April 2007 Two naughty girls...

April-May 2007

Tracey's horses enjoying a dip in the dam.

Vista: My dislikes so far:
· no MOVE menu feature for moving files from one folder to another (at present, using COPY-PASTE, then delete the file)
· No FIND tool, only SEARCH - and you need to know where to search - a blanket search for a specific gif file did not work for me. I needed to visually search all my folders to find the file
· difficult to find way around the organisational structure (eg get into Windows to look at setups etc)
· Help is non-existent as the computer cannot find it or connect to on-line pages . Will need to find out why.
Looks like a few tutorials are needed
MY Likes:
· Folder display size
· Slide show of images
· Analogue clock face on sidebar
I hope Vista grows on me. (and I hope not too many of my school teacher co-workers invest in it yet as I'm certainly not up to speed to answer any questions.)
Ipod: this week saw me convert a PhotoStory movie tutorial to play on the Ipod. Tutorial was made from screen captures for images. worked fine.
No podcast this week, but aiming for a videocast next week. This week is a more vibrant animation series. (my lost gif file)

I spent today playing with Adobe Photoshop 6 & Adobe Image Ready. My aim was to follow a tutorial and create a simple scrapbook layout with animation. The result is not bad, but rather dull, as the tutorial suggested using muted colours, black and white photos (gif images have limited colours). I will experiment to see which colours and how bright I can make this.
I used a series of photos of family members for this first -trial- layout. Now I know the technical aspects, I'll become more creative, with different place and space changes.I may even make a podcasts - video of how to make this item. (future).

Apr 2007 Computer trials

Beautiful Australian birds hanfing round at home.

What a week Apr 2007

What a week! My computer trials!!
First, I was creating a new user profile to trial some accessibility settings and profiles for one of my students when I lost my personal (admin) profile from the computer. My documents and email just disappeared into oblivion and couldn't be found anywhere on the computer. "That's fine", I thought. "My backups are only 2 days old so at least I won't have lost too much." And my documents were fine, but all my email backups were corrupt (Obviously not doing something right) so my next best address book was over 12 months old - better than nothing I guess.
So a new user profile was created and documents were added from background. I set up my old address book, and re-created email user profiles, folders and email rules. Now the computer was feeling more like mine again. But when I checked a few different places I found that a huge chunk of used disc space was unaccounted for ( and surprise - it equalled my "My Documents" file in size). Also in user profiles, my old profile was still registering, but not showing up on the Welcome Screen. It seemed the profile had just disappeared into a parallel world rather like odd socks and missing keys.
This reminds me of the children's book for years 7-11, written by Emily Rodda called "Finder's Keepers" where all these lost objects disappear through cracks and breaches into a parallel world, only to be pushed back at a later time. Emily Rodda is an Australian, award winning, children's author. She is very prolific and creates many books and series in the fantasy genre, both contemporary fantasy, and quest-based fantasy. She also has created a detective series for children. And children love her writings.
Back to the computer. Straight to the internet to solve the mystery of the invisible user profile occupying so much space on the computer. The answer was simple in the end. When creating my new test user, I had created an admin user (that's all the computer would allow me to do) and that took precedence over my old profile, banishing the old one to a parallel invisible world. The fix was also simple- Control Panel/ User Accounts/change settings/ clear "use Welcome Screen" /Apply OK and a standard windows log on allows me to choose my log on profile.
At the same time I am also struggling with my new laptop. Touch mouse screens are not easy for my arthritic fingers ( I am too heavy-handed and not very flexible). Plus the new mouse is a very different shape to any other mouse I have used- higher palm curve and longer shape mean my fingers are really stretched to reach the roller button, and my wrist is at a strange angle. I guess the next shopping day in town will mean a purchase of a more comfortable mouse.