Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

LydiaJ

When my dad started using computers at work he had a stack of cards to punch holes in, and the cards were then fed into the machine. Nowadays he has a desktop and a laptop at home - we 4 kids bought him the laptop last Christmas. He uses it mainly for email, and for doing his tax return online. He can do online banking, too (I taught him) but has several savings accounts and can't always find the pieces of paper where he wrote down hints for his passwords etc, so he only does his current account on his own, and I help him with the savings accounts when I'm there. Mum used to use computers for wordprocessing stuff for Dad, but not for anything else, but she wouldn't be able to do anything with them now.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I've never seen any first cousins. Don't have any (-: Neither does Isaac (although that could all change, of course).

I have loads of first cousins - 11 on my dad's side, and 5 full plus 4 half-cousins on my mum's side. Almost all of them are married with kids, and in some cases grandkids. My kids have 5 cousins - all on my side because LNE was an only child.

SingleSue wrote: »

Ipads/pods etc I have no choice to understand, youngest has given me the lecture (yes, it really is a lecture), umpteem times....I switch off now :rotfl:

Wii - we had one, I couldn't see the point of it.

Tumble dryer - would be lost without it.

Dish washer - now that is where I get confused, surely it is just as easy to put some water in a bowl and do it by hand? Or if you can't do that, get the children to do it to earn their pocket money.

E readers - I really cannot see the point...

smartphone - got it, have discussed it in previous posts so won't repeat it here
ipod - got it, use it but not as much as I used to
ipad - can't see that it would be useful to me ATM
wii - got one that the kids use sometimes
tumble dryer - prefer a washer tumbler (I mostly hang stuff up to dry, but like to be able to put on an emergency half load of "wash and tumble" when I realise at bedtime that there's no clean uniformfor the following morning.)
dishwasher - would be lost without it
E-reader - can't see that I'd use it ATM

tomterm8

Might be the wrong place to ask, but has anyone here obtained one of the new kindles that has just been released? - the basic one or the new 3g version that was just released?

Present buying for my mom - are they any good?


Edit: I like a tumble drier at this time of year. But most of the time, drying outside is better IMHO.

PasturesNew

When I was still at school I used to temp in the holidays through office temping agencies. One job I went to had the first ever fax machine I'd seen (back then it was called "the facsimiile").

There was a long roller, with a telephone cradle at one end. The roller had a metal "guide" running the length of it.

You had to pull a lever and slide the long edge of a sheet of A4 paper under the metal guide of the roller. You then manually moved the roller round and tucked in the other end of the A4 sheet into the guide. So at this point your A4 sheet was wrapped round the roller.

You then picked up a telephone and dialled the phone number you wanted to fax the document to. This was an old "put your finger in the hole and move the round dial round and let go" type of phone. Once the other end was answered there was a squeaking noise and you placed the handset in the cradle.

You then waited about 5 minutes as the tube spun round and round and round ... and a tiny plastic "marker" moved along the document, indicating how far into the transmission it was.

Can't find a picture, but it'd have looked something like this: http://www.okisysthai.com/Images/News_3438_LiveImage.jpg

PasturesNew

My current total interior floorspace is about 45 square metres... bigger than the studio, which was under 25 square metres.

lostinrates

so, my mother and I had a good day. Maybe we'd both had our psychological weetabix. She did arrive early, and tell me off for not being ready to leave...so I hurried up, then we set of for where I'd reserved a table and saw on her car clock I was indeed late.....oops, very unusual for me. Mother was delighted to tell me off and point at her car clock. whizzed up, found parking easily (courtesy of the blue badge of mother's) got told off again for being late and set off for restaurant, arriving only ten minutes late. To our horror the restaurant was closed so I knocked on the door...to find out if there was a problem and we'd have to go elsewhere...when they answered and I said...um, you're closed and I had a reservation for one...the waitress said, yes, but its only ten past twelve. My mother hadn't changed her closks and has been wondering why she's been turning up to things not late.

GDB2222

When my wife and I go off together we wash dishes by hand, but at home there are 6 or 7 of us, and we use dishwashers. We have 2 dishwashers, so that we can separate the plates that we use for milk and meat. Personally, I'd prefer to go vegetarian and just have the one set of dishes, but we have some meat eaters in the house. (Yes, before you ask, two sinks! But only one oven.)

GDB2222

tomterm8 wrote: »

Might be the wrong place to ask, but has anyone here obtained one of the new kindles that has just been released? - the basic one or the new 3g version that was just released?

Present buying for my mom - are they any good?

I think they are just the same as the old ones but without a keyboard and with a smaller battery. I'm not clear what good the 3g one is without a keyboard, but the basic version is quite a lot smaller and lighter than the one I have, so it's probably an excellent buy as a basic ebook reader. The shorter battery life will not matter, as the battery lasts for ages without 3G.

So far, I'm managing extremely well with public domain ebooks. I haven't spent a penny on buying any books from Amazon. There's great (free) ebook management software called Calibre.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

We have 2 dishwashers,

Poshness alert!

vivatifosi

NPs, a quick question if I may. I've come home and there's a chemical smell in the house. Having been around the boundary with a torch, it looks like someone has lifted the drain at the side of the house and poured white spirit down it. Any idea what I need to do. I've tried looking up on the local council website, but somewhat unhelpfully am getting a 404 error.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Poshness alert!

I'm pretty sure the most humble of people will follow dietary law if their religion demands it....and GDB's does ask this of him.

edit: I've never minded not having a dishwasher, but I'm getting bored of washing up nowadays.