Untechnical and Naive.

BigJohnA

New Member
Messages
4
Faced with huge mainframe computers in my place of work that were attended by a sort of aloof “ know-it alls” I bought a Commodore in an effort to understand. ( I never really did!). Using what was said to be Basic language it took me a half a day to program the machine with things like “go Sub” etc.etc. to say “Good-morning John”.
About thirty or more years ago I found DOS and a few games to play and thought it was marvelous. Our company then introduced us to Apple and its "Folders" The look was simple to operate, but still had a few “Geeks” on the mainframe (this was the new name for the “know it alls” )
In 1985 I went into a computer store and there it was----- “Windows 3.1” I must say the Links Golf and the Microsoft Flight simulator programs sold me immediately!. All of the side programmes written by proper “Geeks” that were allowed to be used on the machine was marvelous. I bought all of the beautiful courses and “flew” everywhere. Played “Undersea games” The lot!
I understood Microsoft when they said that these outside programs had to adapt to play on their operating system and they were responsible for the required changes to software and hardware. Fair enough. They all did it or died.
I managed to do this all through the years up to and including XP. I had advanced this far with all of the necessary Giga bytes of Ram and dual flatsceens. I was even helping people to overcome their difficulties with running their lovely personal computers and lap-tops I had earned a sort of “geekishness” Never quite made it to the big time:O)
Problems came with Windows 8 then my ever forward advance to 8.1. I liked the look and the speed as I have now slowed down to an advanced age of 85. All things changed with a “Refresh” I lost things like my laser printer. and other attachments and programs I had gathered over the years. The Games I played like Links with its great scenery were acceptibly gone after XP but now I had lost Outlook Express (and Windows Office) a simple mail program by Microsoft that I had used since Windows 3.1. All of the programs they didn’t think I should have gone. Microsoft were now barring even their own programs because of age?. Will it be me next?
I may overcome or go to Linux or Ubuntu?? whatever that is I hear they are more permissive? and learn again. I now have “Outlook” with the new Microsoft Office. The Capital Geeks should be shot for this lot.They don’t K.I.S.S. ( Keep it Simple Stupid) any more. What are they trying to do? Is it just show how smart they are to keep their jobs?
Bill Gates should step in here.
I tried a Windows Tablet with 8.1. Oh Dear! I now love my Ipad mini even with Itunes?.I could have gone for the Windows Tablet
John
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer
    CPU
    Intel i3
    Motherboard
    ?
    Memory
    6GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ?
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    Avast
Welcome to the Forums. :)

If I could make one suggestion.. some paragraph breaks. I looks like one run-on sentence.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.0 x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Toshiba Satelite C55D-A Laptop
    CPU
    AMD EI 1200
    Memory
    4 gb DDR3
    Graphics Card(s)
    Raedon 340 MB dedicated Ram
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Built in
    Screen Resolution
    1366 x 768
    Hard Drives
    640 GB (spinner) Sata II
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Touch pad
Windows is a Sentence OK! It may be Life :O) Thanks for reading. John
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer
    CPU
    Intel i3
    Motherboard
    ?
    Memory
    6GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ?
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    Avast

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel Haswell i5 4690
    Motherboard
    Asus Z97-A
    Memory
    2 x 8gb HyperX, by Kingston
    Graphics Card(s)
    None yet
    Sound Card
    Outboard USB DAC
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Samsung S24D360
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Browser
    Internet Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
John, if you install Classic Shell, you can get your desktop back even the XP desktop or Vista or Win 7, having that and a start button will take a load off your learning Window 8/8.1/10 Windows 8 does have a desktop version of @outlook.com mail. but since you have Office Outlook the learning curve shouldn't be much Outlook is just lots more powerful and secure. I can't help you with Lunix haven't tried to learn it. I think perhaps Classic Shell would make all the other learning much easier and its free.
I started out with a "Adam" Computer even upgraded it to a tape drive for storage.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
Thanks for reading and your comments ,:O( Rocky and Clint,

I have been running 8.1 since its "Onset" and I am Ok with it. I actually liked it as it seemed faster.

