Christmas 2005

It is always sad to reach the end of a year, especially when we reach the autumn of our years. Christmas is the time of a year when we look back and remember other Christmases that we spent with loved ones who are no longer with us. It is so easy to close our eyes and see their faces and expressions as we sat around the Christmas tree long, long ago, exchanging gifts, laughing, having a good time, having a wonderful life.

Around 11 p.m. on Christmas Eve, we would put on our heavy coats and walk the two and a half blocks to our church, arriving early enough to get good seats for Midnight Mass. We smiled as friends and neighbors arrived. A few minutes before Midnight, the choir began singing Christmas carols. Midnight Mass was always a very special occasion.

Last year, I returned to Chicago and to my boyhood parish, St. Leonard's in Berwyn. It was the first time in almost 20 years. The purpose was the 50th Reunion of my eight grade class, the Class of 1954. Two-thirds of our class were there! It felt terrific to see everyone again. Our church, built in 1950, still looked brand new to me, even though it is more than 50 years old. And I saw a few familiar faces belonging to parishioners who never moved away.

Sitting in the pew during Mass, I thought back to all of the times I had attended Mass at St. Leonard's when I was a boy. In the summers, we often attended 6 a.m. Mass before we headed to one of the lakes in northern Illinois or southern Wisconsin for a day of swimming, softball, cooking hamburgers and hot dogs, taking a nap. Talk about the endless days of summer!

When I was a boy, Christmas always meant something new for my Lionel train layout. Years later, and long after my father had died, I spent Thanksgiving with his brother. Roy, and his family. During dinner, my cousin, Sharon, asked me a question that at first threw me for a loop: "George, whatever happened to all of your Dad's Lionel trains?"

"My Dad's Lionel trains!" I exclaimed. "Those were my Lionel trains!"

Everyone laughed. Everyone but me knew that they were my Dad's Lionel trains. Sure, we shared them, and both of us spent many pleasant evenings and weekends working on the railroad. But when Sharon asked about my Dad's Lionel trains, I finally realized that he had bought them as much for himself as for me.

And that's perfectly alright, because that's the it was supposed to be, a father-son hobby that gave both of us so much pleasure.

My/our Lionel trails are carefully packed away now. I don't take them out at Christmas anymore because my apartment is so small. Maybe someday....

But I better not wait to much longer.

The Joys of Computing: Part 227

I envy the millions of people who use their personal computers to send emails and photos to their family and friends. Their web surfing tends to be limited to MSN, CNN, Fox News, and a few personal favorites. Sometimes they might use Google to search for something.

Not me.

I am intrigued by computers and have been since I began using one in 1963-1964 when I was in graduate school at Stanford.

Forty years ago?

Yes, that's right!

I used Stanford's Computer Center all the time to perform multiple regression analyses and other statistical work. It was time-consuming, tedious, boring. I had to use an IBM keypunch machine to make a data card to each value in the problem. Let's say I was comparing females with blond hair vs. brunettes and how many boyriends they had. Did blonds have more boyfriends? Or brunettes? Of course, my research was much more serious than that (sure!).

After I keypunched all of my IBM cards, I carefully placed a rubberband around them and took them to the Batch Processing Center. I had to wait a couple of hours to see the results. If one card had an error, I had to keypunch a new one, go back to the Batch Processing Center, and wait another two or three hours.

During the 1970s, I worked on an MBA at the University of Chicago. At first,we used Teletype terminals to enter problem data. The results appeared quickly. While I was working on my degree, the University switched to cathode ray terminals and keyboards, similar to what we think of as personal computers today. We could enter data and perform complex analyses very rapidly. A nearby printer churned out our results. And, students could even use something called a word-processing program to write our master or doctorate theses.

Then in 1979 Apple computer introducted the first personal computer. IBM soon followed suit, as did Osborne, Atari, and a few others. It was the Apple IIe, introduced in 1982, that really caught my eye. I bought mine on St. Patrick's Day 1983. It still works beautifully and sits on its own desk right behind me.

I mention all this because I love using computers and have for a long time.

Since 2000, my passion has been building web sites and, more recently, writing blogs such as this one. But there is one thing that bugs me.

Computers can act up on you, especially when you least expect it.

To minimize this, I do a "clean install" annually--or at least I try to. A clean install means you erase everything on your computer's hard drive and reinstall its operating system and the programs you want to use. If you are careful, you back up all of your data files onto CDs before you erase your data.

In recent weeks, my computer has been crashing on me. I couldn't figure out why. I checked my records and found out I did my last clean install in February 2004, or 22 months ago! I was long overdue.

Microsoft offers free tech support for Windows XP users who want to do a clean install. They walk you through the process, which can take a couple of hours. Once your system is up and running, you on your own when it is time to reinstall your programs, etc.

After my clean install on Saturday, I was really annoyed when I found my computer still crashed frequently. Microsoft suggested I take it to a tech shop. I was ready to do that, but I wanted to try something first.

I opened my computer and used a can of compressed air and a small vacuum cleaner to remove dust. Plain old dust. This is something I do every few months. My computer has a larger fan that blows warm air out of the rear of the chassis and a smaller fan that cools off the processor and motherboard. The latter was really gunked up. I took my time removing all the dust. I then removed my two RAM cards and cleaned their contacts and sockets using a new hobby paint brush I dipped into isopropyl alcohol.

Finally, it was time to put the case back on my computer and reboot.

In no time at all, I saw the familiar Windows XP and then my empty desktop. I placed a few icons from the Start Menu onto my desktop and I was back in business.

I plan to take my time reinstalling my software and the data files I backed up. I might just keep many of the data files on CDs and use them when needed. Right now, my six-and-a-half-year-old computer is a lean, clean, computing machine. I want to keep it that way....

George Spink
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