From the monthly archives:

March 2007

Definitely Not

27 March 2007

I’ve been reading some more and widening my perspective on Vista. My computer has decided to behave more normally the last couple of days so maybe it’s not panic-time yet. However, I figure, wherever possible in life, it’s a good idea to be informed and prepared instead of shocked. I’ve been in my database and photographs for a long time and just pick up bits and pieces of other things around the edges. If that’s you, too, here’s more info on OS choices.

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To V or not to V

25 March 2007

I’ve been avoiding this but I finally went and had a peek at Vista. It’s quite snazzy with all those 3-D effects and see-through tool-bars. How can I resist? It’s easy. I don’t need a new operating system. XP is here, it works, sort of, with a lot of help from other software. I thought I’d wait a year or two until some of the kinks are worked out.

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Desktop Organization

18 March 2007

This has nothing to do with genealogy, except if you consider more easily navigating around your files and folders an important issue for sanity’s sake.

I have no doubt there are numerous options available for this purpose. I’ll just tell you what I found to fit the bill. Once it was all working I had no need to look any further.

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Audio Editors

14 March 2007

If you’ve had about as much fun as you can stand with Google Earth for now, the other most fun thing you can do on a computer is audio.

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Slideshows

10 March 2007

My computer does not have a DVD-drive and it only has a 30 GB hard-drive so movies and videos are pretty much out of range here. Don’t know much about them really.

I once got excited over having AVI’s made of some 1950′s home movies; little bundles in snowsuits racing around the screen at warp speed, very funny stuff, so I tried taking one (4GB) apart to re-order the segments. Not only did it crash the program I was working with but it crashed my whole computer so bad I had to re-install the operating system. I’m sure smaller movies are possible but not something I’ve spent much time with so far. I’m still back in the dinosaur age with slideshows.

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Desktop Search

6 March 2007

If you don’t have desktop search software yet, this is a real handy item. A desktop search engine will index every file on your hard-drive and external drives, or any part thereof you choose, and bring up a list of search results faster than you can type in a complete word. They’re extremely useful for finding things on your computer, things you’re looking for or things you don’t know you even have.

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The Problem With Progress

4 March 2007

January 31, 1829

To: President Jackson:

The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation known as “railroads.” The federal government must preserve the canals for the fol­lowing reasons:

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Photo Filing

1 March 2007

Sure as the sun comes up tomorrow, someone will come up with another way to file photographs.

Having a photo collection is one thing. Trying to tell a story with pictures is something else. The choices for how to go about this are endless. To me, all this genealogy collecting comes down to presentation. So I try to look at this from the end point backwards. What and how am I going to share it? So, it helps to have a broad overview of a plan. And a photo filing system that allows me to change my mind.

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