New Senior (over 65) member

Well, I came across this forum while surfing around and thought this looks like a very fertile source of information for general upkeep and use of Windows computers and programs. This seemed also a fortunate happenstance as Comcast cable just announced they will no longer provide a newsgroup
service. Yes, I’m one of those input types who feel starved if I’m not feeding something into this old brain at all times. I retired 10 years ago at the government mandatory age of 60 for my office. I provided technical/engineering support including project management of software and hardware programs. One of my favorite "war stories" concerns a ships integrated navigation system (years before gps was fully functional and pretty much sole sourced navigation inputs) in its final prototype test stage. The contractor was given a date and area location for getting an exact position fix. Within minutes the whole system was undergoing a hard crash and the testing was over. The date was 29 Feb "“ think about it!
As a retired volunteer at the local Senior Center I maintained and programmed their 8 station computer network which we utilize for classes and general senior use. I also refurbish and program computer donations for resale at very reduced prices to the seniors. Also advise them on computer problems in general and occasionally visit their homes to get them back on line. The lab network has gone under County contract for support and configuration control so I don’t do nearly as much in there anymore. Regards my personal computers it’s a 4 station home network with
a bedroom-older HP, living room- homebuilt AMD, cellar workshop HP and mobile HP laptop being connected and all running Windows XP. A new HP desktop had Vista installed but I soon changed that back to Windows XP. This was done with a newly purchased operating system and new hard drive install. Vista is still "hanging around" on one of the slave drives. Well that’s about it for now and good wishes to all.

 

Thanks for sharing that, it was very interesting.

You should "have a go" at Vista. It won't go away if you avoid it

I expect you have a good grasp of the Windows OS. That would be useful here. A lot of people solve their own problems with a "nudge" in the right direction, if someone can spot (or get close to) a possible cause. We pass on whatever suggestions we can, as long as the suggestion is not "risky" if it is not successful.

Vista, if you have a problem with it, why not try to find a solution, worked for me . You may then be able to pass on your method

We old people should keep up with the latest It sounds like you can overcome a lot of problems.

Matt

 

Hello skent99. I haven't been here(except as viewer and reader) for very long myself. From what I read from your intro, you could become very popular here. Like mattman said, it looks like you know your way around Windows. Every brain cell helps. Welcome.

 

As I tell my Seniors I know what I know because I've done it wrong more than they have. When I got transferred to a gov lab in the 80's most of the engineers had computers with 10 MB hard drives. One of my responsibilities was keeper of the lab network system with hard drives to big and heavy for the secretaries to get up on the shelf.
I had no idea how to maintain or operate a computer so spent many hours learning on the engineers computers. Well it wasn't long before most of their workshop doors had signs "Shel is not allowed on my computer at any time "! By then I had "crashed" most of them in the building. It was a love affair from there on because my favorite activity was problem solving and that goes on 24/7 when you get into computers. Hopefully the moderator doesn't mind some story telling on the BBS.

 

Yes, the early ones I read, that weighed tons and filled large rooms, would not have the same processing power as a modern calculator. I started when most "personal" computers were changing from floppy disk drives to hard disk drives.

The other day I was trying to get a DOS based program to run on a Win XP computer. It made a two-tone beep on the system speaker. I had a hard time trying to assure my co-worker that I wasn't playing Space Invaders

Matt