Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with noob

Game got switched. Pass the noobsauce plz?

TomMelee — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:04:43 -0800

I suck at wordpress. Should I start over or can someone help me fix this? I do a lot of hardware repair for side money here, and recently had an established customer ask me to do a site for her daughter. I thought it would be extremely simple, and it was. I did a typical wordpress install and modified the heck out of a template I found somewhere to make it match her colors/logo/etc. I don't usually do web work because it's not my strongsuit.

So I'm doing all this in a sandbox site (live, but not at her .com) and thinking its coming together fine. Top menu, 4 pages, nice gradient, etc. This was originally a right-side menu template, and I've taken all the right column out because it's unnecessary. (blogroll, rss, etc.)

Today I get a call that she loves all of it but she wants the menu down the left side. This was a right/top menu template. I'm in waaay over my head trying to figure out how to chop it up. I've looked at the css, and there's nothing in there that declares positions---only widths. I looked in the wordpress themes settings and there's no place to move the menu left. I've played around in the index moving the php calls to alternate locations and the page doesn't change (or doesn't change significantly.) Changing the sidebar.php to "left column" instead of "right column" puts the menu at the bottom of the body, because the body is the left column.

So I'm assuming the only real way to fix this is to figure out how to resize the columns and move the body to the right and the menu to the left...unless I'm overthinking it?

Happy to share the live-site address and assorted template files if anyone out there in mefi land is willing to take a peek. Otherwise I'll just start modifying a left-column template. Grrr.

Point, manually adjust thingometer, click

showbiz_liz — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:09:30 -0800

I would like to teach myself photography, ideally from a book (a good website would work too.) I'm at the point-and-shoot level, but my camera has so many neat settings I want to try... I have a Canon PowerShot A590 and a desire to learn more about photography. I love taking pictures, but I know nothing about how my camera actually 'works'. I just leave it set on easy mode and point it at things. I, um, know how to zoom in. Maybe if I'm feeling really crazy I will hit the little 'macro' button.

What I'm after is a book or website that will, step by step and beginning with the easiest stuff, tell me how to use the manual settings on my camera. Ideally it would include 'assignments' for me to do.

Every website I've found on my own either tries to teach me the goddamn Rule of Thirds again, or it assumes I know what 'f-stop' means.

(I've taken a ton of art classes, so I'm set with regards to composition, although I don't mind if it's included.)

Where'd my network card go!?

Squid Voltaire — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:33:13 -0800

My computer can't find its NIC, any ideas? I used to connect to the internet via CAT-5, as God intended, but for a year or so I've been using a PCI wireless card. Reception in the current location is terribly, though, so tonight I took a couple hundred feet of Ethernet cable and plugged myself directly into the router.

I plugged the other end into a ethernet port, and the little green light came on. However, once I disconnected from the wireless network, that was it, no further connection.

The Device Manager only lists one NIC--the wireless one. I turned on "View Hidden Devices", but it still didn't list it.

I went into BIOS and turned on "Integrated LAN RAM"--I have no idea what that means, but it did not make my network card suddenly appear. At this point, I ran out of ideas. Any further suggestions?

Motherboard is Biostar NF61S/V Micro AM2, and I'm 80% certain that I used to have a wired connection to this machine--is there some sneaky way that I disabled and then hid my card?

surfer-filter: First timer looking for noob advice and tips

brenton — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:38:10 -0800

surfer-filter: First timer looking for noob advice and tips. My complete surfing history: Two years ago, a friend took me surfing and on the first try I rode a wave until it ended. Then I got out of the water. Today I was given a 6' board, and I'm going into the water without an instructor or surfer friend. I feel fairly safe doing this since I live by the Carpinteria State Beach, just about the most mild and tranquil beach ever. Never big waves or currents, all sand, and it doesn't really have other surfers for me to get run over by (though I do see them sometimes). Also, I go swimming by myself here, and I see others swimming by themselves, I don't imagine it's much more dangerous to take a surfboard with you.

So I'm just wondering if anyone can give me some basic advice for my learning to surf. How should I approach this? What else do I need besides the board? Special stretches to do beforehand? Special foods to avoid? I'm looking for any and all tips.

