The Computer/Computing "To-Do" List

The first thing on my computer related list for this summer is to rip a "good" number of our movies on DVD into a universal portable format. From where I stand, "universal" video format would mean MP4. Please understand, that when I mean "rip", I don't mean to download! I mean to take DVDs that we've bought, own, and convert them to a different format for our personal use. I'm going to bet that, that fits in the vast majority of peoples' definition of "Fair Use". I'm going to leave the how part of it up to you to find out in the wilds of the internet. There are plenty of sites that describe the process in detail. The fact is that we are going to be spending a fair number of hours in vehicles, cabins, and hotel rooms this summer and the obvious use of movies in some computer file format will be advantageous.

The need for this comes from our family's conversion to the common use of tablets; iPads to be specific with the exception of myself (Android). You know of course that the iPad has no facility to physically connect to external storage. So an intermediary needed to be found. Earlier this spring, I came across the HooToo Tripmate as a wireless means of getting files to my students in the classroom. In the midst of that, I realized that it could just as well stream media to various platforms as long as they had the Tripmate App. About a month ago, I tested it with my ThinkPad Tablet (Android) while my friend Pat did the same thing on his iPad Air. I put a movie converted to MP4 on a flashdrive which was plugged into the HooToo Tripmate Elite (Newegg special, about $20). We both streamed the movie to our respective machines without issue. All that needs to be done is for each device to log onto the Tripmate's access point, open the App, navigate to the folder/file that the user wants and voila', INSTANT STREAMING MEDIA. Unfortunately, there is the "Teddy Roosevelt" digging the Panama Canal part, which is to laboriously rip and convert the a decent library of movies for the kids to access!

Item #2? Yeah, a power supply replacement. I recently came across a very nice Seasonic M12 II, 80 Plus Bronze semi-modular PS unit for about half of what the normally sell for.....so...... at some point, when I'm really ready to pull the giant Cosmos II back out from under the desk, then I'm going to switch it out from the Cooler Master 600w PS that's in there. So I needed this? No! But I'm a big Seasonic PS believer and they are quiet and run cool. I'm all about that. Plus; the price was right. About $45, after shipping. 

My garage isn't exactly an e-waste dump, but I've really got to get in there and do some cleaning out. Most of what I'm going to get rid of will go to the new computer club but there are some items that need to be sold....

....which of course, leads to this sub-list. Items to sell off! This is very difficult for a border-line hoarders like me, but I've gotta do it. 

Unfortunately, all this good planning to get things done isn't completely contingent on my motivation alone. I really need for my wife to figure out where she's going and get all the stuff in the garage into her new classroom! When that's been taken care of, then I'll be free to get my cache of computer parts out of the garage. Till then, the main trick to to NOT add to the pile!