Christmas 2013

December 24-25, 2013 — Once again, I traveled through two states to share Christmas with my extended family, and once again the weather was cooperative — fair and sunny but cold. There was lots of great food, a wild and crazy Yankee swap. As usual, I recorded it all in photos and videos that can be seen at this link:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/christmas13/

Macbook Pro Upgrade

October 11, 2013 — I should make this disclaimer up front — I have a Windows bias. I've been using Microsoft Windows almost exclusively as long as it's been in existence. Four years ago, mainly out of curiosity, I ordered a refurbished 17" Macbook Pro. I found it attractive, appealing, fun, with some neat features like iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD which allowed me to exercise my creativity more than anything in Windows. It has a superior monitor which displays my photos and videos better than my much newer Windows PC. However, I still do all my serious work in Windows.

That 4-year-old refurbished Macbook is still running trouble-free and does everything I demand of it. I have it networked wirelessly with my PC and can exchange files between the two, but it was still running OS X 10.4, also known as Tiger, that it came with. That OS was so outdated no new software could be installed on it, so I looked into upgrading it. The two main things I learned were that there's no upgrade path from Tiger to Mountain Lion, Mac's latest OS. I would have to install Snow Leopard first. But I couldn't download Snow Leopard from the App Store because my OS was too old to access the store. I learned I could go to the Apple website and order Snow Leopard on a DVD for $19.99, which I did.

Upon receiving the Snow Leopard DVD, I installed it successfully. There was little difference from the old OS. All my software and settings were preserved except the wireless connection to Windows and I couldn't figure out how to restore it. I posted the question on an Apple forum and got an answer later the same day with a solution. Otherwise, I couldn't see that I had gained anything except the ability to install new software, and it had one annoying feature. Every time I copied, moved or deleted a file or folder, it prompted me for a password. There may be a way to disable that, but I haven't found it. Back to the forum, I guess.

After a couple of weeks, Snow Leopard seemed solid, so I took the next step and downloaded Mountain Lion for another $19.99. Mountain Lion also installed successfully, everything was preserved, and once again I noticed little difference except some very minor cosmetic changes. It offers something called iCloud which I chose not to enable because I don't know how secure it is. I still have to enter my password every time I copy, move or delete. It's somewhat slower. It placed an icon for one of my videos on the margin of the finder and I don't know how to get rid of it.

I have since downloaded and installed the latest iPhoto and iMovie, $14.99 each, but haven't begun to test them yet. Overall, my Macbook still looks and feels the same and it's still fun, except for the couple of annoying features I mentioned.

Peruvian Adventure

April 28, 2013 — Just finished posting my itinerant sister's photos of her tour of Peru and Machu Picchu on my website. She mailed them to me on a DVD (we live 1,500 miles apart). After I received them, we collaborated over Skype to examine and edit the series. She had already done a great job of sorting and categorizing the pictures by location. We reached agreement on what should be deleted and what needed fixing, then I began the process of uploading them to a photo site linked to my personal site.

There are 385 photos. That may seem like a lot, but they're divided into 13 albums, the largest of which contains around 60 photos. If you don't have time for all of them, I highly recommend at least the Machu Picchu album. You can access them at this link:

http://www.linwoodstreet.com/peru/

Blizzard of 2013

February 8-9, 2013 — Forecasters and computer models combined to accurately predict every aspect of the "Blizzard of 2013" days in advance. However, no matter how well-prepared or forewarned, flooded homes, lost power, sub-freezing temperatures, high winds and up to thirty inches of snow can cause much misery for many days afterward.

The storm raged for about 36 hours, spanning Friday and Saturday. Boston's official 24.9 inches of snow put the city in fifth place in all-time snow depth records. The Massachusetts town of Spencer recorded 30.5 inches. Milford, Connecticut, recorded one of the highest figures in New England at 38 inches. Nearby Westport recorded an 82-mile-per-hour wind gust. Winds reached hurricane force in many areas along the Massachusetts and Rhode Island coast.

In my little corner of the world, I was unable to sleep Friday night as I listened to the wind rattle my windows, fearing a power outage, a dangerous situation with the temperature in the teens. At 5 a.m. Saturday, when it became obvious I wasn't going to sleep anyway, I decided I might as well do something useful, so I got up and dressed, bundled up and went out and shoveled out my entire driveway, walks, back porch and cellar bulkhead. About a foot of snow had accumulated at that time. Thanks to the cold temperature, the snow was powdery and light. At 10 a.m., I did it all over again after about another foot had accumulated. I had to go out one last time in the afternoon and, with the help of a kind neighbor, shoveled out the snowbank the street plow had thrown up at the end of my driveway. By that time, the snow had finally stopped falling. Fortunately, we never lost power in my neighborhood.