New Toy

For the past couple of years now I have been using my zip drive to ferry my files back and forth from work. I back up all my files daily in the off chance that my computer fails and work. In addition I carry my multi platform chat program Trillian and my Outlook.pst file which is the "guts" of my e-mail program. Unlike Outlook Express, the Outlook which comes with MS Office puts everything into one big mega-file. So if you copy that and ferry it about you can use it on other computers that have Outlook, like the one at work. Practical upshot is that I can catch up with my volumes of e-mail during my lunch hour.

When I was at Comp USA a week or so ago I saw these new Smart Drives, also called Pen Drives. They are USB port smart drives that come in everything from 64Meg up to a full Gig of memory. So I took some of my birthday money and bought a 256Meg one today for the paltry sum of just 59.00. Who would imagine five years ago that you could have a "thingy" no larger than your thumb carrying all that information.

Well because it has no working parts and works via the USB port it has a smoking transfer rate. I bought a USB extension cable so I don't have it sticking out of the back of my computer. I was going to go for a 512Meg one but the price was so good on the 256 I figured I could get another later if I wanted to. Besides the price will probably go down in the interim.




Less E-Mail

As many of my readers know I am very active in the live Progressive Music trading scene. Via Yahoo I am the owner or co-moderator of no less than five trading groups dedicated to the free distribution of live shows. The biggest group I am a co-mod of is a general Prog trading group, which due to its sheer size of membership creates a vast volume of e-mail.

I have not had an active trade via that group for almost a year now so with some regret I have finally shut off a majority of my Yahoo trading groups. It is amazing the decrease in the number of e-mails! Heck I was just deleting the majority anyway after scanning the subject lines for "trouble".




So what Yahoo groups do I subscribe to?

Here is a snapshot of Mike. I subscribe to four groups regarding the Dr. Who phenomenon: most of which discuss the books that have been and are presently being written about the character. Along the Sci Fi theme I also subscribe to a group dedicated to Julian May who wrote the Saga of the Pliocene Exiles, and a Dune discussion group which probably does not need to be explained.

Musically beyond my live show trading groups I subscribe to two discussion groups of my favorite group of all time Hawkwind. Also I am a huge Al Stewart fan so I am part of a great group of people that discuss his music and topics that are related to them. (Al is a folk/prog english musician whose "signature" is music about history - which is one of my passions).

In the miscellaneous department I have a e-mail group dedicated to my new cell phone. I have also created a group over on Topica for a bunch of my friends who have like political minds but who are scattered all over the country and whom I have met over my years of living in so many different states.




OBCD Today: Nada.. I didn't even set up my speakers in the office today. Yesterday was a ton of STS9.

Now Reading: Wolfsbane - a "Past Doctor Adventure" or PDA involving the 4th and 8th Dr with the 4ths companions Sarah and Harry. Published by BBC books. (I finished Gods of Riverworld last night)

Quote of the Day: In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.
-- Edward P. Tryon

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