Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[gtmalone]

Toward the end of the PC-AT era I had developed a cardboard keyboard for our suite of office applications, Lotus 1-2-3, pfs: Write, CEO (Comprehensive Electronic Office), AutoCAD, etc. Our IT dept. loved it, but they sent me to IT HQ to see the new keyboards coming out with F1-F12 across the top instead F1-F10 on the left. Saw a lotta cool stuff coming down the pike at that time. When I got back home to rework the template for the new keyboard I couldn't get a new 386 machine, but I could, and did, order a Hauppauge 386 motherboard to replace my IBM AT motherboard and an Omni keyboard, too!

View attachment 4243791​

Memories, light the corners of my mind... The original PC. The company I where I worked at the time bought two of them at about $5K each circa 1981. No HDD but had the 5250 emulation card to connect to the System/34.

IBM always had great keyboard feel on all their stuff at least since I started in IT.

 

[Deleted member 268085]

The old hardline typesetter gals could knock out a double truck tire ad like nobody's business. What I made my business is knowing what these ladies do, so you know I show them something and that's how this fairy tale ends.

The reality is people made those typesetting machines sing like musical instruments.

Yup. Right up to the point where they became redundant along with mechanical typesetting.

I knew a guy in Chicago who worked for International Harvester (then Navistar). He was one of the world's best hydraulic system designers, working primarily on new farm equipment design. After several decades, a software program was released that did his job for him. He became 100% redundant, industry-wide, overnight. It was such a technical skill that he couldn't repurpose it. I felt so bad for him. But s**t happens.

 

[gtmalone]

Replaced the Formica on the BBQ cabinet today. The new Dremel saw worked great!

This is the cornerstone piece in my fence board line of furniture.

 

[steve_rolfeca]

Memories, light the corners of my mind... The original PC. The company I where I worked at the time bought two of them at about $5K each circa 1981. No HDD but had the 5250 emulation card to connect to the System/34.

I started working for a Canadian telcom provider in 1982.

One of the other techs on my floor bought a first-gen PC, complete with an external cassette tape drive for program storage. None of those sissy-boy floppy drives at that point. It had a green screen, and set him back $6K.

The rest of us were dead jealous, as we were stuck playing around with prototype boards with hex data entry and Sinclair ZX80's...

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Replaced the Formica on the BBQ cabinet today. The new Dremel saw worked great!

This is the cornerstone piece in my fence board line of furniture.

View attachment 4243876

I owned one of those little Weber gassers. I had the fold-up cart made for it. Great for tailgating!

 

[beans-on-toast]

An interesting historical perspective:

Microsoft MS-DOS early source code - CHM

I used micro-computers running CP/M, then used PC-DOS and MS-DOS. The source code was around 14,000 lines. Less that UNIX. All was very simple, unlike today.

 

[GwenOnBass]

Losing verticality here. Does nothing for my BMI calculation

Went straight to the lab from radiology. Late afternoon means kiosk-only check-in. The computer doesn't recognize me. Drive to the main hospital, where the computer recognizes me. Help myself to a large cappuccino on the way out
<slurp>

Something I did not know: the bone density calculations they make apparently factors my age at menopause

edit. results are in. Moderate risk of bone fracture.

 

[gtmalone]

I owned one of those little Weber gassers. I had the fold-up cart made for it. Great for tailgating!

Great small grill. We have the cart but don't use it anymore. It's plenty big enough for anything we would cook. It will hold a good sized roast or a rack of ribs. I showed a pic of it to a friend who said "What are you going to cook on that little thing?" You would have to know the person but let's just say everything they bought was bigger or better than whatever you had.

 

[gtmalone]

This is nuts:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M9318234565

This is the model home in a small subdivision that was started about 2 yrs ago. Most of the homes are about 500-700. This one is about 300 above the price of all of the other homes. Yes, it's fully loaded with options but 300 higher than the others? These homes are also in an area where existing homes are 300-ish. Someone will probably buy it and wouldn't be surprised if it sells close to asking or above. It's right on a busy road and across from the high school, ball fields, and our $60M football stadium. Whatever works for you I suppose.

I sound like a grumpy old fart...and proud of it! lol.

 

[SoulReflection]

I owned one of those little Weber gassers. I had the fold-up cart made for it. Great for tailgating!

