Geek talk

[auntiemeesh]

That was a midterm exam? I've had quizes harder than that. 40 questions - 30 multiple choice, 10 matching. She passed out the tests at 3:05, I was out of there at 3:22 and that was after going over each question very thoroughly, twice, to make sure I hadn't misinterpreted anything, etc. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. She told us if we read the chapters we'd be fine, but somehow I didn't believe her. As always, there were one or two I wasn't sure of, but for the most part, I feel pretty good about it. Going over all those on-line practice tests really helped.

A gorgeous storm blew through this afternoon. Black clouds scuttled across the sky at some pretty impressive speeds, leaves were flying (and smacking me in the face) and then the rain hit, hard. The street got pretty flooded at the corner where I was waiting for my bus, within about five minutes. I tried to stand in a doorway but I still managed to get pretty soaked. It was pretty cool to watch the storm blow in though - I love storms like that, especially because it was all wild wind and rain, with very little lightning to make being outside scary.

Of course, when I got home the internet was gone. I'm pretty sure now that the connection problems are directly related to the weather. And I had adventures with Linux. I have this Linux lab due tomorrow and I popped the CD in to run it and play with it so that even though I couldn't get online to get the assignment off Courseweb, I could at least familiarize myself with OpenOffice.

It took three tries to boot up the live run CD that we were all given, and once I finally managed to do that much, the blasted thing just sat there. My computer ran and ran and ran, till I was afraid the fan was going to overheat, and it took a good half hour or more to get all booted up, but then even after that, I couldn't get it to open any of the programs. I would click on the buttons and they would just sit there, staring at me, daring me to try that again. Finally, after about two hours, I gave up. I'll look at it at the school computer lab tomorrow - I'm far too brain tired to start it up now. It'll suck to have to spend Friday evening on campus, but it's got to get done.

I finally made it all the way through last season of Lost and I'm all up to date except for this week's episode, which I'm going to go get right now. I finally understand what's happening, and I must say, the end of season two did pick up a lot more than I had expected it to.

Comments

[eve11]

Congrats on the midterm!

I pretty much hate Linux with a fiery passion. That half-hour boot is pretty normal, actually.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

It wasn't the half-hour boot that bothered me, so much as the 'couldn't open any of the applications' problem, which made it rather more difficult to explore. I know there are a couple of Linux computers at computer lab in Hillman, so I guess that's where I'm going after work.

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

I hope none of my students read your post! They'd probably start lobbying to have your prof instead of me (even though she might not be quite proficient at Developmental Psychology.)

Sorry about your Linux problems. What a drag!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

She's kind of an annoying prof in most ways - doesn't respond to emails at all and yet has no regularly scheduled office hrs in which to track her down and talk to her. She takes forever to gets grades up. Plus, she's really hard to read - has little sense of humor and takes a very literal approach to everything. Not unfriendly, just - odd. I'm sure your students are better off with you.

[ani-no-mouse.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Your next elder sibling seems to like Linux. I can't imagine he would tolerate a half hour boot time though. I was half tempted to try it, but didn't think my slo-go machine was up to the download.

We got those same black clouds and winds blowing thru Friday afternoon when I left work - very beautiful. But the rain and brief power outage were while I was still in the office, just before lunch.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I think people like Linux because they can tinker with the source code (and that would be my guess with M), but I don't think it's as user friendly, which is what's important to me.

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

*sigh*
I hate being reminded how ignorant I am!
I guess the "source code" is the actual programming that makes the operating system do what it does, but wouldn't tinkering with it be really, really, really dangerous in terms of maintaining functionality, not to mention file integrity?

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. First of all, the people who are doing this are generally people who have a basic understanding of what they're doing to begin with, and second, my guess would be that they don't work with active software. I would guess that they have a copy that they use to try things out, sort of like when you're working on a webpage. You take the html code, put into something like notepad, do what you need to do to it, check to make sure it works and then put it up live.

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

I would guess that they have a copy that they use to try things out, sort of like when you're working on a webpage. You take the html code, put into something like notepad, do what you need to do to it, check to make sure it works and then put it up live.
Again, all of which stuff I did not know.
*headdesk*

[westwindschild.livejournal.com]

I would guess that they have a copy that they use to try things out, sort of like when you're working on a webpage. You take the html code, put into something like notepad, do what you need to do to it, check to make sure it works and then put it up live.
Again, all of which stuff I did not know.
*headdesk*
Help! I've fallen off the cutting edge, and now they don't even speak my language!!!

[topaztook.livejournal.com]

Glad you had such a good experience with the midterm. I know nothing about Linux, so I really have nothing else to say on the rest of this entry -- except that storms can be pretty, when they're not pretty scary.

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

This was a pretty cool storm. But over the weekend I noticed a lot of downed tree limbs and there was a fallen tree on the climber at the playground on Friday, meaning we couldn't get out to play.