Thursday, August 31, 2006
Two weeks ago I was prepared to walk out of Staples with a new PC if the store had it in stock. It was not in stock. Which didn't surprise me on the 5th day of a 7 day sale. The associate asked if I wanted to order it. I said no way, $100 of rebates were about to expire. It was not an expensive computer, just a Compaq with some decent speed, memory & capacity for expansion. But a hefty expenditure for me nonetheless. The PC I have now was supposed to be an interim machine, I bought it used & I've had it for too long. This PC is why I'm not on Verizon lowcost DSL. The CD unit is cranky (not a burner). The floppy drive is dead. I've also been unable to get it to accept a scanner someone gave me, & I know why. I really want to use the scanner. I'm a plug n play guy. The computer industry creates & markets most of its products including scanners for dummies who can't figure anything out & semi-dummies like me who don't want to. I can do lots more.
A day after I passed on the new PC, a friend offered me an old one he has from a couple of short generations later than mine, with a larger HD, somewhat faster, & a CD-R. He also offered to hook it up to transfer my files, no small thing. Even assuming I could reload some of the old software I use, like an ancient version of MS Publisher & my beloved Pirate Ship Pinball, I'd been puzzling over how I could get hundreds of personal MS Works, notepad, photos & other flotsam & jetsam files from one drive to another. I'm not interested in taking an inventory & cleaning house. I just want the folders & their contents dragged over & dropped so I feel like I'm wandering a familiar landscape. The "Pix" folder on the C drive stem alone has 30 sub folders, many with sub folders, plus over 200 miscellaneous items. But the total size of the "Pix" folder is only 207 MB. & that includes my postcard collection, some digital photos, & all the paintings & photos of Renoiresque women. The Publisher folder is only 82MB, & all of my used & unused personal website pages equal only about 30MB.
Also, staring me in the face is the basic fact that I haven't taken advantage of WFMU's crammed & cramped production studio. I don't know how digitalize my cassette radio airchecks or old records, much less clean up their sound. I'm an ignoramous. I would love to get some of my 1990s radio shows online; I used to switch on the mic & blab stream-of-consciouness until the phonelines began lighting up with irate listeners demanding that I shut up & play "Let's take the skinheads bowling" or some other oldie. But a handful of staffers & listeners actually liked that about me. I liked that about me. There's an long-standing opportunity to learn something really useful that I haven't used.
Maybe I don't need a brand new computer. Maybe I just need one that challenges me because it works better. If I simply grump about the limitations of this current PC & let them limit me, then I'm still too stupid to know what I would do with a new PC, & the first thing I ought to do is retire the machine I'm using & move on.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
A day after I passed on the new PC, a friend offered me an old one he has from a couple of short generations later than mine, with a larger HD, somewhat faster, & a CD-R. He also offered to hook it up to transfer my files, no small thing. Even assuming I could reload some of the old software I use, like an ancient version of MS Publisher & my beloved Pirate Ship Pinball, I'd been puzzling over how I could get hundreds of personal MS Works, notepad, photos & other flotsam & jetsam files from one drive to another. I'm not interested in taking an inventory & cleaning house. I just want the folders & their contents dragged over & dropped so I feel like I'm wandering a familiar landscape. The "Pix" folder on the C drive stem alone has 30 sub folders, many with sub folders, plus over 200 miscellaneous items. But the total size of the "Pix" folder is only 207 MB. & that includes my postcard collection, some digital photos, & all the paintings & photos of Renoiresque women. The Publisher folder is only 82MB, & all of my used & unused personal website pages equal only about 30MB.
Also, staring me in the face is the basic fact that I haven't taken advantage of WFMU's crammed & cramped production studio. I don't know how digitalize my cassette radio airchecks or old records, much less clean up their sound. I'm an ignoramous. I would love to get some of my 1990s radio shows online; I used to switch on the mic & blab stream-of-consciouness until the phonelines began lighting up with irate listeners demanding that I shut up & play "Let's take the skinheads bowling" or some other oldie. But a handful of staffers & listeners actually liked that about me. I liked that about me. There's an long-standing opportunity to learn something really useful that I haven't used.
Maybe I don't need a brand new computer. Maybe I just need one that challenges me because it works better. If I simply grump about the limitations of this current PC & let them limit me, then I'm still too stupid to know what I would do with a new PC, & the first thing I ought to do is retire the machine I'm using & move on.
