Technology gotta love it not!

I have so darn many cables and cords that I never used or were never even opened in my desk. I can almost understand why companies don’t provide many things any more.
 

I am still using the first USB Printer cable that I got in
the 90s after we stopped using the serial port for the
printer, it is a fairly long one, I could print without it,
the printer can operate on Wi-Fi, I know that the one
you are working on hasn't yet got it, I haven't tried it
to print that way, it will print from a phone too.

Mike.
 
Lewkat said:
I bought a Canon printer and it definitely came with a cable.
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I bought a Canon printer too. I had to re-calibrate it on my computer, set up wi-fi, and it took two weeks
and still doesn't have the right color in printing. As an artist, that was really important to me.
The ONLY reason I didn't return it or through it out the window was that it would take me another
two weeks to set up a new one.
Oh! It did NOT come with instructions of any kind!
So sorry they discontinued the old Kodak printers. Those were great!
 

I use an old Dell printer that doesn't have drivers available for Windows 10, but there is a driver for Linux. So whenever I want to print something, I need to do it from my old Linux powered MacBook Pro. One of these days, I'll set up a dual-boot system on my PC so I can print from it.

I rarely print anything, so it's not a high priority.
 
kburra said:
An elderly lady friend recently Bought a new Lenovo laptop and also a Brother Printer and ask me to set it up for her.
Unpacked it all, no cable with the printer to connect to the laptop(A new printer never has and they don`t tell you this when buying). I had a spare one.
Went to set up using the Brother CD install disk, yep you guessed it the new laptop does NOT have a CD Rom drive, again I always carry an external CD drive in my box of tricks which plugs into a USB port. She is not on the Internet yet (Going to soon), otherwise I could have downloaded the drivers, etc online.
If I did not have an external CD Rom drive would had to go home and download the drivers put them on a USB stick and come back and install from there
The question is why is everything so dam difficult these days??
Click to expand...
I've often thought that the people designing the hardware and the coders developing the software don't likely use their own products. So many of the designs are obviously less useful than they could or should be.
 
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horseless carriage said:
It all goes over my head, without wishing to sound rude, your post could have been written in a different language, some call it computer speak, I prefer gibberish. What really frustrates me is the fact that much of the science is mathematical and I always excelled in that subject. Where did I go wrong.

At work the drivers and warehouse staff have to clock in and out, nothing unusual about that, yeah right. I watched someone go to what I thought was a laptop, no, it's an Ipad, (a what?) On the screen is a menu, he tapped something, the screen asked for his number. He tapped it in, then his image appeared on the screen as he made a few more tap-taps before walking away. What happened to the card that went into a clock and was punched?
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In this case, I can understand the use of technology. Previously, a supervisor likely had to collect all punch cards at the end of the week, count up the hours worked, and fill out a form to go to payroll for processing. The iPad will calculate all that information and simply request the supervisor to approve it, then submit it to payroll, electronically. Depending on the number of employees it will reduce the supervisor's payroll processing time significantly. Automating repetitive tasks is one thing computers are quite expert at performing.
 
SeniorBen said:
I use an old Dell printer that doesn't have drivers available for Windows 10, but there is a driver for Linux. So whenever I want to print something, I need to do it from my old Linux powered MacBook Pro. One of these days, I'll set up a dual-boot system on my PC so I can print from it.
Click to expand...
I used ChatGPT to help me find a solution to the lack of support from Windows 10. It turns out, there are generic drivers out there that work. I found one from HP and installed it, and now I can print again!
 
kburra said:
An elderly lady friend recently Bought a new Lenovo laptop and also a Brother Printer and ask me to set it up for her.
Unpacked it all, no cable with the printer to connect to the laptop(A new printer never has and they don`t tell you this when buying). I had a spare one.
Went to set up using the Brother CD install disk, yep you guessed it the new laptop does NOT have a CD Rom drive, again I always carry an external CD drive in my box of tricks which plugs into a USB port. She is not on the Internet yet (Going to soon), otherwise I could have downloaded the drivers, etc online.
If I did not have an external CD Rom drive would had to go home and download the drivers put them on a USB stick and come back and install from there
The question is why is everything so dam difficult these days??
Click to expand...

