I live with my computer. When it doesn’t work, I am not a happy person. And when I look in the Dell refurb offerings and find not one or two, but well more than 50 refurbed versions of my computer on offer, I am less happy than that. This indicates to me that a LOT of that particular build are having trouble. They have replaced every part BUT the display where we think the problem actually resides.
And they will replace it with something related to that build and probably with another camera. This will mean the whole machine is sort of new, in a Frankenstein’s monster sort of way. The same problems are well possible.
It was due for replacement in one more year. Right now, Dell (since many users feel as I do) is still shipping Win 7 Pro ‘with a license for 8.1.’ This is powerful persuasion. I do NOT want to find out, next year, when that computer has another problem, and is due for replacement, that my only option is 8.1.
So I am going to retire the ‘broken’ computer when it comes back fixed. It can be a ‘road’ machine, that goes on trips, outside, or wherever, to live until it finally goes belly-up for good and all. Knowing the probably inherent problem with its USBs, I’ll just avoid plugging things into them and it should do well for years.
But I’m going to bite the bullet a shade early and go ahead and get a replacement with Win 7, figuring it should be able to tide me over until Microsoft Windows 9. [Remember when they swore there would be no more numbers after 5 or so?] I’d like to skip over 8, let them work out the bug they’ve found in their concept…touch-screen computing? The next thing we need is a fingerprint-proof screen. Our iPad always looks like a first grader had used it just after a lunch of finger-food.
Anyway, I’ll stick to a keyboard, thanks, and hope that this touch-screen fad will go the way of the buggy whip, or that voice rec improves markedly (boy, can you tell the social media entries made with Dragon: its errors have a ‘style’ all their own)—and most of all that the incoming computer will be solid enough to make up for the year-less-life that I’ve gotten from this one and go on for the next half decade. On the one hand a new computer is like a new car—yay!—and on the other hand it’s like being told you have to make an ‘office move’ to another floor—ugh!—in which things aren’t going to fit, the decor is generic, the shelves are loaded with stuff you’ll have to sort and pitch most of just to get your own stuff in—and, oh, by the way—the elevator isn’t working. You have to carry it up the stairs.
That’s kind of my feeling. I am going to receive a new office, which I will have to furnish and decorate, while I keep up with this book and try not to lose my focus…and oh, by the way, the elevator isn’t working. Deal with it. I do have Carbonite. Yay for that! But the version of Carbonite I have only backs up data, not programs. I’m working on my last backup machine, which is glacially slow in response, compared to the one in the shop, and when the sick machine comes back, I’ll restore all its data files from the cloud and get it working. THEN the ‘new office’ arrives and I’m going to continue to work on the repaired machine while doing my ‘office move’ in bits and pieces. I am really, really hoping they didn’t have to wipe the repaired machine’s hard disk in this fix—because if they did, I will have to do massive software reinstall on that just to get the files updated on Carbonite (this machine I’m using now doesn’t have the Carbonite backup license) so I can install the same programs to bring up a new machine and invoke Carbonite to shift the data over to the new digs. I get a headache even thinking about it.
Did I mention I explicitly ordered NO camera or microphone in the new one?
Happy, yes. The bullets I dodged in this shift are several: I haven’t lost anything but one important but I think I remember it sort of paragraph, and I’m still working despite the craziness.
I dread having to transfer stuff from the “old” computer to a new one. Really, when I look at all the “fluff” that gets put on the new computer, I am tempted to tell the factory, put a blank hard disk in, include the operating system CD, and if there are utilities that I think I need, I’ll install them, but I want a perfectly new, unformatted, unpartitioned hard drive. I’ve never done that yet, but I think with my next purchase, I’m going to do that. Whether it makes any difference or not, I prefer to have the OS in its own partition on the hard drive, and then programs and data can go on other partitions or other hard drives in the computer. My feeling is that if I don’t clutter up the primary partition with a bunch of stuff that doesn’t need to be there, and that the computer can locate in another partition without significant (meaning perceptible) delay, then that’s what I want.
