This blog goes back quite a few years and will soon be marking its tenth year which in the world of computing and the internet in particular is quite some time.
The origins of this blog go back to joining Friends Reunited in 2004 which had a blogging or perhaps more accurately a journalling facility to which you could send links via email to but was designed for site members to help keep in touch with each other.
I looked at it, tried it but even Blogger circa 2006 was a better tool so that's why this blog ended up here.
The site Friends Reunited launched in 2001 with a simple premise which was to enable people to get in touch with each other by holding information people freely submitted about the school, college, university and places of work they went to in groups.
You could search by name, year, place or establishment they had something to do with which soon made this UK site one of the biggest sites on the web.
I joined to keep track of some of my friends who were still alive (many sadly have life-shortening conditions) from the schools we attended using it to get back in touch and learn more about how our lives had moved.
It's success bought it to the attentions of various groups like ITV Plc who bought and in the eyes of many messed it up to fit its commercial interests introducing fees too and in 2010 it was returned to it's original owners.
The world has moved on since those heady days, with the growth of things like Facebook, Google Plus, Tumblr etc and so in that time it's users fell.
It'll be closed shortly simply because it's really lost what would keep it a sustainable entity a lot of big users posting with the small number left using it to just post messages to each other.
R.I.P Friends Reunited.
There can be a number of reasons why you may be looking at extra storage with your computer or tablet.
For instance it may be your built in memory is limited with many Chromebooks having just 32 gb or you have a great but older laptop with around 40 to 80gb of memory in the form of a hard drive.
It may be you have a more modern laptop with around 250gb or more built in hard drive which is adequate for most things with the possible exception of lots of HD video but are looking at safe storage for things like photos or music download you bought.
You do have a number of options, one being using cloud storage or image sites which is fine but you need reliable internet access to 'pull down' your documents and media.
For that reason some of us look toward 'local storage' of which one of the oldest is the humble USB memory stick which gives us a small form Solid State memory in increasing capacities but when it comes to gigabyte per pound value a mechanical portable hard drive is hard to beat
Recently I bought a new one, a Toshiba Canvio Basics series one with a capacity of 500gb and is USB 3.0 compatible for extra read/write speed with newer computers for £33.99 delivered from Amazon UK.
It's pretty barebones, no software to install with buttons to press for backing up and comes pre-formatted to NFTS for Windows (although it can be re-formatted for Apple's OSX) and is literally plug and play with your computer finding and installing the driver.
You just drag and drop what you want to copy on to it, maybe creating a folder and that's it a cheap and good answer to storage stuff safe in case your computer has a malfunction.
Like most of you I woke up, Monday (1/11/2016) around a quarter of Seven to the shock news that David Bowie had dead at the age of Sixty-Nine something the shocking for Blackstar, his last album had only been released Friday to glowing reviews.
I'm feeling rather numb even now about this but in looking at his achievements, the first thing I would say is he seldom if ever repeated himself, sometimes to a fault, always reinventing himself and working with new ideas and exploring whole different genres.
His catalogue could never be described as being in anyway samey, indeed you find some fans have one period they major on although perhaps basic I have a more wider interest in music and music-making I'm not in that camp.
He broke new ground in the topics he sang and wrote about, brought new sounds to the mainstreams ears...and moved on to the next.
I could never just pick a half dozen of his albums although Hunky Dory, Aladdin Sane, Diamond Dogs Station to Station and Scary Monsters sure would feature.
The other area I'd say was outside of music, he was a proper actor who did star in three films not least The Man Who Fell To Earth and in several stage productions, did understand the importance of creating personas, costumes and staging which in conjunction with the use of music videos which he was a pioneer of, provided the total package. It's quite probable that the American Hard Rockers Kiss were influence by aspects of his work, the story telling and that total package from Hunky Dory and Ziggy era.
The other area was in being open about his sexuality, exploring gender presentation together with Lou Reed and to an extent Elton John collectively they opened up a conversation around what it means to have a sexual and gender identity, how we express it and how that differs for all of us.
For anyone who was Lgbtqi in the 70's and 80's you don't need me to say just how being himself, David give us space and aided the greater toleration of difference. We owe him that regardless of our music tastes and I suspect for a good number of the depth of feeling we have in mourning him is influenced by that, it has a personal quality to it.
He also to his credit took on MTV in its lack of music of black origin in it's early days and even of the faces of People of Colour from its programming and got that changed.
Rest in Peace David.
It's been an odd week thinking through and dealing with emotional issues some of which I've commented upon at other places and that while running with an out with old and in with the new philosophy too.
But anyway, I've spent ages looking for a decent sounding Smokie compilation with hits like Living Next Door to Alice and It's Your Life as for some reason most either don't or feature re-recordings rather than the hits I remember.
I started off with this one but it was rather murky sounding.
