Sorry

thank goodness for friends with writable cd's n dvd drives for ya drivers...

Sweetie I am getting my priorities together. It takes time and I love SL.

So you are good??? But the suggestion of reinstalling the os was given more then once...

And... while reinstalling your computer Google will be nothing more as a far away friend you cannot talk to. And when you are not familiar with this kind of things you will run into a lot of questions....

Niki, get someone to that computer who knows what he or she is talking about. Don't go mess around yourself when you don't have the knowledge yourself. Look around in family or naighborhood.... these days there a lot of people who have a good knowledge about computers.... maybe even just as much Jesse Barnett!!!
(And no, that will not be me.... I am just a simple business woman)

Uh...helpless female crap?

Surely you realize that you are an absolute rarity, right? It is not some fictitious made up stereotype that us women are not good with technical stuff. Sure in 2009 there are plenty more techie/geek girls. But you really need to recognize that you are a rarity. The majority of women do not go into the tech field or heavily into computers beyond graphic design. Building and programming and all that crap you just mentioned is not normal - it is becoming more common, but definitely is not the norm, so when you run across "helpless girls", it is because we don't have the geek streak you do, even though some of us run Ubuntu.

Edit to add: Also the number of times that guys here in the forums assume you are a guy because of your technical know how should also be a hint that you are way beyond the majority of us women here when it comes to the hard core tech side of computers, that you are so skilled in.

This is just bullshit.

Dell computers can boot from OTHER CD OS's.

As i said above, i burned Ubuntu 8.10 and booted the CD on my Dell XPS and installed it as my main OS and then installed the Dell OEM Vista CD as my 2nd OS.

I am pretty sure there's no defect in the brain created by a second X chromosome that makes members of the female gender incapable of understanding "technical stuff". As a network admin I've run into plenty of competent women and incapable men, including one guy who was "unable" to perform some pretty basic tasks even after I scripted up a solution for him and all he had to do was provide a file name... so he got his secretary to do it. And she came back to me with specific code suggestions that helped me improve my script.

PS:

Good to hear, I was quoting from a post by a Dell support person, by the way, so it seems Dell technical support is economical with the truth.

But you're not good with "technical stuff".

it just wouldn't make sense that the cd rom would be pulled out of the boot sequence.
this would mean your computer is only as good as the hard drive life unless you go back to dell and buy another hard drive..
that makes no sense what so ever..

My Dell runs on my version of xp not dells..
it just doesn't make sense to me that the bios would dictate what OS you decide to go with.
maybe mine is a bit older and dell is a bit more on the greedy side now?

I just checked my Dell Desktop. It is about 8 months old. The CD ROM can be selected as boot device and I can boot from it... also with a none Dell CD. Just tested it.

Yea it took years for me. Literally. Second Life was my 'technical wake up call', and believe it has not been easy. In 2003 Cathine Omega walked me through installing a video card.

And Ubuntu setup is just as easy as installing windows Vista and easier than XP or w2k.

And sure you have run across plenty of competent computer women. This is 2009 and things are changing a lot, but we are still the minority in the computer tech field and the majority of us are still not technical savvy or even care to be. My 'tech savvy' goes about as far as double clicking an installer or plugging in a USB printer.

I am sure there are plenty of Mechanic women as well now - there is one who changes oil at the Jiffy Lube here in Springfield.

And I saw on the news the other day even more women are playing football.

Everyday more women are expanding their horizons into new fields once dominated by men. This is a natural evolution. It is not however proof that in general women are not technical savvy, and acting like there is some secrete cadre of women who occupy 40% of the population who can break down a computer and rebuild it and do all kinds of other tech crap is a fallacy.

This wasn't 2009. Or 1999, or even 1989, I'm talking about things that happened over 20 years ago. My boss at the time was a woman, and sharp as a tack, and not so many years later the next network admin they hired was a woman.

It's got nothing to do with the presence or absence of a Y chromosome. Most people aren't willing to make the modest effort it takes to become 'tech savvy'. Even in a technical company. Guys who write engineering software for a living and have no problem changing their oil, fanbelt, or alternator seem to think that as soon as they open their computer case "nerd cooties" will leap out and wrap electrical tape around the bridge of their glasses.

to me it doesn't even sound like she has tried a reinstall yet..

the virus i had wiped my restore out..it killed my browsers and wouldn't let me into safe mode..

i think she needs to try a reinstall and then let us know how it went..if she could get it to work or not..

Sure but yet when you go into Best Buy, Geek Squad is male 10 to 1. Or when i go to Computer Deli here in Springfield - the past 5 years, never a woman.

