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Chatting and getting to know each other since
1998!
Here, you can catch up on our
chats and get to know us too!
See the start of the chat log
See the most recent chat
How can this class help you to improve your English? Is it really useful to chat with a teacher and other students? YES. Why?
Answer: Both the Palace and ICQ allow you to log (record) your chats. You can keep a record of your conversations. During the chat, your teacher might correct your English, or reply to your incorrect English with a correct form. After the conversation, you can review your record for new vocabulary and the correct way to say things.
Here's how to keep a record of your conversations:
ICQ: When you exit a chat, ICQ asks, Save Buffer? If you say yes, then you can browse for a place to save your chat log the same way you would when using Save As in Windows. During a chat, you can save your conversation at any time using File / Save Buffer
The Palace: In the Palace, you should open a Log Window. The command is Options / Log Window. You will see a scroll bar in the Log Window. After the chat, you can copy the contents of the Log Window and paste them to another application, such as a word processor or notepad.
The logs from the classes held
at the Palace and other chat areas are recorded and linked to this web page.
If you miss class or forget to save your buffer, you can look in the logs to see what happened on the day you want to know about.
Other similar data on the web
Ruth Vilmi also archives student synchronous writing (each online at the same time, as in a chat room) and asynchronous writing (students online at different times, as with email). Here are her urls and the location of our corresponding data:
|
Vilmi |
Webheads |
Synchronous |
Linked from this page (see below) |
|
Asynchronous |
Archived at our efiwebheads egroups site at http://www.egroups.com |
Wednesday, September 23, 1998 - pchat23s.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Saangthip from Thailand on ICQ
Sunday, Oct. 4, 1998 - pchat04o.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Brazil from Bahia and Michael C from Australia.
Tuesday, Oct. 6, 1998 - pchat06o.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Bubu from Hungary.
Wednesday, October 7, 1998 - pchat07o.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Saangthip from Thailand and Hilda from Taiwan on ICQ
Friday, October 9, 1998 - pchat09o.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Saangthip from Thailand on ICQ
Sunday, October 11, 1998 - pchat11o.htm - Lots of fun at the Palace: Vance in Abu Dhabi, Michael C from Australia, and MAD in Germany as teachers, with students: Ying-Lan from Taiwan, Gosia from Poland, Felix from Bahia, and Dodo from China at the Palace!!
Wednesday, October 14, 1998 - pchat14o.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Jose in Argentina.
Sunday, Oct. 18, 1998 - pchat18o.htm - Vance
in Abu Dhabi chatting with Ying-Lan from Taiwan and
Gosia from Poland
Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 - pchat19o.htm - Vance in Abu Dhabi chatting with Bubu from Hungary.
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 1998 - phat20o.htm - No students came to the class, but Mteer (who helps monitor the Palace to keep it clean) showed me a room where our class can meet at campus.thecampus.com.
Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 - pch22o98.htm - I found a guy named wjbozz online.
Sunday, Oct. 25, 1998 - pchat25o.htm - An interesting session. Ying-Lan and Vance were having a nice chat at the Campus but were pestered by a pervert and moved to Dorm Room #2. Pervert followed so we continued on ICQ. We found Barry and Gosia there, got them in a 4-way chat, returned to the Palace with Gosia, and got her to Dorm Room #2 and locked the door this time. The saved log is from a part of the ICQ chat with Ying-Lan and the part where we talk Gosia into the dorm room while being pestered by the pervert.
This session is also interesting because Vance and Ying-Lan discuss development of Ying-Lan's web page and what she has written for it (see the ICQ portion at the end of the file).
Sunday, Nov 1, 1998 - pchat01n.htm - We started with Hilda on ICQ. Ying joined us and we moved to the Palace at campus.thecampus.com. But Ying knew that the virtual schoolhouse was working, so we went there.