Still have mine. Great size for a couple of GOF's, cooks great, small size, use it at home and in the RV. My big one, from Costco, is waiting for BBQ's after this COVID .

 

[beans-on-toast]

Losing verticality here. Does nothing for my BMI calculation

Went straight to the lab from radiology. Late afternoon means kiosk-only check-in. The computer doesn't recognize me. Drive to the main hospital, where the computer recognizes me. Help myself to a large cappuccino on the way out
<slurp>

Something I did not know: the bone density calculations they make apparently factors my age at menopause

edit. results are in. Moderate risk of bone fracture.

We all shrink with age, except for nose and ears. Hunching over a computer doesn’t help either. Rounded over upper back is common.

 

[beans-on-toast]

This is nuts:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M9318234565

This is the model home in a small subdivision that was started about 2 yrs ago. Most of the homes are about 500-700. This one is about 300 above the price of all of the other homes. Yes, it's fully loaded with options but 300 higher than the others? These homes are also in an area where existing homes are 300-ish. Someone will probably buy it and wouldn't be surprised if it sells close to asking or above. It's right on a busy road and across from the high school, ball fields, and our $60M football stadium. Whatever works for you I suppose.

I sound like a grumpy old fart...and proud of it! lol.

Yes it is nuts. Maybe they are hoping that a football player will buy it. Note the length of the tubs. In a different location, that property could sell for way more, in the millions.

 

[Charlie Tango]

This is nuts:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M9318234565

This is the model home in a small subdivision that was started about 2 yrs ago. Most of the homes are about 500-700. This one is about 300 above the price of all of the other homes. Yes, it's fully loaded with options but 300 higher than the others? These homes are also in an area where existing homes are 300-ish. Someone will probably buy it and wouldn't be surprised if it sells close to asking or above. It's right on a busy road and across from the high school, ball fields, and our $60M football stadium. Whatever works for you I suppose.

I sound like a grumpy old fart...and proud of it! lol.

I call those things neo-eclectic monstrosities. Lots of them around here. Typical American look-at-me -- brick or stone facade, siding on the other three sides. All sizzle, no steak; or, if you will, all hat and no cattle. Stupid high entrance foyer ceilings -- yeah, run up that heating bill! And higher ceilings throughout. Non-standard window sizes -- bigger, of course, so hey, those plain drapes cost HOW much??? Around here, because they replace torn-down modest-sized older houses, they're too big for the lot they're on, they get a zoning variance and they're so close together you can hear your neighbor f@rt. And your neighbor's house fire is now your fire.

 

[GwenOnBass]

I call those things neo-eclectic monstrosities. Lots of them around here. Typical American look-at-me -- brick or stone facade, siding on the other three sides. All sizzle, no steak; or, if you will, all hat and no cattle. Stupid high entrance foyer ceilings -- yeah, run up that heating bill! And higher ceiling throughout. Non-standard window sizes -- bigger, of course, so hey, those plain drapes cost HOW much??? Around here, because they replace torn-down modest-sized older houses, so they're too big for the lot they're on, they get a zoning variance and they're so close together you can hear your neighbor f@rt. And your neighbor's house fire is now your fire.

Good eye. McMansion?

 

[notJaco]

Losing verticality here. Does nothing for my BMI calculation
Something I did not know: the bone density calculations they make apparently factors my age at menopause
edit. results are in. Moderate risk of bone fracture.

Might ask where this guy gets his clothing made;

 

[gtmalone]

Good eye. McMansion?

View attachment 4244162​

Hey, now. I like the house for cars! There are a number of houses in the area where the guest house is probably larger than our whole house.

 

[alaskaleftybass]

Losing verticality here. Does nothing for my BMI calculation

Went straight to the lab from radiology. Late afternoon means kiosk-only check-in. The computer doesn't recognize me. Drive to the main hospital, where the computer recognizes me. Help myself to a large cappuccino on the way out
<slurp>

Something I did not know: the bone density calculations they make apparently factors my age at menopause

edit. results are in. Moderate risk of bone fracture.

Moderate is better than high risk.

This is nuts:
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M9318234565

This is the model home in a small subdivision that was started about 2 yrs ago. Most of the homes are about 500-700. This one is about 300 above the price of all of the other homes. Yes, it's fully loaded with options but 300 higher than the others? These homes are also in an area where existing homes are 300-ish. Someone will probably buy it and wouldn't be surprised if it sells close to asking or above. It's right on a busy road and across from the high school, ball fields, and our $60M football stadium. Whatever works for you I suppose.

