blue streak 1 Yes windows 8.1 sucks. Just got it when it went from 8.0 to 8.1 Bought another HP at the same time. As usual with any new OS trying to get older functions or even in the same place sucks. Reason I got rid of XP and Office 2002 is that Microsoft is dropping all support as of April 1st (?). My double geek son in law did recommend and was nice enough to load all data and preferences onto a thumb drive.
Yes windows 8.1 sucks. Just got it when it went from 8.0 to 8.1 Bought another HP at the same time. As usual with any new OS trying to get older functions or even in the same place sucks. Reason I got rid of XP and Office 2002 is that Microsoft is dropping all support as of April 1st (?). My double geek son in law did recommend and was nice enough to load all data and preferences onto a thumb drive.
I feel your pain. I had Win 98 and bought the full versions of Office 97 and Adobe Acrobat. Both were costly, and neither would work when I bought a computer with Vista.
Norm
Thanks Larry. I shall not mess with the 8 then. I appreciate all comments on said subject. {I direct that to everyone on here with some help}....
Ed....Boy, I certainly hope {when I get some measure of control here}, that I can set up my ext. hard dr. to automatically, save photos, etc....as you mentioned.
Love the speed of this thing, however, I'm no way being efficient with it yet. I almost can't get to where I want to go to do something yet. Surely, It will get better. I've really not tried to deal with videos...and other instructions on Wind. 8 yet, because I'd not know what they are talking about until I at least see what is on here I'm dealing with.
Quentin
Once you get past the hardware side of things, the speed of your computer (and even your Internet connection) is mostly a function of how much junk you've got on it.
Your computer uses the hard drive for some processing. If your drive is too full, the computer must work around that to do accomplish many tasks. If you've got less than 20% disk capacity left, it's time to do some housecleaning, whether it's weeding out old files or clearing the browser cache and temp files.
Slow start-up of browsers is oftimes a function of programs that fire up at the same time, many of which you may not want or need.
My first "real" computer, a Tandy 1000SX, booted nicely off 5.25" floppies. It was a real boon when I installed an aftermarket 40Mb hard drive. Nowadays, I've got apps on my tablet that are almost that big... And that would hold all of about 6 images from my DSLR...
Hopefully you've got a good anti-virus program installed. They've started detecting spyware, adware and the like (used to be it was mostly viruses that they looked for).
My current computer was set up for gaming before I got it, so it does pretty well. When I had to replace the video adapter I also had to replace the power supply, so I'm pretty well set there, too. And the video adapter supports two screens. That may seem geeky, but you'd be surprised how often I've got something running on both.
Remind me again how we ever got along without these things?
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Slide rules and Carol Burnett?
23 17 46 11
Also, logarithms, when you needed more accuracy than three sig figs--unless you had a two foot slide rule.
Johnny
Deggesty --unless you had a two foot slide rule.
--unless you had a two foot slide rule.
Now if I had a 2-foot slide rule, well, I'll just leave it at that.
I am also partaking in the shopping of a computer. Glad I only do this stuff once a decade or so - I hate computer shopping.
Debating going to a Mac this time around (I use both a Windows Vista and a Mac Mini regularly. Both old, and the PC is starting to get long in the tooth).
Once you get beyond the basic desktop, the prices go up fast.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
To all Midwesterners especially Carl & Tree. Possible that POLAR VORTEX is returning next Tuesday thru end of January Hope it isn't so.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2014/01/16/return-of-the-polar-vortex-cold-at-times-downright-frigid-for-end-of-january-increasing-snow-chances/
.
blue streak 1Possible that POLAR VORTEX is returning next Tuesday thru end of January
Saw that. Will be headed for Springfield next weekend, so while the cold isn't an issue for travel, I hope we don't see any significant snowfall.
Went to a meeting of our local antique fire apparatus "club" today - we may decide to take on hosting a muster of the national organization in a few years. It'll take that long to get it organized.
Toy Train show tomorrow in Utica - I'll be down there representing the railroad. At least they've got all of our motive power (dead for the winter) lined up next to the platform.
afternoon
busy day on csx. CSX,BNSF,NS,CP and Cefx power today. Saw a sperry truck going eastbound on the road while we were going home. Saw a trainmaster go from an eastbound coal train to q 500 to head back to Garrett. Have chores to catch up on.Mamma has some hot chocolate to warm us up.
stay safe
Joe
Deshler Ohio-crossroads of the B&O Matt eats your fries.YUM! Clinton st viaduct undefeated against too tall trucks!!!(voted to be called the "Clinton St. can opener").
zugmann mudchicken Back to dealing with the balky motel room door lock. I prefer to come and go as I please, not when the door decides it wants to. (*) never saw batteries on sawzalls/hackzalls fail like they did today in the cold - back to slow hacksaws. That's one way to get in a hotel room, I guess.
mudchicken Back to dealing with the balky motel room door lock. I prefer to come and go as I please, not when the door decides it wants to. (*) never saw batteries on sawzalls/hackzalls fail like they did today in the cold - back to slow hacksaws.
