CompuServe Thread

Norm, I am trying to recall how I got Amax-IV up and running. It was around Christmas time and the memory has faded. <g> I was using the system 7 that comes with the mac powerbook, and there were several different options from which to choose. I seem to remember that I started with a minimal sytem and then transferred other stuff across. I am sorry I cannot be more helpful, but at the moment the card is on loan to a dealer friend here in Brussels for demo purposes. When the card comes back in a couple of weeks, I'll boot up and play with it. That should shake the memory up a bit. You are right about Dutch. practice is very difficult when the majority of the population speak English as well as you do. I live in a Dutch-speaking area just outside Brussels and speak it as often as I can. I can hold conversations in the language and read it quite well, but would like to be better. French is my first foreign language, and I do think in it. (and sometimes dream!) I also speak some Italian and am trying to get away on course in Italy that combines learning the language and cooking! Ideal holiday as far as I am concerned. I work for the European Commission where there are ten official and nine working languages (Irish is official, but not used except for treaties and such). This will increase by three in January, when Norway, Sweden, Finland and Austria join the European Union. The effect of this is that I have a nodding acquaintance with all the existing working languages, even Greek. That is to say, I can look at a page of text, identify the language, and usually pick out enough words to get an idea of what it's about. Greek is the exception. I know the alphabet and can sometimes identify a few words. Danish is the next most difficult, but when it comes to the new countries, Finnish is like a linguistic brick wall. Apart from a few loan words, it is opaque. I read that the nouns can have sixteen cases! (and I used to think Latin was excessive with six). I applaud your attitude and share it. Trying to speak another person's language helps the understanding of that person. It is also taken (generally) as a compliment that you are making the effort. (I say generally, since the French-speakers, like anglophones, expect people to speak their language). To end with a cautionary tale. I have an interpreter friend of Italian mother tongue. His English is so good that he not only interprets into Italian from French, Dutch, and English, but also into English from French, Dutch, and Italian. (He is also a well=known shareware author in the MAC world). He just picks up languages, you know? He decided a few years ago to learn Portuguese. At that time I worked in the Interpretation services planning department with, among others, a Portuguese girl. One day she takes a phone call from this interpreter. After a few minutes chat, she suddenly goes into hysterics. Nearly wet herself. It took her minutes to recover. She finally was able to tell us, that Rik, the interpreter, had asked her in what he thought was Portuguese, to ask me whether I had a 12-volt battery. Unfortunately, he didn't actually know the portuguese for battery, so substituted the Italian equivalent, so what he actually said was "ask Peter whether he has a 12-volt penis."!!! Pete