Random Thoughts

Posted by Frank J. on April 26, 2011 9:02 am

Sorry, only one thought today, but it is pretty random.

Scroll Lock key? Might as well have a “Reshoe Your Horse” key.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 26th, 2011 at 9:02 am and is filed under Random Thought. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

25 Responses to “Random Thoughts”

1. zzyzx says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 9:09 am

   My computer is so old it does have a “Reshoe Your Horse” key.

2. DamnCat says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 9:09 am

   I’m sure that scroll lock key was very useful back when people read scrolls.

3. Raving Lunatic says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 9:14 am

   Actually, mine serves as a warning that the office cat has been on my keyboard when I can no longer scroll around in excell…

4. Jimmy says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 10:00 am

   For that matter, I have a key named “SysRq” and one with a squiggle ~ on it. I use SysRq and Alt-SysRq for screen capture into the Windows clipboard and the squiggle key to sign my name like this: ~Jimmy. But Scroll Lock? I don’t need no Scroll Lock. I might as well have a “Reshoe My Horse” key.

5. Iowa Jim says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 10:26 am

   The tilde (~) is also used for a bitwise NOT in C++, and has several other uses in programming, logic, and mathematics.

6. ussjimmycarter says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 10:36 am

   Windows users! Teh Ghey!!! Us MAC users don’t have a Scroll Lock Key because it was deemed like totally lame years ago. But the makers of Windows machines just keep pumping them out! Ctrl-Alt-Delete are also still there, I’m sure. If some computer company who ran Windows was clever they would put a big red button on the top of your keyboard and that would be Ctrl-Alt-Del, which you could resort to several times a day when Windows freezes up and you need to try to reboot before just turning the damn computer off and losing all your work! BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

7. storm1911 says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 10:58 am

   The Scroll Lock sounds like a pain compliance technique Mr. Spock learned on Vulcan.

   Scroll Lock is how M’chel keeps Barry on the straight and narrow.

   Harry Potter and the Secret of the Scroll Lock Key.

8. Jimmy says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 11:02 am

   Well, ussjimmycarter, you must have been just thrilled during the several decades of Apple leaving files open in it’s OS – leading to millions of hard disk corruptions. “Oh, no problem, we leave the file open (final buffer unwritten) until we’re done with it. Ooops. You mean it crashed? Program locked-up? Oh oh. Sorry. Was that an important file? (You poor dumb, one mouse button computer-built-from-proprietary-hardware user!)”

   I like “squiggle” better than “tilde,” SOB. But you’re right, y~f(x), etc.

9. Burmashave says:
   April 26th, 2011 at 11:03 am

   Us MAC users don’t have a Scroll Lock Key because it was deemed like totally lame years ago.

   Errrr, rather, Mac users don’t have a scroll lock key because Apple didn’t invent it. This would also apply to mice with more than one button and the ever useful function keys.

   Linux has found a use for the SysRq key. Linux dev’s have created a function called the “Magic SysRq Key.” It’s actually pretty cool, and it does things neither a Win machine or Mac will do.

10. Clemsnman says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 11:08 am

    My laptop doesn’t have a scroll lock key, however my external keyboard does. It also has a pause/break key.

    I think they just needed some space to fill on the keyboard. They probably get good kickbacks from they key suppliers, too.

11. Burmashave says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 11:24 am

    Here’s my semi-random follow up of the day. I was toolin’ through the supermarket the other day, and I was about to pick up a box of Wheaties when I saw the Cap’n Crunch with Crunchberries. “Self,” I said, “you should buy a box because when they outlaw Cap’n Crunch, only outlaws will have Cap’n Crunch.”

    Here’s my review. First, whyizzut that the Cap’n never made admiral? Did he ground his ship somewhere? Did he get caught drunk in the wheelhouse?

    I had a bowl. It was every bit as good as I remember, yet even more sugary. Yum. On the other hand, I’m still on the fence about the addition of blue, green and purple berries. I grew up on just the strawberries, and that was good enough for me.