It was when I "Refreshed" that it "attacked" :O). I lost some hardware capabilities and programs,. and then I had to Install the New Office to get Email but the simpler Outlook Express was gone.(After I had used it for thirty years :O)?? No Address book, so I had to re do all of that. It was more annoying than anything else.

I already run the Desktop and shutdown from 8.1 without Charms. :O) There is really no problem apart from the fact that I feel things are changed by Microsoft without the aging satisfied customer in mind.

I mentioned (new paragraph) :O)//// that I liked Links Golf I liked Flight Simulator. however accepted that I couldn't go on using them forever ,no matter how many courses and editions that I had spent my entire week's wages on at the time. Now that I am retired and probably nearer death :O) I don't have time for games any more :O)

I downloaded a clean Email OE Classic..... It was free:O) Why not? and it looks as I feel it should and I just may buy it at some time .

Outlook has too "cluttery" a look for my taste , however, now since I have re entered all of my Address book and friends again I will use it I don't see why they couldn't have at least left me that, after the Refresh as it was called
Fortunately I see where the let me keep my Windows Media Centre.
Shh! don't tell them :O) :O)

John

.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer
    CPU
    Intel i3
    Motherboard
    ?
    Memory
    6GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ?
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    Avast
This made me laugh. I the mid 60s I was one of those "know it alls" because I had spent a few years in the development groups for the IBM/360 operating systems. But PCs I never wanted to touch - just toys. When my staff manager dragged a laptop into my office - that must have been in 1991 - and wanted to convince me to use it, I put it into the credenza where it stayed until I retired.

I only touched a PC again when my wife went out and bought a laptop the first day Vista came out (Febr. 1 2007). She wanted to communicate with her friends and family. Of course the "know it all" had to set it up - at least was trying to. I did not have the faintest idea how these toys worked. But over time little by little it became clearer and now it is fun.

I actually like Windows 8.1 but my workhorses are still Windows 7. Only our newer laptops are 8.1 but those my wife mostly uses.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
Those old type "know it all"s had definite dislike of "toy" PCs. My landlord in early '80s vas a programer for "Computer Associates" i Toronto, would work all night on cards with binary code, never had a PC of any kind at home. When I bought my first Atari 520 ST and showed it to him he was amazed what it could do but mouse was out of his comprehensions because using keyboard was much "easier" as he said, "what's the problem remembering few thousand keystrokes" he said.
Another one, my nephew has doctorate in computer science from Switzerland, 5years professor at UCLA (voice recognition) and when he came back here I had to repair his kid's PCs until they grew old enough to do it themselves.
Another nephew works at local high tec institute, very proficient with Windows too but never touches a mouse, KB is enough for him. I didn't even know it was possible. I can't remember more than 10 shortcuts and in the pinch I have to look for underlined letters.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
I remember the first PC I ever used. It was an Apple IIe with two external floppy drives (no HDD), an amber monitor, and a tractor-feed dot matrix printer. Cost $2500. We bought a couple of them at work in the early 1980s just to see what the fuss was all about and if we could really use them. I even actually wrote some Basic programs for the thing.

Fast forward to 1990 or so, when almost everybody at work had a Pentium II desktop computer. Found the old Apples tucked away in a file cabinet, and laid them to rest with much ceremony in the dumpster out in the parking lot.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
Found the old Apples tucked away in a file cabinet, and laid them to rest with much ceremony in the dumpster out in the parking lot.
You might regret it later if not now, those first ones can fetch a good price.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Nostalgia is good for you :O)

However,
I wonder how many hours were wasted by "apprentice Geeks" playing Tetris and Pacman? I guess it made us faster on the mouse and appear to be smarter than some of those around us? It beat fighting. :O)

Back to the present: The knowledge and sense of community and past that this technology is bringing us should make us realize that we are "Aw Jock Tamson's Bairns" and so very much like one another.

Perhaps my dream for computing is that we don't need to make war while we have simple things like "Skype" and can talk it out with a click to see that we are all real and of the same species.

