Brian

No. That said, there is a way to make it harder to change it. See below. Head to your System Preferences and find the Keyboard preferences. Simply check the box next to where it says "Use all F1, F2, etc. as standard function keys..." Then apply the changes by closing out the window by clicking the Red Circle. With this feature turned on, you will need to press and hold the Fn key in the lower left corner of the keyboard and then hit the brightness, volume control buttons, etc. So brightness increase becomes Fn + F2, volume mute/un-mute is Fn + F10, etc. As for the kitties, if they lay across the keyboard and somehow hit the Fn Key and F1 or F2 at the same time, then it's plausible that the brightness will change on you. That's why my first answer was "No." You can't completely disable them per se, but this method should work for you.

Running an external monitor off a laptop is ideal.

If you want a large EHD that can store files as well as be used for a scratch disk, try this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1024614-REG Of course any recommendations that I give will have to be based on your budget.

I'd get a G-Drive Thunderbolt, especially if you are editing large files.

I'm a Mac Guy and I can't in good conscious recommend a Mac Laptop for photo-editing. The reason? Cost. You start at the $2500 model, and configure things. By the time you are done, you are around $3600-$4000, which is INSANE to spend on a laptop. No, the $1300 MacBooks really won't cut it over the long term. As far as a Windows Laptop, I'd get this one: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1183450-REG/asus_gl552vw_dh71_i7_6700hq_16gb_1tb_windows_10_64_960m_15_6.html For a Windows Desktop, I'd look at the Dell XPS 8900: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8900-desktop/pd?oc=fdcwgsk105b&model_id=xps-8900-desktop ...and this monitor to go with it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017MXNWLG/ref=twister_B016V3S1SM?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

I like this HD box: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1148574-REG/wd_wdbdtb0080jsl_nesn_my_book_pro_8tb.html Even though it's a Thunderbolt Model, it does have a USB 3.0 port, and you can configure the software so that it becomes a Windows HD. It has RAID1. I like the fact that it comes with WD Caviar Black HDs and the drives are hot-swappable, which means you can pull them out without powering down the unit. You just have to tell the RAID software that you are doing this, unless it does it automatically. The thing with RAID1, is that you take the advertised capacity of the external unit and divide it in half. The "12 TB" capacity is if you were configuring it as a RAID0. Since you really want RAID1 for backups, that's two identical HDs, so two 6TB drives or two 3TB drives, or 4TB drives, etc. A 12TB external RAID device becomes a 6TB mirrored HD setup when using RAID 1. Understand? As for keeping an off-site backup, that's really important. What you could do is purchase a smaller RAID and a single large external HD that you could manually copy. For example, purchase a 6TB RAID1 box and then purchase and external 8TB HD which is taken off site. Like I said, this will get expensive. I'd budget around $1000 total to do what you want to do.

RAID is expensive, no matter how you slice it, since you are purchasing multiple hard drives, buying hardware that is designed for RAID and the software to run it. For the majority of folks, there are three common types: RAID Level 0 or RAID0: Multiple HDs act as one big Hard Drive. This is the fastest RAID of the bunch. Downside, no redundancy. If one HD fails, the whole RAID0 setup fails. RAID0 is great to be used as a cache drive when editing video, due to the performance of RAID0. RAID Level 1 or RAID1: Drive Mirroring. When a file or any bit of data is written / removed from one HD, it is instantaneously copied / deleted from the other HD. For the majority of folks, they usually go with this option as it's pretty simple to setup. The downside to this setup, if any bit of data is corrupted or deleted on one HD, that corruption is carried over to the 2nd HD immediately. So if you screwed up and deleted the wrong folder, you are SOL and are looking at extreme data recovery, which is expensive. Good news with RAID1 is if one HD fails, you have the other to retrieve your data from. That's the original intent of RAID1. RAID Level 5 or RAID5: This is the most common in servers and commercial clients. There are others, like RAID6 and RAID10, but to keep things simple we will stick with RAID5. RAID5 is kinda like the combination of RAID0 and RAID1; which is three or more hard drives act in unison as one big HD. If one drive fails, the other two pick up the slack and keep going. If TWO hard drives fail in a RAID5, the RAID fails. When I setup RAID on a server, I typically will use two HDs on a RAID1 for the Operating System and Backup Software and a RAID5 for programs and database / data files. (A C: Drive and a D: Drive.) Most people in this forum won't ever go that route and will usually pick an external device that allows them to setup a RAID pretty easily. Let me get a few links....

