July 2005 Issue

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My Latest Projects

For those of you that may be bored by the stories I tell about what I have been doing on my computer, I am sorry. Several members say that they are interested and so without any other input I must continue this month as not much news has come my way that I think may be of interest to members.

My first project this month was to restore some very old recordings of Michael Holliday. For those of you that may be to young to remember Michael, he was a very popular singer/crooner at one time. Michael was very good but his voice was too much like the ever popular Bing Crosby so he did not receive the world wide popularity that his talent warranted.

I met Michael on one occasion when he came into one of my shops. He seemed very lonely and quite keen to talk. Unfortunately I was called to the telephone and when I returned he had gone. The following week poor Mike committed suicide.

I took a lot of trouble over the recordings I had been sent. I removed all of the chat and tidied up the recordings eventually producing a recording of very good quality.

I took the trouble to find a very nice photograph of Mike and produced a nice label for a CD together with a front CD case picture and track listings for the back.

I recorded the results of my efforts on a CD and stuck the label on and placed it in my CD players. To my surprise and consternation the CD would not play and on inspection I discovered I had stupidly stuck the label on the wrong side.

Once before I stuck a label on the correct side of a CD but found it to be the wrong label. I attempted to remove the label without success. It was on that occasion that I discovered that the actual recording surface on a CD is on the surface that you stick the label. My efforts on that occasion just ruined the CD.

On this occasion I had stuck the correct label on but on the wrong side.

I attempted to pull the label off without success so I soaked the CD in water for about 3 hours after which the label bubbled up in places but I could only remove it by scraping it off bit by bit with my thumb nail. This left more paper underneath which I dealt with in the same manner. After this I was left with a sticky mess that I could not remove with water or by scraping with my thumb nail. I remembered that when in business we used to remove the sticky mess left behind after peeling off sellotape by using Brasso. A bit drastic I thought on a CD but I thought I would give it a try. After removing all the glue quite successfully I tried the CD and it worked perfectly.

Not very interesting? Ah well, I try.

Gates

I decided to have security gates made for the side of my house. I found a local manufacturer listed in Yellow Pages. A call to him and I was given a catalogue of gates that could be supplied from stock. Unfortunately, none were suitable although the available designs were very nice. Back home I measured up my requirements and from the designs in the catalogue I produced the drawing shown here which I did in Paint Shop Pro. The gates are now being made for me.

I am often asked what I use my computer for. A neighbour bought an expensive top of the range computer last year and to date has only used it for writing letters and playing games. What a waste and he is a clever engineer with an excellent workshop as well.