"Carl's Lounge" (Off-Topic Discussion, Traditional Knife "Tales & Vignettes")

Old Engineer said:
We waited to get our family a computer until they came out with a really good one that had some speed to it . It was a Commodore 64 .
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Jack Black said:
Now you're talking Harry! :D :thumbsup:
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Indeed! That was a really fun era for personal computers with the TI-99/4A, Atari 400 and 800, Apple II, Tandy Color Computer and probably a few others. I have fond memories of going over to friends' houses and typing in programs from Byte magazine. Sometimes we even typed them correctly and they worked! :D
 
Old Engineer said:
We waited to get our family a computer until they came out with a really good one that had some speed to it . It was a Commodore 64 .

Harry
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WhittlinAway said:
Indeed! That was a really fun era for personal computers with the TI-99/4A, Atari 400 and 800, Apple II, Tandy Color Computer and probably a few others. I have fond memories of going over to friends' houses and typing in programs from Byte magazine. Sometimes we even typed them correctly and they worked! :D
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You guys have me feeling rather nostalgic! ;) Back in the early 1980s, I taught programming classes to middle school and high school kids using Commodore 64s and TRS-80s with cassette tape storage (as well as with accounts on PDP-11s). The first computer I bought, in 1983, was a "use-your-TV-as-monitor" Radio Shack Color Computer for which I paid extra to get 16K of RAM (I had to go buy a second-hand Sony Trinitron to appreciate the computer's full color capabilities, since my only TV at the time was some no-name 11" B&W :eek:). I remember lusting after some of the Tom Mix Software games advertised in Color Computer magazines. I lived in Lafayette IN at the time, but had friends I'd often visit in Grand Rapids MI, the location of Tom Mix. So I went looking for it on one visit, and it was just a guy selling tapes from his kitchen table! But I picked up a TOTALLY satisfying version of "Donkey Kong" that saved me pounds of quarters I'd have stuck into the corresponding arcade game at the time! :D:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Then I saw "the commercial" during the 1984 Super Bowl, and I wasn't exactly sure what I was seeing, but it sure captured my attention. When my department put a Macintosh in our departmental computer room for everyone to try out in early 1985, I was totally hooked on WYSIWYG word processing, and soon bought a 512K "Fat Mac" of my own (with MacWrite and MacPaint and so on). I've been a Mac Guy ever since. I've never used a PC, I don't do Windows, and I'm grateful every day! :D

- GT
 
Most everyone has had "computer problems". I've had my share too however one thing I notice is that a lot of people after having a problem start posting in both computer and non-computer forums to the effect "it" (the computer) is not working properly and therefore it is a problem created by the seller of the computer, the operating system, the latest update or the internet service provider, followed by rants and threats that they will never purchase a computer from company A, or a computer with X operating system or will cancel service from the internet service provider. I configured and maintain four computers and a music distribution system and the network supporting it in my home and take care of the network system in my office which includes six computers, two printers/fax/copy machines and a telephone system. I'm not a computer expert nor is that my business but I do it because I must either pay an IT person to handle it, which is expensive or do it myself. I'm self taught from the school of hard knocks when it comes to dealing with computers and networks. I am asked to deal with friends's and relatives systems when they have a problem. Most problems can be resolved with a little knowledge and research and a lot of experience but unfortunately a lot of folks would just rather rant about it rather than taking the time to figure out the issue and fix it or ask for some assistance from someone who knows what they are doing. It's a lot easier and feels better to say damn Microsoft, Dell, AT&T, etc. and post away, but unfortunately that rarely leads to productive results and just leads to high blood pressure. A substantial portion of the problems are related to user errors or ignorance but pointing that out makes people mad. I'll leave it at that and let everyone carry on.
 
First computer I ever had my hands on was a DEC PDP-8e that used real teletype terminals with the rolls of yellow paper, and if you wanted to save your program, you had the computer "type" the program to punched paper tape attached to the terminal. There was no storage. To load it back in, you fed the tape through and it actually typed it back in for you, like a player piano. This would have been maybe 1970 or so, I was in Jr high school and it was used for teaching. We learned original, line-numbered BASIC on that thing.

I remember the acoustic couplers from my college days in the mid-late 70s. We used those in the computer labs to connect to the main system there on the campus. 110 baud.

My first actual computer I owned was a Zenith Z100, which was an IBM PC/XT clone. Early 80s. I splurged for a model with an internal hard drive. 20 MB I think. Monochrome display. I bought Windows 1.0 for it, but it was more for amusement since you still needed regular DOS to get any work done. Windows wasn't really worth anything until Windows 3.1 came out in the early 90s, and the main value of it then was to be able to run multiple DOS programs at the same time, because the good programs were all DOS based (Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, dBase) and what you really wanted was to be able to switch between them without having to save your work, exit to DOS, and start the next program. Windows 3.1 let you do that, but it competed with a number of other programs that did the same thing, all in regular character mode.

