Robot Vacuum Cleaners

This one's going to be a little different. I haven't tried to go on a hiking trip yet, mostly because it's been raining and I also want to watch the last few games of baseball season. But this post is because I have many interests. One of those interests is technology. So today I'm talking about robot vacuum cleaners.

I've had an iRobot Roomba for years. It is from the 600 series of cleaners. I have loved this thing because it keeps my floors much cleaner than I'm willing to do myself. All I have to do is empty it sometime after most cleanings. And my house looks okay.

But there have been a few problems with it. The first one is that it gets stuck in places kind of easily. I end up having to go move it and restart it quite frequently. The second problem is that I had to stick it's recharging base to the wall because it kept knocking it out of position. So it had trouble recharging after it was done.

And it still has trouble finding the base properly. It usually takes several times for it to dock itself. It also doesn't have very strong suction in the vacuum, and since I got my new dog it has been having trouble with the dog hair. And this Roomba is getting kind of old, so I finally decided to replace it.

My new robot vacuum cleaner is the Neato Botvac D4. It's a mid-range cleaner as far as cost, but it has more features than most Roombas. It cost me $400. The Roomba cost more when I got it years ago. This one maps out my house instead of vacuuming randomly, so it is much more efficient than the old one, and it is finished much quicker.

This one also doesn't get stuck anywhere in my house and it has much greater suction in the vacuum. The pet hair is gone from the carpet. It also gets back to the base much better and doesn't ever ram into it and move it.

The disadvantages of the new one are first that you have to connect it to the internet. It's a slightly rough setup at first because of that. It also needs a bigger area where the dock can be placed. But other than those problems it has been wonderful.

The internet connection is actually an advantage because I can control the robot with my phone and I can do voice commands with Amazon Alexa. Overall, this newer technology robot is worth the price for me. I really like this new robot.

Oh, one more thing. Does Delilah like it? The answer is unfortunately no. She liked the old Roomba. It had been there with her for most of her life. She thought it was a playmate of hers. She considers the new Botvac to be a hated enemy, even though it's quieter than the old robot. Hopefully, she'll get used to it.

That's about all. I'll talk to you later.

Flowers And Tablets

This group of flowers is a little bit different. No waterfalls, no planes, and nothing from a museum. Just nature in still and silent action. I thought this group of flowers was kind of nice looking, so I decided to make it the subject of today's post. If I only knew what to say about flowers other than, "take a look".

So I'm going to talk about something else that I really like. Maybe you won't care, so that's why I have the flower pictures. What I want to talk about is tablet computers. I recently bought an Android tablet. I was kind of curious, so I got one. I kind of like it, but I have to tell you that I'd rather have a Windows 8 tablet. That's the next gadget I'm getting.

I was going to install a weather app, but then I realized there wouldn't be live tiles like I have on Windows 8, so I thought there was no point to having that app. The same goes for several others. Android has more little games, but they don't seem very special to me, and they all seem similar. I can find little games on Windows 8. What's the difference?

After looking at my new little device, I've decided that I prefer Windows 8. Why? I think it's mostly because I have had it on my other computers for so long already. I'm just used to it. And partly because I really like the idea of the live tiles on Windows with all of that updating information. None of those others have that.

I didn't mean to make this post an advertisement for Microsoft, but this is just the stuff that has been at the front of my mind for the past few days. I've been enjoying my new little device, but not completely. There's room for improvement with anything. I really like Windows 8, but I see room for improvement there too.

So this was my post about tablet computer stuff. I think I have it mostly out of my system now. I sometimes have to do that. Flowers and nature are great, but I like many more things than just that. I'm always on a computer when I'm at home. A lot of time that also involves nature, but sometimes it doesn't. I'll talk to you later.

Um, Snow Monkeys

I'm back! Did you miss me? ...Wait a minute! Didn't I say that last week? Why, yes I did! But this time you might have actually noticed my absence. So what happened this time? It was the computer again! This is why I had such trouble figuring out the problem before. The computer kept crashing and the monitor wasn't working right.

When the monitor finally went all the way I hoped the problem was solved, but I still had my doubts. I never believed the monitor could cause the crashing, but I also never thought the monitor was the problem until it died on me. It turned out to be two problems at the same time that seemed like the same one.

