OT Limited Internet Access

Good point. Won't happen here. (Although I am not a great fan of the Mandrake distro)

Absolutely.

I'm saving this.

And recalling the adage "if it's not hardcopy, it's not an archive" If it's really really important, print it out. Store a copy somewhere else. (As well as a CD offsite) Remember what happened to Victor Deeb.

I have always found the words on the aspirin bottle to be an excellent guide: Take two and keep away from children.

I'm going to agree 100% here. My new sister-in-law gave her old computer to her game playing, mouse clicking son. Hours on end he could play on the pc going from site to site. In no time it was so riddled with viruses and spyware it was practically useless and then wanted to start using hers. She firmly told him no and if he wanted computer access he had to clean up the one she gave him and learn to stay away from gaming sites.

If your grandson is interested in these sites may I suggest you buy him an old computer that he can use for his games and if he trashes it and it's not fit to be used as a doorstop, no big harm has been done. You can get some cheapies well under $200. Save your nice computer for e-mail, banking, and shopping and use it worry free.

Printed 'hard copy' isn't secure from fire, damp, insect and malicious human damage either :-(

Remember what happened to the Alexandrian Library ...

Mary

My response to Teri was definitely on the harsh side. I get frustrated with my mother's refusal to learn to deal with any sort of problems with her PC. When my parents lived in town my husband and I took care of routine maintenance, and because we updated our own equipment on a regular basis, their system benefited from a number of stealth upgrades. They always balked at investing in new components but installing hand-me-downs from our various systems made for a faster, more stable operation system. So we just didn't mention the various transplants.

Then they moved to Phoenix. My sister, her husband and their two teenaged boys were absolutely useless at helping to maintain Mom & Dad's computer and peripherals. To make matters worse, one of my nephews used their computer for gaming and downloading music. Within weeks they were completely bogged down with viruses and spy ware.

Eventually I had to come to grips with the fact that my folks either couldn't or wouldn't learn to deal with this stuff. So now for Christmas and their birthdays (late June), we have them unplug everything, take it to the UPS store and have them box it up for shipping back to us. We clean up any viruses, spybots and malware, update the hard drive, video cards, motherboard, etc. We clone our current operating system on their machine, which makes tech support via telephone much easier. Software, including Norton, is updated and set up to routinely download and install new virus definitions.

Last year's Christmas gift included a new Canon MP470 printer/scanner that is pretty much idiot proof. Mom adores it because she can use it like a photocopy machine with the touch of a button. Given the complexities of their health insurance, this is a major asset. My sister's gifts to them come in the form of large quantities of printer ink cartridges, reams of printer paper and packages of printable address labels - highly sensible and greatly appreciated. They're in their 70s and have all the knickknacks and gewgaws they will ever need.

Given the personal information on their hard drive (they use on-line bill paying), they feel much more comfortable with mailing their computer to us for servicing than they would with dropping it off at CompUSA, etc.

So, anyway, food for thought for the computer literate with non-tech savvy loved ones.

I got frustrated with my mother's refusal to even try a pc, I know she'd have loved it but because *I* suggested it she said she wouldn't like it :-( At least our 'children' haven't had that experience, I had pcs before they did :-) The grandchildren haven't ever thought that grandparents or any old folk weren't capable of using a pc (or in fact doing anything except enjoying a lot of pop music!) because they have us as examples. I think it's incumbent on old people, for the sake of others, to stay up to date with technology. If they don't they can't complain if they're treated with disdain by the young. I wish I'd been firmer with my mum.

Your parents have been/re very lucky to have had you but I'm sorry that they 'balk at investing in new components'. Componenets aren't expensive and what is money for anyway?

We're spending the bit we have on ourselves, the 'children' are far better off than us so they don't need it.

I don't understand the relevance of that but I'm not questioning it!

Excellent!

We buy our own :-)))

But it would be even better if they did it themselves ...

Indeed. I do think it's a shame though that more older people (i.e. older than me!) don't make more of their pcs. They're missing out on so much ...

Sorry to go on,

Mary

They both have chronic health issues and are covered by Medicare and private insurance. Bills have to be submitted to both, and records kept on their own side. Mom had been going to the library at least twice a week to use the copy machine.

Oh I see, thanks. I should have connected with my own experience. We don't have private health care but do subscribe to a scheme which gives refunds on certain expenses - opticians, dental, acupuncture etc. and payments for in-patient care and the like. It's a voluntary scheme. We have to have receipts or hospital signatures on application forms and I always copy them just in case they're lost.

Mary

I've had a fax machine for years, but it's gotten more use since I retired than ever before. Everyone wants forms faxed to them! There are so many forms, too. At the time of my life I want to be slowing down, and perhaps my abilities are slowing down in some areas, I have to become an expert on health insurance, retirement plan options, government regulations, and on and on.

Fax machines are antiquated technology and those few business I deal with who expect faxes are told they can either accept the requested document as an attachment via e-mail, or, they can just pound sand. I'll be damned if I'll purchase and utilize some antique machinery that ties up my phone line (Hello? This is why I went to cable internet access) because no one has grabbed them by the ears and dragged them, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century.

You'd be amazed how many organizations will finally admit to being equipped to received the required info via e-mail when it is made plain, in no uncertain terms, that you're unwilling to cater to their Luddite tendencies.

