A Wide-Ranging BlatherSequence--The 32/20 WCF, What It Taught Me, And How That Happened
- Thread starter CZ93X62
- Start date
I hate seeing someone suffer like this, but for selfish reasons, I'm rooting for the guys offering tips.
For knowing "just enough about computer usage to be PROFOUNDLY DANGEROUS," you write particularly well, you are very good at articulating your thoughts, and your thoughts are interesting enough to have a lot of value to others.
On the other hand, there are a lot of highly skilled writers in the world who have a handle on the various technical media - and nothing particularly interesting to say.
I'm not going to lie to you - my motivation to see you suffer is selfish. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Yep. Yep, Keith, you are right. Sloppy terminology. And I use both, as needed.
Notepad is another free, included Windows ultra simple text editor, perfect for that kind
of simple application.
I wish I could visit these guys. in person Literally 2 or 3 minutes and a few clicks and they would be able
to use these extremely simple tools to make their lives a little bit easier. But, may people have been
convinced that computers are mysterious, magical and the slightest mistake will 'destroy everything'
Really isn't like that at all.
Bill
Notepad is another free, included Windows ultra simple text editor, perfect for that kind
of simple application.
I wish I could visit these guys. in person Literally 2 or 3 minutes and a few clicks and they would be able
to use these extremely simple tools to make their lives a little bit easier. But, may people have been
convinced that computers are mysterious, magical and the slightest mistake will 'destroy everything'
Really isn't like that at all.
Bill
Last edited:
462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
What I know about computer usage has been self-taught, and that is only enough to search the Internet for whatever topic may be of interest at the moment, do the occasional e-mail, buy items that can't be purchased locally, and post stuff of dubious value on this forum.
My wife and grandkids perceive me as smart phone illiterate, but my only use for it is as a phone and I know how that operates. All other features are superfluous and go unused. Oh, wait, every so often I listen to Pandora.
My wife and grandkids perceive me as smart phone illiterate, but my only use for it is as a phone and I know how that operates. All other features are superfluous and go unused. Oh, wait, every so often I listen to Pandora.
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
Thank you for the kind words, Jeff. I laughed out loud at that last paragraph!
Well, I am not alone in status as a Luddite. P.J. O'Rourke swears that he STILL writes his pithy and funny commentaries on an IBM Selectric typewriter. He has been one of my favorite writers since his days at National Lampoon in the 1970s.
My kids (and a lot of the folks here) are far more comfortable with digital processes than I am. I seem to understand mechanical processes intuitively, electrical processes a bit less so, electronic things almost not at all--and digital? FUGGETABOUTIT. I would have been a far better fit in the 19th Century than in the 21st, and I was feeling obsolescent by the end of the 20th to be honest.
462--your posts are NOT of dubious value, for darn sure. Your usage patterns for computers are like my own, and I still don't have a smart phone. Those things and the systems like "Alexa" and "Cortana" are Orwellian monsters AFAIC. I will be obliged to go the smart phone route at some point, but there is NO WAY I will be asking "Siri" or "Alexa" for weather reports--or for any other d--n thing. I am happy to "own" the label "Rip Van Winkle" that my rotten daughters have bestowed upon me, right along with "The Bear". Both are silly and endearing.
Well, I am not alone in status as a Luddite. P.J. O'Rourke swears that he STILL writes his pithy and funny commentaries on an IBM Selectric typewriter. He has been one of my favorite writers since his days at National Lampoon in the 1970s.
My kids (and a lot of the folks here) are far more comfortable with digital processes than I am. I seem to understand mechanical processes intuitively, electrical processes a bit less so, electronic things almost not at all--and digital? FUGGETABOUTIT. I would have been a far better fit in the 19th Century than in the 21st, and I was feeling obsolescent by the end of the 20th to be honest.
462--your posts are NOT of dubious value, for darn sure. Your usage patterns for computers are like my own, and I still don't have a smart phone. Those things and the systems like "Alexa" and "Cortana" are Orwellian monsters AFAIC. I will be obliged to go the smart phone route at some point, but there is NO WAY I will be asking "Siri" or "Alexa" for weather reports--or for any other d--n thing. I am happy to "own" the label "Rip Van Winkle" that my rotten daughters have bestowed upon me, right along with "The Bear". Both are silly and endearing.
CZ93X62
Official forum enigma
With Marie's help, I did locate Word Pad as part of my program suite on this puter. It's nice, but it's also like equipping a Neanderthal with an HK-91, or perhaps teenaged boys with whiskey and car keys. Pistolero Bill might be able to get me literate on computers, if we both had a spare decade to instill the lessons. Our youngest daughter Hannah said it best--"Dad, you don't or can't see or think digitally. It's a foreign language to you." Roger THAT, and it lacks Rosetta Stones, too.
