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Another Convert to Linux


V.T. Eric Layton

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V.T. Eric Layton

A pal of mine asked me to drop by his mom's (70-something) house and check her computers for her. Before even looking, I knew it was going to be an ugly situation.

 

Her desktop: running Win Vista with no antivirus, no anti-anything, no firewall, hadn't been updated in years, etc.

 

Her laptop: same as above.

 

Solution:

 

I permanently disconnected her desktop from the Internet.

 

I wiped and installed Xubuntu 16.04-2 LTS on her laptop.

 

Results: She's all happy now.

 

Other issues:

 

She has 100Gig worth of pictures, music, documents, etc. on her desktop that needs to be backed up before I can wipe that system and install Linux on it. She has no idea how to burn a DVD. I told her sons that they would have to sit there for about 6 weeks and burn 20+ DVDs to backup her stuff.

 

I warned her sons that if she builds up a pile of files like this on her newly refurbished laptop, that she need to be doing regular backups or one day the drive will fail and she'll be very sad.

 

===

 

Sadly, trying to explain the importance of security and backing up to most folks is like conversing with a dusty house plant in a clay pot over in the corner of the room.

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securitybreach

Awesome, great job :thumbsup:

 

BTW just tell her to get a external hdd. You can get a terabyte for like 40 bucks that can fit in your pocket. For instance, here is the one I use at work https://www.amazon.com/Black-Passport-Ultra-Portable-External/dp/B00W8XXRPM

 

That one is a bit more expensive but here is one for $50: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Passport-Portable-External-Drive/dp/B01LQQHI8I

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Hedon James

I second SBs advice regarding external HDD. Those 20+ dvds will never get burned. Plus, the external HDD isn't much more expensive than the DVDs.

 

EDIT: and with an external HDD, you can set her up with an automatic backup system. I think I remember some dude writing a detailed tutorial for LuckyBackup as part of his newbie hazing...err...initiation to this board?! o:)

Edited by Hedon James
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securitybreach

I think I remember some dude writing a detailed tutorial for LuckyBackup as part of his newbie hazing...err...initiation to this board?! o:)

 

Unfortunately, the development of LuckyBackup has almost ceased:

 

Unfortunately the development of luckybackup is almost frozen.I will not stop supporting this project but please have in mind that this will affect future fixes of known bugs as well as the implementation of new features.

http://luckybackup.sourceforge.net/

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Hedon James

Not a problem for me. It does what I want and need, with stability and security, so I'll continue to use it until it's no longer one or the other.

 

Eric's a Slacker, so quick script for rsync and cron will also do the trick. Or Time Machine, or Back in Time, or DejaDup, or Grysnc, etc...

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V.T. Eric Layton

She needs PERMANENT backup of all these files. An external hdd (even solid state) could fail. What she really needs to do is have all those photos of families, weddings, her recently deceased hubby, etc. actually converted to print photos.

 

She says she doesn't care about the desktop system. She prefers to use her little laptop, so my guess is the backups will never get done on that desktop machine. She'll just turn it on occasionally and look at her photos. Hopefully, the system (or the drive) won't fail any time soon.

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I still like the idea of getting a My Passport or similar drive and just backing stuff up - even if temporarily. At least that drive will be new and can be put away. It's hard to imagine burning 100GB of photos onto DVDs. I have about 5 copies of my photos on various and sundry hard drives in a number of systems.

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Hedon James

She needs PERMANENT backup of all these files. An external hdd (even solid state) could fail. What she really needs to do is have all those photos of families, weddings, her recently deceased hubby, etc. actually converted to print photos.

 

She says she doesn't care about the desktop system. She prefers to use her little laptop, so my guess is the backups will never get done on that desktop machine. She'll just turn it on occasionally and look at her photos. Hopefully, the system (or the drive) won't fail any time soon.

 

I get what you're saying, and you can't MAKE someone follow through on advice. But, FWIW, there is no such thing as PERMANENT backups, or that would be the universally accepted method of backing up?! Gnome PhotoPrint is a pretty handy software for printing photos of specified preferred sizes. But print photos deteriorate over time due to touch, sunlight, water, etc... and are easily torn or lost. Xfburn and K3B are probably the best disc burners available in linux, but DVDs also deteriorate over time, primarily due to UV exposure, and are known to crack/break when mishandled. Of course, HDD could also fail, as you point out. In the absence of permanent (which does not exist, IMO), multiple redundancy is the way to go. But of the 3 ways mentioned, I believe the external HDD is the least likely to fail, the easiest to backup, the easiest to restore, and the easiest to convert to other mediums. JMO...

 

Short of doing it for them, you've done all you can do though! 1 more enlightened user, 2 more machines saved from the recycle bin, and 2 less OS fees for MS Win10. I fail to see any downside here! :whistling:

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V.T. Eric Layton

About the only thing that I consider "permanent" is hard copy; and that only if you protect it well (proper handling, storage, etc.)

