The International Cessna 170 Association

My workplace just hired two more IT specialists....both Microsoft ex-pats... who informed us that MS knows they have screwed up with Windows 8....and they're struggling with what to do about it.

I HATE this &%$*$^%$ thing!

ron74887 wrote:Dell, I am going thru the same exact thing-- a coonass and an arky trying to get into to computer century!!!!!! the one thing I have found out is the touch pad has way to many touch points. the clock pops up cause you are touching the right side of the touch pad and moving inboard- wait til you have completed an entire report and touch it in the wrong place and swoosh it disappears to God knows where!!!!! and the number pad on the right puts that touchpad right in the palm (thumb joint) area of your hands and causes all that crap. (touching it somewhere when you move to type) i move my hands the other day and had 5 -6 old things open up on the top of the screen that i lost -still don't know how or where the hell they are?? You can't even put a note pad down to stop it. It will activate the touch pad too. It is hell trying to type and keep your thumb joint off the pad. It all happens by accident and someone told me I could adjust the sensitivity of the pad but since I don't know S--- i have not found that place. My son ordered me one with swipe log in (it reads my index finger instead of a password) really something this coonass needed. also for info you can open up to 4 screens at the same time and switch between them to work. if you figure that out it would be helpful doing estimates look at cost and then type that into and outgoing email/letter. I am not sure I like it and he told me I could have his Mac cause he told me it would drive me up the wall. One thing he is going to do for me is get me cables to hook up my desktop screen and keyboard so somehow I can keep this thing closed and use what I think I know I know for sure it will do way more than I will ever need it to do --plain old self correcting typewriter would do! Ron

I've been playing with this thing all weekend, and I finally figured out (by accident ) that the far right side of the mouse pad was causing many of my problems. I think I hate it. No, I'm sure I hate it. I'm thinking Doc Holliday, "I'm your huckleberry?"
Problem is, after that wild crazy man destroyed my Windows 7 lap top monitor , I was blessed to have given to me a NOS desk top PC with Windows Vista (it was a bittersweet gift). It just doesn't work with many of the vendor websites I frequent. Such as ordering parts and hardware. It is incompatible with a lot of what I do, so here I am trying to make this mistake work. Really, money is not a concern at this point; never was, I just want something that works. If I can't make this POC work then I'm all for trying MAC. I like my iPhone. Always have.
So what advice would you guys give me in my shopping for a new tool? I know some may ask what my purpose for a computer is, so I'll explain best I can................
1) I don't do facebook or any other social media
2) I have never posted a youtube, although I have watch some posted here and on other sites. It's not my thing, but me and the kids have been caught red handed watching old footage of Red Skelton
3) All of my "Favorites" are business related. I have a couple favorites that are agriculture related, but that's it.
4) I have a photobucket account, but I only use it so I can post pictures on 2 websites that are ag related (pics of my cattle and forage)

I think my needs are pretty simple, so I only need a simple computer. But I need a lot of "storage capacity". I think they call that GB's. I take a lot of pictures at the hangar for my needs and those of my customers. I cache these pictures and 337's and log entries so that I can retrieve them and reference them at a later date, sometimes a much later date. I had a person call me a few days ago needing a lost 337 form (from 2006). I found it in my paper file and sent a copy to him, but it would be easier to send via email. Problem was, back then I cached my data on floppy disc. Who knew? I even just bought an external floppy drive so I could transfer historical data to this new computer. That has been a challenge. It seems something amiss, I'm pizzed

Well, I think I must be from a different planet. I recently bought an Acer laptop for 400 bucks with Windows 8, because Microsoft has dropped support for XP. I made friends with 8 pretty quickly after installing Classic Start, an open-source freebie that gives you what ever kind of start button you want. I set it up to emulate Windows 7. I don't have a touch screen, and I never use the "Metro" interface or any of the touchscreen apps. 8 is extremely stable, and is on and ready to go instantly from sleep mode as soon as I enter the laptop's password. The OS is always fast and responsive. Except for the missing Start button (very easily remedied), I think they've done a lot of things right with this one.

I've never owned or used a Mac. They've always been way too expensive compared to PCs, and I've always had some software I wanted to use that wouldn't run on a Mac. Hard to beat what I found for $400.

I guess this is an off-color note in this discussion, but I just couldn't keep quiet!

John

jrenwick wrote:Well, I think I must be from a different planet....
I guess this is an off-color note in this discussion, but I just couldn't keep quiet!

John

N.S.A. has been notified about you.

gahorn wrote:
N.S.A. has been notified about you.

Heh. NSA probably knew about it before I wrote it!

Ryan Smith wrote:A couple of years ago, I used to say that I love Apple for everything, but I'll never own a Mac. Now, after having owned one, I'll never own a PC again.

You never need to worry about what created a file on a Mac. You can open almost anything! Spell check is built-in, without installing a single program!
Ryan, what about a MacBook Air? That'll be my next computer!

What it takes to Outfit an Airplane with Wi-Fi

http://supersabresociety.us8.list-manag ... 2eae4232b7

That's interesting John. That would explain what that antenna on top of some Southwest 737's I have seen is. Wonder what the per unit cost is to equip a plane with wi-fi? What airlines have to do to satisfy customers. If it weren't for competition the customers could just wait until they get to their destination to use the laptops, i-pads, cell phones, etc. We all somehow managed to get along just fine without all of that capability once upon a time. How about it Dick?

Dick, will answer as soon as the gets to Starbuck's (orders a Moca Frappuccino) and uses their Wi-Fi link for his I-phone!

There was a time before infinite connectivity? Quick, someone grab them. They've not had their memories erased yet.

Seriously though, I wish that I could get rid of my phone and computer sometimes...but then I wouldn't have anything left to do but go outside.

Aryana wrote: I can get within 1/10 of a mile accuracy with my cheapo sextant. Batteries never run out and it always has service. Well, unless it's cloudy, LOL!

This one?

Aryana wrote:Best thing ever is being offshore far enough in a little sailboat where there is no more cell service. I've even turned off the GPS and tried my hand at celestial navigation. Fun stuff and I can get within 1/10 of a mile accuracy with my cheapo sextant. Batteries never run out and it always has service. Well, unless it's cloudy, LOL!

Wow! I did some celestial navigation 20 years ago, and was happy if I could get within 1/4 mile accuracy with a decent brass sextant. Reducing the sighting to a direction and offset is the tricky part. Do you use tables for that, or a calculator? I never saw a process so fraught with opportunities for error!

Aryana wrote:Would never have thought HF sold that too!

The HF version seems to be purely decorative, not a precision device. I think I'd want to check out the filters very carefully before shooting the sun with it!

jrenwick wrote:The HF version seems to be purely decorative, not a precision device.

Isn't that true of everything at HF?

I once shot the stars from the front seat of a Bonanza. It took me about 30 minutes, and after the HP45 was finished cranking on my data, it said I was about 60 miles off. My friend Ed, who ferries airplanes to Africa, said that was pretty good; you just have to navigate well enough to hit Namibia instead of Angola.

Aryana wrote:I cheated John...I had a laptop which let me plug in my sightings and it did all the rest. I figured I wanted to learn how to use the sextant, not practice my math!

Ah! So your point that the batteries never run out, while true, was a little disingenuous, wasn't it?
Now, go get yourself an almanac and a set of tables, go back out there without the laptop and have the real experience. See if you can still get within 1/10 mile!