Category: IT

Today was the day to complete our annual data snapshot (around 500GB compressed) onto encrypted thumb drives. I keep these drives indefinitely, so if we ever need to recover an old file that we accidentally deleted at some time in the past, we can hopefully recover it from a snapshot.

My tweaking project for the next few days involves setting up this Dell tower that arrived today. It’s replacing a 15-year-old Windows system, which will lose Microsoft support this fall and isn’t safely upgradable. Here, the new computer is tucked away behind a partition wall. The 19-year-old monitor and the 10-year-old Brother networked laser printer/scanner continue to meet our needs.

Replaced our Wi-Fi mesh which used routers first sold in 2016. Since then, communications standards have improved enough for this nerd to want to take advantage of a Black Friday deal. The Google routers are wired to Ethernet at three points in our home. I’ll convert the old routers into a Doctors Without Borders donation via eBay.

Our 14-year-old Dell was slowing down, so I gave it a new lease on life today by dual-booting Windows 10 and Linux (Ubuntu). Running Linux, it’s blazingly fast and handles almost everything Dwight and I need. Total outlay: $0.00 + too much of my time.

Ordered the current Google Pixel tablets to replace these 2018 6th generation iPads. The Pixel tablets are $399 each, but Google is offering a $399 trade-in for each iPad, with free shipping. The only cost is sales tax (6.875% Minnesota, 0.65% Hennepin County, and 0.5% Minneapolis), which comes out to $36.01 per tablet. We already…… Continue reading An Irresistible Upgrade

Downloaded files from our cloud service to an encrypted 256GB thumb drive which we will keep permanently. Doing this periodically is some protection from worst-case scenarios like being permanently locked out of the cloud service.

Our VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) adapter decided to brick itself, and no amount of coaxing could bring it back to life. It had saved us a bundle on phone calls over the past 11 years but it was time to order a new adapter.

Me: “OK Google, add toothpaste to the shopping list.” We’d like to change the wakeup words to “OK Janet”—a kind and wise Scottish housekeeper for two doctors in a 1960’s BBC TV series. Unlike with Google Assistant, Janet would offer to pour a “wee dram” and toothpaste would never run out.