Things That Are Just Annoying

[mlooney 3,417]

6 minutes ago, PSadlon said:

Found the option to turn the McAfee crap off on Dried Mud's Windows versions, on the website when you download, not in the bloody installer like normal.

Yeah, that is what it is on the OS X version as well.

[PSadlon 88]

I appreciate the need for good security in my system as much if not more than the next schmo but options like McAfee & Norton aren't. Too resource intensive.

[mlooney 3,417]

8 minutes ago, PSadlon said:

I appreciate the need for good security in my system as much if not more than the next schmo

Then why aren't you running Linux or OS X. :-)

[PSadlon 88]

Linux wont support the apps I want and the hardware mom could afford as a present wont easily run macOS.

[Scotty 1,061]

8 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

Battery replacement is rather bulletproof with this particular device. You get a flashing red light on top of the mouse when the power is low, and there's no Bluetooth re-linking required after a battery swap.

It's more like having to pull batteries from other devices because someone forgot to get a new pack and the stores are closed.

[Don Edwards 548]

12 hours ago, PSadlon said:

I appreciate the need for good security in my system as much if not more than the next schmo but options like McAfee & Norton aren't. Too resource intensive.

My first contact with Norton (back when Win95 was a new thing), I found it was an EXCELLENT security product. At work I was doing in-house computer tech support, and people were bringing that program in from home to install on their newly-networked work computers. It made our computers so absolutely secure, they could not boot up.

I wiped and re-set-up at least half a dozen computers before we could get word around to NOT DO THAT - and why.

Installing Windows95.

From floppies.

[The Old Hack 2,448]

1 hour ago, Don Edwards said:

Installing Windows95.

From floppies.

Arrrrggghhhhh! I had by now forced memory of the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned floppies away from my mind. At least I had the one consolation that my first ever Win 95 machine had a CD-ROM which made installation of new programs a somewhat less nerve wracking procedure.

[Vorlonagent 442]

2 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

My first contact with Norton (back when Win95 was a new thing), I found it was an EXCELLENT security product. At work I was doing in-house computer tech support, and people were bringing that program in from home to install on their newly-networked work computers. It made our computers so absolutely secure, they could not boot up.

I wiped and re-set-up at least half a dozen computers before we could get word around to NOT DO THAT - and why.

Installing Windows95.

From floppies.

Norton was a decent product when Peter Norton owned it...

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

Arrrrggghhhhh! I had by now forced memory of the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned floppies away from my mind. At least I had the one consolation that my first ever Win 95 machine had a CD-ROM which made installation of new programs a somewhat less nerve wracking procedure.

I was in the wierd situation back in high school of having Windows 95 at home before the high school started upgrading to it. We had the CD-ROM version and I had gotten used to being able to choose an express install and then being able to install the extras just by popping the CD back in and telling it to install media player, or the games or whatever. Then one day I was in my tech class and the teacher asked me if I wanted to help another student build a new computer, I jumped at the opportunity, then after getting it built, was handed a stack of floppies labelled Windows 95, my jaw dropped at the thought that with CD-ROM being more common that the latest OS was still being sold on floppy disks...

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, The Old Hack said:

At least I had the one consolation that my first ever Win 95 machine had a CD-ROM which made installation of new programs a somewhat less nerve wracking procedure.

If you are doing a Windows 3.x or Win95 install on a DOS machine, just copy all the floppies into an install directory using xcopy, then run the install from there.  About 5 times the speed of doing it one floppy at a time.  If it was a virgin machine or hard drive, make a Dos boot floppy, put xcopy and fdisk on the floppy, format the new drive, then do the copy files thing.  If this is useful information to you, I am deeply sorry.

[mlooney 3,417]

1 hour ago, Vorlonagent said:

Norton was a decent product when Peter Norton owned it...

Blessed be the pink shirt and his editor.

Norton Editor was my go to editor for freaking ever.  I still use Midnight Commander, which is a *nix clone of Norton Commander to this day.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

3 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Arrrrggghhhhh! I had by now forced memory of the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned floppies away from my mind.

Try installing OS/2 v2.1 from 5¼" floppies. I literally had to call IBM's Dallas area office and have them send out a tech who helped me put it on a work machine (for testing Apogee games on the DOS side of it). Thank goodness OS/2 Warp (v3) came with a CD.

1 hour ago, mlooney said:

I still use Midnight Commander, which is a *nix clone of Norton Commander to this day.

I went the Windows Commander way (later renamed Total Commander after MS bitched about the name). Still using it (license #224 from back in 1993) and still getting regular updates on it from Christian Ghisler, the original author.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

7 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

Norton was a decent product when Peter Norton owned it...

