h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes, I'm coming to the London meet.

The Tombstones conversation:
<./>F6526957?thread=3913723&latest=1</.>

We're having lovely sunshine, but nights are still cold - the lawns were covered with frost this morning.

We had rain this morning, but it's looking better now.

Pity I shan't be there. It would be nice to put names to faces. What happens? D'you all wear labels with your pseudonym? I shall expect a full report! ..........although we're going away on Friday for nearly a fortnight, to a place where the remote computer is but a twinkle in an old man's eye. I'm going to see if my mopho + a bluetooth dongle (what is the Finnish for 'dongle', I wonder)will connect me.

So, enjoy it all!!

Dig.

Hey - you're back!

Eh - what's a 'dongle'? Same as 'thingie'?

My dear good Nipper, I haven't been anywhere! I thought you'd dropped me. As in Hot Potato.

I confess to lurking on more threads than usual, but I've kept a close eye on 'my' bits and pieces!!

How are you? Any startling news? I have to tell you, as of course, you're dying to know, that Vista is splendid, until you try to be clever, and it won't take Clever from us little upstarts. My ISP can't cope. It's rather good browser curls up and dies, so I've had to download Firefox, and occasionally, even, turn to Internet Explorer.

The dongle, which you so elegantly describe as possibly a 'thingy' (note /my/ spelling!!!!), is an object closely resembling a USB stick, which goes into a USB hole (surprised?) and, supposedly, connects the 'pooter to a nearby bluetooth-enabled camera/mopho/whatever. Mine works splendidly with the XP 'pooter, but I had to buy a special one for Vista, which has to be reinstalled every time I want to use it. You may imagine that this doesn't happen too often! Obviously I've done something daft, but the support from the supplier appears to have dried up. He must have been so sick of my complaints poor

Is there a lurking out there somewhere? (Hollers) I'd hit the CapsLock for that if I dare!

Nice to see you again. Glad you waved. Where were you ing?

LadyDig
'venerable' as per one of the definitions in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

In retrospect, I think Douglas Adams used the expression 'dongle' in 'Salmon of Doubt' for all those different kind of cables and stuff that will allow all kinds of hardware to communicate with your computer...

I do admit to a bit, but you'll always find me posting at Lil's - on a pretty much daily basis.

One of my favourite online MMORPGs has upped the graphics so much that my current laptop can't cope with it anymore - so I'm getting a new stationary PC (which will be my second one) but with XP, not Vista - because the game doesn't support Vista (yet).

I'm thinking I can always install Vista later on, if it turns out I absolutely can't live without it - which I, somehow, doubt...

I thought you could only get Vista on new ones! Why didn't they offer me XP then ? Having said I quite enjoy fighting the incomer, why do I complain? It's the injustice of it, m'lud.

Have you posted your London pics yet? Was it good?

No, I haven't posted them yet - but Galaxy Babe and Gnomon have posted photos.

Gnomon:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eoinmcauley/sets/72157604767566781/

Galaxy Babe:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/galaxybabe/SpringMeet2008

Oh, and the reason I could get a PC with XP is because I bought it from a Swedish company that build their own PCs, which made it possible for me to specify exactly what kind of computer I wanted.

All the other PC sellers only had Vista to offer!

Super pics! Now I know what people look like! Is that really Our Lil? She came over from wherever? Wow. Was it a good day? It looks as if it was enjoyed.

What a clever thing you are! I mean, of course, getting the computer as you want it. It means, at last, that 'all' your machines will be able to communicate. I tried to set up a wireless network here, but the Vista one needs a 26 (yes, twenty-six) character password, whereas the other settles for only 13! So I'm stuck (until a Sir Galahad comes riding by..)or until Dawn breaks in my senile brain.

Come to that, you're clever enough to Post Things for people to see! Old people are far more tentative, and anyway, I've nothing to show which would interest anyone!! So why am I so ? I'd just like to be IT-savvy..... (Gazes wistfully into the distance)

Dig

No, that's not 'our' Lil, that's lil - slight difference but two completely different persons

'Our' Lil's full user name is Asteroid Lil and lil's is lil ol' me if I remember it correctly...

