Andy called me a little while ago, 5:00 PM San Antonio time to ask me to make this post.

He says don't give up on him as he is not ignoring your E Mails. His computer crashed big time early this morning, there fore he has been unable to respond to any of his messages.

Tje good news is that the machine is in the shop and should be ready to be picked up tomorrow morning.try him at that time.

Later,
Gerald Mc

I meant to say tomorrow afternoon.

Gerald mc

Poor Andy...everytime I talk to him he is recovering from computer problems.

Best of Luck

Jason

Maybe someone will install a firewall and antivirus for him and configure his Puter. Maybe it would help if he wore a nice hair piece when he sits in front of the screen. I wonder if his lathe ever gets squirley!!

Gon Fishn

I respectfully relay the advice that I took so long to follow " Get a Mac". Now I can grow back those patches of hair I lost using pc's.

Agreed. Once you go over you see why Bill Gates decided to copy it. Just wish he had done a better job with his copy. No comparison.

Man, it's great to hear I'm not the only person with puter problems. Thought it was a Putter thing.
When Andy gets it fired back up, Mike should email him his screen cleaner...

Putter

Probably got full of wood dust and shavings from all the reel seat making.

I got that screen cleaner.It works great.

Tell him to get a Dell. have not had any problems with mine?? Knock on wood

At the risk of starting something, very few computer poblems/crashes have anything to do with the computer. Does the term "User Error" mean anything??

The best thing about a MAC is that with them only having a 5% dshare of the market, Hackers, virus writers. etc. don't waste there time with them!!Mike

Actually, the best thing about having a Mac is that they work, and they work extremely well, all the time. Apple will always be 10 years ahead in the computer operating system game. Apple is also the world's third largest computer make and has a larger market share in the computer world than do BMW, Volvo and Mercedes combined, in the auto market.

The Windows OS is a copy of the original Mac OS, but not a very good one. Microsoft will always be forced to play catch up, but they're hugely profitable and probably not too worried about this sort of thing.

I suspect Andy has had a hard drive failure, something which can happen to any computer since there are only a handful of companies that make hard drives and all the computer makers, including Apple, use them. Although I've never had a crash, freeze, virus or any other computer related problem since owning Macs back to 1984, I have had one hard drive failure. That can happen to any computer.

At any rate, Andy will be back up and in operation later today. That's the important thing. Ask him about his new exotic cork - I understand he's expanding the line of patterns and colors.

..............

Wow, am I glad he's still around. I was starting to imagine that's there's poor Andy, out hunting the the rare and seldom seem exotic Master Burl Node from some underworld and a nasty little Tree Fairy had snatched him up and swept him away. Glad he dodged that one... Hard drives do fail for no reason we can see. In the last 20 years I've had 5 fail and at work maybe 50-75. Now I have two in all my systems. One for operating system and things and a backup that just sits there waiting. At the price of a H/D these days it's cheap ins. Glad Andy is ok !!

Rick

I have 2 PC's that are on at least 18 hours a day, have heavy duty software/programs and have not had a crash, lockup or virus in years. I also get NO popups or junk mail. I still maintain that it's mostly how you set up, maintain and use your computer.

I will agree that MACS are great for those that want a simple system that they don't have to put any effort into learning. If they ever get big enough share of the market to make them appealing to the Hackers, Virus writers, etc. Look out! The reason that they don't have those problems isn't because they are more secure or better, it's because over 90% of the world's computers (business & home) are MS based and it's just not work attacking them (YET!)

Mike

Macs are more intuitive, but also more sophisticated and more customizable (although most never take the time to learn all that they will do). Apple has the third largest market share of any computer maker and is also highly profitable. Hackers could probably cause problems with Mac as well, but it would be more difficult for a variety of reasons. In meantime, which platform people choose is up to them. I choose one that is extremely powerful, capable of more than I am, trouble free and runs the finest software available. Yes, I did have to pay a little more for it, but without it I couldn't possibly do all the work I do and still have any time left for sleep. (Applescript is a gift from heaven.)

.............

By the same token, clocks are for people who don't want to take the time to learn how to read and use a sundial, but I wouldn't say the sundial is better. I'll stick to my clock, simpleminded though I may be.

I don't know if that's a good analogy or not, but I do like to be able to work on the lathe or on a rod, while speaking to the computer and having it perform most of my daily tasks by script without me having to be at the keyboard or actually do anything. I couldn't get it all done otherwise.


.............

Holy cow, that is slick. My first computer was a Mac LC with 4MB of ram and 40MB harddrive in '91 when I was in grad school at Clemson. Paid $2400 for it with the 1/3 student discount, LOL. I've had a string of frustratingly disappointing Microsoft-based PCs since. Maybe it's time for me to go back to a Mac.

Your '91 Mac would probably do the same thing, but you may not have known it. I don't know when AppleScript was first included with the OS, but I think it was around that time. My old 6100 with OS7 had it and even back then it worked very well. Most people never make use of the best Mac OS features. I have to.

But I guess we're getting off the subject of rod building- something I always tell others not to do.


.................

Tom, be careful...remember HAL 9000 ???? LOL !