Weather station says 69F and 40%RH which is clearly wrong. Heater is running so it is more likely 40F. Never got around to changing the batteries….
The kids are back in school for a couple of weeks, and they are NOT happy. Poor things have been staying up late and sleeping in for most of the last month. Well, back to it. I woke up 10 minutes before my alarm, so there is that….
Listening to the scanner, the bus drivers are having trouble getting buses to start. Must be cold.
Border war is heating up. They are definitely testing Trump. As predicted, there were women and children at the front, with mostly men behind. I guess we’ll see if the media can whip the sheep into a frenzy.
Time to feed the family….
n
Tear gas them. Shoot them. Bayonet them. If their children’s lives are meaningless to the “migrants”, why should they matter to us?
We need to give them tires to burn like in Gaza Strip.
Border war is heating up. They are definitely testing Trump. As predicted, there were women and children at the front, with mostly men behind. I guess we’ll see if the media can whip the sheep into a frenzy.
A shooting of a refugee, even an adult male of military age, would end Trump, but it would send the right message.
The rest of the world views our politeness as a weakness.
43º and light rain right now. It’s going to cool off & start the lake-effect warming this afternoon into this evening, then lake-effect for the next few days. Meh. Life in a Northern Town.
I have the day off of work due to the first day of Buck in PA. Around here, that’s a good reason for a holiday. I may spend a few mornings in the tree-stand out back. To stay in practice, doncha know. But today I’m doing cleanup from the holiday and prep for work on the upstairs room(s). Kids want it, so Dad will provide it. I suppose.
43º and light rain right now. It’s going to cool off & start the lake-effect warming this afternoon into this evening, then lake-effect for the next few days. Meh. Life in a Northern Town.
When we lived in Vantucky (Vancouver, WA), north of Portland, we used to get lake-effect off of the Columbia River about once a year. Tons of snow on our side of the river, maybe an inch or to at Portland Airport.
Three lake-effect snows in the same Winter, including one in March, contributed to my “that’s it” moment, and we started packing for Austin as soon as my wife found a job that looked reasonable.
heh. 3 in one month to start the season is not unusual. Of course, you can get used to anything if you really want to.
xkcd: “Heist”
https://xkcd.com/2077/
Yup. Trust no one. Except your mother.
Explanation:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2077:_Heist
Swan Eaters: Necroscope
https://www.gocomics.com/swan-eaters/2018/11/26
Oh no !
You are an idiot and a monster
— editorial edit — says who? N
Hey lynn, did you realize that you have almost 8600 comments here?
JimL has 900
Greg Norton has over 3200
Cowboy Slim has about 800
SteveF has 6,564
Ray Thompson has 2,831
And none of us called anyone an idiot and a monster…
n
added– out of Approved (107,227) total.
Are we failing to meet expectations?
I’m open to being called an idiot but, being also a monster, would likely eat the soul of anyone saying so.
All hail the dark ones! And the light ones, and the fat ones and the skinny ones, and the rich ones and the poor ones………
Now I’m going out grocery shopping. ‘cuz between the vacation, and the holiday, I’m plumb out of stuff.
n
@lynn, you asked a couple of days ago why I called out Amazon stock as a loser when you were still up for the year…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-26/visualizing-bear-market-faang-stocks
Down 26% off its high, headed back to where it started the previous 52 weeks.
n
Trolls just gotta troll.
Least it’s not Skankhunt42
I brought my stock pot of turkey scraps back to a boil today. It just simmered for a few hours yesterday. Burner off, put on the back burner over night. It’s sterile.
Nice boil today. The onion chunks have disappeared. The turkey neck has fallen apart. Time to let it cool, strain through a colander into another pot. Strain back into the first pot through a wire mesh strainer. Adjust the salt and pepper and put into ziploc boxes to freeze.
Are we failing to meet expectations?
I missed the part about meeting expectations. I’m not moderated so I must be doing ok.
Hey lynn, did you realize that you have almost 8600 comments here?
Is that good or bad ?
My wife has tried very hard to drill Thumper’s father’s rule into me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi8f9g8-Wpc
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”
@lynn, you asked a couple of days ago why I called out Amazon stock as a loser when you were still up for the year…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-26/visualizing-bear-market-faang-stocks
Down 26% off its high, headed back to where it started the previous 52 weeks.