IT-savvy? I knew nothing about the Internet and uploading pictures and stuff when I first tried to get online. Actually, I was on the verge of giving it up completely since all my attempts to connect with people seemed to end up in chat rooms with horny teenagers - or people pretending to be horny teenagers

But then, I read a small notice in a newspaper saying that the guide was now available online. That was way back when it wasn't yet a part of the BBC.

How relieved I was to find friendly, reasonably 'normal' people (with a weird sense of humour though) who all seemed to be fans of DNA (U42).

I can honestly say that all I've ever learnt about uploading, coding, HTML and stuff has been thanks to h2g2 - it all started out with me getting at flashy user pages (in those days, we were allowed to use our own pictures) and wanting to do something with my own user page...

Gosh, I'm even impresseder! I must find the bits where you learned all this stuff, because /I/ think you're brill, to coin an expression from the dreaded yoof.

Sorry you're having such bother with your 'pooter. Did you have a reason for choosing a desktop, other than being able to give your own specs?

At least a laptop would object less to climbing all those stairs....
Dig

Well, I have a laptop, but one of my favourite online games have upgraded their graphis so enormously that my laptop can't cope anymore - and you can't upgrade the graphics card in a laptop (or so I've been told) where as it's not too complicated in a desktop.

Let's see - the first things I learnt about coding your user page I learnt at the <./>GuideML-Clinic</.>

Once I felt more confident about tags and stuff, I wrote 'Spicing up your user page' A690518

And whenever I run into computer related trouble I can't solve, I'll ask, either at <./>Askh2g2</.> or in The Atelier computer technology lab <./>F38024?thread=274605&latest=1</.>

That's wonderful. Thanks. Scrawls URLs rapidly into thingy on desktop.

If only I didn't feel that 'pooter time is wasted time! Only because my technophobe spouse looks down his nose if I'm at the desk rather than doing almost anything else!

However, 5 -7.30 is MINE, so I'll just have to organise myself!

And I'm sick of telling Firefox to spell this my way....who on earth told ThemAcrossTheWater that -ize is an acceptable suffix to a verb?????

Is there no end to irritation...

...and intolerance?

Dig

Do you have spelling control activated?



Work of the - the MS Office Swedish dictionary lacks several commonly used words, usually those containing more than three syllables.

It drives me nuts having to add new words to the dictionary all the time and also how it fails to check if a word fits in with the rest of the sentence.

Which means it's perfectly OK to spell 'of course' (certiainly) as 'off course' which isn't the same thing at all!

These days, the first thing I do is to find out how to turn the thing off... our mail system at work was recently upgraded and there it was again!

It looks as if the spell-checker only grunts at groups of letter not in its list; obviously the Swedish list isn't long enough!
And 'of' 'off' are both their, so it won't bother with them. (I spelled 'there' like that, to see what it'd do, not 'cos I didn't know!! Nothing is the answer.)
Mine is supposed to be tuned(?) to English UK, but I haven't yet persuaded the thing to accept adviCe, cancelLed flavoUr and the like.

D'you sometimes wish they'd never been invented?

LadyDig
'venerable' as per one of the definitions in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

*shrugs*

I just disable it and improvise...

Yeah, but you're clever and not , so

Mind you, when playing some of my favourite online RPGs, I *do* feel ... that is, until someone gave a link to this youtube video - now I know what I can look forward to!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-dfKEAtOzI

OK, so Oblivion is not online, but still a RPG...

Well, that's a Whole New Experience.

I clicked, of course, not having the good sense to know what's fit for my eyes. ,senior>I've heard of YouTube, of course, but never looked at it before!! Is it all like that? Do you go there often (sounds like a cheap chat-up line!), but I did wonder where I've been all my life!

We came home this afternoon to find the grass needed cutting, hooray, but the roses looked absolutely splendid, which is a first. we don't usually feel a great deal of satisfaction. It has to be said, too, that even my tame little patch was doing its best to keep up with the rest of the world.

The downside is that tomorrow and the next day and.. will be dedicated to washing, ironing and so on.
Now I'd better see how everyone else has managed without me
Dig

I do check out youtube videos on an almost daily basis, due to being subscribed to the thread 'Any YouTube gems you'd care to share?'

To be found at <./>19585?thread=3875581</.>

And once I'm there, I find all kinds of interesting side links, related links, most watched links and what have you...