I'm sure everyone is going to tell me I'm going to die and give me safety advice. Okay... I'll listen to, and appreciate, such advice. But I'd also like some non-safety advice, you know, just tips on how to get started, things to be aware of, basic stuff like that.

(By the way, I already know a bigger board would be better, but let's assume for the sake of this question that I'm going to keep the 6' board and that I'll be able to get up on it. If that turns out to be a false assumption, I'll deal with that later. :D )

What are the best resources for computer novices?

contraption — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:14:36 -0800

What are the best resources for computer novices? I often find myself in the position of helping friends and family figure out how to operate their computers (typically Windows XP or Vista, but OS X tips are welcome too.) While I realize there's no substitute for face-to-face instruction, my time is not infinite and I'd like to be able to set them up with some bookmarks or documents that will give them guidance when I'm not around. I'm especially interested in a well-structured, non-intimidating quick reference tool with general tips like locating a file in the filesystem, compressing/decompressing files, using the clipboard, and selecting which program is associated with a particular file type. It should not take any knowledge for granted, and wherever possible should offer detailed step-by-step instruction with explanations of any necessary jargon terms. Reliable, regularly updated lists of good free programs for various tasks would also be helpful.

Why is text in Firefox so ugly?

zylocomotion — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:20:15 -0800

Why is text in Firefox so damn ugly and is there anything, from a design perspective, that I can do about it? (Okay, text in FF may not be ugly, exactly, but it doesn't compare to IE, Opera, or Safari.) I'm making a website for a friend, and he's complained that in FF the text isn't 'pretty'. Since FF is all I use, it looks great to me - but damn if he isn't right that the copy looks sharper./smoother in other browsers. Whassup with that?

I am such a noob

MrVisible — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:56:12 -0800

How do I get better at first-person shooters on the Xbox360? I've never been into the FPS genre. I like RPGs and various third-person games for the most part, and I'm most used to a computer interface as opposed to a console gamepad.

But the Xbox360 is a beautiful machine, and the line between FPS and RPG has been erased by titles like Mass Effect and Oblivion and Bioshock. The problem is that these games assume that you're pretty familiar with the FPS interface, and because of the structure of the game you don't get much time to practice.

Are there any games out there that include a pretty good training area or an opportunity to learn the two-stick control system before dumping you into situations where your skill with the system is the only thing keeping all your NPC buddies from getting fragged? I'm not looking to be uber-1337 at Halo3, but it'd be great to not have to re-do every fight scene in Mass Effect five times before moving on with the plot.

Thanks!

1) web-site idea, 2) ??? 3) The Awesome

indiebass — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:52:23 -0800

Can the hive help me get a web site started? I have very specific ideas, but I'm a dinosaur when it comes to everything about the insides of websites. Back in the day when I set up a website, it was the late 90's and everything had to be coded by hand and ftp'ed to someplace. I realise we are in the 21st century and there are much easier ways to go about things.

I already have a domain purchased. What I want to make is a site that is very similar to the old Pajiba setup: graphic banner across the top, assorted goodies in one or two side columns (probably just links in one, at this point) and a main area in between. The idea behind the site is that I'll be reviewing things, but they won't necessarily be new things. That is, whatever my netflix might be, an album I listened to... things like that. So in the middle I'd like to have a photo, a title and one sentence, where you can click on the title and it takes you to a separate page that is cataloged as http:www.mydomain.com/review_title.html (or whatever) and looks like the front page, except the middle bit is just the extended article.

Further complicating things, is that I wanted to set up the website with free hosting, if possible, and if I actually start generating traffic outside my immediate circle of friends then I'd think about buying some space/bandwidth.

So how do I even start? I know you can use a unique domain name with, like, blogger - which is free - but do they let you structure the workings of it like I want to? (the title-link deal to pages behind the page) I feel confident that I would be able to make the page look like I want it to, it's more the workings and the hostings that I am unsure about.

I've put off asking this question out of embarrassment for a couple weeks, because of the n00b-ishness, and I've really tried to navigate it on my own, but put in "free web hosting" into the google and it's like the internet punches you in the face. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

Want to master the Fox!

pearlybob — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:33:45 -0800

Help a computer light-weight make the most of Firefox and gmail. My IE has been crashing at least 6-7 times a day and I'm done! So I just switched to firefox. Never had anything against firefox, just didn't want to take the time to get used to something new. So now that I have made the switch, what are some of the best tips and tricks that you have to make the most of Firefox and gmail. I read alot on Mefi about greasemonkey scripts but I have no clue what that means. I'm not a very advanced user so please keep things basic and speak slowly. I did a mefi search and figured out a few things but I'd like to find out specific favorites of my fellow mefites. Thanks so much!

