I Hate Computers

scruffy · Aug 21, 2001

Bird, Sure glad Glueguy was able to help you out with your printer! I was scrambling this morning getting off to get the Wife to her dental appointment on time. Then this afternoon, it was off to the Orthopedist for her arm, (got a nap in between) and a tank of gas (at least it don't take a fifty dollar bill to fill it now....just most of it), and go broke at the grocery store! /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

P.S. - Sure glad to see that you received all the goodies! How do you like it, now that you've gotten to use it some?
Edited by scruffy on 08/21/01 06:31 PM (server time).

Bird · Aug 21, 2001

Scruffy, of course I don't know that I did anything similar to what GlueGuy was talking about, but I hunted for that "ECP" and found it in Windows Add Printer feature. Now the little manual that came with this printer says, "Do not use the Windows Add Printer feature, . . . follow the steps outlined in the Setup Poster than came with your unit." Well, I had followed those steps, very carefully, (three times) and it didn't work, so I used the Add Printer feature and it works. It may self destruct later, but it works now./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

As for how I like it . . . may be awhile before I decide. I've used several versions of Microsoft Works for quite a few years and this new one will undoubtedly do more (most of which I'll never use) and seems unnecessarily complicated. A lot of things do look better on the monitor than they did on the old computer, and of course, it's faster on doing a lot of things. I didn't expect it to help my Internet connectivity much, and I was right. But it has helped a little bit. I've been connecting routinely at 24k, only rarely at 26.4, and now I'm "normally connected at 26.4 and occasionally at 28.8. I think I'll like it alright once I get used to it.

Hope things went well for your wife and her doctor.

Bird

scruffy · Aug 21, 2001

Bird,
Sounds about right for instructions! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I usually ignore them and if all else fails, then take a look, otherwise, they are just a confusion!! /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif
About the wife's Dentist/Doctor appointments, well, TWO torture sessions in one day!!! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif I loved it, got to harass her and get her scared for the dentist, and chuckle at her response to the cortizone shot at the Doc's! Of course, I had to promise to take her out for dinner to keep from getting killed, but what the heck anyway, guys gotta take his shots where its safe!
I've got 3 or 4 extra MS Office 97 Pro's if you want one. Send me an email with mailing constructions and I'll mail you one. These are leftover's from my sparetime computer building days, and I have no need for them.

Bird · Aug 22, 2001

ignore them and if all else fails, then take a look

Sounds like my youngest brother, Scruffy./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif And I'm just the opposite; I want to read the instructions before I start, so it really annoys me when I find errors in the instructions./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif And thanks for the offer, but I don't think I'll need the Office Pro. I did download Sandra.

Bird

RPM · Aug 22, 2001

Sitting here laughing at all the discussion. I use an ancient Pentium 233 MMX at home for Internet use. It is maxed out on RAM - but since we can only get 24kb/s on the modem it doesn't matter. The modem is the slowest link. Rarely use any applications other than Quicken and Internet Explorer on it.

Work PC is an IBM T20 laptop, 256MB RAM, Win 2k etc etc etc

Bird · Aug 22, 2001

Patrick, things might be different if I knew anything about computers./w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif I knew this new one wasn't going to help my phone lines, but right now I'm connected at 28.8 instead of the 24 I usually got on the old computer.

And I had TrippLite's PowerAlert software on the old computer, and had to "uninstall" it when I took it off my UPS because it would indicate a low battery and do its automatic shutdown, so after the "uninstall" I also decided to just delete all of it, and I allowed it to remove the "shared" files it said no longer showed to be used. Now I've got it screwed up so everything moves in a very jerky manner and need to figure out where to go from here.

Us technologically challenged (heck, just plain handicapped) folks have a hard time with some this high tech stuff at times./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

skent · Aug 22, 2001

back as an original IBM PC/AT

Is it still in the IBM PC case???

I still have an XT case but the orig. power supply didn't have a POR line so I added a front panel push button to "boot" after the PS is on. My sleeper is still a 486DX50, kids use it for games. I remember when I went from a 10 MB hard drive to a 40 MB. "I'll NEVER run outa room now!"

Steve

Bird · Aug 22, 2001

Steve, my first hard drive was a 5 MB external hard drive; lasted nearly a year before it crashed./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bird

RPM · Aug 22, 2001

Hey - I learned to program on a little microcomputer that only had a tape (cassette tape) to save programs on.

Used to take 5 minutes to load a 32K program at 1200 baud.

