This one owes us nothing, but it’s the desktop catchall in the net—we built this one from scratch, as I recall, and it’s got multiple disks and a lot of really outmoded software. It runs Win7 but it’s far from fast…and Jane and I took the day to try to figure the last part of the personal taxes, to get those off to the accountant.
We decided this time we’re SO late we’d either have to Express it all or just get clever, scan documents into pdf and get our accounting program to output to pdf and then ship all the pdfs down to our faithful accountant. It’s a lot of data. And the machine began to creak, if not to smoke. One disk was full. We moved to another. And the accounting software itself is so aged it threw the (newer) printer into frantically printing the same page over and over and over, more than 50 times, with me swearing all the way, before I could find somewhere in the software to pry its electronic fingers off that notion—I mean, ordinary cutoffs weren’t working. The thing would just lay back and wait its next chance to run more page 8’s. That’s when we decided that sending the files electronically would be cheaper and easier, and our accountant was ok with it.
So the next job is the business taxes, and we’re going to have to do something about that computer. I think I’ve found a reasonable one that’s certainly going to be better than what was state of the art in 2001. D’ya think?
3 year on site service policy, hd monitor, 500 gig hd, 4 gig ram, both our accounting softwares and Word included, Win 7 64 bit. And for less than half what we paid to build the creaking old monster ourselves back in 2001. Knowing the computer won’t crash with your data before you get the business taxes done? Priceless. One offering (extra charge) is a terabyte drive—I could be wrong, but seems to me it could actually slow you down. Finding anything on the 3 terabyte drives we have floating between computers is an artform. I think 500 gig should do it.
Lord, I remember the great fuss over the 20 g Winston drives our weather station had: I came into the news station for something or another (interview, I think) and we had literally to tiptoe past those fragile machines sitting on their carts in the hall, lest any vibration jar them…
Now one of our terabyte drives gets shoved flat by rampaging cats and we just set it up and keep going. I understand they’re a bit fragile…but so far, not.
This is our year to have our oldest electronics go. Jane’s laptop was a spring chicken, but she’s now up to speed, and the other, once repaired, will be a travel machine; the Panasonic 1000w microwave went; replaced that; now the 2001 computer. I wonder how long until the telly in my bedroom explodes…
A terabyte is pretty much the standard now for portables, so fairly definitively not fragile! I use a tiny 5oz LaCie Rikiki Go 1TB USB drive to hold all my iTunes and iPhoto files alongside my MacBook Air, and it travels everywhere with me and survives all sorts of drops and scrapes! The more important key for speed on your new beast will be to have a solid-state drive for the boot disk – more useful and important than a bigger disk IMHO.
Advice here: Get the terabyte drive or a 2 TB drive if you can. Only slower when your antivirus scanner is doing a full scan of the drive. Look at as simple math: 512 GB = 0.5 TB, so price-wise and storage-wise, you should be able to justify it. Saves getting another drive for a while.
My desktop and laptop are fine, only 2 or so years old now.
Still will have to get my master bathroom redone. Still have an unknown problem with my dishwasher, but dishes for 1 human + 2 cats, not a big deal. Oldest appliances in the house are my washer and dryer. Hoping those will hold on. (I go to the opposite end of the house, guest bathroom, which is actually bigger than the master bathroom, odd house plan.)
On the whole, livable.
Sounds like you’ll be ahead of the game with a new computer.
Tell the old comp if it doesn’t straighten up and fly right, you’ll use it as a coral anchor in the koi pond. That should get its attention.
For drives have a good external that can back up the entire internal plus any other externals. One of the reasons I love my Mac is that I have everything backed up so if the machine is abducted by aliens all I need to do is a full (everything) restore from the backup. This should be doable with Windows (I just don’t know how).
As for the TV don’t mention replacing it in rabbit-ear-shot.
I made the mistake of mentioning to a friend that I was going to get a new set “in about a year”. Next day the old one died. Fortunately my recording setup was already set for the Japanese shows I record off the air here in the San Francisco area ( Cable? Cable? We don’ need no stinkin’ cable! ).
