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Chat with MAD, Ying Lan, and Vance

In this one, MAD and Ying Lan both start their own web sites at Geocities

December 27, 1998

Connecting to efi.virtualscholar.com:9998

Connected via TCP

*** Welcome to The Virtual School House Vance!

Vance: @64,64 !It's Vance

Ying-Lan: @64,64 !It's Ying-Lan

Ying-Lan: hi

Ying-Lan: vance

Vance: Hello

Vance: I've just downloaded your Word file.

Ying-Lan: ^It is too long to read.

Vance: I'm having a look at it now.

Ying-Lan: ^o.k. I wait.

Vance: I'm saving some other work I was doing. I'm getting it now.

Ying-Lan: ^Vance, your work is more important than me.

Ying-Lan: ^BRB

Vance: It's nice. It has pictures.

Vance: Sorry to take some time. I was just looking it over.

Ying-Lan: ^I am back

Vance: I was just enjoying your story.

Ying-Lan: ^Do you know my words?

Ying-Lan: ^I mean it is not so good.

Vance: I have your Word document here in a window on my computer.

Vance: I can't read it carefully right now and chat at the same time.

Vance: But I'll read it and correct the grammar.

Ying-Lan: ^Do you want to get another file with pictures?

Vance: I think to put it on the web, we'll have to have the original pictures.

Vance: That is, the jpeg files ...

Ying-Lan: ^Right.

Vance: Why don't you start a web page with it?

Ying-Lan: ^Vance, I have one question with word.

Vance: ok

Ying-Lan: ^I can not put the words aroung my pictures.

Ying-Lan: ^I know the funtion key, but it doesn't work.

Vance: What do you mean: words around your pictures?

Vance: Do you mean "word wrap?"

Ying-Lan: ^It's hard to say.

Ying-Lan: ^let me think

Vance: Do you mean: You want to put the picture in a column in the document.

Vance: And you want the words to wrap around the picture?

Vance: Like in a newspaper?

Ying-Lan: ^Absoulte right.

Vance: You can do it in Word, but if you want to put it on the web like that, that's hard.

Ying-Lan: ^Really?

Ying-Lan: ^How could you do?

Vance: Let me look at Word for a minute ...

Vance: My computer is very slow. I have too many programs running ...

Vance: Have you got Word running?

Vance: There's Format / Columns ...

Ying-Lan: ^I know where it is. but it is gray and it doesn't work. I don't know why it is closed.

Ying-Lan: ^My word program is in Chinese.

Vance: You mean Columns is gray under "format"?

Ying-Lan: ^The funcion key is Chinese.

Ying-Lan: ^yes

Ying-Lan: ^How to open it?

Vance: This is going to be hard. I don't know. Have you tried hi-lighting some characters?

Ying-Lan: ^it is not cloumn, it is picture.

Vance: Let's try making some text in two columns and inserting the picture in one of the columns.

Ying-Lan: ^I see.

Ying-Lan: ^I will do it after class.

Ying-Lan: ^Did you enjoy Christmas in UAE?

Vance: I'm trying it now.

Vance: Yes. My eldest son is visiting from California.

Vance: What about you?

Ying-Lan: ^You must had a good Christmas.

Vance: You must have had ...

Vance: (grammar)

Ying-Lan: ^Family is very import for live.

Ying-Lan: ^You must have had a good Christmas.

Vance: Yes, we try to get together at Christmas. My son is only 20. Still a baby.

Ying-Lan: ^Vance, he only is 20 years old.

Ying-Lan: ^He is very young.

Vance: My other son is 13.

Ying-Lan: ^I am 35 years old. Sometimes, I like a child.

Ying-Lan: ^I am easy to be angry.

Ying-Lan: ^Just being myself.

Vance: The most successful person in life is the one who stays a child the longest.

Vance: I can't seem to get text to go around a picture in a column.

Vance: There should be a way to do it.

Ying-Lan: ^Do you use "Front page" to edit your home page?

Vance: I have used it, but I didn't like it. I have a copy, but now I don't use it.

Vance: Do you use it?

Ying-Lan: ^Not yet

Ying-Lan: ^I don't know how to use it.

Ying-Lan: ^I tried to read the help file.

Vance: Some teachers here use Hot Metal. They say it's very good.

Ying-Lan: ^It is difficult for me.

