Spamming sewing list

YMMV. For a one-off, it's not worth my time. ;-)

Richard and all, I had a bunch of grandbabies I was in charge of and didn't get any sewing done for about five years. so I haven't been checking in so much, cause I feel like I'm useless, cause I'm not sewing. Then I got sick, and came back to do some chatting while I could and while I had a possibility of sewing, but I've been so tired I'm still just reading.

I AM cleaning the sewing stuff out with the goal of fitting it into a tiny room I might be able to use for a sewing room.

About the newsreader, I used to use Netscape but it began hiding all the messages and not letting me read them, so I had to stop reading through that and begin web reading. I've since begun using Thunderbird for email but I'm sorta afraid to go to all the trouble of setting up the newsreader and then not be able to get it to work. It was a huge waste of my time when I had Netscape.

And NO, I don't have broad band, I have dialup so it is very slow compared to what you broadband readers experience. every time I log onto group.google, the front page of alt.sewing is half some kinda spam. it's sorta like looking through the garbage bag looking for a lost magazine. you know what it looks like, but not how much junk mail and newspapers you have to search through before you find it.

thanks for ALL replies, Kitty

I've had MS for over 30 years; fortunately it was never too much of a problem all through my working life, it was largely in remission with occasional relapses, but it does seem to be a bit more of a problem in recent years. I get very tired and listless at times, and I have quite a job to get motivated into doing things sometimes. I have one doll who's been wearing a pair of knickers and nothing else for many months now, and I just can't bring myself to get started on dressing her. She's still on the back burner, coz I'm now working on a 30" doll to dress as an Edwardian Bride. I can, however, appreciate where you're coming from.

Go for it!

People will always sing the praises of whatever they're used to, and I'm no different in that respect. I use 40tude Dialog for news groups, and whilst there is a learning curve to go through, I think it's worth it once you've succeeded. I'm not going to go into how I use mine, this ain't the place for that. All I will say is that it is extremely flexible and feature packed once you're used to it.

There are plenty of news readers out there, you just need the courage to try one out.

Again, I'm both puzzled and surprised. Is BB not available where you are, or are the costs prohibitive? Just goes to show the sort of misconceptions we can work under - I just sort of assume everyone in the US will have BB. It's now widely available in the UK, and we always seem to lag behind the US.

The Wanderer wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@40tude.net:

there are large areas of the US where broadband or cable high speed access are not available yet. i'm in Southern NH, which is basicly a suburb of Boston. i cannot get ADSL. the phone company refuses to upgrade theit equipment. i did recently get cable access (after the floods last spring, where we discovered the idiot phone company had left thier regional switching station in a swamp & we were without any telephone access for 2 months while they waited for the water to recedd & rewired the thing. did they *move*? no, of course not. so it'll flood again next year...). so, i reluctantly ordered cable internet access from the local (horrible) cable co. now i pay around $50/month for somewhat spotty access (it disconnects & reconnects several times per hour). it's only slightly faster than my free dial-up was. lee

There are lots of places where broadband is unavailable. And there are many folks who simply can't afford the extra monthly fees. And then there's the luddites, like my mother, who won't upgrade either her connection or her computer because she doesn't have personal tech support living 20 minutes away anymore, and she can't bear the thought of having to relearn everything again.

I wouldn't mind if she didn't complain about not being able to watch the YouTube videos that my sister and I swap back and forth. And if she didn't tie up her landline for hours at a time while simultaneously forgetting to turn on her cell phone. Mostly it's just an inconvenience but it could be a problem in an emergency; both she and my dad have major medical issues.

The outer shell of her computer is 12 or 14 years old. Most if not all of the components are substantially newer. When they lived here my husband and I kept it running with spare parts from our own older machines and the occasional stealth upgrade. That stopped 3 years ago when they moved to Arizona. My sister and her family also live out there but there's not a computer guru in the bunch (which is weird because they've got two teenage boys).

Anyways, I've decided that the next time I'm out there I'm just going to pull rank and get her a new system and teach her how to use it. She'll hate it at first, just like she pretty much always hates anything new, and then she'll love having a fast machine with a stable operating system, an idiotproof printer/scanner, an open phone line and access to the new horizons that broadband opens up.

It may be sooner rather than later. Mom says it's making horrible noises. The last time that happened I told her to open up the tower and vacuum out the dog hair. She was horrified to discover an entire warren of dust bunnies in residence. She asked how come she didn't know she had to vacuum out her computer and I told her I don't know why you didn't know, you've watched Dan and me do it a million times. She said it didn't help this time.

I wonder if the death of a computer qualifies you for a discounted bereavement fare on Southwest Airlines.

"> Anyways, I've decided that the next time I'm out there I'm just going to

Some local ISP's offer classes. You might also check out local colleges. They could offer non-credit classes with special seniors pricing.

Just a thought, AK in PA

Kitty,

You need to stay here even if you aren't sewing and do what I do -- I have done TONS of virtual sewing over the years when I haven't had the time or ability or money or whatever to do it, and it's better than not sewing at all.

Unless you plan to set her up on a Mac (not an entirely bad idea) be aware that new computers are coming with a buggy alpha version of Vista. It will be a while before they squash all the bugs, if history is a good indicator. By the time I went to XP, it was fairly bug-free, but the new laptop we got for DH has Vista and has constant updates and adjustments and it will not talk to the printer even with a new driver for Vista.

