Speedy's Cafe - General Chat about anything you like!

[Carol the Dabbler]

3 hours ago, Artemis said:

I've seen hard drives as big as 2 terabytes.  I've heard talk of 15 - 20 TB drives but haven't seen one offered in a PC yet.

Even a 2 TB drive strikes me as a reasonable approximation to infinity.  (But then I remember when a 5 meg hard drive was big, so don't mind me.)

[Arcadia]

22 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Loads easier to reformat it -- but it'd have to be in a working computer for that.  

 

18 hours ago, J.P. said:

Usual reformatting discs will only delete the directories. The data itself is still there and a specialist can still access them. There are options on the newer devices with the names like secure delete or similar. You could try to fill your disc with some huge amount of trash data, but it would take a lot of time.

Hence running over it with the car. Next time I'll try my friend's giant SUV. I'd try leaving it on the railroad tracks but I'd probably get arrested.

 

22 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Alex sometimes gets emails from Dell when their laptops are on sale, and they sometimes have some pretty good deals.  I'll see if he can tell me how you could get on that mailing list.  OK, he's asleep (sensible fellow!), but I just sent him an email.

Thanks, but I already get them. The problem is in knowing which one to buy, I'm not savvy enough about tech language to really understand the ads. Probably my best bet would be to call them and tell them what I need to use it for. Some day.

[Artemis]

I have a 1 TB external hard drive for file storage, and I can't currently imagine ever using up all that space.  That's the way it goes though, files get bigger.  Each music file I own takes up about 4 MB (and I have quite a lot), and picture files are getting larger and larger as quality improves.  They used to be just a few KB's, and now some of them are 3 MB or more.  In 2005 I owned a Dell with a screen resolution of 1024x768, pretty good in its day.  I had a bunch of photos from Scotland that were taking up much-needed storage space on my tiny hard drive, so I decided a good solution would be to reduce the size of all my photos from their original size to 1024x768.  I thought, "This screen is huge, I'm never going to need them any bigger than this anyway."  15 years later and the screen resolution of my comparably-sized laptop is 1920x1080 (which isn't even the largest it could be), and now I have to squint to see my photos of Scotland.

 

[Arcadia]

Yeah, I think the majority of the space being taken up on my hard drive is photos ... and full-size scans of my artwork. (For example, a 16x20 painting scanned at 360 dpi is around 93MB.) I didn't realize music files were that big but I have a ton of those too. And yet I'm still using less than a fourth of my hard drive space. My first laptop would have fainted dead away at those figures.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

10 hours ago, Arcadia said:

Thanks, but I already get them. The problem is in knowing which one to buy, I'm not savvy enough about tech language to really understand the ads. Probably my best bet would be to call them and tell them what I need to use it for.

True.  Despite my software background, I'm kind of in the same boat regarding personal computers, so I ask my IT Guy (AKA Hubby).  Yes, phoning their help department would be a good idea.

Alex did tell me how to get on their email list, though, so I'll post the info in case anyone else would like to do so:

Sign Up for Dell Email Updates

Dell Technologies and its group of companies would love to stay in touch to hear about your needs and to keep you updated on products, services, solutions, exclusive offers and special events.

And here's the link:  https://www.dell.com/preferences/signup/?c=us&l=en&s=dhs

He says those offers sometimes include good laptops for around two hundred dollars.

 

[Artemis]

7 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Despite my software background, I'm kind of in the same boat regarding personal computers, so I ask my IT Guy (AKA Hubby).

My dad is a programmer but that doesn't seem to translate to "tech savvy", lol.  I end up teaching him most system/internet functions, and I'm nowhere near techy myself.  Just have more experience with casual computer use, I guess.

My first 2 computers were Dells, and they each broke irreparably within 4 years.  Which isn't horrible, but I'll probably never get one again.  My next computer was an HP, which I really liked and lasted me a good 8 or 9 years before it died.  I probably would have gotten another, but I had already purchased this Lenovo for work.  I like it even better than my HP, and if it stands the test of time, I'll probably stick with Lenovo in the future.

11 hours ago, Arcadia said:

(For example, a 16x20 painting scanned at 360 dpi is around 93MB.)

Wow, that is massive!

11 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I didn't realize music files were that big but I have a ton of those too.

They're even bigger than I thought.  I have about 6400 songs, which take up about 43 GB of space.  So that averages to about 6.7 MB per file.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

4 hours ago, Artemis said:

My dad is a programmer but that doesn't seem to translate to "tech savvy", lol.  I end up teaching him most system/internet functions, and I'm nowhere near techy myself.  Just have more experience with casual computer use, I guess.

It's because computers are incredibly versatile, so experience with one computer system doesn't necessarily teach you much about some other computer system.  For example, someone who programs missile-control systems and someone who programs telephone-billing systems would have very little knowledge in common.  So unless your dad programs PCs and/or internet-related software, there's no reason for him to know how to do online stuff.

