My father used to use the term "brand spanking new", and I could not understand why something new might be getting a spanking.

To get it started breathing.

Sometimes things are so obvious we cannot see the forest for
the trees.

That's what we have Fools for.

non eandem arborem videt

That is a revelation to me, also.
I had assumed it was so new, the brilliance would "spank" your eyes.
Sound silly? Oh well.

]



Isn't there also another quip about cutting off one's nose to spite the face which
would fit here???

It's still on my Profile inder Occupation:

regarding your Profile, Faldo, the old home page link has 404'd.

OK, that makes sense. And because you've helped me in the Past:
And at the risk of being a "computer fool" I'll take a leap.
How do you get info into that Profile ? I've tried everything on that
page to enter "location" under my Robin Avatar. I would appreciate
a ballpark hint: please remember I am a computer neophyte.

under Profile: Geographic Location

At the top of this page there is a line that says "Wordsmith Talk>>Forums..." the next line is "Forum List My Stuff..."
Click on My Stuff then on Profile and there is room to put all sorts of stuff.
To see someone else's profile just click on their name.

(As a non-neophyte but also a non-techno if someone tells me to click on profile I expect to see an icon labeled "Profile" in, preferably, bold red letters.)

NEOPHYTE - I should look it up , but it sounds like the newest strangler snake mutation.

(stupid me, I assumed he knew some of that since he'd posted an avatar..)

That is my problem in a nutshell. dystechnia? I don't understand computers so knowing how to do one thing has no connection to knowing the next thing. It is as if I can follow directions on baking peanut butter cookies but don't see how that connects to baking chocolate chip cookies. I set my profile but still haven't managed the avatar thing.
No idea if Luke needed my info or not.

I had help posting the avatar. I tried to post a geographic location, but am doing something wrong, because nothing happens. Sorry.

OK the first thing that came to mind was Ganymede, just trying
to type in something to see if it worked. I guess it took time
but it did work. Thank Zed.

I see your location as Ganymede, was that not what you intended?

Not particularly, but thanks for noticing. I was looking at
the stars last night and took a picture of Jupiter, remembering
a photo I took last year with four of its moons visible:
Ganymede, Io, Europa,and Callisto. I was trying for the last
week to get a "location" into that blue box, and not being
computer savvy, less that 2 years with one, I just typed it
in to get something to work, not having given much thought to
it. I'll change it now. Thanks again for noticing, I had to
have help from the good folks here to help me put it in.

Now I did look up neophyte. Never mind LukeJavan, I'm still a novafeet too. About in almost each and every field .
And it still goes that a good neighbour is better than a distant friend. Just make enough mistakes to get it right and anyway:

"And who are you the tall man said, that I must bow so low"...( misquote from a forgotten author)

Boy, is that ever true. So many friends are going to 'stay in touch" and now they
are Christmas card friends. I always thought neophyte meant just "beginner". That's
me on the computer. I still use my old IBM Selectric II for many things. I won't
even go into trying to address envelopes on a computer: forget it!

This is just a test post. I had quite the time setting up an account! Before I realized the theme, I actually googled "Via gra". hahah.

We always welcome a sparkling conversationalist.
PS I love Degas.

Welcome and please contribute more, as said above,
we enjoy sparkling conversationalists.

I've been around computers since half-speed card sorters, tape punching typewriter/printers and hard-wired bread boards and I'm still a neophyte.

Ah, the good old days, when 300 baud was fast (1200 baud was lightning-fast) and you could tell what turnaround time would be like by looking at the flashing lights on the mainframe computer down in the computer room.

In the Smithsonian in DC they have one of these preserved, last used, I believe,
to predict the election of President Nixon. I remember computer companies giving
us the used cards in school to be used for art projects, etc.

My first modem was a 300 baud, connected to my trusty old Amiga 500.

My first modem was a 300 baud

Since we're all dating ourselves: though the first modem I owned was a 300 baud Hayes for my trusty old Apple ][+, the first one I used was a 100 baud, acoustic coupled one back in the late '70s to connect to a UNIX host from the linguistics department's office at Cal.

that's nothin'.. I had a 37-baud installed in our two-holer.
-ron o.

that's nothin'.. I had a 37-baud installed in our two-holer.

Luxury!

Very funny in a pythonesque way.

It's a dirty job but somebody's gotta do it.

We had zeros but we had to use lower case Ls for ones.

Really dating my self: I still on occasion use an old Remington
manual typewriter and even carbons.