The optic drive(CD,DVD,BR) has gone the way of the dodo...and the floppy drive. So, not more difficult, just different. I like that my PC doesn't have to be running in order to print, I can print from my laptop in another room, or print even from my phone.
 
kburra said:
An elderly lady friend recently Bought a new Lenovo laptop and also a Brother Printer and ask me to set it up for her.
Unpacked it all, no cable with the printer to connect to the laptop(A new printer never has and they don`t tell you this when buying). I had a spare one.
Went to set up using the Brother CD install disk, yep you guessed it the new laptop does NOT have a CD Rom drive, again I always carry an external CD drive in my box of tricks which plugs into a USB port. She is not on the Internet yet (Going to soon), otherwise I could have downloaded the drivers, etc online.
If I did not have an external CD Rom drive would had to go home and download the drivers put them on a USB stick and come back and install from there
The question is why is everything so dam difficult these days??
Click to expand...
She was smart to unpack it then. I bought a HP bundle, but waited 88 days to unpack the printer. Yep, not working. Had to drive 35 miles back to store for return/replace.
 
I know I'll never ever again use recurring billing for any software (or anything else). To cancel Kaspersky Anti-Virus, you need to have the 20 character product key to cancel it. Support tickets also ask for the product key to open a ticket. I finally found a number to call and the support(?) person asked for the product key.

The support is a virus in and of itself!
 
Rich said:
In this case, I can understand the use of technology. Previously, a supervisor likely had to collect all punch cards at the end of the week, count up the hours worked, and fill out a form to go to payroll for processing. The iPad will calculate all that information and simply request the supervisor to approve it, then submit it to payroll, electronically. Depending on the number of employees it will reduce the supervisor's payroll processing time significantly. Automating repetitive tasks is one thing computers are quite expert at performing.
Click to expand...
IPad would be a good way to add on extra hours a person didn’t work.$$$$$
Kinda hard to do that with a punch card.😏😏😉.
 
Gardenlover said:
I know I'll never ever again use recurring billing for any software (or anything else). To cancel Kaspersky Anti-Virus, you need to have the 20 character product key to cancel it. Support tickets also ask for the product key to open a ticket. I finally found a number to call and the support(?) person asked for the product key.

The support is a virus in and of itself!
Click to expand...
I used PayPal to purchase TotalAV so I can just block them on PayPal if I want to cancel. Kaspersky has been accused of nefarious activities with Russia, but I don't think anything was proven.
 
I re-purchased a flip phone from my wireless provider, calling to get the new one activated was a study in patience (which I failed!) but finally did get a hold of a human CS rep. One of the first questions she asked was 'Have you removed the old sim card?' Nope got into that issue a couple of years ago. The old smartphone exploded because I never read the instructions and thought the sim card resided beneath the battery, WRONG! As a protection from idiots like me the phones are booby-trapped against tampering.

This time I read the manual paying particular attention to the part about changing the card. Luckily I had purchased a kit with tools for computer troubleshooting & low & behold I found the little sim-card-tool (see below), following the instructions I successfully removed the card (a lot of personal data is recorded on it). After patting myself on the back & hacking the old card into pieces I returned the old smartphone to it's assigned shelf & searched for new challenges.

Sim-Card-Eject-Pin.jpg
Looks to me like a modified paper clip should work as well.
 
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NorthernLight said:
Gosh, you're brave, @Roadwarrior . I used to ask teenagers for help. Nowadays it's anyone under 40.

I don't believe in jinxes, but when it comes to technology, I am one.
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Since retirement I've lost a few steps, I never was the go to guy for phones when working. I would self-destruct before being an asset. I worked with mainframes, servers, UNIX/Linux, Macs & Win 7 so anything beyond those I'm more dangerous than good. Not a good multi-tasker either, one problem at a time is my approach.
 
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Paco Dennis said:
We have come a long way though. :)

akn6q2vwpy1a1.jpg
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When I worked for IBM on the System 370 (Meridian) machines, the wiring was semi- automated. The frames were mounted on machine called 'Locats' (affectionately known as 'knitting machines'). This had an illuminated pointer that moved to indicate where a cable had to be plugged. This was in the 70's.

The only place that I had to 'Clock in' (with a punched card) was IBM in Mainz, Germany. It was also the only place that had beer vending machines !
Clocking in was easy, but at clocking out time, the female workers dived for the machine - it was like a riot and the male workers stood back till they had gone. Happy days, but IBM has gone from there too.
 
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