godfry upgrades

[godfry n. glad]

From what I understand from my inside sources, the team I hired to turbo-charge my home computer set-up are finally convinced they can help me and are gathering necessary components. Sometime soon, I shall have tools to do much more sophisticated things from home. They evidently jumped into action when I passed the word along that I knew I was practically going to have to get an entirely new set-up. The upgrade is all cost flow constrained, of course, so I'll have to do it in sections. I'll have a scanner and photo setup, which will serve as copier/printer, I understand. Also in this change, I'll drop the dial-up service (unloading an unwanted credit card in the bargain) and go DSL. My girlfriend, who is my inside source and the senior partner in GFRLN & Sons, Engineering, Management & Computer Services, the firm I hired (being her sons, one 21, the other 18) to do the job. She's anxious for them to do the job because she's tired of not being able to get ahold of me because I'm online and wants me to have Instant Messenger. Because she is trying to sell her five acre farm in the exurbs and move into the city, she also is paying her sons to bring my house up to wi-fi, because she's going to start using my unused bedroom (actually an office) on the main floor as the official office of her firm. I'm subleasing to an engineering consulting firm and exchange getting a huge upgrade on my electronic capacity. She's looking forward to sunny afternoons on the balcony overlooking the rose garden.

To all you computer competent out there, this may not seem like much, be to a technoresistant old fart like me it's big happenin's.

I'm soon to become graced with....wait for it...a...cellphone. :egad: Or, as I smiled and referred to it, a tracking device, when she suggested it. I asked whether I needed to get a tag through my ear or not. She laughed, which is good.

I think.

[Plant Woman]

LOL! Yeah leave it to a girlfriend to get the old farts up to speed. Change is good, except when you get used to all the new fandangle, you will wonder how you did without it. Then when you are without it, you feel weird, out of touch, etc. Just don't be one of those that talk loud into your cellphone in a public place. Sooooooo annoying!

Congratulations on the upgrades, including the girlfriend in the house!

[livius drusus]

That sounds like a great deal all around, godfry. Congratulations on joining the 21st century. :lowfive:

[viscousmemories]

Welcome to the grid, godfry. I recently reaccquired a digital pocketwatch and telecommunications device after a year or so without one - it makes me feel more connected.

[username]

Do you have a laptop? If so you will really enjoy the wireless networking.

When I got my HDTV I thought I would be ubertech and I hooked my wirelessly networked laptop up to the TV via it's VGA port and then got a wireless keyboard and mouse so I could use the TV as a big monitor from my couch.

Didn't work out so well. Text is too hard to read in some applications from the distance I was sitting at. I would imagine it would be cool for downloading and viewing porn though :D

[godfry n. glad]

Heh... I've a mechanical engineer girlfriend with two geek sons. The eldest is an electrical engineering student at the local state cow college (which also has the best engineering school). The youngest is in his final year of high school at a private school in downtown Puddle City. For his last semester of high school, he's teaching a computer building class, amongst his other projects. He expects to enter the electronics engineering program at the urban state university next fall. The crowd he runs at school with call themselves the "nerd herd" (mixed gender). His mother is on the urban university's engineering school advisory board and they just pulled off a coup by attracting away one of the leading gene typing computer team from the speciality research center that was recently acquired by the institution I work for, the state's only medical/dental/nursing university (the acquiring institution wanted to cut loose the research team's support save in a budget-cutting mode - it backfired, as the researchers wanted their trained support staff).

She's consulting to a spin-off company from the local electric power generation company doing green building consultation. She's the "old hand" on board to keep the young engineers on point and get them organized. She travels the west coast at this point.

Both kids are active Free Geek members. A laptop is not far in my future, but I gotta get the home set-up up to snuff first. I'll have plenty of expert advice when I get to that point, for sure. They tend to buy their stuff from pawn shops, from what I understand.

[MonCapitan2002]

I'm soon to become graced with....wait for it...a...cellphone. :egad: Or, as I smiled and referred to it, a tracking device, when she suggested it. I asked whether I needed to get a tag through my ear or not. She laughed, which is good.

I think.
You have my sympathies about having to get a cellphone. I can't stand the devices and I have every intention of dying without ever having owned one.

[JoeP]

Yay godfry! The technology's all cool, of course, but the power technical consulting firm sounds like the biz.

Embrace the cellphone. Shun dickomonkey.

[MonCapitan2002]

Embrace discomonkey and shun the cellphone.

[Plant Woman]

Embrace discomonkey and shun the cellphone.

Sounds kinky!

[godfry n. glad]

I shall be able to embrace both upon the completion of my metamorphosis.

Warranted, aural information transfer is problematic with me, particularly over telecommunications devices. You see, I already have a volume-enhancing electronic object in my left ear and need one, as in I should have booked the appointment a month ago, for the right ear.

I shall have the cellphone, but I shall not worship at the alter of cellphones. I hope. I keep telling myself, and those around me, "It's a tool, not a toy." I will never, ever, under any circumstances, use it while driving a motor vehicle.