Back to dealing with the balky motel room door lock. I prefer to come and go as I please, not when the door decides it wants to.
(*) never saw batteries on sawzalls/hackzalls fail like they did today in the cold - back to slow hacksaws.
That's one way to get in a hotel room, I guess.
Springfield, Larry? That narrows it down to about 25 of the 50 states...Joe, glad to see that things are running on CSX again in your neighborhood.I haven't been out for train-watching much this week. Weather is less than desirable. I understand some sort of vortex is coming to visit us next week...I hope it doesn't mind the cold weather that's in our forecast.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
CShaveRRSpringfield, Larry? That narrows it down to about 25 of the 50 states...
Actually, West Springfield, Massachussetts. The Amherst Model Railroad Club show at the Eastern States Exposition. One of the biggest shows on the east coast, and possibly in the country. Four large buildings stuffed full of all things model railroad and just plain railroad. They get upwards of 25,000 attendees each year from all over the northeast.
One thing about this show is that it attracts not only dealers, but the manufacturers themselves. There are a fair number of layouts, some quite sizeable. Trains take about 15-20 minutes to make a lap of the host club's HO layout.
This is the fourth year I've worked this particular show. We're in the Better Living Center.
One vendor whose booth just amazes me sells etched brass structures. If you want to see something impressive, imagine an O Gauge high-tension power tower - very lacy... I got an N Scale fire lookout tower a couple of years ago - I haven't gotten around to building it yet. Same with the triangular radio towers.
I don't know if Trains makes it to this show - I've never found them in the past.
.....No {2} footer here, but do have a 12.5" one and a 6" slide rule here in the home office. {Gathering dust}....I used to have a tie clip "slide rule" about an inch and a half in length....Lost the slider part....It was clear plastic.
Years ago, at the Lab at BWA here in Muncie an engineer used a round one. Remember it being about 8" in dia.
.....Part of the set-up pkg. I had Staples do was install Norton by Symantec...one yr. for 20 dollars. Says it stops viruses...spam...and more. And of course renew after the one yr.
Q - I got rid of McAfee and went to Norton. Much better. I don't have to fight with Norton like I did McAfee.
She who has no signature! cinscocom-tmw
Csx is running. The maintainers are busy fixing the speed restrictions the sperry truck found. Need to get ready for church. Matt is off tomorrow for MLK day. He is planning his mischief for G+G house.
During one part of one of my USAF tech schools we had to do a lot of calculations. The class had three modes of doing the figuring - some used pencil and paper, some used slide rules, and a few had one of those new-fangled (at the time) calculators - which at the time did little more than add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
The pencil folks usually finished a problem first...
Took my winter driving skills test today. Well, it was that or spend the night somewhere. Snowing, blowing, pretty miserable. Got home OK, though. Saw a few folks off the road, and heard evidence of many others on the fire radio.
For those into die-cast models, I picked up a "1st Gear" Mack tractor-trailer lettered for the Adirondack Scenic. I have no idea how many were made, so I don't know if I scored anything significant. On-line they're going for upwards of $90, which is more than I paid.
Time to see what else is going on around the forum, and the web...
.....I raise my hand of being one of the "die-cast" auto model collectors. Hence, my forum name.
Have a pretty rare one of a 1957 Chevy Corvette fuel injection engine....One cylinder cut-away shows the valves and piston, etc., going up and down when the "engine" is turned over.
It's on a stand...{Franklin Mint}, and believe they might be a bit rare as I saw them advertised for just a short time....30, 40 years ago when I purchased it. Engine size is comparable to a clinched fist. Very detailed....Even to the lettering on the side of the "AC" oil filter...
A good photo of it was one lost on former computer's hard dr.
But, I still have the real unit....
evening
well crews got what mother nature blew around yesterday.guessers say an inch tonight then colder. Ns local was uptown gathering empty cars. Matt had fun at G+G house. Back to school for him tomorrow. Chores to do.
I have a memo for the Chatterbox Fire Crew: "small coal fire in BNSF yard".
Took fire dept about 20 min to find someone to let them in the yard and another 5 min to put out the "conflagration" as one firefighter said on the radio. Only details was it was a coal spill about 5 yards.
