USB thumb drive is a wonderful thing
About a month ago was browsing the local computer shop and they had a package deal for Encarta 2007 for $49.95 including a 512 MB USB 2.0 (compatible with USB v1.1) flash drive. As they are about $30.00 elsewhere, couldn't resist even though had a copy of Encarta 2006 and didn't expect to upgrade until 08/09. However, this neat device has allowed me to retire my Zip drive/several 100 MB cartridges. One disadvantage, it is so small that I've already left it behind at the cybercafe but now leave out my glasses case to remind me to put it back in the case before I leave. Now need a 1, 2 or 4 GB drive, as have a copy of Personal Ancestral File (PAF) v5.x plus the whidden.paf database (15 MB plus 8.5 MB) is installed and now able to update the database while at the cybercafe. Previously, was using PAF on the PalmOne PDA but only able to have about half of the database and that was read only.
Yesterday, a friend sent me a link for an 85 MB download from http://portableapps.com/ which is a version of several applications: Firefox v2.0, OpenOffice v2.0 and other tools that can be installed in the USB drive and run from there when I go to the cybercafe. Now I can get familiar with a variety of tools and always use them no matter where I am. However, the installed version of Portable Apps is 245 MB.
For example, during an upcoming trip to the Vancouver area I can show my uncle and aunt the latest work on the Whidden and Freeman/Jarvinen/Syrjanen families. Of course I could previously do that by taking it with me on CD-ROM but then that is read only, too. Now if they have additional information, I can just update the database as if I had a laptop computer. Just a thought; sure hope their computer has a USB port.
Just discovered I can save almost $200.00 by getting my bus tickets for an upcoming trip to visit my sister in Campbell River on Vancouver Island for the first time. The last time I saw her was when I was living in Toronto and was sent for two short courses at Microsoft and I had flown to Vancouver and rented a car to drive to/from Seattle. She came to Vancouver for the last of her cancer checkups so we were able to get together for an evening. We talk on the phone at least twice a month and sometimes weekly.
The weather has been cold with winter arriving two weeks earlier than usual in mid-October and most of November being five degrees Celsius colder than average but at the end of November went to twenty degrees colder than normal. Snow has accumulated so now we have snow banks three feet deep along the streets. This is January weather but then this is Alberta. After last winters warmer than average temperatures, we're back to real winter. I remember when I first started working in Manning in the 1960s when it was 60ยบ F below for an entire week. It took me a month to thaw out my used car purchased earlier.
Cheers, Ray
Yesterday, a friend sent me a link for an 85 MB download from http://portableapps.com/ which is a version of several applications: Firefox v2.0, OpenOffice v2.0 and other tools that can be installed in the USB drive and run from there when I go to the cybercafe. Now I can get familiar with a variety of tools and always use them no matter where I am. However, the installed version of Portable Apps is 245 MB.
For example, during an upcoming trip to the Vancouver area I can show my uncle and aunt the latest work on the Whidden and Freeman/Jarvinen/Syrjanen families. Of course I could previously do that by taking it with me on CD-ROM but then that is read only, too. Now if they have additional information, I can just update the database as if I had a laptop computer. Just a thought; sure hope their computer has a USB port.
Just discovered I can save almost $200.00 by getting my bus tickets for an upcoming trip to visit my sister in Campbell River on Vancouver Island for the first time. The last time I saw her was when I was living in Toronto and was sent for two short courses at Microsoft and I had flown to Vancouver and rented a car to drive to/from Seattle. She came to Vancouver for the last of her cancer checkups so we were able to get together for an evening. We talk on the phone at least twice a month and sometimes weekly.
The weather has been cold with winter arriving two weeks earlier than usual in mid-October and most of November being five degrees Celsius colder than average but at the end of November went to twenty degrees colder than normal. Snow has accumulated so now we have snow banks three feet deep along the streets. This is January weather but then this is Alberta. After last winters warmer than average temperatures, we're back to real winter. I remember when I first started working in Manning in the 1960s when it was 60ยบ F below for an entire week. It took me a month to thaw out my used car purchased earlier.
Cheers, Ray
posted by Unknown at
1:49 PM
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