[Adama]

Yeah, almost catching up with you, RG. :)

[Adama]

Coastie and RGreen:

Yeah, I noticed that too. A couple of days I was at 3939, and I made a few posts and it went down to 3936....

That was an annoying, recurring thing, that also happened a lot last year when Kellie was here. I used to PM her about it, but I don't know if anyone ever did anything about it.

I also think that the post count should match the count shown when you click on Your Profile. They. Are. Vastly. Different.

X-(

[coastie65]

Yeah, that's because one is a post count and the other is the point count so they would be different.

[coastie65]

Whoops. My brain went numb.

[coastie65]

OK. This has already been a long day. :D My brother showed up at around 8:45 this morning with my Mother's "NEW" not so new lap top. It is an IBM "Thinkpad" circa 1999 as the COA is for the second edition of Win 98. The guy reformatted the HDD (20 Gb) and installed XP SP3 on it. It has a P 3 @ 877 Mhz. I haven't checked the memory as yet, but seems to pretty well all things considered. I checked to se well it would stream video and didn't expect much, but got a little more than I did expect as it did pretty well. He had included a pretty good D-Link external wireless card as well. No problem on setting up the wireless connection and the intial Verizon online package. The MSN Premium gave me a bit of trouble, but finally got that installed and working. Now I guess the real aggravation starts. :D this is actually the first lap top of any kind that I have fooled with and I was pretty close to getting out my other mouse and use it instead of what is onboard. I found that to be extremely awkward. The track ball on that thing is just a little teeny red thing in between the keys. I even set up a short cut for her beloved QVC in favorites and showed how to use it, so the wouldn't have to type in the address. She also got two extra fully charged batteries and the guy called and said he had found a case for it as well. She paid $150 for it and the guy said if she was unhappy with it after using it, he would gladly give her her money back. It should be alright for what little she will do with it. coastie

[Adama]

Awww Coastie, your mother got a laptop? That's great! I know she's going to like it, it'll just take a little while for her to get to used to it and get it all together.

Who knows... maybe in a couple of months she'll be wanting to upgrade to a more modern one. Then she'll really have fun with a new one! :D

[coastie65]

In a couple of months she may need to upgrade to a new son.

[Adama]

LOL :0 :D

[rgreen4]

The teeny red thing between the keys is a track point. IBM has used it almost from the beginning of the Thinkpad line and Compaq's business line has used it as long. Actually once you get used to them, they work pretty well. I had a company Thinkpad for several years and could work that as well as using a mouse. In tight areas, it actually works better. I prefer it to the touch pad any time. On my current laptop that has the touchpad, it's turned off, and I use a Logitech Nano mouse. The transmitter only sticks out 1/4" from the side of the laptop.

[coastie65]

I found that thing to somewhat irritating. I guess you can call me a spoiled mouser. :D That thing is older than Methusula, but it will get her online and in her email and such and that was all she wanted. As I said, I checked the COA and it originally had Win 98 Second Edition. The friend of my Brother who rehabbed the thing installed XP Home w/SP3. It seems to do well, but a bit slow compared to this thing. :D I may change out the security stuff at some point as he installed AVG 8.0. It has a P3 877 Mhz in it and a 20 Gb Hdd. I don't think she'll be storing much of, if anything anyway. Wasn't any manuel either, so I had to feel my way through that thing to some degree. Sure was nice to get back to my comfy Desk Top after setting up the wireless connection and internet stuff.

[rgreen4]

Try using a mouse on an airplane, and you would appreciate the trackpoint. Does it even have a USB port? The HD may be difficult to upgrade, not because of the connection or the HD, as it will be IDE, but from my recollection of a Thinkpad, was that it had a solid bottom. Granted the last time I worked with a Thinkpad was a few years before your Mom's was built. At that time I think you had to remove the keyboard to get to the HD (and everything else).

