Summer is Just Around the Corner

Summer is Just Around the Corner…

Down in these parts, Memorial Day is the official start of summer and the heat and humidity really ramp up just in time.  The hot weather invariable starts every year about this time.

No special plans for this weekend – except for doing some grilling.  My Mom passed away three years ago May 30th.  The grief is still pretty intense so I plan on taking it easy this weekend and pampering myself just a bit.

A couple of weeks ago I tried to run Executive Diskeeper on my second hard drive, which is where all my data is.  But it couldn’t de-frag the drive – not enough free space.  Yikes – a 120 gig drive nearly full?   There are lots and lots of podcasts – both audio and video.

What’s a podcast?  It’s an Internet radio or tv show that is downloaded to your computer.  I used to go to different websites to download the shows  (KFI Tech Guy, Rush Limbaugh, Ebay Radio, Mission Valley Christian Fellowship).  Less than a year ago I heard about podcasts on the KFI Tech Guy shows.  I started with a dedicated podcast gathering program to get the programs on my computer and then I loaded them into Itunes to get them on my Ipod Mini.  Not long afterwards, Itunes started offering podcasts in their music store and eventually Itunes offered all of the shows I listened to and watched.  

The name podcast is a bit misleading – you don’t need an Ipod to listen to them as the name suggests.  The audio files are mp3s and video files are usually mp4. So you can listen to them on any player.

So why did I get an Ipod?   The mini was offered in colors and when I saw the pink one – I got it!

So it looks like I have to burn some CDs of the podcasts so I can de-frag my data drive!

Maybe my weekend won’t be quite as laid back as I thought…

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Take care & enjoy,
Florence

Apri Weather in May?

We had May weather in April with a record high set and lots of near record temperatures.  Now that it is May we’re have April weather with cool temperatures and a fair bit of rain and thunderstorms.  Of course, there’s still quite a bit of May left – and summer usually sets in by the end of the month.

Turned 50 a couple of weeks ago.  That’s probably why I haven’t been updating this blog – been just a little busy…

I have two hard drives in my computer – Windows and programs on one and data on the other.  I haven’t been able to de-fragment my data hard drive –not enough open space on the disk. I get a lot of files (both audio and video) from podcasts that take up most of the space.  My files and data take up about 10 percent of the 120 gig hard drive and the music and audio files the rest. So I have busy burning Cds to get some stuff off of my hard drive.

That led to getting a new storage system since the CD slots on the side of my computer desk were pretty well filled up.  I found a storage system that works and have been busy burning and gathering CDs from hither and yon.  Just when I think I found all of the photo CDs – another one turns up.  It’s amazing just how much data is on those disks.

I get a fair number of tech newsletters and one of them from PC Magazine had a comparison of low-end media center computers. The one from HP caught my eye – it will be cheaper to get that system than it will be to upgrade this couple year old computer to a media center.  Of course seeing the media center computers got me thinking - getting one of them would allow me to get rid of my TV, my Replay TV, the Go Video DVD/VHS combo, and my receiver.  That would greatly reduce the number of things plugged in – this house was built in 1970 and there just weren’t quite so many things to plug in back then…

I am reading a classic book from 1960 – Sea Power – edited by E.B. Powers and Chester W. Nimitz.  The book covers the history and tactics of naval warfare. This book is heavy reading- but interesting – especially to a retired sailor like me – even though I spent my naval career around airplanes.

  
Our pup Tyger is now 5 months old and weighs 13 ½ pounds.  She loves to play and to be around people.

Well, that’s about all for now…

Take care & enjoy,
Florence