April 21, 2005

April 21, 2005 Thursday Okay, gang. It looks like the word processing is done on the video computer, and I have a whole new system of quirks to deal with. Like, how does one turn off the auto-indent on the date line that begins each of these entries? Plainly, Microsoft is (ahem) personal friends with every bad typist in the world to put in such a feature suitable only for imbeciles who should not be typing in the first place. I went over t ABC this morning to check on the British Airways computers. In the end, I made it downtown, and Thom didn’t. It is just as well because at any given point in time about 10% of the streets in Miami are being torn up or barricaded. This construction proceeds at a snail’s pace that would be laughable in any other part of the country. The parking meters are $5 minimum for 3 hours. Better shop lots and get your money’s worth? The office is in the American Express building on the 9th floor. The phone man, Carlos, was there snipping away at the wiring. The lady showed me around the place (what an incredible view) but also said they had decided to recycle the desks. Too bad, they are really quite nice and excellent for my computer school. The monitors are embedded behind the desk top. They have 22 computers and 36 monitor, plus three servers, three laptops and a few dozen boxes of cables and cords. Roughly half what was described on the phone. Still, if it is free or just a couple hundred bucks, it may be worth it. The computers, even if they turn out to be upgradeable, have a mini desktop case with only one 5-1/4” drive bay, so installing a second CD is not possible. The CPUs are Pentium Pro, I think the equivalent of Pentium IIs, but I’m not sure on that one. That single drive bay makes life complicated. Even if I install a modem to make the things internet ready, they just will not sell for much. They have 3.1 GB hard drives. I asked if they would give me one to work with, and they declined (understandably) because the disks have not been erased by their own people. The lady was not too bad looking, but mentioned her kids in the second sentence. The servers are heavy and I still don’t know what to do with them – that course is next semester. Right afterward I zipped over to Quizno’s and took a look at that laptop. It has not been cleaned in five years, so I set it to defrag and tried my best to polish it up a bit. It is totally infected with viruses and all kinds of nasty things from the internet. The OS is Windows ME, the first time I’ve ever actually seen it in action. It is not that great and I could not find some needed things very easily. Helene paid me $20 for the trip, and said a curious thing. “When I get my divorce you and I can get married and you can teach me computers.” (This was in a conversation that she wanted to learn computers, but that Corey did not have the patience to teach her.) Helene, this is so sudden! The two sandwich shops are bringing in $15,000 net per week and all the loans are paid off. That is interesting, because I did not think those places did all that well, and I think the market is saturated with fast food franchises. Cory, according to John, says he made a mistake getting married because he has been offered $1 million for the shop, of which he would have to give Helene half. They don’t get along all that well, and Helene said ‘when’, not ‘if’. But that could be a slip. Isn’t that a neat picture of me working on the laptop in the maze of soda cables back of the shop? John left early and we met back up at the Church. Lisa, Kirsten and omigosh I can’t remember the other name are still working there. Lisa is 25 and not married, which fascinates John. I should explain to him that her options in Miami are not all that great. Think of the calibre of man she meets every day in that joint. There was some English mustard manufacturer’s convention going on. They all know Dave personally but their wives made it look like middle-aged housewives day, so I left. The hippie called, and we met up for a few minutes. He thinks my place looks totally like a repair shop. It does. He may also be a little jealous that my old system is nicer than what he spent $2,000 on, especially my ‘old’ Nokia monitor. Tomorrow morning I will run the numbers, but even if those computers could be fixed up and sold for $100 each, that is a lot of work for the return, plus Carlos will want a cut. He asked for my business card. So did the lady. Each computer will have to be opened up, and a 56K modem installed. Chances are the CD reader will have to be replaced with a CD burner. There are decent hard drives and memory inside but that is not something people will pay extra for in a used computer. The target range seems to be $150 to $200 if the computer includes a working color printer. Also, Marcela called from Sonie’s Thrift. There is a lady in there that wants to buy the computer she has set up for the kids. I had to talk her out of it. That unit is a toy at best and the fact that it works at all is misleading because the OS takes up most of the drive that is installed. I asked her to wait a few days and see what I can come up with. As always, I am cautious when they have kids at home who will complain if you don’t have the newest of everything. That in itself is a con job. I wonder how many computers have been sold because the manufacturers go to work on the kids whose parents may not understand and think they are helping the brat become a genius.