AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-12-12

Chat for 2001-12-12 22:13:02

yipyano: Who am I am where am I at?
yipyano left chat session
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left chat session
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changed username to George
George left chat session
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changed username to George
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changed username to rich-c
rich-c: hi george
George: hi rich
rich-c: yes, hoped that would let you know I'm here
rich-c: hear it's been pretty wet down your way
George: tes. i started to resd my email
rich-c: yes, if you're on early you never know when someone is going to show up
George: the rain hasn't started yet
rich-c: really? it started here a couple of hours ago and is to run through tomorrow
rich-c: you are east of us of course but you're also south and that's where it's coming from
George: they expect it thurs-fri here
rich-c: guess then that it is making its northing faster than its easting
rich-c: on the satellite photo that is one humungous wad of cloud
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Guy B.
George: yes. most of the time the storms go north
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rich-c: hello Guy
Guy B.: Greetings!!!
rich-c: does the big rain area extend as far west as Chicago?
George: hello
changed username to Severus Snape
Guy B.: Right now, we only have drizzle and fog. It's making driving difficult.
rich-c: see we have a new entrat here - Dr. D perhaps?
Severus Snape: :-)
George: we still have above normal temps
rich-c: yes, we had the warmest November on record and it continues
Severus Snape: Mme. Pamela would recognize the reference, Richard.
Severus Snape: I was hoping the Mighty Mitchell would be here, as I just E-mailed him how to save the MIDI file.
rich-c: yes, but she's at the company Christmas party tonight so likely won't be home in time to join us
Severus Snape: Boo-hoo, then I better change my monicker back to a non-Harry-Potter form...
rich-c: and Ron likjely hasn't finished dinner yet - it's only 6.15 on the Left Coast
Severus Snape changed username to Dr. D.
George left chat session
rich-c: we'll be without teh Slopsemas tonight too - they're off on their cruise
Guy B.: I have the notebook up here, so I'll be going back and forth while I'm writing my annual Christmas letter.
Dr. D.: Just us hard-core homebound types, then.
Dr. D.: Anybody else listen to my MIDI file (on any platform)?
moved to room Meeting Place
rich-c: well, so to speak, but even at that we can conjure up a fair crowd betimes
changed username to George
rich-c: oh, you mean we can play it on the DOSbox too?
George: sorry i clicked the wrong button
Dr. D.: You can play it on anything which will play a MIDI file.
rich-c: don't sweat it, George, we're all expert at hitting the wrong key
Dr. D.: SoundBlaster and DOS, yep, there's a MIDI player for it.
Dr. D.: Win 3.x, 95, etc.
rich-c: OK, I will give it a try later then
Dr. D.: Easiest, of course, with later OSes; if the plugins are set up right for QuickTime or Media Player, using your browser to grab it will just launch the player.
rich-c: I have bothQT and MP but whether they're set up right I can't tell
rich-c: I might even find I end up launching it in Slowview, it's a very capable program
Dr. D.: Well, my 2 ADAMs performed superbly at the Egg Hunt this Sunday.
Dr. D.: One idiot spectator, however, kicked off a power supply with his foot during a round, crashing the timer ADAM.
rich-c: what function were they assigned in the production?
Dr. D.: Fortunately, someone looked at his watch real quick and kept time 'til I could reboot.
Dr. D.: One ADAM was timer, the other was scoreboard.
Dr. D.: 30-foot ADAMnet cables from ADAMs/monitors to the scorer's table at mid-court.
rich-c: neat - how did the spectators react to that?
Dr. D.: Works very well. A 13-year-old was the computer operator, son of my colleague, Dr. Beer.
Dr. D.: Incredulous. A few students were just old enough to have played with ColecoVisions when they were, oh, maybe 4 years old...
rich-c: me, I'm picking up my new computer tomorrow
George: is this a robot wars thing?
rich-c: same basic idea but non-violent, George
Dr. D.: competition, but no wars....*and* the robots are autonomous, not joystick-controlled.