I wonder if I should sell my Netflix stock (they don’t make a profit) and buy Amazon now (they do make a profit). Looks like Amazon may get some sort of antitrust busting on it though. Of course, the new HQ 2a in Virginia may be to stop that.
After a comment some time ago about how gloomy this place had become, I’ve been striving to, if nothing else, avoid the negative. Half my comments are intended as nothing more than a bright spot in the morning.
“An aging America: Old people will outnumber children for the first time in the country’s HISTORY”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6426745/Old-people-outnumber-children-time-countrys-history.html
By 2033. A long ways off in the order of things. However, it is a matter of concern with the Social Security and Medicare Ponzi systems.
And every street will have an old guy on each corner yelling, “get off my yard!”.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
For a non-fiction version of that, check out the calls to report “e-thots” to the IRS for failure to report their income.
Don’t say nothing? Not a problem!
And I’m sure it’s appreciated. For me, though, knowing that the world contains coffee is all the bright spot I need. Mmm, coffeeeee. No, that’s not right. (Me, in the morning.) Brrrrraiinnnssss, I neeeeed brrrraaainnnnnss. Oh, is that coffee? All better!
I’ve been busy at work today, so haven’t had a ton of time to browse the cyber Monday ads. What I did look at, didn’t seem especially great. At least, nothing that made me pull my credit card out of my wallet….
And, for the love of Zeus….I will never buy another Tivo product. They have been RELENTLESS in their email marketing. When my 2007 vintage Tivo HD with lifetime subscription finally dies, that’s it.
Drones – specifically entry level – any recommendations? Looking for one as a Christmas gift for my 14yo son. Only requirement is that it has a camera.
I need to get a life. Probably 1415.5 of those messages had the word FLASHLIGHT.
The apocalypse is surely upon us. I just called to renew my XM radio subscription. It took 5 minutes, and I only had to speak to one person. Shocked. Usually a 15 or 20 minute affair involving a horde of people. For those who don’t know, you can continually get promo pricing. You just have to call, threaten to cancel, and you finally get the offer. For the past 2 years, I’ve had 5 months for $5 a month. For me, that’s what the service is worth paying for. A half hour commute each way and it’s worth it.
Probably 1415.5 of those messages had the word FLASHLIGHT.
Could be worse. Could be FLESHLIGHT.
Pretend I have a hump.
And, for the love of Zeus….I will never buy another Tivo product. They have been RELENTLESS in their email marketing. When my 2007 vintage Tivo HD with lifetime subscription finally dies, that’s it.
So what will you use instead of a Tivo if it dies tomorrow ?
I am contemplating moving from DirecTV ($150/month) to an OTA (over the air) Tivo ($236) with a $70 annual subscription plan.
https://www.amazon.com/TiVo-Bolt-Antenna-All-One/dp/B07GY54JPV/?tag=ttgnet-20
We already have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. I plan to upgrade the Hulu to Hulu Sports ($40/month).
And just what did you think the 0.5 was?
And finally something not so bright.
How can you screw up SOUP?
Start by throwing all the fatty parts in, and not skimming any of the fat off. Follow that up with no salt, and lots of black pepper. Leave the meat on the bones (in the skin, even.) Cook rice on the side & call that dinner.
Just ranting. My wife is a wonderful woman, a great mother, and just a nice person. But she can’t cook worth a darn.
/rant.
If I’m buying a new Windows box what OS do I put on it? Win 8 or 10? Can I turn off automatic forced updates?
My assortment of SSDs and a couple of mounting brackets/trays are scheduled to arrive tomorrow.
All WD Blue 3D NAND yabba dabba doo whatever SSDs. One 1TB and 2 500Gb.
Assuming the regular UPS guy isn’t sick or on vacation.
Looking at tracking is interesting. From Sacramento to another town to Louisville, KY. To me, Kentucky might as well be South Carolina. No UPS planes to Dallas? Houston? San Antonio?
Oh well, it’s all entertaining.
I’m not shopping for any of this stuff ever again. I think I got a good deal.
And yeah, I know the 1TB I bought for $157 that was on sale for $135 a month later is going to be $70 next year. The 500GB SSDs will be $40 and the 250GBs won’t exist.