12. MarkoMancuso says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 11:59 am

    Random thought: I had a cold this weekend. I went through the medicine cabinet and found Tussin DM. I took some. It tasted like crap and didn’t do anything. Also, one of the inactive ingredients was high fructose corn syrup, a horrible joke of a food substance which predominates in America only because of our federal gubmint’s tariffs, quotas, and subsidies to the Midwest.

    So, thereafter, I made my own cough syrup with some info I found online (Cayenne pepper, ginger, honey, vinegar). It worked. And government subsidies aren’t involved.

    My colds will no longer fuel the Midwest corn lobby. Truly, a great day for freedom!

13. Burmashave says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    @Marko: Cap’n Crunch remains untainted. It is composed of pure cane sugar and brown sugar.

14. ussjimmycarter says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    Random Thought – I have Bursitis in my left hip. I have to take Percocet. I’m high as a kite and feeling no pain! This stuff is fun! Reminds me of my Haight Ashbury days at the University of Iowa where I majored in Chemistry! Someone would come up with some new brew, and I’d injest it and report back on it’s affects! I was an A Student! Hey, I think a cow just flew out my window…

    As for you MAC critics…umm…I can’t even think of a wise crack! I love you man…

15. plentyobailouts says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 12:06 pm

    I find the scroll like key very useful. I hit the key, punch a hippie.
    You can always tell a hippie, they use macs.

16. Jimmy says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    You mean that special Chemistry that blew gases out of a trumpet, ussjc? Heh.

17. Editor says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    Scroll lock was vitally important in Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. And oddly enough, Burmashave, there’s a fun section in that book devoted to Cap’n Crunch…

18. Son of Bob says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    @Burma,

    Cap’n Crunch is awesome…even better than bacon. However, I must confess I’m confused by Crunch Berries.

19. Corona says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    When I was a kid I picked up our rotary phone and dialed 4 just to see if anyone would answer. Eventually a man answered so I hung up.

    I use Prt Scr for screen captures. I have no idea what the alternative SysRq is or does. System Requirements?
    Insert. Uh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh…

20. Choey says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    For those of us who date back to the days of wood burning computers, the Sys Req key makes perfect sense but I have no idea why it’s still there. It’s an IBM 3270 SNA thingy that allowed your IBM PC to emulate a 3270 green lightning terminal. It allowed you to switch between terminal mode and PC mode. Those of you who are still running 3270 emulation have it made…

21. plentyobailouts says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    Son of Bob! Ten lashes with the caps lock key! Cap’n Crunch better than bacon?! racist.

22. Basil says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 8:05 pm

    Alt-PrintScreen is good for window captures, rather than the entire desktop (PrintScreen). Shift-Command-W does the window capture on a Mac. LInux? I know that some versions use the same key combinations as Windows. But I don’t know that all do. And I’m too lazy to boot Linux to see.

23. RAML says:
    April 26th, 2011 at 10:09 pm

    If i remember rightly and I probably don’t in the early Dos ver 1 up to 2.21 at least scroll lock was used to stop the flow of data screaming up the screen so you could write some of the stuff done on a piece of paper usually a big yeller pad.
    The paue key did the same thing but you had to hold it done

    In case any of you youngsters are scratching you full head of hair now, I am talking about the dawn of the PC. The early 80s , The 8086, the we dont need any more then 640k mem and then we’re going to screw the memory map around so much that writing decent programs was more of a art form Then Windows came along Huh I got to go no time for my meds.

    I don’t know why thos keys were still there

24. JeremyB says:
    April 27th, 2011 at 12:40 am

    Aggghhh! OK I pressed the ScrLk button and promptly lost borders on my screen. No menu or address bars up top. No quick launch down below. How do I get ‘em back. Sorry, I’m just truck driver not a man of SCIENCE! I do hate Ron Paul though.

25. Basil says:
    April 27th, 2011 at 2:21 pm

    RAML:
    Yeah, I forgot about that. The Scroll Lock did just that. The world was up to DOS 2.21 by the time I went that way, and I just piped screen text through MORE.

    A:\TYPE FILE.TXT | MORE

    Worked great. No back scrolling, though.

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