Laptop surgery

[All U Get]

Hi all,
We had been having difficulty with the laptop and junk mail alerts for most of the summer and finally had the oldest of our sons and his wife over for a look. Well, soonly the hard drive was exposed and the surgeons tools were diagnosing the issues. We sat back and had some Sailor Jerry's. One AI talked to the other AI and soon it was back together working fine. Kids are great. We had dinner and then they had to run, next time we'll go sailing.
All U Get

 

[sailaway78]

My last time

Last time I had computer problems, it took my 10 year old grand son about 15 minutes to get things all straightened out, and working properly. Kids are amazing on electronic gadgets. I am pretty good myself, as long as nothing more complicated than turning it in is involved.

 

[Indysailor]

I had one of those moments this week. I had an old laptop that I tried to upgrade the memory on and it would never boot. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out whether it was a problem with the BIOS or what, but never really got anywhere. Gave up on it until yesterday when my 11 year old and his 12 year old buddy came to me and announced they had fixed the old laptop. Turns out, I just never had seated the new memory cards well enough.

Now they want to have the laptop and run Linux on it. Did I mention that they are not even teenagers yet?

 

[kenn]

Is there anything quite as nice as kicking back after a nice meal, with a steaming coffee, and a computer to fix?

I'm a geek in my fifth decade. I admit the young'uns are giving me a real run for the money, but I'm hanging in. And so are many others... check out the OpenCPN thread over on Cruisers Forum, you'll see posts from 'experienced' sailors getting right into the open-source process - installing and discarding linux distros, testing new features, making suggestions.

And many would call our incessant boat tweaking and modifications a form of 'hacking'.

 

[All U Get]

I'll have to admit I was nervous seeing parts laid out on the table that are small enough that I couldn't see without glasses and a magnifying glass. Matt's toolbox has a few thumb-drives and that tote of pliers and screw drivers. The other items were in a little box that I wasn't allowed to touch. (I touched it three times) Payback for the years I had him watch while I fixed stuff. He also gave me instructions on virus protection and upgrades all while explaining it quite simply. We're glad he's our son.
All U Get

 

[Indysailor]

Hey All U Get,
may I borrow your son? Every time I visit my dad I have to "fix" his laptop, which usually consists of uninstalling all the tool bars he inadvertently downloads and wiping it clean of all the popups and redirects he ends up with when his friends forward him urgent messages about keeping "Touched by and Angel" on the air.

Love the guy, but he's a click happy dude.

 

[All U Get]

I got a lot in common with your dad, must be a great guy.
All U Get

 

[MrUnix]

Every time I visit my dad I have to "fix" his laptop, which usually consists of uninstalling all the tool bars he inadvertently downloads and wiping it clean of all the popups and redirects he ends up with when his friends forward him urgent messages about keeping "Touched by and Angel" on the air.

My mom, bless her 79 year old heart, used to be the same way.. it took her several years just to figure out how to send e-mail. Anyway, I finally got tired of having to drive down and 'fix' her computer all the time, so I wiped Windoze and threw a linux distro on it for her. She hasn't had a problem that needed my fixing since.

Cheers,
Brad

 

[Indysailor]

I got a lot in common with your dad, must be a great guy.
All U Get

Yeah, he's pretty awesome, the laptop issues notwithstanding. Can barely walk due to diabetes and still plays a pretty good golf game, too.