Your example does not mean it is mainstream, exact opposite still. Becoming more common yes in the tech field, but no where near the sheer volume of men.

Now if you look into another computer field, Graphic Design, you see an enormous amount of women who are artists and tech savvy in that particular computer field with equipment related to the job and beyond to a point of adding their own memory, graphic cards, etc.

Most women don't move on in post graduate to become advanced mathematician's or physicist, or programmers, civil engineers, or even construction workers - and there are probably more women in construction than are physicist/programmers/civil engineers these days - especially if you head down south and this information is not new. I did not say ALL women, but working/employment statistics show that those are predominately male dominated fields of employment.

*Zipping up asbesto's suit. Checking the tanks. Priming the nozzles. . .*

As a child of the 60's, back when all around me, people were questioning virtually every aspect of western culture, sexuality and human rights, I was exposed to a lot of "radical" ideas during the early, formative years of my life. And it all seemed to make perfect sense to me.

A couple years ago, while working as a DJ (or whatever) on a local radio show, David Lee Roth read a short article about the state of. . .well, I know gay rights were part of it. I think it also touched on womens and minority rights too, but I wouldn't swear it.

He took a few calls and finally admitted the article he read had been taken from the 70's.

I've watched us explore alternative forms of energy and transportation, and go right back to huge gas guzzling monsters. Seen laws passed to give a hand up to folks of darker skin color, and watched gay guys come out of the closet and get the stuffings kicked out of themselves for it.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When it comes to women and what they're capable of. . .They rolled up their sleeves and picked up tools back in the 40's. Then they went home and had babies in the 50s. Questioned their situation again back in the seventies. Now. . .

Well, just last week I had an interesting conversation with an 18 year old girl who told me she'd just love to have a crossover relationship with a guy who would let her stay home and have babies for the rest of her life--and that she has a "thing for older guys."

I've seen lots of women use kids and family as excuses for lots of situations. I've seen them play the helpless female and playful seductress to get themselves out of all manner of situations.

That being said, when I was maintaining a series of real estate offices with an 80 mile end to end foot print, I had to depend on cooperative, capable women to be my eyes and hands when there was a catastrophe where they were, but I simply couldn't leave the disaster where "I" was.

Oh I KNOW you women have it in you. But too many of you seem to LIKE being second class citizens who do more and make less than men and get blamed for the date rape, and left to deal with the consequences.

Nikki, this stuff isn't hard. Step by step instructions are EVERY where, and I have NO doubt, you could find some lonely geek to help you out with it if you really are that clueless.

WOW I THINK I LUV YOU ARGENT STONECUTTER!!!!!!

LOL Believe me when I say I have given it a LOT of thought over the last 3 decades and I have come to the conclusion that the only difference between me and any other being is simple. It is not chromosomes or quantity of brain cells, it is simply curiosity. After that it is just a matter of progression and time.

Machine design on a drawing board and slowly switch over to electrical on those same machines. You do it for enough years and you see the machines and you come to an understanding of what the simple limit switches and hydraulic valves do. It used to be relay cabinets controlled everything, 100's to thousands of relays. One relay enabled several more to turn on and then each in that group turned on, one or two at a time to both open a valve and open the next relays. Relays are either off or on, relays are a physical representation of bits. Then PLCs became widely available and i got into computers 20 years ago.

Slow, methodical, learn each step at a time. Bought my own PC and opened the case just to look. BTW that first was a Gateway and the mobo went out after one month. Tech Support did a wonderful job of walking me thru the dx over the phone. This led to another eureka moment; Hey This wasn't so bad and I changed the mobo out when it came in the mail. As each problem comes up you either learn (which is easy now with Google) or you have to get someone else to solve it. I just always chose to learn.

So yes, I was rare back in the day but the rarity was and has never been caused by a personal lack of anything. Even back in the day, if someone could demonstrate to the owner of the company that they could do something better then anyone else then the owner let them. The hard part and the trick has always been to make sure that they knew instead of meekly sitting on the side and waiting for it to come to you. Owners only care about one thing and that is money. If you can do it better then you did it. "She gets out the work twice as fast as everybody else so if you don't like a female as a boss then you either leave or get to work and become faster then she is!"

Briana, we are not any different, You can already install OS's, You've already changed a video card. If your power supply goes out tomorrow, I have a sneaking suspicion that even though you might have to hunt for the dx, it is you that is going down to the store to spend the $50, unscrew the 4 screws holding it in and putting the new one back in and plugging back in all of the plugs. You are learning how to solve each problem as it comes up. I guess I should not point out that this means you might possibly have a hidden geek streak and just don't know it

There have been countless women in this very forum who have tackled their computers and replaced/upgraded different parts. This is the exact opposite of whining that they are going to have to save up for a new computer because they have a virus.

