Older Folks and Vaping Back Porch - Part 2

[DancingHeretik]

I hear you! There is no getting away from the fact that fountain pens are problematic to carry around! Which is pretty much exactly why ballpoints were invented.

I discovered and begged and borrowed and finally bought a GREAT new solution to this age-old problem! One Touch :: Monteverde Pens

It's a rollerball that refills with fountain pen ink! Finally, something to do with my bottles and bottles of ink, without having to worry about all my antique-y old fps that need new rubber bladders when they dry out (which they do, if you're silly and leave ink in them too long) and need an expert with special parts!

There are varieties of this Monte Verde pen, diff colors etc. I have one, and I'm loving it -- had to save for awhile to get one. Works great! There are also less expensive versions, not Monte Verde, of pens that can take fountain pen ink, but after research, this looks like the one to go with, or at least it was for me.

They must be really expensive. You can tell because I don't see any prices!

You got that right brudda... on all three counts!

I wish the majority of my customer base used Linux, then I would too.

I've played with Mint, Puppy, several flavors of Ubuntu, and some distros I can't remember. I have one laptop right now that will dual boot to Ubuntu 10.x (I think) or Windows 8 beta (sux).

eta: Oh yeah, I also have a Linux bootable CD and bootable USB drive with Ophcrack installed on both, to break Windows logon passwords when someone has forgotton their pwd., or bought a pawnshop computer where nobody knows the pwd.

My brother is fixing up a computer with both Windows and Linux (don't know which version yet). I've been wanting to learn Linux for quite a while. I just didn't want to give up my already functioning, comfortable Windows system in the meantime. If you have any advice for getting started, feel welcome to share it!

 

[MikeE3]

I discovered and begged and borrowed and finally bought a GREAT new solution to this age-old problem! One Touch :: Monteverde Pens

oh, no, no, no - don't get me re-started w/ pens. I sold off all but my very 1st Shaeffer set (16th birthday gift), a Parker set, my Mom's and my Dad's fountain pens. They did book keeping ledger sheets using fountain pens. I asked Dad once, what if you make a mistake - he said - don't.

batteries held the charge a little longer ... LOL I love it!

And oh gosh, I remember times back in the day when I made presentation charts, meticulously, beautifully, done by hand, because they could NOT have been done on a typewriter, and there was no graphics software in those days that could have produced them -- they were works of ART I tell you.... This was roughly in the early 80s. The bosses started saying that if it isn't typed, it isn't real, pretty much.

That's when my little heart started to break...

Oh my, now you've reminded me of all the time I did scrap booking at the office - cut and paste to mock up a presentation slide. Then give it the the art department to do it right and produce 35mm slides. Geez, that was time consuming.

Well, we came to an agreement on which house today (he came around to my way of thinking) and we're going to make an offer on Saturday since tomorrow we have to switch motels. The house is empty and we'll be paying cash so I'm hoping that we can get in quickly.

Nice! Glad to hear the good news.

"The opinion of the man of the house, is not necessarily that of management"

Too funny. At lease in our home I get a title, CHO (Chief of Household Operations). DYI and maintenance are the main part of the job description.

 

[DavidOck]

Golly, Mike, I'm jealous of your corporate title! I'm just Mr. Fixit

 

[williegntx]

Golly, Mike, I'm jealous of your corporate title! I'm just Mr. Fixit

Mine depends on how far down the 'honey do' list she is referring to...better not mention those in mixed company.

 

[1wildman]

They must be really expensive. You can tell because I don't see any prices!


My brother is fixing up a computer with both Windows and Linux (don't know which version yet). I've been wanting to learn Linux for quite a while. I just didn't want to give up my already functioning, comfortable Windows system in the meantime. If you have any advice for getting started, feel welcome to share it!

my advice is go for a very Noob friendly distrobution. I recommend Ubuntu. Ubuntu is Swahili for "community". That is where it excells - alot of linux people are not tolerant of Noobs asking questions. the Ubuntu community is glad to help anyone figure stuff out. Things have changed a lot since the old days... most times you can install it and it will just work with all your hardware. In the old days you had to spend lots of time configuring stuff to get it to work right. Basically, most people use their computer for chat, email, and internet - Linux can do all these. If you are not stuck on having to use Microsoft Office you can use LibreOffice for word, excel, etc. I got tired of fixing my kids computers years ago. They have been using Linux for 4 years and I havent had to clean up a virus yet. Except for some stupid stuff like iTunes they havent missed anything. They do their school work on LibreOffice and save it in Microsoft format to send to their teachers. Good luck. Feel free to PM with anything you need help with if you take the plunge.

 

[Uncle Willie]

All this tech talk on a "Mature" thread, my my .. so, I'll blow off the dust ..

I actually owned a Computer Business during the heyday of the 1990's and early 2000's .. we repaired / custom built .. local Corporate clients as well as individuals .. did installs, network setups, etc .. life was good .. when, eventually, PC's became commoditized and an appliance .. when machines were built around the concept of proprietary parts and it became as expensive to replace a MB than it did to buy a whole new machine, I shut it down .. but damn, those Nerds I had working for me back then were good .. back in the early days, the concept of Plug and Play had not yet come to perfection ..

To this day, I have a laptop that runs Windows Millenium that I use daily in the workshop to stream Internet Radio with and it still works flawlessly ..

I'm a Windows man and graduated along the line from MS-DOS in 1981 to WIN7 today .. although I've played around with Linux and the Apple foodchain, I know Windows like the back of my hand ..

And if you want a free and easy way to clean out the old PC .. give CCLEANER a shot .. I think they even have a version for a Mac ..

CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download

 

[1wildman]

if you get someone to setup linux it is great for the Mature crowd...it just works. I set up my inlaws as well - they surf the Net and do email. Even taught them to do skype

 

[Uncle Willie]

if you get someone to setup linux it is great for the Mature crowd...it just works. I set up my inlaws as well - they surf the Net and do email. Even taught them to do skype

Really not much in the way of setup from what I played around with .. it would boot and run straight from disk / it would automatically install as a dual boot config .. playing around with it was safe, easy and fast and very easy to learn .. downside to me was the work involved in getting various hardware drivers, software capability, etc ..

As a Web machine OS, it's great ..

 

[3mg Meniere]

I had ubuntu for about a year on a laptop. Then the screen went into the great computer beyond. It was difficult getting back into xp, in fact, I wanted to put ubuntu on the xp replacement, but didn't want to pay for a tech doing it. So I had to make do. I use open office, very much like LibreOffice. I had Calibre on my ubuntu, and there is an xp version-- I need to get busy doing some very boring library work in expectation of my Kindle arriving Monday.

 

[lulu836]

Linux is a product of the Devil's Workshop! Talk about memories. I was a Systems Engineer at a casino here in town. The entire gaming system used Linux. One night about 10PM I get a call that all three gaming floors are not having their slots and customer data collected and to do something about it. I go to the office but can't find the problem. Call Bally's headquarters (their machines) and talked to the programmer who wrote the code for the system. Still can't find the problem. At 8AM I am exhausted and walk into the computer room to take one last look at the console. I see a wire and plug just casually hanging around the keyboard. Plug it back into the AS400 and voila the stats are running. Nobody ever admitted to unplugging it but they knew that if I ever found out there would be blood and screaming.

 

[Uncle Willie]

Linux is a product of the Devil's Workshop! Talk about memories. I was a Systems Engineer at a casino here in town. The entire gaming system used Linux. One night about 10PM I get a call that all three gaming floors are not having their slots and customer data collected and to do something about it. I go to the office but can't find the problem. Call Bally's headquarters (their machines) and talked to the programmer who wrote the code for the system. Still can't find the problem. At 8AM I am exhausted and walk into the computer room to take one last look at the console. I see a wire and plug just casually hanging around the keyboard. Plug it back into the AS400 and voila the stats are running. Nobody ever admitted to unplugging it but they knew that if I ever found out there would be blood and screaming.

AS400 .. now that's one I've not heard in a long, long time ..

 

[lulu836]

AS400 .. now that's one I've not heard in a long, long time ..

Yep, I know. Lets see......... I retired in 2004 and had worked at the casino for 6 years so it definitely was a while ago. We had 3 of the biggies and everything else ran on Windows Server. My favorite system will always be the Honeywell with the iron core. Love the tape drives and disc 6-packs. Also had the worst experience of my life with the Honeywell...........I tightened down one of the 6-packs to change it out. Got it out of the drive and discovered it was not quite as secure as I thought because it went crashing to the floor!

I even have a read-write ring from an IBM main frame tape drive hanging from my desk hutch door pull.

 

[MikeE3]

I even have a read-write ring from an IBM main frame tape drive hanging from my desk hutch door pull.

he, he - tape drives, now you're talking. This could have been me way back when, it was all about how many tapes you could carry on your forearms like bracelets and how fast you could change them on the drives.

That ain't me, but it pretty close to the 1st system I worked with after college. Check the console - no CRT's yet, just TTY.

 

[MissMcVayp]

Go to upper left corner of screen where you see the grid of six dots. Click on that. You will then get your apps screen. Click on store. Type "click and clean" in search box. Then follow directions from there.

OMG - I've never even noticed those dots before... I clicked it. It told me that C&C can "access all data on my computer"...is that safe?

 

[kariM]

Oh my goodness - all this tech talk had me thinking I must be back at work..... after 27 years in IT (but software development and then project management) I have happily walked away from all of that. Now if I need anything done with a computer or the network in the house - I just call my son. He loves Mom's cooking so it works. Ok back to

 

[MikeE3]

Oh my goodness - all this tech talk had me thinking I must be back at work..... after 27 years in IT (but software development and then project management) I have happily walked away from all of that. Now if I need anything done with a computer or the network in the house - I just call my son. He loves Mom's cooking so it works. Ok back to

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I worked from 1969 to 2010 (I think) with computers. Started out in programming, design and development and finished up within corporate IT. When I left I was running global support. Which meant making sure 35,000 desktops (windows based) and 1000's of Microsoft servers were up and running. When I left I didn't want to see another PC or Windows OS. For better or worse I bought a Macbook and other than the price tag I've been pretty happy with it. For me, much less time 'supporting' it than I did w/ my home windows desktops and laptops. Along the way I also worked with Unix servers - got tired of awking and greping so never did pick up on the Linux variants for home use.

 

[Iffy]

My original Post'Em notes...

Made many a flip check list on da back of those.

And then we had to go to...

Wasn't worth a poop fer checklists/index cards. But, at least I got all da ol' stock cards!

 

[DavidOck]

Uh, here's where I began....

http://voices.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/Babbage-Difference-Engine.jpeg

 

[3mg Meniere]

Uh, here's where I began....

http://voices.allthingsd.com/files/2010/12/Babbage-Difference-Engine.jpeg

THAT makes you a true pioneer!!

 

[DavidOck]

Actually started with a VIC-20, all 5 K of it, with tape drives. Later used Commodore 128s to teach principles of hardware interfacing and control - before "ladder logic" was developed. Easy to introduce programming concepts with its version of BASIC, easy access to I/O ports via BASIC or ML, but for simple stuff BASIC was adequate.

Then many years working with PLCs and dedicated custom hardware for power plant automation and control.

But I think I met Babbage and Countess Ada... in a prior life!