So what would have started the fire? And the coal came from? (I know - a match and a coal car)
I seem to be having trouble getting traction on any subject!
MookieSo what would have started the fire? And the coal came from?
I may have found the answer to both questions in one article....
http://daily.sightline.org/2012/04/11/coals-spontaneous-combustion-problem/
I knew that coal sometimes spontaneous combusts, but I didn't know about the PRB angle...
That doesn't necessarily rule out the match angle.
Quick - turn off the lights in the Chatterbox! If the rock throwers happen to read this they will start another 7,000 page dissertation on the volatility of hauling coal in gons!
I will look at coal trains with a lot more respect after this!
Would love to have the details on our fire, but no such thing will happen.
Remember when we visited, and were watching at your spot, and the coal train went by…and I had to put out the little fire at the diamond with the cans of water I had brought?
Coal and coal dust can catch on fire from a small spark, like a spark from a wheel on a diamond frog.
HE - I don't remember that! I know you went around the corner to see the diamond, but I lost slght of you and didn't realize what you did.
I probably had my mouth open collecting dust and didn't see what was going on?
Will try to pay closer attention hereafter. Put a little spark in my train watching!
....60 plus years ago, back in my home area of Pennsylvania...and with many "coal towns" in the county, coal burning on huge piles near the mines was rather common.
Big "boney" piles of rock, separated from what was dumped in the waiting rail cars at the tipple, was hauled up on such piles of {some coal / but mostly rock}, and some such piles grew very large. And they would catch fire underneath....and emit gaseous fumes. At night one could see the red glow around edges and back in underneath where it was burning.
Believe the gas was Sulfur....and different weather conditions would move the odor a mile or mile away from it....Terrible gaseous odor. Almost all of such piles have disappeared now in todays world of mining. At least in that area. The material was later used for building roads, and different things.
Q - I remember that! I wasn't sure they would ever get those fires put out. At that time, reading about it in school seemed like the end of the world! Pretty scary!
Before I put on my woolen hat for bed (-12 below wind chill after almost 50 today....)
Going to cheer for the Broncos in the Superbowl. I have been a big fan since way back and no, not just because my favorite chicken lives there. Besides, what's not to like about a QB that yells Omaha! I am sure there are a lot of people out there wondering what an "Omaha" is, but we will take the free advertising.
I really think he should yell North Platte! That would make UP and train fans all happy!
Fingers shivering.
Nite!
Only -12F? Pshaw! Eating breakfast (nice and warm inside) looking at thermometer reading -20F. Weather station says the wind chill is -28F, and there's not much wind out there.
We were at +32F yesterday, but there was still some wind that cut right through you...
The sky was amazingly clear last night. Went out to fill the bird feeders after dark and was dazzled by the view. No moon in the sky at the time, so it was all "black and white."
Gotta call the garage today and see if they can get the truck in for its regular service.
Actually working on a kit for the model railroad (I have quite a few hanging around - I just need to start working on them), and I'll need some paint for that, so it sounds like a little time on the road once I get an appointment.
I don't have a thing in the Superbowl. As close as I come is that my sister lives in the Denver area. I think I'd cheer for a QB that yells "Omaha" over a CB that yells how great he is...
I was soooooo hoping Manning would yell Lincoln instead of Omaha and then quickly hike the ball while the other side was stumbling around in hysterics and confusion.
He said Omaha 31 times which led to donations to a charity getting a $31000 boost.
60 degrees in Denver today with high fire danger . Ma nature got dementia?
I'm sorry our resident meteorologist isn't hanging around to offer some sage observations about the weather. People keep talking about this "polar vortex", but that was two weeks ago. This is just cold, arctic air, not a cyclonic storm like that one. And I guess it lingers for a few days here.My computer (based on the local observation point at our high school, a mile away) got down to zero this morning; somewhere it has found a degree since then. Arthur says 4.7 degrees in our back yard. The news may be talking about how badly Chicago got hammered overnight. That's true, and that's another reason I'm glad we're not really Chicago. Chicago got the Lake effect (over six inches at Midway Airport), but we may have gotten two inches tops out here, 20 miles from the lake. All the while our radio host was describing the challenges he'd faced getting to work we were seeing clear skies above us, and a moon in the west.
We may decide to shovel our walks and driveway later (if we break double-digits), but right now it's just too pretty out there--not even doggy tracks on the sidewalk yet. The plow has been through. Pat and I walked out yesterday, while it was still warm and everything was open, going to the library and the deli, so we're ready and able to stay around home today.
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