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| LANTZBYTES IS COPYRIGHT - LANTZ CALDWELL 2000-2010 - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED - PAGE UPDATED: 03.09.10 |
| LantzBytes art, photography, cool stuff & designs that snap |
| HOME art, photography, cool stuff & designs that snap |
| HOME art, photography, cool stuff & designs that snap |
| Bytes 10 |
It was one of those God awful freezing winter days in Indiana and mother was late for work . She asked, "What would you boys like for breakfast?" My brother said, "I guess I'll have some more of those Goddamn cornflakes". BAM! Mother smacked my brother so hard she knocked him off his chair. Mother looked at me and asked, "What would you like for breakfast?" I answered, "You can bet your sweet ass I don't want any of those Goddamn cornflakes!" Trees Along the Road, Memory Lane Lantz 2010 |
I have lost track of how many times reporters, students, "artists" and Joe Six Pack asked - "How do you get your ideas"? - "How did you make that"? - and my personal favorite - "What does that mean"? (cracks me up every time). It is not like I go down to the Idea Store and pick up the latest DVD. Believe it or not, there is a method, and system, to my madness. First, and most important, I write everything down. People think I have an amazing memory...not true. I write everything down. You never know when an idea is going to hit, so I carry a European "man bag" that holds a notebook and camera. Periodically I take all of these note pages and transcribe them over to a document file on my computer. Each "Odds and Ends" file has a date and they look something like this: ODDS AND ENDS - MARCH 2010 BRAIN FREEZE - SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM - YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID, BUT YOU CAN VOTE IT OUT - ASK (.) COM - PEACH QUEEN CAMP GROUNDS - THOSE WHO CAN'T...CHANT - BAD DIAPERS DRAW A CROWD - BEER THROWING ROBOT WAIT...I'M TRYING TO IMAGINE YOU WITH A PERSONALITY - BRAILLE PAD ON DRIVE-THROUGH ATM MACHINE - LONG LIVE SILONS! - PICASSO NEXT EXIT - HIDDEN TALENT AMOUNTS TO NOTHING, CESAR - ON THE MONEY - UNSOLVED MYSTERIES - HANG UP AND HANG OUT - NICK NACK PADDY WHACK - FABULOUS FAKES - STRIKE THE TENT - SOUTH BEACH SENIOR DIET (DOG FOOD) - DR. TWIT - JOE GOT A HEAD LIKE A PING PONG BALL - RUB THE BRUSH - EVERY CASTLE HAS A DUNGEON - RUBBER KEYHOLE - BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS - EATING THE ELEPHANT ONE BITE AT A TIME - FESTIVAL OF ALIENS - VAMPIRE DIARIES - LASHONDA - SO EASY A CAVEMAN COULD DO IT - TWO PYTHONS ON THE PORCH SWING - BOBBLE HEAD - ENEMIES YOU NEVER MET - TAKE YOUR PULSE - BORED WITH PANTS, ETC. The Odds and Ends files accumulate, and every now and then I download them on a USB flash drive, thus freeing up space on my computer. Keep in mind the more programs and files you have on your computer, the slower it runs. HOW TO GET ORGANIZED AND ARCHIVE YOUR WORK I make a lot of pictures and have 3,000+ images in my archive. How do I keep up with all of this? I download raw images I am working on to my C-Drive. Each image has a number that is unique to that image - LB0310 496 old school.jpg. Translated - LB0310 (LantzBytes) (the month) (the year) - 496 (the image number) - old school (the title) and jpg (the image format). When I crop or resize the image I add 01 - LB0310 486 old school 01 jpg. Nine times out of ten I resize the images for my site because the original files are quite large. I send the original large format image to a flash drive file and keep the resized image on my C-Drive until the edition I am working on is completely tweaked and published. Once the edition is published I store every thing on a flash drive - the raw images, large format images and the entire website, to include each page. There is absolutely no reason to keep all of these files on your computer. The name of the game is back up and download all of your files to a flash drive. They have flash drives now that store 32 GB (gigabytes) of information. I like the PNY 16GB high speed USB 2.0 Drive. This USB is officially endorsed by National Geographic. It holds 4,747 large format photos, 4,340 songs or 400 minutes of video. At any given time I use approximately 20% of the memory on my computer (program files) with 80% free space. Subsequently my computer performs at the speed of light. ROUTINE COMPUTER MAINTENANCE AND PROTECTING YOUR SYSTEM So you spent big bucks on a fancy computer system, then why not take care of it? You have your car serviced on a regular basis, and ignore your computer. What's up with that? I recommend that everyone needs to have your magic robot (computer) serviced once a year by a professional technician, not Joe Six Pack working out of his garage. Find a technician that owns a small business and have them perform their magic. My computer guy was trained in the military and he is quite the magician. Even more important, I trust the guy. In terms of daily routine maintenance there are a few things you need to get in the habit of doing. I cleanup my C-Drive every day - START - DISK CLEAN UP (I do not check compress old files). This gets rid of temporary files on your system. I run a virus scan every day. Make certain you are NOT running more than one anti-virus program because they will fight each other. I run a full anti-malware scan once a week. I defrag my system every two weeks. If you want to enjoy your computer, avoid hacker slackers and viruses I have a few more common sense suggestions. Set up a restricted mailing list. Only put people in your address book that maintain their system and have good virus protection. Viruses routinely come through open address books. Ask people not to send you multiple generated forwarded messages with large blocks of e-mail addresses. Never click on an unknown source. By all means shop till you drop on the computer, but when you make your final purchase transaction do it by mail or telephone. Never put your credit card number in a computer. Have your items shipped insured. Insurance is cheap. Do NOT bank and pay your bills online. This is just asking for BIG problems. Backup and download everything on a USB flash drive and remove it from your computer. Even if you get a nasty virus or power surge, you have protected and preserved your work. I have several more tricks, but I am saving those for the dog. For Wild Bill in Nashville. Lantz 2010 |