Dear Friends,

I did some investigating, and have found that the satellite system we are stuck with allows 7500 mbs on a rolling 30-day schedule. If we exceed this, or come close to it, the computer will slow down, and in some cases access would be denied. We pay $20 less than Ron for this service, which I think is a lot for what we get. When we lived in the city, we had TV, DSL and telephone all through the same company, and paid $30 for the Internet part of the bill. I never heard anything about "fair usage," and my grandkids would sometimes play online games 'til 4:00 in the morning. It never occurred to me that this was any different than the electricity that ran through the house or the use of the telephone. This is a major lifestyle change for the family, as one child has a learning disability, and the Internet was a godsend for him. It taught him how to cope, to read, and to type almost as fast as I do. Now, I can't let him use the computer and we've had to find other ways for him to interact. We purchased a couple of games that he can play offline, but they're not very close to the quest game that he prefers. I'm sure we'll work it out, but my face is burning because I was so ignorant. I don't stand in lines, and that's what our use amounts to for others. Too bad the company didn't tell us about this when we signed up. We're stuck with a 2-year contract. But we'd have to do without altogether, so I think we'll grin and bear it.

Teri

A fax counts as a legal document whereas something like an email attachment does not. Your email program should have a facility for sending faxes. I don't have a fax machine, but I can scan any document in with my scanner and send it as a fax, if I can be bothered to look up how.

You can put me into that category of computer illiterates. In my own defence, I will say that it drives me bonkers that I simply can't get my head around computers. I've tried and tried but for some unknown reason it is like someone is talking in alien English to me whenever they try to explain anything to do with computers. I recognise the odd word as being English, but in reality, for me, it's a case of "what the.....?"

Now, whenever I go into a computer shop, I ask to speak to "human friendly liveware". That usually just gets me some snotty nosed kid who talks down to me and treats me like a total moron, but being a stroppy old bitch, I just up the ante and keep asking till usually some old bloke is dug out of an office somewhere to come talk to the old lady who is a total dodo.

That's not really the problem though, is it? My problem is that at a time when I want to be slowing down, simplifying my life, I have to deal with reams of papers, manuals, forms, fill in the blanks, and deliver information and decisions to the myriad agencies and companies that I must deal with. With at least one company, I had to fill out forms, write a letter, make copies of other documents, only to be told that I can make changes only between November and December. They could have mentioned that before their first four letters requiring additional copies and letters and forms.

gjones2938 wrote: It never occurred

Actually, if everyone in your area turned on their AC on high, TV, clothes dryer, and electric stove and ran them at the same time, you might experience a "brown-out" or even a black-out. That's pretty much analogous to everyone at your ISP logging on and downloading "Titanic" at the same time. It would probably crash the entire system. ISPs have to build infrastructure, just like power companies do, and they try to build for "average" use. If they tried to accommodate all users - at all levels - all the time - they would have to increase fees to everyone in order to increase capacity - or put limits in place.

Is there no way you can return to a more urban area, where you might have more choices?

Good luck.

Beverly

Ummmm, sorry to disagree, but that's not true. Not only are documents between lawyers transmitted by email (I'm a lawyer), but we can file electronic pleadings with our courts. Our Federal courts actually require PDFs for pleadings, and disallow faxes and (gasp) hard copy via mail. I can't comment specifically about the UK, but since we in the US share the same legal system, I would think the acceptance of electronic document transmission is the same.

Dear Beverly,

For now, we're pretty much stuck in the country. My husband is very ill and bedridden, needs 24/7 care. We sold our house and moved in with my daughter and her family (at her insistance). She's an oncology nurse, and my backup for my husband's care. Everythng here is on one floor, so we don't have to deal with steps. It never occurred to me that we would be in primitive conditions, but that's what it amounts to. Doctors, grocery, hospitals and shopping are 45 minutes away. Since I don't drive, we make a lot of lists and make one or two trips a week to take care of everything. We couldn't take care of our house anymore, so the solution was to sell it to someone who wanted a place that needed lots of TLC. So here we are. I'm not complaining. Even though my own health is iffy, I can still cook and look after the grandchildren while my daughter and son-in-law work.

The new computer is awesome. I don't guess I'll let the kids play with it. I design and draw patterns and instructions. The computer will actually read it out loud to me. It also plays movies, and if I had a different satellite system, we could record movies from TV and play them. One of the things I haven't figured out yet with the new scanner is how to get it to copy my drawings at the exact size I render them. It assumes I'm copying photographs in stock sizes, and wants to print them that way. So right now, I'm only copying the drawings and storing them in a photo editing program. I know it's something very simple, but I haven't figured it out yet. And some of my programs from the old computer need to be re-installed. That will probably solve the problem; however, everything is stored, and I haven't found the right box yet with my programs in it. I wasn't planning on buying a new computer, so I thought they could be safely stored.

For Kathleen, I'm most likely like your parents. I used to teach patternmaking on the computer. But it's like driving. You can do that part, but you don't know how to build a car, or even what makes it go, or what keeps it running at optimum speed. I depend on my son to keep the thing running, and so long as I can do some research and print my patterns, I'm happy. I firmly resist using computer geek language, same as I always resisted buzz words and initials for things when I was working. It's almost as if my brain turns off when someone starts using computer speek.

OK back to sewing. One of my clubs is sponsoring a rag doll swap, and I decided to use one of the patterns in my old book. I wrote it 30- some years ago. She needs an arm and a set of clothes. I don't know yet who my swap partner will be, but we should know some time this week. I sew my dolls while I sit with my husband. This one is supposed to be a simple rag doll, not like the ones I do now. I developed these when my daughter was little, and I couldn't find any pretty cloth dolls. They were either the Raggedy Ann type or just not pretty. So I tried to make mine simple for a child, but still pretty. They can be machine washed and the clothes are authentic copies of historic clothing. This one is going to represent 1830s fashion.

Time for bed.

Teri