462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
If it weren't for my wife's insistence I would not even entertain the idea of owning a smart phone.
I've read three or four of P. J. O'Rourke's books, and except for "Catch 22" they were the only books that made me laugh out loud. I consider "Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut" to be a classic.
I've read three or four of P. J. O'Rourke's books, and except for "Catch 22" they were the only books that made me laugh out loud. I consider "Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence and a Bad Haircut" to be a classic.
KeithB
Resident Half Fast Machinist
Thumbs up for PJ.
Guys, look at the lower left corner of your keyboard. You should see four keys in a row - Z, X, C, V. And somewhere in the same corner there is a key marked CTRL. On my keyboard its right under my left little finger. These keys do the following UNDO, CUT, COPY, PASTE. These happen to be the four most used functions in most Windows programs. Not that hard to remember four basic keystrokes. Make up memory tricks like thinking that Z is the last letter in the alphabet, and CTRL-Z UNDOes your last step. X looks like scissors blades so CTRL-X cuts whatever is selected/highlighted. C is the first letter in COPY, so CTRL-C copies. V doesn't stand for anything except its the next closest key in the keyboard sequence so CTRL-V pastes. It is easy to use my left little finger to hit the CTRL key and hold it down while my left index finger hits Z, X, C, or V. Probably dozens of other program specific keyboard shortcuts but these four cover 90% of anything you need to do to edit text.
Guys, look at the lower left corner of your keyboard. You should see four keys in a row - Z, X, C, V. And somewhere in the same corner there is a key marked CTRL. On my keyboard its right under my left little finger. These keys do the following UNDO, CUT, COPY, PASTE. These happen to be the four most used functions in most Windows programs. Not that hard to remember four basic keystrokes. Make up memory tricks like thinking that Z is the last letter in the alphabet, and CTRL-Z UNDOes your last step. X looks like scissors blades so CTRL-X cuts whatever is selected/highlighted. C is the first letter in COPY, so CTRL-C copies. V doesn't stand for anything except its the next closest key in the keyboard sequence so CTRL-V pastes. It is easy to use my left little finger to hit the CTRL key and hold it down while my left index finger hits Z, X, C, or V. Probably dozens of other program specific keyboard shortcuts but these four cover 90% of anything you need to do to edit text.
462
California's Central Coast Amid The Insanity
Google taught me how to cut and paste.
To copy: highlight whatever it is that you want copied by holding down the left mouse button and moving the cursor over the to-be-copied stuff, right click the mouse and scroll to "Copy", then hit the left mouse button.
To paste: set the cursor to wherever it is you want the copied stuff to be pasted, right click the mouse and select "Paste", then left click the mouse.
The entire process takes about two seconds.
To copy: highlight whatever it is that you want copied by holding down the left mouse button and moving the cursor over the to-be-copied stuff, right click the mouse and scroll to "Copy", then hit the left mouse button.
To paste: set the cursor to wherever it is you want the copied stuff to be pasted, right click the mouse and select "Paste", then left click the mouse.
The entire process takes about two seconds.
Pistolero
Well-Known Member
Very well said, Keith. You should be a teacher. 
Teaching really is a talent, and folks that do it a long time learn good ways to do it. Clearly.
Kudos to Marie.
Al, you only need to know a couple of commands in Wordpad to use it successfully. Like your
Neaderthal with HK91, once you show him how to load a mag, rack the bolt and where the
trigger and safety are, you are down to getting him to figure the sights out with a few drawings
and then jump back and my bet is he'll be a successful hunter with it a a couple of days. And
I am certain he will NOT trade it back for his spear or bow.
You can do this, I have zero doubt. And way quicker than you seem to think.
Bill
Teaching really is a talent, and folks that do it a long time learn good ways to do it. Clearly.
Kudos to Marie.
Al, you only need to know a couple of commands in Wordpad to use it successfully. Like your
Neaderthal with HK91, once you show him how to load a mag, rack the bolt and where the
trigger and safety are, you are down to getting him to figure the sights out with a few drawings
and then jump back and my bet is he'll be a successful hunter with it a a couple of days. And
I am certain he will NOT trade it back for his spear or bow.
You can do this, I have zero doubt. And way quicker than you seem to think.