I sound like a grumpy old fart...and proud of it! lol.

That looks like a prop home in one of those zillion made for TV Lifetime Channel mystery movies. For just myself and Carey that's about 75% more than we'd ever use. God help the person paying the fuel bills and cleaning staff. The one good thing about those kinds of homes is they provide many hiding places so when the villain in a Lifetime movie crashes through the front door the victim has plenty of places to hide! They never seem to remember to grab their cell phone or wireless to call 911 though!

 

[GonePlaid]

Replaced the Formica on the BBQ cabinet today. The new Dremel saw worked great!

This is the cornerstone piece in my fence board line of furniture.

View attachment 4243876

 

[gtmalone]

I owned one of those little Weber gassers. I had the fold-up cart made for it. Great for tailgating!

I overlooked your "gasser" comment. Did you mean something like this?
Top 10 Gassers

I like the altereds, too.
Fuel Altereds Forever! A Look Back at the Heyday of These Wild & Wooly Wheelstanders & Tire Fryers

Stick an engine between your legs and go fast!

 

[steve_rolfeca]

An interesting historical perspective:

Microsoft MS-DOS early source code - CHM

I used micro-computers running CP/M, then used PC-DOS and MS-DOS. The source code was around 14,000 lines. Less that UNIX. All was very simple, unlike today.

I got into an amazing amount of #@%! once because of MS-DOS.

I was a shift manager on the plant floor of a big telecom facility down by the CN tower, and we were given one of the first personal computers in the operations department. It had a colour (CGA!!!) screen, and two 5 1/4" floppy drives. I used to get bored out of my mind on the off-shifts, and tried to stay out of trouble by teaching myself Basic on the side.

One night, I happened to notice that the opening screens of Lotus 123 used simple 4-colour CGA text. Just for the heck of it, I copied the screen layouts, and programmed them to pop up in the same order.

Then it occurred to me that it would be amusing to prank the guy on the next shift by having a warning message flash on the screen. I decided to make it look as though he'd inadvertently violated Lotus' oppressive copy protection:

• After a couple of normal-looking boot screens, I posted one with lots of flashing text, and a sternly-worded warning that Piracy would not be tolerated.
  
• For the next page, I popped up a line on screen that said something like DIE, PIRATE!!!!!, followed by "Now deleting all files on A:\" and the name of one of the DOS directories.
  
• My piece de resistance was a query that listed the files on the floppy drive.
  
• I looped that a few times, changing the name of the directory each time.

This looked pretty convincing, because the light on the drive would flash after each "deleting all files" line.

I buried my program in another directory. In order to finish it off, I had one of the first lines in the program delete the auto-run script for it, then restore the auto-run script for Lotus 123.

All that was necessary after that, was to substitute my autorun script for the regular one.

I set it all up just before the end of shift, turned off the computer, and waited for my buddy to arrive for the day shift. When he came in, I made myself busy while he got settled and fired up the PC.

Sure enough, after the second or third "deleting all files" message, he freaked out and promptly shut the PC down. Of course, when he turned it back on, it fired up as though nothing had happened, which just added to the confusion.

We had a good laugh after I took pity on him and explained what had happened. Of course, he begged me to show him how to prank the next shift. There were 5 of us on a rotating schedule, and everything was fine until the last victim.

Unfortunately when Phil saw the deletion messages come up, he decided to err on the side of caution, and delete everything on the A: drive. To make matters worse, he couldn't find the note with the copy protection password for Lotus, so he couldn't re-install it. At the time, we were using Lotus for just about everything- correspondence, staff scheduling, forms for the wiring records binders, etc.

Rather than letting him get burned at the stake, we all fessed up. As the instigator, I was required to come in on my own time to reload MS-DOS and Lotus, as well as having to painstakingly re-create a bunch of forms that were lost because they'd been stored on the A: drive, instead of B:

IIRC, there were something like 9 or 10 floppies involved just for Lotus. It was right around that time that we started taking regular backups...

Of course, I got a fair amount of street cred for the prank, but it was a year or two before upper management stopped giving me the stinkeye when I showed up for meetings at HQ...