Technology Marches On

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Posted on October 28, 2016

I planned to write this post several days ago but life managed to get in the way.

Anyway, here I am back again.

We are usually fairly prompt in organising our tax details to send to our tax agent but this year was a different story. We headed overseas in the middle of July and did not return until the end of August. There were plenty of other things that seemed to demand our attention so the tax was put aside. Last weekend we finally collected up everything we needed to send. There were several digital files which we saved and attached to the email.

However, a couple of things almost defeated us. There was an email which we needed and we could not figure out a way to save an email as a file so decided to print it and then scan it and save the scan. Sounds easy? I thought so but that did not turn out to be the case.

We have recently upgraded our desktop computer and have a Microsoft tablet/laptop. Both of these are running on Windows 10 and we discovered (after much trial and error) that our printer is not compatible with Windows 10. Aargh!!

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The printer sits on top of the desk and is very rarely used. We could have waited until the next day and printed the email at work but decided to resort to another rather circuitous route. GMan retrieved our old laptop from the cupboard where it had been gathering dust and connected the printer to it. Thankfully, that laptop was still running Windows 7. So, we printed the email, scanned and saved it on the old laptop, copied it to a USB drive and thus transferred it to a folder on the desktop computer and we were back on track. It was a somewhat convoluted process but worked adequately for our needs.

At some stage we need to decide what to do about getting a new printer/scanner. It is something we want to have but are not desperate to have it immediately when we know that we have a workaround solution.

If anyone knows of a way to save an email as a file (preferably a pdf) I would love to know about it.

Downsizing by Design

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Posted on October 9, 2016

For the past couple of weeks I have been working from the Microsoft Surface Pro which we bought before we went overseas. I looked long and hard but in the end we opted for it instead of an iPad. The main reason was that it has a USB port (so that I can connect my camera to download photos) and a keyboard cover which functionally turns it into a laptop in addition to the features of a tablet.

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The main desktop computer had really reached the end of its useful life so we went to our local computer shop to buy a new ‘tower’. In the process we discovered a ‘mini’ computer which is 10cm square and about 5cm deep. Obviously, it is not suitable for everyone as it would depend on how you use your computer. We decided to purchase this little box and had all of the data and files from the old computer transferred over.

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We picked up the new computer on Saturday and intended to sit it on one of the small shelves above the desk. Imagine our surprise when we unpacked it and found that it could be mounted on the rear of the screen.

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Since the tower is no longer in the cupboard on the left-hand side of the desk and requiring ventilation, we have replaced the door and relocated the boxes of computer-related manuals and accessories from the top of the linen cupboard. The battery charger for the rechargeable batteries is also in there.

I decided that the small desk that was beside the computer desk could go in the guest room and I re-arranged the armchairs. Finally, I moved the office chair out and have temporarily replaced it with a ‘spare’ dining room chair. The office chair had arms on it which consistently banged the front of the desk. Since the chair could not be rolled in under the desk, it took up a lot of space in what is essentially quite a small room. I am going to replace it with another office chair without arms.

The office/library decluttering has been a long journey but it is interesting to contrast the photos from today with this one from a little over 5 years ago.

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Not Connected

Digital Declutter

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Posted on October 31, 2015

Today I had a clean-up on the computer, most specifically, emails.

Our regular email address is with gmail and we also run one through Outlook. I have been trying to unsubscribe from several sites which regularly dump emails in my Inbox as well as deleting ones that are no longer required but clearly that strategy was not working terribly well as in the category of “All Mail” there were 4,443 items!! It was time to get ruthless so GMan and I set to work. “All Mail” now contains 273 emails – a reduction of 4,130. This will be further reduced in a couple of weeks as I am holding quite a number of emails until after we have been to Adelaide for the memorial service.

The Outlook mail was a much smaller bundle but it is now down to less than 50 items.

As always, one thing leads to another and I have also sorted/deleted/filed the bookmarks and downloads as well as our documents on the computer.

However, before you start thinking how virtuous I am, let me remind you that the photos are still a huge work in progress along with dreams of cataloging the music. They are still ‘one day’ projects.

Just like physical decluttering, my efforts today make me feel much better.