
I pleaded with one to stay on the phone while I called the cops. Since they could trace the location of my "stolen" computer and give it to the police.
My wife's favorite line is that she is a sgt. in the internet fraud squad of the RCMP. :)
19 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Jan 2014
We did Pickering too. The glow in the dark jokes continued for ages after the tour guide stepped on and put her hands in the "tester" and got flagged red on 3 tries. You could almost see the panic as she kept double and triple checking her radiation badge was still green. A helpful fellow then came over and asked if the tester was acting up again. Gave it a smack on the side and she tested green then, as we all did. Inspired a LOT of confidence in the test procedures when a smack could change the results 180 deg.
We signed up for the 3 month free trial (Sirius) when we were traveling cross country and back. After 6 days of listening to the same 20 songs on 15 different radio stations, I decided to pull the plug on it after a month of the 3 free. I called them up and told the nice man on the phone that when it ran out I would NOT be continuing with the service. It just wasn't worth it to me. Start 15 min of arguing on how life changing it is and how I should continue. Nah. When it runs out just turn it off. I wouldn't budge and he got more and more pissy. Finally he just went "Fine, It's noted on your file." and hung up. An hour or so later I was out at the car and was curious. Turned on the radio and .. just the Sirius ad running. Not that I missed it but I was still a little miffed at having it turned off when I still had 2 months free.
My friend bought a house. In the island of his kitchen, up under the counter is a light switch. Now my friend is more than a little OCD. He's pulled the cover and yep, there is wire attached to the switch and it is live. But 6 years on he still has NO clue what the hell that switch is for. He's turned everything in his house on and flipped the switch on and off to try and track it down. Nothing.
So I take great pleasure asking him if he found out what it's for whenever we go over for a visit. Usually involves me getting called some 4 letter words. :)
I joked the one day that all the time he's flipping the switch on and off that his neighbour is standing in his garage looking up at the light going "That damn light is going on and off again!?"
My father-in-law once called me complaining that his hard drive wouldn't open.
?!?!
Hard drives don't open!
Why not? I open it all the time.
NO! Opening hard drives is BAD. Don't do that.
Well how do you get the disk back in there then?
This went on for some time before I figured out that he was talking about his DVD drive. The door was jammed. That wasn't the first an likely won't be the last where he uses the wrong term to describe a computer part that isn't working.
God the memories... I started with the A1000 ( with all the sig's under the cover ) and still have it. I think I owned just about every flavour of amiga that came out. I only missed the A600 and cdtv. The A2500UX with Amix on it was one of my favourites to tinker with. I don't even want to think about the amount of $$ I spent on them over the years upto and including the A3000 and A4000 with 68060 boards, Voodoo sigh. AREXX was a lot of fun to play with. Like most of you it was the amiga that got me onto a dozen BBS and opened the online world to me. I can still remember the pride I felt when I finally got AmiTCP/IP properly configured and went "online" for the first time. That raw feeling of personal achievement just doesn't exist now. Ranked right up there with installing an ISA modem and spending the next 20 min wrestling with IRQ's.
I should fire up the 1000 just for fun and have a go at ports of call or railroad tycoon.
About 25 years ago I was at the Hamilton Airshow to see all the wonderful old warbirds. Bought a ticket ( proceeds to the museum etc ) for a ride in one of the warbirds. AND WON! Got to go for a 30 min flight in the Lanc. Its deafening, cold, cramped... And it took weeks for me to stop grinning like an idiot :)
I know some VERY computer illiterate people.. mostly in my family and to a person they all prefer Google. The answer is simple. It just works and doesn't blast you with weather, sports scores, images etc that they have no interest in (ie their ISP's "home page" for example). Its just a page with google on it and a search box. That is why most people ( myself included in the beginning ) use google. Its simple and it works. That's what made it the dominant search engine.
Couldn't agree more. People make a choice to use google because it works, is quick and has limited fluff. Personally I don't see any problem with google showing their stuff higher up the list. I'm using their search so self promotion is to be expected. When I browse General motors site looking at cars I certainly don't expect them to link to Ford or Chrysler.
Here here. Everyone that I know uses google because it gives them the answer they are looking for quickly and easily. People use it because it works! Anyone old enough to remember altavista will know that being king doesn't mean you can't be toppled. And without court cases and judges.
An old co-worker used to be freakish about his passwords. Every site had its own unique password. He wrote them all down in a booklet beside his desk but even took that one step beyond. The book was filled with things like
theregister - I had a peanut butter sandwich and a chocolate milk for lunch today. 3U
So it was every 3rd letter in upper case. There was also A for alternate, L for lower case and H for hacker a=@ etc.
So even if you got his notes.... you would still be lost.
Biggest one that jumps to mind would be medical diagnostic. There is no doctor on earth that can keep up with all the research being done the world over even if its in a very narrow field. Have watson gather and collate all the information published, research papers, findings, studies etc so that your doctor could just call and tell watson that patient x is presenting with x,y,z symptoms, these drugs didn't do anything what is another course of treatment? Patient has XX what are the new treatments? etc. I think something like that would be quite useful.