Old Timers, Which Is Worse: Endless Paperwork or Waiting For Computer To Unfreeze...?

[SteyrAUG]

Not sure who has it worse.

Back in the day I used to have to do paperwork until my hand hurt, after which I could barely hold a pen or anything else and submitting multiple hand written copies of anything just offended my sensibilities. Carbon paper was incredibly dirty and if you made any typing errors you just made it 3-5 times. Photocopies (and I don't mean the new ones that are related to a scanner) were pretty crappy and those huge machines were expensive. Even the school library was like 10 cents a copy back in 1980.

Today everything is "type it in" and "copy / paste", need 75 copies? No problem. Mass mail to 2,000 customers, no problem. That is assuming your computer actually works. With every update 12 things stop working, with every upgrade pages load slower to the point I can watch something until the next commercial and check to see if the page loaded or unfroze yet. Worst thing in the world is filling out 25 pages of info and hitting Final Submit to have the damn thing lock up and lose everything you just did.

[Diamondback]

I'm no "old timer" but in the days before Excel I built spreadsheets BY HAND and to this day you can see a notch worn in my left middle finger from all the pen/pencil usage.

[titsonritz]

Yeah, other than quick note taking I'm done using a pencil/pencil. Though I must confess I had a portable hard drive shit ther bed on me and that was/is a bitch and I still like printing stuff out for a hard copy.

[Diamondback]

Yeah, other than quick note taking I'm done using a pencil/pencil. Though I must confess I had a portable hard drive shit ther bed on me and that was/is a bitch.

This is why I try to decommission and replace on 3-year schedules. Which is admittedly a growing challenge with my ever-higher storage needs... right now 35TB and growing.

[utahjeepr]

Routine fill the cell crap? For that the comp rules. Yeah, the computer can piss me off sometimes, but I procrastinate and put the "paperwork" off less in digital form. So I stay up to date and do a better, more complete job of it.

Oddly though, writing reports and other narratives, letters, and even taking notes I much prefer pen and paper. I think through it better scratching it out. Taking notes, I remember more having written it down, and need the notes less. The notes end up being more for record keeping and confirmation. Of course, I then scan my writings and convert to text. I gotta get that crap onto the hard drive. If I allow myself to keep paper around it turns into a hoarder-esque shitshow.

[utahjeepr]

Yeah, other than quick note taking I'm done using a pencil/pencil. Though I must confess I had a portable hard drive shit ther bed on me and that was/is a bitch and I still like printing stuff out for a hard copy.

This is why I try to decommission and replace on 3-year schedules. Which is admittedly a growing challenge with my ever-higher storage needs... right now 35TB and growing.

Da Fuq? Y'all never heard of cloud based storage?

I just leave my shit synced whenever I am networked, and it auto uploads. Clear out the drive occasionally and leave the stuff that I need long term on the cloud drive. Stand alone storage for sensitive stuff. I only keep what I need immediate access to or what I can't survive without if I have to be "unplugged" on my drive.

[Arik]

Don't even use a computer anymore except for work. My personal PC hasn't been turned on since 09 and my work pc was bough new probably 06-09 ish. All I need it for is the internet and invoices. Sometimes it's a little slow when "waking up" in the morning but otherwise it's fine.

The info I want to save I put on a USB drive.

Sent from my moto z4 using Tapatalk

[Det-Sog]

Catch a homicide or an officer involved shooting and my hand would hurt for days. When computers become mainstream in the early 90s, it was such a relief. Yes, even when they were windows 3.1 or DOS operated proprietary systems running on an old 486 dx with less computing power than your household thermostat. They glitched, but I could type up a homicide and hit send in a fraction of time that it took to do paperwork.

ETA: -SPELLCHECK- It changed the game more than the double stack 9mm did. No more dictionary or thesaurus in the car or office.

Gimme the computer.

[Alex V]

My AutoCAD and REVIT freeze up all the time but it doesn't mean I want to go back to drawing by hand.

I just got on here and wait for it to unf*ck itself.

[Diamondback]

Da Fuq? Y'all never heard of cloud based storage?

I just leave my shit synced whenever I am networked, and it auto uploads. Clear out the drive occasionally and leave the stuff that I need long term on the cloud drive. Stand alone storage for sensitive stuff. I only keep what I need immediate access to or what I can't survive without if I have to be "unplugged" on my drive.

Your data is only as secure as your control over it, and many cloud providers are also Big Data like Google who have no qualms about "anything you upload onto our servers, we're gonna help ourselves to to do as we damn well please with and we don't give a damn if you or your lawyers object." I also have an unreliable and marginally-competent-at-best network admin hired by the Property Manager to deal with, who no hablo "TLS 1.2 is DEAD, you need to upgrade the logon page to 1.3 or you're gonna have a lotta pissed-off users here whenever they finally disable it!"