The totally off-topic thread

[medhead]

Qualified Yay - Still need to be able to selectively update before upgrading ... I'm looking at this currently ...

I think it's possible, that was my conclusion before upgrading to Win10, but I don't think windows is happy about the situation.

I recovered from Cabernet do okay, but then straight back into one of those mega weeks where the number of hours worked doesn't really reflect the effort or emotional capital expended.

I'm still recovering from my South Africa trip. When the hotel bar is $3.30 for a pint it's mandatory to keep drinking.

 

[JessicaTam]

<snip>

I'm still recovering from my South Africa trip. When the hotel bar is $4.50 for a pint it's mandatory to keep drinking.

Not of Cabernet I hope! :shock:

 

[medhead]

Not of Cabernet I hope! :shock:

I think I'd be dead if I drank that many pints of cabernet.

My largest drinks bill for the week was: 5x pints castle draught, 2x bottles Castle, 1x Merlot, 1x Cabernet, 11 x bells, 2x absolut, 3x Olmeca Black (whatever that is :shock and 15 mixers = $100

 

[coriander]

Qualified Yay - Still need to be able to selectively update before upgrading ... I'm looking at this currently ...

Win10 is better/faster/slicker than Win8.1. I have most of my commonly used apps on the taskbar anyway. Setting up VPN into work was trickier than with my old laptop running Win7.

My only gripe is that the last couple of upgrades reset the associations: ie PDFs open in Edge instead of Acrobat, photos open in Photo Viewer instead of Directory Opus, movies open in Media Player instead of VLC, and so on. My XPS13 with Win10pro flies along very nicely, thank you (when the mobo doesn't melt).

Al the desktops at home and work run Win7 very happily (even legacy DOS apps in command prompt windows still work blindingly fast under Win7 x86!).

I think M$ get every 2nd or so upgrade right: Win98SE good, WinME bad, WinXP good, Vista bad, Win7 good, Win8 bad, Win10 good.

I still use Office 2003 at work (can't be bothered re-learning mail merge functions that have worked for 10+ years), but Office 2010/2013 on various desktops and laptops at home (usually due to being installed by my kids when at uni).

 

[JohnK]

I think I'd be dead if I drank that many pints of cabernet.

My largest drinks bill for the week was: 5x pints castle draught, 2x bottles Castle, 1x Merlot, 1x Cabernet, 11 x bells, 2x absolut, 3x Olmeca Black (whatever that is :shock and 15 mixers = $100

You drank all that and still posting?

 

[medhead]

You drank all that and still posting?

I should be more clear. That was shouting a night cap for the team (5 Aussies), plus a couple of poms, and a couple of others.

 

[RAM]

I still use Office 2003 at work (can't be bothered re-learning mail merge functions that have worked for 10+ years), but Office 2010/2013 on various desktops and laptops at home (usually due to being installed by my kids when at uni).

I'll see that and raise you...

I have Lotus Smartsuite installed (on Win 8.1 even) and that was last updated in 1997. So I think it is safely hacker free.

I do like the bar across the top of the screen. You click on one of the tabs and a drop-down box opens to the accompanying sound of a filing cabinet opening.

I also have a copy of the way-before-its-time Lotus Symphony (what M$ copied some years later) which on a single 360k floppy (major issue coming up soon) has the one program that allows you to create a file that was everything in it - spreadsheet, database, word processor and presentation as well as that old favourite WSIWYG for printing. On average - for every process/function in Excel there is one less keystroke required for Symphony, not quite that advantage for Lotus 123 - about 2/3rds a keystroke advantage vs Excel.

Now using my last working 360k/720K etc drive. It boots/starts instantly (well I hit return and its open before my hand has moved from the key board).

Back to the future?

...I remember when...

 

[Flashback]

Office XP?!??

Surly you mean something relased during the era of XP such as Office 2003?

Office XP came between Office 97 & Office 2003... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_XP

I have been pretty radio silent this week as work has been nuts.

I have worked more, and more intellectually this week than I have in a long time

Ditto'ish, although ended up being less crazy than I thought. I was cracking the whip all week with my resources though (to ensure Friday went smoothly) and we had a successful service transition on Friday. Received a nice note from the MD.

 

[RAM]

While on the subject...

My all-time favourite "Don't get angry get even" pre-internet activity was a certain program that caught out 9/10 PC users in the mid to late 80s.

I'd simply map a command like 'Dir' (pre-windows GUIs) to run this program - (Why didn't people use screensavers with passwords?)

So it would often take a little while, even a day or two until it was sprung.

The program basically set every disk drive (floppy or hard) into a little dance one after the other. Then a message would come up on the screen saying (in perfect DOS-ease "...moisture detected on Drive X." With some flashing "warning" signs etc.

After a few seconds it would then prompt, "Attempt Drive Dry? Y/N?"

You guessed it, if they selected "N" it would emit 3 very loud beeps, crank up each drive once more with feeling and then go back to "Attempt...

Most people would then press "Y" anxious not to let on that they'd got moisture into their drive somehow (a typical 20mb HD cost $1,000 or so). A floppy drive around $250.

Some would sheepishly get up and come around to my desk as I was the 'knowledgeable' one who the company's PC support system guy would always ring (note: suggest HR people get potential PC experts to 'fix' or examine a PC during the interview - I never had any trouble getting an upgraded machine at that company).

Of course I would recommend pushing "Y".

The screen would automatically get wiped. Nothing would happen for 5-10 seconds (built-in variable time lag). Then a message would come up; "Moisture confirmed - Drive X. Attempted dry."

That drive and only that drive would start whirring away at the same time the sound of a low-powered hair dryer would come out of the tiny in-built PC speaker.

