Rob Mccart wrote to DUMAS WALKER <=-

I got quite a few machines over the years when I was working on
computer repair and updates. People I'd helped out would give me their
old machines for free when they upgraded. Usually I could upgrade those
a little and get a few more years out of them.

The golden age for me was my first corporate job. My boss really wasn't
technically minded and made bad decisions. Modems that didn't error
correct ended up in a box in a storage room. AT-based cash register
systems lasted a few months before the 386-based systems came out. Lots
of one-off systems like an Olivetti PC and a Compaq Portable II they
tried out and ditched.

When I was asked to clean out the storage room and toss everything in
the "dumpster", it felt like Christmas day to me. :)

One time I got a desktop computer that was only a couple of years old which had originally cost about $4500. It was a lot better than my computer was and looked like the deal of a lifetime. The guy I got
it from said it was constantly overheating and they were fed up
with it stopping in the middle of big jobs.

I thought I was going to luck out because I immediately noticed
that the main fan in the back of the system was not running, and
further checking showed that it had needed an adaptor to hook up
to the motherboard which was never installed. I fixed it and
played with it some but eventually it seemed that the overheating
had damaged the motherboard too and, long story short, I ended
up mainly using it for parts rather than rebuild a machine that
was a lot bigger and faster than I really needed..

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Ogg wrote to Rob Mccart <=-

We did but I think that was in Grade 1.. B)

But.. today, young kids get advance access to laptops/tablets.

We're one step closer to Idiocracy evey day - pushing icons on a touch
screen.



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I basically use "rlone sync" at the top level My Documents

>every once in a while. The process traverses the whole sub-
>tree and only sends the latest/newest files. Mind you, the
>first use of the transfer took a while since My Documents is
>several GB. But now, occassional use goes much faster.

That sounds pretty good. I had a similar option with Sync.com
if I wanted to install the App to automate what ends up on it
using the one folder and sub-folders.

I saw there is a free version of RClone.. Is that what you are
using or a better paid option?

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Funny, I remember in Grade 3 I think the teacher saying my
handwriting was so bad that I had to recopy all my notes
in one subject..

I'd take notes in Forkner shorthand in class, and later in my

>residence room rewrite it into full form. That helped in the
>"study" method.

In Grade 3 ? B)

I never learned short hand, never saw a need. My sister took it
in school, and typing, but not I..

I further learned that you can copy text all day long
while being 'vegged out' and you don't retain anything of
it.. B)

Yeah.. I can imagine a rebel take that stance. :D

I wasn't actually trying to not learn anything, I was just copying
the words without really reading them..

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I didn't have any shorthand classes in school, and I didn't know standardized

>orthand was actually a thing.. I had my own shorthand I sometimes used for n
>s, which worked for me because I understood what I had written.

I do that too.. and then a while later I have to try to sort out what
I was trying to say.. B)

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When I learned cursive (in 4th grade), I remember learning that teachers & in

>uctors in later years would want us to use cursive for basically all of our w
>ing. So I tended to write in cursive after that. When I was in 7th grade, m
>nglish teacher said he wanted me to switch to writing in regular (non-cursive
>riting because he had a hard time reading my cursive. :) So then I decided
>never use cursive again (except for signing my name).

I haven't done anything but Print since I left school, other than for a signature. My writing wasn't too terrible but I just didn't stick with it. Possibly some can write a lot faster than they can print things out but
I find that speed means sloppy, regardless of what I use..

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Did you ever actually read your notes?

The only reason I ever took notes in school, which I quickly stopped by the

>way, was because I saw other people doing it. I never went back to read those
>notes and all I had to do was listen to the teacher blab about whatever it wa
>Maybe notes were for people that didn't want to pay attention? I dunno. I lik
>cracking jokes at/during the 'lessons'.

You have a point there.. I didn't take too many notes and, when exams
were coming, I saw it as an opportunity to get a lot more hours at work
when everyone else wanted time off. I never really studied and mostly
only did homework that was going to be checked or was worth marks.

I remember when the SAT's were coming up in grade 12 I was getting
hours and hours of overtime while everyone else was taking sample
tests or hiring tutors to get better marks for University placement.

My best friend at the time said I was crazy to not be studying hours
and hours after school but, in the end, I scored a 94 percentile so I
guess I didn't really need it. (Think 1500 on max 1600 SAT's in USA)

My friend was especially miffed about that since I scored a lot
higher than he did.. B)

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Re: The Decline of PCs
By: Rob Mccart to NIGHTFOX on Sat Dec 27 2025 09:09 am

I haven't done anything but Print since I left school, other than for a signature. My writing wasn't too terrible but I just didn't stick with it. Possibly some can write a lot faster than they can print things out but I find that speed means sloppy, regardless of what I use..

One of the arguments my 7th-grade English teacher said when telling me not to use cursive anymore was that it's actually quicker to write with standard print than with cursive because there are fewer strokes you need to make.

