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The Longevity of CD

I recently decided to link my old CD/DVD writer to my Mac. It’s been languishing in the spare room for a long time. I didn’t have many CDs anymore. When I moved almost a quarter century ago, I disposed of most of my CD collection as it was too troublesome and expensive to ship. When I moved again, another ten years later, I took the collection I had built up to Goodwill, as it was too costly to bother shipping most of them. The few I kept, I didn’t play much, as I had ripped all the previous library to mp3 files on a hard drive before disposal. 

I had purchased an external Apple CD/DVD writer to use with my original Mac Mini, which I got in 2014. Very occasionally, I’d put on a music CD. As for DVDs, I had never really bought very many at all and was down to perhaps one or two. We had gotten broadband with a decent bandwidth, and so, like many, we streamed music and video for the most part. I’m not a huge video watcher, in any case.

I recently got a high-res audio player: an Atell & Kern SR35. It was an open-box deal, so I got it for an excellent price. Around that time, we bought a new TV, and I went for a new home cinema system to go with it.

A voice in my head (I often get those) told me to get a Blu-Ray DVD player, too. It was a somewhat illogical choice considering, as I mentioned above, I only had one or two DVDs.

Around this time, I missed the bus while going home from work one afternoon. The next one was flagged up as arriving in about twelve minutes. It was rather cold out that day, so I went into the charity shop by the bus stop.

They had a section selling used CDs, DVDs and Vinyl. The prices were crazy low. I got a half dozen CDs and a couple of DVDs for a pound each. I took them home and played them. The Charity shop has become a habit, and I’m now building up a decent collection of CDs and DVDs again. Mostly older stuff and some UK TV box sets that either my wife or I will enjoy; I have bought a couple of brand new CDs online and a couple of Blu-Ray DVDs, too.

Now, to get back to the beginning, I want to be able to play CDs on the Mac, too. I have a reasonably passable Bose 2+1 system connected to it. That original Apple CD device is as dead as a dodo.

OWC CD/DVD writer

I researched, which led me to buy a machine from OWC. It reads and writes CDs, DVDs, and M-Discs.

This is where it got interesting. I had never heard of M-Discs. Now, I won’t go into the technicalities of the format much here, but apparently, the dyes used in regular media are organic and will break down over time. On the other hand, M-Discs use inorganic dyes and are reckoned to last a thousand years or more. As I drink so much coffee, I will be immortal (coffee increases your lifespan). I’ll let you know how that works, but only if you drink as much coffee as I do. Look me up around 3025. Of course, in reality, there will be a bunch of M-Discs lying about with nothing to read them on. By then, we’ll probably wear a headset that feeds directly into our brains and transports us to a live concert without going anywhere. 

I digress. I have bought a pack of large M-Discs. The largest size is currently 100GB, which is enormous compared to a few years ago but relatively small. My aforementioned Hi-Res music player has a micro SD card that’s 500GB, and it will take up to 1TB cards. That’s a lot of music, even at enhanced bit rates. Oh, and yes, I’ve nearly filled it up already. I’ve not added up how many hours of music I have in my pocket. Remember, it’s not streaming, so I can listen anywhere.

Back to the M-Discs. I haven’t used any of these M-Discs yet, but I think I will possibly use them for archiving photos. They’re not really a backup solution, as like regular CD/DVD discs, they’re WORM (Write Once, Read Many). I have the rolling backup solution already with Lightroom Cloud, and Backblaze continuously backs up my entire system, including my external 16TB USB drive. 

So far, I’ve only touched on the longevity of optical media. I started to wonder about it, but my interest was further sparked by finding a box with some optical media (CD and DVD) in the depths of the spare room. Haven’t we all got a spare room/garage/attic where stuff will be forgotten for years? I got the box out and went through the media. 

I found a CD I had written around twenty years ago, full of mp3 files. It’s several dozen tracks of pop hits from 1976. Played through without stopping, the CD would run for around eight hours. I made many of these back then for use in the car. There was no Apple Paly or streaming music as such back then, and as I had purchased a new audio unit for the car I had at the time that would play mp3 format files from CD, it was a great option to have hours of uninterrupted music while on a road trip. 

I no longer have a car and rarely get a rental to make such trips, so those days are gone. However, I still need a portable solution for travelling on public transport or walking, which I can satisfy by combining the Hi-Res player and my iPhone. 

I parted company with most of those mp3-format CDs as Internet bandwidth increased, along with the quality of streaming. Why would I want to play MP3s when I have Apple Lossless? 

Anyway, I put the twenty-year-old CD into the Blu-Ray player connected to the hi-fi, and it played with no issues at all—no errors, skipping, or missed tracks. My wife and I had a lovely evening listening to almost fifty-year-old pop tunes from our youth with a couple of glasses of wine while lounging in bean bags in the living room. Getting out of a bean bag at the end of the evening is another story entirely.

