A brief reminder for this morning: want to get some news on Polk.Today? It isn’t that hard at all. You can reach out by email to kevin@polk.today, or share your item on the Polk.Today Facebook or Twitter.
I’d love to have more items to include In the News on the daily, or just regular news stories.
And now, back to regularly scheduled programming.
In the news
Snagged this one from Superior Court Clerk Stacie Baines’ Facebook page on Wednesday, and a worthy item it is indeed.
“Please join me CONGRATULATING Susan retiring after 20 years of serving the public in the Clerk of Superior Court’s Office. Thank you for your loyal service to Polk County!”
20 years is a long time serving in any position, so congrats Susan! Please go have fun in your retirement, and may you never have to touch a court filing again.
In other news, don’t forget today is the Rockmart Farmers Market (assuming the weather cooperates) and there’s a long list of vendors with a variety of produce, meats, baked goods, and even local honey and beeswax-based products like lip balm.
Check out the Rockmart Farmers Market from 2 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays unless otherwise noted.
Also, an important reminder: it is time to be counted.
The 2020 Census remains underway, and Polk County’s tally remains at 48.2% of the local estimated population. (This is why you need to be counted. So we can determine the actual population.)
I’m not asking you to do anything more than go to census2020.gov and fill out the info.
I mean, if Matt Foster can do it… (Hey Matt, at least I didn’t use the grumpy cat photo.) A podcast will be shortly forthcoming on the census locally. Hopefully by Sunday…
So if you haven’t already completed the 2020 Census, you need to do so as soon as possible.
Today’s forecast
Afternoon showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast again from the National Weather Service in Peachtree City, but it is expected mainly after 3 p.m. and the likelihood is 80%. At least a tenth to a quarter inch could fall this afternoon and evening in heavier downpours. Temperatures will remain in the mid 80s for the day with skies remaining cloudy so far. More of the same for this evening, with rain expected to happen before 1 a.m. Low of 67 overnight.
More of the same is expected for Friday.
Thursday Tech Note
Ok, let me premise this by saying the following: your computer is probably fast enough for what you’re doing. Email, web browsing and Amazon shopping, Youtube video watching or just scrolling through the never-ending posts on Facebook does not take a lot of processing power. Usually it is the 20+ Google Chrome tabs or potentially some background process that you picked up with some software that looked cool and now won’t stop running on boot-up is the cause of your slowdown, unless your computer is ancient.
(For the purposes of this conversation, consider ancient anything before 2007. Usually, anything older than that is going to be hard to work on because of the availability of replacement components.)
If you want to significantly speed up your computer and you haven’t gotten Windows 10 yet, then I want you to pay attention.
First, why are you still using Windows 7? You should have upgraded at the beginning of the year. Second, you should still be able to get it free of charge with your Windows 7 key. You didn’t peel that sticker off the computer and throw it away, right? … Right?
Second, I want you to get on Amazon and pick out a SSD. It should probably be at least 120gb, and it should look a little something like this:
Now for users who have older machines with regular mechanical hard drives, this is going to help boost the speed of your machine quite a bit. Combining the new SSD (Solid State Drive) with your traditional hard drive – and putting Windows 10 on the former as the boot drive – you’ll get boot times in the seconds, and loading times for programs like Chrome and Microsoft Office much faster than you could have imagined.
A word of warning for DIYers out there: You can really mess this up if you don’t follow instructions. The manufacturer of your SSD of choice will have instructions on installation.
NOTE: NO TWO COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS ARE GOING TO HAVE THE SAME LAYOUT INSIDE – ESPECIALLY LAPTOPS. This is why I’m not providing instructions. There are plenty of tutorials on Youtube on how to do this. Those who want the upgrade help and are afraid to do it themselves, I’m happy to do so for a reasonable fee (parts not included.) E-mail me kevin@polk.today for more details.
So for those of your with an older machine and you want to get more speed out of it before it reaches retirement age, then check out upgrading your storage to an SSD. It will make your computing experience that much better.
Something to watch this morning
Thursday deserves some feet tapping fun. Here’s a song that always gets me on my feet…
Something to read this morning
How much money does one company really need to be worth? $2 trillion seems like a lot. Yet, that’s Apple for ya.
Coverage of President Obama’s criticism of President Trump’s administration at the DNC on Wednesday.
A Russian opposition leader was recently poisoned, per reporting from NY Times and elsewhere.
Yeah, I bet Gov. Kemp doesn’t like the COVID-19 coverage that AJC and other outlets have undertaken after a leaked White House report put Georgia as one of the states with the highest number of cases per capita (number of cases per 100,000 people, which is not the same as the actual number of cases.) However, isn’t it telling that it is the politics of COVID-19 that is getting coverage and not the actual problems surrounding it? Something to note on my end with virus coverage for sure. I’m not trying to make people fearful of the virus. I’m trying to educate and keep people safe. If I’m doing a bad job? Let me know.
When floodwaters reach the toes of a giant Buddha, I’m hoping that means it is time to get out of the way.
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