Ying-Lan: Ht metal

Ying-Lan: ^I have no "Hot metal"

Vance: Hot Metal. I can find the web site.

Ying-Lan: ^Is it free to down load?

Vance: You can get a trial version. After that you pay something.

Vance: I'm at http://www.sq.com/products/hotmetal/

Vance: sq stands for SoftQuad.

Vance: Do you have a web browser going?

Ying-Lan: ^i am at the web site

Ying-Lan: ^Is it easy to learn?

Vance: I'm doing the download, as long as I'm here.

Vance: I think it's easy to learn.

Vance: As long as you're browsing, why not go to geocities.com and start a web site?

Vance: http://www.geocities.com/

Ying-Lan: ^What does "Deliver the Sizzle " mean?

Vance: Sizzle is the sound of grease cooking, like bacon.

Vance: It implies heat, energy ...

Ying-Lan: ^Which one I choice?

Ying-Lan: ^I choice which one?

Vance: What are the choices? (I don't know where you are)?

Ying-Lan: ^products/index.html

Vance: Hotmetal Pro 5.0

Vance: products/hotmetal/

Vance: At products/hotmetal/ click on download

Ying-Lan: ^how much money I have to pay ?

Vance: Would you like to visit the Geocities site while I'm here? I could help you set up a web page.

Ying-Lan: ^i can not find the price

Ying-Lan: ^now?

Vance: Yeah, why not?

Ying-Lan: right

Maggi: @64,64 !It's Maggi

Maggi: Hi

Vance: Hey Maggi. I've just invited YL to browse over to Geocities and set up a web site.

Vance: Hey, how was your hot date?

Maggi: Ok...go ahead...oh that was fabulous!!!!!!!

Ying-Lan: ^hi

Maggi: Hi Ying!

Ying-Lan: ^Let's go to web head first!

Vance: To web head?

Maggi: ?

Vance: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4631/efi/webheads.htm

Ying-Lan: ^I am here.

Vance: At the webheads page?

Ying-Lan: ^Yes.

Vance: OK, and what are you looking for there?

Maggi: Hey...verys nice!!!!!!

Maggi: whoops...very

Vance: YL's page is the best.

Ying-Lan: ^I don't know where is the gate of geocitie.com?s'

Vance: Oh, btw, Hot Metal is 99 pounds according to their web site.

Vance: http://www.geocities.com

Maggi: 99 pounds in weight or price?

Ying-Lan: ^price

Vance: right

Maggi: what do you get for 99 pounds?

Ying-Lan: ^Hot matal

Vance: Hey, I just told their web page I was in the states, and they quoted me 99 dollars. That's quite a diffenence.

Maggi: I think I will pass...

Vance: difference ...

Maggi: big difference Vance,...

Ying-Lan: ^A kind of progam helps people to make home pages.

Maggi: get them down to 99 marks...

Vance: If you order it, when it asks "Which country are you visiting from?" be sure and select USA.

Ying-Lan: ^I don't think it is helpful.

Vance: For Germany it's 259 DM.

Maggi: I am still a little nervous ordering online except from Amazon.com

Vance: How much is that in dollars?

Ying-Lan: ^They will collect GBP99 from my credit account.

Vance: I've had good luck so far with online ordering.

Maggi: too much...I'll wait for the Euro...:-)

Ying-Lan: ^me too.

Vance: We have to do it because we can't get a lot of things here otherwise.

Ying-Lan: ^To do what?

Maggi: true...handy then isn't it Vance?

Vance: Anyway I'm just visiting geocities.com ... are you there?

Maggi: I am...

Vance: We have to shop online ...

Ying-Lan: ^I am here to shop on line?

Ying-Lan: ^Who is the ovner of Geocities?

Ying-Lan: owner

Maggi: Shopping for English maybe ... not more!

Vance: A lot of quality things I am used to from home are not available in the UAE, so I shop online.

Maggi: Such as Vance>>>>>>>>?

Ying-Lan: ^Postage is very expensive.

Maggi: Peanut butter?

Maggi: I could send you a care package!

Ying-Lan: ^Last week, I ordered a book only 2.65 but I have to pay 8.65 including postage fee.

Maggi: With Amazon.com they have an agreement with a publishing company here in Germany Ying.

Ying-Lan: ^Vance, There is not butter peanut in UAE?

Vance: Here in the UAE, you'd have to pay $10 for the book anyway.

Maggi: I get the books shipped from a warehouse here and they come in a couple of days.

