Linda Proulx,

09-Nov-99 19:32:36, Linda Proulx wrote to Andy Roberts
 LP> -=> Andy Roberts wrote to Linda Proulx <=-
          Subject: Re: Get Going

 AR>> I am curious as to why.  What advantage does that have over using
 AR>> Logical partitions?

 LP> You'll have to ask him.  if you really want to know I can give you
 LP> his email address. I knew.

I have his E-mail address from his original msg you forwarded in here.  But I
don't think I will ask him, since if you keep sending these msgs to him he
will see that there are several of us that want to know about that.  Actually
it would be best if he could pick up this echo directly and avoid the
forwarding confusion.

 LP> It has something to do about the weaknesses inherent in logical
 LP> partitions vs primarys. But I can't remember right at the moment.

Humm... well see.

 AR>> Somehow I have the feeling I'm about to get up to my neck in this
 AR>> issue. 

 LP> Nah.....

I would really like to see you post your FDISK /QUERY and PartList > output
from a temporary floppy boot.  I'll try to reserve further comment until after
we see that.  It may not be anything to be concerned about.  But it certainly
raises some questions.

 AR>> I am curious about another thing.  Are you attempting to learn
 AR>> enough to do all the Hardware changes and upgrades and
 AR>> installations and re-installations and setup of various OSs and
 AR>> apps all by yourself?

 LP> Yes.

At the very least since you will be doing your own work on your machine, you
might consider reverting to and sticking with standard practices, at least
until you are sure what works and what doesn't, so to avoid blaming the wrong
thing if it doesn't work.

 AR>> Or are you going to have your guru do the work for you?

 LP> Never.  He's going to help me with the repartitioning with his
 LP> Partition Magic

If it were me doing the work, then I would not use Partition Magic.  A lot can
be said for and against various versions of Partition Magic.  I've never used
it and I probably never will, since there are other alternatives, which result
in a cleaner HD in some cases, and when there are problems the solutions are
usually nothing less than what I would do without Partition Magic.

I would backup all your data which can still be used under OS/2's DOS.  Then I
would do a Low Level Format of your whole HD to get rid of any jerry-rig
partition changes, which might cause unexpected and undesirable results.

 LP> & being a sounding board

Humm... Hopefully you won't become even more confused.

 LP> and making certain that I have all the Warp drivers from the Inet.

That is very nice.

 LP> He has had little experience with warp beyond installing once upon a
 LP> time.

I agree with Murray about that.

 AR>> No slight intended by those questions.  I can see that issue from
 AR>> both sides.  My sister-in-law is probably going to read this and
 AR>> get a good laugh.

 LP> Now that needs explaining......

Well it is long, but light hearted, so here goes.

As far as both sides:

Some users are interested only in performing a limited number of tasks and
have no interest in the technical details of computers, which are little more
than an advanced typewriter or fancy game to them.  That group is going to
need someone on a regular basis to perform installations, upgrades and
repair.  Basically they want a turn-key system.  They prefer special tutoring
rather than using the F1 online help.  Reading DOCs is out of the question.
Once they get used to a particular set of apps, they resist change and would
not consider experimenting to discover additional features or uses for their
tool or toy.  That group relies heavily on System Administrators and other
contract service personnel or friends just to keep working and rarely
upgrades their hardware in preference to getting a new machine every year.
Without a guru they would not be involved in computers actively.  They stop
progressing while they are still a follower, because learning is APITA for
them.  That groups is not only made up of business users, but also novices
and many M$ users.  That is the group that mass media marketing aims for.

