I've written on Substack about the Lenovo machine that's now eWaste just waiting a transfer to the dump where they'll be doing God knows what to it if anything at all; perhaps it will be landfill. Fact is this is the only IBM machine I'm ever likely to own so I thought I might give some more words to it and possibly recap the wonderful eight years we spent together.
We never once went hand in socket through a field of Dandelions, Daisies or some other colourful plant, but the depth of the problem solving was quite something and of course the recording of the keystrokes and remembering of the notation were very valuable to me as a person, bringing writing forward for placement and then publishing into the bottomless pit that is the limitless demand of internet use by an increasing audience.
Getting to PC World to be greeted by someone who actively dislikes me and is ever resentful of some past indiscretion their was only one choice available in the Computers on show and on offer for various price markings, this was the Desktop that would be replacing the ACER 4 Gb. that did not survive the storage and then move of the housing arrangement. Other things did not make it either, the Monitor and a USB Hub would not work again after a few Months of neglect. Getting through the eMails that had stacked up to a few thousand was easily done as this was online and the communal space offered locally was free with a nice cheap alternative available in a Cyber Cafe if their wasn't a spot available or something. The finicky hardware however was something different, daily use kept the flow of Electricity practised, smooth and constant; no chance for this machine that justified the Rent for the place I needed to sleep and work a Computer.
An ACER Notebook preceded the Lenovo by about a year and this was the second one of these I've run, but it was never going to be enough, I had to set up the Desk space and get the extra Power and Outputs of a bigger machine; only one thing for it, the Computer Shop. Now the 11 inch Samsung Tablet, Dumb Mobile Phone, ACER lid lifter were joined by a very remarkable machine that would throw problems at me the moment I set it in place raised away from the Carpet. The HDMI would run a Tele. and the SVGA would work a Monitor. Ahhh! The Power! One full Terabyte was there to give plenty of room to anything I might like to install, download or work on and a new Camera transferred Videos easily and quickly. Photos were my immediate need and the editing and adjustment was there again at the index finger of the Rodential Pointer; happy again, my status, that was getting what I wanted and I had access again to the most fantastical invention of Man, his greatest achievement since time began.
What was in the Box, under the lid so to speak, I didn't care. It was a fully working, beautiful dark Grey Metal and Silver Plastic frontage programmable wonderment and the delight of the small Electrical conduction kept me happily at the Coffee through all the Hours I could keep the workflow going. I had much to do and never enough time it seemed to do it all. Online banking started up for me and how I was supposed to reconcile the numbers given out by the Bank as compared to my own calculation brought about more learning in the 'Accounts' and 'Money' field than I ever thought I might need, Virgin territory there for me to explore. Steadily onward was the way, no dumb mistakes permissible in this preserve.
One thing was for sure with the Desktop, a GPU would be needed at some point, if not for this one then the next one. The thin build factor (ATX something or other) meant no room was there for a chunky addition such as this, if one were to be added a great big hole would have to be made at the back of the case through Metal. I was getting prepared for more of this and a powerful spinning cutting tool was purchased for Wood shaping and sharpening Knives and other things, it would all be useful at some point. Sat in the Drawer the GPU was not needed for the moment, the machine did what I wanted of it and came to life through the momentary switch on the front and lit up nicely in the low light that found me at the Keyboard plonketing away at yet another Keyboard and Clicketing away at yet another Pointing device. USB speeds were quicker than ever to any peripheral and Network Storage acted just as though it was an internal drive with the added bonus I could access this from anywhere and even run Apache Web Server given any kind of Net. connection away from the Room. Life was Roses all round.
People use Password Managers, but my decision from years ago would be to keep a Printed Password book in a file and then the referencing would be as secure as the place where I stayed and so a Printer was harnessed to rattle out the pages of access tokens required to do anything these days in someone else's domain. An A5 booklet straight from WH Smith with removable pages helpfully indexed gave me an easy find for these most important words with the Computer File Master copy held on a USB key and an encrypted copy in online storage was what I needed and was capable of at this stage in the Computering World. This is the system I still use today except it's handwritten.
I had to learn Linux? Who needed such a thing when I had this? Nothing could be better than MS Win 10 on a Desktop, not changing things for the moment, everything was going just too well.