Ying-Lan: ^Really?

Vance: Actually, we get most common things. It's specialized things, like caving equipment ...

Maggi: well...no wonder Vance!

Vance: btw, I'm at http://www.geocities.com/join - That's the starting point

Ying-Lan: ^DHL just lost my book and tape ...

Maggi: How many caves do you crawl around in....?

Vance: Check out http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/4631/archcave.htm

Ying-Lan: ^I ordered the package by DHL World mail.

Maggi: ok...I am at join...

Ying-Lan: ^Where is join?

Vance: http://www.geocities.com/join/

Maggi: geocities.com/join

Vance: Do you want to do this too, Maggi?

Ying-Lan: ^I am at geocities.com/join/

Maggi: this looks really interesting...

Vance: OK. Choose Free Home page program

Maggi: ok

Vance: Maybe I'll start a new one while I'm at it.

Ying-Lan: ^One more question, Is it necessary to accept the cookies?

Vance: Now we've got to fill out the form

Maggi: If I do this I will have a new home, won't I?

Vance: You can try to decline the cookies and only except them if you have to.

Ying-Lan: rejct?

Vance: Are you already at Geocities, Maggi?

Vance: Yeah, try reject.

Maggi: Yes, at the place to fill out the form...

Vance: I mean, do you already have a homepage there?

Maggi: if I fill it out I will...no I don't yet...

Maggi: I am behind Vance...

Maggi: never had the time...

Maggi: guess I should make the leap!

Vance: You can fill out the form. If you start a page and don't move in, they just delete your acct. after a couple of weeks.

Vance: Anyway, it's free.

Maggi: Ok...it is time I do something...filling it out now!

Ying-Lan: ^What is membername?

Ying-Lan: ^May I use "yinglan"?

Vance: That's a good choice

Vance: I just hit the "I agree" button

Vance: Is anyone at the yes/no page yet?

Maggi: So did I...

Maggi: My member name is not valid...

Maggi: That means someone else has it right?

Vance: could be

Maggi: can you believe someone else uses mad...?!

Vance: A lot of angry people in the world ...

Maggi: now I have some special offers page...

Vance: I just decline everything, up to you ...

Maggi: or crazy people!!!!!!!!

Maggi: ok

Vance: I'm ready to hit Submit at that page. How are you coming YL?

Maggi: ok...now I am at interests...

Vance: Are you still with us YL?

Ying-Lan: ARe you here?

Vance: Where are you now?

Ying-Lan: ^I am at geocities.com/cgi-bin/homestead/new.app

Vance: OK. Maggi and I just say no to everything.

Maggi: me too...interests...#

Vance: And tthen we hit Submit.

Vance: For interests, I wrote "many and varied"

Vance: I guess you could put in some key words if you want.

Ying-Lan: ^I typped "Nothing"

Vance: Good one, YL.

Maggi: Seems I need to choose a neighborhood...

Vance: Have you reached Submit yet?

Ying-Lan: ^I selected "tavel"

Vance: Yeah, you can be doing that because sometimes you have to search around for a vacant "Homestead"

Vance: Travel

Maggi: I don't see where you can type something in for interests...

Vance: That was before the special offers page

Maggi: well...I picked the tropics...

Ying-Lan: ^maggi, I also click "tropic"

Maggi: I am moving in to Paradise 4914 in the tropics...

Vance: Good. That was the only choice. I'm searching for a vacant lot.

Maggi: ok...now I have to download a new browser...

Ying-Lan: yes

Vance: I just got through. Did you?

Maggi: I still only have Navigator gold 3.0

Vance: Download 4.5

Maggi: I will come back later to build...

Maggi: this could be fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ying-Lan: ^This is my URLhttp://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Island/7915/

Vance: Yeah, that was the hard part.

Vance: Good. Next thing you have to do is upload a file using the file manager

Ying-Lan: ^How to do?

Vance: Let me find the url for you.

Ying-Lan: ^Nothing inside

Vance: Go to this url: http://www.geocities.com/members/tools/file_manager.html

Vance: You might want to bookmark that url.

Vance: You can't use it just yet.

Vance: But you'll want to come here later: http://www.geocities.com/members/tools/file_manager.html

Ying-Lan: ^why?

Vance: Geocities will now email you a password.

Maggi: Hey, I'm getting the hang of this.

Ying-Lan: ^I got it.