I also don't have most of my other computer equipment with me so I was very hesitant to mess with anything, so I was hoping I could keep the computer limping along until I could get my stuff here. But unfortunately the computer finally quit cooperating at all. It began crashing every time I tried to use it, so I had no choice but to reinstall the whole operating system. And it worked! The computer finally seems okay, so now I can show you a snow monkey! Get ready...

And here he is, in chair number 2, your dream gorilla! Not bad for a snow monkey, right? Don't ask what's in chair number 1 or 3. You really don't want to know! This guy here was really the most presentable of the three. You'd get night terrors if you were to see even one of the other two. I'm not so sure how you'll fare with this snowy dude in the dark parts of your memory.

Just think how I feel. I had to see those three weirdos sitting on stools in the middle of my street when I went out the door. They were really the ones Isabella was chasing. You should have heard the howl that came out of her when she saw this guy!

If that wasn't enough, the neighborhood children all came down to hoot and holler at the big strange looking snow monkey. I swear, after all of this I need a vacation! There's nothing better than all inclusive holidays at a time like this! You'd do well to follow me there while you're at it. All of those kids laughing at the silly monkey will drive you to it.

Eephus there in the middle is the handsome devil of the bunch. And Simon is the merry mischief maker. They always have something to say when there's a bit of strangeness in town. Those little rascals!

For some odd reason Isabella will have nothing to do with them. I always thought she liked children, but she always runs and hides whenever this bunch of bananas comes around. I usually find her a bit later whimpering under my bed. Strange.

Maybe Isabella needs a vacation too. I guess everyone needs to get away from that many rambunctious kids every once in a while. I guess it would help if their parents wouldn't send them down here ready for dinner with their knives and forks. I don't understand what they think I'll feed them.

I'll be back tomorrow with... something.


Nature Center Magazine - Your starting place for nature!

The Future Is Wide Open

These tree branches have a coating of frost that was laid on them by a heavy winter morning fog. I always wanted to capture something like this on camera, but I had a lot of trouble getting even these. Sometimes even simple things are much harder than they seem.

Getting the camera to focus on this dark and gloomy day was just not very easy to do. In the end I didn't get exactly what I wanted, but I got these pictures, and I'm happy enough with that. Sometimes even when we are disappointed, we come out with something unexpectedly good.

These bare and frozen branches look so dark and empty right now, but they have so much potential to grow into something beautiful and green when spring arrives. And yes, I see hints of spring already even though we are still in the full grip of winter. Winter has to happen so we can refresh all that is around us, and it brings its own great adventures while it happens.

I just want to say that I'm back online after really being gone for much of the past few days. I didn't have to miss my daily posts, but I've had to miss almost everything else. I've had to completely take my computer apart and then reassemble it. Not only did my hard drive fail, but my system fan also failed a day later.

I was able to replace both the fan and the hard drive with much better versions. The new hard drive has about 1.5 terabytes of space. I'm now faced with a brand new drive that is bare of any space, but it has so much potential for plenty of files to come. And the computer is healthier than ever, so better things are very close.

Unfortunately, I've discovered that most of the files on my previous hard drive are probably unrecoverable, at least in any kind of working form. They weren't critical, but I treasured them greatly. But I now have this new drive with so much future potential. Just like a cold winter renews nature, my troubles with my computer have resulted in a new refreshed machine with a future that is wide open. Tomorrow is a new adventure.

Tracking A Problem

What you see here in the pictures are obviously animal tracks. They don't really look quite like they did when the animal left them there because the weather has been warm enough around here that the snow is melting. That can make it very hard to properly identify animal tracks because they have become distorted, so the sometimes don't look the same at all.

I'm having a similar problem with one of the hard drives on my computer. The files have become corrupt so I'm trying to recover them and find out what they are. Like the animal tracks above, I won't be able to recover them all. But with some detective work, I'll be able to get some of them back. I have the equipment now, but it will take some time.

But we'll mostly talk about these animal tracks for now. Did I find out what animal they belong to? Well, I can never be sure, but I think I have. They are about twice the size they originally were, and the left one is mostly unidentifiable by itself. But I'm sure these tracks belong to a squirrel. What else would they be here? And like I said before, I used a little detective work.

