USMB Coffee Shop IV

[otto105]

The Coffee Shop is not the place to talk about it though. We have many Texans here, all good people, and I can assure you not a single one of them thinks Texas is near the bottom of anything that is good. In fact I was born in Texas, have lived a lot of years in Texas, met and married my Texan husband there, my first child was born there, and it has many fond memories for me.

So it's be kind to Texans (and everybody else) in the Coffee Shop.

Tell that to CNBC.

 

[Foxfyre]

Tell that to CNBC.

No I'm telling it to you. Please hear what I'm telling you. The Coffee Shop is a special place and all who understand that--please read the OP--are not only welcome here but can become part of a unique supportive family should you want that. All are welcome here regardless of their sociopolitical leanings, religious views or anything else that can divide people, but we just don't get into those topics that do divide people. Thanks for understanding.

 

[otto105]

No I'm telling it to you. Please hear what I'm telling you. The Coffee Shop is a special place and all who understand that--please read the OP--are not only welcome here but can become part of a unique supportive family should you want that. All are welcome here regardless of their sociopolitical leanings, religious views or anything else that can divide people, but we just don't get into those topics that do divide people. Thanks for understanding.

Yes, kay

 

[expat500]

I woud guess there are wonderful places and horrible places pretty much everywhere. The USA is the only place for somebody like me because it is all I have ever really known or understand But for an international traveler/adventurer as yourself, you have many options.

I asked an American friend if she realised how big the United States actually is. And she said no she didn’t.

If one lives in the UK, the sea is less than two hours away, wherever you are.

 

[Foxfyre]

I asked an American friend if she realised how big the United States actually is. And she said no she didn’t.

If one lives in the UK, the sea is less than two hours away, wherever you are.

Yes, you can draw a straight line in Texas and drive from one end to the other and you will travel 801 miles and still be in Texas. (That's how far the top of the Texas Panhandle is from the ocean too. And that's just one state albeit the second largest once.)

It takes one 24 hour day plus 14 hours to drive from New York City to Los Angeles non stop (no gas, meal or pee breaks.)

 

[Ringel05]

Hey all, I'm still alive and kicking. I see they finally put dark mode back on the site so now I can use the site without being blinded.
Hope everyone is well.

 

[Foxfyre]

Hey all, I'm still alive and kicking. I see they finally put dark mode back on the site so now I can use the site without being blinded.
Hope everyone is well.

Woo hoo. Welcome back. Missed you. Everybody seems to be alive and kicking. The Coffee Shop isn't very active right now but there is always an ebb and flow to it--we can go a few days without filling a page and then zoom through 30 pages real fast. So we never know. Most of the old timers do check in now and then though and we have some newer folks. It's all good.

 

[expat500]

Yes, you can draw a straight line in Texas and drive from one end to the other and you will travel 801 miles and still be in Texas. (That's how far the top of the Texas Panhandle is from the ocean too. And that's just one state albeit the second largest once.)

It takes one 24 hour day plus 14 hours to drive from New York City to Los Angeles non stop (no gas, meal or pee breaks.)

Getting through Texas yes!

I can be through at least three countries in Europe in that time.

Speaking of Texas, during my visit to the US, l got interested in the history of those territories, New Mexico, CA and the rest.

And as l was there for the 4th of July, l realised that the Revolutionary War wasn’t the end of it. The British were still there, and there was the issue of the French and the Spanish.

 

[Ringel05]

My primary drive on my Linux machine crashed yesterday, good thing I had a spare.

 

[Foxfyre]

Getting through Texas yes!

I can be through at least three countries in Europe in that time.

Speaking of Texas, during my visit to the US, l got interested in the history of those territories, New Mexico, CA and the rest.

And as l was there for the 4th of July, l realised that the Revolutionary War wasn’t the end of it. The British were still there, and there was the issue of the French and the Spanish.

Yes the British continued to hold a stronghold in NYC for awhile after the war to evacuate their troops and a lot of British loyalists, many of whom were slave owners. Many of the loyalist slave owners left with their slaves and moved to Canada, a British colony, or Florida that Britain returned to Spain in 1783. The land area of the original 13 colonies plus the territories they claimed were roughly the eastern third of the current USA. The rest of the territory was owned by mostly France, Spain and Russia.

The vast majority of the residents of the 13 original colonies were British--there were a few French, Dutch, Scots and such but mostly English--with the second largest demographic (4%) being the African slaves that mostly the British had brought here. Though a lot of British loyalist were evacuated to other British colonies after the war, a great many remained to become original citizens of the USA. Most of the western two thirds of the country eventually came under U.S. control either by purchase from France, Spain, Russia or via war/treaty with Mexico after they expelled the Spaniards.

