Kelly saw a little HP 15.6 laptop at Walmart. 2 gigs of RAM. ( my first iMac had 256 k I think). This has 320 gigs of hard drive (my iMac had either 3 or 6 gigs of hard drive. . This has burner, Windows 8 OS. Has webcam. Ethernet or wireless. For $288 ... Are they kidding? But do you know if the bundled programs are sufficient for a basic home office? Are they " trial" or temp programs or will they stay put? Not sure about security. Not asking if there is anything more expensive out there. . Wondering if you know of a fatal flaw?

Thks. Gary

For that price, the software is slim and some will be crap ...so what!
Hard to go wrong for that price!

Seemed so. We will have to wait til they get a dumpster fullnof them in. For some odd reason, they are out!

Hey ... I've been told I can get a WIFI amplifier antenna to stick on the house and fry all my neighbor's wireless search functions. Haha. Pointed to Radio Shak. What do I look for and/or avoid?

Gary

Gary,

What is the distance from building to building? Placing the WiFi router in a central location may be all you need to do.

Lon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/14/2012 05:22AM by Bigbore.

hey but I'll bet for a few more bucks they could get you up in the next model I think they call that bait and switch they got wheel borrow s tacks of those in the back room

Thanks
Kurt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/13/2012 11:38PM by kurt wag.

We just got a Wallyworld laptop for our son, I think it's a Compaq. Ran about $250 or so, as I recall. Part of the reason we picked that one is that I wanted to avoid Windows 8 until they get past the first half-dozen re-releases, since Microsoft seems to think that selling millions of buggy, partially functional copies is part of the normal product development cycle.

For that price, it's hard to go wrong as long as it boots up and works. Once you clear it of trial copies and the cruddy nagware that they pre-load on everything these days it's fine as a web browser machine which is pretty much all he wants.

Thanks Sean!

Well, now you mentioned "trial copies" and "nagware". Next, I guess you'll want to mention how COMMERCIALS on TV make your ears bleed these days - they are SO LOUD!!! And, when you go to turn them down, seems the scale has changed. You need the programming up on about 86 to hear the show ... but you have to turn the commercials down to about 3 to get relief from the screaming. And, they have absolutely no shame anymore. What is it now ... 63 commercials in a row? I keep runing across snippets here and there - saying that your favorite show might be suffering ratings because YOU FAST FORWARD thru the commercials. Ratings are evidently tied to sitting thru the same 20 minute string of commercials three times an hour. THEN, when you get back to the program, they will REVIEW. That's after EACH commercial break.

Guess the gripe is that they are ALL on the same page. No getting away from the latest 23 year old wonder's gimmick to increase market by .00000000000001 % because some idiot WILL respond if you NAG them enough.

Gee ... did I say that outloud?

Yes - I do DVR most things I watch. But - I get sick of the same two shows. So, I flop down in the chair exhausted, and may run across something to try out. And, oddly - it's right at commercial break. By the tenth commercial, I've forgotten what I'm watching. No worry, they'll REVIEW when we get back.

My whitenoise sleep ap still nags me every few nights to upgrade. It actually says that will "avoid these annoying messages". That never times out apparently. Here's the thing. I just like a gentle rain sound to mask the occasional house and exterior noises. Rain ... that's like number 1 on the list of the free ap. But - they think I should have 90 sounds - perhaps 180 would be better. I've never tried to sleep to "Mouse farting under pile of tin roofing". Or maybe mix that with a bit of "Prying truck tire off rusty rim". Temper that with 2% of "wife browsing thru sale flier from Kohls", and you have a mix to sleep like a baby. But, I'm TOO CHEAP to pay the $2 upgrade fee for something that I DON'T WANT!!!! Especially when the company says that it's using intimidation to force me into paying their upgrade fee to stop nagging me.

This society is seriously screwed up. That's just one man's humble opionion. It's been accepted that you'll purchase a product that is loaded with pop-up commercials, temporary crap programming, an OS that's buggy, and the comsumer will then go about hours or days of head banging just to use it. Of course ... you can do this during a COMMERCIAL BREAK!