Damn' right!

Stay and dispense your wisdom even when you cannot ply your needle.

Pogonip wrote in news:47506d1f$ snipped-for-privacy@news.bnb-lp.com:

if you *order* the computer (or build it yourself) you can still get XP Pro as the OS. it may even save you $100 or so (Dell charges less if you order XP, at least). the newly released Mac OS, Leopard, is worse than Vista! so if you go Mac, stay away from that, too. i'm thinking of a new computer for myself, & it'll be dual boot XP Pro/Linux. you can't play games on a Vista system, so what's the point? if i want to do real computer stuff, i want Linux. otherwise, my PC is for playing games. lee

We run XP Pro on our machines so that's what she'll get. Cloning the setup we've got at home will make remote tech support easier.

No Macs. See above. Also, my experience with Macs is that the local elementary schools are likely to order them because they're supposed to be easier, but everybody's got PCs at home. Teachers, students, volunteers, even the computer lab staff. If you've got a problem with a Mac there's a good chance that there's nobody in the building capable of offering any constructive advice.

Kitty I have to use dialup to read newsgroups as my Broadband ISP doesn't have any newsgroups at all. (Himself, who got our Broadband satellite connected was told that I MUST have newsgroups and that I wasn't interested in Broadband unless there was access to newsgroups, but did he bother about that........ Grrrrrr!!!!!). Anyway, I've kept up the old dialup service and use Outlook Express. Despite the bad press that Microsoft gets, I have to say that I have absolutely no complaints about using Outlook Express for our mail and newsgroups.

I investigated using google groups to get access to newsgroups but decided that it would be such a pain in the neck to use that the small expense of keeping a dialup service in addition to our satellite Broadband was a small price to pay.

Fran

Ahh, that's where you live. I've always wanted to see Boston as my husband says it's lovely. Sadly, I've decided the US is off the travel agenda given the idiotic entry requirements that now apply in order to get into the country (and also because of the hair raising stories I've heard from seasoned travellers about US airports).

:-)) I know just what you both mean. I have had 2 bouts of primary cancer and whilst undergoing treatment, I couldn't do anything much. I'm a mad keen gardener so I did lots of virtual gardening when I couldnt' do the real physical stuff. Very therapeutic it was too. Last cancer bout I had, I was still sick as a dog from the Radiation burns, couldn't eat much and as weak as a Kitten but I had decided while still really bad, that I wanted to rebuild a bed which is surrounded by really big stones. I managed to finish the job with very little help from my husband but a lot of help from a tilting trolley which let me roll the rocks on the platform and then tilt it back to move the big rocks where I wanted them. Virtual activity is a great way to form ideas that can be put into practice later on.

There are some free or very low cost news service providers. A few minutes with google could get you sorted. I use NIN. which is a subscription service, but for the paltry sum of 10 Euros per annum it's well worth it. It's a respected service based ay Berlin Uni.

'll recoup the cost in a matter of days if you're not then using dialup. FWIW, NIN has configuration details for all popular news clients

"FarmI" wrote in news:47510550$0$19754$ snipped-for-privacy@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net .au:

i don't blame you! i think the retina scans & fingerprinting requirements are amazingly stupid, especially for a country that relies on tourism. right now the US dollar is virtually worthless in exchange rate so people should be *flocking* here... but they aren't & won't because of the entry requirements (and, yes, the airport "security" nonsense). i have to say that i refuse to fly anymore, not from fear, but because i'm not willing to give up my privacy & dignity just to pay too much to get on a plane, where the staff treats one like crap. i an NOT handing over my pocket knife, my knitting needles, my water bottle or my shoes. it just ain't going to happen. i can't even take Boo 3 hours up the road to Canada without getting a passport now! how stupid is that? i hate hate *hate* how Bush's administration (and Giulianni's campaign) are run on fear-mongering. there is no bogeyman under the bed! there really *is* nothing to fear but rear itsself... and those who are willing to give up a little liberty for a little (false) security end up with neither. lee

Lee, I knew there was a really good reason I like you and now I know what it is. I'm so sick of the scare tactics being used in this country and the fact that so many people buy into them. There are problems out there and we should be aware of them but and it's a big but We are no safer now than we were before all this security stuff started because the present administration has bungles every thing they started and then have the nerve to tell people who don't support what they are doing to *save* the world don't support the troops or are making it easier for terrorists to do us harm. How about all the harm this country has done to others in the last 7 years. We have made enemies all over the world. I support every man and woman in the armed service who is trying to do the job they have been ordered to do, I just don't support the orders. J

i'm lost in all of this talk about how to fight spam... can't we just report it to google? (more options --> report this message) ... is that too simple minded or is it well-known not to help?

Here's a third in agreement. It would be nice if the patriotic blabbermouths would back up their flag-waving with some support for those troops they've decided to sacrifice in the name of.....what is it they're fighting for again? Insufficient body armor, armored vehicles, supplies, appropriate uniforms, then when they get hurt, they want to charge them for meals???? And cut off VA benefits such as hospitalization?

Jan. 20, 2009 - the end of an error