So, dear reader, if you’ve not gone to sleep by now, or I haven’t bored you to death with my ramblings, I can tell you that a home-written CD lasts at least twenty years if stored securely in a jewel case. All the CDs I purchased in the late ‘80s are long gone, so I can’t check those, but I understand that commercially written media is more robust and should last a lot longer than those written at home. Someone, please correct me if I’m wrong.

Perhaps this week, I’ll finally get around to archiving some of my photographs to one of these M-Discs. Keep drinking the coffee, and see you in 3025!

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How to Keep Your WordPress Site Secure and Updated

Much like everything else, websites do need a little housekeeping every so often. Making sure databases are up-to-date, that the site is working as it should, that links are good, and of course, that’s aside from writing content.

Today I’ve been through this site, and done a little tidying up. This site is based on WordPress, and I’ve made sure the templates are all up to date, along with the plug-ins that I have added. This helps minimise security risks.

On the subject of plugins it’s a good idea to assess the use of them periodically too. No point is wasting space and potential safety of the site by having plugins that are no longer in use.

Today, I’ve added one to help me promote my postings beyond the website itself onto a few social media platforms.

One day, my fame might be spread far and wide, and I’ll be able to retire to somewhere permanently sunny and warm. Hey! We live in hope!

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Balancing Work, Life, and Hobbies: A Personal Reflection

We all procrastinate. Well, OK, my mate Alex doesn’t. He is super-disciplined and does everything straight away, if possible.

Me? Well, I never think there are enough hours in the day. I get up, work interminable hours on a typical work day, and usually return home. Once I get home, I wash, change, and make dinner. After dinner, my wife and I exchange details of our daily events, chill for a short while with some music or video (mostly YouTube), and then head to bed to do it all over again.

I do spend a little time keeping a journal, in which I simply make a concise record of my day’s events.

I like to photograph on days off, typically on weekends (mostly the street kind). Then again, there’s the housework and various DIY jobs around the house. There’s not much time left to sit down and write much.

Today, I didn’t feel too well and had a mostly sleepless night, so I called out work, and that has given me time to sit here quietly at my desk and write this. I’ve also got a bunch of photographic post-processing tasks to do and some other websites to update and maintain. Perhaps when I eventually retire, I’ll find more time to write!

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Going Analogue… Sometimes

I mentioned last week that I was considering buying a turntable to connect to the new Home Theatre System, so that I could get my vinyl collection out of hibernation. It’s been several years since I played any of it. I think the last time would have been back when we were in Gillingham and that was 2004, so it’s over twenty years!

Audio-Technica LP140XP

There are very many turntables out there for various price points, but I didn’t want to go too crazy right now, so I opted for an Audio-Technica LP140XP. It’s a DJ deck, which I’m not going to be suing it as, but I was keen to get a direct drive turntable, as they’re more durable, and no worry about belt replacements at any time. I am quite happy with it, although I will probably upgrade the supplied cartridge to something like an Ortofon 2M Red in the future.

I’ve been sorting through my old albums. I have several crates of 45s in the garage loft, which I haven’t got out as yet, although I will do at some point.

I am planning to get some new storage for these albums, but right now, they’re still in cardboard boxes.

I’m not going to go completely analog, as I have some CDs left, even after the big clearout I had when moving back to the UK several years ago. I also pay for streaming services, which I fully intend to keep subscribed to.

Anyway, for now, at least, I’m having fun rediscovering many old albums that I had forgotten about down the years.

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Getting Into 2025

The holiday season is well and truly over. We’re all back to work. The local school have re-opened, and the traffic in the mornings reflects that.

We’ve been slowly getting stuff done at home. We got new curtains ordered which, we’ve hung, and we’ve got a new curtain rod for the rear bedroom, which we’re going to put up this weekend, if all goes to plan.

Still have cabling to tidy up in the front room. We’ve had the TV hung on the wall. All the Christmas food and snacks have gone except for some crisps that are left over, which we are slowly munching through. The mince pies are finished. They take a while to go, as I am the only one that eats them.

I’ve taken the plunge, and found a good deal on a turntable, so it’s on order from Amazon. I’ve had my old vinyl lurking in the attic and the spare bedroom for so long, and I’ve been promising myself I would get to play them again. Now we have the Denon receiver, it’s just a case of buying and plugging in a turntable, so that’s what I’m doing. I’ll write more on this, once I have new equipment in place.

The weather is too darn cold for my liking. It’s not really risen above freezing point here all day, and at the time of writing it’s 2pm, so it’s not going to get any warmer now!

Oh well, perhaps I’ll have a warming beer on the way home.

