Who is Bob Rankin? - Comments Page 1

For the newbies among us; I'm proud to say that I've been a subscriber of Bob's internet help mailings (and books) almost since "day one".

Bob's tips have saved my bacon on several occasions and I really don't say "thanks" often enough.

One of the very few, free online help desks that you can always depend on.

Thanks, Bob!

Hi Bob, was wondering what you were all about. Now I know. Nice bio and very interesting. Best to you and thanks for the help articles.

Hi Bob,
I get your email newsletter and I really enjoy it.
got a question for you.
I was reformatting my friends computer. he has a Dell Dimension E510 running windows xp pro edition.
the reformat went well and the installation of o.s. went well, then I get a pop-up box after windows o.s. finished installing all of its software that I never saw before and I had reformatted numerous computers before, but they were running xp home edition not pro edition.

it was a pop-up window that says something like, "installation is going on"(not exact wording) and below that box within that rectangular box it says, " don't hit or touch any keys, installation will take up to 30 minutes".

after like 1 hour that box about installation was still there, it was stuck in limbo.
so I decided to hit a key to get out of there and finally the computer proceeded to where I was able to get to the desktop.
there didn't seem to be any problems with the computer. I checked out system devices and everything looked ok. everything else seemed to be working fine.

do you know what that pop-up box was all about? was it something pertaining to windows xp pro edition?

thanks,
Bruce

What? No mention of squirrels?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The squirrels had more of a connection to Patrick Crispen, a former contributor to the Tourbus newsletter. Legend has it that the squirrels would occasionally chew the electrical cables on the Tuscaloosa campus, resulting in computer outages.

Hi Bob, I do find your articles helpful (the ones applicable to my situation) but especially appreciate and enjoy your writing style. You are factual, deliberately simple (for us "non-geeks") with a good measure of great humor!

Many Thanks. God Bless!

Bob
Thanks for all your articles. They are extremely informative and at a level this old man can understand. I am being dragged into the 21st century with my laptop kicking and screaming at it :-)
Keep posting so I can learn.
Byron

Thanks for mentioning your Linux site! I've been investigating making the switch for the past couple of weeks. I've made a LiveCD and am about to take a look at Ubuntu's latest distro, although I'm finding many people who recommend 10.04 as the one to go with. My fear is that my favorite Windows applications won't be available for Linux. One won't even run under WINE, according to what I've read. Do I really want to learn new applications? Hmmm... no malware threats, a more efficient file system with little or no defragging... maybe!

I've been on the mailing list since the early days and continue to look forward to each mailout wonder what Bob's talking about today.
I do seem to remember a second author involved in the original tourbus - am I dreaming?
I also notice no mention of all the efforts put forth in behalf of educators back in the earlier days.

Thanks Bob!!

Very interesting! Thanks for writing this.

Thanks, Bob, I've wondered, but haven't asked. I either had a TRS 80 or something like it. I remember "Singer" - like the sewing machine company - associated with what I had, and it had a cassette tape, and I programmed in probably Fortran, as I had classes in that first in the late 70s (our first assignments involved using punch cards, to teach us the lesson of accuracy when, after a few to several hours waiting, our program blew up due to a single mistake...the lesson worked), but I learned Basic in the early 1980s, not long thereafter, so the programs I wrote could have been either. You've got a great memory, and thanks for the public service of this column!

Hi Bob~ Thanks for sharing a portion of your life with us. It was very refreshing. I do not know of any other entrepreneurs such as yourself who would do that. I think I am going to be so bold as to ask a few owners of some other newsletters I get, if they would like to take a stab at it? Maybe, if the spirit of this endeavor is positive, I will share it with you.

Kind regards~

An excellent report, well written. But I was disappointed that the author did not explain how he became "Dr. Bob."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Good point, thanks for mentioning that! To wit, I do not have a Ph.D in anything. It was at IBM that co-workers started calling me Doctor Bob, because I always seemed to have the "cure" to whatever computer problems that had.

Enjoyed your story. Thanks for all the good info. Your advice has helped me out more than once. I've subscribed to many newsletters over the last 9-10 years & yours is one of the few I still receive and look forward to. All the best... Gusieppe

Nice to know a bit more about you, Bob.
I studied at the Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay during the '70s, and could relate to your reminiscences about paper tape, punch cards, and Fortran.
I enjoy reading your newsletter.
Keep up the good work.
Best Regards,
Ajit

Thank you Bob for contributing to the Internet. All your websites are great.

Hi Mr Rankin,

Your bio is interesting and inspiring. I would like to speak in your style - 'Reading this increased my respect for you by 146%' :-)

There is one good coincidence that I want to tell you, I was born the year you got your first computer!

My best wishes for your 'long term view'...

Good for you! I push your site to anyone who has a computer.

Dear Bob,

Fascinating story and well worth the read. For a moment I thought your life was mine in parallel up until the point at which you graduated and became successful. Alas, I am still looking to bring my ship to shore, but praise your site and all you share and I endeavor to do the same. BRAVO and keep up the good "body of works."

Thank you, Bob, for this little view into the man who has earned my respect by sending me high-quality tech articles that anticipate and address exactly what I want to know. Your ability to take a complex topic that boggles my mind and organize it in a few logical steps in plain English is nothing short of miraculous.

It was due to your articles explaining such simple things as high-speed internet and bandwidth that I finally knew exactly where I stood with my old PC from the year 2000. I couldn't yet afford a new computer (while on Disability), but I got off AOL dial-up and onto Cablevision high-speed internet. (I had been unsure of whether to go with DSL or satellite or cable, not knowing which was better and why. I was too immersed in the rest of my life to devote even a little time to research this.) Upgrading my RAM, for only $30, from 512 MB to 1 GB (the max for this computer) helped a lot.

I even found a computer shop that upgraded me from Windows 98 2nd Edition to Windows XP (again, as far as I can take this PC).

I have been able to improve my computer life and therefore my personal life (faster health research online, etc.), all because one day you committed yourself to sharing your brilliant mental gifts on the internet.

Thanks again, Bob.

HI Dr. Bob..I bought your cd 'Everything you need to know about Windows', and it's very good, and I have used it in my adventures with pc repair myself. I am not A+certified, nor Network+certified, but I enjoy working with computers, and enjoy the challenge of the 'hard' ones.
I am a 1 man operation, and work out of my home on a 'bench' with my tools. I am on facebook with a group called PC Tech. I use your material in my group, and of course I give credit where credit is due. I am always looking to improve and increase the ole database, my brain to help others in this ever changing technical world we live in. I appreciate your work. Come and visit the pc tech group sometime,we would love to see a post sometime. Thanks. JGann