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![:P :p:](./images/smilies/tongue.gif)
Let alone 8-inch hard sectored floppy disks!geckzilla wrote:It's surprisingly hard to find original, working programs on 5 1/4" floppy disks!
You'll probably be okay for a while. The main issue is that the system will become less secure. Make sure you are using Firefox or Chrome, not Internet Explorer. The versions that run on XP are less secure than later versions (which won't run on XP), and IE will be one of the targets that hackers go after. Keep Flash and Acrobat up to date. Be extra careful about opening files you obtain over the Internet. And keep in mind that it will become difficult to add hardware- if you need a new printer, it probably won't come with any support for XP. And increasingly, programs you might want to install won't run under XP, either. But if you're mainly using the computer for web browsing and email, not much is going to change for you when XP goes out of support.orin stepanek wrote:I love my Windows xp; today windows sent me an email that it will no longer support xp! it was suggested that I upgrade to Windows 8 or get a new computer! I don't know if my unit can handle a windows upgrade to Windows 8! I hate to start downloading A newer version only to find out that it won't work! I think I'll keep using this old heap until it quits working! :( :p:
Had one on my first computer. Built from scratch before microprocessors. Core memory (bet you never saw that, either). And serial number 2 of the very first floppy disk drive every designed, one of the first two from the development lab at Calcomp.geckzilla wrote:I haven't ever seen one.
I've had some interesting computer hardware over the years. I started with this stuff when I was still in High School, in the 1970s. I was very good at getting companies to donate parts and equipment, because there just weren't kids doing computers yet.geckzilla wrote:No, there are a lot of things I have only read about or seen museum specimens of. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing some low-level knowledge about computers because of the way older stuff gets phased out and replaced with high-level operating systems and components so quickly. It seems like everything will someday be stacked so high that no one can even remember what was at the bottom.
I don't know of this if any use as an idea, but I installed Ubuntu (a free operating system based on Linux) on my old mini laptop, an Acer Aspire. I've now also got a new laptop (just because I needed a larger screen and more RAM) which came with Windows 8.1 installed and which is less horrible than Windows 8, I've been told.orin stepanek wrote:Well; it still works fine! If it gets bad I'll replace it! In the mean time; I'll save what I consider important on it!I still have an old 95 sitting out on the patio that I took the hard drive out of! I guess nothing lasts forever!
When I was in high school, I was able to use the computer at UC Irvine, just down the road. It was a Xerox Sigma 7, and like the one Margarita used, in its own glassed off section of the computer center. At the time, one of the UC students claimed he could write a program that would physically destroy the computer. The engineers at Xerox said that was absolutely impossible. The student offered to demonstrate, and Xerox took him up on it. That computer had these huge memory units called drum memory, similar to disk drives, that were the size of washing machines. He wrote a program that drove the heads back and forth at the resonant frequency of the entire machine. They literally shook themselves to pieces (like when you have a shoe in your drier, but a lot worse). Those engineers were embarrassed! After that they put hardware filters in their memory units that snuffed resonant motion.orin stepanek wrote:Chris; I remember the Computer at the company where i worked! It was as big as a bus and had to have a whole room full of key punchers! I believe it was an IBM!
Well, 33s are popular again. No idea why, but some of them can be worth quite a lot if they're in good condition.Oh; and I still have some 33's; 45's; and 78's with plenty of rock on them! 8-)
The author Terry Pratchett might have heard of that, because he has a similar thing happen in his Discworld novel Going Postal, with the mechanical semaphore system that is the Discworld replacement for the internet.Chris Peterson wrote: At the time, one of the UC students claimed he could write a program that would physically destroy the computer. The engineers at Xerox said that was absolutely impossible. The student offered to demonstrate, and Xerox took him up on it. That computer had these huge memory units called drum memory, similar to disk drives, that were the size of washing machines. He wrote a program that drove the heads back and forth at the resonant frequency of the entire machine. They literally shook themselves to pieces (like when you have a shoe in your drier, but a lot worse).
