02/07/07 Wed Nite KH Computer Help Desk Chatroom Summary

[mommalina]

02/07/07 Wed Nite KH Computer Help Desk Chatroom Summary

We tied for 5th place in computer chatrooms and closed about 12:25 AM.
My apologies to those there for the last half-hour. Sometimes, at midnight, if
the conversation is too technical for me, I turn into a pumpkin. Then I listen
to the chatroom while I watch my Korean soap opera.......they still can't get
married because of parental objections .. :drama:

REMINDER (CHATROOM FONTS)
If you find you are using the same size/color font in the chatroom text box
as someone else, please change it. Reason: It's easier to follow the text
entries and determine who is talking to whom.....and later, it makes my job
easier when deciphering it all to a summary. It really helps if the text box
looks like a Rainbow Coalition -- without Jesse Jackson, that is .. ;)


WHO WAS THERE

KH MEMBERS - Lina, rbob (kern), Redapple who joined us at 3 AM
.. :sleep: .. in the Netherlands!, Lawrence, John, Photolady,
Rob Cohan, Elliot, Rich, Al, Billy, Fred, and Seth (he showed up as we
were closing the room).

VISITORS WHO CHIMED IN - Coyote, Len1942, i_am_at_work,
ComputerHermit, armadillo_nuts4triviaz.


COMPUTER-RELATED DISCUSSIONS

VISTA
John, you left too early! Visitor ComputerHermit thinks Vista is
revolutionary and changed his digital lifestyle; using the recycle bin
with the new aero interface is an awesome experience.

Rich maintains Vista beta 2 was fine. Hmmmmm.....I wonder what
happened? Did they fix it until they broke it?

LINUX
If you are interested in Linux and missed last night's KH chatroom, your loss!
I can't summarize too much of what was said because it was way, way, above
my head. If I were younger and had the time and energy, I'd be tempted to try
the Puppy Linux and the new Linux Knoppik 5.1.1 which Lawrence says is
easy to install.

Distribution Reviews
Knoppix 5.1.1: Now with eye candy
Thursday January 18, 2007 (03:01 PM GMT)
By: Dmitri Popov
http://distrocenter.linux.com/article.pl?sid=07/01/12/1651243


If he can ever find the time, Elliot would like to try Linux. Right now he's too
busy with radio stuff.

Someone recalled that years ago WalMart sold computers with Linux.

ONE COMPUTER PER CHILD
http://www.laptopical.com/02751-one-laptop-per-child.html
The proposed laptops will run on the linux operating system, and will be
rugged, wireless enabled, and have full color screens. MIT are hoping
to power the notebooks using an alternative power source such as solar
or wind up. Current specs are: 500MHz processor, and 1GB hard drive

CMD
Can someone explain in simple terms what CMD means? I just could not
put together the text box and oral conversation discussion, and Google
only confused me more. What's the dispute? You all talked about
"command line" and how only experienced users could figure it out. Is
it being able to use something in place of the mouse?

CLIENTS WHO DON'T PAY FOR COMPUTER SERVICE
Rob Cohan got burned, but was too busy making lots of money on other
deals to take the time to take the bum to court. Rich would not let
anyone get away with that, even if it cost him financially (maybe not, if he
could collect court and legal fees).

PALTALK
If you haven't updated to latest version of PalTalk, do so. Soon you may
not be able to use an older version, and it may delay your getting into the
KH chatroom.

To learn how to play music in PalTalk:
http://www.flamesplace.com/PlayingMusic.htm,
or try this Paltalk link:
http://support.paltalk.com/SelectAudioDevice.html

PUMP AND DUMP
Computers are now being hacked for passwords and used by criminals to
pump up stocks which they then dump, making a nice profit. Here's an url
explaining pump and dump.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pump_and_dump

PROBLEMATIC DVD SAMSUNG RECORDER
If I got this right (?), Fred has a problem with a DVD recorder, a Samsung.
The problem could be with the brand of blank DVDs.