At the moment, I’ve got an old Gateway laptop that was discarded from a club to which I belong, along with the software, etc., and I’m reconfiguring that machine to work for my weather station, so that I can send weather observation data out to the Internet, and also so I can use the radar-monitoring application without having to drag a separate computer down to the basement during severe weather events. The Gateway will be my ham radio station computer, and if it works the way I would like it to work, I’ll be able to utilize most of the capabilities of my current radios, including teletype, packet, and when I get the new D-STAR radio (if ever), then I can work that into the capabilities, as well.
Even though Microsoft no longer “supports” XP, they will still allow me to activate the system on the laptop. I just won’t get the “updates” that they no longer support. I always considered XP Professional to be one of the best that Microsoft generated, but then, I got another machine that had Vista on it, upgraded to Windows 7, and refuse to budge any further until Microsoft can demonstrate to me that they can make an operating system that works, that isn’t full of bloated code that slows down the performance of the system, and doesn’t have to be updated with security patches every 2 or 3 days…..maybe if they could set it up so that if you have a particular device, or application, the system will query Microsoft for the applicable drivers and other software. That would be nice, and if you decide to delete or remove a particular device or application, you can remove the drivers and software and not have these stray files hanging around. “Now, what was that particular file for?” Should you delete it or not? I know there are applications out there that will clean up the hard drive for you and remove outdated or orphaned files, I’m just not sure I trust them all that far.
I prefer to have the system and all the programs on a separate drive from the data and all the miscellaneous stuff. Right now, they’re all on one, and I haven’t yet figured out how to add a second drive – I’ll have to find a tech to do it, because I suspect it involves jumpers I can’t quite see.
But it is a Win7 machine, and so far I’m good with it.
I got the XP Machine running, got it connected to the network, and right now, it’s running on the wireless portion of the network. I had wanted to change that to hard-wired CAT5, but I remember that not only was the internal wireless card fried by a nearby lightning strike several years ago, but so was the Ethernet card, as well. Fortunately, I have several wireless adapters that fit into a spare USB port on the computer. Now, if there were just more than two USB ports ON the computer, it would be even better, since the mouse, keyboard, scanner, and cable from the weather station, are all USB. Well, it’s nice that the station is up and running again. If you’re curious, it’s here: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=KC6NLX-1 and if you click on the “Display panel” on the left under “findu links for KC6NLX-1”, it’ll come up with a red LED type display on a black background. The way the display shows by default is mainly for trend analysis with the graphs, etc.
Hi, Joe, looked at your link and it was very fun. I’m in Iowa, but not hopelessly far away so I enjoyed the visit. You might even score a place on my Favorites list. Thanks.
Ooooh! A new computer without any crap on it and the OS on a disc so you can configure it how you want. What a glorious concept. We’ll be expecting pink unicorns next. Now if M$ will put out an operating system that’s not a bloated memory pig…
I started computing in the day when if you got annoyed with crap on your disk, you just blithely formatted C, laid out the programs you wanted, and had it all rearranged by tea-time. Now it’s an Everest of bits and pieces, and installing Windows is done at the manufacturer’s.
Always good to have a reliable computer, and Dell is making some nice systems now that they’ve gone private again. In a move that will enrage the number-counters, the next version of Windows is 10 (skipping 9).
Did you get an SSD based system ??
I am reminded that on the Phoenix, the crew had lost the availability of paper.
What did authors do before the computer – before the typewriter?
Has anyone – perhaps an author’s association – done any survey as to what other authors use and perhaps use mass buying power to obtain machines which don’t go crank?
Sorry Mr. Melville but the machine ate Moby Dick – you will have to write it all over again.
“To the last I grapple with thee, from hell’s heart I stab at thee; for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.” From a letter to Mr. Melville’s publisher upon receiving the news that the “machine ate Moby Dick”…… 😀
“KKHHAANN!!”