Sunday, Nov 8, 1998 - Pchat08n.htm
Sunday, Nov 15, 1998 - (no log available) - Ying Lan and I met at efi.virtualschoolhouse.com:9998. We started out talking about movies and deeper topics. Eventually, Michael C dropped in, followed by MAD. Michael's time has changed by one hour and so his class and mine start only half an hour apart. I discovered that the Palace buffer is only 256K when I had (again) only the last part of the chat, and since that was mainly teacher-talk, I didn't save it.
Sunday, Nov 22, 1998 - Pchat22n.htm
Sunday, Nov 29, 1998 - Pchat29n.htm
Sunday, Dec 6, 1998 - Pchat06d.htm
Sunday, Dec 13, 1998 - Pchat13d.htm
Sunday, Dec 20, 1998 - Pchat20d.htm
Sunday, Dec 27, 1998 - Pchat27d.htm - In this chat, Vance helps MAD and Ying Lan both log on to Geocities and start their own web sites.
Sunday, Jan 10, 1999 - chat10j9.htm - In this chat, we look at Ying Lan's, Bahia's and Michael's web sites, and MAD promises to have one next week.
Sunday, Jan 24, 1999 - Chat24j9.htm
Sunday, Jan 31, 1999 - Chat31j9.htm
Sunday, February 07, 1999 - Chat07f9.htm
Sunday, February 21, 1999 - Chat21f9.htm
During most of this month, Vance
was away in Europe and New York for the 1999 TESOL Conference
Sunday, March 21, 1999 - Ch21mar9.htm
Sunday, April 4, 1999 - Ch04apr9.htm
Sunday, April 11, 1999 - Ch11apr9.htm
Sunday, April 18, 1999 - Ch18apr9.htm
Sunday, April 25, 1999 - Ch25apr9.htm, with a view of Vance on his balcony, after class
Sunday, May 2, 1999 - Ch02may9.htm
Sunday, May 9, 1999 - Ch09may9.htm - secrets revealed in this one, so don't tell anyone!
Sunday, May 16, 1999 - Ch16may9.htm
Sunday, May 23, 1999 - Ch23may9.htm
Sunday, May 30, 1999 - Ch30may9.htm - You can hear Michael sing in this one, and you can do a cloze exercise from his song.
Sunday, June 6, 1999 - Read the chat log at Ch06jun9.htm - Uncensored, participants, all adults, indulge in a virtual hanger party. The Palace class met and had a lot of fun as usual. Deden was there for the very first time. Ying Lan was there as usual. Felix dragged himself out of bed to come to the computer to tell us about a bad accident involving the truck belonging to the company that he works for that fell off a bridge and killed a young worker. At some point, we all got in our Land Rovers and drove over to http://www.africam.com for a bit of game viewing. At the end of the session, well ... you'll have to read it for yourself.
Sunday, June 13, 1999 - Ch13jun9.htm
Sunday, June 20, 1999 - ch20jun9.htm
Sunday, June 27, 1999 - ch27jun9.htm
Sunday, July 4, 1999 - ch04jul9.htm - We discussed differences in men and women, with Maggi winning the argument based on her reading in neurobiology, and Michael C spent most of the time getting his slide show to work at http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/Sound_Files/adelaide.htm
Sunday, July 11, 1999 - ch11jul9.htm - We discussed friendships, dreams, whether it's proper to discuss sex in Palace classes, and we listened to Michael's music at http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/songs.htm#borderguard and http://www.homestead.com/mcsongs/files/hssongs.htm
Sunday, July 18, 1999 - Vance had connection problems and couldn't attend. The usual people were there, and Vance kept in touch via Maggi and the ICQ back door.
Sunday, July 25, 1999 - ch25jul9.htm
Sunday, August 1, 1999 - ch01aug9.htm
Sunday, August 8, 1999 - ch08aug9.htm
Sunday, August 15, 1999 - ch15aug9.htm - In this chat, we discussed walking in mountains, and how Felix can start his new language school. We even told a few jokes that you can read and enjoy. Then Ying Lan had a brilliant idea: we could create a performance all together. So we all took on roles and acted out a detective drama. Read the result for a good laugh.