Nightfox

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One time I got a desktop computer that was only a couple of years old

>> which had originally cost about $4500. It was a lot better than my
>> computer was and looked like the deal of a lifetime.
>> I thought I was going to luck out because I immediately noticed
>> that the main fan in the back of the system was not running, and
>> further checking showed that it had needed an adaptor to hook up
>> to the motherboard which was never installed. I fixed it and
>> played with it some but eventually it seemed that the overheating
>> had damaged the motherboard too and, long story short, I ended
>> up mainly using it for parts rather than rebuild a machine that
>> was a lot bigger and faster than I really needed..

That is too bad. Would have been nice if you could have got away with

>replacing or plugging the fan back in.

I did replace the fan right away, but the system would spontaneously
reboot without notice every once in a while which caused more trouble
than it was worth, and a new motherboard would not have been cheap
to give me a computer far more powerful than I really needed.

I had a machine I used for a few years that I found sitting out on garbage

>day. Not sure what, if anything, the previous owner thought was wrong with
>it, other than it had Win XP on it, which was a little old at the time. It
>seemed to be working fine. I eventually put Linux on it and got a few more
>years out of it.

I put one working computer out on garbage day long ago just because it
was older and not worth much. In the past couple of years I cleaned
out a lot of my old spare systems and a number of machines that needed
only one relatively inexpensive part got 'recycled' too. At some point
you have to stop hoarding everything you outgrow or take in or buy
a bigger house.. B)

---
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The golden age for me was my first corporate job. My boss really wasn't

> technically minded and made bad decisions. Modems that didn't error
> correct ended up in a box in a storage room. AT-based cash register
> systems lasted a few months before the 386-based systems came out. Lots
> of one-off systems like an Olivetti PC and a Compaq Portable II they
> tried out and ditched.

When I was asked to clean out the storage room and toss everything in

> the "dumpster", it felt like Christmas day to me. :)

One of my best and oldest friends worked for CN/CP Telecom, which
later became Sprint in Canada and he was their main computer guy.
He had access to all their equipment that became obsolete or
unsuitable for some reason. He always came up with good parts and
used systems to give me when we got together..

---
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I put one working computer out on garbage day long ago just because it
was older and not worth much. In the past couple of years I cleaned
out a lot of my old spare systems and a number of machines that needed
only one relatively inexpensive part got 'recycled' too. At some point
you have to stop hoarding everything you outgrow or take in or buy
a bigger house.. B)

No joke. I eventually went to parting out and/or e-cycling most of what I
had around. I few old cases became risers on my basement floor. A mini
fridge sits on an empty old pentium case, for example. :D

Mike


* SLMR 2.1a * It's 1000. Do you know what time it is?
---
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Hello Rob Mccart!

** On Saturday 27.12.25 - 09:09, Rob Mccart wrote to OGG:

I'd take notes in Forkner shorthand in class, and later in my

residence room rewrite it into full form. That helped in the
"study" method.

In Grade 3 ? B)

Of course not. Forkner was in highshool, pre-computer, post-
cursive.

I never learned short hand, never saw a need. My sister
took it in school, and typing, but not I..

Short-hand was kinda fun. It was easy to document someone's
full converstation. I took typing too - that served at
university as well since home computers were still not common
then.

One student in my univ. residence had the habit of transcribing
his handwritten notes in class to type-written notes. That
seemed to be a fine way to revisit/study one's notes.

I further learned that you can copy text all day long
while being 'vegged out' and you don't retain anything of
it.. B)

Yeah.. I can imagine a rebel take that stance. :D

I wasn't actually trying to not learn anything, I was just
copying the words without really reading them..

I knew student that would often fall asleep in class. But he
seemed to pull things off and got high grades and went on for a
Masters.


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Hello Rob!

** On Saturday 27.12.25 - 09:09, Rob Mccart wrote to OGG:

I basically use "rlone sync" at the top level My Documents

every once in a while. The process traverses the whole sub-

That sounds pretty good. I had a similar option with
Sync.com if I wanted to install the App to automate what
ends up on it using the one folder and sub-folders.

Rclone doesn't require any special "app" or web-interface/
login. It's just a new cmd-line tool.

I saw there is a free version of RClone.. Is that what you
are using or a better paid option?

I am only aware of one, free:

https://rclone.org/downloads/




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Re: Re: The Decline of PCs
By: Dumas Walker to ROB MCCART on Sun Dec 28 2025 09:42 am

I put one working computer out on garbage day long ago
just because it was older and not worth much. In the past couple
of years I cleaned out a lot of my old spare systems and a number
of machines that needed only one relatively inexpensive part got 'recycled' too. At some point you have to stop hoarding everything
you outgrow or take in or buy a bigger house.. B)

No joke. I eventually went to parting out and/or e-cycling most of
what I had around. I few old cases became risers on my basement
floor. A mini fridge sits on an empty old pentium case, for example.
:D

when i was a kid my dream was to have a room full of 7 ft tables with computers on them. now that i'm old i got rid of most of my computers. i'm just running one and i have 2 or 2 in a tub.
---
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No joke. I eventually went to parting out and/or e-cycling most of
what I had around. I few old cases became risers on my basement
floor. A mini fridge sits on an empty old pentium case, for example.
:D

when i was a kid my dream was to have a room full of 7 ft tables with computers on them. now that i'm old i got rid of most of my computers. i'm just running one and i have 2 or 2 in a tub.

