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Computer
One of the things I like best about being retired is being able to leave Windows behind. That's not to say that Apple has gotten better. Since the passing of Steve Jobs, the focus has gone from amazing products to being amazing value for stockholders. Apple is not so much the best choice as it is the least bad. That said, I can offer some basic guidelines.
If someone asked you what sewing machine to buy, would you send them to Walmart to get a $99 machine? Of course not, because you know the limitations of such a purchase. With computers it's the same. If you don't know much about them, you will tend to buy the cheapest. In the long run that's actually the most expensive. So here are some basic rules of thumb. You may disagree, as these are just my personal opinions.
If someone asked you what sewing machine to buy, would you send them to Walmart to get a $99 machine? Of course not, because you know the limitations of such a purchase. With computers it's the same. If you don't know much about them, you will tend to buy the cheapest. In the long run that's actually the most expensive. So here are some basic rules of thumb. You may disagree, as these are just my personal opinions.
- Don't buy HP. Period. This once-great company is a pale shadow of its former self and sells cheap junk now.
- Get an SSD (Solid State Drive) instead of a hard disk drive. Yes it costs more, but the speed alone makes it worthwhile.
- Buy more than the minimum amount of RAM. This is the "working" memory of the computer. By calling the long term storage "memory" shady marketing can give you the wrong impression. Prior to Windows 10, the base level of RAM was 4 gigabytes. Now it's 8. For best performance I would get at least 16.
- Most people like a laptop for sewing. Smaller screens mean a smaller price, but they can also be hard to read. Bigger is usually better.
- Laptops are made to close flat. That means the screen is connected by some type of cable. Open and close it often enough, and the cable may break. At that point your laptop becomes a brick.
- Computers now are mostly plastic. Ignoring the environmental concerns, this makes them on the fragile side. Over time the plastic will discolor from frequent skin contact, and will crack and break. Aluminum is better for the long haul, but again, that's just a personal opinion.
- The Microsoft Surface is essentially a tablet that runs Windows. Some of the Janome Windows-based software is touchscreen-aware, so it will work with or without a mouse. Long term reliability of the Surface has been sporadic, and some models are better than others. Before going down that road, Google the specific model you are considering to see what the consensus is.
SewingRose <newbuild2012@...>
Just recently I setup a Microsoft Surface Pro next to my 15000 and (imho) it's the perfect companion, due mainly to the built-in stand and it being a fully featured PC with 16Gb RAM i7 and 256Gb SSD so I also purchased a 1Tb MicroSD card and have all my files on there and leave the SSD for app storage etc. While I've always owned PC's, either desktop or laptop, this is my first Surface Pro and I would choose this option again in a heartbeat.
SP has USB ports so you can also add an external HDD for extended storage, but they are the same cost as a MicroSD card and it's another piece of hardware to move around, whereas the SD card (which is the size of your little fingernail) slots into the back of the computer and you don't even know it's there. MicroSDs are available in larger capacities if that's what you prefer. The TOL (top of line) model has SIM card slot but doesn't have an SD slot, but with the convenience of WiFi and Bluetooth and being i7 with 16Gb, it's really fast and an embroidery design has transferred to the 15000 before I get a chance to turn my eyes to confirm it's there. Check these options as I think some countries have different inclusions.
The touchscreen is great and I also like the bluetooth pen to make notes directly onto the screen or you can use the Janome stylus too if you wish.
Having been a long time HP owner in the past, I have to agree their products are not something I will ever own again...the last PC gave no end of problems and while they replaced it 'four' times and would send a tech to my home several times each week, in the end I demanded a full refund, which I was legally entitled to and which was reluctantly agreed to by HP. The tech nearly set fire to my sewing room while 'fixing' the HP, but not only could I smell something burning I could also see the smoke and still he told me to 'butt out'....normally I don't interfere but this was my house that would burn down so no way was I going to sit back and 'butt out'. He then stormed out of the house leaving me to deal with the electrical fire which he started and when I reported the incident to his boss he hadn't even mentioned it to her and she was horrified.