A failing PC is a great time for you to migrate from Windows to Mac OS, nandi. Ease of use, simplicity, hardware that works and lasts a long time. Migration is not difficult, in fact Apple go out of their way to help make it easy. I’ve been a Mac user since 1986. Just got a lovely 27″ iMac: beautiful large screen, 2TB hard disc, great software, and on and on. If there is a bit of Windows softeware (like a particular accounting package) you can run it on Windows via the Parallels emulator. Me, I’m obviously a Mac advocate, but also a typesetter and publisher (you might like my Latin Alice). Anyway, one offers the suggestion, CJ-ji.
I’m impressed you managed to keep a 2001 machine running that long — and even running Win7! I retired my 2001 Dell desktop in late 2005 and didn’t think it owed me much, but back then the great turn-of-the-century surge in power and speed was only just tailing off.
Do you now have to deal with disposing of a CRT monitor?
I have an old Apple Cube that I got in 2001, with a big CRT. It’s still running as a print-server in the spare room where the laserprinter is. About the CRT… well I got a flat-screen for the Cube and Free-Cycled the CRT.
I’m using an Amana Radar Range microwave, the (rental) fridge and stove are Harvest Gold, I’ve had my washer and dryer (mine) going on 11 years, and a 1987 Toyota Crayola. I come from a long family tradition of buying the best you can afford and then taking good care of it. My mom had a Sunbeam Mixmaster for nearly 40 years — including both glass mixing bowls! — until she made the mistake of selling it — and she has a computer that runs Word Perfect out of DOS and uses 3-1/4 “inch floppies.” The old Compaq I had until 2009 had more RAM than that computer has hard drive. I don’t think your TV will explode, but the penguin on top of it might.
Our microwave is a 1974 vintage Tappan. Still going strong.
Hmmm, I agree about buying quality, but if I was paying the electric bill, I’d ask for a new ‘fridge. We had an old freezer in avocado green, and my power bill went down over $30 a month when I retired it (its now shelving space with a nifty door). Sometimes improved technology really IS an improvement.
That’s for sure. COnsider Tatiseigi’s communications system.
The TV will expire the moment you plug in the last replacement computer and appliance. It *might* wait until the next time after that when there is a show on that you especially want to watch and poof out during the first commercial.
Heh, tell the old computer: “Programmable toaster ovens!”
As to the terabyte of storage: BCS is correct, it’s only slower when you’re having to scan with antivirus. I wouldn’t know about a solid state drive, having not really messed with them.
If having enough “room” for storage is a real worry and you don’t want to have to worry about “contamination” so much, perhaps a network-attached storage? We put one in a year or so ago, and it has made everyone very happy. One person is a huge download-addict (mostly, Dr. Who, I’m not sure why); three of us like to play various games, online and otherwise. We store “safe” copies of things like World of Warcraft on the NAS, and all our files are backed up on it. Anything not in immediate use is on there.
We have around 3 TB total, split between two drives that are not directly attached to anyone’s computer. The two drives just sit there in their little box, blinking happily.
Oh, oops, I forgot: your TV. It’s unlikely to explode…unless you let Super-Shu tinker with it!
Lol—
Well, the computer we built was high-end in 2001, so it’s been able to keep up, but now the middle-of-the road computers will serve— Jane’s art programs are the highest demand on the CPU, and that’s why we had to turn off hyperthreading, apparently, for one of them doing a high level operation. Then back on again for normal life. I’d like to have one of the flash drive HDs. but they’re not available in the price range we’d like.
I think when a hard disk (one of four on that machine) advises you it’s full, you are really pressing the limit of your storage too closely for comfort—and that’s not the drive we usually use, SFAIK.
We’ve flirted with the Mac idea now and again, but my computing is keystroke stuff at very high speeds and my experiences with Mac have been kinda hunt and peck. I’m sure it would improve, but old dogs and new tricks, I’m afraid.
Jane wants to shop a bit—don’t blame her–there’s a bit of fun involved. But I think the one I’ve found is the best deal.
You want something scary—my dad used to pick up old power tools and refurbish them when he wanted something like a saw or drill or a table saw. One reason he was real slow to let me use them is because there WAS no safety guard on any of them. So I learned to use a skill saw with no shield, just the top hood, and various other things of that ilk. SOme had fabric wires. But they ran. Jane and I tried to use our new table saw with the various guides and guards and to tell the truth, they were a safety risk, on one occasion catching a large board in a no-can-advance-or-retreat bind and forcing a shutdown. THAT’S dangerous. WE took the safety stuff off and felt a lot safer in the operation.