4TB SSDs will be $150. Doesn’t matter. Because how much porn can you store and have time to look at?
Ok. If I knew how to rip DVDs to the hard drive, I could use the terabytes of space. But, I doubt I’m going to wear out a DVD disc, ever. I watch Matinee about once a year and it’s on LaserDisc. Plays like new 15 years later.
I’m not seeing a reason to rip my DVDs. Or even try to rip LaserDiscs. Hey, there’s always BitTorrent, right?
I have one LaserDisc machine in use and three more primitive spare machines.
And…. I need to make recovery discs for Moa. I’m pretty sure I did when the box was new. But I can’t find the “safe place” where I put the discs.
While I have the boxes open, I need to look at the fans. And buy replacements.
And just what did you think the 0.5 was?
I’m slipping.
I blame on that I just turned 61. Which is like 500 in dog years. And really, you expect that even a middle aged Methuselah to remember everything?
Windows 10. You can easily control updates.
10-4, Fenix r us.
https://www.fenix-store.com/black-friday-cyber-monday-2018?utm_campaign=NL+11.26.18+CYBER+MONDAY+REAL++%28M7YFB8%29&utm_medium=email&_ke=eyJrbF9lbWFpbCI6ICJzdHUubmljb2xAYXR0Lm5ldCIsICJrbF9jb21wYW55X2lkIjogImQ5MzdyWSJ9&utm_source=Black+Friday+Week+Segment
IIRC, UPS does in Louisville what the IronDex people do in Memphis: Air freight all comes to 1 central location, gets sorted, reloaded, and shipped back out.
A Kindle?
How can you screw up SOUP?
She cooks like my Dad???? Yeah, the taste is off… add a can of beans. Er… now add a can of corn. Er, add fvk all, a random can of lima beans. And a handful of cornbread mix. To thicken. And some macaroni.
Dad actually made a pot of stuff one day was almost edible if he had left out 4 of the 4 onions and the next night, not sure what he did to add to the pot, but no one would eat more than a bit. It wasn’t spoiled. The next day Dad fed it to the dogs. The dogs wouldn’t eat it. For a week. The stuff molded in their dishes. Dogs eat almost anything they can’t roll in.
Aw, heck, the dogs got pig feed for food. Reading the labels, just about the same thing. Pig feed for $3 a bag, dog feed $7. The dogs were not thrilled…. then again, what is it about MilkBones? They have no taste.
It was epic. Well, for a cooking fail.
Nothing. No cable tv or satellite. Google fiber 100m plan. We have a Hulu and prime subscription. I got. Asking subscription for baseball season, but looks like we will end up keeping it. Cancelled the Netflix subscription several months ago. Will renew when Syranger Things comes back. The only thing the TiVo is recording is drew catey show reruns…and I have only watched a couple of them. I guess the main reason it’s still hooked up is that is always has been…..
I have two tivos and I canceled our cable. I did put an antenna up in the attic, but had to connect it directly to the TV. The Bolt I have says ANT/CABLE on the coax connector but it seems they reserved the OTA tuning for the new ones. I’m pretty sure the premier I have in the bedroom will do OTA tuning, but honestly, I don’t miss it.
The kids use the Tivo bolt in the living room to watch netflix, I use a Kodi box in the bedroom to watch youtube. The premier has a horrible app for youtube, it glitches the audio once a minute or ever 10 seconds, can’t remember.
The only reason I bothered, my wife wants to be able to watch local channels if there is an emergency, and the father in law likes sportsball. He didn’t even watch any while here though.
n
GM’s union thinks they can keep GM from closing plants…. Ha ha!
On the other hand, obammmay stole GM from the owners and sold at least half of it to the union, so maybe they can stop it, if they can force a shareholder vote. Otherwise, wtf does he think they can do?
“Jerry Dias, the head of Canadian autoworkers union Unifor, said that GM won’t be closing its Oshawa plant without “a hell of a fight.” ”
The kids use the Tivo bolt in the living room to watch netflix, I use a Kodi box in the bedroom to watch youtube. The premier has a horrible app for youtube, it glitches the audio once a minute or ever 10 seconds, can’t remember.
