Adding RAM to Acer Aspire One D250 Netbook

The new Acer Aspire One D250 is upgradable to 2gbs of ram, but it has only one (nice, easy access!) memory slot. Read on to hear how I upgraded my ram!

Some readers may remember when we bought our first Acer laptops several years ago. Those laptops ran great, and are still running superlatively well, considering their age. However, they are rather "chunky monkey"  now, and a bit slow, in comparison to all the new laptops available.

Last week, on October 22nd, 2009, Windows 7 was officially released. Brian had been using Windows 7 Beta and various test releases, helping find and sort out the bugs, and he was loving it. So, this was a good time for us to upgrade a bit. I purchased a very small Acer Aspire One D250 netbook that had Windows 7 Starter edition installed (They had only one in stock, but Brian will be upgrading soon, too).
Sleek New Aspire One"

With just a 10.1 inch screen, it is super small,and  super portable.

However, it ships with just 1 GB of RAM memory, but the pc was upgradable to two gigs.  So while at the shop, I asked for extra ram that I would add myself, since the shop would have charged extra to install it.

Anyway - we got the box home, and was very happy with my purchase as I extracted the little machine from its box.  It booted up really quickly, and the OS walked me through the initial set up for preferences.

Brian and I were both excited as I made a few customizations: downloading and installing Fire Fox since I loathe Internet Explorer, and removing the pre-packaged McAfee Antivirus and installing AVG Free, for example. Then I was pretty much good to go.

Time to upgrade my RAM. Between the two of us, we scoured the internet looking for where the RAM was located in my particular laptop. We found lots of tutorials for the Acer Aspire One series, all of which indicated that we had to unscrew eight screws in the back, remove the keyboard, carefully remove wires, etc..

I was not convinced, and we held off on doing all this. Finally, I found one little bit of information after one and a half hours of scouring. It seems that there is only one memory slot, not two. And to upgrade the ram, it meant that I had to take out the 1gb ram and insert a 2gb ram. Sure enough, I checked the ram I'd purchased, and it was 2 gigs, not one.

And, the slot for the ram was very conveniently located on the back of the pc, requiring just the removal of one screw.

And requiring that I break the seal that said, "Warrant null and void if this seal is broken".

Discounting the 1.5 hours spent researching, it only took about three minutes to upgrade my RAM!

So, as I mentioned, it's running Windows 7 Starter, in Japanese. The Nihongo I can live with - it's about time I had an all-Japanese OS. But, the Starter edition does not even let the user change the desktop image. I will be stuck with a green Windows window image until some genius devises a program or power toy to help me change it!

Tebasaki Gyoza and other musings

It's been a busy but otherwise quiet week and weekend. Yesterday I took a day trip to Tokyo, Brian worked on his bike. Today we lounged around a bit. Brian is looking at getting Windows7 up and running on his pc, I am trying to catch up on my own computer and other projects.

Even when our lives are quiet and we are not venturing out of our own small town, we still do go shopping at a local farmers' market or go out for dinner at local izakayas.

Last week we tried a small izakaya, very nearby, but that we'd somehow continually overlooked. The name is either michi or do - I didn't ask which pronunciation was preferred - but here is the kanji: 道, which means "Road" or "Way".

It was a small place and had quite a few customers, all of whom were hungry smokers. And so was the mama-san (proprietress)! However, her high-school aged daughter neither drank nor smoked because, she explained while schlepping beer, that she was underage.

Not long after we took a seat at the bar, the older couple (seen in the photo) engaged us in conversation. They apparently live in the building across from us and even knew what kind of car Brian drove.

The food was good, though maybe this tebasaki gyoza (chiking wings stuffed with 'gyoza', a kind of Chinese dumpling, was a bit underdone for our taste).

Overall, this izakaya has a casual, laid-back atmosphere with friendly people; basically - this is my kind of place!

Deciding to try for a slightly healthier dinner, tonight I decided to cook some Thai shrimp curry while Brian's making a spicy Thai salad. However, we'll surely find our way to The Way again.

