The Last Days of Windows 7

[msdos622wasfun]

If there's one thing that divides us in half, it's a Windows release. Some people upgrade, some leave well enough alone.

 

[dustywoodworker]

Being totally an 80 year old beginner How do I get my machine to call me to attention when I get an incoming Email

I'm not 80 (only 73) but I'll be watching to see if you get an answer to this. It would be a feature that I turned "ON" immediately.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
I think you can actually do this !!! - at least if you are using outlook.

Set Outlook to retrieve mail automatically (or every xxx mins).
Set Sounds from control panel to Email arrives (New Mail Notification)

Choose the sound you want -- I've set mine to a Dog Barking -- since I'm used to this when I'm at home and the Postman (Yes we still have those) delivers "Snail Mail" --the Dog goes berserk. !!!!

Incidentally I haven't figured it out yet but you can even get the computer to send an sms message to a mobile phone on receiving certain events -- that's a bit too advanced for me (also no longer Young) but I know it's do-able -- I've got colleagues who work in Vodafone (UK) and Proximus (Belgium) who say this is easily done and they use these systems to call their support staff for example if a computer job fails.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[JerometheGiraff]

I won't be upgrading to Win8. The interface for Windows8 makes me feel as though I shouldn't use my brain, no longer to retain knowledge. Why I hope to upgrade to Linux soon and run Windows within Linux.

 

[jimbo45]

I won't be upgrading to Win8. The interface for Windows8 makes me feel as though I shouldn't use my brain, no longer to retain knowledge. Why I hope to upgrade to Linux soon and run Windows within Linux.

Hi there
I'm running a W2K3 Virtual server, a W2008 Virtual server and a W8 x-64 developer edition on SUSE 11.4 using vmware .

I gather Ubuntu is also very Windows VM friendly. You can use VBOX or VMPLAYER at NO COST too - although I've got the full vmware workstation package (got --Legally -- from Work).

I also use Virtual Machines on Windows as well -- but for running Virtual servers an optimized Linux version will beat Windows hands down --nothing against Windows but remember windows is designed as a full blown workstation OS. Linux is highly customisable and to run Virtual servers on it you can create a really small efficient kernel.

Note you can also use things like ESXi which are a tiny OS but this is a bit beyond what I think you are trying to do. My advice would be to use one of the more common Linux distributions such as SUSE or Ubuntu. Hope it's not against forum rules but for setting up windows virtual machines on Linux boxes just peruse this forum

http://www.linuxquestions.org/
Cheers
jimbo

 

[fseal]

Unfortunately, Ubuntu has also gone to a dumbed down tablet interface on it's mainstream distro. You can't fight the dumbing down syndrome that the entire computing universe has entered into!

 

[jimbo45]

Unfortunately, Ubuntu has also gone to a dumbed down tablet interface on it's mainstream distro. You can't fight the dumbing down syndrome that the entire computing universe has entered into!

Hi there
this problem is not confined only to I.T. It seems to be prevalent everywhere -- even public notices seemed to be limited to words of no longer than 4 letters !!!.

I looked at a Maths exam for a 17 year old school graduation --- and compared that with what I had to do in 1969.

Even allowing for the fact we didn't have Google or calculators back in those days the modern papers could be done in a FRACTION of the time of the older exams.

Any S.Koreans or Taiwanese reading this thread -- Your education system is almost to DIE for -- no wonder your countries are surviving in the current economic climate.

Even back in 1969 the few S.Korean students we saw in those days were streets ahead of the rest (apart from me !!!!!! - nothing like being modest!).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[FranzB]

@jimbo45
Right but don't ever forget that the generation(s) before them let them get away with that.

 

[carwiz]

Nearly all the application software now days looks like a five year old designed it with Crayons. It's not just that as Jimbo says. I've been wanting to replace my old DeLorme GPS but can't find one that doesn't look like a cartoon on the screen. I want a map! I can read a map and I like being able to scan the map ahead to see roadways or towns then zoom in. I don't want something that looks like a coloring book talking to me. :huh:

 

[Maguscreed]

Nearly all the application software now days looks like a five year old designed it with Crayons.

Hey you leave my nephew out of this, he tried his best... :roflmao:

 

[carwiz]

I've been teaching my Great-Grandson C++. He turned four last September.

 

[Maguscreed]

Not bad I had to teach myself pascal , basic, python and c with only a few badly written books to aid me when I was in the 5 to 8 age range.
at least the little guy gets a head start with someone around to ask why.