I really must tune in to this new world and adjust my marketing policy. Perhaps I can sign up with one of the dozen people who contact me each day to remake my website into something acceptable. Or to get be better placement on search engines. Or to sell me Chinese actuators by the cargo container full. OR to have me join in with the REST of my fellow business people in the RETAIL PNEUMATIC TIRE segment. This new age is more helpful then I could imagine it would be when I was sitting watching Star Trek on Thursday nights at 8pm - EVERY Thursday night. Then - at 9pm - there was "Any night at the movies". With always something watchable. Nothing designed purely to cause you to need extensive therapy after watching it. You could even use last year's TV guide if you wanted. There was a consistent product. No deal where there is ONE new season show and then TWO from last season the following weeks! Then .....

But I digress ...

Gary

Careful! Don't change the business model or you might have everyone expecting a two dollar upgrade every 6 weeks!

Kelly got her HP and has it up and running. YEAH!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I'm with you about the super-irritating nature of commercials on TV these days. In the olden years, we expected commercials because, after all, TV was FREE. The ads paid for the TV, so you have to put up with the ads. Last I checked, my cable-TV bill isn't free.

Of COURSE we're going to fast-forward through all the damned commercials. We're already paying a fortune every month for the privilege of extracting the 1% of interesting programming from the 99% of dreck and drivel they they package together with the good shows. Why should we sit through the commercials as well? It's gotten so intrusive that when I watch a show that's on right now, I actually put it on pause and go do chores or read for five or ten minutes as the show starts, so I have enough "skip time" saved up on the DVR to fast-forward through the reams of commercials.

Of course, the programmers counter this by adding in two-second "teasers" of the upcoming segment of the show you're watching, so that you un-fast-forward it just a bit too early and get stuck watching at least part of the next commercial (or two, or three, or...) until your show actually starts. So now I fast-forward until the show REALLY starts, usually missing the first five or ten seconds as I figure out it's not really just another commercial, and then have to re-wind. At which point they show maybe another two minutes of my show and go to ANOTHER five or ten commercials in a row.

It's gotten to where it's like a military weapons system where there's the basic weapon, then the counter-measure, then the counter-counter-measure, and the counter to the counter-counter-measure, and...


I wouldn't be surprised to see the advertisers designing a super-slow-motion layer to their commercials, designed specifically to be visible only to people fast-forwarding through the commercials. Maybe the clouds in the background spelling out "buy our junk" or something similar, or the wallpaper shifting, or the vegetation, or whatever. Since it mutes the sound it would have to be a visual trick. Hmmm, might be onto an idea here...


Sean

God HELP us Sean. Now you are giving THEM ideas? THEY read here ya know!!! hahah.

Yeah - you drop out of Hyper-Space just to see a commercial for the show you are ALREADY watching.

Then, how do you like the new gimmick where they embed a commercial - by the characters of the show - into the show itself. THE PICKERS are riding along and get hungry. There's banter about eating better. Hey ... why not go to SUBWAY? Next they are smiling in the front door of a Subway store. I avoid SUBWAY just for this crappy new advertizing. The talk show hosts do this too. Not bad enough that you go to a ten minute commercial break there ... then they embed stuff they just happen to twist the conversation around to.

Hey Sean. You know why this stuff works? Cause it doesn't bother anybody except you and me. hahah. Nobody else picked up. You and I are just radical hot heads. Not good sheeple at all!

Gary

Actually, I'm just hoping to cash in on my nefarious advertising ideas and I'm jealous.

Have you seen "Jungle Gold?" Just saw my first segment. They have 3" pumps running to keep their mining pit dry. Their "crew" are using friction tape to hold the hoses to the pump. I'm shocked this isn't working. Well, thank God, Travis is there. He's eX Army mechanic and he has brought the "right tool" for the job. Are you ready? Yes ... it's a HOSE CLAMP. This is cutting edge stuff. I couldn't believe the technology display. And, the mechanic barked to the crew mate ... "No - the OTHER SCREWDRIVER! the STRAIGHT one." Just in the nick of time! It's a miracle.

When I left - the pumps were in danger of ... Are you ready .... running out of gas So; right now they are calling everyone in Africa in an attempt to get a can of gasoline to the site before the pumps run out of gas. I don't think I can stand much more of this stress though .....

Do they get paid for this?

Reality TV. Unreal.

Funny, but I was watching part of that episode and I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing!

Boy Howdy! A hose clamp and a flat tip screwdriver, the cutting edge of Western technology...

Maybe it's just me, but I keep wondering how these "desperate" gold mining guys keep coming up with the money to travel to exotic locations and lease heavy equipment in the middle of nowhere when they claim to be so broke...a total mystery...

