| Sorry -d, I seem to have moved recently from the Navel Department into
some dumb other Suite, but since I remember the way back I'll try to
accomodate you for Andrea's sake...
...rumble...sss... POP! Well, having been invoked... Let's see about
providing the requisite Magical Mystery Solution.
Remember, you only have 2 wishes left when this is done!!
* Take 1 special-ordered omphaloskeptic navel-mounted (for portability)
modem (thigh-speed, gotta have the right "bod" rate :-) ...
* Attach it to the com port of a Mac (or other equally high-quality
personal computer)(-: if you can find one:-)(oops, So-Sorry, genii
aren't supPOSed to go commercial:-) and attach the other end of the
modem to your friendly neighborhood phone line ...
* Or punt the modem and just plug your EtherNet card straight into the
backbone, if you should actually be working in a DEC office...
* Open a terminal emulation window and have your Friendly Electronic
Slave (no, not ME, your Mac!!! @$%#:-) dial into your favorite VAX
running that nifty VAXnotes server ... Connect... login... open
=wn=... touchy... feely... bliss... :-)
* Open several other windows wherein you run spreadsheet or graphics or
word- or outline-processing apps so you can continue to be gainfully
employed while noting ... Don't forget to actually *work* in those
windows, buddy!!
* Remember to have a "grow window" button handy on your spreadsheet or
whatever, so you can quick! fill your screen with what you're SUPPOSED
to be doing when the boss or the SO ambles by your lair...
esPECially if you're reading or (YIKES!) writing into the "Even better
than SEX!" string!
* Learn how to note in the interstices between temporal quanta: while
your hard-boiled-eggs are cooking... when you're waiting for your
print jobs or compiles to finish ... between sneezing and saying
ExcuseMe... Don't be shy about noting naked ... or while dressing...
we won't mind...
* Learn how to do useful work in one window while you're waiting for
the net to burp out the next Notes-screenful, or to post your next mess
of deathless prose (which takes longer)... keep a corner of your
termulator window visible so you can know when the next screenful's
ready...
* (P.C. alert: ...but pulEEYuz don't keep =wn= open when you're not
ACTUALLY ACTIVELY READING IT! Thanks! We now return you to your
regularly-scheduled Geniial Host...:-)
* Learn how to skip past huge uninterestrings filled with unread
replies... to get to what is IYHO the Good Stuff... if your time or
temper is short... In extreme circumstances, allow yourself the
dubious but sometimes necessary luxury of a wholesale SET SEEN...
don't think of it as murder... (-: and *certainly* not as abortion...
:-)
* Set up a CD player with excellent speakers or super 'phones near your
tube so you don't miss out on great music while noting...
* A microwave or fridge within arm's reach of the tube is a nice touch,
especially if you're trying to quit smoking and noting's not enough
(-:sniff:-)
* Learn to stagger from bathroom to Notes in the morning, and from
Notes to bed in the wee hours... And LEARN NEVER TO GET *OUT* OF BED
TO NOTE!!
(Definition of hacker, courtesy of a dear NetBuddy: "Someone who rolls
over after making love to check his mail." The gender specificity was
hers! :-)
* It really helps (for this, read IT IS ESSENTIAL -- for *this* Genii
at least) to have a separate dedicated phone line at home, and the
ability to dial locally into the DTN, whence you can jump over to your
office Terminal Server, and thence into NotesLand...
* Because basically the secret is to note only occasionally during the
workday, but to do SERIOUS work-related and fun-related noting in the
evenings. If you want to treat it as a hobby, that is...
* Ya gotta love ya work and ya Net/NoteBuddies... and alas, ya gotta
also have the yuppie toys -- and the DEC-subsidized phoneline was a
bennie I insisted on when I took the job...
* Then, NOTE YOUR BRAINS OUT!!!
...sss... elbmur... UnPOP...
hey, it ain't too magical, but it works for me!
Cheers,
Dan
|
| from my 610.5, some second thoughts:
>* Learn to stagger from bathroom to Notes in the morning, and from
> Notes to bed in the wee hours... And LEARN NEVER TO GET *OUT* OF BED
> TO NOTE!!
