Miscellaneous
1) Youtube. Listened tonight to an early august episode of The Big Broadcast, 40s, 50's, and a little 60's radio, at wamu.org or its website, and one was a lost episode, the Ride Back, which the host explained William Conrad, who was in the radio version in 1942, liked so much he produced a movie of it in 1947. (He wasn't fat then, although his face was roundish.) So the whole thing is on Youtube for free, and I'm watching it on the laptop. The laptop is not loud enough, even with USB speakers, so I decide to use the desktop. I note how far I've gone, 8:38, so I can start at the same place, but by golly it starts there without my doing anything. The is good and bad. Good because it's convenient, bad because Col. Youtube is spying on me. Oh well.2) Humming when I start my laptop. For a second or two, pause for a bit, then again, up to several times. I asked about this in the spring and the popular answer was a weak cmos battery, but I finally figured it out. It's the DVD drive trying to start. Don't know yet if the whole drive is bad -- I wanted to post now before I forgot. I try to push the button to open the drawer and so far it doesn't open, but I often have trouble finding the right spot. I have a spare drive and I'm sure they're not expensive.