Sunday Biking in Hakone

On Sunday, we took our motorcycles out for a short but pleasant ride to Hakone, where we stopped for an onsen (bath) and a late lunch before winding our way home along the Hakone Skyline.

Dusk comes early these days, and despite the chilly air, we stopped to get a shot of the bikes with Ashinoko in the background.

Also, I recently bought a rack and replaced my pillion seat with the (much cooler) rack.

Kotatsu Time?

I might be getting an early start, but last night's chilly temperature encouraged me to get my kotatsu set up for the colder weather. Not that I needed much encouragement - I love my kotatsu!

Once everything was set up, I opened all my doors and windows, letting in the cool evening air, while I relaxed and drank green tea, legs tucked snugly under the kotatsu table.

An Elegant Evening

Last night I and two of my colleagues zipped off to Tokyo to enjoy a very special evening at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador, Jonathan Fried. We attended as guests of our Japanese boss, who, I think, wanted to bring a bit of a Canadian influence;-)

I'd never met the Ambassador, and naturally have never been in his residence, so last night was doubly impressive: the man is gregarious and gracious, and his home is simply gorgeous with a large drawing room and a sprawling lawn.

The evening proved very entertaining and enjoyable, as we mingled with other guests, ate raw oysters (from P.E.I.) and drank champagne. Time flew by, and before we realized it, we had to run to catch the bullet train home again!

I'm only sorry that I didn't snap any photos!

Riding Without Maps

We left at about 8:30 yesterday morning and got home before 3 p.m. today - so really, we didn't go too far or ride too hard, but it was a great getaway and a chance to explore an area we'd never before ventured. Because we were familiar with the road, and sort of knew where we were going, we didn't even pack any maps, which made the return a bit more fun. And, extra bonus - we even found a here-to-fore unknown road that is our ticket to a glorious ride right to Yamanakako!

Going to Nanasawa onsen, we took the 246, which is a Prefectural Highway, but is not too heavily trafficked once beyond Gotemba. We made a pitstop ot McDonald's and a motorbike shop, then continued our way to the Nanasawa onsen area.

We arrived a bit early, and did some touring around the area, which had a lot of bear warning signs posted. Despite the promises, however, we didn't see a single bear.

We stayed at the Fukumatsu Ryokan, which had seen better days. The tatami in the rooms was old, the wallpaper was yellowed with age and peeling away from the wall, and the chandeliers in the stairwells, once perhaps glamorous, were mainly burned out and featured moth carcasses inside.

However, the location in the quiet town, the hospitality of the owners, and gorgeous meals, and the absolutely perfect outdoor wooden bath made up for it.

Dinner was an elaborate spread that included fresh fried fish, inoshishi nabe (wild boar 'soup'), and, most interesting of all, shika sashi - raw deer. The deer meat was actually frozen, and honestly tasted better than when cooked - we were able to compare because Brian, against all polite custom, sneaked the deer meat into the boiling soup to cook it!

Coming home was even better riding. Our bikes were still in the zone, and as we got an early start and were in no hurry, we just cruised around rather aimlessly, checking out one scenic place and another, planning to turn back and retrace our route along the busy 246, until we saw a sign pointing the way to Yamanakako, an area we are quite familiar with. So, after cheating a little by checking a book of maps at a nearby convenience store, we decided to chance this unplanned route.

We then also found a whole new (to us) road back home from the lake, which was windy and scenic, and had none of the traffic of our usual Yamanaka route, and offered a majestic view of the lake to boot...

And, as often happens when venturing out and about, we met a few fellow motorcyclists, a couple of older gentlemen, one of whom offered to get a shot of us together...

Not far from home, we decided to stop for a bit of a 'refresca' at our very favourite place, the Gotemba Kogen Beer Hall:

And finally - I made a little map or our route:
View Motorbike loop - Susono-Nanasawa-Yamanakako-Susono in a larger map

Long Weekend

I know, it seems every time I post, we've got a holiday.

