h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My maternal grandpa always put on a jacket before answering or making phone calls. It would have been rude not to

We've come a long way since then - but I still don't answer or make calls when i'm in the loo

"But all is not lost yet. Not if you have a computer with a cd burner" [Pierce]

The newest computers that I see in the stores don't seem to have CD-burners included. One has a DVD-burner, but not a CD-burner. I don't know if it will play CDs in the DVD-tray. Eventually, computers won't have anything that can play CDs. Maybe add-on devices for that will also be abandoned.

Still, tens of billions of audio CDs have been sold since 1985. A small percentage were defective even when new. A somewhat larger percentage became damaged with use. A few lucky ones were played hundreds of times. I used to check on circulation stats for library CDs and DVDs. Many discs were heard or viewed more than a hundred times and still were okay for further use. But that was also true for some of the videocassettes that had to be dumped because library patrons no longer wanted to view them. When I used to go visit my mother in a nursing home, the "library" of that place had a lot of videocassettes. My mother built up a large collection videocassettes that she taped from television. She had most of the episodes of "Murder, she wrote", plus a lot of "Love Boat" eipsodes. My father recently asked me is her old videos could be sold or donated to a charity. I replied that no one was likely to want them as long as professional videos [especially DVDs] of those episodes were available. People don't even have VCRs any more. Heck, with video streaming from Netflicks and Amazon.com, it's debatable whether anyone would want DVD players even.

There's a certain irony to the fact that digital discs can be played hundreds of time without ill effects. The vast majority of them will likely *not* be played as much as they could be. Audiocassettes, which preceded CDs, were apparently quite durable. Maxell, which sold mylar cassettes, claimed that they could be played 500 times. I played mine ten times on average.

The practice known as recycling masks the sad fact that we waste potential right and left. Our society wants to put people to work creating new things, with little thought to the end of useful life of what they make. Under fire for continuing to serve coffee in styrofoam cups, one of the leading coffee shop chains in my country recently phased out by discontinuing styrofoam and substituting a form of cardboard-and-plastic cup that is not recyclable.

A growing number of American cities is moving to recycling of compostable items such as left-over food. This will reduce the amount of nonrecycled items to just 85% of all trash. Fine, but that remaining 15% is still a gargantuan amount. And, if perfectly usable items were not thrown away due to forced change of formats, even less would have to be thrown away.

Still, I don't deny that physical objects require storage. M CD collection is at or near its maximum extent now. I can still listen to the entire collection at least once a year, but adding any more would make that unlikely.

My local library offers "Freegal," an online repository of albums. That will be something to look into.

Sorry,I meant that with recycling of food waste, 85% of all things disposed *would* be recycled.

I recently bought a bluray-dvd-player so I could borrow some of my friend's blurays. It also handles regular dvd's and cd's (music, photos, programs)

My iMac records (burns) both cd's and dvd's (but not blurays) and I'm pretty sure all pc's with built-in dvd-players/burners do the same

Yes, that's logical to suppose. I need to ask to make sure, though.

Yes, you do. I can't be sure what all pc's are capable of

It would surprise me if they were not as I mentioned, though.

On the way back home form the swimming pool, I stopped at Staples [an office supply superstore], I looked at the latest computers. There was a new, 2013 Hewlett-Packard desktop for about $600.00, complete with a CD tray. A store employee said I could play CDs or DVDs on it. He said that it was Microsoft Word 2013. My present computer has Word 2003, which is compatible with Word 2007. I could install Word 2007, update my 2003 files to 1007, and then update to Word 2013 when I get my next computer.

with that

I want to update my wallet - from empty to something in it called money

Don't we all, dahlink

If you can download an update, can you also upload a downdate?

[Spell check suggests that downdate isn't even a recognized word.

dates make things run fasterthey could be downdates

The store where I originally bought my current computer has a technical support department, which they call the "Geek Squad." Today I asked them if a 2013 computer would be compatible with Word 2003. They said that it would be. The store has a wide range of computers, so I'm optimistic. The store also accepts trade-ins, so I won't have to worry about throwing away what I have.

http://freedownloads.us.com/products/openoffice2/suite.php?pk=11153&c=FreeD_OOSuite_CCUK_All&aid=boost

you could try this Paul, open office = it's freeand is compatible with microsoft office etc