OFF TOPIC funny

On 2/24/09 7:51 AM, "anne" wrote:

says...
They ruined PSP but if you have up to number 8, you have Jasc
originals, hang on to them. I don't want something as large as Adobe
PS and have always loved PSP.

Compared to other versions of Windows, Vista ain't so bad but unfortunately,
Micro$oft has 'fixed' Windows so that older software won't run.

Is there a little secret thingie in a new MAC to allow it to run no longer
current version software?

If it's Wondows based software, than it would depend on the version of
Windows you install on the MAC. The newer, intel based MACS, run both
operating systems, but the Windows system will be a function of what you
install for that OS, and if you're just running it alone, or using Parallels
- the program which has you running both Windows and MAC OS at the same
time. You may be able to do it - best thing is to go to the Apple users
forums and check around, ask a question. It's an amazing source of
information. I also keep the current Mac OS book by Andy Ihnatko on hand -
font of info. And the "Missing Manual" from O'Reilly.

WRT using any of the Microsoft programs, such as in Office, on a MAC OS, my
Mac versions have switches that let you save "backwards compatible" file
formats, and will similarly read old files - generally adapting the file.
My only harsh experience was some years ago when the OS X systems came out,
and we upgraded our then tower. The really nice, large, scanner that I have
did not get an updated driver from HP (my Epson printers all did). So there
was a large rush amongst Mac people to get bridging software - which for the
most part was free - that would allow you to use a OS 9.x stuff in the new
OS X world.

Aside from the scanner situation, I've never had a problem with updating the
Mac software. Sometimes it involves a minor fee to upgrade - but that's
been about 4 years since going from OS 9, or the classic OS, to the newer OS
X versions. Within OS X, it will read any OS X based software, whether or
not you have Leopard or Tiger. But, there is some software, that will be
specific to the system (Leopard being the newer system that works on the
Intel based Macx). I can still use my older Adobe Illustrator software that
would work on the initial OSX, and has been updated twice since.

Sorry if this was no help.
Ellice

On 2/22/09 4:25 PM, "Trish Brown" wrote:

lucille wrote:

With the peculiar spelling of so many English words, a dictionary is
useless for a really poor speller. How can you look up the word laugh
if you can't spell it?

Even if you can't exactly spell a word, you usually can come close and skim
a dictionary page- or use a thesaurus and look up a synonym.

Well, I guess that's the point of reading widely: so you can be exposed
to lots and lots of irregular words and have some idea of the spelling
to start with. Of course, the importance of correct spelling varies with
your intent. I'd die before I'd send an incorrectly spelled letter to
the Queen or the Prime Minister or for a job application. Here at rctn
and in letters to friends, I'm not quite so vigilant about it all.
Software spellcheckers are OK as far as it goes, but the one in MSWord
annoys me because it clearly has an American accent! ;-D

While reading certainly helps, I often wonder how many people actually will
look up the details of an unfamiliar word when coming upon it while reading.
Some years ago - wow - at least 25 - I remember reading a then new Saul
Bellow book called "The Dean's December." The blurbs had it as an NY Times
bestseller, etc. Excellent, and interesting story (Dean of a journalism
school in Chicago - thinly veiled Northwestern - married to an Eastern
European woman, IIRC a doctor, and they have to go back to her former home
in the Soviet block country to deal with her mother). Complicated plot of
life and politics. Beautifully written. But, here's the catch. I'm a
fairly literate person, with a good vocabulary - much more than the norm if
you go by things such as GRE scores, etc. I had to crack the dictionary
before I was through 20 pages. This was the first time in my life I ever
had to have a dictionary close-by for the entire time I was reading this
book. In then discussing the book with my friends at school (I was an
undergrad at the time), I had to ask - how is it possible that this book is
a bestseller? Do you think people just buy the book because of the famous
author, and then don't read it, or just don't understand it - because if I'm
really having to look up words - that what are all those others doing -
given the book has had such great sales? Or do they not care. The thing to
me is that as a writer, Saul Bellow's use of language was so precise,
particular to what he wished to convey, that if you didn't know the words
you would miss something. I just always have remembered having to use a
dictionary so regularly while reading this book. It just made me think.

FWIW- I do generally have a foreign language dictionary when reading in
other languages as I know that even being relatively fluent, there will
always be something I'm not quite sure of, or just don't know.


ellice

On 2/22/09 8:53 PM, "Trish Brown" wrote:

lucille wrote:

Software spellcheckers are OK as far as it
goes, but the one in MSWord annoys me because it clearly has an
American accent! ;-D

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia


Ya think maybe that's because the program was written by Americans, in
America?? lol

Well, yeah, but I'm not. (American, I mean). Someone Who Knows How needs
to write an Australian spellchecker for Australian misspellers. Y'know?
It needs to have words in it like 'dingo' and 'galah' and 'fair dinkum'
- words dear and useful to the Oz heart. I wonder if there's an
Icelandic spellchecker? Or Estonian? Or a Mandarin one? Indeed, I wonder
if you can *get* MSWord in Mandarin!?