The other side:

Those who see someone else do some new trick and eagerly try to learn how to
do it too.  They don't have an unlimited budget to pay others to do anything
for them, so they eventually learn to do almost everything for them self.
They spend many months debating every detail of every spec, feature, price
and source as they upgrade piece by piece.  They almost never buy any device
without a very good reason and plan for it's use to perform something new
that their present obsolete system can't do without that upgrade.  They may
never have a completely new top of the line system, but that does not prevent
them from getting the most out of what they have.  Their enthusiasm builds as
they learn more about computers and software until eventually it becomes
almost an obsession.  They become the "friend" that others rely on.  The only
limit to what they will try is what they can get their hands on.  They learn
to type fast and read fast and remember more.  Their computer may be a tool
and a toy, but it is far more than just that, it is also a hobby.  They tend
to share their experience freely so that others can share in the enjoyment of
their mutual hobby.  Fidonet has a lot of them now.  Many times their hobby
gets so expensive that they look for ways to offset the cost by selling their
services one way or another.  While they may find work in a larger computer
related company, they often find the limits of someone else's company too
confining and become self employed.  They are not satisfied to specialize in
a single task or app.  They become a 'jack of all trades'.  Some of them do
become 'master' of several of those trades.  Unlike the first group this
group progresses from follower to leader in a never ending step by step
learning experience that would jump by leaps and bounds if they could just
find enough time and the opportunity.  This group does have novices that
migrated from the 1st group, but they don't stay novices for long.  The
average user in this group already knows more than 99% of marketing personnel
and are not fooled by mass media.  Bill Gates has very little interest in
this group, because they are not content with unnecessary bugs and will often
push, pull and shove developers of both hardware and software to make
improvements.  They often become "insiders" in the computer industry.  Some
of them are M$ users, but they also know about several versions of DOS,
Linux, MAC and eventually OS/2.  The older members of this group occasionally
pride themselves by expressing memories of computer and communication systems
that were long gone before the average members of the 1st group were even
born.  These are the technicians that became programmers and engineers and
developers.  Most of them stay young at heart and actively involved
regardless of their age.

My sister-in-law falls between the cracks of those 2 groups.  She would try to
tell you that she is not technically orientated, but she is a perfectionist.
IMO she is still a novice, but she learns very fast.  She got started with
her own PC because she wanted to run Family Tree for OS/2 which she saw I
had.  I built her very 1st system this year from parts I selected to be the
best available at the time within a reasonable price range, considering she
would probably keep that machine and 95% of its parts for many years to come.
It is a P450i with 256MB RAM on a Asus P2BL MoBo with the fastest Adaptec
SCSI and a Matrox AGP G200 with 32MB RAM and a 19" .22 Monitor.  I installed
all her software.  But she knew up front that she was going to have to learn
to use it mostly by herself, since she lives several hundred miles away.  So
she didn't have the time to learn step by step, she was forced to learn in
leaps and bounds.  And sometimes that quick learning process was rather
frustrating, especially considering that in person I can easily speak at 200
words per minute.  To aid in this I setup OS2You2 Host on her machine through
which I have almost full remote control via Internet.  And of course she
promptly learned to use E-Mail.  You might think that with all that, she
wouldn't have many problems.  But for some reason the grace of god hasn't
worked exactly like that.  I guess there is really no way to cheat the novice
experience.  All the software she uses is exactly the same as what I have here
and have been running with virtually no problems.  But on her much faster
system and slightly different usage, she managed to discover 1 problem after
another; almost none of which were caused by operator error.  So for a couple
of months after she got her machine in July we went through a lot of software
upgrading and badgering developers and OEMs about bugs.  Some of which I know
she is just tolerating, because I don't have the time to drive down there to
do anything about them.  And it is completely out of the question to attempt
to install a new FixPak or video driver via remote control.  Besides she is
still trying to understand partition and subdirectory structures and file
extensions.  In spite of all that she now has almost 1000 people in her
Family Tree.  Now I'm not sure if she wonders if she will ever get everything
on her system working just right, or if she is curious about what I say about
her in these echoes, but in either case she has been reading every msg from
beginning to end.  And if she ever had any misconceptions about a guru taking
care of every little problem for her, then I'm sure she knows better now.  At
her rate she will be advancing out of the novice class soon.

BTW, she did get a laugh out of my previous questions to you.  Which means
she knew they were leading questions.  By now it should be obvious to you
what those questions were an attempt to lead you to.

     Thanks and Good Luck,        Andy Roberts
                                  andy@shentel.net
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