OT: Need Help Buying New Computer

[intlzncster]

I have Windows XP Pro Office (just word and excel for now) loaded on 8.1, and it works. It's all going away soon anyway.

MS always says this. They were saying it for XP 5+ years before it happened. But no businesses switched so they had to keep it up. Now most are on Win 7. Win 8.1 hasn't been picked up at all.

According to MS, Win 7 will have extended support (ie security updates) through Jan 2020. Windows vista through April 2017.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

OK - I got this covered.

Go to Costco and get whatever feels best to you in terms of screen size, image quality and weight. Just make sure it has a primary SSD drive. It will cost a little more with an SSD but the performance improvement is well worth it. Costco extends the warranty on most electronics so you should be good to go.

Media servers are the devil. I've spent years wasting my life on various media servers and windows media center and the like. It's FAR easier to move your iTunes library to an external HD and just mount it... or if you want to get slightly more advanced a cheap NAS device. I just bought a cheap NAS device and am in the process of moving all my media to that. Most of them will work as an iTunes servers or DLNA media servers. I wouldn't use a PC even the best software is a hassle compared to using a NAS.

Raspberry Pi ftw.

The good news is that I've finally learned that if I click Reply individually to 3 posts, the all 3 get quoted in the same Reply. I always wondered how that was done. Small gratitudes rule.

As for this morning's 'narrowing process' status, I went to Costco and touched a variety of Dell/HP/Toshiba computers and ultimately got so fatigued that I left the store having bought only an 11-pack of sugarless gum (1 pack free!).

BUT, on my way to the cash register I glimpsed in the magazine rack a glossy guide for something called Raspberry Pi, which I'd never heard of before that moment: a "credit card-sized computer"?!? In what was referred to in REPO MAN as "the lattice of coincidence," I returned home to see "NAS" for the first time (needed Wikipedia for that and still don't understand well), and immediately thereafter what I assume means "for the win" in mentioning Raspberry Pi as a vehicle to create my so-called media server in alternate fashion that suggests that perhaps I can leverage the 500gb external drive I have sitting around with nothing but digitized home movie files. Am I getting warmer? Is my greatest need someone who's one-third my age to bring this home?

Then I thought about whether a monthly subscription to a semi-infinite streaming service might actually make sense.

And this morning I opened up this month's Costco circular and saw an i5-1TB-6gb-USB3.0-Bluetooth4.0 lightweight touchscreen Acer laptop . . . so I decided to write this post and then move on, pending further Replies and/or inspiration. Current computer working fine, though storage still at about 6gbs, and I haven't downloaded my vacation photos and still haven't 'figured out' where to upload them Picasa/Flickr/Snapfish/Shutterfly, even though many are already there, some automatically, but I don't know which and how and when, and my Google Drive/Google+ is at 80%. I feel like the Charlie Kaufman character in ADAPTATION at times like this.

"I can't do what 10 people tell me to do, so I guess I'll remain the same."

 

[intlzncster]

BUT, on my way to the cash register I glimpsed in the magazine rack a glossy guide for something called Raspberry Pi, which I'd never heard of before that moment: a "credit card-sized computer"?!?

Yes.

I returned home to see "NAS" for the first time (needed Wikipedia for that and still don't understand well), and immediately thereafter what I assume means "for the win" in mentioning

Yes.

Raspberry Pi as a vehicle to create my so-called media server in alternate fashion that suggests that perhaps I can leverage the 500gb external drive I have sitting around with nothing but digitized home movie files.

Yes.

Am I getting warmer?

Yes.

Is my greatest need someone who's one-third my age to bring this home?

Yes.

A kid could program it. All the instructions are online. It's simple to set up. And it involves pretty much just dumping code on it.

Best part is you can keep it on 24/7 and it uses very little power. I have mine set up to be a bittorrent server that I can access from anywhere.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

A kid could program it. All the instructions are online. It's simple to set up. And it involves pretty much just dumping code on it.

Best part is you can keep it on 24/7 and it uses very little power. I have mine set up to be a bittorrent server that I can access from anywhere.

And this could include pushing the music/photos out via Bluetooth? If so (or some other successful), I might need that same kid to Photoshop my own hair-on-fire avatar: wow.

Being relatively new to New Haven, I'm thinking that I start my inquiry with the ex-next door neighbor's son whose UChicago recruitment postcard came to our mailbox by mistake. He must "know a guy . . . "

 

[CallMeBruce]

I rigged up my Pi as a mini gaming system with a 4.3" monitor which is for a car's backup camera.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

The good news is that I've finally learned that if I click Reply individually to 3 posts, the all 3 get quoted in the same Reply. I always wondered how that was done. Small gratitudes rule.