My point was that being female is no more a reason for not being "tech savvy" than being "a manager" or "a pisces" or "a physicist".

And, yes, I've run into plenty of "mathematicians, physicists, programmers, civil engineers, and even construction workers" who are not "tech savvy". Not to mention a couple of male graphic artists who were hopeless. And a few *techs* who shouldn't have been within ten yards of an open computer without a serious attitude change towards actually understanding what they were doing. People who are making their living from computers who are afraid of hardware or any software they don't need to use for their job. And I've known booksellers and secretaries and musicians who were completely at home hacking on hardware and software because they decided it was interesting.

Being "tech savvy" has far less to do with your career, gender, or vocation than people think.

I really think it's more to do with the "geek thing". I can see women being more afraid of "geek cooties", perhaps, but as a confirmed geek I'm really reluctant to cut people any slack for that kind of prejudice.

Edit: I've also run into managers who wanted a new computer because they had a virus, too.

Excuse me? Certainly there are fewer women than men in technical careers. But my stay-at-home Mom has the best engineering mind in our family, even though my Dad was an engineer and the breadwinner. And I am no slouch either.

Women are not in technical fields because they either choose not to be or live in a culture where they have no opportunity. If everyone had the attitude you voice above, Briana, NO women would have opportunities to succeed in technology.
>.<

1 user agreed. Emphatically. The reason it seems to be is because we allowed ourselves to believe the stereotype. We play the "Oh I'm a girl, I can't figure this out game". I do it myself. but it isn't true. There are enough examples on this forum alone, and I know if the interest was there I could just as easily become as geeky as the rest of you.

There is a difference between not choosing a field or being kept out of it and not being capable of it. It is as incorrect as saying Men aren't cpable of being Nurses. I know several highly capable male nurses.

Yea, i really had no choice, and i am not a believer in staying 'completely' willfully ignorant. After all, have you seen those crazy high prices that Geek Squad charges??? It's financial rape.

I personally cannot wrap my mind around the more technical aspects of computers like programming/coding, and i would never change a power supply. I remember thinking i was going to fry to death when i was bent over my old box changing the video card. Most recently i upgraded the ram on my laptop myself and that was very cool for me. I felt accomplished. And Crystalshard has been claiming i have crossed into Geekdom with my switch to Ubuntu o.O, so I guess i am moving along at my own pace.

I did take a C programming class back in 1996 or so and dropped it after 3 months - though i did make some cool calculator before dropping it.

I did not mean that we as women are innately technical stupid. Yes, it is a choice to be technically ignorant, but it is not a bad choice. Just like it is a choice to be automotive mechanically ignorant. Either way, learning that stuff saves you goo-gobs of money. Just do not expect a lot of women to make that choice.

I agree except on the use of ignorant. While "technically" correct I guess, it is too much of a perjorative. I don't feel not being interested in something as being ignorant. unless one is trying to discuss the matter from a limited view and won't expand their knowledge out of stubbornness.

We all have different interests and capabilities. It is important jut to know what they are and the concentrate on those.

having spoken to their support people several times over the years, I can pretty much vouch for the fact that this person thought he was right. But he wasn't. Some of the things I have heard in the past from 'support' at Dell borders on ridiculous. I just ask for a supervisor when I call now. There are people there who know their stuff, and then there are people who answer the phone and look it up in a little handbook and read it to you, but don't know it. And if they don't know the answer, they guess.

I am quoting this one because it clearly says you believe women ARE not good with technical stuff, not CHOOSE not to be good, like you said later on. And sorry, yes, phrased like this, it is a bloody stereotype.

I am 38 years old and consider myself a "late bloomer" when it comes to computer stuff - meaning I only started in the early '90s.

Currently, I am a geek incarnate. I built my own computers from scratch. I also do a lot of stuff in my own apartment that is usually considered "guy work". Currently, I work in a bookstore and am in charge of the computer books section, the software department and the pocket translators. I am the one that gets called when customers have technical issues and questions. And judging from my customer base, I am not as much of a freak as you would like to suggest here.

Yah, that's the paragraph that ticked me off, too. And I'm a guy. I'm impressed with the way y'all are taking it so calmly.

Hurling eggs across the big blue does take to damn much energy.

nah After a few years of reading Briana's posts(of which some I don't agree with), I had a suspicion that what she wrote and what she really believes may have been at odds. That's why I didn't jump all over her. I think she redeemed herself rather well in her follow up posts both here and in the rezzer thread.

It helps to finish reading a thread before post a reply to something that was retracted.