# Quads!  Where are you?



## Shari (May 3, 2010)

Quads!  Where are you?  We are missing your pictures!

Shari


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## billb3 (May 3, 2010)

Gone fishin' ?


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## trailrated (May 3, 2010)

I have been wondering the same thing lately.


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## northwinds (May 3, 2010)

Guarding his morel mushroom finds?


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## quads (May 3, 2010)

Well, I'm still around and check in a couple times a day.  I've had a lot of things going on.  Not to sound like a soap opera, but here goes:  

A very close friend of our family who was my fishing buddy and almost like my own son, committed suicide.  We've been devastated by that.  He was 16 years old.  

Then my antique computer died.  The new one has Windows (Windohs) 7 and none of my old hardware or software would work with it.  So been fighting with that.  All I do with a computer is pictures and Internet!  Seems like a lot of work and money just to do the things I was happily doing with the old computer.

It's turkey season, so the guys have been hunting in the woods and I've been staying out of their way.  I think they are done now as of yesterday.

Plus, largemouth season opened Saturday, but I haven't went yet.  My heart just wasn't in it this weekend.  And it was our daughter's birthday yesterday.

Bet you're sorry you asked!  Ha ha!  But I'm still around, just laying low.


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## quads (May 4, 2010)

Oh, but in the meantime, here's a picture for you.  This was taken a couple weeks ago on our ATV club's annual garbage collection in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.  This grader belongs to the refuge and the operator got a little bit too far off the edge of the road.  We have pulled a lot of stuck vehicles out with our ATVs before, but no such luck with this guy!  They got him out with a front end loader.


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## Shari (May 4, 2010)

Quads,

Whew!  Glad to know you are okay at least.  Sincere condolences on your loss.  Something like that happening leaves more questions than answers. I pass a pray your way and also for his family.

Shari


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## quads (May 4, 2010)

Shari said:
			
		

> Quads,
> 
> Whew!  Glad to know you are okay at least.  Sincere condolences on your loss.  Something like that happening leaves more questions than answers. I pass a pray your way and also for his family.
> 
> Shari


Thanks.  Life goes on for the rest of us.

As soon as I get this Windohs 7 fiasco straightened out, I'll be fishing, cutting wood again, and snapping pictures of everything I see!


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## Backwoods Savage (May 4, 2010)

quads, we feel terrible over your loss. It is really a shame that these things happen but they do and probably most of us knows someone who had this happen. It is hard to imagine the sorrow felt. As you stated, life does go on. Hopefully something good comes out of this but that is hard to imagine. I do hope you find another fishing buddy soon.


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## Flatbedford (May 4, 2010)

Sorry you lost your fishing buddy. I suspect that getting back into the woods and swinging that big old beloved family heirloom maul of yours will help things get better for you.


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## quads (May 4, 2010)

Thanks guys!  

If anything good does come out of it, I hope it's that all of his friends take note and have learned never to do something as stupid as that themselves.  Nobody is exactly sure why he did it, but of course there is never a good reason for something like that anyway.

Yep, I can't wait to get back out there and swing the old maul again.  Also can't wait to go do some fishing, albeit a little lonelier and most likely with tears in my eyes.  Anyway, I think I've finally got the last of my Windohs 7 problems solved this morning (keeping my fingers crossed) so I can get on with other things besides staring at this monitor, making new/unplanned hardware purchases, and downloading driver file after driver file (I'm on dialup, makes it all the more fun)!


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## thewoodlands (May 4, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

> Oh, but in the meantime, here's a picture for you.  This was taken a couple weeks ago on our ATV club's annual garbage collection in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.  This grader belongs to the refuge and the operator got a little bit too far off the edge of the road.  We have pulled a lot of stuck vehicles out with our ATVs before, but no such luck with this guy!  They got him out with a front end loader.



Quads very sorry about your friend, is that a NEW trailer behind the quad and is that yours?

zap


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## quads (May 4, 2010)

Yes, that's my trailer, but not new (I think I bought that one even before my wood hauler trailer).  It's my single place trailer, which I also volunteer to use when we clean up garbage because none of the other members have a small trailer like it.  I use it to haul the ATV over there from my house, then unhook from the truck and hook it on behind the ATV.  I also have a 2 place snowmobile trailer that I rarely use.  That's my homemade garbage stabber sticking up in the front there.  It's handy because most of the ditches in the refuge are full of water and then I can stab the cans floating there without getting wet.


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## Bobbin (May 4, 2010)

Quads, I've been wondering the very same thing about your absence!

For what it's worth, in '93 my first boyfriend and a good friend for many years gassed himself in his garage.  He tried to call me but I was out of town on business.  I don't think anything will ever fill the awful void and sometimes in a very weak moment I'm still overcome with guilt.  Last July another of our mutual good friends committed suicide.  Again with the inevitable questions and the waves of guilt and sadness.  Time doesn't heal the wounds but it does teach you how to better carry the sadness.  