"I can't do what 10 people tell me to do, so I guess I'll remain the same."

Watch your time roll away as you sit there on that dock on the bay.

 

[August_West]

Then I thought about whether a monthly subscription to a semi-infinite streaming service might actually make sense.

Well lets put it this way. I am 20 years in the Tech field. Started in IT, moved to Digital video content delivery via hardware and software solutions for a few years and have been back in IT for over a decade. I am very well versed on every aspect of technology when it comes to multimedia, because 1) that was/is my job and 2) I am also a professional musician by night, so having gobs of music on hand is part of my operating procedure. Not only for enjoyment but for professional reasons (learning songs, etc....) Also, should be noted, I get obscene amounts of tech gadgets for free. Desktops, tablets, laptops, all in ones, phones...etc.... and yes I have a raspberry PI. Cool little device......


Anyway, I only list all of the above to qualify my next statement:

I gave up the headaches of it all and subscribed to Spotify. Game over.

 

[intlzncster]

I rigged up my Pi as a mini gaming system with a 4.3" monitor which is for a car's backup camera.

Super gameboy. Sick!

 

[intlzncster]

And this could include pushing the music/photos out via Bluetooth? If so (or some other successful), I might need that same kid to Photoshop my own hair-on-fire avatar: wow.

Being relatively new to New Haven, I'm thinking that I start my inquiry with the ex-next door neighbor's son whose UChicago recruitment postcard came to our mailbox by mistake. He must "know a guy . . . "

You can pretty much do anything with the Pi, given the right peripherals. It's basically an engine.

That said, August is probably right in this case. A streaming service is just too easy.

 

[Fishy]

BUT, on my way to the cash register I glimpsed in the magazine rack a glossy guide for something called Raspberry Pi, which I'd never heard of before that moment: a "credit card-sized computer"?!? In what was referred to in REPO MAN as "the lattice of coincidence," I returned home to see "NAS" for the first time (needed Wikipedia for that and still don't understand well), and immediately thereafter what I assume means "for the win" in mentioning Raspberry Pi as a vehicle to create my so-called media server in alternate fashion that suggests that perhaps I can leverage the 500gb external drive I have sitting around with nothing but digitized home movie files. Am I getting warmer? Is my greatest need someone who's one-third my age to bring this home?

It's not the answer for you.

This is why you don't ask these chuckleheads for advice.

 

[jleves]

This thread is totally awesome. On the one hand you got a guy who reminds me of my dad when it comes to technology. 'What do you mean click the start button?' 'Right click? Is there a wrong click?' 'There's nothing on the desktop other than my stapler and a phone.'

And on the other hand there are guys buying Raspberry Pi's and hooking them up to displays scrounged from automobile backup camera systems and streaming bit torrents with them.

This is akin to asking what do you want for dinner and having someone from Beverly Hills suggest Spago while someone in Tijuana wants dirt chicken from a street cart.

Once I got the reaction to my initial post asking for more information it was obvious. Buy a laptop that feels and looks good - just make sure it has an SSD then have Geek Squad put in a 1TB drive for storage. And August adds the additional valuable nugget - get Spotify.

So in summary - raspberries are for eating. Erase NAS from your memory and vocabulary. Buy a laptop with an SSD. Have Geek Squad add a drive. Sign up for Spotify. Send me a check for $100 for the trouble I saved you in not buying a raspberry pi or trying to get a NAS.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

This thread is totally awesome. On the one hand you got a guy who reminds me of my dad when it comes to technology. 'What do you mean click the start button?' 'Right click? Is there a wrong click?' 'There's nothing on the desktop other than my stapler and a phone.'

And on the other hand there are guys buying Raspberry Pi's and hooking them up to displays scrounged from automobile backup camera systems and streaming bit torrents with them.

This is akin to asking what do you want for dinner and having someone from Beverly Hills suggest Spago while someone in Tijuana wants dirt chicken from a street cart.

Once I got the reaction to my initial post asking for more information it was obvious. Buy a laptop that feels and looks good - just make sure it has an SSD then have Geek Squad put in a 1TB drive for storage. And August adds the additional valuable nugget - get Spotify.

So in summary - raspberries are for eating. Erase NAS from your memory and vocabulary. Buy a laptop with an SSD. Have Geek Squad add a drive. Sign up for Spotify. Send me a check for $100 for the trouble I saved you in not buying a raspberry pi or trying to get a NAS.

You do realize, don't you, that now I have to agonize over whether to sign up for Spotify through FB or get into choosing an account name and then generating a strong password that I have to sync across multiple devices. And then still wonder how best to work through "the sound of surprise" that comes from setting up several genres into shuffle mode and recreating free-form radio from a library with much more than Google Music's 20,000 songs limit including privately made recordings of CT punk bands/Grateful Dead/jazz/whatever. And then there's the photos . . .