Rob Cohan provided these contacts for Samsung:
- samsungusa.com admin contact is at Phone: 201-229-4009
- technical contact is Mitchull Kim at 732-465-4445

The samsung download center for firmware, etc:
http://www.samsung.com/support/index.asp


OTHER DISCUSSIONS

POMS
Australians refer to British citizens as POMs. A commonly-heard
theory is that POM is a shortened acronym of Prisoner of His/Her
Majesty (POHM) or Prisoner Of Mother England (POME).

YANKEE
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Yankee&btnG=Google+Search
The term Yankee refers to those Americans from New England whose
ancestors arrived from Great Britain before 1700; by extension it is
applied to any resident of the Northeast (New England, Mid-Atlantic, and
upper Great Lakes states), to any Northerner during and after the American
Civil War, or to other citizens of the United States. In certain
Commonwealth countries - notably UK, Australia and New Zealand -
"Yank" refers to any American and is sometimes mistakenly applied to
Canadians. Internationally, "Yank" is today roughly analogous to "Brit"
(someone from the UK) or "Kiwi" (someone from New Zealand).
Hmmmm, and here I thought the world calls us Yankee because it keeps
yanking our chain .... ;)


There was more, but as the saying goes, "You gotta be there!"

Ciao,

Lina

[qldit]

Good Afternoon All thoroughly enjoyable party Momma, certainly is a pleasure chatting with you all!
Once again your report is excellent, the CMD refers to command line or command as far as I know. Like having a MSDOS screen and working in that medium.

Except naturally all MS products are about to become "also rans" and fade into history!!

That one computer per child is most certainly an incredible undertaking, I have just been reading more about it!!
I am surprised that it appears to have been initiated by a "Yank", most likely he would have had Australian parentage somewhere in his history!

You are still a "smart cookie"!!! (for a sheilla!!) LOL!!

I enjoyed the discussion about Elliot after he had left!!! LOL!!!

Cheers, Lawrence.

[compusimple]

Maybe I have to leave a recorder running when I go to bed ??

Elliott

[qldit]

Good Evening Elliot, don't worry, the discussion about you was phased out when the discussion about BlackMirror began!! LOL!!

Hope you went well with your soddering there!!! LOL!!

Look forward to learning from your exploits next time, mountain goats with towers and dishes and beams is probably double dutch to some!!

I learned that when Momma says BRB it is a special code to discuss all her secrets!
I was shocked!! LOL!!

Cheers, Lawrence.

[mommalina]

Lawrence wrote:
You are still a "smart cookie"!!! (for a sheilla!!) LOL!!

Contrary to what Seth thinks, I may be a sweet, innocent grandmother after
all .... what in the world is a sheilla????

Webster says:
sheila
One entry found for sheila.
Main Entry: shei·la
Pronunciation: 'shE-l&
Function: noun
Etymology: probably from Sheila, female given name
Australian & New Zealand : a girl or young woman

Britannica says:

original name Sheila Christine Hopkins - British aviator who broke more
than 100 light-aircraft records between 1965 and 1972 and was the first
British pilot to fly solo around the world.

I'm not a girl or young woman, so am I "breaking records" or "flying solo
around the world"? i.e., I'm out of it?

Whatever, Lawrence.......either you are being complimentary .. :) .. or pulling
(yanking) my chain because I'm a damn Yankee! .. ;)

Ciao and Cheers,

Lina

[qldit]

Good Morning All, there is nothing more flattering than to indicate somone was the subject of discussion, it really arouses curiosity!
Of course it can also mean the opposite.

Momma you are a "slick chic" no doubt about it!
(slick meaning clever, chic meaning young female!!)
You definitely aren't old!!

Actually that is interesting Momma, I actually met Sheilla Scott on her round the world aviation jaunt, I looked after her airplane for a day!!
Slim little sheila named Sheilla, tunnel vision for her mission, very super technical, sharp and precise and pleasant to boot! She certainly had my admiration!

