I got the bright idea that I should transfer some of my music to a flash drive. I figured that would be a lot easier to bring with me to the car. I recently bought a bunch of 64GB flash drives for another purpose, (playing around with some different O/S) Anyway, I wondered how many albums I could fit on a 64GB. I thought, off the top of my head, maybe 15-20.(?) I have a USB drive in my car stereo, so why not?

Wrongo! Evidently, I can fit every CD I own (somewhere between 200-250, I think) on this one flash drive, and have plenty of room left over, as it will hold about 700 .... yes 700 albums. Why did no one ever tell me about this. I feel like the old grandpa, wondering where the floppy drive went. Geesh. lol

Don't feel bad. I still have a flip phone. I just bought my first smart phone - it should arrive Weds or Thurs. I have never used a touch screen in my life, and I'm wondering how annoying this is going to be when it gets here. Now get the hell off my lawn.

I still can't get the clock to stop flashing on my beta recorder

You should upgrade to a VHS player - Blockbuster has a lot more available titles in VHS than they do in Beta.

Wait until you find out about Spotify

What's next. Are you going to tell me I should upgrade from my 8 track player in my car?

A 74 min album on CD in native format is about 700 mb, a typical album 40 min. Is roughly 400 mb

So you must be using MP3 or some other reduced file format, which is ok for a car.

I love the sound of 8-track rumble as much as anyone, but I think you should go cassette format for music in your car. 8-track will prolly be gone by 2025, or so.

And bluetooth.

The 8-Track Experience:


"If I could, I'd catch a falling star
To shine on you, so I'd know where you are...
Paint a rainbow in your favorite shades
To show I love you- thinking-"
[fade, fade, fade]
brrrt, brrrt... clickcathunk
[fade, fade, fade]

"-by golly wow...
You're the one that I've been waiting for forever..."

[facepalm]

I never got suckered in by 8-track. The first time I saw a unit in action, I thought it was the dumbest format ever.

8-tracks

lol thanks for the laugh Ytown. I’ve had my moments with how quickly technology is progressing.

I was thinking the same thing CFRS and OCD said while reading your story.

BTW, if you see someone wearing little white things with stems pointing down in their ears…those aren’t hearing aids, they’re AirPods

Hey, I brush twice per day .... sometimes 3 times/day. My teeth are nice and white.

I always loved when the tracks switched with 15-20 seconds left in a song.

It's not our fault you didn't put the matchbook wedge in to hold it in place. Old people will know what I mean.

I somehow activated the closed captioning on my fire TV and now can't figure out how to turn it off. It is only when I stream the Xfinity channels, not Prime, Netflix, youtube, etc..

It's just a bedroom TV I bought about 6 months ago, so I can live with it until I figure it out or it ticks me off enough I just take it to Goodwill and go get another. It was under $300 so it isn't the end of the world.

It's freaking annoying because every single app has it's own method. Found this in an Xfinity forum...


Hope that helps. Either way, it's not the TV, it's the Xfinity app.

https://forums.xfinity.com/conversations...8715379966ed646

Echoing the "don't feel bad" sentiment. Tech is passing me by as well, and I'm young (late 30's). I have been the de facto IT person for my family since I was early teens, but I'm finding my self less and less able to solve the various tech issues encountered by friends/family. The hilarious part is that my parents, fairly helpless when it comes to using technology, have actually been going the opposite direction (they're finally starting to figure out their smartphones and laptops/email).

I was thinking of creating a new topic, but this one will do.

My Blu-ray surround system went to the electronic afterlife. It is a Panasonic SA-BTT370 and came with 5 speakers. I ran wires through the wall and crawled around the attic space to mount speakers on the ceiling in that god awful heat many years ago.

I am finding it difficult finding a replacement. I don't know many of the manufacturers of these types of systems so don't know what is good and what isn't. The last time I put together a system I bought it in Okinawa in the 80s. The Panasonic was just a lucky buy on Cyber Day. My son says to just buy a receiver for the surround sound and attach a cheap Blu-ray which is fine with me. Any suggestions on the sound system? I don't need the speakers.

Yeah, you just need a receiver if you are wired and have speakers.

