Computers – Page 14 – My Photo Blog

When is a laptop not a laptop – 28 May 2016

Posted on May 28, 2016May 28, 2016 by Zogman

We drove into Stirling today for lunch at the Indian and not a lot else. The lunch was good and instead of nan bread we had chapatis. Scamp and I don’t like this new idea of chopping up a nan bread and serving it in a basket. I suspected that unscrupulous restaurants could be collecting uneaten nan pieces from previous diners baskets and using them to pad out new ones. Just a suspicion, but Scamp agreed that it was an unsavoury possibility, so we decided it would be better to get chapatis which are served whole.

On the way to the restaurant, I dallied in Stirling’s computer shop. I’d been looking for a laptop to take on holiday and I’d had a few bargains in the past from Computer Depot. Years ago, Ali, the owner, sold me a little MP3 music player that has a massive 64MB memory and also took extra memory in the form of SmartMedia cards. This probably means nothing to most people these days, but back at the turn of the century (that sounds such a long time ago, doesn’t it) they were very high tech and could be had in sizes up to 128MB. With a 128MB card in the player, you could have almost 3 hours of music at your disposal. I still have the Diamond Rio music player, and occasionally it will work. Anyway, there were no laptops that were in my price range. What they did have was one of the new (well, new to me) 2 in 1 tablets with a clip on keyboard.

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It only 32GB storage and 2GB RAM, but the processor was a quad 1.33Mhz with the ability to run at 1.83Mhz in burst mode. It had one USB 3 port and a micro USB 2 which, as well as being used as a charging port, could double as an import/outport device with an On The Go (OTG) cable. It was running 32bit Windows 10 which is a lot better than I thought, now that I know how to ‘refresh’ the install. The 32 GB wouldn’t be nearly enough storage for holiday photos, but if I used the USB port to connect an external hard drive it would be a neat solution to the problem. Almost as neat as the old HP netbook but much faster. Certainly worth considering. I didn’t dive in and buy the one he had on offer, mainly because I couldn’t find any reviews of it on the net, but I’m looking at alternative versions. In the words of Facebook, “A lot has changed in laptops since you last looked.”
</TechnoSpeak>

Today was a good day weather-wise and tomorrow is meant to be even better. We’ll see.

I’m walking in sunshine – 2 February 2016

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Zogman

For a time today, the sun shone. It was so good to walk in the sun. After all the dull, heavy feeling weather we’ve had this winter it was good to feel the sun on your face and to see shadows. It’s surprising just how much it means to see the effects of the sun on your surroundings. According to the weather fairies we are to have more sun tomorrow. Bring it on!

Went to the gym and had a play around on the machines. I’ve still got a few to investigate and a few that I can happily discount as ‘not for me’. Went for a swim afterwards, but the pool was busy so we spent most of our time in either the sauna or the jacuzzi. I don’t mind, it does you good to just get out these days.

After lunch I went for that walk in the sun and when I got back one of Scamp’s friends had brought her Nexus round for me to have a look at. The first thing I noticed was that the back of the device wasn’t seated properly, so I suspect somebody had been there before me. Second thing was that the machine was totally dead – not even the empty battery sign which usually means it’s been left on or something has shorted somewhere. I worked with it all night, but the whole thing is totally ‘bricked’. A very technical and appropriate term for knackered. I don’t see it working again any time soon. In an attempt to reset it like I did with my own Nexus, I had to use the PC. What a brick that is. Windoze 10 wouldn’t start – grey screen – no message – no pointer. Powered down, then back on – just the same. Left it charging for about 15 minutes and a message appeared “configuring updates 100% complete” So that’s what the bloody thing had been doing. It would have been good of Win10 to at least give me a clue what was going on in its tiny mind. After another 3 hard resets, it started working, though grudgingly. That’s why I don’t mind paying the hefty price for a Mac. It just works. Usually.

The morning after – 5 January 2016

Posted on January 5, 2016January 5, 2017 by Zogman

Last night after all the surgery, the diagnostics and the wee half I had to act as a nightcap, there was still one problem outstanding. One prog that wouldn’t settle down in the new ‘puter and it was iTunes. If there was one program I expected to screw up, it would have been iTunes. The worst program in Apple’s arsenal. So bad, I think it must have been written by Microsoft. iTunes simply refused to allow me in. It kept telling me I had insufficient privileges and I kept telling it I had. I slept on it.

This morning I was up at 7.00 still wondering how to fix iTunes or how to beat it into submission. This really is a dog of a prog. It needs put to sleep. I searched the internet for someone who had the same problem, but all the ‘solutions’ I read about were ridiculous (like format the disk and reinstall the system and all your apps from scratch – a typical Apple fanboy solution to everything on a Mac). Or else, I’d tried the ‘solutions’ already with no noticeable success. Then I hit on one really stupid ridiculous solution that everyone said actually worked. The page was full of ‘thank you’ messages. Here is what it said. Look for the empty ‘Users’ folder on the SSD and you’ll find it has no ‘read-write’ privileges set. Set them to read-write. It seemed a stupid thing to do. Why would you need to set a folder to read-write when it’s empty and hasn’t even been opened? I did it, and it worked. Just another of iTunes little foibles. I added my “thank you” to the long list.

It was a really, really dull and dismal day today, so after my last problem solving escapade I needed to unwind, but a walk through St Mo’s was out of the question. Scamp and I decided to go to the gym and then have a swim. The rest of Cumbernauld had decided the same thing. The New Year Resolutions (NYR) were there in force. At one point, all the training bikes were taken. I’ve never seen it so busy. That said, we still managed to get some exercise in and also got a swim.