It used to amaze me how these people managed bodily functions sitting at the controls of a cramped little airplane 14 hours at a time, but that was exceeded by a small military electronic monitoring aircraft I saw with some 5 fellows sitting in a cramped cabin in a light aircraft and no amenities and no chance of moving from their electronic panels, packed in like sardines, it only did six or eight hour flights generally, but that crew were certainly clever in more ways that one!!
I did notice there were significant plastic bags and face tissues stowed in it within easy access.
I asked how do you do "it", the answer was "we manage" LOL!!!

A shiela (actually only one L) is virtually any woman, a bloke is virtually any man.
So typically at a BBQ, the blokes congregate in one corner and discuss important stuff like which is the nicest beer, and which filmstar has the nicest boobs, (prioritsed) and the sheilas congregate in another corner discussing the blokes and what bastards they are! This is fair-dinkum! (true)

The pommy cricket team (pome, prisoner of mother England) beat ours last night, it was a terrific game, a real "cliff-hanger", they were trying so hard they really deserved the win, I think the whole of pommyland (England) would be rejoicing!! LOL!
They have had a tough time on this tour, some of the games were played in 40 deg C heat, (103 F) they really had the sunscreen on their pallid skin and still appeared to all be badly sunburned.
So they are definite heroes, after coming from a freezing climate into an oven.
I do hope they are appreciated back in pommyland.

No momma, we encourage Yank tourists out here especially at the beach resorts, and of course they are all told that there is nothing harmful in the ocean here, so they really enjoy it!
I don't think we have lost one for at least a week, although one of our surfers had an encounter with a "white pointer" a week or so ago, a white pointer is something like a large harmless "goldfish" tourists are encouraged to feed and play with them.
A bit like the" mingling with wild dolphins they love that also, they come to the shore for feeding in several places.
You only need to point out that a dolphin has a vertical tail and a white pointer's is horizontal so that they can easily distinguish which is which!

Oh Blackmirror, if only we could swap some atmospheric thermal effect, sleeping here currently is with all the fans on and even a sheet as a cover is too much!!
My daughter in London is reporting chilly weather and it was an effort to keep warm.

Lovely to see everyone happy,

Cheers, Lawrence.

[Pi rules]

CMD
Can someone explain in simple terms what CMD means? I just could not
put together the text box and oral conversation discussion, and Google
only confused me more. What's the dispute? You all talked about
"command line" and how only experienced users could figure it out. Is
it being able to use something in place of the mouse?
CMD is the command line interpreter for various OSes (mostly NT-based OSes like NT, 2000, and XP, but OS/2 as well). It is text-based, so you do not use the mouse. There are some very helpful uses of cmd.exe in XP, although most can be done in other, graphical ways. To see it for yourself, go to Start | Run (or press Windows+R) and type cmd.exe. There are quite a few commands listed here (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx) so if you ever have to look a certain command up, you know where to look. ;)

[mommalina]

CMD is the command line interpreter for various OSes (mostly NT-based OSes like NT, 2000, and XP, but OS/2 as well). It is text-based, so you do not use the mouse. There are some very helpful uses of cmd.exe in XP, although most can be done in other, graphical ways. To see it for yourself, go to Start | Run (or press Windows+R) and type cmd.exe. There are quite a few commands listed here (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx) so if you ever have to look a certain command up, you know where to look. ;)

Pi, thanks for trying to explain. I'm not quite sure I understand. I have cmd
in Start > Run (don't remember why, probably when Dell tech support
helped me out). But when I click on it, all I get is:

C:\WINDOWS \system32\cmd.exe\

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:\Documents and Settings\XXXXXXX>

Is this where commands are typed in instead of using the mouse?