In my experience, the most critical component to a SS system is the Subwoofer. A crappy one will keep your system from coming to life. The rest of the speakers, as long as they are average, they will suffice.

I've had Samsung, Sony and Onkyo receivers in the passed, but replaced it all with a Bose system years ago and could not be happier.

It will all depend on your budget, but the hard part, wiring, is done, so you just need components.

I keep planning to build a new system, probably will when I come home for good. The biggest thing I kept getting caught up on was each manufacturer's user interface for streaming music (over ethernet). I love Pioneer but people seem to hate their UI.

After giving it thought over time, I'd rather just have something with Bluetooth and stream from my phone. My music collection is there, my services are there, makes more sense than trying to learn some silly interface and do things with a remote anyway.

I've read a lot of good things about Onkyo recently. Their receivers seem to give you quite a bit of bang for your buck. That said, personally, I don't think I could allow myself to "cheat" on Pioneer. I bought a system in '86 with a receiver that was still running sound in the dining room of my restaurant in 2013. Day in, day out, like clockwork. Every year or two a new LED would burn out on the built-in equalizer, that was about it. Six disk CD changer worked until 2008, tuner (probably) still works.

This is one I've looked at recently...

https://www.amazon.com/Pioneer-VSX-534-5...uct_top?ie=UTF8

I have one system upstairs and one downstairs.

What's a Ap?

I failed typing in high school.

I just slug it out with technology. If someone shows me once. I get it. But, so much comes out all the time. I am in permanent catch-up mode.

I have one (with a clock in it) in the bedroom, 1 in the living room, 1 in the kitchen, 1 in my office, 1 in my wifes office, 1 in the garage, 1 on the lanai, and an 8" Echo Show that is currently not hooked up.

The garage and living room are full size, the rest are Dots.

We got one of those little kid ones for my son's play room. My almost-4-year-old does a lot of funny stuff, but few things are as consistently funny as watching him adopt my "you have 2 chances to do what I tell you" mentality with Alexa.

I have couple of Bose speakers that we got after my father-in-law had from his time in the service. Their big and sit in the corner by my entertainment system. I didn't ever give that a thought. I'll take a look at what they offer. Thank you.

My Onkyo was great, and that only got replaced by the Bose. In fact, my son still has and uses it for his system. I bought that receiver in 1995.

I am amazed at some of the computer advances today. The Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized chip set, with tons of functionality built in. These things blow away my 1st computer badly, and probably my 2nd as well. You can buy an all in one Raspberry Pi, with a quad core, 64 bit processor, 4GB RAM, 2 USB 3 ports, and HDMI ..... build into a keyboard, for about $100. Crazy!

My laptop, (from college, over a decade ago) still perfectly usable, by the way, only has a Pentium dual core processor.

Something scary is that the new Windows 11 has some stupid hardware requirements. I bought a Dell server, off use, and this thing is a beast! dual Zeon 2.93 Ghz 36 GB RAM, a pair of 1 TB solid state drives, HDMI, USB3, and yet it will not be able to run Windows 11. (at least so far)

This computer has a slightly older MB, and does not run UEFI or secure boot, and it does not have a TPM. Looks like Windows 10 will be it for me for a while. I have already dual booted Linux on my laptop. I am glad to see that Linux is finally coming around to the idea that not everyone wants to run command line all that time. Maybe when support for Windows 10 ends, in 5 years, so they say, I'll buy a "new" computer. I will probably never buy a brand new one again. There are just too many great deals on used, or off-lease ones.

I was looking at computer parts the other day, because I am thinking about building myself a new computer for Windows 11. Man, when did RGB become such a thing? I have a keyboard, that I bought a while back. It is wired, because I don't need to move it around, and I got tired of changing batteries all the time. It pulses different colors. It's kinda cool. Now you can buy computers that light up, inside and out. They even have lighting that can be set to pulse to music, and other effects. I remember, about 20 years ago when a friend of mine, who was a huge gamer, showed me his system. He had painted his case and had lighting inside. He also had a handle on top, so he could take it with him more easily. I thought it was sort of cool, but unnecessary. Now they have cases that put his to shame by a factor of hundreds. lol RGB mouse pads, sound bars, individual computer components, it's crazy. I thought I was nuts when I put an auto paint job on an old case way back when. (It was cool, though, a "color change" paint that switched from purple to green depending on the light and viewing angle)

Now I have to decide if I want to go all fancy, or if I just want a plain computer. lol I don't game, so I don't need to worry about that aspect.

