RE: MOBILE PHONES. - 2

I suppose posting twice in succession is bad etiquette but I really don't have anything better to do than have a rant while I await the days deliveries.

Just to bring the thread back to Mobile Phones,

I am with Signman and Phil regarding the use of them.
I think they are grossly overused for unnecessary communications and the continual SMS texting by kids to other kids (of any age) is dragging down the English language.
You can always tell the halfwit who drives and talks at the same time by the fact he is only doing 20mph whilst zigzagging down the centre line, his driving is rubbish and his converstion is no doubt worse, with or without the phone. Why do tradesmen drive around in pairs but the driver is the one on the phone? What's the other guy for?
When kids stand in the playgound with a phone to their ear, who are they talking to? They don't know anyone and anybody they might know is in the same playground.

I also owned some of the first Motorolas, it went something like Brick, Yuppie Ear, Unbreakable Flip, Cheap and Nasty Flip then I changed to Nokia. I still use my second Nokia now, on Pay As You Go of course, it's a very proficient GPRS device that I don't answer unless it looks like a benefit to me and I rarely make calls on it.
It doesn't have a camera, I programmed in my own monophonic ring tone so there are no orchestral preludes to my incoming calls, it's easier to ignore when Beethovens Fifth isn't broadcasting from your pocket, and it is under strict instructions not to connect to the internet. I wouldn't go anywhere without it though. My occasional text messages are full blown letters without abbreviations.
Obviously, in the early days, standing outside someones front door and ringing them to say you where coming round (No caller ID then) whilst ringing their door bell, was a great laugh. That wore off as soon as more people started to get them.

As a business tool they have become indispensable but there is a time and place for every tool. I don't walk about waving screwdrivers in the air so why a phone?

This isn't to take anything away from SheldonBoy though, who I think does an amazing job with the handheld access provided by his Blackberry Phone.
And what a brilliant use of time spent on buses, no shouting just a bit of discrete typing and he can amuse and be amused for hours on this forum.
I have tried with a small Dell device in the past, local wireless network access only, but I feel so claustrophobic about the small screen, I like a full window in view at once, that I just can't use them.

Voltman

Voltman

Over the years since my ZX80 I have gone through the whole range of computers from the ZX81 with it's wobbly add on memory through Amstrad, Atari, and so on getting a little better and more technical each time until today.

The thing that annoys me most is the way we are conned, by the time each upgrade is released they have got the next one in stock awaiting a release date. But there is no way that they will jump the gun and leapfrog over an update because of the millions that would be lost in sales.

As for drivers on mobile phones, yes they do worry me, the ones who slow down to 20 m.p.h. worry me but not half as much as the ones who take corners at 50.m.p.h. with a mobile in one hand and a drink in the other.

Phil

Now that's bad, drinking and driving. I tried but most of it gets spilt on the 3rd time round an island and as I spill most of my drink just sitting at a table I decided it wasn't for me.

The other thing with increasing power of the PC hardware is that the software, particularly windows, gets bigger and more resource hungry and gobbles up all the extra oomph you've just forked out for, thus making you want to upgrade. I've learnt to to take a back seat in the power game and stopped buying the latest kit.
That said, I don't think PCs have ever been cheaper, you paid £1500 for your first and got next to nothing, now a good spec machine costs less than the £400 plus VAT I once paid for RAM. I forget whether it was 4Mb or 16Mb but I can remember when it came down to £25 a Meg so I suppose it was 16Mb. I don't know what I was thinking.

Voltman

At the moment I am still using a temporary back up machine which is not a patch on my regular machine, my computer crashed shortly before Christmas and I have been using this since that time. My son won't allow me to go out and buy a new one on my own because he thinks I am incapable when it comes to computers. The trouble because of a recent promotion at work he is finding it hard to get the time when we can both go looking together.

As I can make do with this one I am not pushing it. The trouble is if this one goes I will loose my extensive library of photos of old Birmingham as I have no way of backing up the drive. I think I am going to have to buy a external back up drive.

Phil

Phil
I think the external drive is a good idea. You should always have at least two good copies of everything, especially if the files are the culmination of years of saving.
Personally I prefer the simple drive in a box type, as opposed to ones with fancy automatic backup and encryption features, they can be more trouble than they are worth.

Myself, I back up everything all over the shop because you never know when the hardware is going to fail.
There are 6 hard drives sitting on my desk right now, 4 of them are cased up and ready to use, between them all they contain backups of my business accounts, documents, spreadsheets and panel drawings, photo's, music, programs, and general crap. Everything appears on at least 2 drives, not to mention on one or other of the 2 (new) drives in my PC.
I know it sounds a bit over the top but at least I don't have to worry about losing anything.

I used to back up to CD Rom then later is was DVD Rom but now I only do it occasionally because the capacities are too low.
I also discovered that these optical discs get a bit choosy which drive they want to be read in and after 10 years or so some of them become completely unreadable. I put a DVD on the window sill once for a few months just to see what happened, it became unreadable.

Incidentally, never scrap a machine with the hard drive still in it.
Firstly, it may not be faulty so it can be cased up and used as a backup drive or put into a new PC as a D: or E: drive.
Secondly, it is really easy to take them apart and get the magnets out, and these are quite something on some drives.
Thirdly, it will contain personal data and even faulty drives can sometimes be made to yield their contents.

Voltman

Iv'e got to agree with Volty, I have two external drives both of them have about 12000 of my Photo's and around 16000 music tracks. If I lost them I just couldn't start again. Both computers carry the pictures too. SB

I have been out today and purchased a drive caddy. I am now in the process of downloading the two drives out of my old machine on to this machine. When that is done I will wipe one of the drives and keep it for a back up of my photos.

So when I get my new machine, I will have information stored on this machine, my new machine and two back up drives. I should think that will be enough back up.

Phil

It really is a good idea phil. SB

I never keep anything, I have nothing of importance on my 2 computers, and any software I have installed can always be put on a new machine.

John

Surely you have something on file, that would trouble you if you lost that file. I now have in excess of 18,000 photos of Birmingham. Now I have got them all in one place again I am going through them sorting them out in to districts and removing duplications. It's quite a marathon task.

If I were to loose them, I don't think I could start again.

Phil

Phil

Might I suggest that you don't wipe any drives until you have to.
You haven't got your new PC yet.

Voltman

Phil,
There is absolutly nothing that I keep, not even photographs now, have lots pics before digital, but that's it.

Voltman

It's Ok I have no intention of wiping any drives until they are safely backed up and installed to my new machine. I have to wait for permission to do that from my son. I know what the problem is. He wants to build me a new one himself like he usually does, but due to other commitments he just cant find the time.

This is a good little machine that I am using and it's great for the internet but the lack of a decent graphics card makes it a bit naff for anything else. I suppose I could go out and buy a reasonable graphic card cheaply enough but it seems a waste of money when its only a back up.

Phil

It's Election Time.

Candidates for the position of Brummies Talking, Technical Expert.

A...Voltman
B...Voltman
C...Voltman

I propose Voltman, anyone to second please.

I may prove as reliable as an Indian Call Centre.
Vote with care.