Lina

[Terry Hanushek]

Lina

Is this where commands are typed in instead of using the mouse?
Yes ... you can enter the full range of commands that Pi referenced in his previous post. They can be very powerful and/or very direct commands if a person is well-versed in their use. OTOH they are much less intuitive than the normal GUI interface.

If you can master them, you are on your way to understanding Linux. :D

Terry

[Pi rules]

Is this where commands are typed in instead of using the mouse?
There should be a blinking cursor at the end of C:\Documents and Settings... From there, you can type certain commands. One of the most common ones is cd, which stands for change directory. If you type cd .. it will change to the directory above where you current are. cd ./xxxxx goes to a folder within the current directory. To switch drives (say from the current one, C: to D:, type D: Also, if you do not know which folders are in the current folder, type dir. If the list is too long, you can scroll with your mouse.

[mommalina]

Pi and Terry, thanks for the explanations.

I use Run for %temp% and msconfig all the time and have taskmgr,
desktop, Firefox, and my Address Book there solely for trouble-shooting.
Cmd is there, but after reading Pi's essay below, I think I will leave cmd alone! .. ;)

There should be a blinking cursor at the end of C:\Documents and Settings... From there, you can type certain commands. One of the most common ones is cd, which stands for change directory. If you type cd .. it will change to the directory above where you current are. cd ./xxxxx goes to a folder within the current directory. To switch drives (say from the current one, C: to D:, type D: Also, if you do not know which folders are in the current folder, type dir. If the list is too long, you can scroll with your mouse.

:eek: .. No wonder I could not follow the discussion on this!

Thanks again.

Lina

[photolady]

Just so you know Lina you're not a damn yankee yet. Explanation below:

For us southerns living in Florida, the definition of a damn yankee is/was:
If you visit our state and return to your state to live, you're a yankee, if you visit our state and stay.......then you're a Damn Yankee. LOL

[mommalina]

Just so you know Lina you're not a damn yankee yet. Explanation below:

For us southerns living in Florida, the definition of a damn yankee is/was:
If you visit our state and return to your state to live, you're a yankee, if you visit our state and stay.......then you're a Damn Yankee. LOL

Thanks for the compliment (?).

I hate the humid weather down South. No chance of my settling in or even
visiting Florida .. :) .. you may now give thanks and rejoice!

Lina

[photolady]

Since I no longer live there, haven't since 1978, for the some of the same reasons you gave, other reasons, I followed my new husband to where he wanted to live. ;)

And it was a compliment. My comment was not meant to degrade you. I would never do that.

[qldit]

This is an interesting story that not many people would know about because they folow the wrong religions and their churches would not be thus equipped.

It begins with a typical Yank that for one reason or another became interested in attending various different churches.

He happened to be in the Florida area one day and went into a church there.

He came upon a golden telephone in one area to the rear of the pulpit and when he examined it further he noted there was a small sign "Speak to God, $15,000"
He didn't say much but made a point of checking churches of this same denomination at various other places in the US and found these phones were quite common, the signs remained the same.

It happened that on one occasion he visited Brisbane here in Australia, and sure enough there in a discrete corner of the church he spotted the same golden telephone.

On closer inspection he found there was no sign, at about that time one of the church elders was passing and he mentioned he was a yank on tour and it was interesting to see that such a backward country actually had such a high-tech phone.
He mentioned there was no sign on this one and expected the same $15,000 call charge remained as it was where he came from.

"Oh no my good man" exclaimed the church elder, "you see our overheads and charges and profit making is not like where you come from, this is Gods own country here and the charge is simply a 50 cent local call"!

Cheers, Lawrence. (LOL!!)

[mommalina]

Since I no longer live there, haven't since 1978, for the some of the same reasons you gave, other reasons, I followed my new husband to where he wanted to live. ;)

And it was a compliment. My comment was not meant to degrade you. I would never do that.

Photolady, you must know by now I have a weird sense of humor and often
engage in self-deprecation, sometimes half-seriously .. ;)

I know you .. :angel: .. didn't mean to degrade me

Lina