So, a keyboard is like a metaphor for...21 guitars?

evariste — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 14:53:27 -0800

How can a keyboard represent a guitar?! As a total musical novice who has never played an instrument and knows absolutely nothing about how music is made, I decided to open up GarageBand on my Mac and try to make a song for fun.

The first thing that's blowing my mind is that you start off with a clickable piano keyboard, and can switch modes to a computer's keyboard for "musical typing". But when you change instruments to, say, a guitar or a flute, the metaphor remains a piano keyboard! And the "musical typing" thingie still has the same number of usable keyboard keys, ASDFGHJKL;' plus the black keys WETYUOP. That's like 17 keys, and if you click the thingy on the top you can move the blue focus thing and make all the keys sound different...I assume this means you're moving to a different part of the full piano or something.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but a guitar has like four or six strings. A piano keyboard has, oh, more than a hundred strings, right? Isn't there way more information here than a guitar is actually capable of expressing? So what the hell? I was thinking I would only get maybe six keys I can push on my keyboard if I switched to guitar, but I get the same number of keys and they all still work and make sounds. Furthermore, if I switch to the "picture of a piano" mode, I can drag my mouse across the entire keyboard of 100+keys, and they all make guitar-ey sounds.

I feel like I'm missing some very basic concept. Can you help me understand what's going on?

Noob blogger Needs Asist

snsranch — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 18:42:41 -0800

Any advice for using Drupal with Blogger? Advice for Drupal in general? I know about the APIs, but I'm not sure if this is right for what I'm doing. I just want my photo-heavy blog to look cool and original without paying for hosting. I'm a total noob, with no existing blog. I'm hoping to get my tools and knowledge together before I actually go live.

Please help this artistic but noobie blogger get started and kick some butt!

Thanks in advance.

What did I do now?

EatTheWeak — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:38:22 -0800

I could use some help diagnosing a system crash, stabilizing my machine and determining how freaked out I should be. My computer did a weird thing this morning, and my usual tech support resource (Google) isn't turning up much to help me diagnosis it. I hate to once more drag AskMe into the long squabble between my computer and I, but here goes ..

AVG 2.0 ghz
ASUS ABN-E series motherboard (socket 939)
Windows XP, service pack 2

When I turned it on this morning, it hung up on the BIOS at the ACPI Controller, at IRQ 9. Resetting it was no help. After a couple tries, I opened my optical drive to find a blank CD i'd forgotten about. With this, windows promptly booted.

When it got to the desktop, a "Windows has just recovered from a serious error" message waiting for me.

It had this code -
BCCode: 100000050 BCPI: E3E5B660 BCP2: 00000000 BCP3: BFA1CBB6 BCP4: 00000001

And wanted to tell Microsoft about two files in folder called "temp" in the local settings directory of My Documents

\LOCALS\tEMP\WERF0C0DIRE00\Mini101307-01. and
\LOCALS\tEMP\WERF0C0DIRE00\sysdata.xml

Event viewer had noticed the booting error, and gave it ID 1003 and Category: (102) The string above was repeated in event viewer.

It also had an error from when I shut down the night before - System restore had encountered an unexpected error when reading a compressed file on my desktop, and "would no longer monitor the volume" - Event ID 1, category none

I'm wondering if I'd forgotten to change back off of "boot from disk" since the last time i had to do so, and this whole mess is just on account of that blank disk. But I swear I've started up with non-windows disks in the drive w/o such calamity. I'm tempted to restart and see if it goes normal this time, or to run Scandisk, but rebooting went so badly last time ...

So I'm hoping a Mefite much smarter than I could be of help in diagnosing all this scariness. Indeed, in helping me determine if this is all that scary at all. Windows seems pretty concerned, but I never know how to gauge Xp's reactions.

Thank you so much.