This track is about a foot behind the other two. There was a trail of these tracks, with the first set being the best I found. I followed the tracks from the base of one tree right up to the base of another tree. That's a very good sign of squirrels since they will travel through the trees as much as they can.

A lot of times you can tell squirrel tracks from rabbit tracks this way. They can both look very similar. If they lead up to a tree, and disappear, they are most likely squirrel tracks. You aren't going to find many rabbits in the top of a tree, but squirrels call those trees home. This information is not complete at all, but it might get you started in learning at least these tracks.

And now to end my post today, I just want to tell you all that I'm temporarily away from the internet. I'm busy trying to recover the files from the hard drive I mentioned above, and this is taking up almost all of my time right now. The files aren't critical, but I still value them greatly. So until I recover as much as I can, I'll be mostly away from the internet. I'll make an announcement here when I'm back. And those of you who routinely comment here will know because you'll see me in your blog's comment section.

Until then, a very busy everyday adventurer, signing off.

Back Online

Today's post doesn't deal with nature. I'm going to write about my computer experiences of the past few days. If you don't like reading about that stuff, I completely understand. I made sure I have some nice pictures here for you so you won't feel completely betrayed though. Let me know what you think about either thing. Here's my story...

I'm sure nobody really noticed my absence, but I was offline for about a day. I do keep a spare computer, so I was able to get a few things done. The reason for my absence was that I completely reinstalled everything on my computer. I gave it a total revamp!

I had to do it because it had gotten to the point that the computer was running like it was 20 years old. My computer is supposed to be a souped up hot rod, and it was running like an old clunker. I couldn't even leave comments on any of the blogs without it freezing up after every few seconds. It was awful!

After giving my backup computer a similar lobotomy, and seeing the great results, I decided enough was enough. I had to do something about my main machine too. It gets really frustrating when I have trouble doing things my old computer does with great ease. So that's when I started.

This wasn't going to be exactly that easy though. I had a great many things to backup first. My main hard drive was just packed with junk. A lot of my programs were there, and all of my blogging tools were on that drive, even my pictures that I post every day! This was a big project.

I backed it all up the best I could, and I jettisoned the junk that I didn't need. It was now time to go ahead and format the hard drive and install everything again, beginning with the operating system. I always hate to do this because there is always something valuable that I forget and leave behind. It ends up gone into oblivion.

I am happy to say that the reinstall went more smoothly than it ever has before. I actually had the computer back up and running in only a matter of hours. Of course, this was only running basic stuff still. I still had to reinstall all of my old programs. And that's when I discovered what I had lost!

It was actually two things. First was a little file I used as a start page for the internet. I kept it as a local file that contained valuable links that I visited regularly. I had forgotten to back it up, and it was now gone forever. I'm going to miss it terribly.

The second thing I lost was a very old program that I have had since the Windows 3.1 days. It was a very valuable little program called Cardfile. I used it to store all sorts of things, such as addresses and certain websites and settings. I was lucky enough not to lose those! The thing is that I knew I would have to let the old program go eventually because it was so old. I just couldn't find a replacement for it.

That is, until now! I found a new and better Cardfile, called Azz Cardfile, and it does much more than the old one. The best thing is that it can read my old files from the old program, and convert them to the new one. If you're interested, you can download it here. It's free to download, but you pay to keep it after the trial period. They even have a website that has collections of useful cardfiles! Personally, I'm really glad I found the program. That's why I'm eagerly advertising it for them.

Anyway, back to my reinstall. Asyou can see, I have my computer up and running, and I'm back on the internet, but still in a limited fashion. I'll be reinstalling more programs as I need them, so things will still go rather slowly for me. I don't even have all of my photo editing software loaded up yet. So I'll be trying to do my blogging and reinstalling all at the same time now. This is heaven for a geek like me!

Oh, and I'm sure you've noticed my forest pictures in the post. They obviously have nothing to do with what I'm writing about, but don't they look nice? I'll be back tomorrow with something a little more normal for me. Until then, happy blogging! (I always wanted to say that!)