Did you ever have a wind-up gramophone? My aunt gave me one when I was fifteen, along with her collection of 78s! I've still got most of the 78s, but nothing to play them on. The gramophone was marvellous - it had a little slide out corner drawer to hold spare needles and the sound level was adjusted by stuffing more or fewer of my Dad's old socks in the speaker. It wasn't a trumpet, so was quite modern!Orin wrote
and I still have some 33's; 45's; and 78's with plenty of rock on them!![]()
No: but I did stay---oops!MargaritaMc wrote:
Did you ever have a wind-up gramophone? My aunt gave me one when I was fifteen, along with her collection of 78s! I've still got most of the 78s, but nothing to play them on. The gramophone was marvellous - it had a little slide out corner drawer to hold spare needles and the sound level was adjusted by stuffing more or fewer of my Dad's old socks in the speaker. It wasn't a trumpet, so was quite modern!
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Download Classic Shell. It's free, and gives you back a proper desktop experience. You can get a normal start bar and disable all the apps. Gives you the better user interface of Windows 7 (or XP if you like), but retains the robustness of Windows 10.orin stepanek wrote:I got a new windows 10 and after 4 mos. I am finally getting it to be mine! After weeks of fighting all the aps popping up: I finally got rid of enough of them that I can use it some! My gosh; it sure had enough junk files on it that it was slower than my old XP! Right now; I still like my XP better!
Sounds like good advice; I may try it! 10-QChris Peterson wrote:Download Classic Shell. It's free, and gives you back a proper desktop experience. You can get a normal start bar and disable all the apps. Gives you the better user interface of Windows 7 (or XP if you like), but retains the robustness of Windows 10.orin stepanek wrote:I got a new windows 10 and after 4 mos. I am finally getting it to be mine! After weeks of fighting all the aps popping up: I finally got rid of enough of them that I can use it some! My gosh; it sure had enough junk files on it that it was slower than my old XP! Right now; I still like my XP better!
Alas, 'taint so. Apple is as ruthless -- or practical if you prefer -- as any other large company. And I say that as someone who bought his first Mac in August of 1985, and have used Macs ever since. (I just sold that still operational Mac 512ke last week, to a local collector.)THX1138 wrote:... Good old xp, the nerve of them to pull that (you're operating system is no longer going to be supported) gig on everyone. Not that way with apple as you know. ...
Well, good for them. Everything gets obsolete, and that includes operating systems. Why should they keep supporting software that no longer works well on new hardware, which no longer supports new software, and which drops below sufficient market share? Especially when that software represents a bigger and bigger security risk to the entire infrastructure.THX1138 wrote:Good old xp, the nerve of them to pull that (you're operating system is no longer going to be supported) gig on everyone.
Methinks you have little experience with Apple.Not that way with apple as you know.
New features don't bother me. Things that break old software don't bother me. The demand for greater machine power doesn't bother me. But the steady trend towards less efficient user interfaces sure does. For Windows, I think interface usability peaked around Windows 97, and has declined steadily since. They've largely abandoned standardized menus, they've flattened interactive components (like buttons) to the point that you have to wave your cursor all over the place just to figure out what to click on. And with every release, they rename features or move where you access them. User interface design has become the domain of artists, not people who understand user interfaces. It's a problem with Windows. It's a problem with Macs. And it's a problem with all mobile devices.rstevenson wrote:And don't get me started on Apple's Mac OS "upgrades" which remove or hide features, degrade the visibility of controls, require vast computing resources to support new eye candy, and contain truly astonishing visual interface inconsistencies. Each time I upgrade I have to fight to retain some semblance of control over my computing environment, and it's getting harder every time. Apple, like Microsoft, seems to have lost sight of what should be an obvious goal: use the extraordinary hardware power we have available to make using the computer easier.