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About Lyle Bramwell |
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Lyle Bramwell
Born: 1969
Location: Decatur, Illinois
Occupation: Early Retired
(Fax Industry Veteran)
Website: Lyle Bramwell's Digital Product Reviews
(est. 2004)
Credentials:
- Twenty-eight years in the document-transmission industry.
- Built a company intranet in 1999.
- Excel Seminar Certificate (2004)
- I host my own website.
"Experience is what you get when nothing works the way it should."
– Lyle
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About Me
I started using computers when they were black screens with green letters. I've seen a lot of changes, most of them for the worse. These days, software is bloated, confusing, and full of so-called "features" nobody asked for. My mission is simple: find the good, call out the bad, and don't accept ridiculous when there was a perfectly good way to do it before.
From 1991 to 2019 I was a Regional Sales Manager for a distributor of fax and multifunction printer equipment. In twenty-eight (28) years I placed, by my own count, over 6,000 machines in offices across four (4) counties, and I stood behind every one of them. I took early retirement in 2019 when the industry lost its way. I will not go into it.
In 1999 I built our company's intranet in Microsoft FrontPage. As far as I know it is still up. In 2004 my nephew Kyle offered to "set me up a blog." I did not need a blog set up. I built this site myself, on the computer in the spare bedroom, and it has been up (mostly) ever since.
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When I'm Not Reviewing Software
- Spending time with Denise (my wife of 34 years)
- Two children, grown, three grandchildren, none local
- Working in the yard
- Reading the Wall Street Journal (paper)
- The crossword (in pen)
- Keeping the mileage log for the Buick
- Rotary (Tuesdays, noon, the Elks)
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Denise, in the kitchen, 2004.
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My Tech Setup
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- Custom Desktop PC (Windows XP Professional, SP2. Auto-updates off since 2008.)
- 2 Monitors (one is turned off to save it)
- Laser Printer (Brother HL-2040)
- Fax (Brother FAX-575)
- 56k Modem (backup)
- Password binder (3-ring, tabbed)
- The other computer (see below)
The desktop computer hosts this web site. It is on the floor of the spare bedroom with a label on it that says SERVER. If the site is down, it is because of weather, vacuuming, or too many visitors at one time (the limit is ten). Please try again later. There is a log.
The other computer. Most of the programs I review will not run on the desktop anymore. They say the browser is too old. The browser is fine. So since 2023 the reviews are done on Denise's laptop, which is a Windows 10 and lives on the kitchen table. Kyle set it up. I did not ask him to and I have told him what I think of it. When a review says "the other computer," that is the one. The desktop is still the server and it still runs Paint.
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Contact
Questions? Fax me. (217) 555-0142. Please include a cover sheet. I do not respond to faxes without a cover sheet, and I will know. You may also email me, though I check it less often than the fax, or sign my Guestbook. I read every entry, including the ones in Russian, of which there are a great many.
This page is under construction.
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