(This post is a little early, so you might want to take a look at my previous post for a more natury subject.)

Entrecard Top Droppers Widget

I'm going to give you a very different kind of post today. I am frequently asked questions about some of the things here on my blog such as the sidebar widgets or the design of the site. It has never occurred to me to write about some of these things until yesterday when I was asked about my Entrecard Top Droppers Widget.

For all of you that are looking for some Nature, I posted some pictures right below all of this geek stuff.

I actually put this widget together myself, and it was very easy to do. It can serve many other functions besides being for top droppers. What about a latest posts widget? Or anything else you want involving an RSS feed. So today, for anyone interested, I'm going to explain how to create this Top Droppers widget so anyone can do it. This one works strictly for Blogger blogs. Others that use javascript might also find it useful.

The first step is to find the RSS feed for your top Entrecard droppers. Go to your Entrecard dashboard, and look for the Statistics button along the top of the page. Click that button to go to your statistics page. About halfway down the page is the Tables section. The first list in that section is your Top Card Droppers. You'll see the orange RSS icon there. Right click on that icon and copy that address. It's your Top droppers RSS feed.

Next go to this site: Feed2JS. This is the place that makes it all happen. There are other similar sites, but I use this one right now. Now paste your Top Droppers RSS feed into the box towards the top of the page. Don't worry, they tell you where to do it right on the page. There are several options you can choose now to customize the look of your widget now. Go ahead and try what you want.

When you think you have what you want or you just want to know what it will look like, click on the Preview Feed button at the right of the page. It will pop up a window that shows what your widget will look like. You can close this pop up window at any time. If you don't like the way it looks yet, keep adjusting the settings.

When it finally looks the way you want it, it's time to generate the script for your widget. So, click on the Generate JavaScript button that's right below the Preview Feed button. That will create a new box that is titled Get Your Code Here above where you entered the RSS feed. Copy all of the text that's inside that box. That text will become your Top Droppers Widget.

Now we will move on to the next step. Head on over to your blog, you know, your Blogger blog page. At the Blogger bar at the top click on the word Customize. Most of us know where this goes, but I'm still going to take you through this a little bit. You are now on your Layout page. Click on Add a Gadget at your sidebar section to go to the list of sidebar widgets. Choose the HTML/JavaScript selection in the list. Now paste the text you copied right into the Content section. Pick a title for your widget. Click Save, and you're done.

All you have to do now is decide where you want to place the widget on you sidebar. That choice is up to you. If the widget doesn't look the way you want it, you can always go back and do it all again. You can potentially create all sorts of lists on your Blog with this little RSS list builder. It's all up to you. If you have any questions about my instructions, all you have to do is ask.

Now, for all of you that came here looking for my usual nature post, here are some of my latest pictures. I'll be back doing my usual nature stories tomorrow. I just had to let a little bit of the computer geek out to relieve the pressure. Now it won't explode all over everyone. Here's those pictures.




I bet you didn't know I was also a computer geek, did you?

Website Problem Fixed

I just got through fixing a huge problem with this website today. It seems there was a major problem viewing the site with Internet Explorer. There was a small glitch in the code somewhere that caused some people who use Internet Explorer to be knocked off here after a few seconds. I spent most of my day rebuilding the site from the ground up. I've done extensive testing and I'm happy to say that it is now fixed. Sorry for the inconvenience it caused for any of you who use Internet Explorer. Hopefully it will now work better than ever for everyone.

-Ratty

Count The Geese

Since I haven't done this in awhile, I've decided that it's time for another game. In the past I've asked you to find a hidden squirrel. Squirrels like to hide, so that went well with their personalities. This new game is a little bit different. This one is about geese, and around here, geese are multiplying out of control.

So this game involves the number of geese you can find. Your job is to find out how many geese there are in this picture. It may be only one, or it may be as many as ten, or somewhere in between. It may be difficult to see, so go ahead and click the picture to make it bigger. Even if you don't see any, you can make your best guess. That's easy enough.

This is all just for fun. There isn't a huge prize or anything like that. I'll just mention the winner(s) in the post when I reveal all of the geese tomorrow. You can leave your guess or any comment you like in the comments section. Like I said, I'll give the answer tomorrow.

