I bought a Maxtor One Touch 4 500 G external hard drive recently, and finally got around to hooking it up to the computer the other day. After all, what’s the point of having an external hard drive if you don’t take advantage.
So far, so good, although the Amazon reviews do make me nervous. I hadn’t seen them before purchase, as this was a fairly spontaneous one - got it for $100. And I have noticed an occasional issue with it losing connectivity with my computer for a moment or two, which is an issue I see in the Amazon reviews. But I’m trying to keep my hopes up. At a touch it is a touch warmer than I would like it to be as well, judging from how my computer feels.
What I do like is how fast it goes. It really does that job well, at least. And looking through the external hard drives on Amazon, it appears that most brands have issues pretty regularly. I guess I have to hope I got a good one.
Fortunately, I’m not relying on this critter 100%. I back up my computer to my husband’s computer and vice versa periodically. Just the My Documents section, not a full system backup or anything. We figure odds are we won’t have two computer failures at the same time.
The catch to the OneTouch is also that it doesn’t have a function to back up the entire computer. You do have to get a separate utility for that. I’ve been looking at that option, but I do have a good warranty on this computer (and taken advantage of it in the past!), and the discs to the programs I’ve installed on my own, so I think I’m in pretty good shape.
My sister and her husband gave me a very nice Christmas present this year - their spare TiVo plus an annual subscription. They say if I like they can just renew it each year for me rather than buying a present. Not a bad deal, but I told them I will think on it.
You see, I already have Media Center on my computer. But TiVo was the version I first tried out, back when it first came out and one of my other sisters had it. And I’ve long thought that I like it best.
Don’t get me wrong. Media Center is nice. It came with my computer that I was buying anyhow, and all I had to do was get the tuner card so that it could receive cable channels. No subscription fees.
Each one has some advantages and disadvantages.
TiVo Advantages:
Designed just for the television.
Great operating system. Easier to interact with in many ways.
I like watching my shows on the television.
Makes suggestions of shows you might like to watch, and records them. This can be turned off if/when it drives you nuts.
I think the picture quality is better in my experience.
TiVo Disadvantages:
Subscription fees.
Watching a lot of television on the television means I work less.
If you just want to record, for example, the 9:00 showing of a show every week, you can’t just type in the name and tell it to do it. You have to go by time and channel for this. Otherwise the subscription will go for all showings. This is a pain if it’s on a channel that does a lot of reruns, such as the Discovery Channel.
My own problem - living room is really not set up for an internet connection or telephone connection, so we have a cord running through the house to the nearest phone outlet. We hope to eventually do wireless internet, but it’s not in the budget now.
Media Center Advantages:
No subscription fees.
Sometimes it’s nice to watch television on my computer monitor.
Add on for the computer. Designed to deal with much more than just recording and watching television.
Could be set up to work with the television if I cared to do it. They’re in separate rooms, so it’s not happening for me.
When you decide you need to program in a show you’d like to record, what you are currently watching appears in a small screen near the bottom, so you don’t stop watching completely.
You can choose the airtime of shows you want to record, so episodes run at other times do not record.
Media Center Disadvantages:
Add on for the computer. Designed to deal with much more than just recording and watching television. Yes, good and bad.
Watching a lot of television on the computer means I work less.
I’ve always felt the picture quality was poorer.
Took a very long time to figure out how to change show priorities. You have to go to the Scheduled recording section, then switch to series before you can mess around with recording priority on anything other than a case by case basis.
All in all, it’s interesting having both. I don’t know if my preferences will change or not over time. One plus to having both that I’ve already noticed is that my husband and I can more easily enjoy our preferred shows separately and together. With Media Center on my computer, not his, he hasn’t always been able to watch his shows as easily as I could watch mine.
No, I’m not really all THAT paranoid about them. I have two kids and no time to be afraid of germs. A little dirt can actually help kids to build their immunities.
But there are some places you don’t want germs. And so when I saw the SteriPen Portable Water Purifier I couldn’t help but think how neat it was.
I can see two times I would want these:
Going camping
In a disaster kit
Living in earthquake country means that yes, I do have an emergency kit. With a decent water supply, but there’s no promise that the bottles won’t be smashed in a major quake. I don’t consider it paranoia to consider the possibilities so long as I don’t let them take over my life.
For more general areas, there’s the UV Disinfectant Wand. It’s a pretty cool little device too. I’m not quite feeling the need for it, but then I work at home. Pretty much no matter what I do I figure we’re going to all be sharing germs.
Of course, nothing can replace just keeping things clean for general germ control. I’m a touch overdue for a major housecleaning right now, and starting to feel it, which is no doubt why this topic really appealed to me today.
One of the things I look for in Christmas presents is something that will not cause clutter. Most adults I know already have a problem with clutter. This lead to one of my favorite presents to give when budget allows… Netflix.
The memberships can be pretty cheap, starting at $4.99 a month, which translates to a bit less than $60 a year, and the person can get up to 2 discs a month. For a lot of people that’s probably plenty. How many movies do you usually rent a month anyhow?
Netflix is really, really fast about shipping out discs. That’s one of the things that always amazed me, that they could be so efficient at it.
This is what my sisters and I got for my mother last year, although it was a more than minimum subscription. She’s gotten good use out of it.
It’s a gift I’d enjoy too, although I really don’t watch that many movies. The selection is just amazing, more than you can get at a regular video store or even those vending machines that rent movies I’ve seen a couple places.
These just look like a delight to me. Such a simple design but I have no doubt that my kids would have a blast with them. They’re high on the list of presents I’m likely to buy soon for my son for Christmas… not that I don’t think my daughter will enjoy them too.
They’re available through Amazon or Magic Cabin. The reviews look quite promising, and they toys could easily be used for more than simply stacking into interesting shapes.
There are some really great toys out there for kids to get really creative with, and I love that. The hard part for me has always been choosing which to buy.
