Friday, December 28, 2012

BAD Christmas present...

Well, this is my 600th posting on my blog.

I like to have a really good story to tell on such events but THIS one is kind of sad.

My 4-year old computer croaked on Christmas Eve. Fried and died. Yikes.

First time I've gone through a crash and this will be a good test to see if all my backup efforts work.

It took more than 3 weeks to upload all my pictures and data to the Carbonite cloud site earlier this year. I have several external hard drives that also back up the back up.

My buddy loaned me his 2-year old spare Dell so I'm still able to go online.

Then we went searching for a new computer that has all the bells and whistles I needed/wanted.

Wow. LOTS of technological  advances in the last four years.

I keep hearing that desk tops are no longer THE thing to have.

 Laptops, and now tablets, are the new toys of communications.

I'm old school so I'll stay with my old favorites.

This beauty has more speed, more memory, more other stuff than I've ever had before. For a lot less dollars.

Going through my files, I see that years ago I paid $2,100 for a tower PC. It came with a monitor and keyboard but TWO GRAND?

This Hewlett Packard Pavilion is priced right now at $379. I'm waiting to see if an After-Christmas drop in price will happen. I'll probably order it Sunday after looking at ads in the paper.**

Meanwhile, in the spirit of celebrating the 600th posting, I took my new camera that has a Fish Eye lens effect  to Christmas dinner with my brother.

Someone carving the ham seemed like a good use for the distortion such a lens creates.

Oops, I did not notice that people in the background would also be part of the exaggerated view.

I will remind all that the lens does NOT always present a TRUE picture.

It was a delicious meal and I took away a platter of food that gave me another dinner the next night.

(Click on the photos for more detail.)
I hope I'll be invited back again.

Probably hold off on taking special effect photos though.

As a safety factor.

For me.

**An update: on Sunday I went online to buy the new HP computer but the special low price now was shown as $499.99. A missed opportunity!

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posted by chuckography @ 12:35 PM 0 Comments

Sunday, May 27, 2012

"Hi, Tech, how ya doin'?"

Oh, I do try to keep up with the new developments.

I know about Social Media.

But, I chose NOT to buy any Facebook IPO stock so I don't expect a refund.

I've carried my Smartphone (entry level) for about a year now.

I just bought a Kindle.

The top-of-the-line Fire model. Yikes.

The iPad is awesome but too large for me to tote around.

First thing I saw was the Kindle would easily fit in the pocket of my cargo pants.

Hey, my Netbook doesn't and it stays at home.

I realize I am still on the ground floor of tech world gadgets. They are still evolving. New models with newer features pop up every day.

But I am enjoying myself here and now.

I also belong to Paper Back Book Swap, which does as it sounds: I list books I have and fellow members pick one and I mail it out. I receive one point.
I look over the books available and use that point I earned to have it sent to me.

So far I have exchanged nearly 90 ink-on-paper books. Paper backs and hard cover.

Right now, there are about 8-10 books waiting in stacks for me to read.

Probably not going to download too many books to my Kindle at this point.

Fortunately, it's much more than just an e-reader.

(Click on the photo for more details.)

The photo of the Kindle was downloaded from the internet so may not appear much larger.

Usually my photos are large files but not always.

Still learning this high tech stuff.

Thanks for stopping by.

Tell me about YOUR newest device.

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posted by chuckography @ 10:42 AM 1 Comments