Haven't you looked into uploading a different dictionary? I don't know
about the PC world of Word, but on the Mac side I can set my Word
preferences to other dictionaries. And I try to remember to check my custom
one regularly to remove words that are misspelled but were accidentally
added.

Don't get me wrong: Word's my all-time favourite program! It's so
stylish and intuitive and easy to use. I just wish we could get an
Oz-flavoured version, that's all.

I bet there is something out there. Word is definitely not my favorite
program, but it's certainly convenient. I use Quark when I can for setting
things that will be published - but it takes work to use Quark or the Adobe
graphics programs. However, once you learn them - what fun. I really,
really love Illustrator. Ah, well. Word has definitely improved over the
years - I did prefer WordPerfect back when, but now Word is fine for most
things.

Ellice

"ellice" wrote in message
...
On 2/22/09 4:25 PM, "Trish Brown" wrote:

lucille wrote:

With the peculiar spelling of so many English words, a dictionary is
useless for a really poor speller. How can you look up the word laugh
if you can't spell it?

Even if you can't exactly spell a word, you usually can come close and
skim
a dictionary page- or use a thesaurus and look up a synonym.

Well, I guess that's the point of reading widely: so you can be exposed
to lots and lots of irregular words and have some idea of the spelling
to start with. Of course, the importance of correct spelling varies with
your intent. I'd die before I'd send an incorrectly spelled letter to
the Queen or the Prime Minister or for a job application. Here at rctn
and in letters to friends, I'm not quite so vigilant about it all.
Software spellcheckers are OK as far as it goes, but the one in MSWord
annoys me because it clearly has an American accent! ;-D

While reading certainly helps, I often wonder how many people actually
will
look up the details of an unfamiliar word when coming upon it while
reading.
Some years ago - wow - at least 25 - I remember reading a then new Saul
Bellow book called "The Dean's December." The blurbs had it as an NY
Times
bestseller, etc. Excellent, and interesting story (Dean of a journalism
school in Chicago - thinly veiled Northwestern - married to an Eastern
European woman, IIRC a doctor, and they have to go back to her former home
in the Soviet block country to deal with her mother). Complicated plot of
life and politics. Beautifully written. But, here's the catch. I'm a
fairly literate person, with a good vocabulary - much more than the norm
if
you go by things such as GRE scores, etc. I had to crack the dictionary
before I was through 20 pages. This was the first time in my life I ever
had to have a dictionary close-by for the entire time I was reading this
book. In then discussing the book with my friends at school (I was an
undergrad at the time), I had to ask - how is it possible that this book
is
a bestseller? Do you think people just buy the book because of the famous
author, and then don't read it, or just don't understand it - because if
I'm
really having to look up words - that what are all those others doing -
given the book has had such great sales? Or do they not care. The thing
to
me is that as a writer, Saul Bellow's use of language was so precise,
particular to what he wished to convey, that if you didn't know the words
you would miss something. I just always have remembered having to use a
dictionary so regularly while reading this book. It just made me think.

FWIW- I do generally have a foreign language dictionary when reading in
other languages as I know that even being relatively fluent, there will
always be something I'm not quite sure of, or just don't know.


ellice


My spelling challenged husband read a lot and had as good a level of
comprehension as anyone I know, but he couldn't spell and had a problem
looking it up because he couldn't spell.

We always laughed about that and I teased him about his excellent marks in
English when in high school and college and his problem. He claimed his
crummy handwriting made up for a lot of the problem because they couldn't
read it anyway.

On 2/22/09 11:17 PM, "lucille" wrote:


wrote in message
...
On Feb 22, 8:53 pm, Trish Brown wrote:


Don't get me wrong: Word's my all-time favourite program! It's so
stylish and intuitive and easy to use.

Oh my! And here I am, still pining for Word Perfect 12 years after I
was forced to switch.

Elizabeth


That's because Word Perfect was a much better program.

Does anyone but me remember Multi-Mate?


Or how about the WANG word processor? I was using MacWrite & MacDraw in
grad school - and we were so thrilled with MacWrite - much better than
having to go use a WANG, or a main-frame. But the secretaries at my first
real job had WANG word processing stations, with big disks. None of the
guys could use them, but I was at least a bit familiar, and could then go do
some of my own typing on that rather than wait for the difficult secretary
to get to my stuff.

