The truth hurts

I enjoyed this email from the Second Class Operators’ Club reflector….

To: Second Class Operators’ Club
Subject: [SOC] The truth hurts

I’m still recovering from a nearby lightning strike that came up phone line to fry DSL modem, all the I/O ports on an aging 386 PC and miscellaneous pieces of ham gear. XYL and son decreed that new computer would be early Christmas present. After much consideration, decided on an iMac, also running XP with Parallels. [a separate discussion for those who care]. This has required a truly second class fumbler to learn a totally unfamiliar operating system while restoring various hardware/software items from the previous incarnation, referred to in the family as “vocabulary enrichment opportunities.”

One such item is the WinKey keyer that requires DB9 serial input, not yet knowing if it is also fried. Ah, but the iMac has only USB ports. So USB-serial adapter was needed and ordered online at great saving compared to local purchase. It arrived with drivers on a 2.5 inch CD. That’s a neat idea for PCs with horizontal CD drive (aka coffee cup holder), but useless on the iMac with vertical slot in side. This has led to another series of second class misadventures. Somewhere along the way, I asked guru son about identifying the port assigned when connecting serial adapter for WinKey. His classic reply repeated below.

“Lessee, you have a new Mac with latest technology so you can get away from Microsoft, but you have to run Windows on it (part time) so you can use some specific Windows-only software and you need USB-serial adapter to operate a gizmo to control a transmitter that you could otherwise turn on and off with a simple hand key using a serial binary code that’s 160+ years old.”

I think this is the point where I should revert to a manual digital mode and give him the finger.