 

When I said that she needed to print those pics on her hdd, I meant load them on a thumb drive and take them to Walgrens to have real photographic prints made. It's relatively cheap to do that these days. Then, she wouldn't even need to have the computer to enjoy looking at her photos. As far as nothing being permanent, that's true. However, I have a picture box with family photos; some nearly 100 years old. They're still clear and visible. ;)

 

The external hdd is probably not a bad idea for a one-time backup. Her son(s) could copy all her goodies on the the drive, disconnect it and toss it in the closet somewhere. She'd still have the originals on the old desktop system and the hdd in the closet. I'm going to suggest that to her son next time I talk to him.

Edited by V.T. Eric Layton
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Hawley1917_zpskneb6fri.jpg

 

This is about as permanent as it gets. It's a scan from a photo album - taken when my mother was baptized 100 years ago. The old B&W prints seem to hang in there the best. I have Kodachrome slides from the 1970s which I scanned and then had to enhance to get their color back to something like the original.

I suppose if we all went back to B&W film we could make some images today that might be considered permanent.

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I'm going to derail this a bit. raymac46, can you suggest a good slide scanner? I have boxes of slides from the early 70's that I want to scan.

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V.T. Eric Layton

Those are all pretty fancy-schmancy, but the one I had with my first flatbed scanner about 15 years ago was just a series of lenses in a little square container that sat on the flatbed and held the slide for scanning. It came with the scanner (HP). There was nothing electronic about it. It was just a simple magnifier in and enclosed little box thing.

 

Interesting how-to article here...

 

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easiest-inexpensive-scan-slides-flatbed-scanner/

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http://www.scanplify...canner-reviews/

 

This may help. I have a very old Minolta DiMAGE Scan Dual II that is no longer sold and has no dust/scratch filtering. There are a few dust removal programs but mostly it's just a Photoshop or GIMP healing brush exercise to remove the dust bunnies. I am sure there are far better units out there now.

 

https://www.amazon.c...r/dp/B00004XS38

Edited by raymac46
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Here's an example of an old slide scan. My daughter ca 1980.

 

ScanImage810_zpsn8opyw5y.jpg

 

The old scanner ran on Windows 98 so its software is useless now. I think you can get VueScan which might be compatible with later versions of Windows but it's probably time for a new unit, frankly.

Edited by raymac46
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According to a bunch of other sites the Jumbl scanner is one of the best for the money, It's fast and doesn't require a computer connection (just puts the files on an SD card which can later be downloaded like camera files.)

It doesn't have automatic dust removal but that will cost a LOT more and with Photoshop Elements or GIMP you can clean the slides up. You'll likely have to color correct anyway. If you are careful to dust off the slides before scanning that can go a long way to get rid of extraneous matter.

A blower brush like you use to clean off a camera lens is really helpful, with some canned air for really bad dust.

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Yes, I downloaded some pictures of the Jumbl to see the buttons and connectors. It sounds like something for me who is a "picture taker" and not a photographer.

 

My husband thinks it would be cheaper to have the slides converted. I don't think so. I think it would cost a lot more than that slide converter.

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I just checked and it looks as if Costco will convert slides for approx. 35 cents each. No idea of quality of course. So if you have more than 300 slides to do it seems to me the slide scanner wins out. That's about 8-9 rolls of 35 mm slide film and I certainly have more than that in my closet.

Edited by raymac46
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I was busy counting. At the end I got tired and approximated. I have about 517 slides.Which would cost more than $180 plus the cost of joining Costco, plus the price of gas to drive to Costco twice. There isn't one near us.

 

I showed my husband the numbers.

 

Walmart charges $.15 per slide with a minimum of $24.96. ( 165 slides) I'd have no problem with the minimum. So $77.76 is better than buying a Jumbl.

 

I'll need to check Target because we also get 5% off the final price.

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I think you take your slides to Walmart. They scan them and upload the images to your online account (which I assume is a Walmart cloud thing like Photobucket.) You can download and print from there if you want. I think you'd have to get the details at your local Walmart.

What I don't understand is the difference between what you found and what I found.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I ended up buying a Jumbl Scanner. This photo is from a bunch of old slides my late mother and stepfather had. This one is of "Lucky" a dog we had from 1961 until ca 1976. Great guy. This photo is unretouched and taken with an old crappy 35mm camera. Must be at least 50 years old. Not bad,

 

PICT0025_zps9rvjc7zo.jpg

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Thanks for the feedback, raymac46. My husband has come around and decided the Jumbl is the best option.

a) I don't have to drop slides off anywhere and risk having them lost - Yes they are irreplaceable because they were taken in Australia in 1971 - 1972 from my teaching days there (I think they were taken with an old Vivitar camera long sent to the scrap heap)

B) I can do a better job of cleaning them up than some disinterested person having to scan 500+ slides

c) If I don't like the resulting picture, I can rescan or start fiddling with the image to get a better end result.

 

It will keep me from adding to his "honey-do" list because I will be busy with this job. :teehee:

Edited by zlim
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V.T. Eric Layton

@Erik...

 

These days I don't often get my whipper to do much snappin'. This past week was an exception. I did shovel and sledgehammer work at my uncle's place every day this week since Sunday AM. FUN! Well, the good thing is that at least I know I can whip and snap when I need to. Unfortunately, most of the whipping is from the whipped feeling I have when I get up in the mornings and the snapping is the sound of my creaky bones and joints when I crawl out of bed. Whew! Shovel/sledgehammer work is for young folks. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Edited by V.T. Eric Layton
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