Get a couple of Roku boxes if you’re just consuming services like Netflix and YouTube.
TiVo doesn’t put any development effort into the older hardware.
On the other hand, obammmay stole GM from the owners and sold at least half of it to the union, so maybe they can stop it, if they can force a shareholder vote. Otherwise, wtf does he think they can do?
I’m sure the union was smart enough to sell their shares when “new” GM went public.
Obama stiffed the bond holders who would have eventually ordered GM into bankruptcy.
@Jenny: I’m waiting for the excess turkeys to go on sale at Safeway. I can do better than $1.29/lb… last year’s were almost free.
I bagged 2 last year for a pittance and canned up every scrap as soup, meat, gravy and whatnot except for the skin. That got fed to the crows… The whole shebang lasted until about Halloween.
mediumwave and Slim get my kudos for the drollest postings.
burning tires in Gaza gives me the giggles.
“If I’m buying a new Windows box what OS do I put on it? Win 8 or 10? Can I turn off automatic forced updates?”
Windows 10. You can easily control updates.
Windows 7 and 8 are not supported on newer Intel and AMD chips.
You could try the surplus/refurb market, but Microsoft has been handing out Windows 10 OEM licenses like candy. Any machine remotely capable of running Windows 10 will arrive from the big surplus vendors with the OS preinstalled regardless of original OEM license for the hardware.
I hit costco today, but the only turkey they had left was organic, and it was $3/lb with $30 back on checkout. Given the size of the birds, that was essentially $1/lb discount. Not enough for me. Esp. since we don’t really eat white meat. I’ve got pounds of frozen white meat turkey I already won’t eat….
n
Racist.
I hit costco today, but the only turkey they had left was organic, and it was $3/lb with $30 back on checkout. Given the size of the birds, that was essentially $1/lb discount. Not enough for me. Esp. since we don’t really eat white meat. I’ve got pounds of frozen white meat turkey I already won’t eat….
Keep an eye on ALDI ads for your region. They’ll run a turkey special at least one more time before Christmas. We picked up a pretty nice bird cheap last year between the holidays.
Just make sure to hit ALDI on the first day of the ad if you’re serious about picking up any meat specials.
This year’s Thanksgiving turkey came from Sam’s.
The level of detailed technical advise is declining here…
I only keep one system with Windows 7 and that is because it has full Windows Media services. I use it as a DVR for OTA and to stream to my Xbox360.
Windows 8 is a go between evolutionary OS that mainly introduced Metro and has no real specific positives in itself.
Windows 10 x64 – preferably Pro – is a much better OS than Windows 7 or 8.
Now if MS would get back to doing decent phones I would be a happy camper.
The level of detailed technical advise is declining here…
Computers are becoming internet appliances. Grandma and Aunt Beverly now have iPads or Android tablets. That really reduces the amount of people needing help.
Windows 8 is a go between evolutionary OS that mainly introduced Metro and has no real specific positives in itself.
True dat. In fact, we see problems on Windows 8 that have been fixed on Windows 10.
Windows 10 x64 – preferably Pro – is a much better OS than Windows 7 or 8.
Why ? I still run Windows 7 x64 on my office pc and my home pc. My only problem is my antiquated motherboard cannot address a 8 TB hard drive so I have to stay with the 4 TB backup drive.
I’ve got pounds of frozen white meat turkey I already won’t eat….
Dog ?
Wait, let me clarify that. Feed it to the dog(s) ?
Windows 8 is a go between evolutionary OS that mainly introduced Metro and has no real specific positives in itself.
Windows 8 upgrade options still allowed the user to opt for notifications only.
Also, if you use Boot Camp on an Apple OS X machine, Windows 8 is the last release with a license that permits using the install partition as both a guest under VMWare Fusion and as a boot drive. Windows 10 requires separately purchased licenses.
Let’s turn that around: Tell me something that Windows 7 can give that Windows 10 does not apart from the specific media services I already mentioned. 🙂
Setting aside your particular use case which is probably determined by your work necessities and not wanting to deal with a platform migration change I see no real benefits on going for a 7 install. Especially if this is for a new system.
In any case, 7 is dead. I still have laptops with XP and even earlier versions but that does not mean that there is currently a use case for them except for very old games I may want to revisit in my (really) old age.
