Ten years ago, I cobbled together a desktop computer tower. Rather than go to the local CompUSA and buy a tower off the shelf, I ordered all the component parts and jiggered them together. The tower survived a couple of hard drive crashes – one in 2010, another in 2015 – as well as an…
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What I did with my World Tavern Trivia winnings
Last week at this time, I was celebrating with my friends from the Stir Crazy trivia team. We had just won the 2017 World Tavern Trivia championships, and each of us received a share of the $5,000 grand prize. Now I don’t know of any bank that still takes these gigantic checks … you know,…
Read More“Lazarus, it is time to boot up.”
A few months ago, I had a computer crash that crippled my custom-built computer tower- and in the resulting crash, one of my hard drives froze up. Thousands of photographs and music were trapped on that hard drive as well. I tried a few different techniques to resurrect the data, including swapping out the motherboards,…
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Walmart Math: 16g @ $7.97 = 64g?
Follow along with me on this. A couple of weeks ago, I had to purchase some USB flash drives for a project. Figured I’d pick them up at Walmart, since Walmart sells flash drives. Heck, Walmart sells everything. I needed flash drives with lots of storage, not the cheap ones that only store about one…
Read MoreThe Lazarus Syndrome and an old hard drive
In the mid-1970’s, “The Lazarus Syndrome” was a made-for-TV movie (and later, a single-season medical drama) based on the premise that some doctors were gifted enough to cure nearly everything – including death. So now I have to hope that death has not claimed one of my computer hard drives. Background. A few months ago,…
Read MoreThoughts while driving to Syracuse
By the time you read this, I’ll be on the road with a precious cargo – six of my best photographic artworks – for “Drop-Off Day” at the New York State Fair. This seems to be part of an all-encompassing “drop-off-3-day-weekend” with my three entries for the Big E shipped yesterday, and my four (5)…
Read MoreThe White Tower Computer: 2007-2015
It officially suffered a crippling blow on Wednesday evening, when it encountered some virulent malware. My homemade computer, which I built in 2007 with a Windows Vista operating system (which it still had and worked well with) has finally fallen to dust. By the time it reached its eighth birthday, my “white tower” had its…
Read MoreAn open letter to Tim Cook
Dear Mr. Cook: First off, let me say that I do have an appreciation for what Apple has achieved in the last four decades. I’ve owned several iPods and I’ve worked on Apple IIe and Macintosh computers in my time. I even own an Apple TV box so that I can purchase my favorite TV…
Read MoreDon’t lie to me again, Time Warner Cable…
A few months ago, there was a cable / internet outage in the Town and Village. After several calls, Time Warner Cable finally explained that they were working on the outage and should have service restored momentarily. Well, they eventually DID restore service. My computer modem flashed its lights, and a connection to my desktop…
Read MoreNice try, scammer – go back under the bridge with the other trolls.
Let me make this as clear as crystal. I. HATE. SCAMMERS. I hate trolls, griefers, swindlers, anybody who tries to steal my money, ruin my equipment, or ruin my reputation. And believe me, there are people out there in 2014 that will do that to you. Don’t ever think differently. Case in point. Last Friday,…
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