Random thoughts on Labour Day

 Dilbert of the Day

Einstein's Chalkboard

"The three rules of work - out of clutter, find simplicity

From discord,  find harmony 

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity" - Albert Einstein.

 

“Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." -- Albert Einstein

 

 

 

Some Thinking on Stuff.

Right now - I'm in the middle of reviewing and updating all my computers. All my Windows-based machines are in the process of being reviewed and updated to the 20H1 versions where applicable and checking to see if they are going to be able to be updated to the new Windows 11.

I'm decluttering my IT life as well. Or trying to. Right now - I have four Laptop computers and one desktop PC, which are running Windows 10, which were the iStudio101 assets for doing my consulting on IT. Since the Lockdowns started taking effect in late 2019, my consulting business moved to my living room and died. My main IT work was helping folks get their PCs up and running and helping them set up their systems. "Have laptop - will travel" was my tagline - I could do video, websites - or whatever was needed. However, being in lockdown meant that I couldn't go to client sites to set up hardware, so the hardware part of my business died.

So now my machines are badly outdated - so much so that I'm actually writing this blog post on a Chromebook. So far, the Lenovo ThinkCentre desktop, which was the main unit, has failed spectacularly and is now sulking in the corner of my desk with the video camera and the two monitors, waiting for me to resurrect it. The HP laptops are currently being upgraded to the latest Windows 10 versions, and I'm looking at upgrading the hardware, but I fear they might be too old. Already, Crucial is out of stock for the RAM upgrades and doesn't know when they will be available. Plus, they need new nicad batteries, which are in short supply right now.

Meanwhile, I'm working on consolidating on to the 15" Toshiba shown in the middle of the machines. On the left is the Chromebook I'm using to write this blog, and on the right is the iPad that I use for Social Media. (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Lurking in the background was the Lenovo ThinkCentre with two screens offline and powered down. Not shown are the HP 7500A network printer and the Brother MFC-J4700 printer, or the HP tablet PC, from 1995 I call the Moses tablet, as it has been my beta test mule starting from Windows 95, all the way up to Windows 10.

The iPad mini is one of the four iPads I've been using. The two iPad ones are doing duty as digital picture frames and kindle book readers. And the iPad two is doing duty as an audible and kindle book reader and photo editor with Google.

All in all, a lot of money in old IT gear - that is working perfectly fine for what I want to do - except now both Apple and Microsoft are pushing to upgrade. The iPhone and the iPad are being upgraded, and of course, the iPad I have now can't get the IoS upgrade. And the iPhone SE is on version 14.71 of Ios, so that won't be relevant much longer. And don't get me started on the Apple TV. Gen 1 is toast, Gen II still works, but the succeeding apple TV systems offer nothing I want. Like I have no need for Alexa - even though I have Amazon Prime. Even my Kindle is an old version, with my reading done on the iPads.

But for all of that - my profiles and tech are really in need of some maintenance. Working so much as a driver, I've not had time to do more than fiddle around with Facebook and read some social media.