Had a guy come into Home Depot the other day looking for things to make a gold sluice.
He was buying " river mud " online from Alaska and shipping it to Mn. to work the gold out of it!!!!

Joe

Hey Sean buckets of river mud from Alaska!!!! NOW is your chance to get into your own business. It is amazing the power of gold fever just like gambiling. There is alot of casinos here in Michigan and let me tell ya i do know a few addicts that will work all week just to put it all on RED (go figure)

Thanks
Kurt

My daughter is in town. Last evening all we could find on the 376 channels of crap was Jungle Gold.

They can't raise the $50k some greasy character wants to lease them an area to mine. Amid a flurry of self help book quotes - they decide to roll the dice with ALL of their remaining money. Great life lesson there boys.

They went waaaaay down a lonely jungle road out by a deserted Chinese mine site ... to meet a shady character out in the bush. Their goal was to buy a big ole hunk of gold with their LAST 35,000$$$ cash (which they naturally took along in a back pack).

So, we all sweated thru the drama of the deal, and the guy finally comes running out of the bush and dives into the car. He's just bilked some fool out of a $75,000 chunk of gold for $35,000. Wow! He really beat that guy by insisting he had to have the entire chunk when the guy really wanted to cut it in half.

They are all smiles and high fives - they drive a mile and run into a pile of firewood "STACKED" in the road. They are in a Land Rover or some such SUV, but they don't just go around it thru the brush. Instead, they stop and all pile out to move the wood. Nope - guess they never watched a half hour Western as a child. They were probably shooting aliens or something. Gosh, imagine our surprise when the whole thing turns out to be an ambush/robbery. I know I was shocked.

So; that's it. All their money is gone. They are sad. They don't even want to talk to the film crew. They fly home totheir families of wives and multiple small children. Who give them a hero's welcome at the airport - instead of having their attorney send them a letter.

They boys declare they'll raise money and return! yeah!!!

I know the robbers sure hope so.

Now THAT is quality REALITY TV!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2012 03:50AM by barnespneumatic.

Yea, i watched that episode as well. Could not Believe it! & they claim they have been there before & made money.!
We need something besides 'Reality' TV. Think i'll go out for a 'ride about'.

Dang, if'n I'da knowed you could sell Alaska mud on the internet, I'd have made a fortune cleaning out my rotten subfloor on this house. It was chock-a-block FULL of gen-u-wine Alaska mud. Well, compost anyway, looked a lot like mud. And the area underneath my front porch is gonna make me the big bucks when it un-thaws this spring!

And you're right Kurt, other than perhaps gambling the pursuit of gold seem to be one of the most addictive activities out there. Once the goldbug gets into a man, most of his common sense and reason go right out the window. Something about hunting for gold just turns peoples brains into tapioca, and rational thought flees if actual gold ever shows up. Ironically, in real life the island that I live on was the location of one of the the largest hard-rock gold mines in Alaska history, the Treadwell mine complex.

[en.wikipedia.org]

From 1881 to 1922 they pulled over three million troy ounces of gold out of the ground here; placer mining at first, then milled from low-grade ore. The mine had over 2000 employees at its peak, and hosted the largest foundry and machine shop north of San Francisco until after WWII. The three main parts of the complex caved-in suddenly in 1917, sending a geyser of seawater hundreds of feet up into the air as the tunnels collapsed. Miraculously, not a man was lost, they had just enough warning to get everyone out, though the mules weren't so lucky.

Three million ounces...sure would be a lot of money these days.

Sean ... you know there just HAS to be another twelve ounces in there somewhere. What's the chance that there was an EVEN three million ozs. Has to be twelve more. Maybe 17 ounces. Think of that Sean ... at what ... $1,500/oz ... think of all the shovels that could buy. And you are RIGHT THERE!

OK ... just sayin' ..

Mite as well roll down the window in the truck and throw dollar bills out !!!! I work to hard to throw good money away! And with my personality I stay rite away from anything like that. I am savings my money for a real airgun woohoo

Thanks
Kurt

Kurt ... YOU are a wise man. 'course ... you didn't express your opinion of "real" ... ... but I know this guy ....

heheh

Gary

Hey if I needed a good doctor I wouldn't go to a quack .... so why would I ......ah nevermind I know where to go to find the good stuff the best tacos are at the stand with the longest line but I know they're worth waiting for

Thanks
Kurt



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2012 11:22PM by kurt wag.