Maggi: great...

Vance: You got the password?

Ying-Lan: ^yes

Ying-Lan: ^I am a member of geocities.com now

Vance: Great. OK, you can enter the file manager.

Ying-Lan: ^My email address is yinglan@geocities.com

Vance: Go to that url and press the Enter the File Manager button.

Vance: You will be asked for your user name and password.

Vance: Your user name is yinglan and your password is whatever they sent you.

Maggi: sorry, I accidently clicked on the films...

Vance: Here's what you have to do next:

Vance: When you visit your new url, you will see the file index.html by default.

Maggi: ok

Vance: Geocities created an index.html file for you. If you put in your url you'll see it.

Maggi: ok

Vance: What you want to do now is replace that file with your own, which has to be called index.html

Maggi: ok

Vance: So you create a little web site. The introductory page to your site is called index.html. And you just upload the files to your server space using the file manager.

Maggi: neat!!!1111t

Vance: I make my web sites in ms Word. I just start a document, save it as html, and link it to other documents.

Maggi: a whole lot easier than I thought!!!!!!!!!!

Ying-Lan: ^I have to download tools before I build my homepage.

Vance: Now you know the secret.

Maggi: I love secrets:-)))

Vance: No, you just need Word. But with tools you can make it better. but you don't need them.

Vance: Me, I don't use any tools.

Maggi: A man with gifted hands!!!!!

Ying-Lan: ^Is it necessary to do it now?

Vance: Geocities has some nice tools though. I've played with the. I use their counter, for example.

Ying-Lan: ^To build my homepage now?

Vance: No, you have a couple of weeks to move into your site.

Vance: You have to send something up there in a couple of weeks.

Ying-Lan: ^How to move in? Page by page?

Maggi: I have a program I bought in the US to learn Java and building web pages....just never had the time...

Vance: Page by page. Step by step.

Ying-Lan: ^maggi, you are busy.

Maggi: I love it though...I could really get into this!!!!!!!!!

Ying-Lan: ^Or to transport file by file?

Vance: If you want, you can use what I've made for you at webheads.

Vance: Just open your pages, save your files to disk, rename the first one index.html, make sure the others link back to index.html, and upload them.

Maggi: I'll make you proud Vance...

Ying-Lan: ^First, I have to read these explain

Vance: Then you can add the composition you just sent me (after I correct it) and include the picture.

Vance: the pictures.

Ying-Lan: explanation

Ying-Lan: ^But I am waiting your correction.

Vance: Right. And if you have any trouble, we can meet next week and sort it out.

Vance: Or you can just email me.

Vance: I can't wait to see your new site, Maggi.

Ying-Lan: ^me, too

Maggi: Well...give me a week to tweak it around...

Maggi: :-))

Vance: When you upload files, make sure you get all the picture files, backgrounds, bullets ...

Ying-Lan: ^You can do it on your vacaton.

Maggi: ok

Vance: Best thing is to open a folder and save all your work to one folder.

Ying-Lan: ^one folder?

Maggi: good idea.

Vance: That way if files get put there without your knowing it, they'll be in the folder.

Maggi: otherwise I have this habit of losing things...

Ying-Lan: I see

Vance: Yeah, make a folder and then use it for all your web page files, and no other files.

Vance: Because backgrounds, any images are all separate files.

Maggi: practical idea...

Vance: You need them all to make your web page work.

Maggi: I think I will let my son help me...:-)

Maggi: this could be really fun!!!!!!!!!!

Vance: It is, until it starts consuming your life ...

Vance: No seriously, it's great fun.

Maggi: By then I have to go back to work and he can take over!

Vance: Yeah. Guys, I gotta go. My son is visiting from the USA.

Ying-Lan: ^Thanks, Vance

Ying-Lan: ^Thanks for your instructions.

Vance: My pleasure. I feel we used the time well.

Ying-Lan: ^it is time to say bye

Maggi: Thanks so much Vance...

Vance: Any questions, just email me.

Maggi: enjoy him!!!!!!!

Ying-Lan: ^I will.

Vance: And I'll correct your composition, YL.

Ying-Lan: ^Thanks

Maggi: bye Vqance...I have to go cook a turkey...

Vance: OK. Bye for now. ho ho ho ho ...

Ying-Lan: ^You know I need them to build my homepage

Ying-Lan: bye


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Last updated: December 27, 1998