Anyway, that's my quick rundown of the Surface Pro and the Surface laptop would be similar, it's just that I haven't used their laptop and never comment on something I'm not familiar with.
Hope this helps? Good luck with your decision, I spent some time doing my research to make sure I got the correct setup for me and hope you can too.
SP has USB ports so you can also add an external HDD for extended storage, but they are the same cost as a MicroSD card and it's another piece of hardware to move around, whereas the SD card (which is the size of your little fingernail) slots into the back of the computer and you don't even know it's there. MicroSDs are available in larger capacities if that's what you prefer. The TOL (top of line) model has SIM card slot but doesn't have an SD slot, but with the convenience of WiFi and Bluetooth and being i7 with 16Gb, it's really fast and an embroidery design has transferred to the 15000 before I get a chance to turn my eyes to confirm it's there. Check these options as I think some countries have different inclusions.
The touchscreen is great and I also like the bluetooth pen to make notes directly onto the screen or you can use the Janome stylus too if you wish.
Having been a long time HP owner in the past, I have to agree their products are not something I will ever own again...the last PC gave no end of problems and while they replaced it 'four' times and would send a tech to my home several times each week, in the end I demanded a full refund, which I was legally entitled to and which was reluctantly agreed to by HP. The tech nearly set fire to my sewing room while 'fixing' the HP, but not only could I smell something burning I could also see the smoke and still he told me to 'butt out'....normally I don't interfere but this was my house that would burn down so no way was I going to sit back and 'butt out'. He then stormed out of the house leaving me to deal with the electrical fire which he started and when I reported the incident to his boss he hadn't even mentioned it to her and she was horrified.
Anyway, that's my quick rundown of the Surface Pro and the Surface laptop would be similar, it's just that I haven't used their laptop and never comment on something I'm not familiar with.
Hope this helps? Good luck with your decision, I spent some time doing my research to make sure I got the correct setup for me and hope you can too.
Cat - N
I would not be terribly trusting of using USB drives as critical data storage. I retired after 30+ years in I.T. Professionally
Typos courtesy of autocorrect.
Just recently I setup a Microsoft Surface Pro next to my 15000 and (imho) it's the perfect companion, due mainly to the built-in stand and it being a fully featured PC with 16Gb RAM i7 and 256Gb SSD so I also purchased a 1Tb MicroSD card and have all my files on there and leave the SSD for app storage etc. While I've always owned PC's, either desktop or laptop, this is my first Surface Pro and I would choose this option again in a heartbeat.
SP has USB ports so you can also add an external HDD for extended storage, but they are the same cost as a MicroSD card and it's another piece of hardware to move around, whereas the SD card (which is the size of your little fingernail) slots into the back of the computer and you don't even know it's there. MicroSDs are available in larger capacities if that's what you prefer. The TOL (top of line) model has SIM card slot but doesn't have an SD slot, but with the convenience of WiFi and Bluetooth and being i7 with 16Gb, it's really fast and an embroidery design has transferred to the 15000 before I get a chance to turn my eyes to confirm it's there. Check these options as I think some countries have different inclusions.
The touchscreen is great and I also like the bluetooth pen to make notes directly onto the screen or you can use the Janome stylus too if you wish.
Having been a long time HP owner in the past, I have to agree their products are not something I will ever own again...the last PC gave no end of problems and while they replaced it 'four' times and would send a tech to my home several times each week, in the end I demanded a full refund, which I was legally entitled to and which was reluctantly agreed to by HP. The tech nearly set fire to my sewing room while 'fixing' the HP, but not only could I smell something burning I could also see the smoke and still he told me to 'butt out'....normally I don't interfere but this was my house that would burn down so no way was I going to sit back and 'butt out'. He then stormed out of the house leaving me to deal with the electrical fire which he started and when I reported the incident to his boss he hadn't even mentioned it to her and she was horrified.