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Another Solar Circumnavigation

Today, I’m the birthday boy.

I know I’ve had some rheumatoid arthritis issues lately, but aside from that, and certainly mentally, I don’t feel my age.

Kathy went back to work today and I had the opportunity off working overtime, so that was a weird sort of present to myself. Weird yes, but it’s the bigger pay packet next week that’s the present.

I’m going to try and write more this year and with more detail. For that, I need to be more spontaneous. I remember a lot less about moods and feelings if I’m writing this up some days later.

The dictation on the iPhone is pretty good these days,  and I intend to use that more, but I can only do that when I’m in a personal space.

Another thing I want to do is take more random photographs. Yes, I do go out with my camera and do some street photography, but I want to get more casual daily snaps; they can be on the camera or on the iPhone too.

It’s a nice sunny day out there today, but it’s chilly. It was several degrees below freezing this morning when I got up at 4.45 am and it’s not much warmer now at almost midday.

I got finished at work at 3 pm and headed straight home. I thought about going to the pub, but there were some parcels to pick up from the neighbours so I thought it best to get that out of the way. Of course, once I was indoors in the warm, I didn’t want to go out again. Also, I was planning on making dinner at home, and going to the pub after 4 pm would almost certainly mean we would eat there, and we did that just last evening. The food is very good, but it doesn’t do wonders for the household budget!

After getting the new coffee machine, I had a poke around with the settings. You can set up to four separate people profiles. I decided to check out a latté. That isn’t a drink I usually have as it’s too milky for me. I chose an XL size and intensity 3 on the machine. It was too milky and not strong enough, and it was right to the brim of my mug. So, I set the size to L, and the intensity to 4. I’ll try again tomorrow perhaps!

I’m making rump steak, sautéed potatoes, and broccoli for dinner this evening. A photo, I hear you ask? No, we were too hungry, and forgot all about taking one!

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One Ends; Another Starts

So another one bites the dust. It doesn’t seem five minutes ago that we were seeing in the new millennium, and already we’re a quarter of the way through the first century.

Two things seem to be true. Time flies when you’re having fun, and by and large most of the past quarter century has been fun. There’s been a few sticky moments, but nothing that hasn’t been overcome.

The second thing is that time goes quicker as you get older. It’s just how we perceive the passing of time of course. It doesn’t go any quicker really. A revolution of the earth, or its orbit around the sun don’t change (aside from the astronomically measured wobbles); A day is still a day and a year is still a year.

A lot of people make New Year resolutions, but I’m not one for that, knowing full well that they’re mostly broken before the end of the first month, if not the first week!

Still I do like to take stock. I try to meet my reading challenge each year, and fail miserably. Not that I don’t read, but I read less books and more blogs. I also like to listen to music, and I can’t seriously do both at the same time. I’m trying to squirrel away a few quid each week too, for savings. I’ve generally been bad at saving most of my life, but I’m making efforts on that front. Better late than never.

There could be some work changes later this year, with elections in March, but we’ll have to see how that pans out.

Right now though, we’ve had a quiet start to the New Year. We stayed home and saw the London fireworks on TV. I did venture out on New Year’s Day. One of the many advantages of NOT drinking the night before, was I could enjoy a beer instead of nursing a hangover!

January 2nd sees us go out for a little personal pampering. I needed to get an ingrowing toenail looked at again, although it was only a couple of months ago that it was dealt with last. Kathy convinced me to have a pedicure too, while I was there, which was actually most pleasant and left my feet feeing very refreshed.

A cup of coffee.

Right now, the sun is out, although it will be dark in a little over an hour. It’s quite chilly out there, but the coffee in Ballucci is good and helped me write this post.

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More Than A Casual Link?

Yesterday, I took my Infliximab injection late. Over a week late. I had that very bad shoulder pain, which felt it was like in joints and muscles.  I have done some reading about it online, and Rheumatoid Arthritis is an autoimmune condition much like Crohn’s and about 35-40% of Crohn’s sufferers also have R.A. 

After taking the Infliximab injection yesterday morning, the shoulder pain has dissipated, and the only pain is that in my middle fingers, which I seem to get from time to time in any case. Thinking back too, before I was on the injections – we’re going back 4-5 years now – I was often getting pain in my upper arms and shoulders, which I usually no longer get – until I missed this injection last week, that is! 

What have I learnt from this? 1. Do NOT forget to take one’s meds on time! 2. There COULD be a link between the late injection and the extra pain that I have had, but of course, it’s not any kind of scientifically run test. I didn’t miss the injection on purpose anyway!


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Feeling One’s Age?

I was reading a post online a day or two ago from someone who was complaining that they were ‘feeling their age’ and they had just turned 63. There was a reply from someone who was about twenty older than that, painting a picture of mounting immobility.

