My computer is dead

[mamadeb]

It's been working very badly the last few weeks - I'd taken to keeping a book with me so that I could read while waiting for things to happen. We'd run spybot and antivirus programs and so on, but it was just creepingly slow. We are wondering if weeks of low voltage last summer hurt it.

Last night, we went to a thing at our shul (something I do plan to talk about because, oh my goodness. gnomi and chaoswrangler, have you ever heard of Edenics?) and when we returned, the computer was off. We only ever shut the computer off during thunderstorms and for Shabbat. jonbaker tried to turn it on several times, but all it does is *try* to turn on and then turn off again.

So. Anyone have suggestions for the next computer? This one was a Dell and it's four years old. (The one I'm currently using is also a Dell and it's five years old and working fine.)

Comments

[gnomi.livejournal.com]

gnomi and chaoswrangler, have you ever heard of Edenics?

I've heard of it; I'm not at all convinced by the arguments, though.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Neither were we. We spent the presentation whispering to each other and giggling.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank goodness! I googled on it, and had this sudden horrid feeling like the entire world was going mad all around me.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You should know us better than that.

In fact, in every advertisement and notice about this, our shul has put in a disclaimer that "This is one of many theories and the Minyan does not endorse it."

Jonathan's a board member now (and I may be soon, because he's taking time off) and there's whole dinner thing, so we had to show up.

Didn't mean we didn't laugh about it all the way home.

[rachel-wilder.livejournal.com]

I bought another Dell when mine died this fall. I'd had mine for five years, I think. I bought the Dimension E520 and I've been happy. I got it with Media Center and it's revolutionized how I feel about TV! I don't have Tivo, so having the tv tuner has been a lot of fun. I did spend the extra money to get the dual tv tuner so I can watch and record or record two things. I didn't upgrade the sound, but kind of wished I had. Good luck!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Media center, huh?

I wonder...

Thank you.

[boroparkpyro.livejournal.com]

Edenics?! Oh GOD no... :-O

that hurts my little linguistic soul...

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was thinking about you, too.

It's a shame you weren't there. :)

[boroparkpyro.livejournal.com]

Why, so that if i were there i could have beaten them with a blunt glottal stop? ;-)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Somebody needed to. We know enough to know how bad his ideas were, but not enough to say anything.

[boroparkpyro.livejournal.com]

Well, it's all over now :-)

So have fun reading about Wrathful Dispersion (http://q-pheevr.livejournal.com/33337.html) theory!

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Oh,my goodnes.

It's the linguistic version of Intelligent Design.

[boroparkpyro.livejournal.com]

technically it's a parody of Intelligent Design ;-)

[chvickers.livejournal.com]

I can't give you a recommendation, but I can give you a *dis*recommendation: avoid anything under the Averatec name. Much of their electronics uses non-standard parts so if anything breaks down you have to wait for parts to come from the manufacturer. That can take ages. It took me six months to get my laptop back.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Thank you. All information is good.

[ginamariewade.livejournal.com]

Whoever came up with this - King James (of King James Version fame) already tried to prove this back in the 16th or 17th century. His methodology involved isolating children and seeing what language they would spontaneously speak - he believed it would be Hebrew. He was sorely disappointed that they did not speak at all.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

One of the guy's arguments was that we "think in Edenics."

Which is why I had no problems learning Hebrew as an adult. Except. Not so much.

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

One of the guy's arguments was that we "think in Edenics."

If this guy can demonstrate how language is processed in the brain to that extent, he should get the next Nobel in physiology/medicine. Modern neurolinguistics isn't even close to being able to say how we "think in a language".

linguistic geeking

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

gnomi and chaoswrangler, have you ever heard of Edenics?

I hadn't heard of the term "Edenics" but I've seen the idea before. I've yet to see an account that covers subsystems of a language* rather than just throwing out semi-random examples and calling that proof.

*[geek alert]
A standard linguistic method for identifying related languages is to compare simple vocabulary words (e.g. low numbers, simple family relations, basic body parts) that are likely to be (a) in any human language, (b) learned early by native speakers, and (c) less likely to be replaced by words borrowed from another language.

So, allowing for differences in writing and pronunciation (since I don't have an easy way to represent linguistic symbols): one-un, two-deux, three-trois, six-six, seven-sept, nine-neuf is somewhat convincing (since 4, 5, and 8 had to be skipped) while six-shesh, seven-sheva is not (since 1-5 and 8-9 had to be left out). So I'm less skeptical about English being (closely) related to French than to Hebrew.

Another basic tactic is to show that certain sounds in one language often correspond to related sounds in a second language. For example Hebrew "sh"-Aramaic "t": shalosh-t'lat (three), sheleg-t'lag (snow), and shor-tor (ox) - all basic words/concepts. I've yet to see a good example of a sound shift that's consistent between Hebrew and English.

Did the speaker you heard use either of these tactics or just random examples?

Re: linguistic geeking

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

This is what he didHe showed tables of how there were similar sounds in both languages - labials, nasals, fricatives, sibilants and so on. And then he showed how sounds can be reversed or nasalized when borrowed by another language or just over time.

He used these things to show how it all related to imaginary two-letter shoreshes - chet-lamed, for example, is, in his view, the ancester of health such as healthy or wholesome. Except that in other languages - French and Spanish - the health words have no relationship at all to those sounds and the closest things in Hebrew are words that mean weakness or ill-health. He did the same to find something for "horse", which he claims goes to a two-letter shoresh meaning "plow".

He did show words that were similar, using those rules, in many languages. His big one was derech, which if you add Ns or switch the letters or drop things out or change the vowels, you get words meaning...fashion. Or something, but often road or travel-type words.

Is this what you mean?

Re: linguistic geeking

[chaos-wrangler.livejournal.com]

Is this what you mean?

Yes and no. It sounds like he did a whole bunch of things, each of which may be legit, but not necessarily when piled on to that extent. Also, if it's just one word here and one word there, that's a lot less convincing than a pattern that holds for a bunch of words. After all, the sounds people can make are constrained by biology, and certain sounds are more common across languages, so finding 2 sounds that a bunch of words across languages have in common isn't necessarily more than chance.

For example, t and d sounds often alternate between or within a language and so do k and g sounds, vowels often shift between languages, and sometimes pairs of consonants switch in order. But even with all of these being true, I'm not ready to believe that "cat" and "dog" are related (as shown by their similar meanings of small sometimes domesticated animals).

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

If you're reasonably happy with your Dell, I'd say get another one. According to Consumer Reports, they're about the best of the big-box PC manufacturers.

Avoid "goatway"

And, as always, I'm going to pimp www.apple.com

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Apple people. :) (My brother-in-law is one, and convinced my mother-in-law to buy a Mac this last time. We're still her informal IT department.)

We were less than happy about Dell.

[countrycousin.livejournal.com]

Sound like it might be a disk problem.

I have bought Dell since about '91. My experience has been fairly good, but when the bubble burst a few years ago, they began cutting back on customer service and, perhaps, quality, IMO. But I'm still buying them.

It sounds like this disk is still working, but might have some damaged files. You might be able to boot it from a floppy or CD and do disk diagnostics. If you succeeded, you might have to replace some lost files and/or the disk. You'd want help from a friendly techie, I suppose.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Booting from floppy - that's a possibility.

It's a new hard drive, too.