Dr. D.: http://www.eecs.cwru.edu/courses/lego375/
rich-c: we had a ball building and playing with them at the last Adamcon
Dr. D.: will tell you everything you want to know :-)
Dr. D.: Yep, just the same sort of stuff, only for a whole semester (not 6 hours).
rich-c: well, we barely got ours working, even in teams, in the time wehad
rich-c: but then the building was a big part of the fun
Dr. D.: But "barely" is still working.
rich-c: you got it
Dr. D.: You are additional data points to bolster my claim that I have a good educational design in my course.
rich-c: right - you could hardly have a more varied sample base
Dr. D.: Now if only I could get the university to guarantee funding for it....
Dr. D.: Well, some good news today, anyway: the Journal of Experimental Biology accepted a paper of mine for publication.
Dr. D.: J. Exp. Biol. is in England.
rich-c: that is good - as I recall, that is one big name journal
Dr. D.: They are still reviewing a second paper; we're waiting for comments.
Dr. D.: A third paper won't be submitted until January, though.
rich-c: what's the accepted paper on?
Dr. D.: I am first author on paper #2, and #2 author on the others.
Dr. D.: The three of them represent the last 4 years of my professional work.
rich-c: right - sea slugs - which part of the anatomy, again?
rich-c: some part of the digestive tract, isnt it?
Dr. D.: The feeding apparatus, inside the head.
rich-c: ah, OK, close but a little down the line
Dr. D.: Got some real monster slugs a few weeks ago, 950+ grams each...that's over 2 pounds for your non-metric types.
Dr. D.: Yes, a 2-pound slug.
rich-c: wow, for that in a terrestial slug you'd have to go to Washington State
George: ugh
Dr. D.: Wonder if they have 'em in Comox, too...
rich-c: nope, I don't even think they spread down to Oregon, either
rich-c: at least we've only seen and heard of them in Washington
rich-c: although a particularly repellant variant species is found in DC ;-)
Dr. D.: G.H.W.B.Jr.
rich-c: tactfully, no comment
Dr. D.: All three of Dorothy's companions to Oz (with all their weaknesses) in the same guy...
George: i think i have reformat my harddrive
rich-c: well, I do confess to being no great fan of Shrubbery
rich-c: why would you have to reformat your drive, George?
Dr. D.: I'd rather cut down the largest tree in the forest with a herring...
George: dsl and aol going goofy
rich-c: well, that's surely a symptom of something, but not necessarily a drive failure
George: it keeps on detecting my dsl modem
rich-c: reformatting is a really drastic step
rich-c: well, why shouldn't it detect your modem?
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to abrasiv1
George: only once not every five min
rich-c: lessee - now we have New Hampshire heard from
abrasiv1: yup....cool up here
rich-c: yes, you folks have actually had snow, haven't you?
abrasiv1: yes still have some on the ground
rich-c: we have eyt to see any in Toronto - you should hear the ski operators up north
abrasiv1: had about 5 inches here....but the ski areas are still hurting
rich-c: we've even only had one or two nights cold enough for snowmaking machinery
abrasiv1: some of our ski areas actually opened up...then the warm weather came and washed it all away
Guy B.: We are still waiting for snow here in Chicago. No snow for November.
rich-c: our local sportscaster is using his backyard hockey rink as a wading pool
rich-c: lots of rain though, Guy
rich-c: anyway can we get back to looking at George's problem?
rich-c: George, what do you mean by the program detecting the modem every five minutes?
rich-c: do you mean it shuts down then restarts or something?
Dr. D.: Gotta go for tonight gang; I'll try to stop by Saturday.
George: the westell icon pops up and says itsv decting modem
rich-c: OK Rich hope you can make it
Dr. D.: <poof>
Dr. D. left chat session
rich-c: sounds like a fault in that program then
Guy B.: That was quick.
rich-c: have you done a scandisc and defrag recently, George?
George: every day
rich-c: well, that's a bit extreme, but it sure eliminates one likelihood!
abrasiv1: how about reinstalling the program?
rich-c: why do you even have an icon for westell?
rich-c: he's on AOL on a DSL connection, John
George: i have support on the phone
rich-c: right, you can phone out even when online with ADSL
abrasiv1: hmmm.....don't know a whole lot about dsl
rich-c: while George is busy, Guy, I'm picking up my new computer tomorrow
abrasiv1: but know quite a bit about aol...i have had to reinstall their software every now and then to get things working right
rich-c: I know the price, John, which totally eliminates any other interest
abrasiv1: indeed
abrasiv1: new computer?whatcha gettin?