Anyway, that's my quick rundown of the Surface Pro and the Surface laptop would be similar, it's just that I haven't used their laptop and never comment on something I'm not familiar with.
Hope this helps? Good luck with your decision, I spent some time doing my research to make sure I got the correct setup for me and hope you can too.
Cat - N
To finish, USB drives are better for temporary storage, transferring data, etc. than permanent storage. Even as temporary/transfer storage, I was too trusting and lost a good bit of data, never to recover it. To be fair, I lost even more data transferring data to organize it when the brand new HD I was using for that purpose crashed. But generally speaking, HD’s are a better bet over USB’s if it’s your only copy. Better to have a couple storage mediums, mirrored drives, a NAS RAID, etc. for redundant storage. (That’s the network/system admin in me talking…LOL)
- Cat
Typos courtesy of autocorrect.
I would not be terribly trusting of using USB drives as critical data storage. I retired after 30+ years in I.T. Professionally- CatTypos courtesy of autocorrect.
Just recently I setup a Microsoft Surface Pro next to my 15000 and (imho) it's the perfect companion, due mainly to the built-in stand and it being a fully featured PC with 16Gb RAM i7 and 256Gb SSD so I also purchased a 1Tb MicroSD card and have all my files on there and leave the SSD for app storage etc. While I've always owned PC's, either desktop or laptop, this is my first Surface Pro and I would choose this option again in a heartbeat.
SP has USB ports so you can also add an external HDD for extended storage, but they are the same cost as a MicroSD card and it's another piece of hardware to move around, whereas the SD card (which is the size of your little fingernail) slots into the back of the computer and you don't even know it's there. MicroSDs are available in larger capacities if that's what you prefer. The TOL (top of line) model has SIM card slot but doesn't have an SD slot, but with the convenience of WiFi and Bluetooth and being i7 with 16Gb, it's really fast and an embroidery design has transferred to the 15000 before I get a chance to turn my eyes to confirm it's there. Check these options as I think some countries have different inclusions.
The touchscreen is great and I also like the bluetooth pen to make notes directly onto the screen or you can use the Janome stylus too if you wish.
Having been a long time HP owner in the past, I have to agree their products are not something I will ever own again...the last PC gave no end of problems and while they replaced it 'four' times and would send a tech to my home several times each week, in the end I demanded a full refund, which I was legally entitled to and which was reluctantly agreed to by HP. The tech nearly set fire to my sewing room while 'fixing' the HP, but not only could I smell something burning I could also see the smoke and still he told me to 'butt out'....normally I don't interfere but this was my house that would burn down so no way was I going to sit back and 'butt out'. He then stormed out of the house leaving me to deal with the electrical fire which he started and when I reported the incident to his boss he hadn't even mentioned it to her and she was horrified.
Anyway, that's my quick rundown of the Surface Pro and the Surface laptop would be similar, it's just that I haven't used their laptop and never comment on something I'm not familiar with.
Hope this helps? Good luck with your decision, I spent some time doing my research to make sure I got the correct setup for me and hope you can too.
Ceil J
I had the cloud service Jim recommended for backup for a while but wasn't able to access files on it and the procedure to access files if needed seemed complicated. I'd love to know if there is a reliable cloud storage system that would allow me to ensure that what I wanted saved was actually there and I could access the parts needed. I have ipads but most of my designs are on a PC with two external harddrives for backup. I've had an external harddrive fail in the past too.
On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 11:11 AM Cynthia Dickerson <cynsew@...> wrote:
Thank you so much Cat for this information. I will ad my documents and pictures to another drive. I have several computers in the house, so your saying to put important things on all of them and I will do this today!!!