Switching between Scotched copies of Wordperfect and other wp programs was one of the great delights of the 386 DX, but the demands on memory of the latest invocations make this difficult. Adding a R/W CD drive to my first proper PC and another 3 Mb. RAM meant I could work the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia really well, but now I had just about the whole of the documented world there in front of me and this could be 'Surfed'. Great Maps of the World were available with Encarta and now some places were live streaming with the location easily findable on Google Maps. Doubling the RAM on the new machine made the Access Database program more manageable and Excel smoothed through the fairly basic things I wanted to do, would you believe some people run eMails with this program? PowerPoint did what I might like, if I liked, but presentation was not something I was preparing for; I had to learn Linux or Linus might scowl at me and it was going to be non-optional.
YouTube was there now not for the silly Videos, but for serious instructional content designed to make me more productive and efficient at tasks in hand and the planning of short and long term futures, investment was a real possibility if I could accurately track the numbers. One big Oyster this World.
Remembering again the 286 that became the 386 with a CD drive, MS 3.1 gave way briefly to 95 then 98 and of course 98 Second Edition ( thank goodness, the pop combo. "New Edition" made less of a Social Wave ) and Dosshell 5.0 went through to 6. something or other and now my files danced in colour where I wanted them which was more often than not on removable Media. A large Blue Zip drive (sourced from my friend at the Computer Shop that demanded an extra Bus journey to gain) was there towards the very end of the acquaintance with this machine and now the Colourful Dosshell could play with even more, easier storage. Holding a well paid Job like I had that afforded me a Car, but now demanded Computer Hardware instead of a usable spare Tire something had to give and it wasn't going to be the Computering.
Happily this time the move in location had coincided with the change up in Computer and despite getting burgled, they only wanted the Cash and the Computer sat there available for the dusting of Finger Prints when he turned up with his Finger Print dusting equipment, the place had enough space for a makeshift Desk and I could put an Optical Cable in. Not many might be put forward as Employee of the Month, but he could qualify along with 'Most likely to be recommended for reprimand'. One thing about having a small Mountain of available Cash along with a good income and then sliding quickly into poverty is the amount of time Television that has to be viewed simply to prevent the spending, but now in effect I could actually ditch the Tele. and just delight myself endlessly with a Computer and the non-affordable bills could be ordered and layered in a nice pile that sat next to empty CD cases and the Amplifier for the Stereo. Their's perhaps other things I could list about this situation, but this one seems the most apt as it mentions other technologies. Although I had a Cable to connect a Phone and Modem their was not much online to interact with other than Prestel and the Financial Markets.
More Cash was the key then as I was spent up, so I went back behind the Bar to dish out the Alcohol just to make the people drunk and badly behaved and then the new passion could be easily brought into line with the numbers the Bank was giving me. Of course a series of fights broke out at the new workplace and I was less than understanding of all this now as the Computer just promoted the Cerebral aspects to Humanness ignoring the Animalistic, non determinist part of Life on the Planet Earth.
No more! So much and then nothing, I wasn't going to go back to the intoxicants, Computers were the future for definite. Big changes were coming and I had to get to a place where their were more Computers and Technology or Death reigned. Hooked? I was without question that. Goodbye to the Car and the Job and then with it the House as well. Tech. world here I come and nothing at all could stop me, the future was a Printer and a bigger Hard Drive and the Internet.
Differences between Costs and Prices was always something I was interested in ever since looking at Economics as an Academic subject on getting to College for A levels and I knew that sooner or later the evidence of the difference would bring me to some realisation or other and now the field of Computers and Technology was the decider that settled on me. A big move and much more a Politically motivated change over anything else I had to take the rest of the World along for the new Cyber Age that was a new World for everyone.
Getting back to my latest tech. throw out and the predictable reversion to Adobe to read what was written and transferred, the prospect of Dual Booting came into view with the possibility I might be able to run a Linux Distro and choose on Bootup which one I might prefer to run. I had to use Debian on the Raspberry Pi 4, so now I could make a good decider as to what to do with a good section of the HDD and effectively double my Computer inspiration and learn the ways and wherefores. Earlier, Linux had been an impossibility. The Files were downloadable, but an actual OS was nowhere in view, only a repeating Graphic played on an attempt at installation and a whining vary pitch droning noise went along with it. With the Single Board Computer came the necessity of an operable GUI and Command Line.
Enter Manjaro Linux as the other operating System I could prefer after switching the Switch. The Internet provider helpfully lists my Network connection to the Lenovo as 'Tizen'. (TIZER ? A drink famed for it's superhuman attributes) and helpfully Manjaro worked really well here. I can't use this Computer any more, it has cost me a Monitor as the HDMI would only work through a Television and required a replug with the Monitor that eventually bust and is heading for the growing small Hill of eWaste that is piling up next to the Bed.
End for the moment, I'm working on a second page to include for a rewrite and Publish.