 

[Foxfyre]

My primary drive on my Linux machine crashed yesterday, good thing I had a spare.

Bummer. Important data was backed up? I try to remember to do a backup of just my critical photos and all my documents on an external hard drive now and then but we have Norton security with Lifelock and it seems to restore all the files on a new computer. (I don't fully trust it though so like to have my own backup. )

When Hombre's last computer was starting to crash, I ordered a rebuilt HP from Amazon for $100 on a daily deal--you have to add the little external thing for wi-fi--and getting it set up was a challenge but it has 16 gigs ram and doesn't seem to be lacking any cards we normally would use and it has been an amazing lightning fast, stable and effective machine for years now. You never know. (He doesn't use it for any heavy gaming or anything else that requires it to work really hard.)

 

[Ringel05]

Bummer. Important data was backed up? I try to remember to do a backup of just my critical photos and all my documents on an external hard drive now and then but we have Norton security with Lifelock and it seems to restore all the files on a new computer. (I don't fully trust it though so like to have my own backup. )

When Hombre's last computer was starting to crash, I ordered a rebuilt HP from Amazon for $100 on a daily deal--you have to add the little external thing for wi-fi--and getting it set up was a challenge but it has 16 gigs ram and doesn't seem to be lacking any cards we normally would use and it has been an amazing lightning fast, stable and effective machine for years now. You never know. (He doesn't use it for any heavy gaming or anything else that requires it to work really hard.)

What's a back up, precious?
I transfer my images, documents and current browser bookmarks to thumb drives. And that isn't much. I have a 32GB thumb (flash) drive that I've used for years and it is less than a quarter full. I did make a Windows startup thumb drive just in case. It saves nothing but allows me to install a fresh Windows OS but the only thing I use my Windows machine for is gaming. Most of my downloaded games are digitally stored on the Steam, Origin and Amazon sites.
One thing I had to do with my last clean windows install earlier this year was go into the Registry and turn off the wifi. I had to because new Windows install no longer give the user the option of creating a local account. Once the local account is created wifi can be turned back on in settings. I deselect any telemetry settings Windows will let me then use Winaero Tweaker to remove the rest. Microsoft has no idea what I'm doing on my machine or my browser unless I tell specifically them.
Also I never use Norton, McAfee, etc on my Windows computer but then again I'm not browsing the web on it either. In my specific case Defender is more than enough.
Sounds like you and Hombre got a good deal on the HP. What's interesting is nowadays the biggest thing in desktop and "portable" computers are mini computers. They're small but powerful like my Mac Minis. They are typically about 1/8th the size of midsized towers.

Here's a Mac Mini, all other manufacturers of mini computers are roughly the same size.

 

[Foxfyre]

What's a back up, precious?
I transfer my images, documents and current browser bookmarks to thumb drives. And that isn't much. I have a 32GB thumb (flash) drive that I've used for years and it is less than a quarter full. I did make a Windows startup thumb drive just in case. It saves nothing but allows me to install a fresh Windows OS but the only thing I use my Windows machine for is gaming. Most of my downloaded games are digitally stored on the Steam, Origin and Amazon sites.
One thing I had to do with my last clean windows install earlier this year was go into the Registry and turn off the wifi. I had to because new Windows install no longer give the user the option of creating a local account. Once the local account is created wifi can be turned back on in settings. I deselect any telemetry settings Windows will let me then use Winaero Tweaker to remove the rest. Microsoft has no idea what I'm doing on my machine or my browser unless I tell specifically them.
Also I never use Norton, McAfee, etc on my Windows computer but then again I'm not browsing the web on it either. In my specific case Defender is more than enough.
Sounds like you and Hombre got a good deal on the HP. What's interesting is nowadays the biggest thing in desktop and "portable" computers are mini computers. They're small but powerful like my Mac Minis. They are typically about 1/8th the size of midsized towers.

Here's a Mac Mini, all other manufacturers of mini computers are roughly the same size.

Well I understand some of your post, LOL. (I am nowhere near as savvy on this stuff as you are.) A backup on my external drives allows me to access all of our document files and/or photos using any computer with no danger of losing them should I have a major hard drive crash. I don't know how a thumb drive would be different but I'm sure it's the same principle. Some of those files represent hours and hours and hours of research and we have other documents that would be really painful to lose. I've never had any problem reloading Windows which Microsoft allows without charge, but then I've never had a complete hard drive crash either when I had to start over from scratch. When our computers start giving us major problems we have always replaced them.

 

[Foxfyre]

Yes, kay

So welcome to the Coffee Shop otto105 Newcomers receive a complimentary beverage:

 

[otto105]

So welcome to the Coffee Shop otto105 Newcomers receive a complimentary beverage:

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