rich-c: george was saying AOL wants 90% of his computer's resources to work
Guy B.: Great, will it be an Athlon?
rich-c: Athlon 1600XP - MSI topline motherboard - 256MB - 40 gig - CD-RW
Guy B.: Whoa, what speed is the processor?
rich-c: figure I might get all the necessary files transferred over and configured by the next equinox
abrasiv1: video card?
rich-c: processor is 1.4 gig - the 1600 bit is because it's the new enhanced series, suggests a former 1.6 equivalent
Guy B.: Now, will you be keeping the old system after you do the transfers or are you going to sell it?
rich-c: just a 32 meg nVidia, John
Guy B.: Got to ask, what version of Windows are you getting?
abrasiv1: still ....not shabby by any means
rich-c: likely keep it - especially if Frances can ever figure out a place to put it
Guy B.: Very good.
rich-c: I'll be putting Windows 98SE on it - bought it a few weeks back
abrasiv1: have you had good success with msi mobo's?
Guy B.: Good, that's what I have on my Athlon.
rich-c: well, I've only had the current one, but I have no complaints with it
abrasiv1: sounds quite nice
rich-c: the new one is 266FSB, uses DDR SDRAM, has the Promise chip
rich-c: the case has 9 bays, I'll have connectors for 10 devices - not counting the USB ports
abrasiv1: raid?
George: i was told to get a new computer
rich-c: yes, RAID mode 0 or 1
abrasiv1: nice
rich-c: fiugred if I ever figured out what computers are supposed to do, I'd be ready to do it
abrasiv1: i have to get a new one soon
rich-c: also has 5 - PCI slots, an AGP4x, and CNR
abrasiv1: i had been hoping that the sis 735 chipset would go places but it didn't
George: i never met a MS operating system that didn't crash
Guy B.: Whoa, that's about the same as mine. Didn't do bad Rich.
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Guy B.: Except for Windows 95.
changed username to Ron
Ron: late
rich-c: George, the only difference among OSs is some are harder to crash than others
Guy B.: Hi Ron, on the PC tonight?
Ron: PC Pentium II at 300 mhz
rich-c: the less they can do and the harder it is to make them do it, the more crash resistant they are
Ron: One small step for progress
rich-c: this is new Ron (BTW, hello)
moved to room Meeting Place
Ron: It storms and rains here on the wet coast
Guy B.: On the faster one.
George: tech support told me to buy a new computer
changed username to BAIR
Ron: even have a DVD player on this one
rich-c: well, your last shipment of that is starting to arrive here now, Ron
Ron: aha
Guy B.: Oh look, it's the Bair. How are you Bob?
Ron: Evening Mr. Bair
BAIR: just find
rich-c: welcome Mr. Robert Bair!!!
BAIR: hi
Guy B.: How's Virginia?
rich-c: George, if I wanted to, I could resurrect my old 386 and get online with it
rich-c: a techie who tells you to buy a new computer doesnt know his job
BAIR: she is in bed but feeling find also
Ron: a techie like that may as well wave a red flag in front of my face
rich-c: my 386 maybe wouldn't support DSL but it would sure work on dialup
George: i just feel DEVASTATED
Ron: I'm sure
rich-c: why? because he's a jerk? ignore the....
abrasiv1: welll all ...gotta go
abrasiv1: have a good week
Ron: we will do that sir if you do
abrasiv1 left chat session
rich-c: very good John come back soon
George: aol is screwing the hell out of their broadband
rich-c: wonder if they got hit by the @Home business?
George: i don't know who they subcontract with
rich-c: maybe you should see if you can get a better deal out of MSN or Earthlink or Prodigy or such
Ron: What are you running there George?
George: a mess
Ron: :) that bad eh?
moved to room Meeting Place
changed username to Pamela
Pamela: And we're live
George: with wire spaghetti
rich-c: hi daughter how was teh party?
Pamela: twas good thank you
Ron: Pamela - hello
Pamela: Hello all
rich-c: I made your apologies to Dr. D earlier
George: hello
Pamela: I didn't mean to be conversation stopper
Pamela: What was this about spaghetti? I have some too
rich-c: George, you're perfectly normal - I can barely move for wires
BAIR: my best meal
rich-c: and take a look at Ron's picture of his Snake Pit - you don't know from spaghetti
rich-c: Ron, you're still on with the 486 occasionally, aren't you?