FileMaker me?

weaponsgradecarp — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 12:59:53 -0800

FilemakerFilter: I need some database help, because I am a n00b. My FIRST robotics team is creating a database of teams at our regional event, for scouting... ...but I've never used FileMaker before.

Each round of the robotics competition has six randomly selected teams playing on two alliances

For each match, I want six computers in the stands, each with a person collecting data on one team that match.

Right now, I have a set of fields set up that have data on each match as follows:

Team # the person is scouting
Who their alliance partners are
color of that alliance (red/blue)
who the opposite alliance is (3 team #s)
a bunch of checkboxes and dropdowns that define the abilites of the robot you're watching
text comment field
win/loss/tie dropdown

I want to be able to have six computers simultaneously be entering data into this form over a network, match by match, and then be able to pull up a summary view from a 7th machine that will sort the data by showing a list of team #s, what matches they played in, and their ability data from each match.

my filemaker database file can be found here:

http://www.cheapfilehost.com/file.php?file=d8dd2740e6562d25bfbee444b5a6edc3

and a diagram of what i'm trying to do here:
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6572/diagramww2.jpg

Thanks for your help...

Looking for tips and resources for learning how to run a webhost on a linux virtual machine

MetaMonkey — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 10:20:44 -0800

I’m planning on getting a linux virtual machine (something like linode) for webhosting, but I could use some tips and resources for getting started. My only experience of administrating a linux server is through a control panel program (like cPanel) on a typical shared-host setup. My question therefore, is what do I need to know to:

1. Get my virtual machine set up with all the stuff needed for web hosting (installing/configuring apache, php, mysql, mail server, ftp, dns, security etc.), basically so its kitted out in a manner similar to the shared hosting service I'm familiar with.

2. Handle ongoing administration.

I’m looking for any good information; tips, links, tutorials, books, anything useful really.

Thanks!

(Distro-wise, I'm leaning toward Debian because I'm informed its fairly light and simple. Also, I've seen these questions, but they're not entirely useful. )

Linux/LAMP for dummies...

Davaal — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 13:34:06 -0800

i am a complete Linux Noob and i've decided to go a few rounds with a simple LAMP server. Where can i find helpful resources and suggestions? i've decided to stop bullshtting around dive head first into Linux. i have 3 PCs of various ages.

1)i set up a LAMP server using this tutorial on a Compaq 750mh with one 6gb HDD and a 30gb HDD packed with MP3s i really wanna keep. the server is running fine.
2)i've installed Ubuntu desktop on a Dell optiplex GX240 with a 30gb HDD.
3)i have windows XP running on my Dell GX270, which has 80 gbs of space.

ok, so now i'm ready to shred and i have no idea what to do next. i read that its a web server. nothing i've found shows me how to actually serve, they just tell me how to do it better. i'm walking thru Unix for Beginning Mages. i'm using Torrent Flux (for legal content only, of course). i'm unfamiliar with the Apache, PHP and SQL stuff. i'm looking for basic ways to maximize my linux experience.

anyone been thru something similar and have better suggestion than google?

oh, and anyone know how to get the the info on the second LAMP drive beyond simply putting it in the XP machine?

thank, sorry for my noobieness.

My internet doesn't work

Drunken_munky — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 00:00:09 -0800

Linuxfilter: why doesn't the internet work? So, let me preface this real quick. I'm fairly a experienced Windows guy, and my google/network fu is strong. However, this is my first real Linux attempt. I'm not afraid of the terminal, or writing any code, though, so please don't feel the need to dumb down anything.

Anyhow, here's my problem. I installed Suse 10.0 on my Asus Z9000 (1.7Ghz dothan, intel 2200 wifi card, Ati IGP9100 + whatever northbridge Ati supplies with that) laptop today. The install went fine, and everything was very shiny. But I'm having trouble with my network connection.

My router is using WPA encryption, but I don't that's the trouble. The laptop is able to connect to the router, and is assigned an IP, so that's alright. I can ping the router, other clients, and localhost, so that's alright too. What I can't do, is browse the web! When I try and ping google.com, host can't be resolved. If I put in the IP for google, it says network unreachable. But, I'm definitely connected to my router, so I'm a little confused. I thought it might be blocking DNS, so I've turned the Suse firewall off, but that didn't do anything.

What's the deal?