Computers, Smart Phones and Artificial Intelligence

You won't get your old version of AutoCAD to run on a newer machine, and, a new version of AutoCAD will cost you a fortune.

However IMSI who created TurboCAD do a free AutoCAD Lt lookalike called DoubleCAD.

It's free and if you're used to AutoCAD you you should pick it up fairly easily.

https://www.turbocad.com/content/doublecad-xt-v5

I would take your xp machine off line and get a new computer, then set up file sharing between the two computers....that way you can continue to use your old familiar machine and slowly learn how the new machine works, and be protected on line...and use your wifi to communicate between the two machines....Now we have all the knowledge in the world here, and you can tackle issues one at a time, with our help....Trying to do everything at once can be overwhelming, but one at a time is a path to victory....

Norton works great, I have it on my computers...

That is basically what I did with my XP machine, but I made the (additional) mistake of taking out to my cold, cold shop, and apparently some moisture condensation took place, and then she stopped booting up at all. She was a good old girl too.

Then I compounded my mistake by buying what I thought was a laptop from HP, it was more of a folding tablet, with this pushy thing about some cloud somewhere, but clouds never hang around in West Texas, and soon the memory overflowed. Now, it is more of a largish blue paper weight.

I keep stuff on google drive and icloud....very handy.....google drive gives 17 GB free space and you can link others to your files that you want to share....a lot easier than youtube...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3g0SkXHpF2iMHBIQXZ4XzVpemc

That was scary! I clicked on that and google id'd me as my cell phone account, even though I am logged on at work. No more midgets taking leisurely bus rides.

I think they prefer to be called Little People....

Those sheep are almost as scary as clowns!

Yes, the wee folk, have their dignity, and their integrity.

Have ne'er caught a Leprechaun on a bus, though.

Saw when I was driving home a rainbow ending what could have been my back yard, the only wee folk I saw out there, was one of my tiny dogs, and a mouse.

anything Norton was your first mistake. McAfee is in that same class of product that totally takes over your device and essentially "wrecks" it, so the bad guys can't get in, but after that, why would they want to?

There are several kinds of internet signal: (1) hard-wired typically connected by "Ethernet" cable, (2) direct cellular signal (this is the minutes and memory usage you get charged for as a customer, and (3) LAN Wifi - wireless signal with limited range, and access restricted by the administrator of the network to a password requirement.

If you have your own Wifi- either by setting up your cell phone as a hot spot, or by employing a wireless adapter (ethernet router with Wifi) - you will want to make sure you can keep your LAN secure, otherwise sneaky people will always be in or trying to get in and look over your shoulder.

As to Autocad, make a call to the software company, and see if you can upgrade without loss of information content.

Other than that, you may be forced to save your Cad drawings into some other compatible file format, and then do the upgrade, and import them into the upgraded system in the new release compatible file format.

If you get a new computer, try getting one with Win 7. You still can, but have to ask for a downgrade. The learning curve is much lower going from XP to 7, then it is going from XP to 10.

And Norton (Symantec) does have some good products, we use EndPoint. Curtiss-Wright Corporate pays for it, and makes us use it on our home computers if we use them to check our email or any other work related things. Click a couple of boxes and they can't touch your computer and you get free top of the line protection, can't beat that.

If I go win 7, in a few years, MS will stop supporting that and force me to upgrade$$$.

One option my postman told me about is take your new Windows 10 computer, and set up a virtual Windows 7 machine on it. Forget Windows 8.

As to security software, I let my computer guy (the name of his business) load whatever he wanted to. I have also considered the only security software that is truly made in America, wife hates it because she says it will not let any of her software run, I suppose there are trust issues?

PCMatic, I believe is what it is called. I have never used it actually, and wonder if anyone here has experience with it. I believe you have to update the trust list very often at first, sort of like a learning curve.

I still don't trust Norton any further than I can fling 'em.

If you back up your system regularity, you can simply go back to an earlier restore point, before the new software install and restore your system to the earliest backup you did before that install.

It's in Control Panel; backup and restore in XP if I recall.

Try that, you have nothing to lose.

If you are interested in an Antivirus protection suite, that works well, and won't take over your computer. Try AVG Free. I have been running it on all of my devices for years now and have never had an incident with virus intrusion or my computer being taken over.

I have to agree with that,... I had relativity no problems with Norton either.... McAffee on the other hand... I think they actually create work for themselves...

Avast! free is also a pretty good antivirus, similar to AVG.

That is what Computer Guy set me up with.

I tried to load AVG, but it won't accept XP.

I am not sure who will accept XP at this point. Your best bet: take this beast off the internet, and get something in a medium priced laptop (not tablet computer) and use thumb rives to transfer working files back and forth, or an external hard drive.

To have AI, first there was PI, personal intelligence. They could not grow enough of it, and it only grows in the rarest of places, and subject to all manner of bad weather, poor temperatures (and temperament), so they had to build some smart houses (and then came the advent of artificial intelligence, when not even the smart houses could crank out enough, then they hired a chemist, and he synthesized it, so now they just pump some stuff around, heat it up, saw it off, and voila, AI comes out the spout where knowledge used to come out.

I don't even understand AI, so I can't ask a question. I guess I will have to rely on my own brain to figure things out on a level plane.

My sister has a Master's in A.I., but you can't ask her to answer anything that requires common sense in order to find the answer. Politically - we can't talk it at all, or religion, and it feels like she has this closed mind, that supposedly she got at Texas Tech, or at Purdue, or at Wayne State in Detroit? She used to be a beautiful Christian.

She still is someone I love, it just saddens me that so many wide topics are closed for business.

I have heard both Norton and Macafee called "memory hogs." I use AVG paid version, but the free version seems to be OK too. Also have heard good about Avast. I run a scan once a month, but most suggest more often.