This Monday is also a National Holiday, Taiiku no Hi - Sports Day. I think it's pretty awesome to have a national holiday just to celebrate fitness - and yesterday (Saturday) Brian and I did our part by going for a 13km run as part of our race training.

Also yesterday, we both went out for motorbike rides: I took my Estrella to the Outlet Mall, then swung by the Kogen for a coke (as seen in the previous photo). We wanted to use Saturday as a relax-day, and a warm-up day for me to remember how to ride my motorbike!

Today we head out for a real ride together. We are going to branch out a bit, and try somewhere new (so, not Izu this time!). Brian suggested a place called Nanazawa in Kanagawa prefecture, so that's where we're headed today. We're going to stay over night and we're going to try to study some nihongo (Japanese) for the upcoming test!

And just because I've got photos taken with my Nikon S640...

Another New Camera - Nikon S640

While everybody knows that Brian and I are Nikon consumers when it comes to our DSLRs, for our small digital cameras we've been using Lumix for the last few years. I bought a used Lumix LZ1 just over a year ago and had not been at all happy with the image quality. When a friend was leaving Japan, she gave me her old Sony Cybershot - and I really liked it! Just point and shoot, but clear, color-rich images and camera portability made it a great little camera. However, that camera had already seen better days, had been left out on the beach in the rain, been dropped, etc. and I guess the final straw was our last beach visit, where, I think, some some got into the lens motor. Anyway, the camera is no longer functional.

I had received some gift certificates from my internet provided for upgrading to high-speed fibre optic, and had been saving them for something like a new camera! So, a couple of days ago I went to my local camera shop, ready to buy the new Sony Cybershot, but I ended up coming away with a Nikon Coolpix S640 - the newest of the Coolpix lineup. I got a 9,000 yen discount (though I'm not sure why), and a really cool read camera.

I've been shooting with it for a couple of days, and I think, so far I'm really really happy with the image quality, as well as the ease-of-use of the camera.

Here's one sample image, not tweaked in Photoshop at all:

After the Typhoon...

We anxiously (eagerly??) watched the typhoon's progress on TV last night, anticipating the need to be out driving people to work in case of train failure! The trains in Japan are notoriously punctual - hence, even I tend to make appointments like: "Well, I guess I can meet you at about 9:34 a.m."

However, in Susono, we live on the Gotemba line, which only runs twice an hour in the best of times, and which is sensitive to high winds and heavy rains and frequently is late or stops running in typhoons, so, considering the anticipated severity of this one, we were ready!

And - as fate would have it - we had no need to be really concerned. The typhoon hit hard during the night, and rattling windows woke us up sporadically, but we essentially were lulled to sleep by the quiet storm. In the morning, the vestiges of the typhoon still swirled around, but not severely so, and the trains were mostly on time. I did have to drive to work today, but, because everyone else in Susono had likely been given directives not to go to work in the morning, the typical traffic mess was non-existent, and I even made record time!

Part of the beauty of typhoons is the 'after-math', which, for me included a mostly clear sky with a cloud-topped Mt. Fuji from our balcony:

Battening Down the Hatches

We've had about two days of steady rain, as two typhoons swirl around in the Pacific. One of those typhoons is slated to hit us, fairly directly, on Thursday (GMT +9).

For me, I am rather looking forward to the storm. The fierce winds and rain will provide a bit of release to the pent-up tension of simply waiting under heavy cloud and half-hearted rain.

Here's a snapshot of our very own typhoon and its progress:

Update on the typhoon - apparently, it is going to be a big one! Here's a story from Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091007/wl_nm/us_japan_typhoon

Bike Photos from Motosuko

I'm finally posting a few photos from last week, when Brian and I went out riding with a friend. We leisurely made our way to Motosuko (one of the beautiful Fuji Five Lakes), before cruising through the Aoki-ga-Hara forest.

[caption id="attachment_1237" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Yamaha Dragstar, Honda VRX and Kawasaki Estrella"][/caption]