Details
A WORKSHOP is ...
just what you
want it to be!
Bring any kind of project and everything
you need to do it.
Bring your best manners and leave your expectations home.
Bring an extension cord and a power strip.
Note: There is fast food and diners within a mile
but we do order pizza around 6 P.M.
People have come with every conceivable type of project.
People tend to think either hardware or software …
there are some projects that are hard to classify in that way,
but the examples below should help:
You Decide - HARDWARE, SOFTWARE or Something Else
Open, repair, reassemble and play your (antique) concertina.
Read a book and do the examples as you read and get help as needed. See Note 1
Backup a hard drive; delete all the files with which you can part to make room to
install something you really need (something you get paid for using); reorganize the remaining files; install the
new program(s) and make sure they work; start the programs; learn them, and do something useful. See Note 2
Backup a small hard disk. Install and partition a larger hard drive and restore
the backup. Make sure it all works while you still have help.
Get rid of copies of PKZIP from every application directory where PKZIP and PKUNZIP
can be found. Then put one each of the compression utility files into a directory in the "places" searched
by the system when it makes use of the "PATH environment variable"
Get all the application files (as far as possible) out of the root directory and
set up the system files (CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT) with a functional PATH then devise a sensible directory structure
and reorganize.
Find out why for a particular (New Jersey State) bulletin board system (BBS) any
internal or external 1200 BAUD modem works with any software communication package you can find BUT the expensive-new-high-speed-external-fax-modem
will not work.
Change the video on a laptop computer from a liquid-crystal-display to a back lighted
display; hook up an external removable hard drive that uses the parallel port; install the software; run and verify
a backup of the hard drive.
Build the cable and set up a $25.00 "shareware" peer-to-peer network between
two computers using two serial ports (one on each computer).
SOFTWARE
Search (with your kid's 10th cousin) a 1860 Illinois Census CD-ROM for genealogy
information on your family sur-names to locate possible relatives.
Sit with the author of a "really neat" commercial-utility-shell-program;
get a high powered demonstration of the capabilities; and, discuss the work from the standpoint of the author and
programmer.
Use and discuss at length, the major features of a number of commercial accounting
programs with several people including a certified public accountant, a book-keeper and business owners.
Install a program on several computers trying to make it work. Someone finally (hours
later) realizes they all have DR-DOS ... SO IT WORKS as soon as we boot from a floppy with MS-DOS. Don't Tell Ron!
Write any kind of BASIC, C, or assembly language program and have it discussed and/or
debugged (order is unpredictable).
HARDWARE
Wire a HUGE network junction box for a clients installation.
Open up a monitor and find out why it burned and crashed on the last time it got
juiced up. Then, (would you believe) decide if it is worth fixing. It was!
"Check Out" a used Portable 75 MHz Phillips Dual Trace Oscilloscope.
Find out why one word processor will print to a dot matrix printer but not another
and you cannot "COPY" a file to a device (PRN: or LPTn:). Also, you cannot "PRINT" a file.
... THE FIX: a piece of scotch tape on the parallel-port-connector-pin. Still works (same tape) six years later.
Open up a monitor and adjust the focus, the brightness and the horizontal and vertical
position of the display.
Install a hard drive, CD-ROM and a tape drive on a new SCSI controller and still
leave the IDE controller and two other hard drives in the system. Make them all work ... sometimes?
Setup and use a keyboard, midi interface and software to compose and play your own
music (a real musician). Treat everyone to the output on your new musical computerized composition setup.
NOTES:
1.	Statements like "it can clearly be shown" or "it
is an easy matter to" which actually include far too many steps. Also, "Clear and Easy to Follow"
but only if you know and actually remember everything you ever learned or even ever heard on the subject.
Just ask TEKURU - the usual approach. Return
2.	One can almost always count on the help of some knowledgeable person.
Someone (at least two have names) who came to see what they would be missing if they stayed home. Occasionally,
they are just interested enough in your project to hang out and keep you going. Return