Pixey
So I don’t use it fully back up my programs from my PC, but I have been using iCloud to back up all of my embroidery, sewing, and quilting files. I generally keep them in the Files and then push the PDFs that I am using for instructions, patterns, color charts, manuals, etc, into iBooks and use StitchBuddy or Accuedit for my stitch files. I have also created spreadsheets listing my SewSteady rulers and Accuquilt dies. The nice thing is that I now have them wherever I go and I can quickly pull up the design if I want to show it to someone. It also helps me avoid duplicate buying. I have on my ToDo list captured more on my fabric stash, but still figuring out the best way to do that.
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Pixey
On Dec 11, 2022, at 10:22 AM, Ceil J <cjancola@...> wrote:
I had the cloud service Jim recommended for backup for a while but wasn't able to access files on it and the procedure to access files if needed seemed complicated. I'd love to know if there is a reliable cloud storage system that would allow me to ensure that what I wanted saved was actually there and I could access the parts needed. I have ipads but most of my designs are on a PC with two external harddrives for backup. I've had an external harddrive fail in the past too.On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 11:11 AM Cynthia Dickerson <cynsew@...> wrote:Thank you so much Cat for this information. I will ad my documents and pictures to another drive. I have several computers in the house, so your saying to put important things on all of them and I will do this today!!!
Janet Bland
I use Carbonite. It backs up in the background and I have found it easy to use when I’ve had to retrieve files.
From: onlinesewing-janome@groups.io <onlinesewing-janome@groups.io> On Behalf Of Ceil J
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2022 11:22 AM
To: onlinesewing-janome@groups.io
Subject: Re: [onlinesewing-janome] Computer
Sent: Sunday, December 11, 2022 11:22 AM
To: onlinesewing-janome@groups.io
Subject: Re: [onlinesewing-janome] Computer
I had the cloud service Jim recommended for backup for a while but wasn't able to access files on it and the procedure to access files if needed seemed complicated. I'd love to know if there is a reliable cloud storage system that would allow me to ensure that what I wanted saved was actually there and I could access the parts needed. I have ipads but most of my designs are on a PC with two external harddrives for backup. I've had an external harddrive fail in the past too.
On Sun, Dec 11, 2022 at 11:11 AM Cynthia Dickerson <cynsew@...> wrote:
Thank you so much Cat for this information. I will ad my documents and pictures to another drive. I have several computers in the house, so your saying to put important things on all of them and I will do this today!!!
Andrea LaVergne
I had Carbonite and it was successful for retrieving lost files or previous iterations of a document. When it came down to really needing it, downloading everything to a new computer, it was a horrendous experience. It took weeks to get it worked out with Carbonites “help”. It was from 1 IMAC which died to a new IMAC. It should have been easy.
Andrea
Andrea
Ceil J
I have both programs. When I had neither program a couple of years ago, I was advised by a group that Artistic was not the best program to use. It turns out that they were referring to the older Artistic program and not the latest Artistic Digitizer.
I find Hatch very intuitive, but as I'm never going to really digitize anything other than something very simple, it's too much of a program for me.
Artistic Digitizer has a very different interface and I'm not sure if a top digitizer would be happy with it as I just can't comment on that. I will say that there are a lot of very helpful videos by Anne Hein on a Facebook Group called Janome Artistic Digitizer. She walks you through every step of everything you'd want to do. She also responds to questions.
The reason I bought AD (which I did about a year after Hatch) is that it does an excellent job with turning a photo into stitches. Now the version 3 of Hatch may do the same thing; others would have to answer that but I didn't upgrade to 3. AD converts stitches to cross stitch but I believe and add on for Hatch will allow you to digitize in cross stitch. Others will know best.
Each program has different elements so it really depends on what you're looking for. Unfortunately a free trial of AD has ended recently but they have a few each year, while Hatch will give you a free trial anytime. AD has lower prices during these trials, while the best pricing for Hatch is usually in the Spring and Autumn.
Don't rush into anything. Take your time and see which one best fits your needs.
