When will I learn to quit working on Dell computers? They use a weird version of Windows that requires even wierder “Hot Fixes”. I spent over 2 hours doing a reinstall today and had to leave it unfinished. Still, I’m the only one whose made any money this week. My expenses are also lower than anyone, to a large measure that is because I ride my bike.It was a relaxing day, which taxes my policy of reporting the highlights. I did order the Internet café software and was very impressed by the RegSoft system. While it still requires a tech-type mind to follow the rules, it is a very well-thought out and mature process. It pauses and asks for confirmation at logical places and fully explains the nature of the decision you are making. I can think of a dozen on-line operations that could learn a lot from RegSoft.
Wallace’s modem has not arrived yet. I can set up a Westel in five minutes flat but it has to be here. If all goes right, I’ll begin testing the remote system by Friday. My expensive webcams, all identical models, have all ceased working with a cryptic message I can’t decipher. This tells me something in Windows has changed, since nothing else has.
Speaking of low-grade rip-offs (like Windows), Office Depot now seems to sell optical disks only in $30 packages or more. I use them in $8 batches. So I walked out and took a healthy five-mile ride to Big Lots for what I needed. I told you it was a slow day. Millie-Belle has the right idea, curled up under the overhead and hasn’t moved in two hours.
I’ve noticed a Terabyte backup drive on the market for $200. Give me a moment to imagine 1,000,000,000,000 bytes. One billion kilobytes, or 125 million times larger than my first hard drive. Once these drives hit the 50 Megabyte size, I began to notice the proliferation of drive clutter. I developed an excellent tracking system on top of my filing system to prevent that, but every drive I ever owned soon filled with dormant files, or worse, files too large to fit on a single DVD. Such items tend to sit and do nothing.
I should price out a Blue Ray burner and the disks. That would make the rest of my equipment obsolete the same moment. Last night I was up past 2:30 A.M. because my current hard drive did not have enough free space to render one of the dog grooming videos. I had to get to the bottom of that and it was music files.
The audio software I use is Audacity. There are better products but that is the one I trust. Before Audacity, I rarely used more than a quarter of my drive space. However, like all files that contain information that can be edited, Audacity files are far larger than the finished product they produce. I had over 12 GB of this material, the largest single mass of files I’ve ever owned. (This refers to non-video productions. My video files are far larger but are managed and stored on a completely different basis.) Audacity’s primary shortcoming is that only Audacity can read them.
The frying pan. Allow me to recount part of the tale. Wallace and I don’t have, between us, a large frying pan. Mine is okay for one serving but only the handy microwave has allowed us to eat larger meals at the same time. Talk about a hilarious discussion, two bachelors planning this purchase; I wish I’d had a tape recorder. Nearly an hour later we had concluded “a few things”. The metal has to be thick aluminum with a copper bottom if available, the handle must be wood or non-conductive material, the cavity must be Teflon or ceramic that won’t stick. The size must be a standard, with a matching lid. It must be dishwasher safe and fit in a cupboard. It must not rock when set on the counter nor should liquid pool in the center. In all, it was like two chemists discussing a new dynamite recipe, yet in the end we’ll probably buy whatever is available at the local flea market. It’s the scenario you get when you put an ex-contractor and ex-programmer on the project.
For years I’ve walked past those aluminum turkey pans saying one day I will learn to use them. That day is tomorrow. Nobody’s ever accused me of being indecisive. The secondary purpose is the gal who is going to show us, not how to cook the thing because anybody can throw something in the oven, but the logistics they don’t tell you in the book. What do you do first? Middle? Last? How far in advance do you begin cooking what? Did I mention besides being a professional chef, Peggy is a published author? Did I entirely neglect to mention that? Well, slap me twice.