(You don’t think perhaps Kirk meant to say, “Knnn!!” did he?) 😉
It’ll be Windows 10 – there’s not going to be a 9 for programming reasons (eyeroll)
Speaking as an IT tech, Windows 8 (and 8.1) are lovely operating systems in the backend – fairly small footprint, nimble, nice pieces of work. The user interfaces, on the other hand, are an absolute nightmare, especially if you have to configure anything. Most hated OS for techs since Windows ME! Takes a lot to surpass Vista. Windows 7 was a DELIGHT after Vista. Of course, Microsoft is about to retire the free support for Win 7.
If you ever need to go to Windows 8.1, Stardock’s Start8 is a lovely piece of software that mostly hides the nasty touchscreen crud (it puts back the old-sk00l Start menu, and lets you log in to desktop mode, among other things). I’m an old fogy that started on the CBM 8032, and I prefer 8.1 + Start8 to 7. But I’m also looking forward to 10. (Of course my main system runs MacOS – Windows is for a few Windows-only apps / games)
If you prefer the pre-Vista menu style, Classic Shell is also a good alternative.
I believe M$ has already announced doomsday for Win7.
Speaking of source disks, does anybody have a Vista/Home DVD? I need one, even a copy. A client friend had his HP Pavilion’s motherboard die during the holidays. I bought the carcass for the parts. It would be easy enough to replace like for like, if one could be found, and then if the file system wasn’t corrupted, Windows would run none the wiser. It’d be easy enough to put any motherboard in the case, but Windows would puke. So I’d need to start over, hence the need for the DVD. (The only thing I’d want it for is to run TurboTax when Intuit finally gives up on XP. Not holding my breath for a Linux version.)
I started before CJ, when drives were A: & B: ! 😉
sorry Paul, if I have one, I’ve not been able to locate it….this computer was set up with Vista back when I first bought it in 2007, I should have the disks somewhere. If I find them, I’ll let you know.
A: and B: and 8-inch floppies.
I was helping my sis clean out a couple of boxes and way down in the bottom of one was a plastic 5-inch Dysan box – with one disk in it still. She doesn’t have any floppy drives – although I do, the 5-inch isn’t easily accessible.
She’s also trying to get me to use a tablet that has Win8. She’s not familiar with Win8, and it’s a real nuisance setting it up. I don’t need it.
Thank you all for the interesting info. Dell is, across the board, offering 7 Pro as the standard for their ‘business’ machines, the Latitude and Precision, and that is a LOT of folk Microsoft would be wise to keep happy: of course most of these customers employ IT folk. I just get my advice from friends. 😉
10, eh? I’m darkly amused.
As to what writers did before typewriters, they hand-wrote, with quill pen, and publishers set type by hand and hand-pressed every individual page of every individual book—which is why books cost enormously, and having a library was only for the extremely rich—Belle of Beauty and the Beast is obviously a little closer to modern than the hand-press, to judge by the number of books she could access, and the fact the village had a bookstore.
Before that, books were mass-produced by monasteries. If a monastery had a copy of a manuscript that those in favor with it did not have, or if a king or great lord wanted his kingdom to have access, that sort of thing, then they would assign monks to copy it, and send a copy overland, by mule, foot, or wagon, through all the dangers of bandits and so on. Monte Cassino in Italy was a repository of many treasures that were down to a very few copies.
Even earlier, in the days of Roman industrial thinking—they mass-produced a great many things the Greeks still stubbornly did one at a time, because that was the way the Greeks seemed to think. Show a Roman an article and he would not think—gee, I wonder if I can get one from that artist (the Greek attitude)—but, gee, I wonder if I can mass-copy this thing and make a profit for us. [With Romans it was always ‘us,’ ‘la famiglia’—what we call the family, though familia actually meant the servants, to them.] Anyway—the Romans mass-marketed scrolls of popular books: a publishing house consisted of a lot of skilled slaves and probably some employeed freedmen, all with a neat hand and a good ear, and a reader would sit at the front of what looked like a classroom and read distinctly, in a loud voice. The best copyists got to sit at the front of the room, the less skilled at the rear where they might occasionally mis-hear something. But they would all write what they heard, and the best were very, very highly valued artists, who produced books that would be written on the best materials (papyrus was imported; and very thin parchment, which was still so thick they might have to do Vergil in 12 scrolls) —sometimes in decorated cases. You could spend the modern equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars on one of the primo copies. Or get the back-of-room copies for less. Books were lent among friends, and a whole household would gather in the evening for a reading of a borrowed book…a side of Roman life that is less talked about than gladiators and such, but was near and dear to family life.
