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Note from Peter T.
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Subject: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,Peter T. Date: 05 May 00 - 02:28 PM I am sorry to say that my computer system crashed permanently last night(nothing to do with kids in the Phillipines), and so anyone who has been leaving me personal messages in the Mudcat over the last 24 hours -- I will get to them as soon as I rebuild my system, I apologise for the delay. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 05 May 00 - 02:34 PM Oh, Peter! That is awful! Thanks for letting us know. Should we write a dirge? Have a memorial service? Send flowers?*BG* Wishing you a speedy rebuilding, darlin'! kat |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,Peter T. Date: 05 May 00 - 02:40 PM I was actually thinking about getting a shotgun and getting out my "Old Yeller" record. It was a MAC IIfx, and we have been through a lot together. There will be other computers, sure, in my life, newer, shinier, faster. But I had hoped that we would grow old together. Now I have to carry on alone. I remember the day I got rid of my IBM Selectric (the first self-correcting model) -- we played the dead march as we bore it along.... groan yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 05 May 00 - 03:30 PM To the tune of "Ole Blue"
Got me an old 'pewter and, its name is Mac
Now I'm blue, you dead Mac, you
Shouldered my pain and I sang a song
Old Mac died and it is no more Now, I'm blue, you dead Mac, you.
Every verse I did call its name
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,Peter T. Date: 05 May 00 - 03:34 PM Can you make a sound like the whirring hard drive treeing something in the distance? totally hilarious, kat. yours, Peter T. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: catspaw49 Date: 05 May 00 - 03:46 PM Good job kat.....and Peter, should we send flowers (live arrangements of course) or a simple bottle of silicate sand? Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, silicone to silicone........ Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 05 May 00 - 03:52 PM What an image, Peter! I can just see the headlines: Terrified Hiker Treed by Hard Drive" And, so the story could go two ways, a Mac hard drive or a hard drive down the road, just got to be too much and up a tree he went!**BG** Thanks for the levity, Peter. I really am sorry. Our retired old 386 sits hunkered in the basement piled with the detritus of passers-by: a roll of toilet paper meant to make it into the downstairs potty, ceramic tiles which never made it up the stairs, yards of coiled electronic cable, folded towels, one covered with cat hair from a nesting cat. Its screen forever black, silent, hard drive put out to pasture, yet still holding its cards close to its chest, ready and willing if called upon to divulge our secrets etched upon its chips. Do they have a graveyard for old computers? Is there a blue chip heaven somewhere beyond the Great Digital Divide?*BG* I am reading a book right now about the merger of TIME and WARNER Communications: To the end of TIME. At one point Warner owned Atari game systems. When it went down the tubes in 1983, they loaded twenty semitrailer trucks with literally tons of electronic games and consoles and took them to a grave in Texas, where they poured fifty cubic yards of cement over the crushed and buried remains. Wonder what future achaeologists will make of that! |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 05 May 00 - 03:55 PM Aaarrrggghhh! Damned html! Sorry for the italics! Thanks, Spaw, silicone sand, indeed!Haha! |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Sorcha Date: 05 May 00 - 06:08 PM LOL, guys!! But, really, what do I DO with my typewriters? I have an old Remington manual (BANG BANG, beat those keys!) and a Brother electric---both work fine, and even the Thrift store doesn't want them? Ah, the joys of obsolescence............My sincere sympathies, Peter. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Rick Fielding Date: 05 May 00 - 06:14 PM Hey Peter, do you want your "Willie" back to amuse yourself while you're being fixed? See "Willie does Django" Rick |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: catspaw49 Date: 05 May 00 - 06:47 PM OHMYGAWD !!!!!!!!!! Its worse than I thought!!!!! PETER IS BEING FIXED ?????????? Well this is sad news indeed. What brought this on? Did they finally catch him with the Waylon Heron or what? Spaw-just trying to get even with the Carpenter remark on Jackson State. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Jon Freeman Date: 05 May 00 - 08:21 PM kat, I sold my P133 and 486 and the 286 before that but I still have an Amstrad PC1512 (8088 processor) gathering dust waiting for a home. I feel sure if I look under the stairs, my first computer, a Vic 20 will still there.. I know I sold their later Commodore 64... Jon |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 05 May 00 - 11:15 PM Haha, Jon! When the kids and I met Rog he had a TRS-80! They were the only kids in school with a computer at home & had a blast witht eh games we bought for it. Just a plain old black screen with green letters, they had to type in every command and use thier imagination for graphics. It was great. We left it with our son when he moved out at 17 yrs old in 1987 and I don't think he got rid of it or it cratered for another couple of years after that. My old 386 started out life as a 286. Whoo-hoo, we did an upgrade! It was hotshit back then! Hell, that is what I used up until less than two years ago! |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Sorcha Date: 05 May 00 - 11:27 PM Hey, this is 2000, right? I had one a them RadioShack black secreen/green letter thingies #?????, in 1997! No internet connection, nada but games that gave me headaches.......I said, NO! I do not want a new computer, I just want to murder this one.......and uhhhhhh, (i got this computer now, uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh, and having a blast!!--embarassed face) I did literally take the old one out and put a bullet in it's brain! That's what guns are good for!! |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: catspaw49 Date: 05 May 00 - 11:38 PM Well this computer talk is all well and good, but what are we going to do about Peter's balls? Has anyone written him and ask why he is doing this? Or was it mandated? Is old age and atrophy the problem? I mean if that's it, there's a lot of folks in trouble around here. If that's it, Peter, I implore you, don't do it! I'm sure we can line up something for you and until then, maybe you could get some workout time at one of the finer porn sites. Or maybe just join an aerobics class or something. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 06 May 00 - 12:28 AM Hey, Spaw, he's already got the upgraded brass ones; I think he's having a polish job, really! Sorcha! I am gonna report you to the SPS'p: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 'pewters!**BG** |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Sorcha Date: 06 May 00 - 12:36 AM Maybe Peter needs a testic-o-gram? And squash those suckers flat......... |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Mbo Date: 06 May 00 - 12:45 AM OUCH! Sorcha shot the 'puter, last night Said it made her angry, made her cry Went to her truck and got a .45 Sorcha shot the 'puter, last night A reckless discharge of a gun That's what the Ard Ri's claimin' Sorcha just said "reckless, Hell! It's just where I was aimin'...." --Mbo --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Sorcha Date: 06 May 00 - 12:59 AM (actually, it was a .41 Magnum.......and it was spectacular!!) Hit that sucker dead on! Great lines, Mbo!!Lead Poisining---Sure Cure for Windows. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Mbo Date: 06 May 00 - 01:03 AM Thanks--I'm actually parodying "Bubba Shot The Jukebox" there...perhaps a full parody is in order? BLAM!!! --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Sorcha Date: 06 May 00 - 02:53 AM AND, I am about ready to do that to this one too!! If my car acted like my computer (PC/Windows98) I would drive that sucker off a cliff!! Why do we accept crap with computers that we wouldn't accept in toaster, for god's sake? Page Cannot be displayed, Illegal Error, Will be shut down, Internet cannot find the site "bla bla bla". Any body have Billy G's home phone? I would call him during the dinner hour.......... |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,Peter T. Date: 06 May 00 - 08:54 AM I could make a testy remark here, but since this insult was delivered by someone who is desperate to get the Carpenters on tape -- that cute Richard I am sure -- it certainly takes cojones. Are you sure you want to go on with this one, CP? yours, Peter T. Deep moral question: does a computer die when its hard drive dies, but it still has certain functions? |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: JenEllen Date: 06 May 00 - 12:06 PM Tough question, and heavy responsibility on your shoulders, Peter. I think it's up to you and your cojones to pull the plug. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Jon Freeman Date: 06 May 00 - 01:17 PM Don't know Peter, would we die if we forgot just about everything we new but with a simple transplant and some re-learning could function the same and possibly better than before? Jon |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: sophocleese Date: 07 May 00 - 09:28 AM Umm before people pull out the big weapons on their innocent little computers think a little about salvaging what you can. Our local computer club took donations of usable parts and created several systems that were workable which they then donated to local kids who were without the family resources to afford one. Most of the computer I was using up until a year a go was created by my brothers and myself out of bits and pieces left over from other's upgrades. Its nice to have all the bells and whistles but a plainer slower machine can still be used. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Jon Freeman Date: 07 May 00 - 11:41 AM Agreed Sophoclese but I tend to take the upgrade and wheeling and dealing route with old components. This time round, I kept the monitor, hard disk, floppy disk, sound card, modem and graphics card and traded in the rest aganst the bits I wanted. Cost me £200 to end up with a fully working system with a new motherboard, K2 500 processor, 128Mb RAM which at least UK wise, seems a pretty good deal to me. Jon |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Bill D Date: 08 May 00 - 11:30 PM ....and our old 386->586,gerbil powered WIN 3.1 machine still sits to my left...just in case..lot of DOS stuff and old files still un-transferred...with 2 SyQuest SCSI drive hooked to it for breathing room....who knows, it may be around for years yet...(the gerbils sure don't work much these days!) yep, I played on a TRaSh-80 at work for a couple years...them were the days. (BTW...anyone needs parts for some REALLY obscure 'puter, I know this guy...he gives rare stuff to the Smithsonian...and the rest he keeps piled up at home...)we just dis-assembled a big disk drive..(9 inch platters) last weekend at a music camp...he wanted to see what was in 'em...I got 4 big rare-earth magnets and a shiny platter to play with...) |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: catspaw49 Date: 08 May 00 - 11:56 PM And I'm sure Rita is pleased with the quality of junk you're acquiring Bill.............. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,Steve Latimer Date: 09 May 00 - 10:04 AM Are you guys saying my punch cards are outdated? |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Midchuck Date: 09 May 00 - 10:17 AM Guy who has the business across the street from me is a serious target shooter. One time his hard drive died (this was on a Mac - so they aren't the be-all and end-all that they claim to be, either) and after replacing it, he actually took the old drive to the range and set it up and shot a big ragged hole in it. Then he brought it back and kept it on his desk as a paperweight. It was a good tangible expression of the feelings of many of us. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Amos Date: 09 May 00 - 10:37 AM No computer is a be-all/end-all. Especially the hard drives (which in Peter's machine were thridparty products from Quantum or similar) which do more work than any other part. Someday we will have hologramic data storage where the moving part is just a tiny little laser being reflected, the access time is in nanoseconds, and the data density is on the order of terabytes per 8 sq. inch "disk". But not this week. Anyway, Sorch, let me offer you the advice I am becoming infamous for: get an IMac. You'll have less down time, more fun, your computer will be a friend again and your system will stall out much less often. Much, much less often. Believe me -- I use both systems. My ratio is about 15 to 1 or better in forced restarts or crash-type events. Not to mention the virus vulnerability. I believe there are over 45,000 known Windows-targeted viruses and less than a dozen known to hit Macs. You can install a new OS on a Mac in about five minutes, add a hard drive or similar external peripheral in about three and be up and running. This compares to anything from half an hour to a week on a Windows machine depending on how many bizarre screwups show up.
I know the Wintel platform is much more robust than it used to be. To me this is like beating your wife much less frequently. Okay, boys, put the soapbox back in the corner. As an incentive, I offer five hours free consulting through PMs. That oughta take you a couple of years to use up! A |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,Steve Latimer Date: 09 May 00 - 10:44 AM We were discussing the whole Bill Gates thing the other day, Bill saying that Love Bug is evidence that Microsoft shouldn't be broken up. My girlfriend coined what I believe is a new term, but I love. "Billshit" How many examples have we seen of this? |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 09 May 00 - 11:45 AM Roger says all of the companies, etc. who lost so much due to this latest virus should go after Bill Gates' money, sue him for damages because the system is so poorly designed for keeping such things at bay. But, isn't it typically American that when someone makes it to a HUGE success everyone gets down on them and blames them for everything connected to them? |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Amos Date: 09 May 00 - 11:55 AM Bill has no obligation to design his system against unknown psycho intrusions of this sort. I don't recall ever seeing any advertising that Windows is bugfree or virusproof...given its architecture that would be a reckless claim indeed. Without it there are no grounds. Software has always pretty well sold on an as-is basis. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Chocolate Pi Date: 09 May 00 - 12:07 PM old computer experience: I hauled around and vacumed several tons of parts of the Whirlwind, the first computer with digital core memory (handthreaded wires through ceramic beads). Currently installing Linux on and networking three 386's, a Mac SE, a Mac Classic, and two other 68k Macs rescued from a defunct campus computer club. Chocolate Pi |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Mbo Date: 09 May 00 - 12:17 PM Dang! Chemistry, Quantum physics AND a computer guru! I'm getting the feeling that Chocolate Pi is a genius above our level! --Mbo (who works with Dells & Gateways in a computer lab, and never has problems with Windows, PC's or Bill Gates...) |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Easy Rider Date: 09 May 00 - 12:36 PM OHMYGAWD !!!!!!!!!! Its worse than I thought!!!!! PETER IS BEING FIXED ?????????? Well, Peter, look at the bright side: At least SOMEBODY is willing to pay your medical bills. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Willie-O Date: 09 May 00 - 01:06 PM When it (Atari) went down the tubes in 1983, they loaded twenty semitrailer trucks with literally tons of electronic games and consoles and took them to a grave in Texas, where they poured fifty cubic yards of cement over the crushed and buried remains. Wonder what future achaeologists will make of that! It's an old joke, but... a good start?
Seriously, though, there is increasing interest in "antiquated" or "vintage" computers, and most of them have their devotees, to the point that its safe to say, if it was a good machine "in its day", some folks are still using it. Case in Point: Tandy Model 100 and 200, perhaps the first really functional laptop. There's a guy who buys them cheap, refurbishes them, and sells them, warrantied, for $4-500 U.S. each. Most customers are institutions that buy several and use them for field data recording--which they are just as good for now as in 1985. They're durable, dependable, and not very likely to be stolen. Curiously, the clever and robust little "instant on" operating system was allegedly written by Bill Gates. Then there are the ones which were target practice/doorstops the week after they came out...like the VIC-20 and various chiclet-keyed little novelties. And any old DOS/Win machine 386 up, there's a kid in your neighbourhood who could use it. (Whose parents don't have a grand or two to spend, and they're probably too intimidated by all the Internet-multi-media-mega-bucks talk to go looking for bargain-basement stuff. ) Willie-O
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 09 May 00 - 05:29 PM Good point, Willie-O. I know of several non-profits who could also benefit from donated equipment. When we installed a fax in our computer, we gave our old fax machine, really only about 4 years old, but SO out-of-date and SO big and clunky, to the local Girl Scout office for one of their field offices to use. My computer-novice brother is using our old 386 as a WP to input a book he is writing which I will then transfer into our fancy-dancy model. Old *confusers* never die, they've always got some useful bits, eh? |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: GUEST,CLETUS Date: 09 May 00 - 10:02 PM Ifn Peter izza gittin fixt an all Ide be rite happy ta take over hiz classez fur him seeins az how I know all kindz uv stuff bout nachur like how ta cook chipmunk stew over an open fire made outta moose shit an all kidz uv wayz ta cook keelz on the intake manifold uv a 68 Chevy. Plus I gotta reel gud 4th grayd edgeekayshun an cud probly holt my own with them uther college folks. Let Spaw know iffn' ya need me Pete. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Amos Date: 09 May 00 - 11:41 PM Mine was a twin disk Osborne One, about as big as a hefty Singer with a five inch screen on which the BASIC would scroll by, and WordStar, in 64 K of RAM would display fully formatted, mailmerged files built aroun "dot codes"., and VisiCalc and CP/M would strut their stuff. Oh, i say: pip a colon b colon star! I even ran a Hayes modem and did BBS chatting with the local 13-year old geeks on it. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Escamillo Date: 10 May 00 - 12:35 AM You make me feel as Mathusalen. The first puter I put my hands on, was a Digital PDP-12 with TAPE operating system called OS-12, had a 240x120 pixels green screen in its front panel, 16k of RAM (yes, 16k), and lots of analog/digital converters to play the Lunar Landing, and an EXTREMELY noisy Teletype ASR-33. Interchange with others was via magnetic tape, or perforated paper tape. This was in 1971 and its cost was 46,000 dollars. When I was working at the machine, late every evening, a nice girl (working there) walked out and cheered me. She´s my wife. Un abrazo - Andrés |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Metchosin Date: 10 May 00 - 12:38 AM I'm really glad this thread came up, although I am truly sorry that you have to be fixed Peter. Just be thankful that you are male not female or you might start getting really thick around the middle and develop a penchant for other peoples garbage cans like I have. I'm taking my eighty plus year old father-in-law out this week to look for an old Mac for him, with some internet capability. (A bit like the blind leading the halt but what the hey) He is intrigued with my computer, as he can actually write letters on it despite a lot of paralysis in his fingers and I am thrilled to pieces that he is not intimidated by it. He even has some "old" friends that are now on line and he is looking forward to staying in touch with them. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: katlaughing Date: 10 May 00 - 12:59 AM my eighty year old aunt is a regular surfer, Metchosin! That is wonderful of you to do that! Andres...nice how we met story! Amos...were you ever on the GreenPeace BBS? When we first moved back to WYo and Rog got stuck down in Venezuela, LONG STORY, I was on there almost every night, ran up terrible phone bills, but sure did have a lot of fun. The guru/wizard/master (can't remember the term for the moderator guy) was one of the orginal Burning Man attendees. He and I had a blast, esp. when he told me about teh biker bars he'd go to in San Francisco! I was so impressed by the dialogue, I kept it in a binder, which sits gthering dust waiting to be mined for gems. Little did I know it would be a pre-cursor, for me at least, of this wonderful place called Mudcat! Cletus, honey, I think you'd better be nice to those squirrels, now, ya hear! And, did ya ask Mr. Moose real nice if you could use them turds?!! luvyakat |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Mbo Date: 10 May 00 - 01:19 AM Amos...Wordstar, GWBASIC & BASICA...memories of my youth! I lived on that stuff when I was 10 & 11 years old... --Mbo |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Metchosin Date: 10 May 00 - 01:50 AM kat, thankfully some of the old models which have been resurrected and seviced that have been mentioned on this thread, made me think that I was not entirely out to lunch and leading the old guy down the garden path, but it was he initially that came up with the idea. |
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Subject: RE: Note from Peter T. From: Sorcha Date: 10 May 00 - 02:28 AM I actually did e mail Microsoft Help, and got back a "form" letter that basically said, We are so sorry, if you have future problems, don't hesitate to contact us....duh.......no help at all. But, Amos, mac is not hearme compatible!! And nobody is writing software for it!! |
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