I switched to WordPerfect sometime in the 80s, but then also had Word -
which I didn't use. Until eventually the switch had to be to Word.

I do remember Multi-Mate.

ellice

On 2/23/09 8:10 AM, "Bruce Fletcher (remove dentures to reply)"
wrote:

anne wrote:
says...
Multi-Mate! All I remember is that in 1986 or thereabouts it came on an
incredible number (over 40?) of 3.5 inch floppy disks.

Are you sure it wasn't on the 5 1/4 disks? I'm pretty sure the littler not so
floppy ones came around a bit later.


You could be right, I'm not sure when we upgraded from 5.25 to 3.5 inch
disks. I'm sure that it was about a year after we upgraded from tape to
5.25 inch disks (Commodore Pet). It was around 1987 that we got our
first IBM PC (which ran at an incredible 8 MHz).

I think the disk switches were in the mid-late 80s. But I remember the 3.5"
flopppies being really pricey then, and we'd have to order boxes at work and
guard them. Finally the shop at lab started carrying them, and we'd have so
much fun going to shop and grab some boxes. Then the thing was being able
to reformat them because they'd always get IBM formatted disks, so it would
be sitting with the Mac and reformatting them. Fortuanately, the Macs have
always been able to read the PC formatted ones but not vice versa. So, I'd
do work for me to keep on Mac disks, but keep others that were dual
formatted and save files to be PC compatible for others to use.

Such fun to remember. But much better than carrying mag tapes or boxes of
keypunched cards around.

ellice

On 2/23/09 11:28 AM, " wrote:

On Feb 23, 10:41*am, Susan Hartman wrote:
wrote:
On Feb 22, 8:53 pm, Trish Brown wrote:

Don't get me wrong: Word's my all-time favourite program! It's so
stylish and intuitive and easy to use.

Oh my! *And here I am, still pining for Word Perfect 12 years after I
was forced to switch.

Elizabeth

And here I am, still editing in Word Perfect, even if it means copying
and pasting from Word into WP, then DH eventually puts them back again
because InDesign can't read WP files. I just don't like Word. At all.


That's what I did until the day I lost all those footnotes. Luckily,
I had another copy of the document on my home computer, but it's just
not worth the headache I had to go through to get the document printed
and turned in to the editors.

Elizabeth

I think we all have some horrid lesson like that. I was upgrading my
Illustrator version, which had the stitch diagrams and charts for a design I
was about to teach. I forgot to move the design files into a separate
folder, on the other hard drive, and when I put in the new Illustrator
version - well, it somehow lost them. Not good. This involved quick and
painful reconstruction (DH quickly built a new diagram and chart using the
tools in Powerpoint of all things). I'm still on the hook to finish the
reconstruction of the clearly, full diagrams and chart. I hate when you
lose stuff switching between programs.

Ellice

On 3/1/09 12:05 PM, "lucille" wrote:


"ellice" wrote in message
...
On 2/22/09 4:25 PM, "Trish Brown" wrote:

lucille wrote:

With the peculiar spelling of so many English words, a dictionary is
useless for a really poor speller. How can you look up the word laugh
if you can't spell it?

Even if you can't exactly spell a word, you usually can come close and
skim
a dictionary page- or use a thesaurus and look up a synonym.

Well, I guess that's the point of reading widely: so you can be exposed
to lots and lots of irregular words and have some idea of the spelling
to start with. Of course, the importance of correct spelling varies with
your intent. I'd die before I'd send an incorrectly spelled letter to
the Queen or the Prime Minister or for a job application. Here at rctn
and in letters to friends, I'm not quite so vigilant about it all.
Software spellcheckers are OK as far as it goes, but the one in MSWord
annoys me because it clearly has an American accent! ;-D

While reading certainly helps, I often wonder how many people actually
will
look up the details of an unfamiliar word when coming upon it while
reading.
Some years ago - wow - at least 25 - I remember reading a then new Saul
Bellow book called "The Dean's December." The blurbs had it as an NY
Times
bestseller, etc. Excellent, and interesting story (Dean of a journalism
school in Chicago - thinly veiled Northwestern - married to an Eastern
European woman, IIRC a doctor, and they have to go back to her former home
in the Soviet block country to deal with her mother). Complicated plot of
life and politics. Beautifully written. But, here's the catch. I'm a
fairly literate person, with a good vocabulary - much more than the norm
if
you go by things such as GRE scores, etc. I had to crack the dictionary
before I was through 20 pages. This was the first time in my life I ever
had to have a dictionary close-by for the entire time I was reading this
book. In then discussing the book with my friends at school (I was an
undergrad at the time), I had to ask - how is it possible that this book
is
a bestseller? Do you think people just buy the book because of the famous
author, and then don't read it, or just don't understand it - because if
I'm
really having to look up words - that what are all those others doing -
given the book has had such great sales? Or do they not care. The thing
to
me is that as a writer, Saul Bellow's use of language was so precise,
particular to what he wished to convey, that if you didn't know the words
you would miss something. I just always have remembered having to use a
dictionary so regularly while reading this book. It just made me think.