Sunday, August 22, 1999 - ch22aug9.htm - We talked about how people can say yes in China but mean no, and how you can tell. Other topics: where Gloria works, how to participate in an email collaboration with a class in Mexico, what we're reading, and how Chotima learned 2 new words (fluff and scrumptuous).
Sunday, August 29, 1999 - ch29aug9.htm - The classes are getting crowded again. Sergio entertained us with a striptease (very clever) and from there it was all downhill until Michael and Gloria arrived, when then we talked about the next writing assignment, and what are the chances of making good friends on the internet, and what we would do the rest of the Sunday (except for Michael, who was going to bed).
Sunday, September 5, 1999 - ch05sep9.htm - This class was not crowded. We talked mainly about Ying Lan's gramar questions, Vance's upcoming trip to Africa, and Michael's participation in a recent online conference. We then talked about the value of the webheads class, and planned how we could present it at future professional conferences. We agreed to write a proposal for the Hawaii Online conference, with Vance, Michael, Maggi, and Ying Lan as presenters.
Sunday, September 12, 1999 - ch12sep9.htm - Participants talked about whether women should wear make up or not, various uses for vaseline, and movies and their scripts on the Internet. They also planted a surprise for Vance to find when he got back from vacation and finally read the log.
Sunday, September 19, 1999 - ch19sep9.htm - Those present talked about drinking, the Indonesian government and East Timor (Michael was concerned because Australian soldiers would be at risk), Felix's new job, Zoli's studies, and distance education.
Sunday, September 26, 1999, there were no students present. It was the first time in ages that Ying didn't appear, but we assumed it was due to disruption in phone services in Taiwan, which had just suffered a massive earthquake. Fortunately, we'd been in touch with both Ying Lan and Hilda and found that both were ok.
Sunday, October 3, 1999 - ch03oct9.htm - Ying Lan made it to the Palace and, in response to our questions, gave us details about the earthquake and its aftermath. She told us, for example, that when President Lee visited Taichung, near the epicenter of the quake, his helicopter put down in an elementary school, knocking a branch off a tree which killed a child on the spot. One problem the Taiwan government faces is the question of whether people must repay loans on homes destroyed in the quake, and how to then get money to the 100,000 homeless who will need it to rebuild their homes. Since Ying Lan works in a bank, it is a problem she faces as well. It is hard for bank workers in Taiwan to deal with such problems when some have lost family members in the disaster, and others are still sleeping in cars for fear of aftershocks.
Sunday, October 10, 1999 - ch10oct9.htm -.With the Palace down second week in a row, participants encountered on ICQ and then went to Vance's chat room at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/ . Secrets were divulged: Gosia has a secret plan to take up climbing, while Ying Lan's plan is to go camping in the Rockies (neither can tell her parents). We talked about the after-effects of the earthquake in Taiwan, and about the work of the charitable organization Tzu Chi. In the end, we had a surprise visitor - can you discover who it was?
Sunday, October 17, 1999 - ch17oct9.htm -.With the Palace down third week
in a row, participants encountered on ICQ and then went to Vance's chat room at
http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/
This one is not on the web yet; will be shortly
Sunday, October 24, 1999 - ch24oct9.htm -.With the Palace down fourth week in a row, participants encountered on ICQ and then went to Vance's chat room at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/ .
Sunday, October 31, 1999 - ch31oct9.htm -.With the Palace down a fifth week in a row, participants chatted on ICQ. Talk ranged from whether Clinton was a good president to girl problems. We welcomed new guests and talked about whether Vance would be going to Brazil.
