As part of a consequential chain of family events, I have a new computer - a laptop intended to sit delicately on what was once a writing desk, which is currently occupied by a huge screen connected to a large, noisy hard drive. This monster will go to live in my son's room and replace his laptop, which has certain annoying, unacceptable habits which need not be mentioned here.
The writing desk might even be used for writing, the laptop easily set to one side....
Before then, though, programs must be transferred to the laptop. My domestic technie is finding that this is not straightforward, so I am currently without access to Photoshop - and I miss it. There's no point in downloading photos if you can't edit them for use on the blog, is there? I may have to resort to Gimp in the meantime.
Another consequence of a new machine - and the need to transfer files - is a certain reluctance to add anything other than what's currently needed. The joy of keeping an empty inbox makes me want to keep minimal files, all nicely organised of course. And that means looking at all the old files - deleting and archiving and reorganising. Which I have not yet done.
The compromise is to have an external hard drive with all that gubbins on it. "Out of sight, out of mind" - yet still within reach. The nice new empty laptop can accumulate its own files gradually, and they can be organised into a system that makes sense now.
With the new machine come new habits - getting used to the pad rather than the mouse, for instance. And (of course) - being able to use the machine away from the desk - I can take it into the studio and "listen again" to those missed radio programmes, how good is that!
Perhaps being away from the photos for a while will help me take fewer of them? It was somewhat alarming that over 23,000 were transferred to that external hard drive. (Almost as many songs as Thomas discovered he had downloaded over the past few years.)
I've never got on with the touch pads, and you can easily go back to a mouse by using a USB wireless mouse. Sorry for sticking my twopennyworth in but I loathe the touch pads.
ReplyDeleteI find difficulty getting used to the touchpad (and people laugh at me for it) so a acquired a neat little mouse as recommended by those nice people at Dell...Mind you I did manage to transfer the programmes all by myself (Windows 7has the ability to revert temporarily to previous versions to load older software...I think it offered to do that automatically in some way on mine otherwise I'd never have been able to cope...
ReplyDeleteI find Picasa is really useful (and free)way of doing simple and reasonably easy way of editing photos for my blog. It doesn't do anything like as much as the more professional programmes but it is easy to install and use. You might like to have a play with it whilst waiting for your in-house techie to sort you out :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sue, I might well have a go. I tried Picassa some years back and found it "difficult" - but maybe it, like lots computer stuff, has been reprogrammed to make it easier to use. (Or maybe I've learned not to be daunted?)
ReplyDeleteAt the moment the domestic technie is away on holiday so I'm using what's now his computer....and his mouse.