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One year on with Windows 7

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IainB:
Sorry, I didn't intend to imply that you needed to measure performance to (say) compete with anyone. I never use metrics for that either (couldn't care less really). No, I just use the metrics to establish how much of an improvement I might have been able to have achieved in something.
I got a great deal of satisfaction from tweaking up the laptops (both were heavily discounted/refurbished models), knowing that I had been able to get some significant improvement - one was for me, the other for my daughter Lily (hers is also a standby for me). Lily is now 11½ years old, but she had been hammering her laptop with some graphic-intensive games, including SIMS games (she especially likes designing her female SIMS clothes, and designing houses). She later might knock up some of the more simple SIMS dress designs she had created, on her sewing machine, for herself or some of her friends. She wants me to start selling them on an internet auction site, together with a range of cloth bag designs she knocked up. (I told her I'd do it for a commission.)
The RAM upgrade taught me a few things, and afterwards Lily was very pleased with the reduced latency on her laptop, and I with mine.

Bit of a digression:SpoilerThe cars I mucked about with were successive sportscars of mine, at a time before I had a mortgage and family responsibilities to contend with.
Having grown up with two older brothers who had sportscars, I was very keenly interested in cars and motor mechanics, and by about 11 y/o had usually memorised the name and engine spec of almost every car at the biannual Earl's Court motor show, without even trying. I didn't memorise the prices as I wasn't interested in owning any of them, but just in understanding how they ticked.

When older, I went through a few company cars, tending to thrash them a bit too hard. I recall one point where I was offered jobs by two different employers. One job went with a sporty-looking BMW and the other a Ford saloon. My friends seemed to expect me to go for the BMW - probably because that's what they might have done - but I went for the job that seemed inherently more "worthwhile" as you put it.

I can't see what's wrong with the Fiat 126. I've driven that and the old Fiat 850 and old BL Minis, and been impressed with their value-for money. Same for Skodas (older design), and cars with 3-cylinder 2-stroke engines. For practical purposes my preference has usually been for the smaller-engined cars with relatively better operational cost-efficiency than their larger-engined counterparts.
Later, I tended to prefer station wagons, mainly because of their greater load-carrying capacity - e.g., it can fit all the holiday camping gear in without your needing to have a trailer or use a van. Big saloon cars with cavernous boots can be handy in that regard as well.
My preferred mode of transport nowadays is a road bicycle, followed by shank's pony, or bus. I like to cycle to work (clients premises) if they are in reasonable range.
I map a few of my favourite recreational bike routes on Google maps, just to see the trip distance, and I monitor how long the trip takes, there and back, as a rough indicator of fitness. If Lily comes with me (she started doing that sometimes at about age 9) we go slowly and stop for a McDonalds burger or a Subway sandwich en route, as a reward.

pilgrim:
No apology needed, I can actually understand people's interest in performance figures it's just not my cup of tea.

That sounds like a very bright young lady you have there.

Your interest in cars sounds to have been about as varied as mine although for several years when I started out my interest had two wheels rather than four.
I have finished up with a 1248cc turbo diesel which I bought new 9 years ago this coming Sunday.
It will exceed the national speed limit (70mph) with two gears to spare and from new has averaged 67mpg, I am no longer able to work on it myself but I'm not complaining.

One thing I have to ask you about your last post is how do you get the 'click to reveal/hide' feature?

IainB:
Lily showed herself to be an artistic/creative child from about 4 y/o, and her teachers used to comment on it.
I quite like motorcycles, but my interest in them is mostly on aspects of their mechanics and design. Though I have ridden a few, I have never owned one. Your diesel motor sounds pretty good. I think diesel-powered cars are great, though, again I have never owned one.

The 'click to reveal/hide' is a "spoiler", and is created by pressing the button marked with a large "SP", above the reply editing box. All it does is insert the BBS code for "spoiler" "/spoiler" (in square brackets) - which switches the spoiler on/off for anything you type/insert inbetween the two code commands.

Windows 8 has as much chance of appearing on a computer of mine as Vista did, NONE!
-pilgrim (May 13, 2013, 05:20 AM)
--- End quote ---

Given that Win7 is arguably an improved Vista, then I am curious to know why you seem so negative about Win8.
I have a licence for Win8, but have held off installing it as I don't like what I am reading about peoples' experiences with it. I might install it after Win8.1 is released.

pilgrim:
Given that Win7 is arguably an improved Vista, then I am curious to know why you seem so negative about Win8.
I have a licence for Win8, but have held off installing it as I don't like what I am reading about peoples' experiences with it. I might install it after Win8.1 is released.-IainB (May 15, 2013, 03:30 PM)
--- End quote ---

There are several reasons.
There are a lot of things in 7 that I would never use so I have disabled them, in 8 there would appear to be even more.
It can be used on touch screen devices, fine, speaking as one of the many who could never use one that merely means more of the OS that I would never use.
A similar thing could be said about things that have been left out, MS would appear to pay little if any attention to what users (a considerable number of them) have been saying about first 7 and now 8.
One thing that surprised me about 7 was the number of IT professionals who were critical about certain aspects of it, 8 as well now. It is not just your average users who think they are making mistakes.
From everything that I have read about 8 it would take even longer to make it 'usable' for me than it has 7.
I do not think the idea of using a single OS for multiple device types works out, they brought out the 7 starter version for portables and effectively crippled it. Then you had the RT and the desktop versions of 8.

I bought my first computer in 2005, prior to that I had rarely used one. Perhaps part of it is that until last year nearly all my computing experience had been with XP which for all its faults was known and understood by a great many people who had been using it for years. Most of us would have been quite happy if things had stayed as they were with a few improvements to what we had.

It's true that I view many things in the same way, I have a friend who bought his car around the same time I bought mine, (he's an ex mechanic as well) we have often talked about buying new ones but there's nothing out there that either of us like.

Perhaps my only hope would be to get a film part if they ever do a remake of Jurassic Park, before I become extinct. :D

IainB:
Interesting charts found here: How Much Physical Memory Can Windows Actually Use (or See)?

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