I’ve just turned 65 last week. I really cannot believe that.

I don’t feel much different than 10,20,30 years ago. There are a couple of changes though. I do find myself feeling a little stiffer in the joints when I’ve been in one position for some time, such as lying in bed or sitting at my desk here in the office. I also find myself feeling like a nap when I get home in the late afternoon. I’ve never been one for taking daytime naps, and, even now, if I were to go to bed for a post-lunch lie-down, I wouldn’t sleep, but I do find myself nodding off on the sofa. I also can’t chuck down the beers like I used to without feeling decidedly ‘off’ the next day. Not hungover, with a headache or nausea, you’ll understand, just ‘off’. Finally, for now, I’ve changed from being a night owl who couldn’t get to sleep at night, to being very ready for bed by ten pm, and awake soon after five am!

I really don’t think about my age very much. There’s not much I can do about it anyway. The days, weeks, months and years tick by, and it is true that they seem to go quicker as you get older.

I don’t feel old at all though, and my mind is still twenty something in many ways. No, I don’t want to go hang out with friends and party and drink all night, but I didn’t do that an awful lot even back then, just once in a while and it was fun then, but doesn’t feel like it would be fun now, either to do, or to suffer the after effects the next morning!

I am trying to be a bit more active, but then again, I’ve never been much a gym type and never played any active sports, not since I left school, and I wasn’t much of a fan even back then!

Old is not in my personal vocabulary, but I shall shall try and age gracefully, whatever that may entail, and I hope I long keep the ability to wander around town when I wish to!

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Back in 2007

I had just joined Facebook, and I was writing down some of my daily activities. I was mostly working from home in those days, so I was reliant on both a computer and the Internet. A couple of the things we still debate is how we would or wouldn’t cope without the Internet, and how much time spent online is too much. Here is such a post from back then…

Outage

Yesterday afternoon a passing thunderstorm co-incided with a complete loss of cable service.

Now here at Kimjac Towers we are pretty much reliant on it, as we use it for the Internet, for the TV, and for the phone.

For the first few minutes, I kept thinking that it would come up again in just a moment, but it didn’t, and then I resolved that I didn’t need to have the net to get some tasks done; that I could live without it for a while.

That was it really. Internet. No, l’m not an Internet addict, but I do rely on it for much of my work, and also for entertainment at times, and as a general information source.

There is that question, and reply from some:

“What would you do without the Internet? When I was growing up we didn’t have it!”

OK, well to respond to that is quite simple. When I was growing up, I didn’t have Internet. I didn’t get my first simple computer until I was 22. That, folks, was a Sinclair ZX81, with 1K RAM. I added a 16K RAM pack to it. Yes 16K, you read it correctly.

In 1985, I got a Commodore 64. I then heard about an online service called Compunet. I signed up. I’ve been online ever since. 1987 was the year I got my first PC. Even back then I wanted a “serious” machine, rather than a games system. It came with 640K RAM, a 12 inch VGA monitor (Standard VGA was 256 colors at 640 x 480), and a 30MB Hard Drive. It also had one of the new 3.5inch floppy drives. The whole thing cost around $2,000.

It came with MS-DOS 3.3, and a set of disks marked Windows 1.0 I installed Windows 1.0, and there was a GUl, with some widget things like a notepad, and a clock, and a very simple Word processor, and that was about it. I took it off, as it was not really much use. I stayed firmly in the DOS camp for the next 6 years. The only reason I finally gave in, and put Windows 3.1 on my computer, was that I wanted to be able to look at this new-fangled World Wide Web, and I couldn’t do that in DOS – well not graphically anyway. I’d gotten my first proper Internet account in 1993, and wanted to go explore.

For me though, the most exciting thing was email! I could communicate with all these people everywhere – well I could once I got everyone else I knew on the net too!

What’s the Internet? What’s a modem? Why do I want that?

Now we take it pretty much for granted, and miss it when it goes out.

So to the person that makes the statement about how we lived before it – yes we did of course. Same as we did before the mobile phone, digital camera, telephone, television, radio, and even electricity. There are still plenty of elderly folks in rural America that will tell you about life on a farm without electricity, and how the REA from 1935 onwards bought light into their homes.

So back to yesterdays outage. What did I do? I did some local file maintenance on the network, and then took the opportunity to get away from the computer for a while and go read a book.

After all, the computer is one of our slaves, not our master, right?

What did I learn from this? I learned that it is a good idea to have some non-Internet tasks in the to-do list, so that during a time of outage I can still get on with some work.

I still do not let the computer become my master either, but treat it as a useful tool with which to work, communicate and also entertain. However, I also make sure I have a back-up. A physical notebook, a regular telephone, music to listen to, and books to read.