Just one thing that I really like about 10 is that it started providing Dark themes and is now extending those themes to more things. Been using dark themes ever since Ars introduced it many years ago and have been waiting for that to be embraced by others. It is a much better reading experience for me. I just force-updated the 1809 Feature Update to 2 systems just to get file manager dark themed.
There are a few apps that I use. You can’t have them on 7. There is an evolution of system services including Windows Update that is many times better than version 7. It will keep evolving. 7 won’t.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Preventative Medicine”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-preventative-medicine/
“Governor Jerry Brown and the left are trying to blame the fires in California on climate change when it’s their very own environmental policies to blame. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.”
Wow !
I love it. It is 44 F here at 9pm in the Land of Sugar. It is suppose to be 80 F on Thursday. No wonder a lot of people are getting sick.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/richmond/77479?cm_ven=localwx_10day
Governor Jerry Brown and the left are trying to blame the fires in California on climate change when it’s their very own environmental policies to blame.
Public lands out West are poorly managed. Trump was right. Limited logging and the associated road clearing would prevent a lot of issues, but the Spotted Chipmunk comes first.
Not much will change under Governor Newsom. It will probably get worse since Gavin ’20 will gear up this Spring.
“I’ve only been Governor a short time, but I owe it to the people of California … and the United States … to take this message to Washington DC …”
Of course, all bets are off if Cankles tries it again. BJ has a roll of dimes ready to drop on Newsom, Fauxcohauntas, Robert Francis, Plugs McKenzie (Biden), and Bernie.
Hey Marcelo, thanks for the summary.
I also find that most computers have become “good enough.” As they became everyday use items, the number of “computer hobbyists” started to decline, and it was no longer necessary to be a full time “computer guy” to do everyday work on them. (I think many of us started out as “computer guys”)
This is a good thing, and probably the biggest benefit of the MS styleguide was making most software work in a similar way. I’m sure you remember hunting for “Exit” or end, or stop or quit…. now it’s under the file menu, and the last entry (and the file menu is the first menu on the bar, etc….) (The flip side is that GUI development has stagnated.)
I used to build every machine, now it’s easier to just get a modern machine from dell or HP, with the price point I’m willing to pay. It will likely be less costly than the individual components.
I mainly want to do things WITH my computers, and not do things TO them. This is a whole different paradigm from when I installed OS/2 warp on my 486 lappy just to see if it could be done, and because I didn’t want MS to have a strangle hold on windowing systems…..
All those factors combined to decrease the need or desire for hard core technical discussion… even Bob stopped worrying about hardware and software when he got rid of MS…
That said, when you NEED the tech discussion, there is usually still someone here with SOME of the experience needed.
BTW, I’m running win8.2 on this pc (with Classic Start Menu), have win10 on the box I just moved my surveillance software to, have win7 running on wife’s home pc, and daughter’s lappy. I LIKE win7 as the last version without the damnable tiles (metro?) and the app paradigm. I have a winXP box here to drive my vinyl cutter as that is the last OS with working drivers, but I only turn it on when I’m cutting.
I did find this latest win10 box to be fairly easy to kill most of the tiles cr@p and get a more familiar look. I’m still concerned about the advertising model, and all the spying it does, but I’m not using it for general computing either…
For most people that I see, their primary access to just about everything is their phone or tablet. Unless using business or special purpose software, that form factor works well, and it hides all the complexity of a full pc.
By achieving ubiquity, the pc is disappearing…..
n
Just got home after a 14 hour drive from CA. So…
– There are 768 comments that mention the word ‘flashlight’. I like to think that I have done my part with those. (And, for those that are wondering, only 11 mentions of “flehslight”. I am glad mine are not any of those.)
– Computers are a commodity. And running the latest Win10, with automatic updates enabled (but schedule them for your personal ‘down’ time if you wish) is best, IMHO. I have had no problems with Win10 on the laptops I own (4 currently). It just works.
And, as Nick mentions, there is less need for hardware geeks; not like the old days of computer user groups and BBS systems. Now, they just work, in most cases.
Just for the record, you do not Have to use the tiles. I actually never use them. I have all the normal things I use pinned to the taskbar and that one is on the left of my screens and not on the bottom of them. Whatever else I need, and that is rare, I hit the start (oops, windows logo…), type a couple of letters and I get the program that I need. Click and you are done.
