW posts out in Notepad sometimes, so thank you for this!

[muladhara]

Oooh my goodness, thank you!

[forests_of_fire]

Firefox addons I use:

NoScript - absolutely mandatory, though it can get annoying whitelisting the sites that are trustworthy when you're doing a new install
AdBlock Plus
Leechblock - super handy if you're like me and can waste whole days doomscrolling)
Ghostery - blocks trackers and other privacy stuff
Group Speed Dial - I basically use this as an index of all the websites I go to on a regular basis.

[muladhara]

Aw, excellent, thank you!

[lassarina]

I definitely covered my bullet journal in stickers today myself. It's more cluttered than I usually like it but it's bright and cheerful for the Dark Months, so there's that.

I use Sophos anti-virus; its important features are that it's free for personal use (they make their money on enterprise subscriptions), incredibly lightweight, and (for me) works on Mac.

[muladhara]

I went back and stuck them where there were empty days, and it definitely made me feel happier :D

Oh, I shall check that out!