During the past week or so, I think I've done the old "two steps forward, one step back" routine regarding tech stuff with family and friends... but the jury is still out. It could also work out 3 forward, 0 back or even -- ouch! -- 0 forward, 3 back.
 |
| TouchPad Photo, modified in Paint Shop Pro |
I'll try to explain...
On the friends front (1st step forward) -- For a couple of years, a friend has been trying to have me help convert some of his old vinyl LP's directly to audio CD's for use in the car.
Recently the topic came up again and I made an all-out push to abandon the straight-to-CD project (as being somewhat of a dead-end effort) and refocus on converting the vinyl to MP3 files on his PC and/or downloading the files from Amazon or Apple... and then burning CD's for the car. This way his vinyl music will live on and give him some flexibility down the road to easily use it in different ways.
After the Thanksgiving holiday we'll do some tests that should illustrate the advantages/benefits of putting MP3 files on his PC, rather than just burning directly to CD.
On the family front #1 (2nd step forward) -- For some time now, my wife has been hinting around that she wanted me to relocate an ancient 13" TV/VCR combo unit (which is on a 6' 5"- high wall mount) from our bedroom to the kitchen so that she could better watch some old VHS videos that are not available on DVD.
My position was that the unit's screen was unsatisfactory for the task and that if it came down off the wall mount, the only place it was going was "out the door". (The unit also had a footprint depth that would make it impossible to place it in any of the available kitchen spots.)
The solution -- which I was able to achieve in just a few hours -- was to combine a 19" LCD TV and a DVD/VCR player in the kitchen, on top of a cabinet that nicely accommodates the width and depth of both devices.
On the family front #2 (one step back) -- Yesterday I installed a region-free DVD player in our living room video setup so that my wife can watch British DVD's that are not available for US players, or if available, are quite costly.
On the family front #2a (potential step forward?) -- While sitting on the floor installing the region-free DVD player, my wife asked, "What's a Roku?". My snappy comeback was that a Roku is the device that's been sitting next to our cable converter for the past seven months.
It seems she had discovered that some of the content she would like to view in the living room could be streamed and/or downloaded from Amazon by some combination of Roku and PC.
For now, I'm scoring these escapades as "two steps forward, one step back"... but I still feel like a voice that's going unheard.
In the words of Chef Gordon Ramsay to his troops a couple of seasons ago on Hell's Kitchen, "Does it have to be this painful?".
This post was drafted on my TouchPad
Follow me on Twitter... @rnolan1087
