Re: The Beep Function.

On Jan 17, 4:50 pm, "DaveO" <d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Peter Nolan" <peter.nola...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:9b96d3cc-b51b-4723-8126-cb390c2f2517@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Jan 17, 2:17 pm, "DaveO" <d...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Peter Nolan" <peter.nola...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

For Linux I would have suggested using Ubuntu but they have changed the
desktop manager to the unpopular Unity but as you are used to Macs you might
not find Unity as jarring as many other have found it, you can use KDE with
Ubuntu but that's a bit trickier to set up. The installation of Ubuntu is
absurdly simple. On my home PC because of the difficulty in making Windows
fully secure I never go online with Windows but instead dual boot into
Ubuntu figuring that it is a) a lot less vulnerable and b) a doddle to
reinstall should it go tits-up.

The figure of $6000 is not that different for any business PC regardless of
the OS. That cost is a mixture of depreciation, a fraction of the
administrator, recurring software subscription charges and factored one off
software charges, power & network charges, user training and a host of other
expenses which all mount up over the lifetime of a PC. Compare that against
doing the same work with a typewriter and slide rule and it's a bargain.
(yes I remember how to use, and still own a slide rule)

As for the trouble caused by Windows PCs, well I have been using computers
of various kinds since before microprocessors were readily available (I
first learned on a Varian v70 minicomputer then a crappy IBM 1130 before I
got my hands on a microprocessor based machine) and still maintain that even
accounting for its many failings Windows is a remarkable achievement.
Compared to CP/M, George, OS/2, NeXtStep or BSD it is the epitome of
reliability and user friendliness.

You go on about how reliable cars are now but you ignore my point about the
non-interchangeability of car components compared to the massive
interchangeability of PC components. If you tried to swap car parts like you
can swap PC parts then no car would ever run for more than a few miles
before needing repair

As for insight into the wonderful real world then considering I am actually
working in a real company with a few hundred Windows machines and do some
administration of them, before that I worked for an Internet provider and
have been pretty much involved one way or another for most of my working
life while on the other hand you are a (retired?) physicist who probably
spent most of your career nestled in academia and insulated from the
commercial world. Sorry but I suspect it is your illusions that a dose of
reality would shatter.

Regards

DaveO

Hello DaveO,

Again many thanks for all the great info you have provided me with
above. I have read all of the other follow on comments from Olaf and
Helmut and found myself dashing to the dictionary onboard my iBook to
double check the meaning of troll. Here is what it says:

troll 1 |trōl|
noun
a mythical, cave-dwelling being depicted in folklore as either a giant
or a dwarf, typically having a very ugly appearance.
ORIGIN from Old Norse and Swedish troll, Danish trold; adopted into
English from Scandinavian in the mid 19th cent.

So there you have it.
Now I know or imagine I know that an NG troll is a very unwelcome
visitor to an NG who just stirs up trouble for their own enjoyment or
something along those lines. In addition a troll is someone who may
not even stand by whatever system of principles they promote only
interested in persecuting others.
I now want to say to DaveO that while I may just have my wires crossed
about the keyboard freezing while being able to get a reboot action
from alt-ctrl-del I have the clearest recollection of having to unplug
the PC many times to then have to restart it and so on. It can happen
actually on the iBook that the keyboard and mouse will fail to work
when I can then do what Mac calls a force quit by pressing the alt and
escape keys simultaneously with a key called the command key. That is
not a reboot, though, but just forcing a quit from Safari, the default
browser, on my iBook say.
Now I must clear up something else. I first bought a PC for my own
personal use in September 1999 the Compaq Presario 5410 that I
continued to use, without a single hardware problem, till maybe around
2005. I wrote simple little programs in VB6 on that machine that were
enchanting to me nevertheless even if they are as simple as programs
could be really. Again it's the way I feel about computers. As I was
telling you I get excited when I see Hello on the screen after say: 10
Print "Hello" but that is clearly a whole other story with regard to
how different people, techies in this case, feel about computers.
Sadly I can't quite remember what happened next except to say that I
then bought a much more powerful PC the Compaq Presario 1519UK. I just
want to add that my 5410 had a 4.3Gb HDD whereas my 1519UK has a 160Gb
HDD a massive increase in capacity after only a few years passing by.
Amazing! I just wasn't happy and I really forgot to mention how
anxious I became about malware and so between the jigs and the reels I
then decided to buy a Mac and this I did. I kept the beautiful 1519UK
though and it is sitting right there beside me as I type this on my
iBook that is now probably out of date itself even if I have a huge
32Gb of free space on it's HDD that I will probably never use anyway.
You might also be interested to know that I wrote many short little
programs for a handheld, a HP Jornada 540(?), and wrote the programs
on the 5410 that I could then download or pipe to the Jornada from the
5410. Again these programs were very simple but they all worked and
did what I wanted them to do.
So to ease my mind by avoiding the apt to crash 5410 and infernal
malware I then bought the Mac Mini followed quickly by the purchase of
the expensive iBook in 2006 that I have been using ever since. It has
only been within recent weeks that I had the idea to generate notes
using VB6 on the 1519UK so when I am not using the iBook I can just
switch on the 1519UK that is almost never connected to the Internet
not because it is unreliable but because I uninstalled Norton on it
and so I have no virus protection of any kind on the 1519UK. I would
just like to point out to Blank, if he is reading this, that you can
download for free MS Visual Studio Express to have a go at programming
VB from there. You should have no problem with VB 2008 either based on
the little I know compared to all of you.
So I have used the 1519Uk running under Windows XP very little over
the last number of years.
I also want to say you that I haven't the slightest doubt that you
have the firmest grip on reality and I withdraw any remarks I made
about you not being in touch with reality as just a silly thing for me
to say. I am so annoyed about the way things have evolved in the world
of the personal computer though.
It's a law of life, a natural law, that we get what we pay for because
all of us have to make a living to eat and so I am all in favour of
paying for an OS if it does the job. It's just that M$ just keep
making money at every turn in a way that I object to. I would be very
happy more than happy to buy a naked PC and to then buy a version of
Windows that I knew was stable. I don't believe I can do this today!

Regards,

Peter.(a mythical, cave-dwelling being depicted in folklore as either
a giant or a dwarf, typically having a very ugly appearance)


.

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