[warning: geekery]

First there was a new processor and motherboard. Then James had to put Win2000 on my computer. I have a 20GB hard drive that is nowhere near full; I probably still have 10GB empty. However, even though I only install Windows things to C:, the Windows-designated drive, and all other programs in other designated drives (WordPerfect in the Publishing drive, E:, Paint Shop Pro and PhotoImpact in the Graphics drive, F:, etc., the programs still insist on installing one part to Windows—for instance, PSP9 shoved an entire set of templates on the C: drive and I can’t find any preference that makes changing these templates to another drive possible. Internet Explorer 6, which I needed for teleworking, installed on C: without even asking me where I wanted it to go, so typical of Microsoft (do it our way or don’t do it).

This means that, especially since I had to install Service Pack 4 to get my telework connection to work properly, that C: is getting pretty full. If AVG (my virus software) or any further Windows updates go in, I will not be able to defrag that drive any longer, since it will only defrag if you have 15 percent or more of the disk free.

So, reluctantly, Sunday we went out to Fry’s hunting up a new hard drive. We went to the Fry’s in Alpharetta, rather than the one at Gwinnett Mall, and, except for the fact that they had no bread bowls at the café so I could have soup for lunch, I much preferred it. The Gwinnett Fry’s is always loud, with a stereo blaring, sound up high on several movies playing, and one of those Dance-Dance game things going at top volume. This was a nice quiet shopping experience.

The smallest drive we could find was 120GB! Wow. I was thinking a 40, like James has now, or an 80, but nothing that small was in sight. James also bought something that is supposed to copy your old hard drive to the new, including things like passwords, preferences, etc., and, if your hard disk is partitioned, to expand the old partitions to fit the new ones. (No, it’s not Ghost.) This would be quite useful, as I dread having to re-do things like my mailboxes in Eudora, my FTP settings, and my publish settings in HTMLAssistant Pro.

I keep looking at WindowsXP, but it’s $99 just for the upgrade, f’Gossakes. James says for his own computer he does not want the Home edition because it doesn’t come with "everything" (I have no idea what "everything" is, but I’m sure it’s useful technical stuff). The edition he wants, complete, is $299.00. Aieee! I also keep setting covetous eyes on the latest edition of WordPerfect, which is supposed to have a setting that emulates the wonderful old DOS blank screen. "Ah, youth!" :-) (The student edition also has a new version of Paradox.)

While we were there I bought the new copy of Secret of NIMH, which is properly letterboxed. This is the movie that features the beautiful lullaby “Flying Dreams,” which I used to sing to Sylvester-bird and which we danced to at our wedding reception in Rhode Island; it became the name of our APAzine and finally the name of our web domain.

As we passed the books I notice a large trade paperback book called Remembering Walt. I looked at it, and as it seemed to be just printed "sound bytes," most which I had read before (since I have at least six Disney biographies), with lots of photos, I was going to put it back until I noticed it was only $7.00. The photos, more than half which I had never seen before, were worth that. One was a publicity shot of Walt advertising the NBC iteration of his long-running anthology show, The Wonderful World of Color, with posters of some of the offerings that I wish Disney would make available on DVD, like those great animal shorts. Another full-page shot has him with two 1964 World’s Fair posters. How could I resist?

We took the “back way” up to Fry’s rather than resorting to GA400. I would like to go some time on a Saturday, when we could stop at some of the stores we saw that were closed, like a Catholic gift shop. Also be early enough to stop at the Goodwill. Maybe this one has "good stuff." :-)

Labels: books, computers, shopping

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 12:37:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment