Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2014 12:49:13 GMT -5
I just wanted to say that I am amazed at the speed of technological advancement. My laptop, that I live and work on, died the other night. Until I can buy a new one I am stuck with my old WinXP desktop. And, damn nation this thing is SLOW. How did we ever wait for web pages to load? The good news, if there is any in this, is that I cannot watch TV or anything on this machine so I sit here to work, read here, and then it's off to do other things. Maybe I will get more done. But, mostly I want to be able to write in the comfort of my favorite chair again...
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cronewitch
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I identify as a post-menopausal childless cat lady and I vote.
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Post by cronewitch on May 17, 2014 11:30:18 GMT -5
The first computer I ever used was about 1974 and filled a room, it had tubes. That didn't do much, we made punch cards and it collated them and that is all I remember. Next was 1983 a Unix system with a 40 meg hard drive and 5 monitors. We would make journal entries then post them. When you post it is time to get up and go get coffee it will take a while to post. Our program allowed unpost so if you messed up and unposted then changed and reposted it took a very long time. After a while we got an upgrade and it seemed like posting was so fast it was amazing. I watched my nephew play with a commodore 64 and know I couldn't stand that slow speed so I didn't buy a home computer until I could get a 386, I had used a 286 at one job but hated slow.
Now I buy the cheapest computer I can find and have speed we couldn't have dreamed of and storage for more than I will ever want.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on May 17, 2014 11:39:52 GMT -5
Yep, I still have a desktop PC - while everyone else is switching over to 'tablets' or iPads or whatever those large screen 'smart phones' are. In 5 years we'll probably NOT have multiple devices or laptops as we know them or desktop PCs - just a medium sized, easily carried, device that does it all....
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 17, 2014 11:42:10 GMT -5
The first computer I ever used was about 1974 and filled a room, it had tubes. That didn't do much, we made punch cards and it collated them and that is all I remember. Next was 1983 a Unix system with a 40 meg hard drive and 5 monitors. We would make journal entries then post them. When you post it is time to get up and go get coffee it will take a while to post. Our program allowed unpost so if you messed up and unposted then changed and reposted it took a very long time. After a while we got an upgrade and it seemed like posting was so fast it was amazing. I watched my nephew play with a commodore 64 and know I couldn't stand that slow speed so I didn't buy a home computer until I could get a 386, I had used a 286 at one job but hated slow. Now I buy the cheapest computer I can find and have speed we couldn't have dreamed of and storage for more than I will ever want. Yep. I took Fortran in college in 1979ish. We had to punch cards, submit our job to the computer center and go back 24 hours to pickup our print out. The computer that ran our jobs was held in a very large room in the admin building. By 1982-83, we had desktop computers in the lab, but even then they didn't do anywhere near what they do now. I remember making graphs for research presentations, using a plotter. Now, just about every piece of equipment in the lab is run via a computer. I remember a time where my HP calculator used to run through a set of batteries every other month crunching data, it is so much easier (and less error prone) in Excel. Research presentations are Word and PP files that we send to graphics. They put it together, print it out in poster form and it is done.
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truthbound
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Post by truthbound on May 19, 2014 4:30:00 GMT -5
The speed your pages load has nothing to do with XP. If you believe that I have an unused Vista computer I would love to sell you. And tech has not really advanced. It did in the 80's and 90's. But in the last few years it has just added more bells and whistles.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on May 19, 2014 5:25:38 GMT -5
The speed your pages load has nothing to do with XP. No, not with xp specifically. however, a machine running an OS that old WILL have a slow processor in comparison to today's and very likely not nearly enough RAM. and *that* will make pages load slowly.
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truthbound
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Post by truthbound on May 20, 2014 2:02:00 GMT -5
Fortunately RAM can addressed. Also the main culprit is usually bloatware. I only use a clean OS not that crap that comes on box store computers. The only exception is the aforementioned Vista computer which I don't use because I don't like the OS.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on May 20, 2014 5:19:38 GMT -5
Not always true on the RAM, because machines can only support a certain amount of expansion. If your specs say "expandable to 6 gb" and you put in 8, it won't even see that last 2. And xp machines probably wouldn't support nearly that much to begin with. Same with CPU. dependent on the capabilities of the motherboard.
On the bloatware, I do agree.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2014 8:34:37 GMT -5
Hope you will spend your student loan on a new computer so you can access all the on line materials and tests!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2014 13:15:05 GMT -5
I am going to buy a new laptop next week, or the week after.
My last laptop was a WalMart $300 Dell and it was great. I plan on a similar model. Maybe a Chrome book. Haven't decided yet.
My writing website has had a contest to win one of a few new laptops. I am really hoping I win one, or maybe one of the $100 Amazon cards. If I do, then I will use that to help me buy a new laptop.
I can't do much of anything on this old machine, so it is a great motivator to get a laptop! But, I have to finish the work on my car first, so DS can get a job.
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Abby Normal
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Post by Abby Normal on May 20, 2014 13:16:58 GMT -5
The first computer I ever used was about 1974 and filled a room, it had tubes. That didn't do much, we made punch cards and it collated them and that is all I remember. Next was 1983 a Unix system with a 40 meg hard drive and 5 monitors. We would make journal entries then post them. When you post it is time to get up and go get coffee it will take a while to post. Our program allowed unpost so if you messed up and unposted then changed and reposted it took a very long time. After a while we got an upgrade and it seemed like posting was so fast it was amazing. I watched my nephew play with a commodore 64 and know I couldn't stand that slow speed so I didn't buy a home computer until I could get a 386, I had used a 286 at one job but hated slow. Now I buy the cheapest computer I can find and have speed we couldn't have dreamed of and storage for more than I will ever want. My dad was a systems analyst for the state in the 70's. I always thought it was so cool to go to the computer room (which took up nearly the entire floor of the building) and play with the punch cards. We found a stack of them going through some things in the attic a couple years ago.
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Wisconsin Beth
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Post by Wisconsin Beth on May 20, 2014 13:28:50 GMT -5
Shasta - watch out for viruses and malware. Esp. if you're using XP. I'm sure you're heard how it's not supported by Microsoft anymore and IE's got some issues too.
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truthbound
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Post by truthbound on May 21, 2014 4:30:35 GMT -5
Not always true on the RAM, because machines can only support a certain amount of expansion. If your specs say "expandable to 6 gb" and you put in 8, it won't even see that last 2. And xp machines probably wouldn't support nearly that much to begin with. Same with CPU. dependent on the capabilities of the motherboard.
On the bloatware, I do agree.
Again that comes down to researching the specs on the machine you buy. You need to make sure the motherboard can handle the expansion. Same goes for the CPU.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on May 21, 2014 8:41:37 GMT -5
Not always true on the RAM, because machines can only support a certain amount of expansion. If your specs say "expandable to 6 gb" and you put in 8, it won't even see that last 2. And xp machines probably wouldn't support nearly that much to begin with. Same with CPU. dependent on the capabilities of the motherboard.
On the bloatware, I do agree.
Again that comes down to researching the specs on the machine you buy. You need to make sure the motherboard can handle the expansion. Same goes for the CPU. True. but I'd guess that most of your average users don't know, or think about, things like that. the most important thing to many is cost, and maybe the size of the hard drive.
my main point was that someone who owns an old xp machine really isn't going to be able to improve performance significantly because the hardware just isn't capable of it.
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truthbound
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Post by truthbound on May 23, 2014 3:46:53 GMT -5
I see your point. Fortunately most Amurikans only use their machines for email and facebook. They will never need that extra performance.
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on May 23, 2014 10:57:45 GMT -5
I see your point. Fortunately most Amurikans only use their machines for email and facebook. They will never need that extra performance. Generalize much?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2014 11:09:28 GMT -5
He already told us that he speaks the truth and only the truth! So....yes.
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moon/Laura
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Post by moon/Laura on May 23, 2014 18:39:10 GMT -5
I see your point. Fortunately most Amurikans only use their machines for email and facebook. They will never need that extra performance. Uhh.. you're one of those "amurikans"... what do you use YOURS for?
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truthbound
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Post by truthbound on May 25, 2014 5:05:13 GMT -5
He already told us that he speaks the truth and only the truth! So....yes. Tru dat. And I never generalize.
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