Please accept my sincerest condolences on such a tragic event.  I don't exactly how you feel, but I have a pretty good idea.  I'm so sorry.


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## quads (May 4, 2010)

Thanks Bobbin.  Life goes on.  He will be missed very much.

I finally started to get caught up on things today.  I even had a chance to go for a walk out in the woods this afternoon and look for Morel mushrooms.  Didn't find any yet, but hopefully soon!


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## northwinds (May 4, 2010)

Sorry for your loss, quads.  A lot of pain for the ones left behind.

Morels should be coming your way soon.  I haven't found any, but they are showing up in our local farmers' markets.
It's a great time to be in the woods.  I even saw a hummingbird on the edge of the woods today.


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## gpcollen1 (May 5, 2010)

Windows 7 is awesome as compared to previous versions.  I am in the same boat as none of my software works anymore!!  Guess I will have to start over...


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## kenny chaos (May 5, 2010)

You make my camera eye work.
Sorry-
Kenny


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## quads (May 5, 2010)

Thanks.

Yep, none of my favorite old programs and none of my old hardware worked anymore with the 'upgrade' to Windows 7 so I had to pull out the already big and fat credit card and start all over.  Even the new scanner right off the shelf did not have the proper driver files included on the installation disc, so I had to download them myself, very slowly over dialup!  (Staples, where I bought the scanner, offered to do this for me and burn them on a disc for an additional $35!)

But, out of all my old programs, and my old hardware that was working just fine on the old computer, what I will miss the most is having my rooftop weather station hooked up.  The Windows 7 computer does not have a serial port (I had a hard time finding a computer with a dialup modem even) and besides that, the weather station software is Windows 3.1 (I bought it awhile ago!)


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## Danno77 (May 6, 2010)

so i was sitting on the crapper thinking to myself "I wish windows didn't work with any of my software, cameras, scanners, and 2 year old computers" well, I get windows 7 and whalah, crap-city, I'm Danno, and Windows 7 was my idea.


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## begreen (May 6, 2010)

Man, that must be some creaky old stuff. Windows 3.11, oy that is like a couple decades ago. I have lots of programs and so far, the camera, printer, scanner are working well via usb. So do my graphic programs. But I hear your pain if you are trying to update via a modem. That could be very slow.


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## quads (May 6, 2010)

Danno77 said:
			
		

> so i was sitting on the crapper thinking to myself "I wish windows didn't work with any of my software, cameras, scanners, and 2 year old computers" well, I get windows 7 and whalah, crap-city, I'm Danno, and Windows 7 was my idea.


Ha ha!  I think it's that French woman's fault that drank too much coffee.


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## quads (May 6, 2010)

BeGreen said:
			
		

> Man, that must be some creaky old stuff. Windows 3.11, oy that is like a couple decades ago. I have lots of programs and so far, the camera, printer, scanner are working well via usb. So do my graphic programs. But I hear your pain if you are trying to update via a modem. That could be very slow.


What else would a creaky old guy have; new stuff?  ha ha!  (I've got a Commodore 64 in the attic.)

I bought the weather station in '91 or '92 maybe?  I can't remember exactly anymore.  The worst part about it is up until a week ago, my Windows XP computer was happily running everything (I bought it shortly after XP first came out).  I never would have guessed Windows 7 wouldn't be smart enough to do the same.  Now I know.  I found out after the hard drive failed in my old one.  Fortunately I had backups of my pictures (32,000+)

I'm hoping someday something besides dialup will be available here.  That will make the transition to the next Windows a little bit easier!


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## billb3 (May 6, 2010)

quads said:
			
		

> Thanks.
> 
> Yep, none of my favorite old programs and none of my old hardware worked anymore with the 'upgrade' to Windows 7 so I had to pull out the already big and fat credit card and start all over.  Even the new scanner right off the shelf did not have the proper driver files included on the installation disc, so I had to download them myself, very slowly over dialup!  (Staples, where I bought the scanner, offered to do this for me and burn them on a disc for an additional $35!)
> 
> But, out of all my old programs, and my old hardware that was working just fine on the old computer, what I will miss the most is having my rooftop weather station hooked up.  The Windows 7 computer does not have a serial port (I had a hard time finding a computer with a dialup modem even) and besides that, the weather station software is Windows 3.1 (I bought it awhile ago!)




The serial port might still exist on the mother board, though. With a little luck it might even be marked COM1.


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## quads (May 6, 2010)

I was also told there might be an adapter to go from serial to USB?  But, I never checked into it because I'm sure Windows 7 will never run the software.  Especially from what I have seen so far with some of my other programs' failures.  So I will give up on hooking the weather station to the computer.  It still has the display on the wall, but no more graphs and weather history files going back almost 20 years.


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## 'bert (May 7, 2010)

Sorry for the loss of your friend Quads, also sorry that you have to deal with dial up internet.  I can't believe over the years that you have uploaded all those wonderful pics with dial up!  Win 7 should be good for you, I run it on my 4 PC's here and really like it.  Surprised to hear you had driver issues.  

