MANY HAPPY RETURNS, TECHSURVIVORS

[Highmac]

Well, here we are - Techsurvivors has reached FIFTEEN YEARS….



Still great to be here with friends old and new and ready to raise glasses in a toast to the many who helped make TS but are now absent friends. It's difficult to think of something to say that wasn't said in these threads from long ago. Just a big thankyou to all who have ever posted here.

Taking a look back to the fifth and tenth anniversary threads:

Five years after...

Ten Years After...

My Macs in that time - a G3 DV-SE, still working when last switched on about a year ago (now in the loft); a G5 21in iSight which died but is still in its box in the garage; a 2010 MBP (Snow Leopard) still in daily use; and the 27in Mountain Lion iMac being used right now. Plus two iPods, one iPad and one AppleTV2. Seem to recall the amount paid for each desk iMac was about the same - around 1,000GBP (c1500 USD at present exchange rate) mark, so it seems we get a far greater bang for our buck these days

Reminiscences about your Apple gear, life with TS, etc, welcome.

This is in Tech because... well, it is TECHsurvivors

EDIT: Our thanks go to Kris for the banner  

[Jack W]

Happy Birthday TechSurvivors.

And a special thanks to all those that help make this a special place.

And those that used to be active members that can no longer be for various reasons.
Or perchance are absent by choice.

Thanks for all your help and friendship throughout the years.

And those that are absent, please come back if you are able.

We need you all.

Jack

[kimmer]

Wow! Time sure has flown by. I've only been here for a little over 13 years, but I still remember when I found this place. Here was a wealth of information at my fingertips. I arrived here because of a recommendation at a meeting of a now defunct user group. Sneakers joined a few days after I did. He was never a huge forum guy, but he loved creating banners for here. I still have almost all of them in a folder, and I enjoy looking at them.

I enjoy chatting with all of you, even about non-tech stuff. I feel like you're all friends. We don't talk as much about tech stuff these days, I'm guessing because our computers, phones, tablets, etc, all seem to work a lot better. Plus folks don't seem to modify/hack their gadgets like they used to do. I still remember installing Kaleidoscope that let me "decorate" my Mac LC. You can see some images HERE. It was total fun; but sometimes it screwed up my Mac and I'd wind up here asking for help.

EDIT to add my Apple gear: I started with an LC, with a 40 MB HD, and maximum ram of 10mg. Eventually I boosted the HD to 80mg. and I also had an Iomega ZipDrive. Whoo-Hoo! I used the LC at work (church secretary), and so  I ran Aldus PageMaker, MSWord 5.1a (the absolute best word processing program EVER!), FileMaker, a calendar program whose name escapes me, MacPaint and MacDraw, and a couple of other programs. I ran rings around the assoc. pastor who hated apple and loved windows. I was able to format floppies for him because he couldn't. I recovered data from his floppies when his win machine erased them. One day we had a race in Word -- I won hands down and I tried hard not to rub it in.   I also had an Apple laser printer, but don't remember which model. Total workhorse though. At home, Sneakers bought us a IIvx, which he maxed out HD and ram wise. Eventually he bought me a Power Mac to use at home, and he purchased a Quadra for his own use, and my folks used the IIvx. When Sneakers retired, his gift to US was a Power Mac G4 Quicksilver for each of us. We used those until they quit running. Sneakers bought a 27” iMac, which is now living it’s life out at a friends house; and a year later he bought me a 27” iMac. I’ve added a MacBookPro, and an iPhone. I also have Sneakers iPad, which I use to play music. Thus endeth my edit.

I sure do miss the chatter we used to have, and wish more folks would join in.

Happy Birthday TS! Thanks for the haven.

[RNKIII]

Just looked at my profile...WOW, where has time flown off to...  Sept of 2000, seems like forever ago...
Have 'met' and spoken with a lot of you, and miss those I no longer 'meet' on a regular basis.
THANK YOU to those who set this all in motion, to those who keep it moving along, and to those who have and still do help each of us along.
I think Jack has said it best so far.....
Thanks for all the great advice and memories.

Bob K.   rnkiii

[beacher]

I had forgotten how long ago it became necessary to set the board up. I was going through some stuff a few months ago, and found several of the back-ups I made, week by week, as we first hit the net, after months of working together (17 people, widely scattered over the globe), to get it up and rolling.  I was pushing the wonders of the Mac to anyone who was interested, and it was very gratifying to see how much help was "distributed" to folks who ran into trouble with their OS's.  Since I bowed out of the administrative side of things (wow; 8 years or so ago!), I've had to resort to yelling "HELP!" a few times, and with a rare exception or 2, my efforts on behalf of the board have more than been returned, and I'm very grateful to see it still running, with the same amazing willingness to lend a hand to those "in trouble", despite the fact that there are so few of the "originals" still around.  

I've noticed that fewer people need help these days, and although I'm happy that the machines do seem to have become more stable, I too kind of miss the ability to use programs like Kaleidoscope to make the appearance of the Mac a little more personal, but man, I sure appreciate the speed and stability of the machine.

