Question : Hi all!

This has been nagging me for weeks, and instead of continuing to sit on my hands and be frustrated, I'm just going to pour out the contents of my tortured skull in this letter.

Are we here to write term papers and theses' for people? Are we here to teach the fine art of hacking secure networks? Are we here to teach people the intricacies of phreaking telephone systems? Are we here to teach people how to manipulate email headers? Are we here to answer as many questions in as little time as possible, with meaningless/nonsensical jabber to garner a better position on the leader board in hopes of getting some $$$$? Are we here to serve ourselves? Are we here to serve people who desperately need help in a subject that frightens the hell out of them?

The question I pose to all of you is the same one that I ask of myself each time I log on to this site: WHAT ARE YOU HERE FOR?

It is time for each of us to do a searching personal and moral inventory. There is only one question above that any of us should be answering "yes" to....the last one. Why anyone would take even a single minute out of their day to answer a question like "How do you hack email?" is beyond my comprehesion. Answering those questions makes it clear to those asking the question, and to those reading the response, that Askme is the place to go to learn how to hack/crack/phreak, etc. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be associated with an organization that caters to those subjects. Why not simply report the inappropriate question to Askme?

Another type of question that kills me is the "Can you explain to me how the influx of technology into the workplace has forced a paradigm shift in corporate understanding of the importance of a well-trained IT department?" type. I don't know about you folks, but I have a zillion binders & Zip Disks full of all the term papers, theses', case studies, formulas, and opinions that I wrote in college. No one wrote them for me...I did the countless hours of research, typing and printing all on my own. I was happy to do it, because those things stood between me and that degree. Maybe I'm just bitter because I didn't have a forum like this to get others to do the work for me. ;-)Again, why not simply report the inapproptiate question to Askme?

The last subject I want to touch on are the "Experts" who think that scribbling a few lines of misinformed junk under a question constitutes an answer. Answer only the questions whose answers you know, or know how to find. If you don't know the answer, research it, and if you find the answer, post it. If you research it and still don't know the answer, DON'T ANSWER IT!!!!! When you answer questions that you don't really have an answer for, you not only do a great disservice to the person asking the question, but also to the other experts here. You compromise everyones integrity when you show that you yourself have none. There is nothing wrong with selecting questions that challenge your knowledge and skills, but if you can't answer it effectively, you benefit no one but yourself. Pride is, in fact, one of the Seven Deadlies, my friends. And please don't allow yourself to become a "Human Search Engine"...you know what I'm talking about. People who's only replies to questions are lists of URL's. Including URL's in your answer is great if it leads to information that supports or further illustrates your answer, but just typing "Go to www.bitemybutt.com, and there you will find the answer to your question" again, only benefits you by giving you credit for answering a question that you really didn't answer. Face it, unless you have made this site a full-time job, you aren't going to make the top of the leader board. And I hate to be the one to break the news to you, but the pay still ain't that great for the leaders, compared to what you can make at a Tier IorII helpdesk job. It is an incentive, and yes, I do take a great deal of satisfaction from seeing my rating take a monster jump, but only because I know that it means that I have helped people. Yet again, why not just report bogus experts to Askme?

We do a great thing here, and judging from the number of people who post questions & browse the site, we do it well. We are a hardworking group who understands that many hands make light work. We can be proud of what we do here, if we do the right thing. If we weren't here, who would be? Probably more people like the ones described above.... :-)

Please don't think that I am some sort of malcontent...my only motivation for writing this letter was to try and make Askme the best it can be. I hope that you have found it thought provoking, and that you'll add your own feedback.

If I can ever be of service to anyone, please feel free to drop me a line

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

John M. Thieling

Answer : I must ring in with an opinion here too. I for one am also very sick of people asking questions and then either not rating them, or rating them low if it wasn't the answer they thought they wanted. If tripster is right and there are people purposely going around re-rating answers low to bring people on top down I will be gone from here! That is a completely BS game - I've been here answering questions the best I can since January and I think the whole money thing has screwed the whole site up. Some people have no dignity or honor and will trade either one for a better ranking on here. That is pathetic...

Paul Doherty
(pauldoherty on AskMe)
Rating : 3
Rating : 3
Rating : 3


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QAId : 1784164
Asker : BILLCROOKS
Subject : P C
Private : No

Question : WHY DOES MY COMPUTER TURN OFF WHEN THE
PHONE RINGS AND I AM OFF LINE

Answer : Check in your BIOS, under your power management section (enter the BIOS with a DEL keypress just before booting begins from the hard disk). In that section you may have some Wake on LAN type settings and you may see some relating to COM ports (those are your serial ports). If you see any like these disable them to get rid of this behavior.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue


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QAId : 2112325
Asker : mindy14
Subject : Update Database
Private : No

Question : I hope someone can help , I have a program called Trash It I like it very much but when I try to update the databaseit says "unable to find Config.sys" how do I get this back or can I ? THANKS in advance

Answer : It sounds like the program needs to make some changes to your config.sys, which as you said, does not exist. It is an old DOS configuration file that is not required for Windows 95/98 operation. (it's optional) I suggest you create a config.sys and then run your upgrade so the program can put whatever it needs into it. Here's how:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

Now type the following, hitting ENTER at the end of each line:

copy con c:\config.sys
REM Empty config.sys
^Z

The "^Z" above means hold CTRL and press the "Z" key - then hit ENTER.

