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No doubt an expert in Photoshop could have achieved far more "magical" results with my images but I can't afford it just to play with my few encouraging results. Besides, the learning curve is far too steep to be manageable without considerable anger and frustration. Talking of which: I am suddenly overloaded with video storage from all the solar videos I have been capturing with the ZWO. So I have ordered a 4TB external hard drive to give me some more affordable backup.
Google storage was far too expensive and I have had endless problems with it. Every time I opened the laptop it would DEMAND I sign into my account. If I wasn't then presented with a completely blank page [which I was, the vast majority of the time] I would enter my email address and password. It would then tell me that it could not access my account. EVERY DAMNED TIME WITHOUT FAIL!
Meanwhile, I would want to be using the laptop for something far more interesting but Google sign in took total precedence. Their support contact was an AI dummy salesman, with poorer typing skills than its total absence of realistic communication with a paying customer.
Perhaps the AI should have used Google's own spelling checker? I couldn't be bothered to enter the AI's fictitious name into the spelling checker in the middle of a completely frustrating, totally one-sided "chat." Every time it told me the AI was typing it's pretend name would be underlined as improperly spelt. Anyone would think I was calling my bank's Indian call centre!
I believe that paying for Google's services gives me some legal consumer rights under "remote selling laws" but don't tell Google. It is far too big and intrinsically immoral to care remotely about anything involving individual paying customers. Not even in their millions, or billions, going on past form. I wonder if St. Margrethe Vestager is too busy at the moment to help?
The Google AI salesman was totally bent on getting me to pay for more storage while completely ignoring any of my direct questions about access. I actually asked it is it was an AI and it denied it. It even started typing slowly and repeatedly cancelling its next message as it struggled to cope with with everyday, human reality. It was completely deaf, dumb[sic] and blind to my real needs.
Like having them stop pestering me to sign on at every start-up. AND, and, and giving me access to the storage I was actually paying for each and every bløødy month!! These backstreet advertising crooks couldn't organise a piss-up in a virtual brewery! It kept saying the AI had entered text but nothing appeared in the chat box! I thought I was technically illiterate! Google sets new standards of dumbitude!
My speedy laptop, with its USB3 to SSD, will continue to be used for video capture. Then I can dump any useful videos onto the big disk drive, again via USB3. Then empty the SSD ready for the next imaging session. I shall just have to turn off wireless to stop Google from pestering me to sign on!
I chose a PC style HDD with an independent, mains power supply. Hoping to avoid potential problems with rapid laptop battery drainage, loss of transfer speed or overloading USB ports. The downside is that I usually need to go online to check Gong H-a for anything I might have missed at the eyepiece. I also like to blog to fill in the long periods of thick cloud. Or to post my latest solar daub.
How do I stop Google from intentionally spamming me with completely false, log-in procedures? Don't ask for Google One Support unless you have your check book wide open! To go with your wide open mouth of drooling naivety and idiocy.
The Seagate HDD was less than half the price per TB of Google's online storage per year. 1/4 the price over two years, etc.etc. This ignores Google's likely storage price inflation if they should ever need to start paying taxes like everybody else. It surely can't last?
While never intended to be portable, the big HDD will not need to travel. The tiny 0.5TB SSD can do all the commuting between the observatory and the PC indoors. I had no idea I'd need so much extra storage when I bought the SSD. Though they still get very pricey indeed in larger capacities. It will be much easier to empty a smaller drive without worrying about the loss of useful files.
The problem is always finding enough time to waste on image and video sorting and deletion. I may not have enough useful man-years left to use it on such trivial matters.Without a suitable thumbnail it is impossible to recognise a good capture video from a bad one. The fear is always that I might delete files which become salvageable over time as image handling software improves. Or completely new and magical software options arise.
The HDD turned up as expected and I was careful to connect it to one of the USB3 ports on my PC. It still took about two hours to transfer all of my 50,000 Pictures files. 200GB but Google claimed I was using over 400GB of storage. I moved from the old HDD to the new expansion HDD. The old drive was then removed and the 4TB became the new storage medium.
So far the 4TB is taking its time to display [populate?] the screen. Picasa also took its time to share its files. I always use Picasa instead of W10 Pictures because of its ease of use, friendly display and built-in tools. In comparison, W10 "Pictures" is just a big and very slow, dumb, filing cabinet. It's only saving grace is the Search box. Which allows me to access all the rsz [resized] images I use on my blogs and to post on the forums. Later I discovered that Picasa takes ten seconds to open but "Pictures" are now available in an instant. After a day's use of the computer and the new HDD Picasa is also instant.
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