Memnison Journal

What I can mention is that the New Year’s Party was a good time, though a little frazzling.    I also spent a good deal of the day in the library with Rich Rostrom, who stayed over and was helping me with getting all of my stuff out of the closet under the stairs in the [...]

Mere’s top wish for Christmas is a Mere-sized laptop, Ubuntu Linux only, please.   We know that her own laptop is something that she’s wanted for a while; the PC she ‘owns’ is my old one, and it’s a little slow in spots.  I’m not sure if we could gas it up with some RAM and [...]

There’s been a big push here to organize the tons of CDs and DVDs in the house that are home-made - DVDs off of the TiVo, of course, are the big item, but there’s a ton of outdated software stuff around, and I’m tired of scratching for things when I need them.
All of the software [...]

Let’s just say that the best of us get caught sometimes, and leave it at that.  Virus nailed my computer Thursday  in the late morning, and I spent an enormous amount of time nailing the SOB.  (One advantage of dual boot is that you can go over to the Ubuntu side and nail files that [...]

Does anyone here have any recommendations on software that writes out documents by voice commands?  No Mac-only software, please.  I can handle Ubuntu Linux or WinXP.

Frustration rant inside.  You are warned.  No politics, some job, some computer, some medical.
Also, happy birthday to LJ:quietdarkness!

My main computer (the one on my desktop) has been giving me fits for a number of reasons, one big one being storage space - and the lack of it.  I have too much stuff, and one drive that was supposed to be an archive drive has been giving me fits along the lines of [...]

My internet access on Wednesday went to heck in a handbasket for a while.  The Netgear router that is the hub of our house network (4-5 PCs, 3 TiVos and a partridge in a pear tree) has been acting up a lot recently; won’t hold settings and so on.  Finally, I got mad and decided [...]

Case Number one: I have been having all sorts of burning problems for a while.  I’m an absolute rat bahstahd about backup stuff, and first the old burner coughed and choked over any media I put in it, getting picky to the point of unusability.  Replaced it with a new Sony DRU-180A.  After a while, [...]

Very interesting new browser, just released from Google.  I use a lot of Google stuff, and I was impressed with the speed and reliability of the thing.  It doesn’t have a Linux version yet, unfortunately.
I generally hate and despise Internet Explorer as clunky; I have found again and again that ‘The Microsoft Way’ is clunky [...]

I tend to use Open Office anymore, partly because I want to help in the no-thanks-Microsoft universe, but also because I really hate Office 2007.  I really hate the new interface ribbons, because you simple cannot find things anymore. My workplace uses Office 2003, but one of the people works at home a lot and [...]

We got home last night at 5 am after a marathon 12-hour effort to backup and transfer stuff from Susan’s Aunt’s computer(s), and I slept until Susan left at 10 am to go and do some stuff at Meredith’s end-of-summer Girl Scout camp.   I ate some lunchish stuff, and fell asleep again until 2:15 pm, [...]

Recently, Susan and I have been up to her Aunt’s house in Elgin or out to talk to her about her computer problems.  Auntie (Susan’s mom’s sister) operates a doctors’ organization that has a couple of big yearly meetings (for training updates, and other conference stuff) and some smaller ones, and it’s sometimes amusing to [...]

How often do you change the backgrounds on your computers, and what sort of stuff do you usally have there?
As for me:
WORK:  picture of Meredith roller skating from last May
LAPTOP: Picture of the twins from last year, looking very much like themselves…
HOME UBUNTU:  Comet McNaught over a sunset, with lots of dark, layered clouds.  (I [...]

Well, there’s some progress on the diet…I’ve lost 14 pounds as of a week and a half ago, and some of my pants are getting baggy enough that a small yank would send me into HELLO! territory.  The dietician-types were quite happy with what I was doing, gave me some refineness and suggestions, and [...]