Went to Tesco of the way home and posted Hazel’s calendar. Drove home through the rain.

Today’s photo was taken at the back door. Plants flowering in January.

Tomorrow will be better. We’re hoping to go looking for a shredder if we can hire a boat. We’ve burned out the last one. De-junking, another NYR.

The Shortest Day – 22 December 2015

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Zogman

“Maybe we spend too much time looking at glowing screens.” I heard this while I was listening to a podcast coming back from another walk to Dumbreck Marshes. I couldn’t agree more. We all spend far too much time in this virtual reality we live so much of our lives in.

Before my Damascene revelation today, we went to Stirling, to shop and stock up for Christmas at Waitrose. It was just in case the snow comes in great drifts in the next few days and we can’t struggle our way across the tundra to Condorrat to buy the last loaf of bread in the bakers. Yes, I know the temperature is almost in double figures today, but you never know, do you?

On the way back we stopped at Halfords to get the headlight bulb replaced in my car. I could have done it myself, but I couldn’t remember the sequence for removing the clips and bolts, well, that’s my excuse.

After we got back, I went out to have my religious conversion and Scamp went to do more shopping, this time in Glasgow. When I got back, I stared at these ‘glowing screens’ again to get the photos downloaded and processed and then get this blog written. We need the glowing screens, but I dare say we could use them a little less.

A wasted day – 17 December 2015

Posted on December 17, 2015December 17, 2015 by Zogman

Have you ever had one of those days where you have everything planned out – then one thing after another screws up? That was today.

It really started last night when my niece phoned up at 9.00pm to say that she had broken the door handle into her kitchen and would I go up and sort it out. Well, as you may remember, yesterday was an ‘Auld Guys’ day in the HorseShoe Bar, so I was in no fit state to drive, thankfully Scamp did the honours and guided us up to our niece’s house. Just like she had said, the handle was broken off at the shaft, so I took the whole lock assembly off and said I’d get her a new one today and fit it for her. As she was going out in the afternoon, she asked if I’d get it done in the morning. I’d already planned to go to the hospital to get my ankle x-rayed in the morning, meet Fred for coffee at noon and maybe, just maybe get some photos taken in the afternoon. Change of plan. Up and out for 9.30am and off to B&Q to get the replacement handle. Replacing the handle was no problem as all the hard work had been done when I fitted the original. That left me just enough time to get back home and dump my tool bag before going up to meet Fred.

We had our usual talk about painting, sketching and setting the world to rights over a cup or two of Java, or as near as you can get to Java in Costa. I was really impressed with some of his Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt copies. Nudes of course, what else!

After that it was over to Airdrie to search the hospital carpark for that elusive space that isn’t too tight, a disabled space, or taken up by some builders rubble. Found one. Right at the back of the carpark. Almost in Coatbridge! Found my way to X-Ray department, handed in my card, confirmed my details and went to wait. After 45minutes had gone by and there was no sign of anyone coming to take foties of my ankle, I went to check at reception. A different lady asked my name and DOB, then said they had no record of me. Had I checked in at reception? I told her I had and that I had handed in my doctor’s referral. Her reply was the noncommital reply most receptionists use when staring at a computer screen: “I don’t know what happened there.” Neither did I, but just after I returned to my seat, my name was called and the foties were took. I was told to wait while they ‘processed’ them. I think this is the terminology for the mysterious process of downloading the images to the computer. After waiting for about 15minutes for the ‘processing’, another nurse came through to say there was a slight technical hitch. What? Another one? This time the computer wouldn’t accept my details. Was it me, I began to wonder? Am I not really here? Maybe I should be at a completely different hospital in a parallel universe. Have I gone through a black hole? No, I hadn’t gone through Coatbridge, just parked near it. However, all was resolved in the end by the IT technician’s secret procedure of switching it off, counting to ten and switching it back on again, then typing the details in by hand. I was free to go, and even better, it looks like there are no bones broken or chipped in my ankle. Just ligament damage. Take paracetamol.

By the time I got out the light had gone and it was back to the twilight world we inhabit from November until February, except when it’s totally dark.

Now tomorrow I plan to ………….. Nah. Best not go there yet.

Workflow Problems

Posted on October 5, 2015 by Zogman

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I always shoot in Raw these days. I’ve been shooting in this format for nigh on twelve years. I gives real flexibility for post processing, but as a backup, I add a medium quality JPEG. It’s useful for viewing on a tablet when I’ve not got the laptop with me. When I download my pics I use Hazel to strip the JPEG files out to my NAS storage drive so they don’t clog up the Mac’s HD. Hazel also files the images for me by date in a folder on the NAS. Recently this has become cluttered and I want to sort them more methodically so that they are filed by month in a folder and then by date within that folder. I started what should have been a simple rearrangement this morning. It’s still doing it now at 11.55pm!! I thought the NAS drive was supposed to speed up my workflow, but it looks like that’s not the case.

It rained today. First rain we’ve had in weeks and it seems as if it’s going to stay for a few more days. Oh well, the farmers have their hay cut and the the gardens need the rain. We’ve had a pretty dry September and for the first few days of October it’s been better than average. Still hoping for more late sun this month. We can but hope.

Better pleased with today’s monochrome landscape. Pen and wash.

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