public service annoucement 3G

[Robert]

3G is going bye bye, so if you have an alarm or any other device that relies on 3G replace it. Otherwise it may not work since they are phasing in 5G and 3G uses bandwidth.

[Challenger]

Yea and some infotainment and navigation systems in older vehicles will cease to operate and no more over the air updates. Ram offered a plug in adapter, but heard they weren't working out too well.

[Jess from VA]

Tell me about it, my home computer is still XP, and get all kinds of sass and criticism from the interweb about it.  And only some videos will even play and a few websites won't even open.  I just decided I like XP and they can all KM fuzzy A with their brand new operating system every 3 years BS.

No, I don't have 8 tracks or beta max, but I do have a sh!t ton of audio cassettes and VCR tapes.  

[scooperhsd]

Jess - if you would drop using Internet Exploder and start using something like Firefox  (my preferred) or Chrome  most (if not all) of those websites would load....

[Jess from VA]

Scott, I've been on Firefox since this computer came out of the box. (and the one before it, and at work when I still did)

Firefox would tell me when to update, and I did that many times and years.

But there came a time when updates seemed no longer compatible with my XP setup, and I have been afraid to attempt any further updates for fear of my computer ceasing to work entirely (or exploding).  I have a vague recollection of that happening some years back, and having to scramble around to load an earlier version to get my computer back to working again.  So I never dared touch any updates again.  And I never get any update prompts anymore either.

Like Oddball in Kelly's Heroes movie, I can drive them, but I have no idea how they work.

I still get about 98% of everything I want.  Except most news videos.

And on Youtube, every time one opens, I get a window telling me a script is running on the page and do I want to 1) continue anyway or 2) debug it or 3) stop the script.  And I don't know what the right selection is.  Please advise me.

I got a new state of the art laptop to do my taxes on (because Turbo won't run XP anymore) with windows 10 two years ago.  I've used it twice for turbo taxes and will have to again soon.  But I hate windows 10 (or anything new) so I never use it at all for any other reason.  It just sits on my printer (closed) with three blinking lights, laughing at me.

[Serk]

You do you and all that, but running Windows XP in $Current Year I hope you're behind one hell of a firewall... That's just asking for trouble...

Mainstream support for XP ended Apr 14, 2009 and even extreme measures security support ended on Apr 8, 2014. There's been a LOT of security holes discovered in the intervening years.

I get that you know what you know and you're comfortable with it, but that's just asking to get pwn3d..... I play with some older OSes in a virtual lab and they have so many holes in 'em it's not even funny...

[Jess from VA]

What is pwn3d?

Mostly, I just stick to trusted websites and don't click anything I can't be pretty sure to trust.

I get almost no junk email.

I am behind a firewall, or so my computer tells me.

[Serk]

What is pwn3d?

l33t speak for Owned. Hacked. Root kitted. Compromised. Anything on your computer "they" have. Keystroke recorders. Screen capture. Etc. etc. etc...

If you don't wanna mess with a new Windows consider a Mac (And I NEVER say that, I DESPISE Apple and all the evil they stand for, but it's better than a WAY EOL'ed Windows out in the wild) or a Chrome book for basic web browsing if that's all you do....

[Jess from VA]

My brother's wife has a MAC I can use when up in MI, and I hate that too.  

I'm doomed.  (what else is new?)

Any advice (or comment) on my three Youtube script running choices (above)?

[Serk]

And on Youtube, every time one opens, I get a window telling me a script is running on the page and do I want to 1) continue anyway or 2) debug it or 3) stop the script.  And I don't know what the right selection is.  Please advise me.

Specifically I'm not sure what's going on, and I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but since XP is EOL'ed, the apps running on it are generally as well. I'm guessing your XP is the 32 bit version, and more and more stuff has switched to 64 bit in the last decade or so, the 32 bit stuff getting deprecated.

A lot of the stuff used in the early Internet days for stuff like videos and such has been entirely deprecated (Adobe Flash comes to mind foremost)

Ironically, did some googling on your specific object, and one possible fix would be to remove the above referenced Adobe Flash:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/920725

[Jess from VA]

Thanks.

[scooperhsd]

I'd second the thought on switching to a Chromebook. Even new (and I wouldn't get anything BUT new on a Chromebook, so you get max life before that unit gets EOL'd) they aren't bad. BUT - you need to be comfortable using Google Chrome, and using their web apps for things like word processing and spreadsheets. By today's standards - a Chromebook is a pretty modest computer, but since it is stripped down to the essentials - it has plenty to do the job.

[Jess from VA]

Thanks. 

[carolinarider09]

Jess,

I know.....  Just my 2 cents.  I run windows 98 (for astronomy stuff) and Windows 7 (for trip planning stuff) on a MacBook Air. 

I switched to the MacBook maybe six years ago. 

It is more expensive.  There is a learning curve but....... once you are through that I believe its much better. 

I wanted to put some photos together for a video for a friend.  I wanted to add music to it as well.  I did a search on the web and found some software for my MacBook ($50 don't remember for sure).   Almost bought it but did a search and found out my MacBook has the software already.

Wanted to put some videos together and add some music.  I used a Sony program years ago on my Windows 7 machine.  Looked around and the Sony software was not available.  Started to purchase a piece of software but checked the web first and found my MacBook could already do that. 

Yes it cost more, yes there is a learning curve. 

There are also those that say it had better security the Microsoft based devices.   I don't know.  Serk might have an opinion. 

Again, looking back, I am very glad I changed to the MacBook.   The price is the big bump on the road. 

FWIW, if you go to the Apple web site you can purchase "refurbished" devices for a few hundred dollars cheaper (which is what I have always done).

[..]

Whatever y'all do please remember that Open Office is free and compatible with Microsoft

https://www.openoffice.org/download/index.html

I've been using it for years.

[Robert]

Hey Jess if you get a new computer it wont take a cup of coffee before the thing is up and running either. I used to hate that, my new computer takes 6 seconds to go from stone cold to usable, running Windows 10/64

[scooperhsd]

Hey Jess if you get a new computer it wont take a cup of coffee before the thing is up and running either. I used to hate that, my new computer takes 6 seconds to go from stone cold to usable, running Windows 10/64

That's somewhat dependent on the hardware of the computer  - Needs an SSD boot drive to make THAT speed possible. My Lenovo laptop has 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD drive, and I can cold boot Windows 11 in about 20 seconds.

And yes - I have Open Office on it for doing "Office" things - I use the spreadsheet for fuel consumption tracking on my vehicles.

[Robert]

Hey Jess if you get a new computer it wont take a cup of coffee before the thing is up and running either. I used to hate that, my new computer takes 6 seconds to go from stone cold to usable, running Windows 10/64

That's somewhat dependent on the hardware of the computer  - Needs an SSD boot drive to make THAT speed possible. My Lenovo laptop has 16 GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD drive, and I can cold boot Windows 11 in about 20 seconds.

And yes - I have Open Office on it for doing "Office" things - I use the spreadsheet for fuel consumption tracking on my vehicles.

Wouldn't do another computer with any moving parts  Those whirlybird things have always been slow. With SSD and a decent CPU its around the range you mentioned, but with NVMe on a good system it yields these results. I will never go back to the spinners and when ever possible will do the NVMe drives. I have 2tb on the newest.