A Lost Journey

I was on a very different adventure yesterday. This one was not nearly as fun as my usual journeys. It was full of pain and disappointment, but then finally a ray of hope in my darkest hour. I thought I might be lost for a long time, but then because of my long time experience and navigational skills, I have now found my way back to civilization!

What kind of fantastic journey was this, you say? It wasn't what you might expect at all. Have I been just a little misleading? Only slightly! All of this has happened, but not in quite the way you might think. I have been down a dark path, and I'm not completely free of it yet.

Okay, I'll finally tell you what happened. When I got home yesterday, I noticed that my computer had crashed. I figured it wasn't a big problem, computers crash all the time, and they usually only need a reboot. Not this time.

When I restarted the computer, it seemed fine at first. But then I decided to run one simple program. It was Freecell. That's all, just a stupid little card game! The video screen immediately went blank! What was going on here?

I tried everything I could do to recover while still in Windows, but it wasn't happening. So I had no choice but to hit the dreaded reset button on the front of the computer. Since I was stupid enough to upgrade to Vista awhile ago, it took forever to go through everything. I went through this a few more times before I finally thought I needed to try something else.

I restarted again, but before the computer could get all the way to Windows, I did a few different things this time. I finally got to a screen that asked if I wanted to go into Safe Mode. Well of course I did! Unsafe Mode wasn't working, so what choice did I have? After what seemed like an eternity, the computer finally settled into Safe Mode, and at least it wasn't crashing here.

I won't bore you with any more of the little details, but I had to shut off most of Windows' features. That seemed to do the trick, because when I restarted the computer, it wasn't crashing anymore. I have access to some things, but others are still far away down the path.

At least I'm now out of the woods. I can now see the end of this awful trip into oblivion, and I feel as free as a bird. After some more investigation I should have everything solved. I'm glad I spend half my time as a computer geek. Without that, I would have been lost in a dark scary place forever.

Tomorrow I'll be back with something a little more about nature, but right now my mind can't get off this lost journey. Even so, I hope you enjoyed the pictures from today. The bird in the last one has been a fun mystery to me, that I have yet to solve. See you next time.

Computer Upgrades

Yesterday I had a very strange adventure. I've been upgrading my computer! That's something that this blog hasn't seen before. I've seen it many times before, because I was a computer geek even before I started exploring nature so much. I still liked nature even back then.

This computer upgrading has consumed most of my time yesterday, so I've kind of neglected you all. Sorry for that. I really didn't know that it was going to take so much time. Today I'm going on a dreaded trip to the doctor, so I might not be much better this time either. I'll do as much as I can, but it will still be lacking.

In the meantime, I thought I'd show you what I just got. I'm still trying to fine tune these things, so things still aren't perfect. So far they have some great points, and some things to get used to.

This is my first flat screen LCD monitor. It's huge!

This is my second TV card. I use my computer for a TV to save time. I love the old one, but it's becoming obsolete.

I hope the pictures tell the story here. If anyone wants more details, I'll be happy to give them in the comments section. I'll talk to you tomorrow with a special Alice adventure for Fiction Friday!

The Joy Of Fixing Computers

I just got through about eleven hours of reinstalling everything on my brother's computer. My brother doesn't ask unless his computer problem is a serious one. That was my everyday adventure for yesterday. When I say everyday, I mean it. Not just for his, but for several people. I am becoming known for my computer skills. I never had any formal education involving computers, but I've always been fascinated with technology and learning new things. That's pretty far from nature trails. Wouldn't you agree?

At home I help several people with their computers. I am now becoming the person everyone at work turns to for computer help. Now, I'm the person my boss turns to when he needs computer help. A few of the higher ups have even noticed this. It seems I can do these things better and cheaper than the people they pay to do these things. Maybe some day it will benefit me in some way.

Always before, I had been a very private person, but lately I've been revealing things, including my computer skills. I just thought it was time to show that I am an intelligent person. In the past, I would put on my resume that I had computer knowledge. I always figured no one cared, or they thought that meant I could get on the internet. Now, I figured I'd demonstrate some of my knowledge, if that's what it takes. I have to do everything I can to be a happier person in the end. Isn't that what life is all about?