But a lot of our stuff was like that…ran forever, like the fabric-corded waffle iron that I’ve never found one I like as well. I think it was 1940’s vintage. We used it into the year 2000.
Oh yes, I grew up with that waffle iron or a near equivalent. Makes four huge waffles at once so everyone can eat at the same time and you could flip over the metal waffle plates to make grilled cheese on the flat, opposite side (I believe this is now known separately as a “panini maker.”). I wonder if my step mother still has the cast iron beast.
You can still get them, I think. (I have one: how else do you make waffles?) The cords aren’t fabric-covered any more, though.
I grew up with steam iron and vacuum-cleaner that were older than me, and the iron had a fabric-covered cord. Heck, somewhere I have my *grandmother’s* last steam iron. In one of the boxes in storage, like most of the kitchen stuff and most of the books….
I agree with Gilles Poittras about using a large external HD for backup or for a data drive.
For a while there, I was using an external portable / notebook HD, which let me carry my data for several projects and use with my laptop while away from home or with the desktop or laptop at home. This was a real Godsend when I was going back and forth to my grandmother’s.
Either are a good idea. A one or two TB drive internal is a good idea if you can afford it. Storage is cheaper than it used to be, and yours and Jane’s projects, novels and artwork alike, need good storage. Also any music or video you might want to use while working or during free time.
Good hunting! A la chasse!
Well, we’ve now got Carbonite, and we’ve got 3 Seagate terabyte drives floating about the house, to whichever computer needs them. I don’t trust them, totally, so we back up to more than one, and novels are so small they’re easy to store. My entire life’s work thus far can fit on one dvd, isn’t that depressing?
It’s the art and picture files that take up so very much room, and if you store art in layers rather than the finished project, it’s huge. Once compressed, or flattened, you can’t edit it. But until then, you can. Maxfield Parrish envisioned something of the sort in his own method: he painted in layers, did a finish, then added the next layer—I experimented with it back when I did paint: a background, then varnish. A branch, then varnish. Flowers and leaves, then varnish. Then highlights on the flowers. Then varnish. It’s probably going to be a mess for conservators…Ryder’s paintings have become a conservation nightmare, the way the man laid on paint. And Parrish, probably. But it’s a really good way for a novice paint-painter to learn. Scrubbing off a mistake is a cinch.
And it gives it great depth.
I used to think his blue skies were fantasy and artistic license. But I’ve seen ’em!
I lost photos once and decided that’s it — seriously redundant and I have 2 externals for backups always assuming that a gremlin will manage to avoid all three cats and do something interesting. For scanning I’ve found the niftiest thing — its a wand that runs on batteries with a micro SD card and will scan at either 600 or 900 dpi in with jpeg OR pdf. Did 150+ pages for the local historical society in well under than an hour. Made by VuPoint (Magic Wand II), found on HSN of all places for pretty reasonable — older version will do black& white or Color only as pdfs. Amazon marketplace also carries them. Fabulous for research or getting copies of old family pictures from tech challenged or anxious relatives.
I have a clock that’s vintage 1790. A picture of it at “Longcase clock” on the Wikipedia. Not sure this beats a good solid waffle-iron though.
You can get a PC and Jane can get a Mac, if she’s still shopping round. 😉
I’ve had good results with Iomaga Minimax 500 GB, 1TB, and 2TB drives.
I was recently mentioning to my sweetie how my laptop was shutting down for no apparent reason (probably over heating from dust and what-not inside, but I don’t know how to clean it out). So a couple days later, as we were wandering thru Costco, looking at the computers there with me hopefully ooohing and ahhhing over some of the nicer laptops running in the $500-$600 range, he pointed to a $1000 desktop, a multi-touch screen all-in-one HP computer with all that cool stuff like a 1 terabite hard drive, Core i5 four core processor and so on, and says “So, you want this one?”
Huh?? Well, I do prefer laptops, but hey, when someone offers to buy me a whamo-dyne super duper desktop pretty much out of the blue—heck yah! It’s got a web cam too, so I’ve been recording me singing some songs just for the fun of it. I love to karaoke, so it’s be great! And it runs Hulu wonderfully well in full screen mode; something my laptop wheezed and whined and often froze up trying to do.
AND I think I discovered why he bought this particular one for me. While we’re watching DVDs of TV shows and movies, if I pause it and don’t get it started again quickly enough, he can just reach up and tap the screen and get it going again. Seems a bit pricey to fill such a simple need, but he’s happy as a clam about it, so it works for me!