So in 2011 I picked up a Music Club Deluxe double cd that came out in 2007 thinking this would be it as the selection was pretty generous and unlike some of their others this was a bit less of a random playlist and even featured a collaboration with Suzi Quatro.
That ticked all the boxes apart from quality as most the tracks sounded thin lack someone had shaved anything below 70hz off of them and a raspy in places too.
In the end I tracked a series of comments on various sites that suggested an earlier compilation from the early 1990's al;though I think it originally was issued in a different form in 1989.
That one, issued and pressed by BMG in Germany sounds so much better with bass and the vocals coming through in a rich clear way is it even though it only has 14 tracks, covers only up to 1978 and clocks just under 50 minutes like an lp of that era might.
I'm also going through and ditching a few other poorer sounding cds where I have better replacements as I think you can end up just keeping one of everything regardless.
Never mind the collector mentality, I'd rather have one good copy thanks.
This entry will be a bit different than those in the past in that normally by now I've gotten two entries out or at least half prepared and I haven't but anyway I think I'll start by hoping you've all had a great Christmas.
Christmas was a bit different here being at home unlike previous years so we did a lot home catering which providing you're up the preparation part is fine and actually work out at least as good as if not better than the meals we've had out for a good deal less of the money.
When it comes to salads which if you're like us, you've had your cooked meal middayish the one thing I tend to find is many of the so-called classic Pork Pies tend to be thick on the pastry side with a fair amount of jelly so when you take a bite into them, you get through quite a bit before you taste the pork.
Well, given we live in a market town in the North-west Midlands, we bought a lot of stuff from local shops and that included our Pork Pies which came from Chatwins of Cheshire as the large ones, the sort you divide up into portions had a nicer thin pastry so it was more like a pie made from pork so you bit right into the pork which was delicious.
With not being well some of my presents are due to arrive soonish but I had some money, vouchers for HMV which I can use in Liverpool, Stoke or Wolverhampton for cd or vinyls and coming soon will be some micro sd cards for my Fiio music player.
Incidentally if you bought any Beatles albums from Amazon, do check your Amazon Music folder as they may well of given you some complementary Mp3 versions as last night I found I had a few!
Usually around the New Year I talk a bit about the previous year and how I see things going into the next and this time it's no exception.
Last year was quite a different year for me in that some things that had held me back in the past got some attention, I had a number of emotionally painful events take place that really tested my ability to cope, the help I've been given and also challenged head on some the assumptions around what really matters the most to me personally.
I also learned the time I spent with friends by it face to face or in small groups online had the most value, being supported and coming through the pain to carry one with deal what we have to - that continuing life - mattered the most so I'll be structuring my life more to take account of what I've learnt.
Endless hours into the morning on social media really is not good for me.
On this blog we've looked at music quite a bit not least cos I find it very therapeutic once one avoids the smart arses at some sites, the growing number of so-called high resolution downloads and 'bare bones' inexpensive box sets the major companies are putting out.
I'd like to end this entry by thanking the Angelic Crew and the Boneses for your company and laughs (do you know anyone that makes such awful puns?) and wishing you all a Happy New Year.
Yes on the 555th post on this blog, the last entry before Christmas Day, I thought I'd put up a seasonal card style illustration cos I think most of us are near enough ready not that we don't have the mad panic on Christmas eve if we've gotten X their present and just why is Z's card still on the table.
Over recent years I've just adopted more the attitude that what's been done is and anything that hasn't can be put aright afterward where in any event it may be more appreciated anyway rather than rushing around the shops and then round to folks.
*****HAPPY CHRISTMAS FOLKS*****
Yip, that's very much how I feel at the minute here tired, unwell and tying to get things done when it seems time is running out..
After evening meal here I'll write out a few more cards for when folk come at the weekend although having been unwell enough to visit the local store and cash machine, presents may just have to wait until later even possible after Christmas day as there's just no way I'm well enough to get them sorted out and have a hope in heck of being well myself for Christmas.
The only minor consolations of sorts from this severe Winter Flu is I did get around to setting up SlimJet fully on the laptop, ditching chrome and using the secure master password protected autofill data manager for stuff like log ins to sites.
As well I did get a bit of music file management done, recopying a good number for better sound and full sets album art not least on my Rolling Stones discs outside of those I got the Mastered For iTunes editions of which has worked out very well.
While I was at it I got the 1994 editions of the Goats Head Soup and It's Only Rock And Roll albums which I allowed myself to replace by the first editions at the instigation of others but regretting it shortly afterward.
It was during an era when I was very much in awe of one website and it's more prolific posters, thinking they were 'the ears' just ditching discs because they were saying what they had were better rather than if I felt there was any reason to.
I've matured quite a bit since then making my own decisions in my time to suit what I feel is best to my ears and learned to appreciate the music more.
