+Vorticon Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 5 hours ago, Kchula-Rrit said: My doctor's office is, maybe, ten miles from my house. The bills arrive with a postmark in a city a hundred-and-some miles away, in another state. And the Feds keep carping about people using fuel... K-R. That's what electronic billing is for... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 Many moons ago before the advent of smartphones, we took a road trip. To keep the kids entertained, I connected 2 color handheld TV's with headphones, one for each kid, to a small VCR powered by an DC to AC cigarette lighter converter and they were able to watch a bunch of Disney VHS tapes throughout the entire drive. Now that was cutting edge in-car entertainment! 😁 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 3 hours ago, Vorticon said: That's what electronic billing is for... Make me an electronic billing method which is reliable and we can talk. I have tried electronic billing from several providers, and none of them were as reliable as the old paper methods. Plus, once these motherpluckers get your cell phone or email address, there is an onslaught of bullshit and garbage coming from them. This in and of itself introduces another layer of unreliability as their domains start building up spam scores. Not sure why I have to explain this to some people, but no one is entitled to either my email address or my cell phone number. I have become more slack on my email as I still use it as an off-line method of communication (and can have unlimited throw-away email addresses as I run the servers.) But why should I be forced to give the tire shop my cell phone number? Why should I have to give my cell phone number to the pimple-faced host at the steakhouse, cost-shifting their seating system onto me at the very least? Call me a Boomer, call me old and out of touch, call me whatever, just get the frak off my lawn. 3 hours ago, Vorticon said: Many moons ago before the advent of smartphones, we took a road trip. To keep the kids entertained, I connected 2 color handheld TV's with headphones, one for each kid, to a small VCR powered by an DC to AC cigarette lighter converter and they were able to watch a bunch of Disney VHS tapes throughout the entire drive. Now that was cutting edge in-car entertainment! 😁 I remember those luxuries becoming available some time well after I took road trips with my family. Before that, I entertained myself with coloring books, comics, Transformers and Legos, drawing, or singing to the radio with my parents (or sometimes just pestering them.) During the 80s, Radio Shack and others made LCD games more readily available (beyond the LED football games and Nintendo Game-and-Watch,) so I had a few of those to tote around at some point, as well. Though, I had to turn the volume pretty much off as those high-pitched tones can find their way right to an adult human's spine. Oh, how I wanted my computer to be portable. Instead, I would often work on programs or think up game ideas on the trip. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 This was in the mid-90's. Radio Shack sold these cheap handheld LCD TV's with dubious image quality, but hey they worked well enough! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 27 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said: Call me a Boomer, call me old and out of touch, call me whatever This ^ 😂 I've given up that fight long ago. I just keep a trash email address to give out and a wired phone number that is not even connected to a receiver. Everybody is happy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 5 hours ago, OLD CS1 said: I remember those luxuries becoming available some time well after I took road trips with my family. Before that, I entertained myself with coloring books, comics, Transformers and Legos, drawing, or singing to the radio with my parents (or sometimes just pestering them.) During the 80s, Radio Shack and others made LCD games more readily available (beyond the LED football games and Nintendo Game-and-Watch,) so I had a few of those to tote around at some point, as well. Though, I had to turn the volume pretty much off as those high-pitched tones can find their way right to an adult human's spine. Oh, how I wanted my computer to be portable. Instead, I would often work on programs or think up game ideas on the trip. Nice. I got to sit quietly and look out the window. 6 hr drives to and from Vancouver were some of my least enjoyed memories. Now that I'm old and time is much faster I can do the drive and barely notice it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfiniteTape Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 58 minutes ago, Tursi said: Nice. I got to sit quietly and look out the window. 6 hr drives to and from Vancouver were some of my least enjoyed memories. I would take my cassette recorder, one of those white mono single earphones, and some of the book-and-cassette sets. I always had to futz with the volume and tone after the trip so the TI would be happy again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 1 hour ago, Tursi said: Nice. I got to sit quietly and look out the window. 6 hr drives to and from Vancouver were some of my least enjoyed memories. Now that I'm old and time is much faster I can do the drive and barely notice it. i used to play car bingo. i had a board with sliders on it, and when a car pass us by, would try to match the first letter and last two numbers to the spot on bingo card. then later on when i got a bit order i was the map reader for my day (no gps), and he always got lost. and finally when i had kids myself in the backseat i installed a gamecube with small lcd screen, the gamecube was great for installation as it ran off 12volt dc natively, so easy to wire in. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 5 minutes ago, InfiniteTape said: I would take my cassette recorder, one of those white mono single earphones, and some of the book-and-cassette sets. I always had to futz with the volume and tone after the trip so the TI would be happy again. I did that a couple of times! I recorded some of my favorite songs off the radio (as we did) and played them on my TI recorded on the road if my mom and dad were listening to something I did not want to listen to. But, I found that I did not mind a lot of the stuff my parents liked, like Three Dog Night, Paul McCartney and Wings, Doobie Brothers, Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, &c. Something else my parents had me do, especially when it was just Dad and me making the trip, is I would navigate. I earned a Cub Scout badge for doing that -- reading the map, plotting our travel, working out ways around back-ups, and such. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+FarmerPotato Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 6 hours ago, OLD CS1 said: Oh, how I wanted my computer to be portable. Instead, I would often work on programs or think up game ideas on the trip I took my graph paper in the car. Erased and redrew sprites without ever seeing them on the screen. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 3 minutes ago, FarmerPotato said: I took my graph paper in the car. Erased and redrew sprites without ever seeing them on the screen. for me sitting in the backseat, i could not read anything, i would get motion sickness, front seat was ok, so looking out the window was best for me. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 24 minutes ago, OLD CS1 said: Something else my parents had me do, especially when it was just Dad and me making the trip, is I would navigate. I earned a Cub Scout badge for doing that -- reading the map, plotting our travel, working out ways around back-ups, and such. no more for badges for that, unless using a GPS counts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kchula-Rrit Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 (edited) 2 hours ago, OLD CS1 said: ... But, I found that I did not mind a lot of the stuff my parents liked, like Three Dog Night, Paul McCartney and Wings, Doobie Brothers, Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, &c. Guess that makes me old! I remember when those guys were brand-new! Finding younger people interested in "old" computers does give me hope that there may be a home for my TI stuff when I hit the big SLAST statement. 8-) K-R. Edited May 13 by Kchula-Rrit 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Ksarul Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 1 hour ago, Kchula-Rrit said: Guess that makes me old! I remember when those guys were brand-new! Finding younger people interested in "old" computers does give me hope that there may be a home for my TI stuff when I hit the big SLAST statement. 8-) K-R. That's why I'm glad Turtles is in the house--a teen with a strong liking of old computers and game consoles. Yesterday, he spent a couple of hours fixing a Super Famicom that we bought a while back as a deader. He took it apart, cleaned out all of the gunk from the previous owner that covered most everything inside, made sure all contacts were good, and fired it up once he got it back together. The deader worked beautifully. . .and best of all, when he was uncertain of the possible results of one of his disassembly/cleaning/troubleshooting steps, he came and asked me what I thought of his plan before execution. His plan was spot-on every time. He's also my road navigator. He can read paper maps really well, but will usually resort to GPS and Google Earth to gather the finer details while we're in motion. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 13 minutes ago, Gary from OPA said: I want to give this the benefit of the doubt and say it is for someone who has some kind of condition which makes them mostly bed-ridden. Otherwise, my God in Heaven, why?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 3 hours ago, OLD CS1 said: 3 hours ago, Gary from OPA said: Expand I want to give this the benefit of the doubt and say it is for someone who has some kind of condition which makes them mostly bed-ridden. Otherwise, my God in Heaven, why?? I can see how this could assist in complex-positioning!💑 Though I'm not sure what purpose the microphone serves. ...Oh wait, maybe that's not a microphone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 6 minutes ago, HOME AUTOMATION said: I can see how this could assist in complex-positioning!💑 Though I'm not sure what purpose the microphone serves. ...Oh wait, maybe that's not a microphone. It does look like a microphone. Maybe a streaming podcast from bed? There is one in fact were they do interviews with the host and guest together in big king size bed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Just now, Gary from OPA said: interviews Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 1 hour ago, Gary from OPA said: There is one in fact were they do interviews with the host and guest together in big king size bed. That's Leon Phelps Show, I believe. ...and than there's all the news that's not in prints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 (edited) The new crack... smoking fibre optic cables... https://www.citizen.co.za/news/south-africa/crime/fibre-cable-theft-smoking-drugs-nyaope/ Edited May 14 by Gary from OPA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tursi Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 .. I would think it would get in the way there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary from OPA Posted May 14 Share Posted May 14 xPRPJLC125pgndAn.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+OLD CS1 Posted May 15 Share Posted May 15 5 hours ago, Gary from OPA said: My good sense of not wearing an Apple Watch, most likely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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