For now, I'll try Spotify, migrate music library to external hard drive, use current computer's Bluetooth capability to test out the range and sound of portable speakers around the house & yard, and keep funding my tech account.

I really would like a range of suggestions on dealing with photo storage & sharing. I've almost never edited or printed a digital photo. And remember, all discussion has to precede and major recruiting news which I haven't yet checked for today.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Successfully sending Spotify from iPad to Bluetooth receiver attached to mini-stereo, and using the headphone jack for the wireless transmitter that sends sound to one portable speaker in the kitchen and another into the depths of a city backyard.

Spotify is indeed excellent, amazing and easy to use notwithstanding gaps in its library where licensing deals don't exist. When I saw, for example, that the ECM catalog and Beatles weren't available, I used Google Music from Nexus tablet to play from my duplicated iTunes library. I also see that the iTunes library has come into Spotify on the computer, so I'm imagining/hoping that the Spotify Premium service will allow me to move music out to the portable devices. Fun enough for one day, with tweaks forthcoming.

Thank you all for suggestions, caveats, info, ideas, laughs, and perspective.

 

[jleves]

You do realize, don't you, that now I have to agonize over whether to sign up for Spotify through FB or get into choosing an account name and then generating a strong password that I have to sync across multiple devices. And then still wonder how best to work through "the sound of surprise" that comes from setting up several genres into shuffle mode and recreating free-form radio from a library with much more than Google Music's 20,000 songs limit including privately made recordings of CT punk bands/Grateful Dead/jazz/whatever. And then there's the photos . . .

For now, I'll try Spotify, migrate music library to external hard drive, use current computer's Bluetooth capability to test out the range and sound of portable speakers around the house & yard, and keep funding my tech account.

I really would like a range of suggestions on dealing with photo storage & sharing. I've almost never edited or printed a digital photo. And remember, all discussion has to precede and major recruiting news which I haven't yet checked for today.

Several things here:
1) I've never used Spotify so hopefully @August_West can give you tips on that.
2) Password management - get lastpass. Link. Anyone not using something like lastpass is silly. From the research I've done, it's usually the recommended solution. Lastpass is free and you can start with just a couple things linked to it and as you get comfortable, move more stuff into it. Only downside to it is having very strong 15+ random character passwords gets a little difficult when you have to use them manually on non web page (ie, phone apps). You can pay $1/month for mobile support but the apps still really can't be used directly - I didn't see the benefit of the mobile support when I did a free trial.
3) For photo storage I use Flickr. I set it up 5 years ago when I got back from a Hawaiian honeymoon and had a couple thousand photos to store. At the time I did some research and it was one of the few that stored the full resolution. I'd be that's changed for the others and everyone does now. I don't think you can go wrong with any of Flickr, snapfish, photobucket, dropbox, etc. Just make sure you are diligent about uploading photos instead of putting it off like do.
4) Hope you didn't take offense to me describing you like my Dad and the difficulty of explaining IT to him. You are more advanced than that, but it was pretty clear you weren't in the category that should be setting up a home NAS or programming a raspberry pi. A raspberry pi is for kids with too much time an not enough money to buy purpose built hardware. A NAS is for a geek like me who likes to deploy random hardware that I never use. I don't even want to tell you about the new workstation I'm about to build to browse the web with. NASA could use it to find life on another planet - but it will be a fast web browser.

 

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Several things here:
1) I've never used Spotify so hopefully @August_West can give you tips on that.
2) Password management - get lastpass. Link. Anyone not using something like lastpass is silly. From the research I've done, it's usually the recommended solution. Lastpass is free and you can start with just a couple things linked to it and as you get comfortable, move more stuff into it. Only downside to it is having very strong 15+ random character passwords gets a little difficult when you have to use them manually on non web page (ie, phone apps). You can pay $1/month for mobile support but the apps still really can't be used directly - I didn't see the benefit of the mobile support when I did a free trial.
3) For photo storage I use Flickr. I set it up 5 years ago when I got back from a Hawaiian honeymoon and had a couple thousand photos to store. At the time I did some research and it was one of the few that stored the full resolution. I'd be that's changed for the others and everyone does now. I don't think you can go wrong with any of Flickr, snapfish, photobucket, dropbox, etc. Just make sure you are diligent about uploading photos instead of putting it off like do.
4) Hope you didn't take offense to me describing you like my Dad and the difficulty of explaining IT to him. You are more advanced than that, but it was pretty clear you weren't in the category that should be setting up a home NAS or programming a raspberry pi. A raspberry pi is for kids with too much time an not enough money to buy purpose built hardware. A NAS is for a geek like me who likes to deploy random hardware that I never use. I don't even want to tell you about the new workstation I'm about to build to browse the web with. NASA could use it to find life on another planet - but it will be a fast web browser.

