Thanks to a nice tax refund, I had sufficient funds to take care of the repair of my messed up computer and buy a Toshiba Satellite laptop.
For those who’ve chastened me for my sloppy file management, I did buy a gizmo — can’t recall the name — with the capacity to save three terabytes of data. I’ll also save some stuff on my computers, but I promise to be better about backups.
I may get my computer back by Saturday or next Monday. I don’t currently have access to my g-mail account, and I get scary messages when I try to download it. I’ve had my fill of scary messages this week. Anyway, if you comment on anything, I can’t say when I’ll get around to responding because of this, but I will get back to everyone eventually!
I don’t see a photo processing feature on this laptop — it may be there, hidden in the confusion of a new operating system (WINDOWS 8) that so far leaves me a bit in the dark and out in the cold. Till I get the HP back, then, I’ll recyle my kitty photos on file in WordPress. I mean, you don’t come here for my scintillating prose!
Hi there!!!…. Good to know that your computer is getting fixed… I bet it will fly soon!… Have a great week! best wishes. Aquileana 😀
It’s good to have the PC and the laptop back,. but they both are virtually unusable as is. Lots of re-loading of programs and piddle work. Fortunately, important files weren’t lost, and I have a new gizmo to store them on off computer.
I don’t want to add to the scary messages you get but glad you get your computer back soon!
I hope to be smarter about how I use my computer and laptop this time around. For one thing, I’m going to make sure I have back up files instead of just hope I have files backed up.
I would be interested in the names of your paternal grandmother’s parents and if she had siblings. I have a Susanna as a sibling, to my ggf Eli, around Alcorn Co., MS.
Jim, remind me later in case I forget to look into this. Right now, I’m buried in this computer mess. I’m not entirely sure I have that information, but it may be on the Ancestry.com site in some of the work relatives (presumably cousins) of mine have done. I think you can access George Camme Thomas and Mary Townley Thomas (my paternal grandparents) on that sight, and that may lead you to your answer. Let me know.
Hope you and the boys are doing ok and you are all three missed.
We had a great week! I had lots of free time, so the boys and I played lots of wand toy games off and on all day every day.
I use Picasso’s for General photo storage and editing and it is free download
Picasa
I bought a My Book premium storage device thayt offers complete backup and security. It is a three terabyte unit, and, I hope, is as good and useful as the IT guy painted it to be. I hope to store all files on it, and treat the computer and laptop as secondary sites to save things. No matter what I do, though, I recognize the plan will have limitations I learn the hard way some day. UGH!
I didn’t realize it could be used for editing, too. I should give it a look.
No no, we like to hear your chat as well as drool over kitty pics!!
That makes me feel good! LOL! I hope you enjoyed my kitty extravaganza today, with lots of photos to make up for the week of none.
So happy you got a new laptop and also money to get your desktop fixed, and also a nice storage device.
Love this photo of one of the boys-not sure if this is Andy or Dougy.
That’s Dougy. Yeah, it’s nice to have things back, but it will take some time and effort to get things working the way that makes sense again! (I hate computers when they go bad! Also, if legislators made it a capital offense to create and place computer viruses and other nuisances on other peoples’ computers, I’d gladly volunteer to pull the trigger on the gun used to bring them to justice. I think IO am half serious saying that!
I think hackers and people who leave viruses on web sites of repel to download needed to be jailed also.
All we have in life is time, and those sorts of people steal time from us. For that reason, the best way to deal with them is to steal time back from them, preferably in a high security (no computers!) prison cell till they rot to death. I’d let them see the sun for two minutes on their birthdays.
This is what happened to me a few months ago. My ole’ Desktop system died, so I had to go looking for a new system. I finially decided on this HP Envy Laptop that runs Windows 8.1. It was a heck of a change from the last one. Win 8.1 was very confusing for me. It took me a number of times to start getting the hang of it. Now, after months of getting to know it, I’m still learning.