FWIW- I do generally have a foreign language dictionary when reading in
other languages as I know that even being relatively fluent, there will
always be something I'm not quite sure of, or just don't know.


ellice


My spelling challenged husband read a lot and had as good a level of
comprehension as anyone I know, but he couldn't spell and had a problem
looking it up because he couldn't spell.

I totally understand that - as my DB is that way. But what I was referring
to above, wasn't a spelling issue so much as just word knowledge.

We always laughed about that and I teased him about his excellent marks in
English when in high school and college and his problem. He claimed his
crummy handwriting made up for a lot of the problem because they couldn't
read it anyway.

Probably some truth in that!

Ellice

On 3/1/09 12:26 PM, "lucretia borgia" wrote:


On Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:04:15 GMT, ellice opined:



Haven't you looked into uploading a different dictionary? I don't know
about the PC world of Word, but on the Mac side I can set my Word
preferences to other dictionaries. And I try to remember to check my custom
one regularly to remove words that are misspelled but were accidentally
added.


I just checked in Word and you can have dictionary functions for -
this is in English alone -
Australia, Belize, Canada, Caribbean, India, Ireland, Jamaica,
Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Trinidad
and Tobago and last, but not least, Zimbabwe - that's the one that
hopefully spells everything 'death to Mugabe'

I have the Chinese characters downloaded on my computers because some
of my Chinese friends have the characters in their email addies, so I
need them.

Good checking. I have several alphabets on my system, and sometimes with
the others they're handy if I just want to incorporate them in some design -
just pull it up in a huge font size and play a bit.

Ellice

ellice wrote:
On 2/22/09 4:25 PM, "Trish Brown" wrote:

lucille wrote:

With the peculiar spelling of so many English words, a dictionary is
useless for a really poor speller. How can you look up the word laugh
if you can't spell it?

Even if you can't exactly spell a word, you usually can come close and skim
a dictionary page- or use a thesaurus and look up a synonym.

Well, I guess that's the point of reading widely: so you can be exposed
to lots and lots of irregular words and have some idea of the spelling
to start with. Of course, the importance of correct spelling varies with
your intent. I'd die before I'd send an incorrectly spelled letter to
the Queen or the Prime Minister or for a job application. Here at rctn
and in letters to friends, I'm not quite so vigilant about it all.
Software spellcheckers are OK as far as it goes, but the one in MSWord
annoys me because it clearly has an American accent! ;-D

While reading certainly helps, I often wonder how many people actually will
look up the details of an unfamiliar word when coming upon it while reading.
Some years ago - wow - at least 25 - I remember reading a then new Saul
Bellow book called "The Dean's December." The blurbs had it as an NY Times
bestseller, etc. Excellent, and interesting story (Dean of a journalism
school in Chicago - thinly veiled Northwestern - married to an Eastern
European woman, IIRC a doctor, and they have to go back to her former home
in the Soviet block country to deal with her mother). Complicated plot of
life and politics. Beautifully written. But, here's the catch. I'm a
fairly literate person, with a good vocabulary - much more than the norm if
you go by things such as GRE scores, etc. I had to crack the dictionary
before I was through 20 pages. This was the first time in my life I ever
had to have a dictionary close-by for the entire time I was reading this
book. In then discussing the book with my friends at school (I was an
undergrad at the time), I had to ask - how is it possible that this book is
a bestseller? Do you think people just buy the book because of the famous
author, and then don't read it, or just don't understand it - because if I'm
really having to look up words - that what are all those others doing -
given the book has had such great sales? Or do they not care. The thing to
me is that as a writer, Saul Bellow's use of language was so precise,
particular to what he wished to convey, that if you didn't know the words
you would miss something. I just always have remembered having to use a
dictionary so regularly while reading this book. It just made me think.

FWIW- I do generally have a foreign language dictionary when reading in
other languages as I know that even being relatively fluent, there will
always be something I'm not quite sure of, or just don't know.


ellice


I think most of us discover the meanings of words in the contexts in
which we hear them. Sometimes, that backfires, but dictionaries are
there to help. Trial and error is useful too. Colloquialisms are the
hardest thing to learn when embarking on a new language.

--
Trish Brown {|:-}

Newcastle, NSW, Australia