Sunday, November 7, 1999 - ch07nov9.htm - With the Palace down a 6th week in a row, participants this time moved to an alternate Palace suggested by Felix, 209.3.106.142:9996. There they discovered that three of them had something surprising in common. Can you find what it was they had in common, and which three?
Sunday, November 14, 1999 - ch14nov9.htm - Still no Virtual Schoolhouse, so the group migrated to a Palace called neon.communities.com on port 9998. The group continued to relate to one another warmly. Read the log and see if you can find the answers to these questions: (1) what problem does Vance have that Michael C helps him to solve? (2) What does Felix's wife lecture him and the kids about, (3) what does Felix invite everyone to do in February, and why can't Ying-Lan make it (at least 2 reasons), (4) why will Maggi "disappear" for a while (and "because she's a wizard" is not the correct answer). ???
Sunday, November 21, 1999 - ch21nov9.htm - The virtual schoolhouse is still down, but Webheads chatters find each other online week after week using ICQ and then zero in on a spot to conduct their weekly obsession. This week, Ying Lan and Vance started off at the Palace in the beautiful neon.communities.com site on port 9998. Soon, Gosia appeared on ICQ, but she couldn't get into the Palace, so Ying Lan and Vance moved to ICQ chat to include Gosia. Eventually Michael C appeared and we dragged him into the chat. Maggi was busy moving her computer (plus furniture, appliances, etc) to her new apartment upstairs from her old one and just managed to get herself hooked in toward the end of our chat. Throughout all of this, Felix was sound asleep in Brazil, and Gloria was nowhere to be seen, but most of the group was together again despite lack of a set meeting point.
Sunday, November 28, 1999 - ch28nov9.htm - The virtual schoolhouse is still down, but Webheads could be found at neon.communities.com site on port 9998. This time, Vance arrived late and found Ying Lan and Michael C at the portal. We moved into the Entrada and then bounded up the stairs to an office where we all made ourselves comfortable and chatted waiting for the owner to arrive. We did have a brief visit from Charles, but perhaps he was looking for the men's room; didn't stay long. Meanwhile we kept an eye on ICQ, and when Maggi and Felix arrived, they found us easily from our directions where we were.
Sunday, December 5, 1999 - ch05dec9.htm - Webheads played Palace tag again this evening. Maggi's son had hacked into her service provider and she managed to join us that way. Michael was in his office in neon.communities.com (through the Entrada and up the stairs; he was easy to find). Ying-Lan was there. Vance had been checking virtual.scholar.com but went to Michael's office to invite him and Ying-Lan there, but before we left, we had to show off our crazy avatars to Ying-Lan's visiting nephews. At virtual.schoolhouse.com, we found Gloria. So we had a nice chat, and afterwards, Ying-Lan and Maggi helped Vance get the graphics for the new virtual.scholar site, which turned out to be an involved process with aborted ICQ file transfers. That consumed most of our second gathering, and I had to shut down the Palace to install the graphics file that Ying-Lan sent, so the last part of the log was sacrificed.
Vance is on leave from December 9 to January 9,
2000. Vance may or may not be able to reach the Palace classes between now and
January 16, 2000. Michael C kept logs for two of those days. Here they are:
Sunday, December 12, 1999 - ch12dec9.htm
Sunday, December 19, 1999 - ch19dec9.htm - The palace crashed during this session. Classes met the 26th of December and the 2nd of January, 2000, but were not logged.
Sunday, January 9, 2000 - ch0jan09.htm - Nettie has written that their server for the Palace was hacked into again, and they're wondering if it's worth it for them to put it back up at all. So we might be looking for a permanent place to hold classes. Meanwhile, Ying Lan, Maggi and Michael all found each other I think at Michael's office at neon.communities.com. Their chat is interesting, as usual. Ying Lan's brother is getting married, so her family is preparing, and weddings in Taiwan were one topic of discussion. It turns out that in this conversation all parties had a common interest in a popular game. Can you find the name of the game?
