I need mechanical help and thought my buddies here would know what I'm
talking about. This is off topic, and I'll need someone to walk me
through the steps so answering privately makes sense. (Though, if
someone else is interested, I'll check here too, of course.)


Remember, I'm computer challenged so while this is probably easy for
someone else, I can't do it. Jim only works with Linux machines so he's
no help.


The computer in the other room has Microsoft software on it. (We've
named that computer Evil.) I've been using it for wordprocessing,
nothing else. It is not connected to the Internet. It came with
speakers which I carefully put away. I've never used them. I don't
know how to connect them.


There's a place to click for "My music." When I click there, I get more
places to click:

Sample Music
Music Tasks- Play All, Shop for Music Online, Copy all items to audio CD

File & Folder Tasks- Make a new folder, Share this folder

Other Places- My documents, Shared Music, My Computer, My Network Places


I'd like to put music on an Ipod or MP3 player. We have them in our
possession. I also own the CDs, bought legally at music stores. I can
play the music on the CD player. I'd like to play the music on the MP3
player which is more portable. The CD player keeps falling off the
exercise equipment at the gym and clattering as it rolls across the
floor. After 9-10 of these falls, it breaks, and I'm getting tired of
buying new ones.


Is my computer capable of doing what I want it to? I think it should be.


I know these are stupid questions so y'all are welcome to make fun of me
if you wish. I do it myself all the time. But help! I'm at a loss. I
suspect this might be something like dog training where you need
in-person help if you've never seen a dog before, but I want to see if
online help can do it as I don't know whom to ask locally.


--Lia

in rec.pets.dogs.behavior, Julia Altshuler
wrote in :

Is my computer capable of doing what I want it to? I think it should
be.

Start - Programs

Look for Windows Media Player, and click on it.

Once it is open

Tools - Options

Click on the Rip Music tab.

The top section says where you want to save the music. Pick a folder
that you want to use. Call it Ripped Music or something like that.

The bottom section is the settings for ripping music. I would set the
format to mp3 (as I don't know if your player will play Windows Media
AUdio (WMA) files). If you are going to rip a bunch of CDs, one after
the other, put a checkmark in each of the boxes "Rip CD when inserted"
and "Eject CD when ripping is complete". The next thing to do is to play
with the Audio Quality slider. You will have to play a little to see
what gives you the most music with a quality that you like. oO do that,
rip a CD, transfer it to the mp3 player and then listen to it. Try it at
all the settings, and see which one you like the most. The farther to
the right the slider is, the less music you will be able to fit on the
mp3 player.

Click Apply, and you should be good to go.

Grab a stack of Cd's, and start popping them in. They will automatically
eject when done ripping.

Note that the above is for Windows Media Player 10. The options may be
slightly different for other versions. --
Marcel Beaudoin and Moogli

In article ,
Julia Altshuler wrote:
I'd like to put music on an Ipod or MP3 player.

You'd use iTunes with an iPod - it's pretty intuitive.
Actually, the whole mess is pretty intuitive. I helped my
mother load up a Sandisk MP3 player while she was visiting
(Mom rocks out to Joaquin Rodrigo and Edith Piaf) and while
using Windows Media Player to sync with the Sandisk did not
work (it hung after the first track regardless of what I
tried to sync), drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer worked
perfectly. I've loaded up players directly from CD as well
as from music previously ripped to a hard drive.

I'm kinda unclear on why you're asking for help before you
even try it. Given the millions and millions and millions
of completely ordinary people loading up their MP3 players
from Windows you've got to conclude that it doesn't take a
lot of brains and it doesn't take a lot of specialized
hardware, right?
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

Marcel Beaudoin wrote:

Start - Programs


Oh my God! It's working! I stayed stuck on thinking that what I wanted
had to be under "Music," not "Programs." I got Jim to show me how to
plug in speakers. That took some doing as I never would have figured
that out on my own. There's now a CD playing in the other room (Big
City Rock) that I can actually hear. The next step will be putting it
on the MP3 player, but that's now looking doable. Thank-you. Thank-you.


--Lia

Melinda Shore wrote:

I'm kinda unclear on why you're asking for help before you
even try it.


I did say y'all were welcome to make fun of me so I guess I deserved that.

By the way, did I ever thank you properly for telling me about weather
underground? I've been checking it daily. I still haven't figured out
what's going on with the upper back pain, but it explains sinus
headaches quite nicely. Thanks.


--Lia

Uh-oh. I spoke too fast. It played 5 songs out of 10, then stopped.
The MP3 player now has sample music on it that I didn't want and none of
the CD that I did want. Jim and I clicked on a few things, but I swear
it's incomprehensible. It's not like turning on a computer that
displays in Chinese. It's more like taking someone from a third world
country who has never seen a car, electricity or an on-off switch before
and asking him to repair a power grid or fly an airplane. It's
frustrating to know that little about a system. I've had enough for one
day and will try again tomorrow.