Ron: you mean there is more than one snake pit?
Guy B.: Hi Pam, I'm going between the desktop and my notebook tonight. Writing a Christmas letter.
Pamela: One of these days I'm going to drill a hole in the back of the desk and move my harddrive and spaghetti underneath
George: i was ask what i'm running i said a mess with wire spaghetti
rich-c: Shame on you, Guy - I mailed mine on Monday
Pamela: Just don't get mixed up Guy
Ron: I have mine written, but can't find a berflicketysplitz printer around here that Murphy hasn't had his way with
Guy B.: Well, I had a hard time just with the labels. The cards are next.
Pamela: How do you pronounce that Ron?
rich-c: sure, but you have a perfectly capable computer, George
Ron: Blamed it on Mother. I did her Christmas letter first, and it turned out fine
rich-c: use the Adam, Ron
Ron: but she killed my berflicketysplitz printer
Pamela: BTW Dad, Kimberly got your card on Tuesday
Ron: ber - flickety -splitz
Pamela: gotcha
rich-c: good, hope she liked it
Pamela: I was shocked at how fast it arrived
Ron: she had a devilish grin from ear to ear
Pamela: who, your mother?
Ron: yes
George: aol tech says my amd k62 500 mhz with 224mb ram is outdated
BAIR: better than throwing the pan
Pamela: need to get another ISP George
Ron: The guy has lost his mind.
rich-c: he's a liar, in this context
Ron: then we won't go into what I'm running
Guy B.: The letter is done. I have to use Direct Cable Connection so I can print them.
Pamela: Since you have the same speed and more ram than I , you're doing fine
rich-c: Pam, what does your IBM have? It's a 500 K6-2, isn't it?
Guy B.: Tha will be later.
Pamela: 600 Dad
George: yes
rich-c: 500, 600, no big deal
Ron: My son Jeff also thinks he's in the dark ages with a 500 Mhz processor
rich-c: Ron, will your 486 DX100 drive your cable modem?
Pamela: I must admit to thinking about upgrading
George: yesterday i was using a pentiun 90
Guy B.: That's the speed of my notebook.
George: almost yesterday
rich-c: George, I'm chatting here on a 166 and it's more than up to the job - with 32 MB of RAM
Pamela: mine only has 64 meg
Guy B.: I have 128mb.
Ron: brb
Pamela: Ron has to quit answering the phone
rich-c: Guy, Geroge may have mismatched RAM, could that be a problem?
Guy B.: George, how much memory do you have on your PC?
rich-c: he has 128 + 64 + 32
George: the place i bought the computer at said the ram is functioning perfectly
rich-c: each individual piece almost certainly is, George, but are they pulling together?
Pamela: Since it's a multiple of eight, it should be okay, shouldn't it?
BAIR: 3:30 is not far from nowseeyou next week
Guy B.: Yeah, that's a mismatch. Each pair should be the same size.
Pamela: g'nite, Bob
rich-c: see you, Bob - take care
George: my only problem is aol and dsl
Pamela: Nice to see you
BAIR left chat session
Guy B.: Bye Bob.
Ron: phone calls -
Ron: invitation to Dinosaur Ribs tomorrow night
Ron: accepted
Pamela: good call
Pamela: but I wanna see the bone rack
Ron: there's a old English pub out by the base that has a deal Thurs nights
rich-c: without denying the bad reports I've had about AOL, this one may not be all their fault
Guy B.: George, are you using the latest version of AOL's software?
Ron: you go prepared to get messy.... real messy
Pamela: take your bib, Ron
Ron: exactly
rich-c: and now stop it - you're making me hungry and I just ate!
Ron: sorry
Pamela: no you're not
Ron: these are good
Ron: but that's off topic
Pamela: Well I've had enough red meat to last me for a while now
Pamela: Lunch at the Keg yesterday was prime rib, tonite was roast beast
rich-c: Just as a suggestion, George, you could try pulling the 32 and 64MB memory chips and see what happens
George: yes they said they have compatibilty issues with westell (which the modem they sent me and are sending me another)
rich-c: you might find matters actually improve
Guy B.: I would use the 128 and the 64 meg. That would be enough.
rich-c: On a K6-2, Guy, 128 alone should be more than adequate for anything
rich-c: he is not a profession graphics designer, after all
Guy B.: Your right, it should be adequate. Otherwise, the only other thing is get another 128mb module and take the other out.