Still haven't forgotten about you. Just been busy. If you do a "Search the Forum" at the top of this forum for "RAID," my comments show up: http://ask.damiensymonds.net/search/?type=all&q=raid

I will have to answer this question when I get home, but here are some quick thoughts: 1. Don't Ever-Ever-Ever...EVER purchase a WD Green Drive. Like Ever. They are complete pieces of garbage that have high failure rates. Unless you want to send your HDs out for extreme data recovery at about $1500-$2000 a pop. Personally, I like the Western Digital Caviar Black line of HDs. The Caviar Blue is OK, but it's better to spend the extra $30. 2. Forget everything that was recommended. That list has low-quality components. When it comes to backups and you are running a business...you don't mess around. The amount you think you will save will be spent in legal fees if you get sued. Now before I begin, what budget are we looking at? A RAID setup can get expensive, especially if you want fancy features. You also might want to poke around here, I have answered a few of these RAID questions already.

Also, is this a full frame body? If so, have you shot with it for awhile? The reason I ask is this type of thing usually bites photographers who have switched from a crop sensor to a full frame sensor. You have to think differently. The reason has to do with the larger full frame sensor has a different angle of view, forcing you to get closer...which means you need to stop down to compensate. At f/3.2, this close to the subject with a full frame body, your DoF is razor thin, so it's easy to have one eye in focus and the other one out of focus. I know, baby photographers like the fuzzy-wuzzy sleeping baby photos. This shot might have called for a 85mm or even a 105mm (non-macro). Since the focal length is longer, the DoF changes. Or you could have tried f/4 or even f/5.6. That would have helped.

I'd buy it. So yes, it's a good computer.

I'd get the $969 version. 2GB Graphics and a 1TB HD.

The thing with SSD, is it needs to be "large" enough. Yes, SSD drives are fast, but if it's only a 128GB or 256GB, it's "too small" by my standards. You really want a 500GB SSD drive or larger. Yes, even if you only intend to install LR/PS the OS and whatever. Updates that get pushed down are usually in the large side of things and Adobe likes having side-by-side installs when it pushes down the updated software. Combine that with Windows updates, browser updates and dealing with the PS Scratch Disk, it's very easy to run out of room. That being said, you can't go "next-next-ok-next-next-finish..." when installing software or "let me download these five sessions that I need to edit..." With the main drive, you NEED TO BE ANAL on what gets installed on a 256GB or smaller SSD drive.

You are kinda stuck. Yes, there are issues, but either people have learned to live with them or have just stopped complaining. It's too bad you didn't upgrade to Mavericks when you had the chance. El Capitan is in your future. You don't have a choice. Even I will have to upgrade to El Capitan at some point. I would upgrade now, before the next OS hits later this year, Mac OSX Sierra. Good Luck!!

Yeah, I never use the remove the "Large Files" option. It's nice to know that they are there, but just for cases like this...it's tough to get files back on a Mac. Even when you use recovery software, it will find everything that's deleted, and usually put it back as a .TIFF file or something similar, not a .nef. Though you can get lucky. It's too bad that the Mac OS doesn't have a "Undo" feature, like here is the last 10 files that you deleted. Since the Mac OS is based upon Unix, it's tough to recover lost files. Basically, you need photo recovery software. Wondershare Photo Recovery Software looks interesting and it's free to try.

Yes. It's fine.

That's a really good question. Short Answer: No. Long Answer: Adobe has dropped update support for CS6. They no longer update ACR for CS6, so I find it highly unlikely that they will update the CS6 product suite for the new OS. Plus, Apple is going away from the HFS+ file system to the Apple File System (APFS) sometime in 2017. By default, that new file system is case-sensitive, and Adobe's products won't work on a case-sensitive file system. Fun, eh? The best chance for any Adobe products working with Mac OS Sierra is to use the Creative Cloud Suite. (E.g. Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, etc.) That will be what Adobe upgrades to work on future Operating Systems, not something like CS5 or CS6. So for those peeps that want to refuse to give into the leased software model, your days are numbered.

I like the Dell XPS models. The Inspirons are more of the consumer-grade line. They are "Okay," but aren't the fastest and don't have the best components under the hood. You'll get 3-4 years out of one. As far as not Dell, take a look at the technical specs and also take a look at various threads in this forum. I've repeated myself many times on what to look for.

The 2415 is the current Dell Monitor that seems to replace the 2412m that I usually recommend. I know they have a 27" model, but I would need a link to see WHAT 27" you are talking about. Dell has so many models, and if you aren't careful, you could buy the wrong thing.

Lots of great info at SansMirror.com

Seven Reasons Why Thom is still a DSLR User

Thom Hogan has a lot of great articles and thoughts in regards to Mirrorless bodies. Especially in the AF Dept. if your subject is static or moving in a predictable way, usually you can nail focus once you figured out your camera. I will post a few links to his website.

On the D40? Nothing you can do except manual focus or get a bigger body that has the "Fine Tune AF" feature. You'll need a D90/Dxxxx class for that (Like a D7000 or the new D500.) The AF Fine Tune is on the camera body, not the lens.

What files were they?

I also let CMM3 just do the default system stuff, NEVER for everything else because I learned the hard way that file recovery is damn near impossible on a Mac. At least without special software installed prior to you deleting files.