Good old days indeed. TCP/IP was just one of many competing network protocols, and not even the most common. No Internet - you paid by the minute to dial into CompuServe or GEnie on a 1200 baud modem. They charged more for 9600.
 
jeez and i feel old when kids go what is a floppy disk?!

on a side note, does any one know if the collectors knives coupons are transferable, i dont have anything i want to buy and id hate for it to go to waste
 
Vinifera said:
Most problems can be resolved with a little knowledge and research and a lot of experience but unfortunately a lot of folks would just rather rant about it rather than taking the time to figure out the issue and fix it or ask for some assistance from someone who knows what they are doing.
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But you see, that's just it! I don't have knowledge or experience. I don't want to tinker with the thing, I just want to do my work. (also, I kinda like ranting ;))

ps. I drive a car with an automatic transmission because it takes all my attention to navigate traffic without dealing with what gear I'm in. I just want to go somewhere. I wouldn't appreciate it if my car periodically "updated" to a more "secure and user-friendly interface" which involved changing the location of the gas and brake pedals and required a re-installation of the windshield wipers. :D
 
mrknife said:
jeez and i feel old when kids go what is a floppy disk?!

on a side note, does any one know if the collectors knives coupons are transferable, i dont have anything i want to buy and id hate for it to go to waste
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They sent out a couple emails today you should have received if you're on the notification system I guess. One was about the migration and also touched on rewards and then one on the rewards.
 
r8shell said:
But you see, that's just it! I don't have knowledge or experience. I don't want to tinker with the thing, I just want to do my work. (also, I kinda like ranting ;))

ps. I drive a car with an automatic transmission because it takes all my attention to navigate traffic without dealing with what gear I'm in. I just want to go somewhere. I wouldn't appreciate it if my car periodically "updated" to a more "secure and user-friendly interface" which involved changing the location of the gas and brake pedals and required a re-installation of the windshield wipers. :D
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I can appreciate not wanting to tinker with things but if it doesn't work you either employ someone to fix it or figure out how to do it yourself. ;)

Keeping with same vein, if your car with the convenient automatic transmission malfunctions you either employ someone to fix it or figure out how to do it yourself, or perhaps purchase a new one.

I must admit, ranting is fun and sometimes therapeutic.
 
Grump01 said:
They sent out a couple emails today you should have received if you're on the notification system I guess. One was about the migration and also touched on rewards and then one on the rewards.
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i did, i was wondering if i can give that $10 off to some one else because id hate to buy a knife i dont really want and spend $60 to save ten and then waste time moving that knife
 
mrknife said:
i did, i was wondering if i can give that $10 off to some one else because id hate to buy a knife i dont really want and spend $60 to save ten and then waste time moving that knife
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If your points have already been put to a coupon probably best to talk to CK about that. Otherwise there's a way to convert points to store credit that can be put on your new account after it is set up on the new system.
 
Slide rules! We had to use those in my high school Physics and Chemistry classes. My Dad had an old one (he was a chemical engineer in his youth) that was just beautiful, that I used in those classes. Such an elegant instrument.
 
Le Tour started last saturday (from Germany!) and will last 3 full weeks. I'm less fond of bike races today (though the dark years seem to be far now) but it's always a fantastic opportunity to see thr country from the sky. (across Burgundy today) :)

peloton.jpg
 
knarfeng said:
My win 7 system works quite nicely, thank you very much. stable as a table.
Win 10? Nothing but crashes and a user interface that belongs on a phone.

And I likewise take care of a small intranet system.
not bad for an old IBM 360 model 40 mainframe operator who grew up using a slide rule.
https://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP2040.html
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lucky! everytime mac suggest i update my os, a little more of my macbook pro dies. ive now lost the trackpad, the cd/dvd drive, some of the keys on the keyboard dont work. it all went to pot after mountain lion. the only thing positive is, this mac has only really needed to be reimaged about 3-4 times compared to my hp laptop which the screen died one day and the only answer they had was it was a BIOS issue.
 
mrknife said:
lucky! everytime mac suggest i update my os, a little more of my macbook pro dies. ive now lost the trackpad, the cd/dvd drive, some of the keys on the keyboard dont work. it all went to pot after mountain lion. the only thing positive is, this mac has only really needed to be reimaged about 3-4 times compared to my hp laptop which the screen died one day and the only answer they had was it was a BIOS issue.
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My iMac crashed a couple years ago when I was required to upgrade my OS. I don't know anything about reimaging, but a guy that looked at it said I needed a new screen installed. I didn't want to spend close to $400 to fix it. I still have the machine in the hopes of fixing it, but that seems to be more and more unlikely these days.
 
jc57 said:
Slide rules! We had to use those in my high school Physics and Chemistry classes. My Dad had an old one (he was a chemical engineer in his youth) that was just beautiful, that I used in those classes. Such an elegant instrument.
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Used one every day until calculators came out . They are pretty slick . They could not add or subtract , but that is what they did .

Harry
 
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