OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Paul D.Smith" wrote in message
. ..
BTW, some laptops only have a single keyboard/mouse socket. You can get a
Y-cable from places like PCWorld (or much cheaper off eBay) and plug both
a mouse and keyboard in if you wish. Alternatively, use a USB mouse and
keyboard if your notebook as USB ports.

You'll laugh, but until last week I used a USB mouse via an adaptor to fit
the round hole on the side. It kep getting knocked so I bravely pushed the
mouse plug into the USB hole on the back. So that freed up the round hole
for the keyboard, which worked. Yay I'm an IT expert!

FWIW, I find that the optical mice
(the ones with a red LED instead of a ball) are far superior but you want
to use them on a plain surface; patterns confuse them. It's also probably
the only time I'd say "buy Microsoft" as their mice, even their cheap
ones, are IMHO the best around.

Yes I'd agree. Although we have two Logitech cordless that seem to be fine.

Bill

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Bill Wright" wrote:

I suppose it's like OVR in Word, which mysteriously turns itself on from
time to time in my experience.

Bill, maybe you've got the same problem as me. That 'Insert' key is
perilously close to the 'Backspace' key (the most commonly used key by far
if you type and ineptly as I do). I bet you're hitting it sometimes without
knowing it.

I have a problem with Outlook Express in that sometimes it does this
overwriting trick spontaneously. Sometimes it will stop if I press Insert
but sometimes it just won't, so I have to copy my work, close the program,
open it again, and paste.

I wonder if, again, it's due to accidental presses of the Insert key.
However, I can't explain why it won't go back to how it should be. We need
an IT expert, I think.

Steve

OK you guys (TOT)
 

The message
from "Steve Thackery" contains these words:

They are all 'legacy' keys from the old days. Apparently they haven't
removed them because it would break backward compatibility (although
personally I wish they would, and sod the backward compatibility).

But what's NUM LOCK? Why do I have to press it for the laptop but not for
the proper computer?

On all keyboards the 'arithmetic' keys are shared - take a look at them and
you will see the extra symbols. On most 'proper' keyboards the extra
symbols just duplicate that block of keys immediately to the left: up,
down,
left, right, PgUp, PgDn, etc. Therefore the computer starts up with NUM
LOCK set because you normally want the arithmetic keys to generate numbers.

The enhanced AT keyboard was endowed with an additional block of keys,
known as the number pad. For compatabilty, the origional combined number
pad/cursor control block was retained purely for cursor control
functions and the layout optimised to this function.

The numeric pad could be toggled between cursor control function and
number pad function (the layout of the cursor control keys matched the
original one on the AT keyboard). With number lock off, you had a
duplicated set of cursor control keys (but with slightly altered
layout), with numlock on you then had a dedicated number pad _without_
the cursor control key duplication.

All PCs can be programmed to start with the numberlock in the on or off
state. The OS could then either retain this state (eg win95 to winME),
or (in the case of win2k and XP, for example), turn it off at the login
page and set it back to whatever state it was in at the time of the last
logout of the user account then being logged back into.

Laptops are (or may be) different, and may not have that intermediate block
of keys I mentioned, so you would then use the arithmetic keys for the
functions such as up, down, PgUp, etc. In this case the computer helpfully
starts with NUM LOCK unset.

Laptop keyboards, due to space constraints, don't have the luxury of a
number pad group. As with the mains powered PC, they can be programmed
to start with the numberlock preset to on or off. The usual setting is
numberlock off on account of the absence of a dedicated cursor control
group on the laptop's built in keyboard (although there's no reason why
a user shouldn't keep a standard Enhanced AT keyboard permanently
plugged in and program the laptop to start with the numberlock on.)

And what's SCROLL LOCK? What's PAUSE BREAK?

Obsolete. They were used in the days of dumb, character-based computer
terminals. I don't know of any software that makes use of them.

Software can and. occasionally, does use such 'obsolete' keys. Any key
scan code can be used in whatever way the software author wishes. One
example of usage of the 'obsolete' Pause/Break key is in pausing the
POST info screen during boot up.

Most properly written BIOSes will honour this keyboard input, allowing
you the time required to analyse the otherwise fleeting glimpse of
system information or permit you to open the CDrom drawer and insert a
bootable CD on those occasions when you don't want to boot from the hard
disk (provided the boot device order has been appropriately set in the
cmos configuration).

PRT SCR I understand: it puts the screen into a mysterious place from
which I can copy it.

In the old days it literally sent the screen contents (we're still talking
about character-based terminals, here) to the printer. Now it copies the
screen contents as a graphic to the clipboard, which you can then paste
elsewhere. They call this a 'screenshot'.

Here's a slightly useful trick: ALT + PRT SCR copies just the active window
to the clipboard. (PRT SCR on its own copies the whole screen)

But what's SYS RQ?

Obsolete. Not used for anything.

A dangerous phrase to use in relation to keyboards. ALL key presses
will generate key scan codes on a 'live' IBM AT (enhanced or not)
keyboard. It's the software (whether that is the 'firmware' of the
motherboard BIOS [1], the OS software or application software) which
interprets the response.

I've recently seen a reference to its use in Linux as a signal to the
OS to force a save of all open files (including log files) in the event
of a kernel panic or lockup (system crash). In the latter case, this (or
any other) function is not guaranteed.