The System came with a photo editing program called Cyberlink PhotoDirector. It’s pretty good. Maybe you have it. However, I don’t use it a whole lot. I use Paint Shop Pro X7 which is much better. Good Luck ~ Les
Thanks, Les! I “babysit” the local military museum on Wednesday afternoons, and I thought I’d take the laptop with me and piddle around on it to see what’s on it (besides stupid games and other crap I never will use). I find the format needlessly busy and tedious to use at this point, but I know I am a slow adapter. At some point I will have an epiphany, think, “How did I ever work without this OS?”, and life will be sweet! LOL!
Look I’ve been plagued by people’s opinions about my blog and the way my pictures look since day one ,you can’t get there till you arrive,it’s not about the journey it’s whether you have arrive
Good luck keep those cards and letters coming
How true! I haven’t had any complaints about mine, other than people wish I’d do more of this or that, which I true to do since I hope people come around because they get something of value – maybe just a chuckle or two! – from what I post..
Note: Windows Photo Gallery might already be installed on your computer. To find out, click the Start button Picture of the Start button, type photo gallery in the search box, and see if it appears in the list of results.
Perfect your photos
Photo Gallery includes powerful and easy-to-use editing tools that you can use to work on dozens of photos simultaneously. Correct imperfections, adjust color and exposure, fix red eye, and even “fuse” two or more photos (such as different versions of a group shot) into one. And with the auto-editing features, Photo Gallery can even improve the look of your photos for you
I’m pretty sure you are right — seems I saw it while flipping through, and it probably is as sophisticated as I need, maybe more. When I piddle on my laptop tomorrow, I’ll definitely look for it!
I use it to reduce my photos from 4000+ pixels as they come out of my camera to my usual 300-350 pixels which I learned a long time ago is ideal for blogging and for saving storage space on my blog’s space allotment. Of course I can buy more space if I need it from wordpress.com —- way more than I will ever need because of my tendency to reduce the size of my photos. Reducing them in size also speeds up their loading time and loading time goes a long way toward giving us a better score on the search engines.
Lots of truth there, John. Mine still load in decent time (as far as I know), but I need to be more conservative in my use of pixels! (You may get me turned around on this yet!)
Try editing on of your pictures by right clicking on it and choosing “Edit” and then reduce it to 350 pixels and see what happens. You might be surprised. If you do not like the result you can always re-edit it back to its original size.
I’ll give it a try. Since I do make other use of many photos where high resolution is desirable, I’d make a copy to do this on first, though. I’ll try to remember to try this.
I wanted to send this along in case you might be interested —–
http://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-Hacking
Thanks! One can never have too much knowledge of these things, John! I appreciate all the links and advice you’;ve given!
If I can be of help let me know.
Along with your anti-virus security suite (I use Microsoft Security Essentials) you might want to consider making use of an “add-on” extension called “Adblock Plus” which also helps eliminate problems associated with people tracking and hacking you.
I’m armed to the gills now. I’d like to think I’ll never have issues in future, but I have little confidence in any of these programs.
The secret is partially in keeping your computer cleaned with frequent visits to your defragmenter and your file cleaner — also it is probably a good idea to uninstall all the superfluous programs that you will never use that the manufacturer included in your new machine — all those extra programs tend to slow the computer down. — too you should check out the browser you are using and know that Opera and Chrome are probably the fastest and most reliable of the field. (My opinion). (Firefox is also good but not my first choice.) — Keeping the old unused programs at bay and keeping the files cleaned out with your disc cleaning program is probably very wise.
I use Google Chrome and have since they introduced it. It has extra security on it, which I like. I haven’t deleted the extraneous programs, but that’s a good thought, too. I never play the games and there are others I can easily do without.
Just be sure not to delete or uninstall any program that has Microsoft’s name attached to it. —- If you are going to clean extraneous programs out maybe you should consult with the dealer where you bought the machine before proceeding. My HP 600 touch smart is cleaned to bare bones and lightning fast and I love it.
Yes, I defininitely left those alone! It turned out there were more questions about what should be deleted and saved than I imagined, and your suggestion makes sense, though it would require taking my machine back to the shop a hour’s drive away to get the work done. In the meantime, I have sufficient speed just by having a couple of cleaned up machines — till I manage to do something stupid with them again! (Whatever that might be.)