And we are off and running to the history of libraries, a subject near and dear to my heart. From the first ruler (Assurbanipal) to create a library, to the king who decreed that any new book that entered his kingdom must be copied and added to his collection, to beloved Hypatia, librarian and martyr of Alexandria, on down the years. Roman twits who bought old libraries by the pound, to stoke their bathhouses. Caliphs who were religious fanatics and decided that the Koran was the only book anyone should have (“If it is not in the Koran, it is blasphemous; if it is in the Koran already, it is superfluous”). Monks and hermits caching copies of manuscripts so that knowledge might survive the waves of marauders, then their descendants rediscovering and recopying those old documents. The Chinese invention of printing, lost then rediscovered by Gutenberg, down to the Venetian printing houses.
Boy have we come a long way from scratching notes in clay tablets with reeds!
Microsoft is going to run into real problems when they stop supporting Win7 because Win8 cannot get a security rating high enough for most military (even unclassified) systems. Just watch DoD come down hard. I suspect the same thing will happen with everyone who does business with FedGov. Win8 and it’s touchscreen is a security breach waiting to happen. By the way, Dell provides a lot of “business” computers to DoD and 99% of them have to have the cameras, and microphones disabled, unless they get a special exception for a specific use such as for teleconferencing.
I happened to read again the Wiki article on the Phaistos Disc, and came across something else interesting.
The Phaistos Disc was composed with “movable type” in the form of individual glyph punches, one for each of 46 glyphs, pressed into the surface before it set and was fired. So some claim this was the earliest known use of movable printing type, but that it was too early and the technology was lost.
The Phaistos Disc was a disc on which 46 glyphs were impressed in a spiral pattern for a total of 200+ glyphs. It’s still undeciphered, and opinions differ on its authenticity and on what language it may be in, such as a cousin to Greek Linear A or Linear B, or other neighboring languages, including Minoan or Hittite/Luwian or something from the Anatolian region…or several others. It’s unclear if it’s an alphabet, a syllabary, or an ideographic system, or a mix.
—–
I would’ve spent more time rereading the page on Etruscan, but I was too bleary-eyed and sleepy by then.
——
Note that the Chinese, and later Gutenberg, took the simple idea of pressing a carved symbol or tool onto a cloth or page to another level. They conceived of creating large numbers of the symbols, an entire font of type (originally, a font was a single size and style) and composing them into matrices, then inking and pressing the whole thing onto a cloth or a page. Gutenberg modified another kind of press in order to create his, and refined it over his lifetime, and the idea spread. The Chinese and Japanese, though, most probably would also have done similarly. Gutenberg had the idea to produce and sell many copies to whomever would buy them, and his idea was copied by others, both with and without his consent, so that the printing press and movable type spread throughout Europe, though it had already been used in Asia by the Chinese and Japanese for quite some time, but not as often for copies in bulk, more artisanal. It’s still probably an accident / coincidental that Europe got to mass production and public-ation (making it publicly available to everyone) first. If the Chinese or Japanese (or others) had tried it, they would’ve had a similar advantage.
—–
I’ve been puzzling through the Devanagari script for a personal project. Very interesting how it works, but with some odd ideas in there on how to compose the symbols. It turns out that once I begin to get used to it, it isn’t quite as daunting as it first appears. But I’m still only learning.
I have in mind to do something with this, but as of yet, I’m not sure what that will turn into, so I’m keeping quiet until I have a better idea how it’ll turn out.