Yeah, I remember thinking something like that would be a neat idea. Now,
what I could plan to do with all of those machines, who knows?!? :D


* SLMR 2.1a * God must love the common man; He made so many of them.
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I haven't done anything but Print since I left school, other than for a signature.

One of the arguments my 7th-grade English teacher said when telling me not

>to use cursive anymore was that it's actually quicker to write with standard
>print than with cursive because there are fewer strokes you need to make.

That would be true of what I think of as True cursive. A lot of extra
ink in almost every character.. Plain writing would go a lot faster but
most people who use it get sloppy with speed and it gets harder to read.
At least with printing most people can make out what you were saying.

---
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Re: The Decline of PCs
By: Rob Mccart to OGG on Thu Dec 25 2025 09:07 am

Looking briefly at the RClone info online it appears to be a
tool to Handle other Cloud accounts and your devices rather
than being a cloud storage system itself, although I'd imagine
it must offer some degree of that..

Rclone is just a tool for moving data in and out of any supported storage backend. This can be your FTP server, some mainstream cloud provider, or whatever have you.

Rclone does not provide storage itself.


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In the past couple of years I cleaned

>> out a lot of my old spare systems and a number of machines that needed
>> only one relatively inexpensive part got 'recycled' too. At some point
>> you have to stop hoarding everything you outgrow or take in or buy
>> a bigger house.. B)

No joke. I eventually went to parting out and/or e-cycling most of what I

>had around. I few old cases became risers on my basement floor. A mini
>fridge sits on an empty old pentium case, for example. :D

Ha.. For ages I had a huge Server system with 5 full sized bays but
the hardware eventually got too old to mess with anymore and for
a number of years it ended up being an end table beside my main
computer desk. Sitting on the floor it was as tall as the desk.

---
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One student in my univ. residence had the habit of transcribing

>his handwritten notes in class to type-written notes. That
>seemed to be a fine way to revisit/study one's notes.

I never seemed to have time to do things once, let along twice.. B)

I knew student that would often fall asleep in class. But he

>seemed to pull things off and got high grades and went on for a
>Masters.

Ha.. I once had a chemistry teacher yell at me in class that I
shouldn't disturb the other students because not everyone can
get 80's on tests without paying attention.. B)

My disturbing the class was when I yelped when the guy beside
me took a hot Bunsen Burner and laid it across the back of my
hand as a 'joke'. I didn't turn him in but I ended up with a
wicked blister on my hand. He apologized later saying he didn't
think it had been quite that hot..

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Re: The Decline of PCs
By: Nightfox to Rob Mccart on Sat Dec 27 2025 11:06:39

One of the arguments my 7th-grade English teacher said when telling me not to use cursive anymore was that it's actually quicker to write with standard print than with cursive because there are fewer strokes you need to make.

And I heard the exact opposite. Cursive is faster because all lower-case letters flow from one to another, so you don't have to raise/lower your writing implement as much. It's all relative to the individual.

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Rob Mccart wrote to DUMAS WALKER <=-

Ha.. For ages I had a huge Server system with 5 full sized bays but
the hardware eventually got too old to mess with anymore and for
a number of years it ended up being an end table beside my main
computer desk. Sitting on the floor it was as tall as the desk.

One of the BBS's systems in the 90s was a cast-off 486 server that came
in a desktop case as tall as a table. Locking front door, some unreal
number of 5 1/4" drive bays, and casters to move it around. I don't
think I had more than a single IDE drive and a tape drive in it.

I should have kept the case...



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Ha.. For ages I had a huge Server system with 5 full sized bays but
the hardware eventually got too old to mess with anymore and for
a number of years it ended up being an end table beside my main
computer desk. Sitting on the floor it was as tall as the desk.

One of the BBS's systems in the 90s was a cast-off 486 server that came

>in a desktop case as tall as a table. Locking front door, some unreal
>number of 5 1/4" drive bays, and casters to move it around. I don't
>think I had more than a single IDE drive and a tape drive in it.

Sounds similar to mine, although I didn't have casters on mine or a
locking front door. Mine was a 386 system originally. I would have
had two 5.25 floppy drives in it and I think a 32 meg (updated from
a 10 meg) hard drive. I remember having to custom make my own cables
so I could get a Mouse to work on it..

This would have been around 1988 or 89.

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