It might be helpful against hackers and viruses if you were to go to the start button on your computer and find a little window to type in ( at the bottom) and type in “Windows Update” and then go to the “Windows Update” program and select “Automatic Updating” as an option. Computers that do not get updated on a regular basis are more subject to being hacked than ones that are.
My computer is set for automatic updating of Windows and my security. I do a scan after each use, but I did that before everything went to hell, too.
You might want to go to that “Start Button” place I have been talking about and type into the little window the word, “Firewall” and then when the choices pop up click on the one that says, “Security Status” and make sure your firewall is turned on. If things are ideal you should get a message that says, “Action Center Reports No Issues With Your Computer.”
My security report says all is well – no issues. Makes me feel uncomfortable…!
You will be able to recognize “Issues” if they occur because your unit will start slowing down considerably and you might find yourself being re-directed a lot — or you might be led to pages that you never intended to go — avoid opening attachments on any email from sources you do not recognize — and if you take photos off the Internet be sure and have your security suite scan them for viruses before you save them to your files.
All good advice! I am pretty good about doing these things.
Then the spectre of virus should not arise again for you.
I pick them up some place, so I’m doing something wrong some times. I think one area where I have erred in past is downloading extra security programs, which put them in competition with each other.
Go to a website called “Pingdom Tools” and enter your website http and then hit the button that makes it scan your website and it will tell you how fast your website loads in various locations around the country. It is a free service and the results can be fascinating. Keep in mind that the ideal time for a blog to load is somewhere under 4 minutes. If you can get yours to load in from 1 to 2 seconds and a few milliseconds you are in great shape. The longer it takes for a website to load the more likely people are to move away from it and go looking for something else. People simply are not all that patient sometimes.
I don’t know if that’s the one, but I came across a place that rates blogs on several factors, and that definitely was one of the things they documented. Mine downloaded fast, I know, but I don’t recall a number. I also know I am one of those people who isn’t patient about downloading blogs that have lots of clutter that slows thew loading process, so your advice is well understood! As soon as I go through all the mail and comment, I’ll try the one you mention here. Thanks!
Well, you piqued my curiosity, and I decided to go ahead and do it immediately. The results were not terrible, but the highlight what you’ve said about file size. I got a 73/100 performance rating (it noted mine loaded faster than 45% of all blogs, putting me sort of in the middle, I guess…!); load time was 3.58 seconds; page size was 5.8 MB.
A program called “Ghostery” is also another good thing to have.
I’m getting really paranoid about downloading anything, but I did check this out on Google. Seems safe and useful…!
It tells you who is tracking you.
As if I’m not paranoid enough! LOL! I’;m doing a file back up on my new 3 terabyte auxiliary database gizmo as I type, so will feel more comfortable looking at that once I feel my files are safe for the moment.
Is that an external hard drive or is it a flash drive?
It’s an external hard drive. So far, I haven’t been able to get my backup to completye. There’s some error in one of the files, and the information provided is too vague to help me. I’m working on that issue now. Hell, I hate computers some days!
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/set-your-mind-at-ease-back-up-your-files-now
I suspect the back up will happen at some point and I will have exactly no sense of why something that failed three, five, six times before all of a sudden is just peachy and works. I hate computers for how that sort of thing happens!
http://www.wikihow.com/Copy-Files-to-an-External-Hard-Drive
This looks like it might be the answer. The IT guy at the store set up the initial parameters, and must not have actually tried it. I’ll give this method a shot,m John, and it looks like it should work. (Fingers and toes crossed!)
Let me know how it goes.
Will do, John. I probably will try again later this morning. All of the failures yesterday wore me out and didn’t do much for my enthusiasm. I recognize, however, that it is something one needs to do and do regularly just in case. Curiously, I was attempting a backup when my computer seized up and stopped working. Unfortunately, that was an unsuccessful backup, too, but, fortunately, they were able to save my files despite my poor management of them!