[godfry n. glad]

Help! I'm being tossed bodily, and against my will, into the gaping maw of a relentless, vicious, spawn-devouring parasitic technological juggernaut!

[username]

I shall be able to embrace both upon the completion of my metamorphosis.

Warranted, aural information transfer is problematic with me, particularly over telecommunications devices. You see, I already have a volume-enhancing electronic object in my left ear and need one, as in I should have booked the appointment a month ago, for the right ear.

I shall have the cellphone, but I shall not worship at the alter of cellphones. I hope. I keep telling myself, and those around me, "It's a tool, not a toy." I will never, ever, under any circumstances, use it while driving a motor vehicle.

I have a hard of hearing relative who had a horrible time talking on her cellphone until I introduced her to the speakerphone function. I use mine in the car, out of necessity, but I just clip it onto the sun visor and put it on speakerphone and voila! hands free talking.

Many cell phones these days even have voice dialing where you just say the name of whom you wish to call so this makes it even more handsfree.

[Plant Woman]

Sorry you are beyond help, you are now an official technological junkie.

I find I am using my cell phone more and more. Especially when talking to other Verizon users and I don't get dinged for minutes. So I can talk to my friend in Bellingham, sis in Arlington, brother in Idaho etc. and no phone charges.

[godfry n. glad]

Sorry you are beyond help, you are now an official technological junkie.

I find I am using my cell phone more and more. Especially when talking to other Verizon users and I don't get dinged for minutes. So I can talk to my friend in Bellingham, sis in Arlington, brother in Idaho etc. and no phone charges.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She says that with this cellphone, I can call anytime after a certain time each day and on weekends, long distance, at no extra cost. Basic cost to me: $9/month, plus acquisition of a decent cellphone (on list for next Costco gig). She's pushing the hand camera aspect, too, because it's useful in her business. It's all a business expense for her.

I'm gonna feel like "Secret...Agent Man."

:spy:

Now...This "grid" thing. It does make me trackable at all times I'm carrying the cellphone on my person, doesn't it?

:noid:

[godfry n. glad]

Many cell phones these days even have voice dialing where you just say the name of whom you wish to call so this makes it even more handsfree.

Bluetooth.

At least that's my recent acquisition of terminology; I hope I've got it right. My girlfriend has it. She likes the speakerphone aspect, too. She can talk with her away son, while she and the at-home son use the speakerphone at home. She's already got me on "godfry home" and "godfry work" voice commands. She's got the earphone headset, too. I told her that my friends could now play "Cellphone or Off Her Meds?" with her. I got a :glare: for that comment.

[godfry n. glad]

I have a hard of hearing relative who had a horrible time talking on her cellphone until I introduced her to the speakerphone function. I use mine in the car, out of necessity, but I just clip it onto the sun visor and put it on speakerphone and voila! hands free talking.

Many cell phones these days even have voice dialing where you just say the name of whom you wish to call so this makes it even more handsfree.

:ranton:

Actually, I have an entire set of horror stories about near catastrophes I've averted that involve people driving a car while operating a cell phone. The speakerphone aspect sounds like a real advance, but it doesn't obviate the need to either see who the caller is and decide to take the call or not (thereby diverting attention from the road), or to place a call, which requires focusing on the cellphone keys and readout, not the road. (From my personal experience, it is the latter which is, by far, the scariest aspect of cellphones in hands of a nimwit piloting two and half tons of steel, glass and plastic hurtling down a narrow multi-lane city arterial at the speed limit, after dark, in the rain.)

Most studies I've seen show that the difference between handheld and hands-free is minimal, and in some cases, hands-free was actually worse, because people falsely assumed that they had more control than they did. From what I understand, the conversation one engages in creates a sort of tunnel vision. Inattention to peripheral activity, along with delayed reaction times results in a typical cellphone driver accident, a t-bone, turn into, sideswipe, pedestrian thumping kind of driving. It is different than conversing with a person in the car, because the person in the car can see what is happening and cease conversation or even warn. The person on the cellphone can do none of that. Indeed, they can unknowningly convey startling or alarming news, unaware of their conversant operating a motor vehicle, and potentially causing a mortal traffic accident.

I'm sorry to be a bit strident about this, but I've seen, up-close, abuses of common sensibility associated with cellphones. I've nearly been killed by an idiot on the cellphone. Thrice. All were driving motor vehicles at the same time.

:rantoff:

I'll see what research has to say about bluetooth.

[Crumb]

but it doesn't obviate the need to either see who the caller is and decide to take the call or not
Custom ring tones that change depending on who is calling can solve this problem. Then again, I don't have a cell phone. :shrug:

[godfry n. glad]

So, last night, after work, my gf and her youngest son pick me up at home and we're off on a field trip.

The younger son, one of GFRLN & Sons, Engineering and Computer Services, is my contractor on the new turbocharged computer set-up. He had already made me a list of items needed and tried to acquire through Egghead online, but they weren't taking credit cards...so it was off to Frye's Electronics, a sort of Costco of technological toys. I plunked down the plastic and came home with the beginnings of my new set-up. I've now got a new tower, with the whole new set-up (sans the floppy drive, because he didn't like their brands). He assembled it in about 45 minutes on my dining room table.