Bah.  Peter Norton, Ken Norton, Ed and Trixie Norton, All the Nortons have gone downhill since Joshua Norton.

[ijuin 572]

All hail His Excellency, Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico!

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

8 hours ago, Vorlonagent said:

Norton was a decent product when Peter Norton owned it...

I was a PC Tools man myself. Used it with 386Max (later switched to Helix Netroom) and IIT's XtraDrive (instead of Stacker - XtraDrive was faster). I really loved messing around with the old DOS utilities.

[ProfessorTomoe 1,308]

7 hours ago, mlooney said:

Norton Editor was my go to editor for freaking ever.

Forgot about this. I used VEDIT from the days of my first 80286-12 computer in 1992. Now using VEDIT Pro64.

My weirdest software had to be Enable/OA from Enable Software (previously known as The Software Group). It had word processing, database (with programming), and spreadsheet functions. It was the de facto software used by the IRS at the time. Mrs. Prof bought me a copy of it before she let me buy a computer (the little teaser - still, we got an IRS discount on it).

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

16 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

Installing Windows95.

From floppies.

Ah, but are they 5 1/4" floppies?

14 hours ago, The Old Hack said:

Arrrrggghhhhh! I had by now forced memory of the never-to-be-sufficiently-damned floppies away from my mind.

I have fond memories of cutting a notch into the other side of a 5 1/4" floppy to be able to put stuff on the other side.  And of making the drive on my Commodore 64 grind in a way that played a melody.

5 hours ago, ijuin said:

All hail His Excellency, Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico!

All hail!

When TeslaCon had a year set in an International Congress of Steam, and then later one set in the Old West, I was sorely tempted to come as Empress Noreen I, daughter and sole heiress of Emperor Norton I, and see if I could talk some of the dealers into very publicly accepting my own hand-made Official Declaration of Thanks and/or Receipt For Payment of Taxes in return for actual goods and services (which would, of course, be paid for with real money ahead of time -- those artists and crafters work hard for not nearly enough as it is!).  I chickened out, partly for lack of time to assemble a suitably grand-but-shabby costume and create the tax receipts. ;-)

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, CritterKeeper said:

And of making the drive on my Commodore 64 grind in a way that played a melody.

 

Just now, ijuin said:

All hail His Excellency, Norton, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico!

I can tell you that Emperor Norton II reads Dumbing of Age.

[ijuin 572]

Norton the Second? Given the year in which Norton the First passed on, we should be up to at least Norton the Fifth by now?

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

41 minutes ago, ijuin said:

Norton the Second? Given the year in which Norton the First passed on, we should be up to at least Norton the Fifth by now?

That would be if every emperor had the same name.  Emperor Norton, followed by Empress Noreen, followed by the short-lived Emperor Mike, then Emperor Bob, Empress Joan....

[ijuin 572]

Norton, however, was his surname and presumed dynasty name, so Joshua Norton might be followed by Robert Norton, then Edward Norton, etc.

[CritterKeeper 1,102]

An Emperor can choose the name they rule under, but we don't speak of Queen Tudor but of Queen Elizabeth.  If Joshua Norton was his original name, but he chose to rule as Emperor Norton, then Norton is the name he is known as.  He could have chosen to be Emperor Joshua, just as another monarch could have been known as Queen Alexandrina.  Or Queen Hanover, if she had chosen.  Instead, we had the reign of Queen Victoria.

[Pharaoh RutinTutin 1,586]

Ruling names became very dull during the Macedonian dynasty in Egypt.  EVERY male Pharaoh had to be named Ptolemy.  The hand full of Ruling Queens in that period were almost all named Cleopatra.

This was done for the benefit of time travelers.  If you get to Egypt and everyone is speaking Greek, just talk about King Ptolemy until you nail down when you are more precisely.

WARNING:  If you see significant Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman influence in the architecture, clothes, or coins, even if the people are speaking Greek, please be aware that the Ptime of the Ptolemies is over.

[Scotty 1,061]

There's also George Foreman and his five sons, all named George.

From the great Wiki:

Quote

On his website, Foreman explains, "I named all my sons George Edward Foreman so they would always have something in common. I say to them, 'If one of us goes up, then we all go up together, and if one goes down, we all go down together!'"

 

[The Old Hack 2,448]

18 hours ago, Pharaoh RutinTutin said:

Ruling names became very dull during the Macedonian dynasty in Egypt.  EVERY male Pharaoh had to be named Ptolemy.  The hand full of Ruling Queens in that period were almost all named Cleopatra.

Kind of a similar problem in Denmark. For almost a thousand years now every single ruling King we have had has been named either Christian or Frederik. And ALL our ruling queens have been named Margrethe. Both of them.