Now run your upgrade and see if it runs any better.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5


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QAId : 2112373
Asker : mindy14
Subject : Update Database
Private : No

Question : I hope someone can help , I have a program called Trash It I like it very much but when I try to update the databaseit says "unable to find Config.sys" how do I get this back or can I ? THANKS in advance

Answer : It sounds like the program needs to make some changes to your config.sys, which as you said, does not exist. It is an old DOS configuration file that is not required for Windows 95/98 operation. (it's optional) I suggest you create a config.sys and then run your upgrade so the program can put whatever it needs into it. Here's how:

Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt

Now type the following, hitting ENTER at the end of each line:

copy con c:\config.sys
REM Empty config.sys
^Z

The "^Z" above means hold CTRL and press the "Z" key - then hit ENTER.

Now run your upgrade and see if it runs any better.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5


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QAId : 2293265
Asker : singleton
Subject : windows
Private : No

Question : I have been getting the illegal act box quite a bit lately in fact almost everytime I'm on. Most of my time is spent on the internet.I have done all the clean up things like scan disk and defragment but this does not seem to help.I have check my memory and I still have alot. Some times it will let me click ok others times it closes me down. Can anyone help?

Answer : If you're using a WinModem (software-driver-based modem) I'd suggest you either update it to the latest drivers available:

http://winfiles.cnet.com/drivers/modems.html

OR

replace that modem with a hardware-based modem (uses no drivers other than those that come with Windows - this gains you two things - speed (less CPU overhead) and stability (less drivers that can cause these types of crashes)).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : How might I find out what kind of modem I have. All I know right now is it is 56k
Rating : 5

Answer : Right-click your My Computer icon on your desktop and select Properties.

Then go to the Device Manager tab and open the Modems section and tell me what modem is listed there.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : us robotics 56k win int

Answer : Ok - that very well could be a WinModem modem in which case the first thing to try is upgrading the drivers - check here:

http://consumer.3com.com/winmodem/upgrades/index.html

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5


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QAId : 3226785
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : downloading
Private : No

Question : I have downloaded info from a website, but all I have is a page of machine language. What am I doing wrong.

Answer : Instead of left-clicking the download link try right-clicking it and selecting "Save Target As..."

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities



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QAId : 3234601
Asker : snmishra
Subject : about waveform
Private : Yes

Question : Sir,
I want to know about what is a waveform. It is generally characterized by which basic things.


Sincerely,

S.N.Mishra
sr. Lect., IGIT,Sarang
ORISSA,INDIA
mail <snmishra@cal2.vsnl.net.in>

Answer : This probably belongs in physics but OK...


A waveform consists of only three things: wavelength, frequency, and amplitude.


Wavelength is the distance linearly between identical portions of the waveform (where it repeats).

Frequency is how often (in a given period of time - usually expressed in Hertz (Hz) (oscillations per second)) the wave repeats or "oscillates" per second.

Amplitude has to do with how high above or below the zero line a waveform travels. The stronger the wave the farther from neutral the wave will travel. A good analogy is sound. A louder sound is one that has a higher amplitude.

Continuing the sound analogy a tuba would generate sound waves that:

Are relatively long in wavelength, low in frequency, and high in amplitude.

A flute would generate sounds waves that:

Are relatively short in wavelength, high in frequency and moderate in amplitude.

Both sounds will reach your ear in the same time after leaving either instrument even though their wavelengths and frequencies are vastly different... why is that? It's because if you multiply the wavelength times the frequency for any sound you will always end up with the same value - the speed of sound (for the material you are using for a medium - usually we're talking about air). So in the case of a high-frequency sound (oscillates/repeats rapidly) you will have a short wavelength. This means that even though you have more repetitions of the waveform, each travels a lesser distance making the final distance travelled the same as for a longer wavelength waveform that, while travelling a greater distance *per oscillation*, oscillates less frequently making the ground it covers the same.


--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities



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QAId : 3254880
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : why
Private : No

Question : why is it people do not bother to rate answers, it's not that difficult. I am new to this site and i have answered about 15 questions on different subjects, not one of these was rated. As soon as i read my answer i rate it even if it was shit i still rate it. Why should people bother answering your questions if you can't take the rime out of your pressious day to make one click of the mouse, and rate an answer.

Answer : I totally agree - it can't be that it's too much effort to rate the answer... it's a single mouse click! Compared to the time it took for:

1) the questioner to find an expert, formulate and type a question

2) the expert to formulate and type an answer

3) the questioner to read the answer

There is no excuse not to rate the answers...

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 4.8
Rating : 4.8
Rating : 4.8

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