4 hours ago, Artemis said:

I had already purchased this Lenovo for work.  I like it even better than my HP, and if it stands the test of time, I'll probably stick with Lenovo in the future.

Now there's a brand I don't recall hearing about before.  Can you give us some idea of what you especially like about it?

 

[Artemis]

1 hour ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

It's because computers are incredibly versatile, so experience with one computer system doesn't necessarily teach you much about some other computer system.  For example, someone who programs missile-control systems and someone who programs telephone-billing systems would have very little knowledge in common.  So unless your dad programs PCs and/or internet-related software, there's no reason for him to know how to do online stuff.

Right, and his area of expertise is a very small niche.  I didn't just mean online stuff though, I was also talking about basic operations within the Windows system and such.  It surprises me sometimes when he hasn't learned how to do something just by way of using the computer.

1 hour ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Now there's a brand I don't recall hearing about before.  Can you give us some idea of what you especially like about it?

It's hard to say with much specificity.  Everything just runs so smoothly on it.  It's a nice experience.  I very rarely have an issue to address, whereas with other brands I'd run into some kind of glitch or error every few months.  It's super fast, intuitive, and easily customizable to my liking.  (I don't know if customizing features are the same across Windows or particular to a brand, but apparently Arcadia is unable to manipulate touchpad settings on her HP, while I can on my Lenovo.)  There's a support app called Lenovo Vantage that gives me an overview of information pertinent to my computer and offers relevant updates, and the Lenovo website is generally very helpful and navigable too.  It's aesthetically pleasing as well, the display is beautiful and I love the design and feel of the keyboard.  The only thing I don't like about it is that, because it's the kind of laptop that can convert to a tablet, they put the speakers on the bottom with the assumption that it would be standing up instead of laying flat.  It's fine when resting on a desk, but when on my lap (as it usually is), the sound gets a bit muffled.  On the flipside, they're still the best speakers I've ever had on a laptop, so that almost makes up for it.  I usually listen to music with headphones anyway, so it's not too much of a problem.  It's the one thing I would change, though.

But like I said, we'll see how it stands up to the test of time.  I've had this laptop for some time but only been using it heavily for about a year, so I hesitate to commend it too soon.  And some of this could simply come down to the fact that I'm using a newer computer that can handle newer tech better than my old HP hunk.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

39 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Right, and his area of expertise is a very small niche.  I didn't just mean online stuff though, I was also talking about basic operations within the Windows system and such.  It surprises me sometimes when he hasn't learned how to do something just by way of using the computer.

Same thing applies, though.  Unless he writes software for Windows systems, there's no reason why he should understand those things.  It's like expecting someone who knows how to operate an automobile or an airplane or a tank to know how to operate the other two, just because they're all vehicles.

44 minutes ago, Artemis said:

But like I said, we'll see how it stands up to the test of time.  I've had this laptop for some time but only been using it heavily for about a year, so I hesitate to commend it too soon.  And some of this could simply come down to the fact that I'm using a newer computer that can handle newer tech better than my old HP hunk.

True.  But please keep us posted.

 

[Artemis]

2 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Same thing applies, though.  Unless he writes software for Windows systems, there's no reason why he should understand those things.  It's like expecting someone who knows how to operate an automobile or an airplane or a tank to know how to operate the other two, just because they're all vehicles.

Right.  When I said that programming doesn't translate to being tech savvy, I was just reiterating you, not contradicting, lol.  Sorry if I was unclear.  Since we're discussing though, I'm not sure your analogy here applies to many of the things I end up teaching him.  For instance, when I was talking about "basic operations" of the system, I meant something as simple as copy/paste.  My dad knew about CTRL+C/CTRL+V, but he didn't know you could copy/paste by right-clicking.  If he were a light computer user, I would understand.  But I'd expect anyone who works on a computer all day for decades to have discovered, somewhere along the way, that there is more than one way to copy/paste, just by using the computer and clicking on things.  No one taught me about right-clicking, I just right-clicked on something one day and saw the word "copy".  I think it's reasonable to be surprised when a daily computer user doesn't know about something like copy/paste, isn't it?  Or am I way off? 

2 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

True.  But please keep us posted.

Will do!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

7 hours ago, Artemis said:

My dad knew about CTRL+C/CTRL+V, but he didn't know you could copy/paste by right-clicking.  If he were a light computer user, I would understand.  But I'd expect anyone who works on a computer all day for decades to have discovered, somewhere along the way, that there is more than one way to copy/paste, just by using the computer and clicking on things.

Again, unless his job involves Windows systems, there's no particular reason he should know that.  It's not inherent in computers per se.  (Computers are just big calculators that can remember a set of instructions.)  It may be a relatively common feature these days (I don't know), but it depends on which operating system and which development software he's using.  Does his work system even have a mouse?

 

[Artemis]

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Again, unless his job involves Windows systems, there's no particular reason he should know that.

Ehhhhh, we’ll have to agree to disagree on that part.  I think there is plenty of reason, lol.

