laurierobey

Hello internet peeps,

I've got my computer back, thanks to our network admin at work installing Windows 7 onto my new hard drive and transferring my files over. However, it seems that whatever killed my hard drive also killed my little USB wifi adapter.

I bought a Netgear adapter at Best Buy last night, but was unsuccessful in connecting it to our network. We tried it on John's computer, and it didn't work there either, but his adapter worked on my computer. So it's definitely the fault of Netgear's adapter. So it's going back to Best Buy tonight, because their customer support is no good.

My question for you all is, should I replace it with a Cisco/Linksys adapter, or Belkin? Is either one any better than the other? I care about ease of setup, reliability, speed, and customer support.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1iZDEk4qBQ

The link above goes to an HP Slate preview.

As tablets get more advanced, I'm trying to think of what I would need a desktop for. Webcam? Included. Headphone jack? Included. Data input ports? Included. About the only thing my desktop has that this doesn't is a CD drive. Time to start converting all our DVDs and CDs!

Of course, it is very "cloud dependent." They've still got a ways to go, but by the time this desktop computer dies, I might not need to buy another one, just a tablet. Wouldn't that be sweet?

A few years ago, the_gneech bought me for Christmas a VHS/DVD player/burner so I could transfer our VHS tapes to DVD. Well, it seems not to function very well anymore.

Couple with this the fact that TV signals are switching to digital in February, I've been doing some research (uh-oh).

I'm trying to find out if it's possible and how much it would cost to rig my computer as a DVR (and possibly hook up the VHS for transferring), HDTV receiver, and how much it would cost to do it. I've got a 22" widescreen monitor that is HD signal capable. I've seen many options. What got me thinking about all this is I really don't want to go out and spend 4 digits on a TV that's not even going to last as long as our still-functional analog set. And the fact that I've already got a DVD burner on the computer and a decent-sized monitor capable of processing digital signals...kinda makes me question why I would want to.

Any thoughts?