Hi Guys,

I realize that being located in the US this way of exchanging info may be easier than other parts of the world.

Years back I commented on how I wished I could carry my notebook to the workshop to point on Video Skype the problems, issues unresolved.

Today, with the use of Facetime, a service provided on the Iphone, this technology enables the user in switching the view from the speaker to its surroundings by just taping on the screen.

Not new to all of you for sure, but what a convenient way it is to point to a specific area and state what the problem may be. Hope that in the future, more of this hobby's members will be able to use this service.

email (option): unpob@yahoo.com

"IPhone" what? Notebook to point? How do you do that, do you have to draw an arrow on one of the pages? Or do you tear out one of the pages first?

email (option): jonny.rudge@verizon.net

I'm with you Henri, they are pretty handy.
Rather than try to describe which part I was after, I could also see the parts microfiche and tell the guy the part number.
In fact, I'm using it to type this.

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

'Major Tom to ground control'...I'm still trying to get my digital camera to do what I want..and I only have a 5 year olds grasp of the PC.
No more NASA technology for me thanks...there aren't enough hours in the day.. ...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Its all to much for me, had to get my 13yr old Grandson Zak to do some cut and paste work for me the other day

Ian Wright

'Major Tom to ground control'...I'm still trying to get my digital camera to do what I want..and I only have a 5 year olds grasp of the PC.
No more NASA technology for me thanks...there aren't enough hours in the day.. ...Ian

email (option): britool51@hotmail.com

I have started working with computers in 1967; programming in Autocoder, Assembler, Fortran, Algol you name it.
But now I have completely lost the pedals, and am at the mercy of my granddaughter (12); great kid fortunately.
But no Iphone or any of those modern contraptions for me...

email (option): viaconsu # planet dot nl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6HQZ66s0BY

email (option): unpob@yahoo.com

my £6.95p phone hasnt got anything like that on it

email (option): roger.back@node6.com

Hans, the first computer I used was not a desktop, it was the entire desk, dedicated keyboard, and all. No integrated circuits, but descrete physical, metal-clad transistors. You "programed" it (actually, coded it in hex, as there was no compiler, assembler or anything that could be called a computer "language") by actually typing in your program code. If you had a particularly long program, you "punched" a really long paper tape (no punch cards) and then fed the tape into it. And, since there was no such thing a time-sharing until the next generation, it ran only one code at a time and only one person could use it at a time, even if he was only punching in code and not actually using any of the computing "power". And, oh, before you wrote down your code to punch into it, you had to make a "flow chart". Remember those?

Ian: What kind of film do you use in your digital camera?

email (option): jonny.rudge@verizon.net

Bearing in mind how regularly I drop the drain plug into the hot oil, I dread to think what would happen if I took something powered by modern electrickery into the workshop. Anyway, I don't seem to be able to work anything with multifunctional buttons and I can't read the small stuff on those screens either.

All of which is irrelevant as if I had €500 spare, I'd spend it on motorcycle parts or proper books that'll last me a lifetime and not something that's already obsolete before it's out of the shop.

In a bizarre twist, I'm quite comfortable with a helping of technology but am only just learning about such things as magdynos, separate gearboxes and Whitworth. I wasn't even sure where the clutch lived until Ian told me...

email (option): lee@twowheelstested.co.uk

I have to admit to having one of these gadgets for my personal use

I downloaded an app called iBooks and with this I have shop manuals and parts lists now on my phone
Very handy if autojumbling / rivetting or if you are unlucky enough to have to park up on the roadside

If its a PDF document or photo you can save it for a rainy day

I appreciate most people wouldn't want it, but Ian doesn't answer his phone sometimes so the information has to come from somewhere

Jo'b

email (option): Jonnyob1@googlemail.com

Most of these gadgets suffer from 'PFS'..pointless function syndrome..and an instruction book the size of a small novel..How many of the functions do people actually use?..My washing machine has about 15 programmes just in case I want to wash some non colourfast, woolen, low temperature,last worn on a saturday afternoon clothes..back in the actual world I probably use 2 or3 programmes max..
Do you really need to know the outside temperature when you are driving your car..and have it turn on the lights when it gets dark and the wipers when it gets wet?..God forbid you might have to move your arm..
Some technology is a genuine step forward and truly beneficial..a lot is provided to promote sales and to satisfy customers who have been programmed to want the latest gadget...however pointless.
Most of the people I know who have the latest phone/tablet/space station..seem to be most impressed by the ability to drag and expand the screen by touch..and of course it is handy to know what time it is in Tierra del Fuego and whether it's raining on Easter Island..Technology for the sake of it..They could be a lot cheaper, a lot more practical and a lot simpler...and still do everything you REALLY want...but then people wouldn't rush out to buy the next one...
...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

Ian, here in the US the entire auto industry is based on selling you more than you'll ever use (not so much in the rest of the world). For example, almost everyone I know drives a car of about 250-300 or so hp at about 6000rpm. I ask them how often they see their tach going over 3500 rpm and invariably next time they check and tell me, never. They've bought 300 horses but they leave at least 150 of them in the barn.

The epitome of selling you more than you'll ever use was a recent TV ad by Cadillac, whose point was that, at 190mph (!) a rain drop hitting a windshield wiper would lift the wiper off the glass, so their cars (or maybe just some of them) are designed to prevent that. I think eventually someone thought about this and realized that buyers are not as stupid as P.T. Barnum would theorize and they would realize that they are buying something that they have never had the occasion to use in the past and will never ever use in the future, since no one in his right mind would go 190mph even in dry conditions, much less in the rain.

email (option): jonny.rudge@verizon.net

It's a clever trick..Everyone must keep consuming..newer, bigger, faster , more technical, this years style and colour..To be socially acceptable you have to have the latest thing. They even have a name for it..'Retail Therapy'...consume, it's the route to happiness and the way to get the respect of others...
Or you could just be happy with what you have..life won't come to an end..in fact it will get better..it's all just 'stuff'...Ian

email (option): ian@wright52.plus.com

John, I thought with 78 years I was the oldest fart on this forum, but you must beat me

email (option): viaconsu # planet dot nl

Hans: No, I'm refering to my junior high school years. You may still be the "oldest fart."

Ian: New paradigm: small footprint, e.g. reconditioning and/or repairing existing machinery instead of buying new (such as motorcycles, for example).

The sad thing is that this paradigm is not even on the horizon of the thinking of the "enlightened" members of Occupy Wall Street, each of whom has the very latest IPhone and IPad, wears designer clothes and drinks only bottled water (which, as it turns out, the water bottling companies simply draw from the tap and then sell on).

email (option): jonny.rudge@verizon.net

ian saying that these gadgets come with a large instruction book a lot of them do'nt come with one now you have to read it off your computer or down loaded it using your paper and ink

email (option): roger.back@node6.com