On Thursday 07 September 2006 15:17, Nigel Henry wrote:
[...]
>> Ahh, I found it! In control center, expand regional and accessability,
>> click on keyboard layout, Xkb submenu tab on the right, pull down to
>> 3rd level listings near bottom of list, enable the alt keys to choose
>> 3rd level, and it works. Whyinhell wasn't that a default setting?
>
>Odd that, because I looked at Xkb submenu tab, and nothings checked
> there, and yet the level 3 keys work ok. Thats on KDE
> 3.2.2-14.FC2.2.legacy
I lost the single and dbl quotes and had to restart x to recover them.
>> Boggles
>> the mind. And, why has the dbl-quote(") now disappeared unless I follow
>> that multikey proceedure?
>
>That's really annoying. Right alt plus shift, then the single quote key
> gets me a double quote, and right alt plus the single quote key gets me
> a single quote. My single quote key is 2nd to the left of the 2 lower
> keys next to the carriage return key.
>
>> Its a level 0 character damnit, utc=0022. And
>> the single-quote('), commonly used for an apostiphe, code 0027, can
>> only be typed into the clipboard by KCharSelect and then pasted as I
>> had to do above. This is not at all satisfying. Also, while I have
>> the scroll lock led set to show alt group, its not working. And
>> hitting the single quote twice now gets me an apostiphe (´)
>
>I don't think that's an apostrophe, I think it's a dead key for a french
>accent "é", and damn it, i'm changing keyboard layouts here to write all
> this stuff like they're going out of fashion. I'm on the GB one, then
> the CA one, then the US one. Perhaps I should add the DE (german) one,
> and that will have the problem solved, apart from it's "qwertz" rather
> than "qwerty" layout. 2 more key changes, and probably a bunch of other
> stuff.
>
>> Ok, turn all that stuff back off
>> and switch to a 105 key international layout, and I still can't do the
>> umlauts except by copy-paste from the selector. Grrrrr.
>>
>> Now I´ve spent another half an hour screwing around with what should be
>> a simple setting. Screw it, back to square one for all settings. And
>> no single quote is available now. None. How can I get that back?
>> Restart X maybe? I´m truely lost here folks.
>
>Now listen. I've been on the wikipedia this afternoon, looking at
> keyboard layouts. If we think we have problems, I don't think I'd like
> using the Chinese one.
Uuurrhhp...
>You could omit the umlaut, and spell his name Joerg, which produces the
> same sound as Jörg, but I don't think this the right thing to do with
> peoples names.
Neither do I, even if its Schillings name.
>To change the subject and go a bit OT, I havn't seen any of your
> reminiscences of the past lately. One that I wanted to mention a while
> back was from the 60's. I left school at 15, and wanted to be an
> electrical engineer. Nothing going there in Jersey in the Channel
> Islands, but my headmaster because I was good at metalwork, got me a job
> as apprentice plumber with a friend of his. I still wanted to get into
> doing electrical stuff, as I had friends who repaired radios, and so on.
> I was only in the plumbing trade for a few weeks as I was still trying
> to get into the electrical trade, and eventually got a job as apprentice
> electrician. I'm not knocking the plumbing, as I learned a lot in those
> few weeks. One year or so later in the electrical trade, and I was a bit
> disappointed. A bit of electrical work, but mostly cutting cable runs
> down concrete block walls with a cold chisel, or Kango hammer. this
> wasn't really what I wanted to do. Looking about for something else I
> got a job, and this is at 16 years of age, doing the stage lighting for
> a local hotel's cabaret. The lighting control panel was made by Strand
> Lighting, and there was a rack of saturable reactors in the room
> opposite the lighting booth that controlled the dimming of the spots. Oh
> yes. Backstage was some fluorescent light dimming stuff. the only colour
> I really got working was the green, when the showband that was playing
> did Danny Boy. I think the fluorescent dimming stuff was originally
> supposed to sequence through different colours, but no longer worked,
> that is, if it had ever worked.
>
>Right the summer season finished, and a few weeks later I was asked if I
>wanted to help out on the lighting at the Opera House, also owned by the
> same guy as the hotel. we're going back in time now because the lighting
> was still Strand, but ancient. this was built in cast iron. Triacs,
> Thyristors, no chance, way into the future. Even the saturable reactors
> at the hotel were way more advanced. These were rheostats. Cast iron
> wheels controlling the rheostats to bring down the house lights, and
> everything on the very large scale. This was for a Spanish Ballet
> production, and there were some very nice girls in it, but being shy,
> very reserved, and it doesn't help if you can't speak Spanish, never got
> anywhere with the cast.
Reminds me of a story, but it absolutely cannot be told in mixed company..
>Some weeks after the Spanish Ballet had finished, I got asked to run the
> spots (limes) for the winter pantomime, which was "Aladdin". this is
> where the lighting stuff gets interesting. There were 2 carbon arc spots
> supplied by a huge rectifier restrained in a metal cage. this contained
> 2 glass mercury pool rectifiers, which were IIRC about 15" in diameter.
> These had to be ancient, even in the 60's. I can't remember if they were
> from Strand Lighting. I don't think they were. When the spots were
> drawing current from these rectifiers was truly an amazing sight, like
> something out of Victor Franstein's laboratory. Seeing electricity
> dancing off the mercury pool inside of this glass globe was an
> incredible sight. have you ever seen anything like that?
Chuckle, would you believe that the late 1950's model tv transmitter I've
been keeping on the air for the last 23 years uses mv rectifiers? But
they are only about 5" in diameter x a bit over a foot tall. Thats those
that haven't had the bases cannibalized to build silicon rectifier stacks
that plug directly into the holders on the wall of the cubical. I keep
one real one in a hot socket, and a half dozen standing upright in
shipping peanuts for use in the event we get hit by lighting which can
blow the silicons in wholesale qty's. At 24 per stack, I order spares in
100 packs. Some folks think the mv stuff is pretty. I check the neon
lamps in the stacks, which keeps track of the failed diodes by going out,
weekly.
We had relatively huge seleniums running the carbon arc projectors in the
theater in my home town where I worked for a while when I was about 13-14.
They had automatic servos to feed the carbons and hold them at prime focus,
but they weren't smart enough to stop one from burning up the carbon
holders if you miss-judged the remaining carbon rod vs the length of film
on that reel. :(
>Then I screwed up my life in lighting. We had a party when the pantomime
> had run to it's completion. As I was in charge, and hadn't cleaned up
> the room from our fag (cigarette) packets, etc, I got the blame from the
> boss, insulted him, like some stupid 16 year old might do, and lost out
> on what might have been an interesting career. If only we could turn
> back the clock, apologise for not having done something that we should
> have done, and agree to get it sorted. I did apologise to him some time
> later, but it's too late then. the damage is done. The stupidity of
> youth eh!
Eeeiiyyuupp! Been there, done that a time or two. A hungry youth soon
learns to keep his yap shut though.
But I had the pleasure of working with tubes for a few years before
transistors hit the big time, so my talents are now those of a dying
breed, and I get paid quite competitive amounts for that. I try to teach,
and its working well enough that when I'm out of town, my successor in
that CE's chair can get it running again, once or twice now without any
great amount of hand-holding over the phone. Its encouraging, but the
commissions attitude re over the air broadcasting says that our days at
the top of the pile are numbered. I would like to just go fishing, but
all these darned honeydoos are keeping my boats bottom dry. Thats a
terrible shame!
>Nigel.
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
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Copyright 2006 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
