Friday June 30, 2006 5:30 am Lethbridge Alberta

A. Morning Musings

5:30 am It is cloudy this morning. The temperature is +14 C with a forecast high of +27 C.

I am feeling much more alert and energetic this morning. I spent a couple of extra hours yesterday evening moving photos from the external hard drive (which is read-only for the Mac) to the desktop and then importing them into iPhoto. I plan to continue this activity this morning. I am going to try to do a better job of monitoring my difficulties and solutions as I proceed. Much of yesterday was quite frustrating as I tried to understand where the image files were actually being stored. We are beginning to come to the conclusion that we should have an external hard drive for each computer. This should provide some security for backup. However we should also backup some files to a CD or DVD.

• In the case of the MacBook I am not yet sure if it is possible to partition the Maxtor external hard drive so that it can save and retrieve both Mac and PC files. The first step will be to view the documentation that is on the CD that came with the drive.
  • After reading the pdf documentation file on the CD it seems that I can partition the Maxtor hard drive. But the first step is to erase the drive (which is initially formatted for Windows) and reformat it for a Mac. After that is done, one can then use the OS X Disk Utility to partition the drive.
  • The present Maxtor drive was originally intended to be used as a backup file for the Dell Latitude laptop. I do not want to play around with this drive on the Mac.
  • I think the best strategy is buy another Maxtor for the Mac, then try partitioning it and testing this out before actually saving any files. I can imagine 5 partitions:
    • Mac automatic backup
    • Mac drag-and-drop files
    • Mac photo files
    • Windows automatic backup
    • Windows drag-and-drop files.
      
      
• Another question about iPhoto has to do with the information that is kept for each image. There was some confusion last night about whether the creation date was changed from the time the image was originally taken to the time that the new image was created in iPhoto.
  
  
• DVD activities with the MacBook are also a new experience. I want to try playing a DVD movie as well as burning a DVD backup disk that contains my photos. This latter activity requires that I first buy some blank DVD disks.
  • Using the finder help menu, type "burn DVD" into the search field. (I must get used to using this feature). It says that DVD-R or DVD-RW are the more common formats. A DVD disk holds about 7 times as much information (4.7 GB versus 700 MB) as a CD.
  • I have just tried playing a few minutes of "Finding Nemo". Spectacular.
    
    
• Another problem at the moment is having Windows under Parallels recognize a peripheral (memory stick or external hard drive or digital camera).
  
  
• I just realized that I do not have Skype on the Mac. I will try to download it from the Web while I am in Mac mode. The download was successful, but when I tried to open the file I received an error message saying that this application was not supported. I am not sure what to do now

B. Plan

Immediate
Chores	Prepare front garage door for painting	1 hr
	Readjust patio bricks near rear wall	1 hr
	Replace towel rack in bathroom	1 hr
Health	Walk & exercise	1 hr
	Familiarize ourselves with health care alternatives	1 hr
Technology	Familiarize myself with the MacBook	2 hr
Model Trains	Add blue backdrop to layout	2 hr
History	Continue reading "Citizens"	2 hr
Literature	Continue reading "Seeing" by Jose Saramago	1 hr
Mathematics	Read "The Computational Beauty of Nature" Chap 2	1 hr
Later
Chores	Take cement blocks to landfill	2 hr
	Paint front garage door	1 hr
	Buy sealant for join between garage floor and wall
	Take 5th wheel in for maintenance	2 hr
	Investigate water softeners for home	2 hr
Technology	Read manual for cell phone	1 hr
	Transfer music to iPod
	digital photography
	try using extender lens and monopod	2 hr
Mathematics	Larson "Calculus"
	Gardner "The Colossal Book of Short Puzzles"
History	Watson "Ideas"
Model Trains	Visit Lethbridge Model Train club at 7 PM on Tues	2 hr
	Review layout for under the table turnouts
	Wire lower mainline track for a power block
	Fasten lower mainline track to layout
	Draw schematic diagram of track layout	2 hr

C. Actual/Notes

3:10 PM The chores are continuing to be priority one and they are getting done. Readjusting the patio bricks in the back yard has needed doing for a few years. Now it is completed.

Now to relax and enjoy the remainder of the day - life off the screen.

D. Reflection