Thank You

All members,

At age 82, I am not as well as I once was and I am now living in somewhat reduced financial circumstances.  Old and ailing computers have been a problem in the last several years and this has affected running the Syncro_T3_Australia group.

Several members are aware of this and recently one long-time member and one relatively new member asked for donations that would help me maintain the Syncro_T3_Australia group.  A number of donations were made and they have been passed on to me.  This will enable me to buy a new computer (as in system box) and probably also allow me to get my standby computers up to date.

One of the problems with maintaining the group records and the website is Microsoft’s stand-over tactics.  I set this group up in 2004 and everything is on Windows XP Pro and Office Pro.  Since then, Microsoft has pulled the plug on those systems and replaced them with pale imitations of the original solid and functional Windows NT/XP.

In their place, we now have all singing, all dancing, all glitz and all bling monstrosities.  All names have been changed, all locations have been changed, functionality has been changed beyond all recognition, menus have been abandoned in favour of an electronic version of the pea and thimble trick. . .    Improved functionality?  Forget it!!  Backward compatibility?  You jest!!

That’s a long way of saying that the Microsoft stand-over makes everything ten times harder than it needs to be but I am still slightly ahead of the game.  This heartening and generous donation will make that a lot easier, by way of upgraded hardware, for which I thank everyone.

Les Harris

Syncro_T3_Australia owner

14 Feb 2016

Paul,

When I set up this group early in 2004, there was just about nothing else in the way of free group hosting and I went with Yahoo.  But that was then and this is now; we certainly need an exit strategy, hopefully one that allows us to carry all the history forward.  All suggestions welcome.

I hadn’t heard of the Tiny XP but will certainly look at it.  I gather from the Internet that there are many millions of people round the world who roundly loathe the Win 10 kiddiewinkies and will not give in to Microsoft’s Detroit 1955 tactics.  (For the benefit of our younger members, Detroit 1955 was the era of tailfins and 8” drum brakes on monstrous V8 Yank Tanks!)

The old ASUS was good until the cooling fan sensor gave up.  Unfortunately, this model ASUS does not allow any fan control in BIOS, so I have to run a laptop cooler.  I am considering going to an all-in-one and pensioning off the ASUS but, thanks to the donated money, I now have a lot of options.

Les

Ken,

A lot of this was covered in a reply that I sent to Rowan this morning.  I thought that it had gone to the group but now realize that it was a pers com!

Rowan,

I am running two computers at the moment.

All email is on an old ASUS laptop which has full XP Pro and Office 1013; this is rock solid stuff that closely parallels the original NT.   This is passable but has several problems.  It could do with a clean install but this is now made very difficult because of the amount of sequential stuff that has to be found on the Microsoft website and installed.  It can be done but it involves a couple of days work.

I also have a reasonable rebuilt PC that I obtained through a recycling scheme in Uralla that is designed to help Uni of New England students (and old codgers) obtain stable and functional computers at very little cost.  The PC has Win 10 on it and I am slowly coming to terms with the wall to wall kiddiewinkies that Microsoft jocularly refers to as an operating system.  The first thing that I did with it was install Classic Shell, of course.  This eliminates a lot of glitz and bling that is designed to appeal to pimply kids but seriously impedes functionality.

Recently, I discovered something highly interesting.  It is possible to run Office Pro and Office 2003 on the Win 10 OS.  The Microsoft website hosts many discussion groups and I happened on one that is specific to running the older Office on Win 10; it does involve several work-arounds, particularly regarding Outlook, but the outcome is very functional.  This was largely of academic interest until the donation from our group members was made but it is now very much a live issue.

I am still considering the best use of the donated money.  The only thing so far decided is that I will run NAS to whatever hardware I eventually select.  At the moment, I have stuff scattered over a heap of elderly hard drives, all of which needs to be collated and stored on an NAS. Watch this space!!

Les

My hardware is reasonable but could do with some updating.  Because I have a very large volume of stuff on Office Pro and the next higher edition, I will run them as long as I can.  As detailed above, there are so many people doggedly running XP and Office that there is even a highly detailed topic on Microsoft’s own website on how to run full house Office on Win 10.  This looks like a tacit admission on their part that the glitz and bling went over like a lead balloon, particularly with professional users!!  With the donation, I can certainly go up to a better box but, like millions around the world, I will continue to run XP and Office.  If any further confirmation is needed that Win 10 is a very long way off the functionality mark, one needs only look at the millions who have downloaded and installed Classic Shell!!

Les

Paul,

Thanks for the offer but I will stick to the Win based machines even if I utterly loathe Micro-bloody-soft for its stand-over tactics.  I have a lot of files and would prefer to keep them native rather than make a rod for my own back.

Les