Computer Fun with More Memory!

My CPU was ready for me to pick up Monday night. It now has 384 MB RAM instead of the original 128 MB RAM. It used to take 4 minutes to start up; now it takes less than 2 minutes. Why my Outlook Express still takes 15 seconds to initialize when I open it, I don't know. I have noticed that these memory stalls I used to have when I opened programs are virtually non-existant now. Even my CD burner doesn't have that annoying "stall delay" that would frequently occur while a program is loading and/or running.

I think I'm going to try my videobus program again and make some photos from my various home videos to update the site's photo album with.. Who knows? I might even put up a link for a quickie video of me doing my infamous "eye trick."

My Sims' expansion packs came in yesterday: Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, and Vacation. So far, I have loaded Livin' Large and Hot Date. I want to get used to them first before I install the other two. To be honest, I would have been happy with just Livin' Large, but I couldn't beat the price; I got all 4 of them for the price of 2. I will be creating a Sims page featuring wallpaper and floors of my own creation for Sim fans to download. I'll also list some observations I have made about the game as to how some Sims seem to interact with each other. In reference to my recently increased memory capacity, the more objects you have loaded in your gamedata folder, the longer it takes the game to initially load ... memory size is irrelevant at this point. I have so many objects, skins, wallpaper, and floors downloaded from various fan sites that it takes a looooooong time to start up. It's worth it, though. I'm addicted to the game.

I do have a rant about the Sims' CDs: I cannot make copies. This bothers me because I like to make one set of copies to use while I archive the originals someplace safe. Then, if the copy gets damaged, I can take the original and make me another one to use. I'm very protective of my software and music CDs ... It doesn't take much to scratch and ruin them. There are legitimate uses for CD burners: backing up data on your hard drive, making copies of your own CDs to use (thereby protecting the originals from damage from use and/or abuse), and taking your favorite songs from your various CD collection and burning them onto one or two CDs for work or car trips. I understand that piracy is an issue, but I don't appreciate these companies trying to restrict my ability to make a copy of something I own for my own use.