on computers

well its 2020 now and most all of us here have computers or we wouldnt be on this forum.
What do you REALLY think of them?

what kind of computer or device are you typing on right now? Your own, a shared one, one you bought or are renting, or maybe its one you won. How much would you be willing to pay for a new upgrade.

How has computers changed your life...were you an early adopter or a hold out luddite? No amish people here....???
What do you love/hate about them?

I've repaired, programmed, designed, and installed computers since the early 1960s. I don't remember any of my adult life where I have not had access to at least one. I have four (eight if you included smartphones and tablets) within an arms reach at this moment. The last one that I bought was an HP all-in-one. I don't think I'll buy another one anytime soon.

I am writing this on a 3 year old laptop which allows me to access the internet. The internet is like a really large library with information at your finger tips. As with any other device or tool, they are neither are good nor bad but depends on the intent of the one using such device how to apply it.

All my computers are refurbished ones, and they work just as good as a brand spanking new one.. I refuse to upgrade to Windows 10, I still use 7.

I am typing on an ipad that I won. My laptop is a mac too its about 3 years old.
I have no idea what windows is up to now although I use one at school. But Im better doing stuff on a mac than windows, which frustrates me sometimes as windows has all this junk you dont need or use. But then I dont use half the stuff mac has either.

I dont buy itunes or use ibooks. Its mostly for internet, email and cataloguing. I dont particularly like using word when I can do stuff on google drive. I dont play games on them. I find after a while all video games are mind numbingly boring.

*Lynx adjusts his nerd glasses and prepares to effuse about the computers in his life...

Eh, skip it. She can't see what I say anyway. It's a shame though. This is one of my favorite topics.

*Lynx goes off to curl up on his perch and take a cat nap.

when first got internet in 1996 it was a brand new thing and we had dial up, my sister had a desktop computer for the whole family. Our very first computer though was more of a toy called the PRE computer 1000.

it ran on a battery, though you could plug it in could teach touch typing and made cool noises. The screen was like one of those dymo machine printers..LED or a what you might find on a calculator. You could do basic programming, play hangman, or answer trivia questions.

After we somewhat upgraded to a proper desktop computer (that weighed a tonne and had a fan that made whirring noises, it also had 'floppy disk' and CD-ROM drive, ran on windows with a turquoise desktop background and the browser was netscape navigator. I remember I was on it a lot as I had joined a GWTW movie e-group which is like a shared email online group and was now emailing fans from all over the world. I would go on my then favourite tv shows websites like The Simpsons and Friends, read the scripts because I liked reading all the jokes and look at Garfield comics online (not the same as reading them in the paper and cutting them out though!) There was no google...there were tonnes of different search engines and you had to pick through all of them, to find stuff. I was also into catwoman comics so when I found there were fansites online I would look them up.

Back then it wasnt really a commerical thing cos we didnt have money or credit cards to shop or spend anything. Then ebay and amazon came along and if you really wanted something that was overseas that you couldnt find in the shops in your own country you could get it. lol looking back on my early computer use I was pretty much a geek fan girl, althoug I also used computers for boring stuff like writing essays for university, when they no longer accepted hand written submissions. and writing CVS. And then ....job hunting. what a chore!

I do remember the days before wikipedia....we had real bookcases of encyclopedia britannica that I would read without getting much out of it because it was all A to Z without any context lol You could never reference anything that was popular it had to be ancient history before it made it into Britannica (and approved by a panel of Oxbridge professors)
and then there was something called Encarta that came with all computers that nobody used except for the clip art. There was no you tube but you could watch quicktime videos for a couple of minutes or live stream ones that were always 'buffering' but mostly people still rented videos back then that you had to rewind before sending them back to the video store. after videos got made redundant there was a sudden craze to get everything on dvd.

But the problem with dvds and still is they were regional and wouldnt play in certain countries so too bad if your player was not compatible. it was like videos that were NTSC and not PAL.

so that is a short history of computers in my life by Lanolin.

There are ways and ways around regional DVD codes. Keep a few spare USB DVD drives on hand, make .iso files of the disks and load them in emulators...

But now it's irrelevant because very few people use DVDs these days.

news today, the ministry of education had sent $67 million dollars worth of modems to students who didnt need them as they already had wifi in their homes.

someone is making a buck of flogging all this useless technology. They would have much better off spending the money on books.

Luddite-dont have a pc 😊

he obviously hasn't seen my basement over flowing with almost complete collections of "Bob the builder" and "Veggie Tails" and and and.............


want a good laugh.....
my kids are begging for the VCR to be dusted off and plugged in (too many good old shows that we only have on VHS)

good, they want something you already have!

Repaired my first computer in 1961. Wrote my first computer program in 1969. Built my first PC in 1979. Sent my first email in 1983. Created my first computer virus in 1984.

HP laptop, about 5 years old.

Even wifi is outmodem... er, outmoded. Who has home wifi any more? Phones provide hotspot anywhere.

computers...a slippery slope toward evil....?

What I would love is a bank error in my favour just a few extra zeros would do. Come on computer...
Rememeber Y2K. That was so funny.

The last issues I had was when my date due stamp only went up to 2019 but that just meant I had to buy a new one, wheras with computers they were going to go back to 1900 on the year 2000 as it was believed they could not handle the 21st century. People were stocking up on bottled water and everything. It was a bit mad. But in the end nothing happened.

I am trying to turn this smart tv I have in the library into an aquarium for fish. so far nothing is happening....

I was reading Roald dahl to the children in the library (this class love Roald Dahl) and he has a few words to say about tv, as he wrote about the dangers to children way back in 1964! The children suggested I get rid of the tv, sell it and buy books for the library with the money.

so...does anyone want to buy a 'smart' tv?

Put it in a reading room, and play eBooks on it. Children will love it, and you can control what they are reading.