I also use a Seagate 1 terabite drive for my backup. Seems to work just fine; luckily I haven’t needed to use it for that yet! It worked flawlessly when I moved all my stuff over from my old laptop though, so I think that is a good indication. 🙂
My oldest electrical device is a fan I bought the year I was stationed in Japan, in ’78. It still works like a champ. It’s funny because my sweetie has a fan from that era; it still works, but the plastic is so brittle that if you run your fingernail on the surface, it scraps off, and will break off little pieces if you fail to handle it softly. My fan, on the other hand, is just as sturdy and solid as it was when I bought it. Says to me that the Japanese, at least in the ’70s weren’t into planned obsolesence, like the US was. 🙁
Maybe you should get into that Internet Choir over on Youtube. I’m on dialup, so I don’t do such things ;), but I’ve seen one or two at a buddy’s with FIOS.
I didn’t know such a thing existed! Thanks Paul! I for sure will check that out. 🙂
Still using my 2001 iBook. Granted, it’s running OS9 because it can’t take OSX, the battery’s shot, so it can’t run more than 20 minutes without a plug (which is long enough to have lunch and still get work done), and the screen takes 10 minutes to lighten up to a reasonable brightness (much like my TV), but after colossal amounts of use … it’s still working. I’m going to keep it until I can’t see anything on the screen anymore. I *did* have to get an iMac for the graphics work though.
Re: appliances. My mom still has her original KitchenAid stand mixer from, jeez, I dunno. Thirty-some years ago now. I’ve had mine for seventeen…
Automated regular backups to a wireless / net connected external HD are a lifesaver – as someone says above, the Apple Time Machine / Time Capsule is the bees knees for this, but there are PC systems with the same functionality (though not the same ease of use for recovering stuff). Hourly, per Time Machine, is a particular lifesaver for that time when you in some brain-dead way hit the “yes” on the “did you really, really want to do this, which cannot be undone” button – as I have on too many occasions to be funny …
All my computers still work fine; starting with an early 80’s 1Mhz cpu 32k rom and 512k ram with the next from 1985(the most expensive computer I have ever bought at £5000) running DOS 1.6 on an over-driven 5Mhz chip and a massive 10Mb hard drive and 5.25″ floppy. If I really need to do a number crunch I run “Open Access” (pre MS) using DOS 2 on a modern 3.1Ghz chip – without all the crappy overhead – the calc’s really fly.
She lies. It was 2003 and it’s here, in all its animated beauty:
http://www.janefancher.com/htmfiles/boxes/WriteBox/journalDec.htm
Tho I must admit, the leds are failing now along with the rest of the machine and it’s time to replace it. And we did have to replace the processor and mobo a few years back in order to handle Win7. It’s the only time I let someone else mess with one of my put-togethers, and I’d never do it again. I’ve hated this machine ever since. We’d just moved into the house and I didn’t have time to come up to speed on comps and options and I figured it was just the office machine…never again…
The monitor is one of the first flat screens and dates from OKC!
We’ve got backups of backups of backups. What I want is one drive with a clean backup of all data files and a copy of that drive. But it seems there’s never time for that all important ditching of duplicate files. There is freeware now that might do it with some degree of automation and a desktop with sufficient computing power w/b ideal.
I’d love love love to take the time to come up to speed knowledge wise and put another together…But the fact is, I think computing power has so outstripped what we need for the office, a Dell or HP deal might be just fine.
OTOH…SoMEDAY I really want to do a true computer put-together, including computer case mod: http://fandomania.com/fandomestic-10-awesome-computer-case-mods/
Talk about fun and a total waste of time!!!!
Re: backps of backups.
There are backups, intended for short-term replacement in case of fumble-fingered mistake or hardware glitch, and archives, long-term checkpoints. Never the twain should mix. Both are really necessary.
Archives must never be forgotten about! As each generation of hardware is used the archives must be copied forward, and verified! Backups, on the other hand can be ignored. (There is a possibly apocryphal story of when NASA tried to read some of the old Voyager 7-track tapes for the more recent trips to Jupiter.)
Oh, my. How times have changed… describing a flash drive: “Two hundred plus megs of storage on a gizmo no bigger than my thumb.” Wesser, stop rolling about on the floor and laughing; it’s rude. And at the time, that was asounding.