Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Systems, Strategies and Resources for Trading Futures -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Magnatizer who wrote (41272)	6/22/2000 11:25:00 AM
From: Patrick Slevin	Respond to of 44573

I suppose it's a question of whether or not you enjoy doing it. I used to; my first machine was an Apple ][ in 1978. A friend and I used to rip those thing apart to see what made them tick. I have fond memories of a day when, after making the mistake of replacing a CPM card while the machine was running, he came over and we ripped the entire machine apart. Replacing RAM and God knows what else. We ere able to get the machine up and running in an afternoon for only the cost of a soldering pencil, a chip puller and a few dozen 1K RAM chips. The only goner in the group was a Hayes card, which Hayes replaced for free. (Note; if you are replacing chips know this. Drinking beer and replacing chips will inevitably result in a few chips being inserted backwards. So buy lots of chips.)(not potato chips). But I haven't enjoyed doing this in years. I never kept up with the technology. Plus, as machines became more reliable I never encountered problems. Also, they became simpler to use. I used to be able to program in DOS; today I have to call my son to show me how to get into DOS, I could not write a simple autoexec.bat file if I had to. To draw on another automobile analogy, I have a 1957 Thunderbird out in the garage. When I feel like it, I can do just about anything to the engine. Today, without the proper equipment we cannot even do a simple tune-up. Anyway, I know excellent traders who rip apart machine at lunch, replacing hard drives (if necessary) in the middle of the trading day. I also know excellent traders who would not know how to place a Shortcut on the desktop, and others who know how to do the work but won't waste time with it. It's all in the individual desire to learn. As much as you enjoy it, I hate the idea of messing with it. It always seems that fixing one problem creates 6 others in my case. Besides when he was young my eldest son used to watch me ripping stuff apart, writing code and so forth. In a way I taught him to take my place. When he is around, which is most of the time, you rarely see me complain. Had he been here I'm certain the issue would have been resolved before I knew there was a problem. As usual, I was ranting primarily because I was taken away from more important issues. I managed to fix the problem this morning so now I'm in a much better frame of mind. Also, I have resolved never to have work done externally. Also, I will never so much as upgrade my RAM if my son is not available. If something happens that I have to take care of, well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.