I pretty much continue to be a "lurker", with everyday visits to the board, but fins that I no longer have much to contribute, except when I get a new machine/OS that gives me fits, usually trying to set up my dang mail.  I waited until just last week to move up to the Yosemite OS, and now we've got El Capitan coming down the pike, and I guess I'm going to have to be a little quicker off the mark this time, because last night I installed IOS9 on my iPad, and it informed me that it would not synch with the MacBook until I update to EC; what a rude surprise that was!  Ah well, hang on, because I may be begging for help from the old G5 dual, which I'm still using because Appleworks is still the easiest thing around for writing letters. . . Yeah, I still write those, too!

[krissel]

It was Neil who remembered our anniversary and I'm ashamed to say I totally forgot (for the first time). It almost seems like another life ago that we spent the summer trying to set this place up. And while I'm not posting a lot lately, I do check things out regularly. Truth is, I'm so far behind in the OS version that I really can't answer most of the questions. Now if someone has a problem with Snow Leopard or another old OS or hardware, well, I'm available.

Regarding the banner: when collecting images of hardware from around 2000 it occurred to me that I still have working models of three of the items in the banner. I never had a cube but still have a working snow iMac, Wallstreet and am presently posting from my upgraded G4 DA.  I do have newer Macs and peripherals but the old stuff never let me down, it just got too old to be really useful in its original form.

Reading the old threads brought back a lot of memories. It's sad to see some names that are no longer around. I learned so much from the interaction here at TS, both on a technical basis and a human one. Truly the experience of being part of Techsurvivors has been one of the major influences in my later life. I will be forever grateful to all of the members for injecting these past 15 years with vast stores of  knowledge and adding significantly to my happiness.

[Paddy]

Wow - this one slipped by me, too - but then I've never been terribly good at remembering anniversaries. (My husband and I are equally bad, so it's ok )

While it's sad to see how many former members aren't around any more, it's also great to see that there ARE still some of us here. Forums are having a rough time these days, simply because there is so much else competing for people's attention online, and so much information out there in so many different places. And, as you've all noted, our Macs and devices tend to behave themselves better - partly due to less tinkering. After all, in a perfect world, our computers would be essentially transparent - allowing us to get things done without us having to worry about how they got done. Of course, as we all know, we're not quite there yet!

Participating here has been a terrific experience for me - there are many of you I consider friends and would love to meet in 'real life' should the opportunity arise. We've traded equipment, talked offline about all manner of things, shared important life changes over the years...it's been far more than a discussion of Mac foibles, that's for sure!!

I've been around a little less than usual this past summer because we're involved in the very exciting (and stress producing) activity of tearing down our summer place and turning it into our year round residence. Demolition day is on Monday. I'll try to post pics/video in case anyone wants to see.

[krissel]

Oh, Paddy, do post pics of your house transformation. I really enjoy that sort of stuff. I plan major changes here in the future and am always interested in seeing what others are doing.

[jcarter]

Yes, indeed, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I cant imagine how I would have ever survived learning without all of you here. I have asked some pretty basic and dumb questions, but you all have had the patience to help me thru this learning process.

I loved Kaleidoscope too, and still have some screenshots of mine.

I dont post as much as I used to, but I do look daily.
Having active teen age grandkids and lots of family fun is pretty much keeping me busy nowadays.
I think maybe all of us should post more pictures!
We too have been doing things to our house, as time goes along, we need more 'space'. Many of our friends here on Cape Cod are remodeling thier summer homes and retiring here, its wonderful to have these friends here all year round. I promised them we wouldnt have record snowfall this winter like we had last year.

I love the banners too.

And I do miss the former people who used to post here on the forum, come on back if you are around!

[gunug]

I don't remember all of those years but have always appreciated having TS around for my screwy questions and posts!

I also wonder who it was that snuck into my house and took the picture of things I had in my basement for the "Remember" banner?

[Xairbusdriver]

Happy Birthday, TechSurvivors!

I can still remember sitting in the OAK operations of FedEx waiting for my plane to be unloaded and re-loaded for the trip back to PDX. They gave us a hotel room for the five hour turn, but it was more interesting to visit TS than to do the "bag drag" twice more each day!

Thanks to RHP, I did get to meet a few TSers in a small Amish restaurant that had WiFi! I'm in the Memphis area, semi-middle of the US of A. Would be happy to let anyone who wants camp out in the backyard if you ever pass this way! I owe many of you a cool one, but I'd rather buy you some of the best BBQ in the known Universe!

Lastly, I can't express how much I appreciate the work and cooperation that was required to get TS started. If I'd been around then, TS would probably not be!!!

Oh yeah, please upload some demo pictures! I've always enjoyed taking things apart! It's also fun to figure out what to do with the pieces left over when things get put back together!

[dolphin]

WOW!!!  15  years...time does fly! Hope to be here for the twentieth!