Friday, October 13, 2017

New Technology are Us

Greetings Earthlings!  It has been a few days of technology.  Jim’s laptop died some time ago, then the backup Dell he was using died.  Then my laptop entered the death spiral.  So, two new HPs were purchased.  Things have changed in the laptop world.  Spinning disk is on the way out, being replaced with solid state disk and backing up to the Cloud.  That’s all well and good if you don’t have data caps.  So, that’s what I’m being told about laptop storage.

The HP is not without its drawbacks.  The form factor has changed.  Look in the bottom left corner.  See how the lid wraps around and down?  That edge is really sharp.  If, like me, you sit in a recliner with the laptop on your thighs, it’s really painful.

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I decided to go to the Microsoft store and see what they had.  There was a Dell, which was less uncomfortable so I bought that.  It was really expensive, but was on sale.  Try as I might, I could not bond with that laptop.  The touch pad is just atrocious.  Today it went back.  We were really expecting to have to argue, answer questions, have them haul it out of the box and inspect it and be generally aggravated.  Nope.  The kid took the bag at the front door, walked it back to the desk, refunded the money and wished us a nice day.  We were stunned.  They really mean it when they say bring it back within 30 days if you don’t like it.

It was weird, the Dell had the 6 point font in Open Live Writer.  The HP has it at 10 points.  I downloaded from the same site, but it downloaded differently.

So the PC odyssey is over, a piece of closed cell foam pipe wrap is providing enough cushion to save me from that sharp edge.

Yesterday Jim’s phone died.  The battery was done.  Look at the evolution of phone size.  The black shape on the left is the old phone.  In the middle is mine.  On the far right is the new Droid.  Apparently people live their lives on the phone, so they need a bigger screen.  It’s hard to hold. Verizon is so annoying.  After leading us to the $700 phone (!) they started telling us how the monthly payment could be lowered with the purchase of other items.  We got the hard sell on their version of Onstar (which bills monthly) and a tablet (which generates a line fee), I’m not sure how the savings were going to manifest.  We ended up with a phone that’s been on the market for 18 months and it’s good enough and a lot cheaper.

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The camera is pretty good.  The next three are from the new phone.  This is a tiny crop of a hydrangea.

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More fancy shoes at Nordstrom.  I can not even imagine…..

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A Chihuly hanging at the Lincoln Center shopping area.

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We’ve been doing a fair amount of walking in Bellevue.  We saw this at Macy’s.  It’s not even Halloween!

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Other than this paltry offering, I have nothing of any real import to report. 

6 comments:

  1. How many more hiking shoes do you need?

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  2. So which phone did you end up getting? That camera does a great job.
    So how does anyone stand, let alone walk, in shoes like that?

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    1. It's a Moto z2 Play, I think it's part of the Droid family, or maybe it was just next to a Droid. Those shoes are just insane!

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  3. Stunning photo of the hydrangea! One of these days I'll have to enter the 21st century and obtain a Smart phone. For now, I'm still using a flip phone and using my laptop for data. It's occasionally inconvenient but saves a lot of $$. My phone costs me $92/yr for airtime, and that's it. :)

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    1. I should add that I also have an old Android tablet with wi-fi (no cellular). It's old tech but good for reading e-books and the occasional internet access.

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