Getting A New Computer Bugs Me!

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Where have I been all year?

Our old & slow 1999 computer was locking up on a daily basis, I was losing e-mail by the box loads, and the poor thing could barely play a CD anymore, much less a video or DVD.

Over the years I added all the RAM it could support, replaced the original 8 GB hard drive with a 20 GB drive, installed a USB 2 PCI card, CD/DVD burners, a second internal drive, card reader hubs, and two external 80 GB USB 2 hard drives until finally all the slots and ports were full and the antique 486MHz Pentium III just couldn't keep up anymore.

So, on January 3rd, UPS delivered a fast new computer (2.40 GHz dual processor) to our doorstep, and then I spent several days adding a Firewire PCI card, 2 Gigs of Ram (in addition to the 2 Gigs which came installed), a 3.5" bay hub 13 in 1 card reader, a Firewire 3.5" bay hub, a second external USB CD/DVD burner, the two 80 GB USB drives scavenged from the old system, and I still have a second 250 GB internal hard drive to install.

Phheww...

Then it was time to transfer files and programs.

Yikes!!!

After a few more days of saving files from the old machine to disks, and then, realizing that I didn't have a clue about how to move my essential programs into the new one, I broke down and called my computer geek buddy Tom. He came over to help me out last night and now I finally have enough stuff transferred so that I can blog again.

It's truly a love/hate thing with me and computers...

I love the creativity enabled by them, the access and democratic openness (for the time-being) of the internet, and I even rather enjoy installing hardware (it reminds me of working on cars in my younger days---without the grease).

However, installing and learning software is another thing entirely.

I hate the installation and registration processes, the steep learning curve of a good in-depth program, and, especially the complicated marketing, monitoring, security, copyright protection & surveillance schemes of corporations like Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and Symantec, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...

But I'm hooked* on the damned things just like I was on the automobile in previous decades and that bugs me!

So, right now I'm going to play with our new toy, err..., I mean do some work with our new tool!

;~\

* The radical Luddite in me is highly critical of dependence on such contraptions!

Laundry Day!

Click on photo to enlarge
Today was really like spring here, T-Shirt weather all day, so I decided to do laundry in the James Washer (that's really the name of the thing), we bought it from Real Goods about 6 years ago.
It's bolted to the back porch and Peggy & I do most of our laundry out here in the summer.
We love the exercise and being outside as we do our chores.
Peggy has some neck & back issues and says the exercise of working the pendulum arm is really good for working out kinks in her neck.
We use non-polluting, phosphate free, bio-degradable laundry and dish detergents.
The washboard on the wall is for scrubbing out tough stains (and sometimes it's a musical instrument).

Human Power!

Click on photo to enlarge
As I wring the water from the clothes they fall into the laundry tub and a flange below the rollers directs squeezed out water back into the washer.
Note the handle on top of the wringer which allows for adjusting the rollers to thicker garments like these jeans.

Home Is Where The Hearth Is...

Click photo to enlarge
Nothing like a nice warm fire on a snowy day.
This small airtight Vermont Castings woodstove keeps our 950 sq. ft. cabin warm as toast all winter long.
Load it up at bedtime, stoke it a bit, and in the morning all you do is toss in another stick of wood and she fires right up.