Bill
Last edited:
Bret4207
At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
I'm still using a $14 or $17 Tracfone flip phone. I forget which it is, but I "splurged" and got the more expensive one for the camera it had on board. That was a mistake. The camera on an under $20 phone is crap. But, my SIL gifted me a fancy phone that uses my local towers (Verizon). I had been used to paying maybe $100 a year for cell service- until my kids all got phones. Now its up pushing $200 worth of minutes a year, and that using every coupon I can find and the double minutes for life feature I bought. Plus, my Town Supervisor likes to call and tell me all about involved stories of political woe on the cell. Add to this the fact I can't hear my flip phone ring and can't read the screen at all without the glasses I never have and that my texting looks like you dumped 3 bags of Scrabble letters on a table...well, you get the idea. So I'm working up to getting a SIM card and buying a monthly plan for the big smart phone. Youngest girl and I found a holster for it, 'cuz it isn't going to fit in a pocket and if it does it will get crushed. Then she helped me figure out that the stupid thing needs to be turned on to charge the battery. Next she showed me how to take a picture with it that actually looks like what I shot. Then my 9 year old granddaughter showed my that I don't need to text! I can just talk and this thing spells out what I say!!!!! That is a game changer right there! So pretty soon I'm going to be ditching my old reliable, always in my pocket, never needs a charge flip and strapping a hogleg to my belt. Might as well be a pistol as the thing is more than 3x the size of my flip phone!
I take a lot of crap for my ten-year-old flip phone with the Scotch-Tape hinge and buttons that don't work. It's been paid for for eight years and was something like $40 to begin with. Last year about this time, I ran over my other flip phone with the mower. I replaced it with what the sales guy said was "just like the old one" but it wasn't. It was a "smart phone" hobbled with the limited interface of a flip phone and it was constantly doing stuff (what, I don't know) so the battery lasted less than half a day. My old one lasts all week and still has two bars when I charge it on the weekend. That new one went back and I dug the current one out of the sock drawer.
If I had $800 to spend on a phone, I'd spend it on a new rifle or revolver anyway, or maybe powder and primers. I can't imagine the coolest phone currently advertised being something anyone would show up to my estate sale to get a shot at and I doubt my kids would treasure it and pass it to their kids some day in the future. I know not everyone spends that on their phones, but a lot do and that money won't benefit me phone-wise commensurate with the expenditure.
I'm not criticizing and I'm no Luddite. I just don't want or need any more than a basic means of communication.
If I had $800 to spend on a phone, I'd spend it on a new rifle or revolver anyway, or maybe powder and primers. I can't imagine the coolest phone currently advertised being something anyone would show up to my estate sale to get a shot at and I doubt my kids would treasure it and pass it to their kids some day in the future. I know not everyone spends that on their phones, but a lot do and that money won't benefit me phone-wise commensurate with the expenditure.
I'm not criticizing and I'm no Luddite. I just don't want or need any more than a basic means of communication.
Pistolero
Well-Known Member
You are SO right about the end worth of a "lastest, greatest phone". In 5 years it is a doorstop,
even if working perfectly, doing exactly what it did when brand new, it is considered so useless
as be not even worth bothering with. And that is if it actually still functions at 5 yrs. The same
money spent on a nice gun will be 2/3 there in 20 years, and maybe worth what you paid for it
40 years later.
I use a smart phone, but the ONLY added app I have is GasBuddy. I occasionally us the included
weather map deal. I have tried to uninstall or shut down as much of the pre-installed junk as I can,
unfortunately the BIGGEST PITA cannot be disabled in any way, short of a hammer, which tends to
interfere with the phone calling capability. It is some "helper" and unfortunately has it's own damned
button, which gets hit accidentally way too often. I do NOT want a phone helper, EVER.
Bill
even if working perfectly, doing exactly what it did when brand new, it is considered so useless
as be not even worth bothering with. And that is if it actually still functions at 5 yrs. The same
money spent on a nice gun will be 2/3 there in 20 years, and maybe worth what you paid for it
40 years later.
I use a smart phone, but the ONLY added app I have is GasBuddy. I occasionally us the included
weather map deal. I have tried to uninstall or shut down as much of the pre-installed junk as I can,
unfortunately the BIGGEST PITA cannot be disabled in any way, short of a hammer, which tends to
interfere with the phone calling capability. It is some "helper" and unfortunately has it's own damned
button, which gets hit accidentally way too often. I do NOT want a phone helper, EVER.
Bill
KeithB
Resident Half Fast Machinist
My main phone is an iPhone 6S but I also have a cheap flip phone that I got when we were selling my father's house. Didn't want people calling my main phone so I got a $25/month Consumer Cellular flip phone that is eerily like the Motorolas we used to have. Loaned it to a friend of mine who is trying to sell her pickup truck so she doesn't have to put her regular phone # in an ad. Handy to have a backup.