Pam do you in fact have a DVD burner installed or only a CD burner? Look at the front of the tower and it will be visible on the CD or DVD player. If you have a DVD then there should be software. However I will caution that using a DVD for photos is daunting when you need to find a photo - unless you are far more tidy minded than I am, and that would not be difficult when it comes to sorting my photos. Taking a 1 meg photo as an example you would get close to 800 on a CD. Using a 10 megapixel camera at it's highest setting creates an image around the 3 megapixel mark so you can still expect to save close to 260 photos per CD. I have no knowledge of Picassa or anyone space oriented photo saving site, I like my photos in my possession and under my control.

i downloaded irfanview and all plugins. i resized a jpeg and it did it but it uses paintbrush or paint and saves the resized image as a bmp extention not a jpeg. when i tried to upload the resized file it was refused because the file is not valid.... ie not jpeg. :( :( so now i am wondering if i should uninstall this product as it is not doing what i want. IMPORTANT question - when i installed irfanview a window appeared asking about associations. i did not know what to do as all associations were NOT checked and i figured it made sense to use these associations so it knows how to open files with different extentions. so i clicked on select all. the next window then asked, and this is the issue, "You want to change current associations and to associate one or many file types with IrfanView! Are you REALLY sure?" that is an exact quote i did not add ! or caps. so i worried about the current wording and when it capitalized really, well i said no. it accepted that. so i assume i ended up with the same thing as if i did not check select all and left all boxes unchecked. should i have gone with select all and replied yes? i was afraid this might cause conflicts with other programs and their functions. not sure what to do. any suggestions? remember win 98 se did all this in mozilla browser. thanks, tom

I don't have everything under control but it was a wonderful day when I put a laundry basket beneath the small desk in our entry way. When mail comes in, I put all standard monthly bills inside without opening. I now have added a zip lock bag to the laundry basket and store all receipts/maintenance for the house in that laundry basket. At the end of the year, I pull out the zip lock bag and put that in my file cabinet for the house filed by year. The rest of the stuff in the laundry basket goes into a kitchen trash sized bag with a stickup label on the outside that has the year. I store the bag in our loft which we use for storage (could put it in an attic or closet, etc.) At the beginning of the year, I make sure the laundry basket beneath the desk is EMPTY. This location is handy because I can sort my mail quickly. I have two or three times needed to go into this basket in the years since I've been doing this. Once I remember I needed a water bill to show I was a city resident and could use the dump for hauling trash. I found what I needed within 10 minutes. I have added a second ziploc bag to the laundry basket labeled "Annual bills/invoices/records" such as when I get our health and home insurance statements, (can't remember what else goes in there. ) This is still a work in progress but I LOVE having a place to immediately file. (I have another small pot I use for storing tax related stuff that comes in starting in January) and since we itemize, I have a small box close by for medical receipts that are kept file yearly. (Haven't figured out where or how or when to store blood test results, etc...work in progress) Trick for me is to make it EASY to file immediately. I have a box for junk mail that I use for tossing, don't even open. Then I take whole box (when it fills up) to Office Max store where they charge modest amount to shred. I don't even have to keep a shredder anymore. As a result of this thread, I think I will change and find a new "Pot" for "IMPORTANT" and save and store on a yearly basis and don't throw away periodically. I think filiing immediately and trying to avoid sorting until you must find something is a good strategy. As a result of remodeling, I will have a new fairly nice sized closet near the entry way. I plan to put my "pots" in there. However, I don't think I will move the laundry basket. It has been such a life-saviour, I don't want to mess with a good thing.

No judgement can be made because we don't know the size of the photo that was scanned, nor can we see the original and a print of the digitized one to compare. The file size will be porprotional to the area of the scanned object plus some overhead. I've had good success scanning B/W photos at 300 dpi (dots per inch) and using 256 gray scale. A finer gray scale can be used but there won't be much difference in the final tonal scale. Scanning to a jpg format reduces file size and you can control how much reduction to make; jpg files are 'lossy'; defintion loss increases with increased file reduction. B/W photos can be scanned in color which will pick up any yellowing or color tinges at the expense of a much larger file. I have found that 256 gray scale is quite acceptable. I will switch to a color scan if I wish to preserve color tinges. (My scanner always scans in color. It then writes the digital file depending on user selection. It converts the color image to gray scale for writing the file. Therefore, once the image hs been scanned, I can flip back and forth between color and gray scale.) After a photo has been scanned, it should 'played back' in a photo editor to check the result and to correct the color or gray scale balance. If the technician did not take time to check and make adjustments, the result may be disappointing. This brings us back to your monitor. If you display the digitized file on your monitor, the result can be puzzling. For example, the picture when printed on your printer may not match what you see on the screen. That's because your monitor was not color corrected and needs to be adjusted to a standard. Some older CRT monitors may not have adjsutment range. In some cases, best result is achieved by adjusting the video display card. This is done by software supplied with the card, if it is adjustable. The quality of the copied photo depends greatly on the skill of the operator both in making the copy file and printing thereof. If you have only 10 pics or thereabouts, it may not pay to buy a scanner. If you have 50 or more photos to digitize, then a scanner purchase is recommended. Once you have a scanner and become familar with its operation, you will find uses for it.