Maybe it is just me but I do, and have always, used PC and laptop interchangeably. Even when I was working we had docking stations with full size monitors, access to printers and plotters, hard wired network access, you name it, for our laptops. Right now I am looking to put a RAID card in my desktop. How people actually work on their smart phones I will never understand. I can fat finger with the best of them. I will admit I am one of those old farts. I actually still miss my first computer...TRS-80, Model 1. I had what I was told was more RAM than I would ever need...64k (no I did not mistype that). Two 5.25 inch floppy drives took the place of the tape drive ($400 each). and a Z80 processor. I couldn't believe the speed increase when I got my Leading Edge with an 8088 in it... Mark, KE8DZA
Thanks for confirming.That was exactly my point. In an office the Desktop Tower PC is gone, MIA, SNAFU. Instead of a Desktop, it is a Laptop, with Docking Station, Keyboard, and I use 3 monitors. On Thursday and Fridays I work from home using my laptop, and play with my Desktop. One is a tool, the other a toy. Ask someone 30 and younger today, and not many would know what a Desktop Tower PC is other than a large heavy clunky relic from the past.
Thanks for making the point! There are a lot more than PCs out there! Glad at least you are open minded!
That for sure on both counts. I support an office full of PCs it is called a call center and my wife works in a medical center that has 800 users all with PCs. I do like the idea of having access to both paper and digital material. Although I have many laptops and a few tablets I really do like to have at least one PC workstation in my home.
Thursday I am taking my DESKTOP MINITOWER PC in to get a couple of terabyte solid state drives and a RAID card installed. We lose the internet for whatever reason and I still get to use the computer and the programs on it. Those with everything up in the Cloud? SOL! I hate 'magazines' that are fully online. Giver me paper any day They have the added advantage of being able to store them in my library. Think Carrington Event...
Digital magazines are archival and accessible and don't garner insecurities based on deep routed needs. 'Paper' magazines , in this era, are ephemeral future trash--unless your every inch of space starts looking like this....don't confuse information with paper... I stop all my subs in 2020 to hardcopy magazines.
Been there. Done that. Use totes now. I have tried magazine readers on tablets. HATE THEM! Bad enough I have several "books" that are on a tablet. That will change if I can ever find a real copy of Atlas Shrugged...
KC1JMW (on cover) and WB2ITX celebrate OTA. The digital version is expected to be available next week!
Typically, those who work from home and/or are in a project management, dev, or support role are given the use of a portable computer as their primary machine. Those whose work is done solely in the office have no need for a laptop or tablet, and are issued a desktop or small form factor PC of some sort. I have around 1000 employees in this office, a Fortune 500 media company, and probably only 1/3 of them have only laptops and docking stations. The rest have PC/Monitor combos and are not called upon to work from home or abroad. Blanket statements rarely cover everything, and mostly leave the posterior hanging out...
Derek, I have 3 PCs at my desk, each are configured differently. (I also have 3 laptops, 3 tablets and 4 small footprint PCs at home, each are slightly different, but all would rely on the internet for communication purposes). We have nearly 3,000 people in our company, yes, many have moved to laptops in the last 5 years. But there are still desktops around. Especially on dedicated automated systems that have custom data acquisition boards in them. There are corporate networks, and some PCs are development PCs on a closed network, one with a test SQL DB server. I see PCs for are still for sale by all manufacturers. As for a kid having a cell phone, that will rely on the internet, nothing to do with actual RF/Radio. Ham radio is about RF. I'm the owner of an EchoLink-capable repeater, but there's a PC involved with that, plus the internet. I'm also a DMR user, with a hotspot, also relies on the internet. Two nearby DMR repeaters rely on the internet. There are hams who feel like ham radio means communicating by radio waves. Not by a cell phone. I am OK with both, but grew up in the age of vacuum tubes, and transitioned to the world of integrated circuits and solid state technology. I've been a programmer for custom designed data acquisition systems since 1977, in the nuclear industry. I've used every kinds of computer you can think of, and some you've never heard of. But also there has not yet been a computer or programming language of any kind that I am afraid of (and also, by the way, I am far older than 40, I will be 70 this year). "Modern technology" is a moving target. Just think of Moore's law. What is "modern" today will be "old" in a fraction of a human generation. Keeping up with technology is a choice. Some choose to be content with what they have, others enjoy learning about the latest technology. RF principals have not changed over the generations. The equipment has improved quite a bit, to the point where most people can't fix their equipment when it breaks, because of microchips. That doesn't make microchips bad. Its just a fact. Some like to be able to still work on and fix their own equipment if it breaks, so some stick with the older equipment. I have not owned a vacuum tube since the mid-80s, but the original cabinet full of equipment that made up my repeater in 1978 was 83 vacuum tubes! But I could, and did, work on it to keep it going. The solid state equipment in that repeater now requires pretty much no maintenance. Nice, since its a 45 minute drive to get to it. In Virginia today, we had an emergency drill exercise, and stations participating could NOT use commercial electricity or use the internet to communicate, just as in an actual emergency where the entire grid was down, including cell phones and the internet. The option to communicate in an emergency by cell phone, or any method that requires the internet, did not exist today, and will not exist in an emergency, if all power is down. Even generators will last only as long as the fuel can be refilled. Hams UNDER age 40 need to know how to set up and communicate by RF, including all the unchanging electrical and RF laws that they used to have to learn to get a license. The ARRL could have gone to PDF files only, probably years ago. The timing of knowing your audience, and when to switch, has been a challenge for publications of all kinds. Think of newspapers and news online. There are always people who like to have a newspaper or magazine in their hand. The number is dwindling, but that doesn't mean those people who are not online should be denied access to the newspaper or a magazine publication. So they can't just pull the switch one day and stop the presses. The timing has to be right to keep enough customers to keep things going. My son-in-law's parents, in their 80s, have a PC and do email, as did my dad, until he passed away at age 95. And my grandkids, now 13 and 16, grew up with desktops, laptops, cell phones, and all kinds of electronic games. All their homework is done online. I don't believe they are learning as much detail as we did growing up, with actual books to read and study in my generation. CDs and DVDs are still for sale everywhere, with movies and music on them. And all the cars with good FM/Satellite radios include Bluetooth, some even with WiFi, but they still come with CD players. Some the vans and suvs even come with DVD players built in for the kids in the back seats.
