# I am a computer geek in this forum.



## arcticsid (Nov 24, 2009)

I am not going to win the "geek of the year" award. But, I have a little bit of a handle on these computers.

If any of our members has a computer related problem and I can help, I will sure try.

I have been messing with these computers since the early eighties when the Radio Shack Color Computer was the "rage", followed by the Apple 2, etc.

Please keep these computer related questions out of the wine forum and email me direct at [email protected]

I will sure help if I can. I just saved my buddy a whole lot of money for a simple question that the "professional geeks" were going to charge him $90/hr for. I want nothing in return, I don't charge my friends for favors!!


I am not guranteeing answers, but it would be a pleasure to help you if I can.

Troy


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## St Allie (Nov 24, 2009)

That is so nice of you to share your expertise Troy,

Your input is much appreciated and I'm sure people here will avail themselves of your very generous offer.

Allie


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## Leanne (Nov 24, 2009)

Mine has a bad user problem. Can that be helped?


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## Runningwolf (Nov 24, 2009)

Thanks TRoy, You're awesome! My first computer was a vic 20 that used a casset player for storage.


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 24, 2009)

Leanne said:


> Mine has a bad user problem. Can that be helped?


Leanne, it's called an FIO error. The problem usually corrects itself, the more the computer is used. 
My first home "computer" was an Atari 400. I think a few of us are dating ourselves here. Before that, I was maintaining JCL on an IBM 360/85 that wouldn't fit in your garage, and Bill Gates was 14 years old!


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## arcticsid (Nov 24, 2009)

*Hey! I said not here!*

I remeber them days too! My computer will run the space shuttle, and back then..geez Louise!

I absolutely dont want to start a computer thread in here without the EXPLICIT permission of Wade.

However, obviously we all use a comp to communicate wtith each other, it might be relevant. As much as I want to "speak" computer with you all I wont go any further without Wades permission.

I offered my expertise, as Allie puts it. But, lets be careful we keeep this forum in perspective.

Leanne, be careful for those bad users, we will be there in the morning to kick there behinds.

I hardley EVER let anyone on my computer!! I will give anyone worthy the shirt off my back, but to share my computer just aint gonna happen!! Period!

The Eskimos find a great pleasure to share their women with their visitors, so I heard: I am not an Eskimo, and this is MY computer.!! Get your own!!!!

And don't be looking at my cats that way, find your own mice exterminating ways!!!!!!!!!!!


Troy


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## smurfe (Nov 24, 2009)

Says the guy that couldn't shut his email replies off....  

Just kidding Troy, thanks for the offer to help others out here.


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## St Allie (Nov 24, 2009)

heheheh

Don't start anything you can't finish Troy..
grins


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## arcticsid (Nov 24, 2009)

I mean no offense to our brother Steve or any one on this forum. We have said before sometimes script can be misinterpreted. I hope Steve takes no offense to any of this G!

You may be surprised how far I will go to help someone, because I couldn't figure out about the email notifications means nothing! Guess what, there still there! 

I'm just doing the best I can to be a contributing member on this forum!

Troy


Let Taz and the banana figure it out! LMAO


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## upper (Nov 24, 2009)

Shorter days to come Sid,hang in there.Im trying to get the notification deal off also.I am a hunter-gatherer, ask me anything...Upper


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 25, 2009)

arcticsid said:


> Hey! I said not here!
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ...


Well...this IS a forum called General Chit-Chat...and it IS on a computer...sounds relevant to me.  Besides, I didn't see anyone asking a computer question. Other than Leanne that is, and her problem was either sociological, or physiological.


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 25, 2009)

*Email notifications*

Okay..go to your "User CP" on the brown task bar on the top of each page. Look down the left side and find Edit Options. When this page opens, do down a bit and you see something that looks like this:







In the Default Thread Subscription Mode section, click on the drop down menu button. In that drop down menu on the right side, pick "no notifications", or what ever option you want.
Hope this helps.


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

Got Paul McCartney(Sir Paul) , if you will, playing as I try to sort this out. Pretty funny to see Taz and the Banana Dancing to "Let Em In". , only on the internet I guess.(smile).


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

PS, OP, Leanne is my Pal, she has nothing to do with this! Thanks for showing me how to correct this,Wade told me to look on the right. I told you I was half Polish, my qualifications were lined out from the begining.LOL


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 25, 2009)

arcticsid said:


> PS, OP, Leanne is my Pal, she has nothing to do with this! Thanks for showing me how to correct this,Wade told me to look on the right. I told you I was half Polish, my qualifications were lined out from the begining.LOL


You're welcome. 
I can't seem to win (not talking about here). Half the people I try to talk through computer problems claim I'm talking over their heads, and the other half say I'm talking down to them.
I've come to the point where I either don't offer help, or I do a psych profile on them before I open my mouth!


