response 202 of 475:

Feb 10 21:04 UTC 2004

Good question. There are a lot of elderly women living alone in Florida
because because so many couples go there to retire and the man dies before
the women. However that doesn't have to mean the *ratio* of men/women is
lower than in Michigan. Hmmmmm.... I will have to defer to "real data",
which I don't have. The only reason I can now think of why the ratio might
be lower in Florida is that the equitable climate also helps elderly women
live longer (and they are not as easily bored as men living there).? 

Squiggly red underlining is the WORD automatic spellchecker. I guess
your's doesn't understand Czech.

response 204 of 475:

Feb 10 22:28 UTC 2004

Thanks for explaining the red squiggles.  It is an odd default to have the
spellchecker underline words without asking it to.  It was so disconcerting
I just hit Alt-F4 and went away.  I wish she had sent html.

The Czech is literally 'direct sales' and that is what the English also
appears to be.  It is currently engaged in in E. Europe by Lux, Mary Kay,
Amway, and Winston International, among others.  They claim to be helping
women and reducing unmemployment.  I was reading a library book recently about
how Miller and Budweiser are trying to make money in Russia.  The Russians
cannot understand why Americans don't want to import Ukrainian burgundy wine
which is just as good as the French stuff and half the price.  But they are
willing to pay several hours' wages for one bottle of American beer.  There
were also people trying to sell vitamins, mouthwash, and other things ther
Russians never knew they needed.  

response 206 of 475:

Feb 11 00:04 UTC 2004

Sindi, if you get red squiggles again, you can go to the Tools menu
and then Spelling and Grammar, and be given a choice of changing the
word (WORD will have suggestions), adding the word as spelled to the
WORD dictionary, or just accepting the word: any of these will make the
squiggles go away. 

response 208 of 475:

Feb 11 01:22 UTC 2004

You might want to see if Microsoft has a dictionary for Czech.

response 210 of 475:

Feb 11 03:30 UTC 2004

Thanks to all of you.  I will check out linux wordprocessors some time after
making another linux computer.  The one I am using is filled up with attempts
to compile ncurses so I can compile lynx.  The latest attempt told me that
the include files were not in the standard location.  They are in
/usr/include.  I wonder what is standard.  I have help from someone really
persistent about making this all work on a screwy setup (old compiler
libraries, new runtime libraries).  

Abiword is supposed to also import WORD files.  I have an Excel to html
convertor for DOS which works well enough.  The WORD to text convertor also
works but I would have needed a second DOS computer to view the file while
typing the translation.  I might, however, need to edit someone's WORD file
some day.  

Jim is, I think, still trying to find his ftp webspace and was hoping he would
run into Glenda again today.  I suggested he ask in lab what ftp address to
use.  Now he can't find his login and password info.  

Running Linux page 119:  /usr/include  - Standard location of include files
used in C programs, such as <stdio.h>.   

Jim has started having dreams again about getting lost looking for classes.
My equivalent is to dream about having signed up for so many classes I cannot
possibly attend them all, and forgetting to drop some before the deadline.

WCC culinary arts program has opened its restaurant again.  Wed/Thurs is a
buffet - $7.50 for soup/salad/bread/appetizer, and an extra dollar if you want
meat and vegetables.  You can't get just the vegetables for 50 cents.
Next week is black history month.  He asks people to make guesses at what the
menu will be.  He says it is not grits and cracklins but he does not know what
it is, and to see who can guess closest.  I guessed macaroni and cheese, which
is what the Chinese buffets in Ypsi provide along with pizza for those people
who got dragged there by their friends.  And jello.  

response 212 of 475:

Feb 11 03:49 UTC 2004

What I meant was next week is the black history week (or maybe month) buffet
menu, which Jim will look at on Thursday if available then.  

I was told that it is is okay for include files to be in the wrong location
because they are from a previous version of ncurses and this version will go
somewhere else.  I wonder what that all means.  I think that will give me a
choice of which version to use with programs.  Or maybe this means that the
new files will go into a nonstandard location since the old ones got the
standard location.  I am supposed to symlink to them.  

Someone east of here watched 5 min of the Tupperwear program and said it was
not worth the bother.

response 214 of 475:

Feb 11 03:55 UTC 2004

Well, make up your mind, woman.  Week or month!!

response 216 of 475:

Feb 11 04:13 UTC 2004

Hey, klg, how come I am not 'Mr. woman'?
I guess cornbread stuffing.  Jim guessed sweet potato pie. Our neighbor often
shares one with us.  Her daughter the doctor learned to cook them but I think
she buys the crusts.  Their secret ingredient is orange juice.  
I wonder if she would like to join us for the buffet.

response 220 of 475:

Feb 11 18:58 UTC 2004

I don't yet need to actually write or even edit any WORD files, just read
them, and WORDVIEW seems to be adequate.  The latest .doc file they sent me
was hopeless with Antiword.  It has several places where you are supposed to
click on a + or - to get a list of possibilities, one of which the author
chose, and Antiword just left them blank.  Also got the date wrong.  The rest
of it was okay but what I needed was in the list of possibilities (things like
the person to contact, email address, extension).  I sort of doubt that
Abiword will even handle that.  Then there were some X's (like radio buttons)
that disappeared in the Antiword version.  Looks like I am stuck with one
Win98 computer unless I can get these companies to send me a 4K readable text
file instead of 120K page of WORD that I cannot read.  

Today I saved Jim a few hours debugging his program by pointing out that he
was using highly variable spellings of his variables:  linght, weigth - they
would have been okay except he used four variants of the first and two of the
second.  That is why his program would not compile.  He got the ei correct.
Now we are trying to figure out why a computer with a good battery won't hold
its CMOS settings, and why another won't hold its speed setting but keeps the
date okay (I think - we should check this out too).  We have one CD-ROM that
will play music if you unplug the data cable, or read software if you plug
in the data cable, but won't do both.  I recycled two 720K floppy drives.

response 224 of 475:

Feb 11 20:48 UTC 2004

> I don't think MSWord is smart enough to not want to modify a read-only file.

Dunno what version of Word you are running.  Modern day Word definitely *does*
know about read-only files, and says "Read Only" on the title bar when you
open such a file, and will not allow you to save back to it - you must use
"Save As".  (caveat - this is all under MS-Windows)