[coastie65]

:D As much time as I spend on this thing, if I travel, I ain't taking a computer. :D Yeah, It has a USB port (1) plus ethernet and modem, VGA port. a Parallel port ( I guess for a printer). The 20 Gb will be enough, as she will just be surfing and doing email. Any pictures will be sent from this one and stored on this one. I have no intention of going into that thing anyway. At least I have an installation disk for XP Home SP3 ( she didn't get any disks) if I need to do a repair. Yeah I also have XP MCE 2005 as well. forgot to get XP Pro :D . I used to be a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Explorer and I remember the Motto, "Be Prepared". Then I joined the Coast Guard whose motto was Semper Paratus ( Always Ready). I think it may be Always Prepared, but they told us Ready, so ready it was. I never took Latin, it's a dead Language anyway, unless you are a lawyer.

[coastie65]

I ran Belarc on that Lap Top. It has a 128 Mb stick and a 256 Mb stick installed for 384 Mb of ram. I decided to run it on mine. :p I showed 1.63 out of 10 for the bench mark. Guess I might work on it some in my usual procrastinating way. coastie

[snorg]

2 weeks ago the steering failed on my car and i crashed in the ditch and wrecked my back. Im driving my ranger pick up now. When back was good enuff i got firewood.

I got more that a cord of firewood out of the bush, now i got sore back and sore front. I have havta throw the wood out of trailer into wood shed and stack it up.

[coastie65]

Hey snorg, Sorry to hear that as I know you had problems with it and I believe your legs as well last year shoveling snow. I had a power steering unit go out on me one time, but with better results fortunately. My back as been through the wringer several times and is now shot. I won't let them operate as I know of several who did and ended up in worse shape than they were before the operation. I also know a cord of wood doesn't go far up there in the winter. coastie

[mjd420nova]

Snorg: Ouch, tossing all that firewood is really tough on the back for sure. I use a Lopi insert in my fireplace and get my firewood in the spring. I usually get two cords delivered but they just dump it on the driveway and I have to get it into my racks at the back of the house. Using a wheel barrow helps but getting the last part is a lot of bending. Stacking is easy as I built three racks to hold them with tarps over the front to keep it dry. One and a half cords is usually enough but I'c hate to get caught low or without in a tough year. I heat 1700 square feet adn the insert makes that more efficient and meets the local city requirements for smoke and particulate emissions.

[snorg]

coastie65 said:

and I believe your legs as well last year shoveling snow.

I had a bad knee Coastie, i had to wait 5 years to get it fixed cuz the waiting list is so long, the last couple years i couldnt do nothing except sit in the Lazyboy, so i got way out of shape. Knee was fixed 18 months ago and im not back to good shape yet. Im not so sore today so should be able to put the wood in woodshed a couple days from now. I can get by winter with about 2 cords of wood.

The knee they fixed will only last a few years then the will havta replace the whole works.


When i was 14 i went thru a red lite on my motorbike and i hit a car at 30MPH, there was a big hole in my knee and it finnaly caught up with me when i was 45.


As for the car, it wasnt the pump, steering became disconnected, turn the steering wheel and nothing happens, U joint in steering coulomb let go.

[coastie65]

I knew it was somethihg leg related,just forgot the specifics. I kinda thought it was something that let go in the steering because with power steering pump failure you can still control the car, not as easy though. A lot of folks down here want the same kind of Heath care system they have in Canada. That motorbike thing sounds like something my brother would have done as he sure wrecked a lot of my bicycles ( he wouldn't use his with his stunts). My back sometimes tends to get in the way when I'm working in the yard, which I find annoying. Oh yeah, I guess you have your new rig in service now. Looked good on paper.

[snorg]

coastie65 said:

I guess you have your new rig in service now. Looked good on paper.

The new rig is stalled cuz i cant get the Vid card i want, Nvidia with VIVO is what i want. My tech guy got one used out of California, but i suspect its not a VIVO so i told him to build a test system so we can see if its really a VIVO or not. They make all kindsa Nvidia VIVO cards, but none of the dealers have enuff brains to sell them. I gotta get the ball rolling cuz the CPU i want is the last of its kind and wont be available much longer.

[coastie65]

I think I'd jump on that CPU while it is still available, as the Video Cards will be around. It took me awhile to chase down the Pentium D 945 I dropped in here. I had one and wrecked it, then they got scarce. Some turned up and I found a new one at a good price so bought it. The one I found was $98 USD $6 shipping. All the rest were $200 for the most part.