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

Bro OP, all I wanted to do was offer something to all of you that some may not know. Sometimes I wish I would be quiet myself. Thats what I get for sticking my neck out.

"Those who know do not speak, and often times those who speak do not know!"-An Old Philosopher.

Troy


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## mmadmikes1 (Nov 25, 2009)

Ok I need to know why i have to hit start to turn my computer off, just kidding I do hardware if anyone need help there, my newegg, geeks and Fry's accts are long but I keep up on the best prices for hardware and build 3 to 6 computers a year for kids up here who cant afford one. I too am willing to help when i can and I think first order is to get out the cork screw and teach everyone about the glass holder in there computers and discuss why trying to get your computer to taste test your wine is bad. The hard drive will get a DUI


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 25, 2009)

arcticsid said:


> Bro OP, all I wanted to do was offer something to all of you that some may not know. Sometimes I wish I would be quiet myself. Thats what I get for sticking my neck out.
> 
> "Those who know do not speak, and often times those who speak do not know!"-An Old Philosopher.
> 
> Troy


Man, you're too serious.  If'n we didn't love ya, we wouldn't pay any attention to ya. 
Your offer was well received, and appreciated...even if we did flip you some crap. Lighten up!


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 25, 2009)

mmadmikes1 said:


> Ok I need to know why i have to hit start to turn my computer off, just kidding I do hardware if anyone need help there, my newegg, geeks and Fry's accts are long but I keep up on the best prices for hardware and build 3 to 6 computers a year for kids up here who cant afford one. I too am willing to help when i can and I think first order is to get out the cork screw and teach everyone about the glass holder in there computers and discuss why trying to get your computer to taste test your wine is bad. The hard drive will get a DUI


Well, Mike, I now have a hardware problem. I slid my chair out and got my foot tangled in the keyboard cord. That succeeded in ripping the screws loose from my sliding keyboard shelf, which is now laying on the floor. If you're a hardware guy, maybe you can loan me a couple of wood screws? 
(This is no joke...stupid shelf fell off...but I doubt it's Mike's forte. )


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

God Bless You Mike!

I have three computers beneath my feet I want to build to give to someone who can't afford one!! All I need is the HD and the OS. I want nothing for them, I just want to share!

The comp I am running I got from the dumpster and I built it into what it is!

My only pupose of this thread was to share something besides homebrewing that I could GIVE to someone else. I have been blessed and wanted to share. My offer stands. It is obvious we all run a computer, and computer tech advice can be expensive. And as long as we are all in here amongst friends, I thought it would be a great idea to share what we know with everyone else in this forum.

I never intended to start this thread to be a competition amongst us. Hell I have most of a pilots license, and because of that I learned about engines and about mechanicin', but lets not get this to far out of perspective. I will tell you however, I flew an airplane before I ever drove a car. I doubt you will ever take my advice on making wine, but I can fly an airplane. It's only a coincidence, but the first time I ever landed an airplane was in East Troy Wisconsin(Alpine Valley), last place Stevie Ray Vaughn ever played, on the way there my instructor fell asleep. You should have seen the look on his face when I bounced that airplane about 20 feet above the ground! LOL

(RIP SRV)

I only wanted to share my computer knowledge with those amongst us who may not be able to afford the knowledge they need to keep there comps running.

Don't get me wrong, I spent almost $900 on a course to teach me about Windows XP, I got an A, but, please dont ask me about networking!!LOL I thought thats what wwe were doing in here.

TROY


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

I love the dancing TAZ and the dancing Banana. Absolutely cracks me up. LOL.


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## mmadmikes1 (Nov 25, 2009)

How long of a screw do you need  LOLOLOLOLOLL Old would indicate short, BTW I am a carpenter by trade I have all kindas of wood screws


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## mmadmikes1 (Nov 25, 2009)

i am not trying to compete either I just wanted to add I am will also. I have a student copy of XP 64 that is legal to load on several machine but XP 64 is a pain in *** to getting working correct but when you do it is sweet.I can burn an ISO and send serial if you like. I cant give out beta copies of MS because I have a sweet deal with MS doing beta test and dont want to mess it up. I have alot of Pirate copies of XP but I dont put those on machines going out because they will be back with Windows isn't Genuine nag


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

My buddy just brought me his HP laptop and it was froze up, couldn't even get in through safe mode. He got impatient and he could have got the recovery disk from HP for like 20 skins, instead he took it to the geek shop, now its gonna cost him a few hundred.

I could have hooked him up, I want to feel bad, but it wasn't my impatience that costed him the money!

Now, when he has it reloaded with windows at least I can show him how to keep it organized and show him how to back it up.

I guess making our own wine isn't the only way welearn things the hard way!

Troy

(these dancing emoticons really crack me the flip up!)


