Errata and Misimpressions of Prior Blog Posts

2013-03-09 (Last Updated 2013-03-09, v3)

* Buying a new computer does not mean discarding the old one. It means I need one, now, and in the foreseeable future (so I always have a backup when problems crop up, and I can “recover” my old one at “my leisure”). Eventually, I will reformat the old disk and figure out how I will convert it to a server (probably Linux and Samba). It will probably be a couple of weeks before I make the transition, but I need to buy one within the next week, to get that whole process completed ASAP.

* Macs are great computers. I've used them before – although not since they became real computers with a real OS (operating system)—BSD UNIX. My daughter swears by them (although she hated supporting them, when she was in college). Many of my tech friends have switched to them. My grandson has one also. My daughter and I bought my MDW one for her birthday a couple of years ago.

Macs have (a) better UI, by far, (b) more elegant design, (c) a better OS, (d) greater resistance to viruses and malware, (e) easier access to the galaxy of UNIX, GNU, Linux, and other free and open source software, and (f) more great applications outta the box. While (g), the hardware is better integrated, (h) Macs tend to have more disk problems (especially models that have the disk in the monitor case), (i) they cost a lot more, especially at the higher end of computing, (j) peripherals tend to be a lot more, and (k) “exotic” peripherals are either exorbitantly more or not available. I'm probably sticking with Windows, however, unless I find the new Windows versions unusable, or unusable by my legacy applications.

In fact, it might take me more than a week to prepare and research this before I make my decision. Initiating that prep process was an impetus to writing this.

* For the most part, I don't walk outside – because of my back and legs. When I say I don't go out in the snow, I mean I take my car wherever I go (given where I live), or someone drives me, but when I get to wherever I'm going, I can't count on the place to have removed all of the snow and ice, and I just don't want to risk another leg injury. And, while I do have cleats, it's hard to get them on and off, because of prior leg injuries. I try to confine my walking to treadmills where the environment is controlled, and there are handles to relieve back issues should they crop up. My walking is improving, but there seem to be real limits unless I get back surgery. Surgery is always a crap-shoot, and I'm still thinking about that decision because of other issues.

These days I exercise in only two possible places: my home, and usually on the treadmill, or the YMCA, where, as I said, there is a broader range of exercise possibilities, and I get the wonderfully heartening show of folks of all ages improving their lives.

* Transferring files from my old computer to new. All of my key data is backed up to USB memory sticks, at least once a day. All of my data, important and “not-so”, is always separate from any applications that use it AND Microsoft's rats' nest of path annoyances and formats. Moreover, it is always backed up to external disk or RAID, whenever there is significant change, but usually daily. It is always backed up in a way that makes it usable by any other computer or OS, on my network.

Moreover, the last thing I ever want is for some wannabe tech specialist or his retail company messing with my data (which includes personal and financial information). Anybody that does that is asking for TROUBLE, and eventually their “request” will be “granted”. Is my method foolproof? Nothing involving computers is ever foolproof, because nothing involving people is ever foolproof. Keep that in mind while forging your own plan of nutrition and fitness.

While I think there is a point to cloud-based storage/backup, and I do use Google Drive and Applications for some of my data, there are still risks here, and significant costs (if I move it all to the cloud).

Relevant Summary
----------------------
Whatever may be any of the issues above, I am better able to cope with (even live through) all the problems because of my success in a sound fitness and diet program, and the support I get, here, at SP.

When I have the time, my next serious, relevant post will be about social facilitation and the SP program. It will take as a jumping off point, a nice blog post by Joan (GREASYJOAN) at:

www.sparkpeople.c
om/mypage_public_journal_i
ndividual.asp?blog_id=5279263

Lee

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