Ceil
On Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 10:48 AM Andrea LaVergne <lscsew@...> wrote:
I had Carbonite and it was successful for retrieving lost files or previous iterations of a document. When it came down to really needing it, downloading everything to a new computer, it was a horrendous experience. It took weeks to get it worked out with Carbonites “help”. It was from 1 IMAC which died to a new IMAC. It should have been easy.
Andrea
Ceil J
OOps. Did I post this in the wrong place? I thought I was replying to a thread on Hatch vs Artistic Digitizer!
I have both programs. When I had neither program a couple of years ago, I was advised by a group that Artistic was not the best program to use. It turns out that they were referring to the older Artistic program and not the latest Artistic Digitizer.I find Hatch very intuitive, but as I'm never going to really digitize anything other than something very simple, it's too much of a program for me.Artistic Digitizer has a very different interface and I'm not sure if a top digitizer would be happy with it as I just can't comment on that. I will say that there are a lot of very helpful videos by Anne Hein on a Facebook Group called Janome Artistic Digitizer. She walks you through every step of everything you'd want to do. She also responds to questions.The reason I bought AD (which I did about a year after Hatch) is that it does an excellent job with turning a photo into stitches. Now the version 3 of Hatch may do the same thing; others would have to answer that but I didn't upgrade to 3. AD converts stitches to cross stitch but I believe and add on for Hatch will allow you to digitize in cross stitch. Others will know best.Each program has different elements so it really depends on what you're looking for. Unfortunately a free trial of AD has ended recently but they have a few each year, while Hatch will give you a free trial anytime. AD has lower prices during these trials, while the best pricing for Hatch is usually in the Spring and Autumn.Don't rush into anything. Take your time and see which one best fits your needs.CeilOn Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 10:48 AM Andrea LaVergne <lscsew@...> wrote:I had Carbonite and it was successful for retrieving lost files or previous iterations of a document. When it came down to really needing it, downloading everything to a new computer, it was a horrendous experience. It took weeks to get it worked out with Carbonites “help”. It was from 1 IMAC which died to a new IMAC. It should have been easy.
Andrea
VLS
You posted to the right place. Thank you for your reply. Im
going to download the trial versions and try them both out.
Vicki
OOps. Did I post this in
the wrong place? I thought I was replying to a thread on Hatch vs Artistic
Digitizer!
I have both programs. When I had neither program a couple of years ago, I was advised by a group that Artistic was not the best program to use. It turns out that they were referring to the older Artistic program and not the latest Artistic Digitizer.I find Hatch very intuitive, but as I'm never going to really digitize anything other than something very simple, it's too much of a program for me.Artistic Digitizer has a very different interface and I'm not sure if a top digitizer would be happy with it as I just can't comment on that. I will say that there are a lot of very helpful videos by Anne Hein on a Facebook Group called Janome Artistic Digitizer. She walks you through every step of everything you'd want to do. She also responds to questions.The reason I bought AD (which I did about a year after Hatch) is that it does an excellent job with turning a photo into stitches. Now the version 3 of Hatch may do the same thing; others would have to answer that but I didn't upgrade to 3. AD converts stitches to cross stitch but I believe and add on for Hatch will allow you to digitize in cross stitch. Others will know best.Each program has different elements so it really depends on what you're looking for. Unfortunately a free trial of AD has ended recently but they have a few each year, while Hatch will give you a free trial anytime. AD has lower prices during these trials, while the best pricing for Hatch is usually in the Spring and Autumn.Don't rush into anything. Take your time and see which one best fits your needs.CeilOn Mon, Dec 12, 2022 at 10:48 AM Andrea LaVergne <lscsew@...> wrote:I had Carbonite and it was successful for retrieving lost files or previous iterations of a document. When it came down to really needing it, downloading everything to a new computer, it was a horrendous experience. It took weeks to get it worked out with Carbonites “help”. It was from 1 IMAC which died to a new IMAC. It should have been easy.
Andrea