That's my "back in my day" rant for today.

The newer wireless keyboards and mice(?) can last a year on one battery. I don't know how they made this possible, but it's true. I'm at almost a year on my work system that I use full time.

I have this really old Vaio laptop, that ran XP. It is almost unusable now, because XP won't update, (obviously) so I am going to put Linux on it. Of course, it won't boot from a flash drive, and I threw out all of my CD-R and DVD-R discs since I use flash drives for everything now. In order to boot to this laptop, I can only use a hard drive, floppy, or CD. I had to order a small package from Amazon. It's only $5 ... but still.

Anyone know od a good website to download books in pdf format? I’m looking at downloading them at home, then emailing them to myself at my work email. I can then read them in my email. This is the only way I can read them at work because our work computers are really locked down tight on internet usage, and no external drives allowed either.

Honestly, other than the DIY aspect, it's not worth building your own anymore.

I recently decided to upgrade my 8yo PC, and went with a pre-built that builds for cost of components plus a $75 assembly fee. Add in their RGB fans which they probably get pricing deals on for bulk buying and it came in cheaper than if I bought all the parts myself, not to mention the chip shortage making it harder to get parts, where builders buy in larger quantitates and get priority.

I just found this ... a "pen mouse". I don't know if it's any good or not, but for $12 ... I'm gonna try it out.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077GM4W11/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I got my pen mouse today. I took my olodest laptop, and installed Linux on it. I plugged in the pen mouse, since I hate the touch pad on that old &^$^*)&% laptop.

It is pretty cool. I actually like it, except for the fact that I have to get used to putting it down when I have to type anything. There is a small plastic stand. It is very comfortable. I am actually shocked. It's very (cheap?) .... lightweight. I'll be interested to see how it holds up.

My pretty darn powerful desktop can't upgrade to Windows 11 .... but the $90 used Windows tablet I bought today can. I like having a Windows tablet with a keyboard. My old RCA Windows tablet has a dying battery. It's fine if I use it plugged in, but that kind of defeats the portability aspect. I've had it for 4 or so years, so that's not bad. I'm gonna wipe it and donate it, along with some other stuff I have around here.

I ran the Windows "PC Health Checker", and it says that my new, cheap tablet, can, indeed, update to Windows 11. Just nuts.

I had to change out mine once I couldn't get matchbooks anymore. How else was I supposed to keep that tape tracking properly?

This is something serious. Check to see if your router is on the list, and if there is a firmware update is it is.

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/router-at...g1TmOdAEPMUhvW4

Tech has definitely passed me by ....


Football enters the chat...



The fact that this still exists is amazing.
https://twitter.com/RehabAllStar/status/1434676311608463360

Thanks for this. Luckily my Belkin router isn't on the list.

You're welcome.

So I downloaded Windows 11 to my new, $90 tablet, and so far it's nice, but I haven't found anything earth-shattering in it. I don't use multiple desktops, or teams, so those are 2 big nothings to me. I do like the redesigned menus, especially the new settings menu. I look forward to being able to use Android apps ... but I haven't found that yet. So far, it's ... OK.

There are ways around the requirements, and in most cases it's a matter of optional functions not being enabled.

Linus Tech Tips has a pretty good video on it all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NivpAiuh-s0&ab_channel=LinusTechTips

around 7:00 he gets into how to get it on an older PC.

I watch Linus all the time, He's pretty good.

I just find it amusing that I have a pretty powerful system that cannot "officially" upgrade to Windows 11, and yet this tablet which I bought for $90, which is significantly less powerful in every way, has already updated. (officially)

Frankly, thus far, I have come away from my initial time with 11 rather unimpressed. It has an "eye candy" appeal, and has a more user friendly (with an "Android" type "Settings" icon) settings page. There is supposedly going to be more integration with Android apps and the Amazon store, and I suppose that's good .... but most of the Android and Amazon apps I use on my Android tablet are "time wasters". I don't know that I see great value there.

