Impressions on everyone here

[Troy Martin]

Kewl, maybe we'll get some "mini-convention" going later in the year, I'd say around April.

E: You DON'T have a webcam?? Holy crap batman, go grab a cheap-@$$ little 40 dollar one!

[Love4Boobies]

And discuss what? I certainly doubt anything OS-related. Anyway, there's plenty of channels out there like #osdev on irc.freenode.org or BrokenThorn's channel (check website or ask neon).

[JohnnyTheDon]

Maybe I just wanted an excuse to setup yet another server on a surprisingly fast computer I found, which I now use as a server.

Way to rain on my parade

[Troy Martin]

Love4: Don't be a downer, just go with it.

I have a built-in webcam in this laptop, and another desktop one, you think I could use both at the same time so I can chat with the built-in one and demo with the movable one?

[Brynet-Inc]

Maybe we should have an e-convention using video chat and (if needed, design) some sort of LAN that communicates over the net. Idea attached, icons courtesy of the 16-colour crappiness screenied from Windows 95.

Things we've learnt about Troy:

1) He uses Windows 95.
2) He's never heard of a VPN.
3) He's a stalker.. meet up? cam? everyone run.. now..

[Troy Martin]

1) Didja know you can use a Windows 3.1 boot disk to boot, FDISK and FORMAT a hard drive, run the Win95 upgrade CD's SETUP.EXE, and it will install a clean copy of 95 without having any 3.1 files on the drive, just using the 3.1 disk. And you can use all 1's for the serial number. Or was that for 3.1...
2) Never really figured out what it was, just kept it enabled for good measure.
3) No, it's just like meeting IRL but we're not spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to meed in a spot for 3 hours, and then fly back.

[inflater]

1) He uses Windows 95.

Me too, on the 266MHz for DOS games. And it's a perfect operating system, more better than Vista.
I also use Windows NT 3.51, 4.0 and MS-DOS on it. Win1.0, 2.0, 3.11, ... have them there only for fun.

Mini conference? I don't own a webcam too, but I have a microphone. The thing is the language barrier, and since most of you are native eengleesch speakers... So if you want to contact me, use skype.

[Solar]

The thing is the language barrier, and since most of you are native eengleesch speakers...

Not the last time I looked.

From the "Location" fields in this thread:

Love4Boobies - Romania
Troy - Canada (might just as well be speaking French as first language)
Johnny - USA
quok - USA
Albion - not quite sure, somewhere close to Austria
01000101 - USA
Combuster - Netherlands
inflater - Slovakia
Brynet-Inc - Canada (see above)
Shrek - India
JackScott - Australia
Solar - Germany

So we have somewhat between an 8:4 in favor of the non-native speakers and an 6:6 draw.

[stephenj]

Inflater: Judging by your posts, you seem to have a good enough grasp on the English language that you'd be fine. But I'd understand a little trepidation If you're anything like me, I find I can write French better than I can speak it... Possibly because I have more time to think... Not that I can really speak French in the first place (I can speak enough to get me through a gas station in Quebec, which is good enough for me).

The only common problem I've ever witnessed of non-native English speakers* is that they sometimes lack confidence, and mumble. Which just compounds any communication problem. Just speak slowly, and as clearly as possible.

* Non-native English speakers have told me that they have a problem understanding my accent when I speak quickly. Which is understandable, considering that my accent butchers vowels (think DOS filenames).

[eddyb]

The thing is the language barrier, and since most of you are native eengleesch speakers...

Not the last time I looked.

From the "Location" fields in this thread:

Love4Boobies - Romania
Troy - Canada (might just as well be speaking French as first language)
Johnny - USA
quok - USA
Albion - not quite sure, somewhere close to Austria
01000101 - USA
Combuster - Netherlands
inflater - Slovakia
Brynet-Inc - Canada (see above)
Shrek - India
JackScott - Australia
Solar - Germany

So we have somewhat between an 8:4 in favor of the non-native speakers and an 6:6 draw.

add me - from Romania

[quok]

Inflater: Judging by your posts, you seem to have a good enough grasp on the English language that you'd be fine. But I'd understand a little trepidation If you're anything like me, I find I can write French better than I can speak it... Possibly because I have more time to think... Not that I can really speak French in the first place (I can speak enough to get me through a gas station in Quebec, which is good enough for me).

The only common problem I've ever witnessed of non-native English speakers* is that they sometimes lack confidence, and mumble. Which just compounds any communication problem. Just speak slowly, and as clearly as possible.

* Non-native English speakers have told me that they have a problem understanding my accent when I speak quickly. Which is understandable, considering that my accent butchers vowels (think DOS filenames).

At a previous job of mine, I worked with many French speaking Canadians. Some of them were native English speakers but most were not. I actually had a harder time understanding the native English speakers because they still spoke with quite an accent, but they spoke fast and didn't speak very clearly. The non-native English speakers took their time and were very easy to understand, even though a think French accent.

At that job, and at my current one, I also work with many people from middle eastern countries, predominately India. Most of them are very very easy to understand, but I'm told it also depends on what part of India they're from (for those that are from India), as some of them have the thickest accents I've ever heard and are sometimes near impossible to understand.

Some non-native English speakers I know mumble because they lack confidence in their mastery of the English language, and some others I know speak so softly you couldn't possibly understand them no matter what language they spoke. That is often far worse than the mumbling, IMO.

I often wonder though, and perhaps it's just me, but I find that most languages seem to be spoken a lot faster, in general, than English is.

[stephenj]

quok: Just me wondering, what province (in general) were the English speakers from?

Much like the states, accents can vary quite a bit depending on region.

[quok]

quok: Just me wondering, what province (in general) were the English speakers from?

Much like the states, accents can vary quite a bit depending on region.

All my Canadian coworkers (both the native English and non-native English speakers) were from Quebec (lived around Montreal somewhere) or Ontario (lived around Toronto). I've got a couple of friends in Vancouver that I've never had any trouble understanding. In fact, they seem to have no accent at all to me aside from the cute little "oot and aboot" thing. Of course they do say that I have an accent...

And that reminds me, for those of you living in Vancouver. I'll likely be there in late March to attend a wedding.

[Troy Martin]

Yuck, I'm not that good at French, but they force us to take it until grade 9 here... Might as well keep going, you gotta speak French if you were even thinking about doing anything federal government-ish.

Solar: list: Ahh, but we're all half-decent at speaking English, so that's not a big problem. Unless accents bother some people (and the occasional usage of the word "eh")...

[stephenj]

Yuck, I'm not that good at French, but they force us to take it until grade 9 here... Might as well keep going, you gotta speak French if you were even thinking about doing anything federal government-ish.

I transferred schools midway through tenth grade and had to choose between French or Gaelic. In retrospect, I wish I chose the later, but I must admit that my French noticeably improved in that final year (of learning French). However, it has declined since then.

And I've worked for the federal government without being able to speak French (only one person in my group was bilingual). It was the first time I've ever seen French documentation. Sadly, I needed to use it for a part of a project (the output had to be in French and English)... But I just found someone who spoke it, and "borrowed" them for an afternoon.

Although quite a few conversations revolved around "getting your French." It was definitely a bonus to do so. And I certainly would take the opportunity to be paid to get to go to French school for a year (while having the government pay my tuition). Only so they could pay me more when I got back!