Progress, though slow...
Sep. 19th, 2001 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI picked up a Buslink USB disk (20 GB) while in Houston, and used it yesterday to make a copy of the eSlate's drive. I also spent some time trying to move my mail over to the VAIO. I've been using Mozilla mail, which I like better than Outl(ugh!)k, but which still has some funny - or at least suspicious - behavior.
In any event, I installed Mandrake Linux 8.0 on the eSlate, after a couple of false starts (somehow, in among the CMOS settings, the maximum setting on the power management was reset, as was use of the memory cache). Turning both the power management and memory cache off allowed the OS to be installed on the third try. The out-of-the-box X Window display is a lot better than the one I got in version 7.2, but it still has problems (come to think of it, I didn't try to move any windows on the screen, so I really have no basis for saying it's a lot better, but I digress...I really don't care, at this point).
I started to read The Word on the Street, by John McWhorter, who's one of the few linguists in the world, it seems, capable of writing for an audience outside of his field. So far, he seems to be confirming much of what I've felt for a long time: languages change and slavish reliance (insistence?) upon old and outdated forms is silly.
That brings up a question: When has maintaining such forms ever been successful? And for how long?
Anyway, I don't really have the time to read right now. I've got to start paying serious attention to what's going on around here. Paperwork. Yech.
Cheers...
In any event, I installed Mandrake Linux 8.0 on the eSlate, after a couple of false starts (somehow, in among the CMOS settings, the maximum setting on the power management was reset, as was use of the memory cache). Turning both the power management and memory cache off allowed the OS to be installed on the third try. The out-of-the-box X Window display is a lot better than the one I got in version 7.2, but it still has problems (come to think of it, I didn't try to move any windows on the screen, so I really have no basis for saying it's a lot better, but I digress...I really don't care, at this point).
I started to read The Word on the Street, by John McWhorter, who's one of the few linguists in the world, it seems, capable of writing for an audience outside of his field. So far, he seems to be confirming much of what I've felt for a long time: languages change and slavish reliance (insistence?) upon old and outdated forms is silly.
That brings up a question: When has maintaining such forms ever been successful? And for how long?
Anyway, I don't really have the time to read right now. I've got to start paying serious attention to what's going on around here. Paperwork. Yech.
Cheers...