MS has done a lot regarding transparency with regards to privacy settings and telemetry and have provided the ability to turn many reporting things off.
I only see the ads when I use the new MS Solitaire and ignore them. I’ll pay that price for that.
I am happy to try and contribute here every now and then. I have been lurking here on a daily basis for more years than I would care to think about. I occasionally try to share things here and this is the only site I have ever posted comments to. I like the openness, the diversity of opinion and the tolerance exhibited and shared here.
Keep it up Jenny and gents. I am sure you give many people a good respite from our daily “challenges”. 🙂
Thanks Marcelo, it’s nice to hear that you are still a daily visitor, and that you still find value here despite the changes. BY ALL MEANS, please contribute. It is the people here that make the site what it is.
I have been skipping through old posts, sometimes several years old, and I miss some of the old regular commenters.
Oh, yesterday Costco had “Duracel” branded flashlights on sale in the 3 pack, with duracel batteries for $16. Great stocking stuffers!
n
I have a small form factor pc hooked up to my upstairs tv. When I had cable, it ran Windows 7. I got a Ceton infiniTV pci cable card adapter so I could use the pc as a DVR. It worked well. Alas, I ditched cable. I kept the computer Windows 7 until the free Windows 10 update. Now it’s used sporadically – mainly when my son has friends over and they watch youtube on it. It will probably end up migrating to the garage to replace the one out there when it dies.
I agree that a Windows 10 box with automatic updates is a pretty good thing. But I also wish I had the control I had in the past. On race weekend, the LAST thing I need is Windows to decide that the update it didn’t install on Tuesday should install RIGHT NOW. Nothing works until it’s applied and updated.
Hint: I have WORK to do. None of it is on the internet. All of it is time sensitive. I don’t Windows to interrupt that at an important time.
In addition, the loss of control of printers gets me steamed every time. I used to be able to set up 4 printers (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta) and interchange them at will. When Charlie was plugged in, I could print to Charlie. Go back to Alpha? Sure. I’ll just set that as the default.
Now it’s HPFM, and I have yet to figure out which combination gets it working again, but it always requires at least two reboots.
Other than that, I couldn’t be happier with Windows 10. It Just Works.
My biggest gripe with Windows 10 is that if you don’t leave it on 24/7 then every time you start it up, or so it seems, it starts searching for and applying updates, drastically slowing down your computer, no matter how little resources you have told it to allow for downloading updates, and then just at a critical moment for you there is a pop-up reminding you that a restart is needed to do the updates, sigh, so I leave my main desktop and laptop on 24-7 and have never, knock on wood, had a problem with any updates, even the infamous October update that is still not right.
Are there enough commas for you? I am surprised Grammarly has not complained, just caught my misspelled words. Another perfect score post.
Win10 is a pain. Not only the updates that crop up at stupid times, not only the spying that you can only partially turn off.
You also have a whole set of programs that install, and re-install, and re-install. You uninstalled Candy Crush? The next update will put it back, along with an app from whoever just paid MS to sneak-install it. Uninstall that, and it’ll get re-installed with the following update.
Then there’s the advertising. Advertising tiles (which you can delete). They are trialing advertising in the file explorer, in their email app, and elsewhere. I expect the stuff will hit mainstream soon enough – I mean, your desktop is just crying to be turned into a billboard.
They are also pushing Office365 subscriptions. They have now introduced various functions into Excel that will only work if you have a paid subscription – they do not and will never exist in versions that are not subscription based. The initial set of such functions includes a new string concatenation function. The obvious intent is that people with subscriptions will use the new functions, and force everyone else to move to the subscription model.
If you have any choice, skip Windows/Office and go to Linux/LibreOffice.
That has been their model all along, with file incompatibility pulling everyone up to the latest version.
Sucks for users, and when was the last time a new feature was a ” must have”?
N
mazdahochiminh.vn I moved your comments. If they are not spam, please comment again.
n
Thanks guys for the tips about W10.
My brother has an iPad and no one in the family is encouraging him to get a PC (or join FaceBook).
I’ve forgotten a metric ton of stuff about hardware and software.