--Lia

In article ,
Julia Altshuler wrote:
Uh-oh. I spoke too fast. It played 5 songs out of 10, then stopped.
The MP3 player now has sample music on it that I didn't want and none of
the CD that I did want. Jim and I clicked on a few things, but I swear
it's incomprehensible.

Screw Windows Media Player, and use Windows Explorer. Treat
the music like files ('cause they are). If a hidebound old
fart like me can do it, Jim can do it. You can, too, but
seem to be worried about doing something wrong.

Back when I was in graduate school the woman who headed up
the University of Chicago science libraries was married to a
physicist and statistical information retrieval guy, and she
felt that between her job and her personal life she needed
to brush up her math and science skills. So, she said she
bought a copy of "Math for Frightened People" (or something
like that - it was a "... for Dummies" book back before
there were "... for Dummies" books) and that she was afraid
to open it. Yes, that's kind of funny, but mostly it's kind
of appalling. If there's an area of your life where you can
stretch your wings and explore new territory without risking
much (UNLESS YOU'RE A REPUBLICAN), it's learning. And you
know what? You're not going to damage your computer,
either, by farting around with your MP3 player. Put
yourself out there and do it risk-free - learn something
new.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:38:43 -0400, Handsome Jack Morrison
wrote:

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 12:24:52 -0400, Julia Altshuler
wrote:

Uh-oh. I spoke too fast. It played 5 songs out of 10, then stopped.
The MP3 player now has sample music on it that I didn't want and none of
the CD that I did want.

That "sample music" may have already been on your player (it sometimes
cames with the player). Feel free to delete it if you don't like it.

Also, are you sure that you're looking for those ripped tracks in the
right place? I.e., in the "Library"?

Jim and I clicked on a few things, but I swear
it's incomprehensible. It's not like turning on a computer that
displays in Chinese. It's more like taking someone from a third world
country who has never seen a car, electricity or an on-off switch before
and asking him to repair a power grid or fly an airplane. It's
frustrating to know that little about a system. I've had enough for one
day and will try again tomorrow.

Marcel's directions were spot on.

Don't give up. That's what someone like Paul Schoen would do.

Follow Marcel's directions again, but this time try to get just *one*
of the songs on your CD over to your mp3 player. Then look for it.

No luck? Read the directions again, try it again, look for it again,
etc.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

You can do this, Julia!

--
Handsome Jack Morrison

Finally located! A woman for Paul Schoen!
http://www.reuters.com/news/video/vi...?videoId=59730

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature. Heh.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/artic...622-000002.xml

Hating America.
http://www.hudsonreview.com/BawerSp04.html

"Melinda Shore" wrote in message:

You can, too, but
seem to be worried about doing something wrong.

I was quite firmly of the belief that you really can't screw the computer up
too badly, until my dad was introduced to the computer. Just so you know
what we're dealing with - I was the fix-it person at home, until I moved
out, and when I would come home, would have a list of things that needed to
be taken care of. Dad could barely operate a screw driver, never mind
something that plugs into an outlet. Oh, and for the 4 or 5 months that my
parents stayed with us while visiting, he never did figure out how to work
the TV (because it required turning on the satellite receiver also).

Anyhoo, dad had access to my brother's computer solely for doing emails, and
if you saw him high-tailing out of his room, an everyday occurrence, you
knew that he'd done something stupid and caused it to crash. When
confronted with a "problem" (very loosely defined, because what he
considered a problem was generally a desirable result of whatever he had
done before), his tendency is to press random buttons. It is a great
testament to Dell that the machine didn't just self destruct from whatever
he was doing.

These days, he is not allowed to touch the computer without my mom's
supervision. She'll turn it on, log him on, open up his mailbox, wait until
he sends his emails, and kick him off after he's done so a) she can play
Solitaire and b) he doesn't kill the machine. Because they live in a small
town, if he messes up any of the components, it generally takes a month or
so to get it fixed.

Suja

In article , Suja wrote:
I was quite firmly of the belief that you really can't screw the computer up
too badly, until my dad was introduced to the computer.

Believe me, I know that you can screw up a computer (job
security!), but it's 1) rare, and 2) usually easy to recover
from. While my mother was visiting I installed Windows 2000
on an old laptop and gave it to her to use, and she wasn't
here a couple of days before she got a major virus
infestation that brought that thing to its knees and soaked
my still pretty lame-ass internet connection. A
reinstallation and free anti-virus and firewall software
took care of it in less than an hour. Anyway, I would put
the likelihood of her screwing up her computer trying to put
files on an MP3 player as pretty darned unlikely, especially
given that she's managed to deal with Usenet, email, and web
browsing without catastrophic results.

The broader point is that it's generally a good idea to try
stuff out, particularly stuff that's both personally
enabling and low-risk. And even if you think that personal
growth is the province of filthy hippies, as somebody-or-
other said "If you don't like change you're going to like
irrelevance even less."
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community