 

[FranzB]

Look, you guys, you are all here giving help + advice. You all have 100's of postings, most of them in clean, understandable language. You are an exception! Most programs/applications are wrtitten for the average person because that's where the money comes from, not from a few like you. I am sorry but that's the way it is. I do not want to put the rest down; i am simply stating the facts of life. Read some forums where they talk about all kinds of things. The language is (for me) mostly garbage and i often cannot understand a word they are trying to say. Many of them can't even write a sentence that has a beginning and an end. On top of that the general feeling is that computers solve everything or at least should. My first experience with computers was in 1966 (when?) (IBM 360) and at that time there was this GIGO principle. Garbage In, Garbage Out. It's forgotten. The computer is the new Savior. A few buttons pushed and my problems are solverd, even on the social level. And if necessary a few emoticons are put in. That's the way it is. Period. It all has to go without any effort. But once again, who is to blame for it all? Not the generation that has to learn but the one that is teaching.
==(We probably get thrown out of this thread)==

 

[Corazon]

Boy, do I ever agree with you FranzB...and it's all the fault of popular media and marketing and wanna-be techs spreading nonsense about how easy this and that program works and how it'll fix all your troubles "intelligently" and bad advice or downright false info...personally I think everyone should remember this sentence:

Computers help us solve problems we wouldn't have without them.

 

[fseal]

Boy, do I ever agree with you FranzB...and it's all the fault of popular media and marketing and wanna-be techs spreading nonsense about how easy this and that program works and how it'll fix all your troubles "intelligently" and bad advice or downright false info...personally I think everyone should remember this sentence:

Computers help us solve problems we wouldn't have without them.

Hehehe...

So many things are self-driven like that. What is the main topic of conversation on ham radio? What kind of ham radio you have!

 

[JerometheGiraff]

Stick with Windows. If you feel you are ready to go Linux and use Windows within a Linux enviro then fine. I just find they are making Windows too easy, I fore one am not getting younger and there are times that easy is helpful, click of a mouse and go. I like to know, if I want to make my brain think that option is there and even though I've never touched Linux, yet it appears linux is that route.

My first version of Windows, was Windows 3.1 with DOS so I am old school, I was on the Internet when it just started on dial-up for longer then most people and yes I was on BBS before the internet, when usenet slowly took over BBS. The only crutch I had with going High Speed was the price and still do.

 

[lehnerus2000]

Depends ...

I like to know, if I want to make my brain think that option is there and even though I've never touched Linux, yet it appears linux is that route.

Depends if you like spending hours fruitlessly searching the Internet for help.

I haven't found ANY Linux helps sites that are anywhere near as good as this site is for W7 help.
The members here have been able to solve almost all of my queries.

 

[msdos622wasfun]

Is computing really getting "dumbed down," or is it just getting more accessible and user-friendly to the masses (simplified, easier to use, whatever) because there's a limit to how much technicality the average person is willing to put up with? I'll say it before, and I'll say it again -- if my grandmother was alive today, I'm not sure how long she would be willing to put up with the Linux command-line (I think Windows or even a Mac would suffice as far as presenting her with as much computing comprehension challenges as she'd have patience for).

 

[Maguscreed]

There is a reason Windows and mac OS became so popular in the first place.
...removing the need for users to understand command line is pretty much the foundation of that rise in usage
and actually brought the computer out from under the rock and made it accessible to those very people.

I will never understand exactly why linux fans are so die hard about this. Of all the fanboyism I've seen on the internet
Theirs has to be the most extreme. ...and that really is saying something.

I don't have anything against linux outside of a bit of annoyance it once caused me it seems to do it's job fairly well.
This constant insistence that it is just as easy to use as windows or even the super simplified mac os I can not support though.
It's a statement made by someone who doesn't realize how much time and effort they have put into learning the system.

Take an andriod phone for instance I just recently finally jumped on the bandwagon and got a smartphone myself.
No one had to tell me how to do anything with it. It was immediately so intuitive I only had to look up one thing (how to make the thing use the 16gig microsd I put in it instead of onboard memory)
...and even that the phone would have worked fine without.

This insistence that you only need to learn this or that to use it.
THAT'S THE PROBLEM.
People just want to turn it on and go about their business. I know we lose sight of that especially those of us that are basically chained to a computer everyday, but we've picked up things over the years that it would be ridiculous to expect the average person to know, or to even spend that much time on. I mean god forbid they decide they have a life they need to live instead of spending weeks trying to figure out how to install a single piece of software.

No there is simple and then there is dumb. I do believe there is a difference when it comes to computers.

Simple is when there is complexity, but it's been hidden for the sake of streamlined ease of use.

Dumb is insisting someone is an idiot because they don't want to spend a year trying to figure out how to do something they could otherwise do in minutes if not seconds.

/rant

 

[Vince53]

JermetheGiraffe writes:

My first version of Windows, was Windows 3.1 with DOS so I am old school, I was on the Internet when it just started on dial-up for longer then most people

We started with Windows 3.11. Man, those were the days of real computing! We'd play Solitaire for hours, and we thought it was great.