I look forward to "Virtual Reality" where you can come an visit and I won't have to supply the whisky. :O) However it would be better if we could use it to feed the needy in true reality.

Perhaps that technology is coming?. I hope the "Geeks" in the future solve this problem instead of just sitting there playing Tetris and future games just to show how smart they are. :O)

We don't need to go back to Cobol and Basic although it all made me feel smarter at the time. I would just like a simple things such as Windows Outlook Express to stay the same. Can't they see that? :O) Go and develop things that need developed!
Microsoft, Outlook, and the Geeks of today, are making things less so...
Perhaps it is fending off Alzheimer's by making me use my brain just to send a letter? or to find people in my address book :O) Like a new Tetris game? where I have to find and mouse things quickly in order to advance. to the next level?:O) Or is it just for me to show my friends that I can do it?

Then again, we all know it is just to keep the company running and to sell new programs by "obsoleting" the old. They did that with people in "Solient Green" Perhaps I can melt down and eat all the old discs and programs and obsolete hardware that I bought and paid for? :O):O)

Maybe I just want to send a letter.... I still have a fountain pen with a gold nib. I could go back to that in nostalgia :O)
Thanks for looking
John
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer
    CPU
    Intel i3
    Motherboard
    ?
    Memory
    6GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    ?
    Browser
    IE
    Antivirus
    Avast
Ah, the inevitable path to the future. In first grade, they wouldn't let me use a gold Parker pen, only ordinary pen and inkwell, "Got to learn basic things first" they said. Used a tablet, real one, made just like small blackboard to "save on paper and fix errors", they said. I have a smartphone but 99% use is same as with stupid phone, used GPS on it once or twice, it ate battery in an hour. But, couldn't find any ordinary phones with such large display so I have to "suffer" with this one. They could make a phone with such large display but without all those other features but with battery that lasts a week, no matter what. All I want is to make phone calls, I can get a GPS for car and a tablet if I need internet on the go.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home made
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen7 2700x
    Motherboard
    Asus Prime x470 Pro
    Memory
    16GB Kingston 3600
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus strix 570 OC 4gb
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 evo 250GB
    Silicon Power V70 240GB SSD
    WD 1 TB Blue
    WD 2 TB Blue
    Bunch of backup HDDs.
    PSU
    Sharkoon, Silent Storm 660W
    Case
    Raidmax
    Cooling
    CCM Nepton 140xl
    Internet Speed
    40/2 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    WD
Found the old Apples tucked away in a file cabinet, and laid them to rest with much ceremony in the dumpster out in the parking lot.
You might regret it later if not now, those first ones can fetch a good price.

Yeah, I've thought of that a few times over the years. But at the time didn't even consider the possibility. And besides, I didn't pay for them anyway.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8
    Computer type
    Laptop
anyone remember playing gorilla within gwbasic? anyone having any such old files & gwbasic, lemmie know, i'd like to add that to my old collection :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Pro 64bit [MS blue-disk set]
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2 Acers & 1 Antec[?]
    CPU
    i7 in 2 Acers, i5 in desktop
    Motherboard
    Desktop w/Gigabyte
    Memory
    Two w/16GB, 1 w/8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Laptops GameWorthy; Desktop maybe GameWorthy
    Monitor(s) Displays
    flatscreens; 2 are BluRay worthy
    Screen Resolution
    1368x768; 1600x900
    Hard Drives
    1TB internals; 2 ext usb WD 1TB HDs
    PSU
    what's PSU?
    Cooling
    Regular plus external fans
    Keyboard
    desktio w/PS2
    Mouse
    desktop w/PS2
    Internet Speed
    DSL middle level [160?]
    Browser
    from Netscape 0.9 to FF 36
    Antivirus
    well-balanced, well-configured mult-layered defense is best
    Other Info
    From MS-DOS 3.3, MS-DOS 6.22, from Windows 3.1 to WFW 3.11 to Windows 95-98SE, now to Windows 7 Pro.
    Security for now: Windows 7 Firewall, Emsisoft AM, MSE [scan-only], SpywareBlaster, Ruiware/BillP combine
Back
Top