George: i can't remember which way they are placed in and which ones to pull
Ron: need the book
Ron: most often the book is not there
rich-c: and they all look the same. Ouch!
George: yes they do
rich-c: you can always turn off the machine, pull any one, and see what the new memory is - that will tell you what you took out
rich-c: after all, it will still boot up happily on 32 MB if it comes to htat
Ron: trial and error
Guy B.: Well, I have to check the e-mail and look at one more thing for my dog for Christmas. I'll see how Saturday looks, see you all next week otherwise.
George: that crashed windows on my othwer machine
Pamela: Have a good one, Guy
rich-c: OK, hope you can make it Sat., Guy, but it is the season
Ron: nite Guy
Guy B. left chat session
rich-c: even 98SE will run in 32 MB
Ron: Indeed it will
Pamela: I'm thinking I should go get something done too before I hit the bed
George: it's all i ever use now
Ron: must do Christmas cards..... bah humbug
rich-c: OK Pam, go sleep off the big dinner
Pamela: Gotta put my laundry away
George: on my newer computers that is
Pamela: Then I can sleep
Ron: Well George, don't take any guff from these techies
rich-c: well, it installed fine on my 166 laptop, though that does have 64 MB
Pamela: I'm outta here folks. Until next week.
rich-c: nite now
Ron: g'nite eh?
Pamela: g'nite - poof
Pamela left chat session
rich-c: and especially don't take any BS from the AOL jerks - they are clearly clueless
Ron: right
George: i agree
rich-c: in fact, George, go down to your local library and look at Consumer Reports
rich-c: a few months back they had ratings of all the national ISPs
rich-c: they'll tell you what's wrong with AOL - which rated dead last
Ron: my experience with them was not good
rich-c: meantime you have a perfectly good computer that should serve your needs until Windows 98SE is no longer a viable OS
George: i think so
rich-c: and though Microsoft would have you believe otherwise, that's a good long time away
rich-c: in fact, last night we wre with a gropup that surfs using Amigas - a 1990 computer
George: where are they?
rich-c: they're called Toronto Pet Users Group, though they cover everything Commodore
Ron: George, I missed the first part of this discussion - what problem were you having with this bunch?
Ron: AOL I mean
rich-c: once they were the biggest Commodore group in the world
George: my friend nancy has an amiga 500 computer
rich-c: yes, we have one of those, also a 2000 and a 3000
George: she also has a bodega bay
rich-c: that's something I have never heard of
Ron: what's that?
George: we are trying to get it to work
rich-c: I just have Adams and Amigas and TI99/4s and DOSboxes
George: it is sme kind of expansion unit
rich-c: probably find some information on it by searching on the Aminet
George: it holds harddrives and such
rich-c: look at amigaresource.org
George: ok
Ron: surely there must be some data out there in cyberspace
Ron: Anyway guys...... on to my Ho Ho Ho thing...... hopefullly see ya's Sat
rich-c: also amiga.org and amigaforums.org
rich-c: do try to make it, Ron
Ron: will do
Ron: nite
rich-c: look forward to it then
rich-c: nite
George: nite Ron
Ron left chat session
rich-c: if you need Amiga parts or software, I can likely give you some leads too
rich-c: but hitting those URLs I gave you and following links should be helpful
George: could you email me some links
rich-c: if not, holler at me and we'll pursue the matter further
rich-c: try the three I gave you already - they should be enough
George: ok thanks
rich-c: if by any chance they aren't and the links don't help, email me your questions and I'll try and aim you in the right direction
rich-c: don't be shy, George - we will be quite happy to pursue this till we get satisfactory answers for you
George: thank you
rich-c: we've hung together in the Adam world for over 15 years by helping each other - we aren't about to stop now
George: good
rich-c: by the way, in our household it's Frances who is the Amiga guru
rich-c: she is also very happy to answer questions
George: ok
rich-c: do you feel like worrying around your connection problems a bit more?
George: not now i need a break
rich-c: yes, most of us poop out around 11 (including yours truly) and it's about that now
rich-c: want to build up a list of questions to discuss Saturday?

AdamCon.org > chat > 2001-12-12
Send comments to dmwick@rogers.com. I am Dale Wick