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

Sorry Mike, I have built a couple houses and additions, but nobody is gonna get screws in here if they first don't learn how to pound a nail! (Oh God, there I go!!!) LMFAO now, better make these sort of jokes now before Allie catches us! Now I am really LMAO hiding under the couch with my cats.
Troy


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## Runningwolf (Nov 25, 2009)

You guys crack me up. Its like reading the newspaper than getting to the comics at the end. AWESOME!!


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

I appologize fellas, ladies. I have been known to get a little out of hand. As Mike said sometimes I am afraid of getting a DUI with the hard drive. LOL

Been a rough couple months, didn't mean to take it out on you all. I didn't come in here tonight to harass all yall. Always good to share your company.

Troy


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## arcticsid (Nov 25, 2009)

Watch it Wolf, you could be next, don't even get me going on the way they have treated the wolves here! I may never stop!LOL

Troy


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## Runningwolf (Nov 25, 2009)

LMAO..so are you saying they are killing off too many or are the wolves a nuisance and they are protecting them. In the lower 48 the are a menace to the farmers. Around here the coyote's are an issue.


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## smurfe (Nov 26, 2009)

Hey Troy, no foul.  Just a fun poke in the ribs and you are correct. Anyone would be a fool to live in a swamp. I can't stress enough, first chance I get I am heading back north to God's Country. While the food is absolutely fantastic around here and would be the only thing I would miss, I can cook pretty good myself.


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## mmadmikes1 (Nov 27, 2009)

I lived in Pitkin, Louisiana and Fairbanks, Alaska I think you may be crazy smurfe but it might not have anything to do with where you live but Fairbank is F&#$ing cold and you have to be crazy to live there. And when its not cold the dam sun doesn't go away


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 27, 2009)

I am too old and tired to help much, but I, like many, have many years experience working with and on these darned contraptions. My first modem was a 300 baud per second model. Can anyone beat that?
Cheers...


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 27, 2009)

Bill said:


> I am too old and tired to help much, but I, like many, have many years experience working with and on these darned contraptions. My first modem was a 300 baud per second model. Can anyone beat that?
> Cheers...


No, but I'll match you a 300 bps external modem, and raise you an external floppy drive for 5 1/4" disks that held a whopping 1 Kb of storage, and cost $400.... :<


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## smurfe (Nov 27, 2009)

mmadmikes1 said:


> I lived in Pitkin, Louisiana and Fairbanks, Alaska I think you may be crazy smurfe but it might not have anything to do with where you live but Fairbank is F&#$ing cold and you have to be crazy to live there. And when its not cold the dam sun doesn't go away



Oh I ain't going to Alaska. I want to get back to where there are 4 seasons though. I am from Illinois originally. Don't know if I want to go back there or not. I have always been very partial to New England. Particularly Vermont and New Hampshire.


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## smurfe (Nov 27, 2009)

Bill said:


> I am too old and tired to help much, but I, like many, have many years experience working with and on these darned contraptions. My first modem was a 300 baud per second model. Can anyone beat that?
> Cheers...



I am not sure. I had a computer before the 300 baud modem. I am trying to remember what it was. I got it at Radio Shack. It was a keyboard you hooked up to your TV and had cables that hooked to a cassette recorder. It had cassette tapes for the processor. You had to type in Basic language to use the thing. My first PC was a Packard Bell 286 Processor with the 300 baud dial up. Back in those days you didn't have the Internet available, you had local Bulletin Boards you dialed in to. I had Windows 3.0 but most everything was in DOS. I have been on the Internet since the day AOL came on line.


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 27, 2009)

smurfe said:


> ...My first PC was a Packard Bell 286 Processor with the 300 baud dial up. Back in those days you didn't have the Internet available, you had local Bulletin Boards you dialed in to. I had Windows 3.0 but most everything was in DOS. I have been on the Internet since the day AOL came on line.


When I went "on-line" in the early 80's, I was on an Atari 400. There was no decent terminal emulation software, so a fellow and I collaborated and upgraded the code from TinyTerm to what we called NewTerm. My first experience with an on-line service was Prodigy...until I got my first bill! :<
When I got my first IBM PC in '88, I started running my own BBS, still under DOS.
I resisted going to Windows until Win 3.11 came out. Hated it! I gave up and went to Win95 about 6-8 months after it came out.
I still miss DOS! I have a recipe program that runs in DOS, and on a new machine, it can search 60,000 recipes in about .2 seconds (point-2)!
I still curse Windows, but I don't feel like learning a new OS.


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## cpfan (Nov 27, 2009)

This thread is full of memories for me. I learned computers on a 360/75 at University. First paying job was on a 360/30. JCL, PLI, COBOL, RPG. All sorts of acronyms.

First computer I bought was an Atari 800XL. My Dad had a home computer before me but I can't remember what it was. 300baud, BBSes, Compuserve.

Not sure that they are all GOOD memories, but memories none the less.