Now why was I complaining about only connecting at 24 THOUSAND baud at home again!!!

Patrick

RPM · Aug 22, 2001

(OK, OK, just waiting for someone to hit me with something about punched cards!!)

Bird · Aug 22, 2001

Patrick, I was just talking about my first hard drive. My first computer (if you could call it that) was a Radio Shack "color computer", 32k (the latest thing at the time; had just stepped up from the 16k model), hooked to a 13" color TV for a monitor, and an ordinary portable cassette tape recorder for the only storage capacity, and a little printer with 4 or 4.5" wide roll of paper like an adding machine and actually used 4 different colored tiny ball point pens to print./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

TerryinMD · Aug 22, 2001

Geez... for a bunch of people who hate computers, you are keeping this message thread going like the EverReady
Bunny. Just keeps going and going and going....... /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Bird · Aug 22, 2001

Terry, I thought I was the only one who hated computers (just don't know what I'd do without one); think some of the other guys actually like them. Believe it or not, I actually use it for a few things besides tractorbynet, and even more unbelievable; I think I've got both of these machines running properly now!/w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

scruffy · Aug 22, 2001

I've still got the old 286's passive backplane, system board etc all packed away neatly in the closet. Boy, I thought it was hot stuff when I replaced the 10meg h/d with an 80 meg full heighth drive....it took up two 5.25" slots! I was really in hog heaven when I upgraded to a 170meg drive....which I paid over $300 for....never need a bigger drive! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif Can't even load winders on one now days!
NOTE: First rule in Scruffy's troubleshooting guide...Turn it off, unplug it, and never, never, plug it back in. It helps to maintain personal sanity.

TerryinMD · Aug 22, 2001

Bird,

I've been in the industry for over 25 yrs. Mostly Engineering computing and supercomputers. Now I'm on the fringe with project management/requirements management with whats left of UUNET (ISP of ISPs). I've built a couple of PCs myself and will probably have to build another in the near future. Two networked computers at home with four people "fighting over them" is getting to me. The wife uses one daily for her mechandising jobs and being the CFO. I use mine for surfing, games, and occasional work at home. The kids use them for AIM, email, games, and homework. We're getting to the point where three machines will just be enough.

Three years ago, I was the only one using the dang things. Work, cruising the Internet, gaming. Now.... how did we ever live without one......... just like getting a new tractor.... how did I ever live without one.... /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

Anonymous Poster · Aug 22, 2001

Scruffy,

It was about 1979 or 1980, UPS delivered one Single Sided, Single Density Floppy Drive {large 160K storage!} for a Texas Instrument Home computer... {IBM PC wasn't born yet}

One of my guys and I fought /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif over who was going to take this baby home to replace their cassette drive... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

The invoice is kicking around here someplace... $320..../w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

scruffy · Aug 22, 2001

John, was that the old 8 inch (something like that anyway) floppy? Never had the opportunity to use one of them. My first floppy drive was the 5.25 floppy.
The first computer was the Commodor 64, which was actually for the kids, it had a tape drive for storage, and used the tv for the monitor. That turkey caused me no ends of grief trying to get past the "C:\" prompt! Of corse d'at wure b'fore I got sum alitearacy! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
I somehow got suckered into computer/network arena in the early ninety era after I had broken my neck. Darn things have been irritating me every since!

Anonymous Poster · Aug 22, 2001

No it was a 5 ¼ floppy. At the time, the Commodore 64 {replacing the VIC 20 and originally the PET}had just come out and started the original computer wars…

However, I have a pair of nice brand new 8” drives in the back room for our NEC {IBM of Japan}CP/M computer… I’ll sell real cheap… /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Besides making a great paper weight, and boat anchor… they make great conversation pieces...

GlueGuy · Aug 22, 2001

Is it still in the IBM PC case???

Nope. That was one of the earlier changes. Don't remember whether it was when she went from a 286 to a 386 or from the 386 to the 486.

We've upgraded every thing one piece at a time: Case, disks, cpu/m-board, memory, CDROM, CD/RW, monitor, keyboard, etc. There isn't one blamed thing that is original anymore, not even the mouse.

The original disks were a pair of 10MB "tractors" (they both sounded like they were running on diesel /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif). Both were full-height, full-width monsters. These days there is one tiny 3.5" Ultra SCSI disk in there (20GB or so). The way she uses it, she may not ever run out of space (famous last words; she's suddenly got the bug to do photo editing /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif)

The GlueGuy