[AT] computer problems

Sat Jan 15 20:39:25 PST 2005

Larry,

My needs are a lot simpler but I think the thumb drive would be a good 
(easy) way for most of us to save really important files.  Using the thumb 
drive to move them to another (battery) computer counts as backup as well.

It was the new camera that started me on this insane binge of new hardware. 
It's a fairly simple camera by many standards but it knows how to do more 
than I'll ever learn.  I got a Canon Powershot IS that has the panorama 
option.  I haven't tried it yet but it looks interesting.

The new GPS software is enroute.  The old software and old laptop seemed to 
always fail just when needed most.  It's not certain whether I'll be able to 
travel next summer but I just was looking at the route to Bigdog's place for 
the CubFest in June.  The GPS is fun to play with even when you know the 
route.

George Willer

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry D. Goss" <rlgoss at evansville.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 10:33 PM
Subject: RE: [AT] computer problems

>I figured a thumb drive wouldn't do what I needed, George.  They're
> limited to around 4 Gigabytes.  So last Father's Day, I went out and
> bought a 160 Gigabyte external drive that I can move from computer to
> computer to store images on.  The price was $130.  I'm doing a heck of a
> lot of digital imaging, and some of the files are getting a bit hairy.
> It's not unheard of for me to generate an image in the 800 Megabyte
> range -- too big to fit on a CD disk. I have a wall map that I'll take
> the time to scan one of these days. Using my HP 4670 scanner and the
> software that comes with it, I can merge a whole bunch of smaller scans
> together to make one image out of dozens of individual files.  I'm
> scanning an 1863 World Atlas (folio style) using six scans per map.  The
> software merges them together seamlessly and automatically.  In case
> you're wondering why I want such a big map, the wall map shows every
> county in the US -- location, boundaries, railroads, canals, county
> seats.  I need that for reference when I'm working on genealogy.  The
> World Atlas gets down to every township in the whole country as they
> existed at the time of publication -- complete with the name and
> location of the town center.  That's also invaluable information.
>
> I go to tractor shows, stand in one spot, and snap a bunch of pictures
> of what I can see.  Then I have the computer merge them all into a
> panoramic image that I can pan around on and view the scenes close-up. I
> wish I would have known I could do this when I saw the Dain on display
> up in Iowa a few years back.  With that capability, I could have stood
> next to it and taken a series of shots with nobody else between me and
> the tractor, and then stitched them together on the computer.
>
> Look for the external hard drives to be on sale at your local
> electronics store during the middle week of June again this year.  I run
> mine through a UPS at all times, but I also "hot plug" it from system to
> system at will.  Since I don't have an operating system on it, I'm not
> bothered by the specter of boot up problems.
>
> Larry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of George Willer
> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 8:40 PM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: [AT] computer problems
>
> Cecil,
>
> I just received my new thumb drive yesterday and played with it a
> little.
> It's an amazing device!  They call it a thumb because of its' size.  It
> plugs into the slot on the back of your computer and becomes another
> drive.
> Why this is important (among other reasons) is that you can get one to
> copy
> all your files to and then remove it... and even carry it on your key
> chain.
> Now your backups are safe.
>
> My son Joe introduced me to them when he was here for Christmas.  He
> showed
> my his that he says carries all the files for his universities web site,
> all
> the information for the radio station he manages, and all his personal
> files
> from several computers.  Just plug it in and go.
>
> I've been moving hundreds of files to it from my PC and then plugging it
> in
> to my new laptop.  INCREDIBLE!
>
> I just got a small one... 256 meg, and it only cost delivered about $80.
>
> George Willer
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Cecil E Monson" <cmonson at hvc.rr.com>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 5:48 PM
> Subject: [AT] computer problems
>
>
>> I don't know if I mentioned this on the List or not but Tuesday
>> of this week, we had a power outage where the power went off and then
>> popped back on for a split second before going off again. The computer
>> had just started to re-boot when it went off the second time.  It
> raised
>> Cain with my computer and all I got when I tried to turn it on was
>> first a blue HP screen, and then a black screen with the words
> "Operating
>> system not found". Not a good thing.
>>
>>      I found out in checking my manuals that XP Home has a partitioned
>> drive and the boot recovery program is on the hard drive. XP Pro has a
>> provision to boot from a disc but not XP Home. Oh, it comes from the
>> factory supposedly with a disc but you never get it. Must have
> something
>> to do with a bulk license to install XP or something.
>>
>> I had just about given up when my wife said she had heard that
>> a young local guy was pretty good at restoring crashed computers and
> not
>> too expensive. So, I called him and ended bringing him my computer
> this
>> noon. He had it an hour and a quarter and called saying he got it to
>> boot and was going to run it over the weekend to make sure it was OK.
>>
>> So, I got lucky this time. FWIW, I have a UPS power supply and
>> had inadvertently mixed up the power cords for the monitor with the
> one
>> for the computer several weeks ago and had no surge protection on the
>> computer at all - just on the durn monitor. You can be sure it will be
>> plugged in the right way when I get it back. Must be CRS setting in
>> early.
>>
>> On a tractor note, I have all of my tractor photos and files
>> on the second hard drive on this computer and it would have been a
> real
>> blow to find out I lost them all. Like I said, I got lucky this time
>> and everything is OK.
>>
>> Cecil
>>
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