Earlier in the day, I had phoned in my order for upgrade to DSL service, from my current dial-up (this is my GFs primary objective...so she can get through to me when I'm online). It'll take a week to ten days to get my startup kit and when it arrives, my contractor will reappear, install the floppy drive (I should check to see if I've got a cd burner or not, and add one on now). Anyhoo... When he does that, he'll hook up the new HP Officejet 7310 fax, copier, scanner, printer (with all the bells & whistles) that my GF bought for her business office (on my desk - it may go into the new "office" on the main floor).

My GF said she'd hand-me-down her old laptop to me, so, when the wireless set-up she's paying to install is in, either of us will be able to compute, process, surf or lurk onywhere on the property.

So... It looks like two weeks to upgrade. And counting.

Now I'm thinking about a new monitor. Anybody have recommendations or warnings?

[Ymir's blood]

Now I'm thinking about a new monitor. Anybody have recommendations or warnings?
If you can afford one, go with a flat screen. The space savings alone make them worth it.

[godfry n. glad]

Now I'm thinking about a new monitor. Anybody have recommendations or warnings?
If you can afford one, go with a flat screen. The space savings alone make them worth it.

I've accepted that inevitability. The question is more of, amongst available reasonable cost flat screen monitors is "better"? Now, "better" here probably means that it will endure a fair amount of neglect as a "device", in terms of any possible upkeep needs. Then, there's screen quality, too. Do some have better, clearer, images? They all look pretty equivalent to me and seemed to range from $280 to $350. Most likely purchase point: Costco.

[Ymir's blood]

When I got mine (roughly two years ago) a FS monitor of 19" cost $400. Anything bigger than that resulted in a large jump in the price. The picture quality is excellent though only 'head on.' Looking at it from an angle, there is some distortion in the color.

I don't know of any problems with maintaining one.

[pescifish]

Dell Ultrasharp LCD flat panel monitors are excellent.

[godfry n. glad]

My advisor recommended the Dell Ultrasharp, but it was $200 more than the Princeton 19" monitor. (I've still got to find my way to the controls, this is a bit too bright for my tastes, it needs to be muted.)

It happened. I'm now DSL and WiFi.

I'm sitting here amidst a shipload of new equipment.

My home computer has been turbocharged.

I had my tower built, based upon my 18 y.o. advisor's specs. I've now got 100 Gigs. I'm assured that's a lot, but I wouldn't really know. CD/DVD drive/burner. HP Officejet 7310 All-in-One, and WiFi. And the monitor. My home is now laptop friendly.

My friends and family are cheering on my girlfriend's initiative in upgrading. The universal response is, "Great. Now I can get ahold of you."

I get a replacement keyboard on their next trip...I'm getting one of their hand me downs.

I'm still an analog guy in a digital world, though. That has not changed. I just try to be...tolerant. Forgiving. Compassionate.

Yeah....right.

[Stormlight]

I'm soon to become graced with....wait for it...a...cellphone. :egad:

:assimilate:

[livius drusus]

That sounds like a sweet little setup there, godfry. Now you just have to get a laptop to get full use out of the wi-fi goodness. :pclove:

[Puck]

What is funny, is that I was the first one I know who had a computer, and when Win3.1 came out, wowie, was it cool. Then, over the years, everyone, and their technology, passed me by like I was tied to a tree.

Living waaaay out in the country, I just got DSL here. So that meant a new computer to handle things. I'd been running Win98se on the old computer which was about 7 years old. Granted, it was a good 'un when I bought it, so it's still usable. I'm thinking of making a nice Rat Machine out of it to DL music to.

Have fun, godfry. And yes, 'they' can find you now that you have the cell phone. You're hooked in, bud. :)

[Crumb]

I still don't have a cellphone. I am still running Win98se, though I am working on upgrading to 2000. :shrug: Whatever works.

[lisarea]

What is funny, is that I was the first one I know who had a computer, and when Win3.1 came out, wowie, was it cool. Then, over the years, everyone, and their technology, passed me by like I was tied to a tree.

I think maybe it's like a punctuated equilibrium thing.

When I was a teenager, we had an Apple II and an IBM AT. We had a cradle modem that my dad used to use to dial into ARPAnet. And for a very long time, I was a pretty early adopter. I had a cellphone and PDA before anyone else I knew did. My computer used to always be better than anyone else's.

I am currently on a new computer I paid $200 for, with an ancient Macintosh monitor and an IBM Model M keyboard (connected with my sole remaining AT-to-PS2 adapter). I am networked via my fancy, newfangled wireless modem through my oldfangled router, so I can access the files on my previous computer using actual, physical wires. I make changes in little dribs and drabs, like in the olden days. Whole new systems are scary.

I'll leave such boldness to intrepid young whippersnappers like godfry, content to shake my fist in a vaguely threatening but pointedly ineffectual manner as they pass me by.