Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Technological Dinosaur Living In Technology Hell
An Old Friend Dies...
So I hate to report that late yesterday afternoon I stumbled into my neglected Home Office for the first time in a couple of days, intent on printing out an AutoCAD file I had e-mailed myself from my company laptop sitting out on the coffee table in the living room.
But upon arrival I learned some bad news...
Earlier I had noticed that the slightly more than 4 year old machine had been rebooting itself for some reason almost every day or so in the past weeks and I just assumed that stupid Windows Vista was doing automatic updates, BUT...
not this time...apparently...
Either the computer has some sort of Alzheimer's type disease else the primary hard drive has crapped out.
Dang it...
But any way...
I'm supposed to have a couple of versions of back up files on a 400 gig external drive and a newer Terabyte drive, along with "recovery disks" and possibly a "recovery partition" available somewhere in the building but you know what?
Bottom line is that I don't have time to worry about this old friend of a computer which has served our household very well since November 2007 when we were living in bliss down on the Georgia Coast on St.Simons Island.
I have things to do and people to meet and talk to and a new hard drive and the associated installation and cursing will just have to wait until sometime in 2012.
Regards's Y'all...
So I hate to report that late yesterday afternoon I stumbled into my neglected Home Office for the first time in a couple of days, intent on printing out an AutoCAD file I had e-mailed myself from my company laptop sitting out on the coffee table in the living room.
But upon arrival I learned some bad news...
Earlier I had noticed that the slightly more than 4 year old machine had been rebooting itself for some reason almost every day or so in the past weeks and I just assumed that stupid Windows Vista was doing automatic updates, BUT...
not this time...apparently...
Either the computer has some sort of Alzheimer's type disease else the primary hard drive has crapped out.
Dang it...
But any way...
I'm supposed to have a couple of versions of back up files on a 400 gig external drive and a newer Terabyte drive, along with "recovery disks" and possibly a "recovery partition" available somewhere in the building but you know what?
Bottom line is that I don't have time to worry about this old friend of a computer which has served our household very well since November 2007 when we were living in bliss down on the Georgia Coast on St.Simons Island.
I have things to do and people to meet and talk to and a new hard drive and the associated installation and cursing will just have to wait until sometime in 2012.
Regards's Y'all...
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
A Technological Dinosaur Moves Into The 21st Century
In the Words of My TV Idol...Jim Nabors..."ShaZammmmm"....
You know, thinking back afew thousand years a couple of two or three decades, there was a time sometime beginning in the late 1970's and ending in the early to mid 1990's when I seriously considered myself to be on top of all things relating to personal computers and home technology goodies.
For cost reasons I couldn't actually OWN all of the stuff I was reading about and salivating over, but I did manage to get my hands on a couple of pretty good early computers in their day, but still...
Not so much any more these days.
I don't know what happened in the past 20 or so years, but I just sort of lost interest in keeping up with everything and decided to let all of the younger people out there worry about the hectic process.
I let myprescription subscription to Byte Magazine and PC World expire, and between WebCams and Facebook and Twitter and God knows what else that's come along other than Blogging....
and I've had a cell phone since 1990...waaaaYYYYYY before most people had them....
Today I just don't seem to have the time and energy to worry about the stuff I used to worry about any more.
That said, Pat wanted a Amazon Kindle for Christmas this year.
At the last minute I wandered out and found one of the new Kindle "Fire" boxes at the local Staples office supply store and I brought it home and until tonight/this morning I've basically just let her charge the battery and figure out how to use it.
Then after she went to bed tonight I was fiddling around in the living room doing some paper work and decided to pick the thing up and read the owners manual.
After a couple of hours downloading some free Apps and getting used to the Android interface I have to emphatically state that...
THE KINDLE FIRE IS PRETTY DANG COOL FOR THE PRICE OF ONLY $199.
I spent 15 minutes fumbling around and managed to download the Netflix App and now I can watch Video on the darn thing in COLOR...using our wireless internet connection.
ShazammmmmMMM...
My Father would absolutely go nuts these days looking at the stuff we all take for granted in our modern culture/society. He was a TV/VCR movie junkie in his day and grew up living beside the guy that did all of the TV repair in his home town of Prenter, WV back in the 1940's
Our house was always full of portable TV's and oddball Tube based Radios and even early Transistor Radios (and Crystal sets) way before the average household had even Two TV's in the building.
Now my Mom has two flat screen TV's down in Alabama at the Farm and I'm buying another 55" set for the living room this weekend if I can find a good deal and Dad never saw a LED/LCD/Plasma TV since he passed away in 1996 and missed the revolution in video technology.
The hardest thing about getting older and living beyond a half century on the calendar is keeping things in perspective I think.
We tend to see everything in one or two year slices of time and I belive it is nice to stop and reflect at the end of each year and consider the details which are often overlooked in the rush to move from late December into January 1st and the new year of 2012.
I guess I'll go now and fiddle around with the Kindle some more now...
Regards Y'all...
You know, thinking back a
For cost reasons I couldn't actually OWN all of the stuff I was reading about and salivating over, but I did manage to get my hands on a couple of pretty good early computers in their day, but still...
Not so much any more these days.
I don't know what happened in the past 20 or so years, but I just sort of lost interest in keeping up with everything and decided to let all of the younger people out there worry about the hectic process.
I let my
and I've had a cell phone since 1990...waaaaYYYYYY before most people had them....
Today I just don't seem to have the time and energy to worry about the stuff I used to worry about any more.
That said, Pat wanted a Amazon Kindle for Christmas this year.
At the last minute I wandered out and found one of the new Kindle "Fire" boxes at the local Staples office supply store and I brought it home and until tonight/this morning I've basically just let her charge the battery and figure out how to use it.
Then after she went to bed tonight I was fiddling around in the living room doing some paper work and decided to pick the thing up and read the owners manual.
After a couple of hours downloading some free Apps and getting used to the Android interface I have to emphatically state that...
THE KINDLE FIRE IS PRETTY DANG COOL FOR THE PRICE OF ONLY $199.
I spent 15 minutes fumbling around and managed to download the Netflix App and now I can watch Video on the darn thing in COLOR...using our wireless internet connection.
ShazammmmmMMM...
My Father would absolutely go nuts these days looking at the stuff we all take for granted in our modern culture/society. He was a TV/VCR movie junkie in his day and grew up living beside the guy that did all of the TV repair in his home town of Prenter, WV back in the 1940's
Our house was always full of portable TV's and oddball Tube based Radios and even early Transistor Radios (and Crystal sets) way before the average household had even Two TV's in the building.
Now my Mom has two flat screen TV's down in Alabama at the Farm and I'm buying another 55" set for the living room this weekend if I can find a good deal and Dad never saw a LED/LCD/Plasma TV since he passed away in 1996 and missed the revolution in video technology.
The hardest thing about getting older and living beyond a half century on the calendar is keeping things in perspective I think.
We tend to see everything in one or two year slices of time and I belive it is nice to stop and reflect at the end of each year and consider the details which are often overlooked in the rush to move from late December into January 1st and the new year of 2012.
I guess I'll go now and fiddle around with the Kindle some more now...
Regards Y'all...
Monday, December 26, 2011
I Was Going To Write Something Original This Evening
Then I Came Across THIS from HERE
In the queue at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
In the queue at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
In the queue at the store, the cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
The clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.
Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.
Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?
