Retirement

Lots of people have asked me about retirement...'what do you do?' I have never understood their concern as I have always been busy with various projects. In the last couple of days, however I find myself walking around the house trying to decide whether to watch TV, a DVD or go and buy something. Retirement has hit me and I must find a new project.

Today a lady I have worked with emailed me to let me know that a business contact has a large number of PCs to donate to a good cause. That company has a policy of removing the Hard Drive from the computer so that any data cannot be retrieved. A good friend teaches IT at a Senior College and I have passed the offer on to him.

I guess many people who use a computer do not know that even deleted data can be retrieved using simple software. That's why you see the cops collecting computers from suspects' houses. On Mac computers (and probably PCs) there is an option to empty the trash securely, so that the next lot of data overwrites the secure trashing. I would think that there is still a chance that bits and pieces of data are still left around the traps. Smart villains would almost certainly have a spare hard drive for any naughty stuff.

The 21st party on Saturday night at our neighbors' place went off without noise or beer cans on the lawn. We were rewarded (for what I do not know) with some birthday cake and a bottle of bubbly. I guess it is because we allowed guests to park in our driveway. I did mention that Ross, the 21 year old did visit all the neighbors in the street to advise them there was to be a party and there was only one couple who objected. They are the Cul-de-sac's Neighborhood Watch because they know something about every resident and are always looking out for undesirables. We don't mind them being watchdogs.