Mainstream support for W7 ended Tuesday Jan. 13th which means there won’t be any more service packs. But extended support runs until July 2020, and extended support still gives us the monthly patches, so we’re good for a while yet. We actually had to upgrade an XP machine to W8 since it’s our print/scanner server and had to be available to everyone on the network and I couldn’t figure out how to do without and still block it from the internet. I agree with Skitterling that 8.1 is actually a reasonable operating system; I got back the W7 control panel so I can figure out how to do things without trying to use the dopey squares of the Metro interface. W8 takes less memory to run than W7 does; I couldn’t have run 7 on the print server. I’ll look at W10 when it shows up – maybe when they come out with Service Pack 1 to fix the bugs in the original release.
I too remember 8″ floppies, but these days I use my old 5″ floppy storage drawers for storing CDs. Nice that it worked out that way.
Fortuitously, all our computers are of recent vintage and running W7, so as long as we get the monthly patches we’re good to go. I refuse to be shoehorned into the travesty that is the W8 family, especially since I don’t have a tablet. I’m hoping that W10 will be as good as W7, WXP, or W98 were for their generation; I don’t feel like learning the ins and outs of Ubuntu.
Touchscreens give me the heebie-jeebies. I can touch type and all, but without the click of the key, it does not feel like I’m actually inputting my thoughts into the device. I’m with skitterling on the merits of Windows 8.x. Huge improvement in stability and performance, but that interface? I was so glad when I found out how to make it work more in a classic mode.
This discussion reminds me of the old, and surprisingly prescient, TV show, Max Headroom. The character Blank Regg is a sort of pirate radio station owner and fence for stolen goods. In one episode, he pays a thief in barter and places a book on the stack of bartered items. The thief asks “What’s that?”
“It’s a book.” Blank Regg replies.
“What’s that?” the thief asks again.
“A non-volatile storage medium. It’s very old and very valuable. You should have one.”
🙂
I mailed the machine Monday.
Fedex got the machine at 4:30. And put it on a truck and sent it to Oregon.
Oregon got it today at noon and sent it to Idaho.
Spokane is 20 miles from Idaho.
From Idaho it is going to Houston.
I got a notice that they have to wipe the machine because they don’t have the password.
I called in and got a nice Dell agent who says the machine may get to Houston tomorrow. With luck they could ship it back Friday. Which would get here Monday.
And I did send them the password, but they don’t know whether they have it or not because the thing isn’t in their hands yet.
This is almost as good as the snowblower order which left TN, went to NC, then to TX, then to UT, then to OR before it reached our UPS office in Spokane WA in time to have the snow collapse the roof of the UPS office.
The secret is that they take broken machines in by ground (truck) and airship them back. Arrgh.
Ooo, sympathies. I’m hoping to avoid an office-moving myself. My vintage Indigo iBook is seizing up with Word. I’m hoping it’s a corrupt preferences file that I need to hunt down and exterminate. If that doesn’t work, I’ll reinstall my archaic version of Office, provided the disk hasn’t deteriorated into illegibility in the last eleven years, and if THAT doesn’t work, try to run a diagnostic using the start-up disk, ditto on the deterioration, and if THAT doesn’t work, check to see if the computer still communicates with the 17 yr old laser printer, and if it still does (gasp for air), I ‘ll have to decide if I’m going to leave it as the printer’s computer, or take the final step and wipe the drive and start over, in the hopes I can get both the printer and Word to work. Problem is, the printer has one of those little round connecters (remember those?) which requires an adapter to USB, and the new iMac apparently can’t talk to it through an adaptor, since I’ve tried numerous times to download the driver. So if the iBook goes…so does the laser printer. On the plus side, I did a comprehensive backup of everything on the iBook some time ago, so if the thing blows up, all I really lose is the printer and the ability to carry my computer around with me. (I’m sure the header it took when the cat yanked it off the table during a rampage didn’t help matters any. Rzzl frzzl cat…)
Unlike it’s predecessors, the Windows 7 Easy Transfer tool is a remarkably effective way to move from an old computer to a new one, particularly when you’re staying with the same version of Windows.
As long as your new computer has the same programs (even if they’re a different version), it works quite well.
You have to customize the settings to avoid copying data from folders or drives that don’t need copying, such as external drives.
Other than that, I’ve had good luck with it.