Hi OSA

I came here to find out what Clearsound is. Thank you Bruce for the expert explanation of it.

But now I’m absolutely LOLing at “Imagine still trying to manufacture cassettes in the early 90s. CDs were already getting old and the internet was coming”

In the early 90s cd sales were still rising rapidly (in 1993 they were only half of what they would be in 7 short years) and cassette sales, while diminishing, were still lucrative enough to be making millions and millions of them a year. The Internet was coming, but only in the way that it was coming since about 1974. The first place one could buy digital music files, mp3 .com was founded in 1997, the vast majority of which was stuff made by indie bands and bedroom electronic artists who most people didn’t care to listen to. The turn didn’t happen until 2000-2003 when Napster and Limewire began to destroy physical sales and then the beginning of iTunes was the real nail in the coffin.

As for the assertion in the original blog post that “Literally nobody on earth uses CD’s (sic) any more” while I know you’re exaggerating for dramatic flair, you might be interested to know that CD sales, while still being a tiny tiny fraction of what they were at their peak, in 2021 they rose for the first time since their plummet began in 2001. Most major label releases are pressed on CD, in much smaller quantities than they were 20 years ago, making them somewhat collectable.

Streaming is pretty great. Having any song you could want at your fingertips 24/7 is a miracle, but it still doesn’t sound half as good as a CD played on a decent CD player. By that I mean a component unit, attached to a decent stereo.

Dice NoMore originated:
‘“ugly binders” Now that’s funny’
but TRUE!

IF you go all-digital, first devise a storage hierarchy and STICK to it. I’ve been going a bit balmy this past year or so, trying to figure out where I put some scanned pictures of Pat’s ancestors & relatives. Browsing through 250 GB of the files I’ve accumulated over 30+ years isn’t turning them up. And that’s even as my friends chide me for being a bit OCD about keeping things properly arranged and filed. Who else do you know who has 2-1/2 4-drawer filing cabinets in their library?

Really good CD/DVD/Blu-ray devices are $130, I found out just now. I’ve got some old DVDs I wanted to watch on this computer before they degrade from age. Additionally, a few people still use CDs for their “sneakernets”, or for playing their tunes in the car.

Sailors & other boaters use CDs on strings all around the boat’s berth to scare off those poopy birds who LOVE to deface our beauties.

If you want to properly wash windows, do as the professionals do: a soapy water & ammonia & vinegar mix. liberally applied, then squeegeed off from top to bottom, the excess wiped away with a terrycloth towel. In the car, when the windows get fogged (Hey, we’re still on our honeymoon, 28 years in!) Just squeegee the windows from top to bottom. Faster & neater than any cloth or paper product.

Skyler, I suspect that if I think long enough, I’ll remember something I’m less interested in learning than Windoze 10. At the moment, I have an old computer on OS X (10)v10.8.6, a newer machine on OS 11.1 (Bug Sur). Windoze has yet to catch up to the Mac OS from the ’80s, functionally.

Skyler, I am – well, it sounds hokey but I can only say I’m very touched by what you’ve just written to me. I’m speechless, almost. Thank you, Skyler. I could use some I/T help right now; indeed I could. I will ask Mike for your email. I promise to not be a pest. And if I break that promise then I promise to be your favorite pest 🙂 Seriously, though, you don’t owe me anything. If I have helped you in some way – I have no idea how but if, as you say I have, then I’m very glad, but you owe me nothing. Thank you for reaching out to me in this kind and thoughtful way with your offer of help. I appreciate it more than I can express right now.

Hello Aqua. I have met many people who know a tremendous amount about technology. In almost all cases, they learned what they know in the same way – one item at a time. After learning about one or two items, most people think about how those items fit together and before they know it, they are making serious progress in learning about the topic in which they are interested.

If you want to learn more about some part of technology, I would like to make two suggestions to you.

First, there is a wonderful message board at techguy.org and it is completely free.

That is a site where people help each other with questions and answers about all kinds of technology. If you want to know something about your PC or your phone or your tablet or most any kind of electronic device, you can post your question on that board and most of the time, someone will give you an answer withing 20 minutes or so. In most cases, the people who are giving answers really know what they are talking about and even if they make a mistake, someone else almost always catches it and corrects it.

The second suggestion is there are many “tutorial” sites. So if you want to learn about some topic like say Windows 10, you can use Google to find a good tutorial site and then you can go through some tutorials that will seriously help you learn. Most of these sites are really a big help and even if you may find a turkey from time to time, someone else is almost sure to correct the info and give you a link to a better tutorial site.

If you ever need some personal help and you feel that you just aren’t getting the answers you need, I will be happy to try to help you. Just ask Mike for my email address. I give Mike permission to provide you with my email address and you are always welcome to contact me privately and I would be happy to try to help you. I may not be able to help you with the exact question you have, but I can always try to find a good site where you might get a good answer.

You have given me a huge amount of help with all kinds of problems I have had and I would love to pay you back if I can.