When I had the store (closed Sept 2007), I used a DOS script to back up certain files nightly to a thumb drive to take home for backup. What a combination of old and new.

Steve


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## Runningwolf (Nov 27, 2009)

smurfe said:


> I am not sure. I had a computer before the 300 baud modem. I am trying to remember what it was. I got it at Radio Shack. It was a keyboard you hooked up to your TV and had cables that hooked to a cassette recorder. It had cassette tapes for the processor. You had to type in Basic language to use the thing. My first PC was a Packard Bell 286 Processor with the 300 baud dial up. Back in those days you didn't have the Internet available, you had local Bulletin Boards you dialed in to. I had Windows 3.0 but most everything was in DOS. I have been on the Internet since the day AOL came on line.



Smurf, I had one like that. It was called a vic 20. Than they upgraded to an awesome computer called the commodore 64.


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 27, 2009)

Old Philosopher said:


> No, but I'll match you a 300 bps external modem, and raise you an external floppy drive for 5 1/4" disks that held a whopping 1 Kb of storage, and cost $400.... :<



Oh yeah... two 5-1/4" floppies and no hard drive... remember the 8" floppies? And it really wasn't that long ago...


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 27, 2009)

Bill said:


> Oh yeah... two 5-1/4" floppies and no hard drive... remember the 8" floppies? And it really wasn't that long ago...



Remember machine language? We had to write programs back then... very few good ones available.


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## Wade E (Nov 27, 2009)

OK, you people are to old!


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 27, 2009)

Remember THESE days?


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## Wade E (Nov 27, 2009)

ummm, Nope!


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## Runningwolf (Nov 27, 2009)

Yup, I remember walking into the backroom at G E Credit Union and seeing exactly the same thing.


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## Runningwolf (Nov 27, 2009)

My First commputer.

Commodore VIC-20 
Introduced: June 1980 
Released: January 1981 
Price: US $299 
CPU: MOS 6502, 1MHz 
RAM: 5K (3.5K for the user) 
Display: 22 X 23 text 
176 X 184, 16 colors max 
Ports: composite video 
joystick, cartridge, user port 
serial peripheral port 
Peripherals: cassette recorder 
printer, modem 
external floppy drive 
OS: ROM BASIC


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## Leanne (Nov 27, 2009)

smurfe said:


> Oh I ain't going to Alaska. I want to get back to where there are 4 seasons though. I am from Illinois originally. Don't know if I want to go back there or not. I have always been very partial to New England. Particularly Vermont and New Hampshire.



Try England. Lol!!!


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 27, 2009)

Hosted a bulletin board myself... DOS... now that was fun!
Remember gopher? lynx?


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 27, 2009)

Hilbilly Bill said:


> Hosted a bulletin board myself... DOS... now that was fun!
> Remember gopher? lynx?



Now, instead of 'nyms, we have nicknames, screen names, and avatars.


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 27, 2009)

O.P.,
What do you think these young bucks would think about out old computers with absolutely no graphics?


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## Old Philosopher (Nov 27, 2009)

Hilbilly Bill said:


> O.P.,
> What do you think these young bucks would think about out old computers with absolutely no graphics?



Maybe we'd get back to using computers for what they were intended, instead of entertainment centers.


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 28, 2009)

For research? For learning? Wow... there's a concept.
Do you remember when we had to connect to the library database at the University of Minnesota to do research? I think there was a database at one of the St. Louis Universities also. Wow... it was tough... you can find anything now.


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## arcticsid (Nov 28, 2009)

The first comp I was ever around was the Radio Shack Color Computer. My Dad was so proud of himself, he was on his way to becoming a geek before he passed on. But I remeber that computer, I think it was like in 83 maybe 84, It was quite a bit of skins, like $600, lot of money for a comp back then, give me that kind of money now for a computer and we could fly to the moon and back.!! It had the cassestte drive and then came the Vic 20 and then the apple IIe and the rest is history. Unbelievable!!

Wade might be right, we may be getting older, but, we are becoming wise as we progress.




And like hillbilly just said, it really wasn't that long ago.

I encourage everyone to take care of the comps we have, keep em updated keep em clean. Keep em organized.

Mechanical failures happen, but if you let em run out of "oil" and they break, well.......

Troy


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## Hillbilly Bill (Nov 28, 2009)

*Moving north...*



smurfe said:


> Oh I ain't going to Alaska. I want to get back to where there are 4 seasons though. I am from Illinois originally. Don't know if I want to go back there or not. I have always been very partial to New England. Particularly Vermont and New Hampshire.



Hey Smurfe... been to Gonzales... I like the Sportsman's Paradise... in fact, as soon as they kill all of the mosquitos I am moving down there. Drop off about 10# of crawfish on my porch as you make your way north.
Wow... crawfish, gator tail, Cajun gals, redfish, catfish... wow!
HB


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