Sometimes the 'drying' would not succeed and it would recommend another go. I would then wait until I had the opportunity to remove the mapping so I could continue on with my simple pleasures.

Never did let on it was me or that it was a joke. Roughly two years later came a PC literate graduate who could only keep a straight face for a couple of weeks before he gave it away.

And yes, I'd sworn the PC support guy to secrecy otherwise I'd stop helping him.

 

[Flashback]

While on the subject...

My all-time favourite "Don't get angry get even" pre-internet activity was a certain program that caught out 9/10 PC users in the mid to late 80s.

I'd simply map a command like 'Dir' (pre-windows GUIs) to run this program - (Why didn't people use screensavers with passwords?)

So it would often take a little while, even a day or two until it was sprung.

The program basically set every disk drive (floppy or hard) into a little dance one after the other. Then a message would come up on the screen saying (in perfect DOS-ease "...moisture detected on Drive X." With some flashing "warning" signs etc.

After a few seconds it would then prompt, "Attempt Drive Dry? Y/N?"

You guessed it, if they selected "N" it would emit 3 very loud beeps, crank up each drive once more with feeling and then go back to "Attempt...

Most people would then press "Y" anxious not to let on that they'd got moisture into their drive somehow (a typical 20mb HD cost $1,000 or so). A floppy drive around $250.

Some would sheepishly get up and come around to my desk as I was the 'knowledgeable' one who the company's PC support system guy would always ring (note: suggest HR people get potential PC experts to 'fix' or examine a PC during the interview - I never had any trouble getting an upgraded machine at that company).

Of course I would recommend pushing "Y".

The screen would automatically get wiped. Nothing would happen for 5-10 seconds (built-in variable time lag). Then a message would come up; "Moisture confirmed - Drive X. Attempted dry."

That drive and only that drive would start whirring away at the same time the sound of a low-powered hair dryer would come out of the tiny in-built PC speaker.

Sometimes the 'drying' would not succeed and it would recommend another go. I would then wait until I had the opportunity to remove the mapping so I could continue on with my simple pleasures.

Never did let on it was me or that it was a joke. Roughly two years later came a PC literate graduate who could only keep a straight face for a couple of weeks before he gave it away.

And yes, I'd sworn the PC support guy to secrecy otherwise I'd stop helping him.

Reminds me of some of the deviant things we used to get up to in high school. Triggering /con/con was a favourite - would cause the Windows 98 PC's to BSOD and lock up. We used to stick it into the registry so it would happen on reboot. Reboot and voila... same thing would happen again. They couldn't work it out so would fix by re-imaging the machines!

 

[anat0l]

They couldn't work it out so would fix by re-imaging the machines!

...which is one of the most popular ways to fix a computer problem these days, usually only pipped to the post by restarting the computer.

 

[Foreigner]

Office XP came between Office 97 & Office 2003... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_XP



Ditto'ish, although ended up being less crazy than I thought. I was cracking the whip all week with my resources though (to ensure Friday went smoothly) and we had a successful service transition on Friday. Received a nice note from the MD.

I thought operating system was Win XP? Office versions were of MS Word, Excel, et al

 

[Steady]

Just heard on the local news that a light plane crashed on landing in DPO this afternoon - no one was hurt

 

[Pushka]

Supposed to be flying to Honolulu today then on to Alaska for a land tour and cruise. Yes, we did have our ESTA. Boo to DVT's. No flight over 4 hours. Just as well. Consolation prize is Hayman Island next week.

 

[JessicaTam]

Supposed to be flying to Honolulu today then on to Alaska for a land tour and cruise. Yes, we did have our ESTA. Boo to DVT's. No flight over 4 hours. Just as well. Consolation prize is Hayman Island next week.

Small steps, Pushka, small steps.

 

[whatmeworry]

Supposed to be flying to Honolulu today then on to Alaska for a land tour and cruise. Yes, we did have our ESTA. Boo to DVT's. No flight over 4 hours. Just as well. Consolation prize is Hayman Island next week.

Why go Direct when you can connect!

 

[rogerkambah]

And how do you like it?

Arrrrrrrrgh. It has disrupted my auto wifi logon, so now I have to reboot the modem when I want access the web and it has disrupted access to my printer, so I'm not a happy chappie - and then the 'Ask me anything' button expands to X size and tells me its listening. Well good luck with that, as I'm not going to talk to it.

Seriously is it better than win7 or 8? (probably got on topic here somewhere?)

Update

Just read through from where Buzzard asked me how I liked it.

Seems that views are rather polarised. I was quite happy with Win8, but ms wil eventually withdraw support for 7 & 8, as they did with XP etc.

Trying to teach an old dog new tricks is my problem as once something is running well I don't like to enhance it. Suppose I will have to update the driver for my HP workforce 845 to get it to work.

Some would say I don't like change.

 

[Flashback]

I thought operating system was Win XP? Office versions were of MS Word, Excel, et al

There was definitely an Office XP too, I have the box laying around back in Australia somewhere.

 

[serfty]

There was definitely an Office XP too, I have the box laying around back in Australia somewhere.

Yeah - going by the wiki article that would be the case.

Most entities I knew went from '97 to '03 - me, I was still trying to get over the "castrating" of the underlying VB Macro script capability between Office '95 and Office '97 ...

 

[rogerkambah]

Just wondering whether anyone here has had their Takata airbags replaced in their vehicles. I was notified of the problem in relation to my Honda CRV in July 2015, but since then zip.

Found this on a US blog:

"Toyota said it would begin to replace defective passenger-side inflators starting October 25[2015]; if parts are unavailable, however, it has advised its dealers to disable the airbags and affix “Do Not Sit Here” messages to the dashboard."

What about the driver's seat??