I'll go in reverse order, but it all adds up to great thanks:

4) The bare minimum of offense taken. As someone who once had to supervise a support tech who couldn't endure a client asking with extreme impatience, "Where's the 'ANY' key?," I can relate. That's why I instantly imagined that a Raspberry Pi solution would involve me recruiting a teenager. I've got a 10 year old gaming grandson who should be coming online soon.

3) I think that Flickr still offers unlimited free storage but haven't looked into it. My phone's photos go automatically to Google+, but I don't know about whetheror how I have things going to Picasa and I'm nudging up against the limits of FREE Google storage. Carbonite takes everything that I download from the SD card, but I don't do that regularly. A lot of this comes down to me trying to not have to pay for things, and if there's a big breakthrough today, it's that I've been 'saving' $150/month for tech purchases, and the Spotify idea got me to rethink it as a tech budget for hardware/software/apps/services. I already have fax service, backup, and security on a recurring expense service. I began my inquiry with the narrow view that I was seeking a hardware solution, when I just pretty much want portable music for indoors, outdoors and on the go. Not losing photos and being able to share them is the next ambition.

2) I've been using Dashlane and finding it overall terrific without being perfect with regard to the mobile devices. I think I paid for an upgrade that makes it better, it's just a little cumbersome sometimes.

1) When I quickly found every one of my searched-for early favorite extended jazz pieces by Charles Lloyd, McCoy Tyner, Randy Weston, Freddie Hubbard, Pharoah Sanders, Sonny Rollins, and Don Pullen, I accepted when I saw huge blocks of particular artists that went missing. Then I looked into popular artists with big catalogs to calibrate further. I didn't see Elvis Costello's double-CD re-releases or any Beatles, but there was lots of Dylan, Zappa, and Dead; more than enough Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, and prime Stones/Kinks/Who; a surprising number of choices for Graham Parker and Johnny Thunders; two versions of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians, a good selection of soukous, and Bonnie Raitt & Mary Chapin Carpenter enough for my mate, at which point I felt sufficiently oriented & satisfied to stop looking and start learning how to get the tunes distributed around the house & yard, as well as available through multiple devices and when I'm out of the house and offline.

 

[intlzncster]

Several things here:
1) I've never used Spotify so hopefully @August_West can give you tips on that.
2) Password management - get lastpass. Link. Anyone not using something like lastpass is silly. From the research I've done, it's usually the recommended solution. Lastpass is free and you can start with just a couple things linked to it and as you get comfortable, move more stuff into it. Only downside to it is having very strong 15+ random character passwords gets a little difficult when you have to use them manually on non web page (ie, phone apps). You can pay $1/month for mobile support but the apps still really can't be used directly - I didn't see the benefit of the mobile support when I did a free trial.
3) For photo storage I use Flickr. I set it up 5 years ago when I got back from a Hawaiian honeymoon and had a couple thousand photos to store. At the time I did some research and it was one of the few that stored the full resolution. I'd be that's changed for the others and everyone does now. I don't think you can go wrong with any of Flickr, snapfish, photobucket, dropbox, etc. Just make sure you are diligent about uploading photos instead of putting it off like do.
4) Hope you didn't take offense to me describing you like my Dad and the difficulty of explaining IT to him. You are more advanced than that, but it was pretty clear you weren't in the category that should be setting up a home NAS or programming a raspberry pi. A raspberry pi is for kids with too much time an not enough money to buy purpose built hardware. A NAS is for a geek like me who likes to deploy random hardware that I never use. I don't even want to tell you about the new workstation I'm about to build to browse the web with. NASA could use it to find life on another planet - but it will be a fast web browser.

For the record, someone else brought up NAS, so I joked about raspberry pi from there. And though the OP has no need of the Pi, you're selling it short!

 

[elduderino]

Do not buy an AMD chip. Theres a reason why they cant pay oems enough to adopt and it has nothing to do with arm architecture. Also an ssd to manage your primary os is ideal, but so is operating multiple ram, so that when ur machine $h*ts the bed, which is inevitable after 5+ yrs of heat and dust, you might be able to save a bunch of hours and a few bucks in tranfers. Finally, read carefully anything that says system on a chip, theyre a great way to say cash, but recovery in a failure is often impossible. If you cant rebuild a machine by hand, buy a warranty from a big manufacturer preferably, store warranties are often a second place.