Help Me Out With Call In Friday – Please!
I just upgraded one of the computers (the one I was keeping all the recordings of your call in questions on). Well long story short the new PC Rocks and Windows 7 is everything Vista promised and failed to deliver. However, almost as if by fate the old PC now won’t turn on as in NO POWER.
The data on it is useful but not critical and this isn’t really a problem. I have a guy who can get the data for transfer and that is all I need. If he can fix it for a few bucks I may donate it to charity after I get the data it is time for it to got to PC Heaven other wise, it served well for over 5 years of very hard work.
Problem is I now have only one call for tomorrow’s call in show so if you have been wanting to have a call played this is a golden chance. I need at least 8 good calls between now and tomorrow and I will be pretty much taking them first come first serve.
So call in to 866-65-THINK and leave a question or some commentary for me to bounce off of, than tune in tomorrow and likely you will be on the show. Oh and you will be helping me out too because if I don’t get 8-10 good calls I got to come up with something different tomorrow.
Jack,
When I have had similar problems, an easy fix was to pull the old hard drive and pop it into the new PC as an additional storage drive.
I called and kept it short and sweet. And tried to enunciate to counter act the yummy beer 🙂
I’m sort of phone illiterate, so here is my call-in: like “peak oil”, what about “peak corn”? So much that we depend upon is corn-based, what would that be like if a massive corn outage occurred?
Jack,
Donating the computer is great, but please remember to fully wipe the drive before you do this. I don’t just mean to format it. I mean use a program to erase and overwrite each sector to prevent data recovery. Two good programs are “Eraser” and “DBAN”, and both are freeware.
Well thanks to all there have been about 45 calls so far but keep em coming I am going on vacation from the 27th through the 4th so there is a lot of stuff I can use to do a few pre recorded shows so no ones withdrawals get too bad.
On the advice to wipe the drive, please consider who you are talking to, ;>)
On the advice to yank the drive and put it in the new machine, not a bad idea but I know some folks that need a computer and old as she is if I tune her up and make it a browsing/email machine it will still do ok, based on the power supply failure though i think I will just get the data and may be do an office space type vid with the remains, damn thing pissed me off so many times waiting on stuff.
On going Mac I considered it, the double price for the machine, no issues, the 4-5K I would have to spend on new software and leaning said new software, I will stick to PCs for now. I do believe MACs are better machines by the way but they are certainly not libertarian, nothing libertarian is proprietary ;>)
Oh for my fellow nerds that want stats on the new machine.
Gateway System with Windows 7, 2.5 Gig Processors TIMES FOUR, yep that is a horse folks. 8 Gigs of RAM and a 1TB Hard Drive along with an 1TB external Drive for mirror back ups. Price $549 at CompUSA I almost bought two. Paid Microsuck their extortion fee for Office 2010, have to say it is pretty bad ass. I got a 22 Inch Monitor for 129, if I can make space on the desk I am going to buy a second one and do a dual set up the way I run my Vario Laptop.
By the way my Laptop is really a mean machine about as powerful as could be built in a laptop 2 years back. I ran the two head to head running the same video file in Sony Vegas. Vegas can make any PC sweat it is quite resource intensive. The new PC finished the file and the laptop was at 42%.
And that is why I upgraded! Productivity with audio and video. The new thing renders a 60 minute MP3 for the podcast in about 30 seconds! A ten minute MP4 in HD shot as an MTS at 7MB in about eleven minutes.
I have never had a lot of love for Microsuck but they did OK with XP, I think they hit a home run with 7.
Jack, Microsoft is certainly proprietary software in everything they produce. I switched to a Mac back in June and I love it. Where do you figure you would need to spend $4-$5K on software?
@Brian Office, etc is but Windows as a platform and building for it is not and I was just dinging on apple for the hell of it.
On what to spend all that software money on well first I have to replace Vegas with something like Final Cut Pro, that one alone is about a grand. Then I have to replace Camtasia which is another 500 so there is 1500 out of the gate with just two programs. Then I have Photoshop that runs on Mac but I need the Mac version so the one I have is toast, so there is what another 600-650. So now I am at what 2100? And it just keeps going, I am more a tech nerd than most of you guys realize.
The even bigger issue is of course I also have to learn to use new software. I am like a Vegas mega god at this point, I am sure I could get good with Finalcut in time but new software is a productivity killer for awhile.
I’m interested in knowing what you use to edit the mp3’s. Those specs are nice considering the price. Can’t beat Gateway for their value.
One idea for the show…Medical issues for short term and long term survival. I don’t mean so much for the disabled, but more if something happens or anything that would go beyond your basic first aid kit. Things your able to store in bulk and things that are more than likely not found anywhere else (such as an AED for those with heart problems).
Basically, what should we store in bulk as far as medical supplies goes? What SKILLS do we need beyond basic CPR and first aid skills? What are the possibilities we may go short periods without adequate health care and may be left to treat some things our self. Red cross and others might be around, but also over worked and over crowded with long wait times.
@Drew I use Vegas 9 Pro which is SERIOUS overkill for MP3 editing. I record with audacity which is free and with a simple addition of a free dll file will render mp3s and you can edit audio pretty easy in audacity. Thing is I have Vegas for all my video stuff anyway. Not just the stuff for this site and TSP but for DVD stuff like for Val Riazanov and other stuff. Since I have it and am so familiar with it for video I am just faster doing what I need with the audio stuff.
I’m with you on Vegas, I played with the Apple product but after one bite I found it a little too sweet. Vegas is heavy ended at first to learn, but once you’re into it you just fall in love with it. It seems like you can do anything you want, and then there is more. Sony has some good products there, Sound Forge, Acid music… great stuff.
Jack,
I left a message, but a lot of background noise at the restaurant wifi site. My question was two-part:
1)Mushrooms, . . I have heard you can get a crop of the shrooms in as little as 28 days and have protein food (to supplement other foods, hopefully). What do you know about them. What resources are available for learning and producing?
2)In a bug-out situation, who do you take with you and what are the rules? There are a lot of chores and 24 hours of the day to keep secure. What kind of friend (other than family) do you take? Why? And what should the rules be?
(This should give you a lot of room for situation ethics comments) [And I wouldn’t have brought it up if I haven’t been in a situation where somebody(s) turn into a frigkin “box of chocolates” on you.]
Another voice mail left Jack… regarding Jury Nullification you mentioned the other day.
I butchered the acronym as I was on the spot and the page wouldn’t load, but FIJA.org is
“Fully Informed Jury Association”… not what I mumbled in my haste.
Feel free to call me Justin “Oops”.
Jack, here’s an idea for a show. The Discovery Channel’s “Dual Survival” is a raging hit and TSP has interviewed Dave Canterbury, but you have yet to talk to the barefoot half of the show’s cast, Cody Lundin. I think that would be a hoot.
I left a question. Hopefully it’s clear, sometimes a speak a little fast.
Guess Linux is too communist for ya? 🙂
But OpenBSD/FreeBSD/NetBSD/etc are surely the libertarian’s OS, no?
@a.h.a.
Actually I have nothing against Linux at all or Mac or any system or software as a whole. It really comes down to be extremely efficient with the software I own and some of it not even being available in anything but windows, Vegas for example which is the big one.