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

It may be a relatively common feature these days (I don't know),

It is standard, at least on Windows.  It has been since at least the late 90’s.  Before that I can’t recall, since I only ever used the computer to play games back then.

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

but it depends on which operating system and which development software he's using.

He uses Windows (whichever is the most updated version at the time), and he works with DataStage, which is a software program that runs on a regular PC like the kind we all use at home.  There’s nothing particularly strange or unusual about it, it’s point/click/type.

5 hours ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

Does his work system even have a mouse?

Yes.  He’s never not used a mouse with his computer.

Is the plural of mouse (the computer kind) mouses or mice?  ‘Mice’ sounds weird when talking about a computer mouse, lol.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Artemis said:

He uses Windows

Then I agree it's a bit odd that he hadn't learned to copy and/or paste via a right click.  But I will point out that I was only vaguely aware of that option myself.  Since Ctrl/C and Ctrl/V are readily available, I never bothered to learn any alternative techniques (until I got a smart phone, that is).

2 hours ago, Artemis said:

Is the plural of mouse (the computer kind) mouses or mice?  ‘Mice’ sounds weird when talking about a computer mouse, lol.

I'm not sure there *is* a correct plural -- either one sounds odd to me.  (Besides, I prefer touchpads.)

 

[Artemis]

8 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

I'm not sure there *is* a correct plural -- either one sounds odd to me.  (Besides, I prefer touchpads.)

That's true, they both sound strange, lol.  I also prefer touchpads.  A lot of people think they're harder to use, but I find them easier, and not as hard on my hand with extended use.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

2 hours ago, Artemis said:

I find them easier, and not as hard on my hand with extended use.

Same here.  We got our first touchpad because Alex was starting to have carpal tunnel problems (due to being on the computer all day at work as well as some at home), and I tried it and loved it, so I got one too.

The only beef I have with them is that it's harder to highlight a large block -- so I generally use the keyboard for that.

 

[Artemis]

14 minutes ago, Carol the Dabbler said:

The only beef I have with them is that it's harder to highlight a large block -- so I generally use the keyboard for that.

Ditto, highlighting is a pain.  Is it easier for you to highlight just one word?  You probably know this already, but if you highlight one bit at the beginning, and then set your cursor at the end of the block, and press CTRL+SHIFT, it should highlight the entire block for you.

Sometimes I also find it easier to highlight from the bottom up instead of top down, but it depends on the content.

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

14 minutes ago, Artemis said:

if you highlight one bit at the beginning, and then set your cursor at the end of the block, and press CTRL+SHIFT, it should highlight the entire block for you.

I did not know that!  But I find it easy enough to position the cursor at the beginning and then use the down-arrow to highlight however much I want.

14 minutes ago, Artemis said:

Is it easier for you to highlight just one word?

It's a piece of cake.  And it's easy enough to highlight several lines.  But if I want to highlight past the current end of the screen, it's kinda dicey.  Sometimes it'll scroll a bit further down for me, but more often it just kicks me out.  So, as mentioned, I generally use the arrow keys when highlighting more than a screenful.

 

[Fantasy Lover]

So I have a girlfriend now and last month we celebrated our 2 month anniversary, and when we were dating I had to tell people I met someone, including people who I hadn't came out to. I genuinely forgot the anxiety when coming out, some didn't believe me. But sometimes it was amusing, then I had a conversation that went like this: "I met someone." "That's nice, where does he live?" "What kind of job does he has?" Is he older or younger than you?" and then finally "What's his name?" So I answered each question without using a pronoun, but when I said a girl's name seeing the penny drop was just priceless.

[Caya]

Well congratulations! I wish you two all the best for your relationship.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Congratulations, indeed, FL!

Your story reminds me of the scene where John tells Mrs. Hudson that he's "met someone."

 

[Artemis]

Random fact: There will be a full moon on Halloween this year, which will also be a blue moon.  And it will be an extra long night, because of the Daylight Saving change.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I just thought that was cool, lol.

 

[besleybean]

The school kids are already grieving the loss of Hallowe'en this year...

I have pointed out to them that it will still happen, whether or not they get to trick or treat is another matter.

Another festival I dislike.

I am such a misery!

[Carol the Dabbler]

20 hours ago, besleybean said:

The school kids are already grieving the loss of Hallowe'en this year...

I have pointed out to them that it will still happen, whether or not they get to trick or treat is another matter.

Has trick or treat been officially cancelled over there?

It's handled town by town here, and so far I haven't seen any towns cancelling it, just setting specific hours.  Everyone is supposed to wear a mask, of course, but that's normal on Halloween.

 

[Artemis]

I'll be surprised if it doesn't get cancelled here.  It hasn't yet, but there's still time.

 

[besleybean]

I didn't really think it was something that The Powers That Be could officially cancel!

I mean the most they could do was put out a ban on visiting other households.

We have some local lockdown here, at the minute...

Mainly in England I should add.

here is Scotland we stick to the rules!

Plus we don't have that many large, dense cities.