Yes Gary, there's certainly another few ounces out there. In fact, there's undoubtedly many hundreds or even thousand of tons of gold still left in the ground here. Getting to it, however, is another matter. All the easily extracted placer gold is long gone, sluiced out by innumerable prospectors and miners decades ago. What's left is locked into hard rock, far underground, and the tunnels from the old mine are both collapsed and filled with sea water from the cave-in back in 1917.

The reason the Treadwell mine extracted so much gold is that they went through literally millions of tons of rock to get it. At the time it was one of the largest and most technically sophisticated mining operations in the world, using cutting-edge processes and chemistry. They excavated gigantic quantities of rock to get at the veins of white quartz, which contained tiny quantities of both "free" gold and gold compounds in the form of sulphides and pyrites. At the peak in 1915 they were crushing over 5000 tons of ore a day to the consistency of fine sand, in fact, the local beach where I walk my dog is made entirely of mine tailings from that era, The beach covers literally miles and it's the only sandy beach anywhere in the region, as the normal coastline here is all rock and gravel (plus dead salmon, washed up jellyfish, and rotten seaweed for the dog to roll in )

The crushed ore from the stamp mills (almost a thousand of them) was run over mercury-coated copper plates to extract the "free-milling" gold (about 40%), then run through a mechanical concentrating process to seperate it by specific gravity (frue vanners). The concentrate was then run through a slurry-type cyanide process, fluxed with zinc powder, and the resulting precipitate was dried and roasted to drive out the metals. The initial metal extract was a mix of lead, copper, and gold, which was then re-melted in a specially designed furnace with various other fluxes to separate the gold.

The gold was poured off into bullion bars of about eighty pounds each, and shipped down mostly to the U.S. Mint in San Francisco to make gold coins. Quite a bit of which was then shipped right back up to pay the miners, since they earned very good money for the day. Although the mining itself was quite dangerous (as usual back then), the living conditions and amenities were outstanding for the time. Even the lowest paid miner lived in steam heated dorms with hot water and indoor plumbing in the baths. They served hot, high quality meals in the dining hall, and had the best-stocked general store anywhere in the territory. They even had mechanical refrigeration for the meat case, ice-cream, and the first indoor swimming pool in Alaska! With weekly steam-ship service to Seattle and San Francisco, there wasn't much you couldn't get in Douglas if you had the money to pay for it, and many of the miners families lived lifestyles unattainable anywhere else in the Alaska Territory...while it lasted.

Of course, after the mines caved in it all came to an abrupt end. Most of the movable equipment was sold off or salvaged, and virtually all the rest of the town burned down several years later since the volunteer fire department was run by the now-defunct mine. All there is left now is the artifacts that were either too heavy to move, or not worth it. The woods are full of mysterious metal parts and curious concrete pillars and bases, the only things that are left from what used to be the biggest, most modern town in Alaska. Here's some photos from a few weeks ago, after the foliage had died back but before the snow started.





So...while there's a lot of gold still out there, it's not exactly just waiting around to be picked up by a guy with a metal detector or a gold pan.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2012 07:10PM by rotorhead.

What about that old picture of the 49'er in the red jacket? THAT has to be worth a few bucks or sack of salt!

Looks like your boy is growing up. That's a mighty sturdy play set you built for him. Must tear things up - huh? Handsome lad - takes after the old man!

Well, guess those miners had to live well "briefly" until the burned off mercury vapors and cyanide got 'em.

Thanks for the interesting post.

GAry

Yup, there's nothing like a collection of giant cast iron century-old jungle-gyms out in the woods to keep a fella happy (the kid liked it too ). Though as it turned out the photo with the winch was the last we took that day, due to the dog. We've adopted an older beagle from the shelter here, as our last one passed away about a year ago. He's a sturdy creature, very good natured despite egregious abuse by a past owner. He's also an absolute fanatic about walks (which has been good for my waistline), he'd walk all day if I was up for it.

Unfortunately he's a bit TOO enthusiastic at times, and like all beagles he's not very good at sticking around while unsupervised. We had him tied up to a tree while we were clambering around on the giant steam winch, and he chewed through the leash. Right after that shot was taken we noticed that the whining had stopped and that he was gone. We had to hustle down off the equipment and chase him through the woods, took quite a while to catch him, the little devil. Once that beagle nose hits a scent, the ears turn off and they're in their own little world.

You're probably somewhat familiar with that, I seem to recall a couple of dachshunds in the picture around the Barnes household.