> (Definition of hacker, courtesy of a dear NetBuddy: "Someone who rolls
> over after making love to check his mail." The gender specificity was
> hers! :-)
It don't take a Geniius :-) to figure out that if I've been married to
the same woman for 26 years (beginning *long* before the age of home
CPUs & modems, tyvm) that I DO NOT NOW HAVE, NOR HAVE I EVER HAD, A
MODEM IN MY BEDROOM! Nor, for the sticklers among ye, have I ever had
a modem in aNOTHer room and wired a comms line into the bedroom!...:-)
Nope, the rig's on the other end of the house... near the dinner
table... where I can compute, and yet still bug and be bugged.
(-:Dan:-)
|
| ...sss... ...rumble... POP!
Hi Andrea --
D@&* right noting's fun! :-)
(-: Here's my first wish for YOU -- get that d@&* rig out of your
bedroom! Ya wanna keep (or get) any SOs, ya wanna keep that silicon
outta there! Only kidding, each to hir own... And anyway us genii
have to be REALLY chary of *our* wishes to YOU!! :-)
But since you're so fast & loose with your'n, here are your answers.
Note that I'm treating this SET of questions as ONE wish, and that
you're getting a special break. Soch a deal. By me, this is a
bargain...
As to how you put a nifty little saying after your name? Bubbeleh,
this is what we in the notes trade call your Notes PERSONAL_NAME, aka
p_n.
Say you want to proclaim to the world in your p_n that MS-DOS SUX.
First, at the notes prompt, type
> sho prof
and VAXnotes will tell you your current profile settings, including
your personal name, if any -- and if you have what we technically call
a virgin profile (no offense:-) it will probably say something like
"you have not set a personal name." (Notice it is nice and forbears
from saying "You have not yet LIVED, me bucko.")
So how to get NOTES to proclaim your opinions of operating systems from
now on? Simple...
> set prof/pers="MS-DOS SUX"
and (assuming that your previous command were > sho prof) VAXnotes will
happily oblige you by not only accepting your command, but also by
reshowing your new, improved profile, complete with p_n... and "Presto
Changeo" (there's a lot of that in this bizness) you will find that
your future notes will be so emblazoned, until you next decide to
change (or heaven forfend eliminate) your P_N again...
Some of us tend to keep a p_n for years... Others tend to use it like
a mood ring. Yours Truly tends to the latter, campy, camp.
Oh, and Andrea, ya say you want to put MORE chars on the line than will
fit? Ya say you want to be able to PREDICT how many chars will fit,
independent of your current NODE::NAME pair and the # of lines of your
note text? Sorry, out of my league. I'd haveta consult with the
Daemon-in-Chief, and that'd take all of MY wishes. Cut your p_n to
fit. I hate when that happens, but live with it is my best advice.
And as for line noise... Check your phone lines, see that they're free
of loose connections once the line enters your premises... Sometimes
you can complain to the phone company and they'll fix what they can on
their end, but this takes patience and luck and sometimes more Wishes
(yikes! getting LOW!).
Sometimes the problem comes from inductive surges radiated into your
phone line from startups/shutdowns of electric motors in your own heavy
appliances (fridges, water-heaters). If this is your problem, you'll
notice the junk on the line when one of those babies starts or stops.
You can sometimes improve these sorts of things slightly :-(not
completely, I've just found)-: by going down to your local Radio Shack
and buying some inductive surge chokes (catalog # 273104, RF Choke,
$7.95) and winding your phone line around them, just before it enters
your modem.
Other Genii reading Andrea's question might well wish to chime in here
with their own Magic Spells for Line Noise. Take care NOT to charge
her any further Wish Points, she's already spent one with me on this!!
What line noise survives, foist brazenly on your readers. F#*&^ 'em if
their bauds can't take it! F#*&^F#*&^:-) (sorry, line noise before, ah
cain't help it)
So, that's about it, Andrea... See you soon, I hope, for your Final
Wish... Until then...
...sss...
>>> EXECUTION SUSPENDED <<<
Interrupt from the Daemon-in-Chief:
Andrea: Since you seem like a Nice Human Being, I'm now resetting the
NEMAIL::KALIKOWD Genii's Wish Counter for you back to Three (-:3:-).
Just keep asking it sincere questions.
And as long as you didn't ask, about p_n length adjustment: -- sorry,
*I* can't help you. I am not, after all, a Software Engineer.
>>> EXECUTION RESUMED <<<
OK, Hi Andrea, you've got (-:3:-) wishes left...!
...elbmur... !POP
|