Hopefully with time, you will be able to come to terms with your friends sudden departure.

'bert


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## quads (May 7, 2010)

The hardest part is uploading the videos on dialup!  That's why you'll never see a video longer than 15 seconds from me.  15 seconds takes an hour to upload.


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## Shari (May 7, 2010)

Quads,

Maybe this might help with your weather program:  http://social.technet.microsoft.com...l/thread/986dfefe-5388-43b3-be7c-860032fbb9bd

Shari


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## quads (May 7, 2010)

Thanks Shari.  The kid at Staples mentioned the same thing, and with some other programs I was unsuccessful.  I have the Windows 7 64 bit, and it's the Home Premium edition, not the Pro, so I guess that makes a difference.


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## Delta-T (May 7, 2010)

Quads, I think I have a 386-33 machine in my attic with 3.1 on it, you're welcome to it if it will run your weather station. Let me first delete all the...um....pictures that we downloaded from FTP sites back in the day. Still has the 5 1/4 floppy drive too, and like 16 megs of RAM (i could be mistaken, could be only 8). Hope you can write a .BAT file as you'll likely need a boot disk to run the weather station off of it.


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## Danno77 (May 7, 2010)

I have a usb to serial adapter for my old GPS and also my OBD-II interface. it works well with windows XP, but I've not tried it with windows 7. our only windows 7 is a pink netbook that belongs to my wife that isn't currently working due to a monitor issue. If I get a chance I'll gladly try using that adapter on there to see if we can get it to work with Win7, then your problem would be solved. Serial ports went the way of the Do-Do bird a long time ago on laptops, so I'm not surprised to hear about your lack of one.


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## quads (May 7, 2010)

Delta-T said:
			
		

> Quads, I think I have a 386-33 machine in my attic with 3.1 on it, you're welcome to it if it will run your weather station. Let me first delete all the...um....pictures that we downloaded from FTP sites back in the day. Still has the 5 1/4 floppy drive too, and like 16 megs of RAM (i could be mistaken, could be only 8). Hope you can write a .BAT file as you'll likely need a boot disk to run the weather station off of it.


Ha ha!  Thanks, but no.  I will do as King Gates wishes and let the old stuff end up in the landfill............


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## quads (May 7, 2010)

Danno77 said:
			
		

> I have a usb to serial adapter for my old GPS and also my OBD-II interface. it works well with windows XP, but I've not tried it with windows 7. our only windows 7 is a pink netbook that belongs to my wife that isn't currently working due to a monitor issue. If I get a chance I'll gladly try using that adapter on there to see if we can get it to work with Win7, then your problem would be solved. Serial ports went the way of the Do-Do bird a long time ago on laptops, so I'm not surprised to hear about your lack of one.


I think even if I had a USB to serial adapter, I doubt Windows 7 would ever run the older weather station software.  It wouldn't even run some of my Windows 98 programs.


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## 'bert (May 8, 2010)

Win 7 has many software compatibility modes, right back to Windows 95, which was not that different then 3.11, bit finally did allow for long file names :coolsmile:   Of course then those files no longer worked when you needed to use them on a 3.11 machine after.  Those were some good IT times, good times!


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## DeePee (May 22, 2010)

Quads: For the weather station software, you might consider installing VirtualBox and creating a virtual machine using an older version of the operating system. It can be configured to start when the host system boots and would run in the background until needed. I have a USB-to-Serial adapter I can send along if it helps, it is definitely supported by Windows 7. With the adapter in place, VirtualBox can be configured to pass-thru access to the weather station.


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## quads (May 23, 2010)

DeePee said:
			
		

> Quads: For the weather station software, you might consider installing VirtualBox and creating a virtual machine using an older version of the operating system. It can be configured to start when the host system boots and would run in the background until needed. I have a USB-to-Serial adapter I can send along if it helps, it is definitely supported by Windows 7. With the adapter in place, VirtualBox can be configured to pass-thru access to the weather station.


Thanks for the help!  I don't know anything about it, but I think I read somewhere that I can only do that with Windows 7 Pro?  I have Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit).  Anyway, I might just repair the old XP computer and use that for weather station duties etc.  But I will let you know if I need it.


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## gibson (May 23, 2010)

Sorry to hear about your loss.  I've had to realize that my 10 year old is heading into that confused adolescent phase.  My policy is to try to talk about everything and, in turn, to try and listen as much as I can.  You never know?  16 years old is so young and so tragic.  My heart goes out to the kid and all of his family and friends.  Hopefully, in some way, the kids that he knew will do something positive in his remembrance.


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## gibson (May 23, 2010)

Quads, one more bit of advice.  Get a Mac.  More money up front, cheaper in the long run.  Trust me on that one.  Take it out of the box, plug it in, and you are set for years.  Believe it.


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## quads (May 23, 2010)

Thanks.

I've never actually seen a Mac, in a store or otherwise.  But I am very tempted to get away from Windows someday.


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