What's INS?

This toggles insert/overwrite mode in most word processors. In insert
mode,
text you type 'pushes' any text in front if it along. This is the most
common mode. In overwrite mode, text you type overwrites the existing
text.
Completely useless - I don't know of anyone who uses it. Normally, if you
don't want some text, you select it and delete it, and *then* start typing.

[1] 'firmware' so called on account it was origionally stored in a rom,
effectively making it a program 'set in stone' (in this case, the
'stone' being silicon in nature).

Origionally, for the PC at any rate, Erasable Programable Read Only
Memory (EPROM) was used. Unless you were prepared to remove the EPROM
chip to erase it in an Ultraviolet Light EPROM erasor and then plug it
into an EPROM programmer for reprogramming, the software stored in the
chip _was_ effectively set in stone.

Later PCs (around the time of the introduction of the Pentium) used
EEPROM or Flash (programable) RAM which could be electrically erased and
reprogrammed in situ using a special bios flash program provided by the
MoBo manufacturer with a suitable updated bios image file.

This change allowed 'in the field' bios updates over the lifetime of
the PC motherboard. Unfortunately, this feature could be exploited by
such viruses as the CIH/Chernoble virus to name the most famous example.
Unless the eeprom could be unplugged from the MoBo (they're nearly
always soldered in, these days), the result was a dead system with the
only economic repair option being the fitting of a new MoBo.

--
Regards, John.

Please remove the "ohggcyht" before replying.
The address has been munged to reject Spam-bots.

OK you guys (TOT)
 

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:21 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:


SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does, or
ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an ornament.


It used to do something but it was too long ago now for me to
remember. Didn't MS Flight Sim use them?

Whilst we are on the topic what are the symbols on the one key for?
ie: ¬ ` ¦


--
AnthonyL

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"AnthonyL" wrote in message

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:21 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:


SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does,
or ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an
ornament.


It used to do something but it was too long ago now for me to
remember. Didn't MS Flight Sim use them?

Whilst we are on the topic what are the symbols on the one key for?
ie: ¬ ` ¦

Don't you mean next to the one key?

Well they display the characters indicated. ` unmodified, ¬ shifted and ¦
with Alt Gr. (Ah! there's another rarely used key!)

--
Max Demian

OK you guys (TOT)
 

On Apr 24, 12:01 pm, "Steve Thackery" wrote:

I wonder if, again, it's due to accidental presses of the Insert key.
However, I can't explain why it won't go back to how it should be. We need
an IT expert, I think.

I used to have a laptop, where the delete key was next to the power
button. After a couple of disasters, I set 'autosave' in Excel and
Word to 1 minute !

OK you guys (TOT)
 

"Max Demian" wrote in message

"AnthonyL" wrote in message

It used to do something but it was too long ago now for me to
remember. Didn't MS Flight Sim use them?

Whilst we are on the topic what are the symbols on the one key for?
ie: ¬ ` ¦

Don't you mean next to the one key?

Well they display the characters indicated. ` unmodified, ¬ shifted
and ¦ with Alt Gr. (Ah! there's another rarely used key!)

Oh, you mean what are the *characters* for. Well ` is the ASCII backquote,
used to start a quotation (except that it doesn't match the forward quote '
in most character sets). Used for command substitution in Unix. ¬ is a
logical NOT, indicating negation (not 7-bit ASCII), and the ¦ broken bar
character is used for, um, pipe operations in Unix (and DOS, more or less).
I *think* it's a 7-bit character, unless that's |

No wonder they're all squadged into the top left corner of the keyboard.

--
Max Demian

OK you guys (TOT)
 

Max Demian wrote:
"AnthonyL" wrote in message

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:21 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:


SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does,
or ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an
ornament.


It used to do something but it was too long ago now for me to
remember. Didn't MS Flight Sim use them?

Whilst we are on the topic what are the symbols on the one key for?
ie: ¬ ` ¦

Don't you mean next to the one key?

Well they display the characters indicated. ` unmodified, ¬ shifted
and ¦ with Alt Gr. (Ah! there's another rarely used key!)

I once told my sister that was the 'any key', she believed me. ;-)

OK you guys (TOT)
 

Owain wrote:

That's what digital cameras are for.

....and for getting a shot of the 'Specials' board in the pub, when no one else
can be arsed to get up and go and read it for themselves.

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

OK you guys (TOT)
 

Adrian A wrote:
Max Demian wrote:
"AnthonyL" wrote in message

On Tue, 24 Apr 2007 08:37:21 +0100, Roderick Stewart
wrote:


SCROLL LOCK. The mystery key. *Nobody* knows what Scroll Lock does,
or ever did, if anything. Best regard the scroll lock key as an
ornament.


It used to do something but it was too long ago now for me to
remember. Didn't MS Flight Sim use them?

Whilst we are on the topic what are the symbols on the one key for?
ie: ¬ ` ¦

Don't you mean next to the one key?

Well they display the characters indicated. ` unmodified, ¬ shifted
and ¦ with Alt Gr. (Ah! there's another rarely used key!)

I once told my sister that was the 'any key', she believed me. ;-)

ROTFL! I must remember that for future use.


Peter Crosland