I'll keep 11 on my tablet, but I don't know that I'll lament not having it on my desktop system.

So ..... I have a bunch of old, outdated call phones lying around collecting dust. I read an article about using an old cell phone as a system monitor, so I set one up. It's pretty cool. I don't know if it's super useful, but pretty cool.

I also set up a second old smart phone as a Google machine. "Hey Google" with a British accent. It's good for when I am writing, and need a synonym, or a quote, or such. It's easier than bringing the browser back up, entering the parameters, and then going back to Word. I don't know how much easier, but it's a fun toy right now.

So ...anyway ...... my old Dell server tower passed on to the great beyond. It was a great computer, a little overly large and heavier than a horse or 2 ..... but it performed well.

I went on eBay and bought another for $199. I pulled the video card out of the old machine, and put it into the new one.

Nothing.

I was so frustrated. I knew I missed something.

Well, I like having a desktop ..... because that's what I am used to. I looked all over the site for something newer. I have no problems with Windows 11. I have it on my laptop and tablet, and it does well. I found a used PC, that literally looks like the guy bought the thing, pulled the graphics card, and threw an older one in. (and that's probably what happened, but so what) No problem, I had a GTX 1050ti here collecting dust, so I figured I would throw that in. Decent system, with an i3 9100, 16 GB RAM, and 3TB of storage. It had an old graphics card in it, but that didn't matter to me. The guy listed it at $399. I asked him why he didn't upgrade it to Windows 11, and he said that it wouldn't upgrade. I thought to myself, $400, and it's got good bones.

So anyway, I started monkeying around with the Dell, in the meantime. I was checking all of the connections ....... and then I saw it. The card I stuck in there had an external power plug ......... Plugged that sucker in and away we went. It runs just fine. It will probably never run Windows 11, but so what. For the price I paid for it, I'l be OK with that. I threw the harddrive from my old system in there and it was like nothing had happened.

So, in the meantime, my new system shipped. It arrived today. (3 days from Ill, nice) It looks even better than in the photos ...... and the RGB is starting to grow on me. I was about to wipe the drive and was going to reinstall Windows 10, but figured, "let's try 11". I ran the checker, and sure enough, it said "No way Jose. Your system doesn't have TPM 2.0 enabled." Enabled that in the BIOS, installed the newer video card, used the Windows 11 flash drive I used to upgrade my laptop. and in about 30 minutes, I had a shiny new Windows 11 system.

I wonder if the guy didn't know how to enable TPM, or just didn't care. Who cares? I got a solid enough system to stay up to date for quite a while.

I might have to take up gaming.

Yeah, I wasn't very happy to find out my new MOBO (2020) which was pitched as the intel next gen ready best you can get… it needed an additional $100 hardware module added to achieve TPM 2.0, and be Win 11 compliant. I upgraded but haven't really seen the improvement in Win 11 yet to make it worth it.

Wow, I thought that all MOBOs sold in the last 4 or 5 years had TPM 2.0 on them. Guess that was another ...... exaggeration by MS. I have seen too many people who have updated "incompatible" systems, though, to put much stock in the idea that 11 just won't run on older hardware.

I liked Win 10, and I like Win 11. Both have run fine for me, with the exception of one program conflict in Win 11.

I looked at building a new PC, but video card prices are so stupid (and the cards are hard to find) that I decided to look at used systems. I was glad to find this one at a reasonable price.

Meh, unless you are a gamer, the onboard intel graphics stream video just fine. I've never been into video games.

I like having a video card. Maybe it's just my having seen a ton of bad onboard video over the years. The bad thing is that even "mid cards" have been driven through the roof, price-wise. A GTX-3060 retails new for somewhere in the $300 range, but you can't find them at that price. They are sold out at retail, and are scalped online for 3 times retail. (or more) Even somewhat older cards are ridiculous.

I was discussing building a system on one of these threads, and someone said it's cheaper to buy a pre-built, and that does seem to be true. If a system builder (large one) builds a system, and even charges for assembly, the video card is still cheaper than what a person on the street can buy it for.