Maybe I have been a total fool or something but in the three or four years since I got my computer I have never backed up anything but I do keep my important access information and passwords in a secure place —- So if something goes wrong I can always restart my e-mail and my bank information — Besides those two there really isn’t all that much I would care to retrieve if lost —
I keep access information and passwords in a secure place, too, though I didn’t have all of the really obvious ones — WordPress, for example! I’ve updated that reference, you can bet! In fact, it’s at a point where I need to redo it to make it a bit neater and current since some information is obsolete.
http://lifehacker.com/5816453/how-to-back-up-your-computer
It isn’t hard to back up if things work right, but there is a file that apparently was corrupted or is of the wrong type of something that’s on the backup schedule. Until I locate it and determine why, it causes the backup to fail.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/all.html?refine=windows+backup+failing
The error code I get when the back up fails proved interesting when I Googled it…! Seems external hard drives and Microsoft have an incompatibility issue related to download speed or some such crap. I switched over to DVDs. The first disc recorded find; the second one…! Anyway, the site discussing the error code had 94 entries, and most related the the exact brand and size external hard drive I have. The solution is much too technical for me if I can get the DVDs method to work instead. IF…! (Never mind I have made DVD back ups in past without any problem I recall.)
Sometimes miracles do happen, especially in the computer fields! ;))) I’m glad you’re back again. We had snow yesterday here in Munich…Have a nice week!
We actually had a tiny but the other night, but I think (“hope”!) we finally have Spring weather for good this season. As for computer miracles, um…! I’m still waiting!
This is tough…no wonder we didn’t hear much out of you. Mom is stymied by most things electronic so she will always understand….no matter whatcha tell her. Move the enter button and she is in a panic….really mom….control yourself, geez. Then the touch tops are troubling too. She says they’re all dirty with crappy fingerprints and gawd knows what. Yeah! She’s not buckets of fun when electronics walk in the door. No cell phone either….sorry, she has a cell phone from the 90’s. No internet….just phone calls.
(((Shoko)))
I have my near-Luddite moments, too. My cell phone is a flip phone that basically works for calling people. I don’t need the fancy stuff or want it. Of course, I never like phones when they were just devices that were used to call or receive calls either. I’m not into phones!
Come to think of it…I’m not much into phones either. I usually say what I have to and get off the phone. However, my family does phone to chat…..it drives me crazy. They do dishes or eat while on the phone. This is long distance too! I usually end up making an excuse to get off the phone. To me….who is way out of touch obviously…if someone is nice enough to call and talk to you….you could stop regular activities for a few minutes to listen to them. I hardly call anyone long distance anymore.
My hands cramp holding the phone for long times, and I can usually (legitimately!) use that as a reason to get off the phone. Two of my siblings don’;t use computers, never have, never will. The one closest in age to me, like me, used computers extensively for years in her work, so we tend to e-mail each other to avoid the phone hassle.
That’s nice….I’d like to e-mail my bro instead of talking with him. We just spoke yesterday….his dime…oh, what an old expression, he informed me he just does what he has to on the computer. I could have laughed because my niece has told me in other calls that if he tries to do much on the computer he ends up ruining the work she has done to get it going for him. He is my big brother so I guess he figures he should put on a show for me…hehe
e-mailing is much simpleer. My sister has a nerve condition that makes her voice very wavery and soft. I am totally deaf in my right ear and have difficulty hearing easily with my left on the phone, so not having to talk on the phone as often with that siubling is nice for both of us!
You both have a great excuse! I’d rather not have the difficulties though.
For sure. Computers are great tools…when they work. And great time wasters when they don’t.
Didn’t you recently have problems with yours…did you get a new one? My CPU overheated and then went to toast. I am trying to get used to the newer programs in my newer computer.
Yes, I did. The PC is an old one – I think I got it three years ago. The Toshiba laptop is brand new. The PC uses Vista (which I’m, comfortable using), and the laptop is Windows 7 or 8 – whatever the latest travesty is.
So, you know the feeling of a new computer. It’s not that comfortable warm feeling but rather…oh, I hope nothing happens to set me back today.
Yes, exactly! Having two essentially new computers at one time is especially daunting. The laptop mouse pad is hypersensitive in some respects, and dead in others, and I need to find the spot where one sets the touch to one’s preference there.