Sunday, January 16, 2000 - ch0jan16.htm - With Michael C otherwise occupied, Maggi and Vance stood watch on ICQ and as students came on line, we directed them to Vance's chat room at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/. There we had a pleasant chat in which Ying Lan picked up the meaning of the word "cud" from context, and Felix had an idea for an innovative use of a matchbox. We all said goodbye to Felix, who is going off to work in another town away from his wife and family, though he will return home each weekend.
Sunday, January 23, 2000 - ch0jan23.htm - Michael C and Vance and Maggi were discussing writing assignments when Ying Lan appeared. After some small talk, Michael finally hit on a topic for his next writing assignment: What's in a Name? Small talk continued until Michael said, oh, by the way, could we do him a favor. Could we just visit this url, http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/hearme.htm, and see if it works.
This turned out to be a milestone moment in Webheads ehistory! Almost one year after the start of the egroups eclass, Michael and Ying Lan were chatting in live voice chat. Vance and Maggi continued in text chat, but Ying Lan and Michael were obviously having more fun, and sending ICQ messages about how great it was, so Vance dropped everything and raced home from work where he had a computer that wasn't behind a firewall.
I joined Ying Lan and Michael, and the three of us continued talking, yes, actually talking, for about an hour, till way past Michael's bedtime. We'll be there again next Sunday, so bookmark the url.
Sunday, January 30, 2000 - ch0jan30.htm - Wow! We're starting to really have FUN in the chat class. From my perspective, I left work at 3:30 and got home by 4:00, noon GMT, just to be able to use voice chat at home. I found Michael and Ying Lan online. Maggi was there too but she had things to do and left us early. Gloria was in the process of joining us. I located all these people immediately on ICQ and soon had my chat clients running at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/ and http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/hearme.htm. The former is a text chat and was useful for meeting Michael, Ying Lan, and Gloria, and for talking Gloria into Michael's voice chat client. Once we were all in the voice chat, we started grooving. Ying Lan and Michael and I were talking, and Gloria could hear but not talk due to lack of mic; but she could respond in text, so we were all able to chat. We really enjoyed it. We're hooked. We'll be back next week.
Sunday, February 6, 2000 - There were no chat logs from the February 5 session because there was hardly any written chat. Everyone met in Michael's voice chat room at http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/hearme.htm. As usual I rushed home from work to get to my home computer where there is sound and no firewall, but the computer has just come back from the shop, and I discovered that the mic wasn't working. What a disappointment! I'll surely get that fixed before next week! Although I couldn't be heard, I was still able to hear Bridgett and Ying Lan and Felix talking with Michael in the chat, and I was able to write my responses in the text chat area.
Maggi was there too, but she was using her laptop which only has Netscape 3.0 on it, and she wasn't able to load the plugins for the voice chat, so I met her in the Palace and talked with her while she waited there in case any other students showed up.
I was able to chat with Maggi and the Palace and at the same time I could listen to the students talking in the voice chat class. And I could write to both groups in different windows.
Sunday, February 13, 2000 - ch0feb13.htm - The Palace was down, Michael was too tired to join us, and we ended up in Vance's text chat room at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/, where Maggi and Vance spent some time getting to know Maggie-with-an-E, who joined us there. We found out that Maggie is a student from a small city in China not far from Hong Kong. She is planning to start her university studies next year and she wants to be a doctor who helps women have babies. She gets around town on her bicycle. We were starting to talk about China and the Cultural Revolution when Vance had to leave the chat. Maggie is too young to have experienced the Cultural Revolution, but her parents were affected. You can get to know Maggie a little better by reading this chat. Maggie will probably have a look the logs to see what we Maggi and Vance were talking about. She seemed pleased that the transcript of the chat would be available to her for study later.
Sunday, February 20, 2000 - ch0feb20.htm - Maggie and Michael were talking in the voice chat room when I arrived. I couldn't get there because of my firewall. I had tried to get our network administrator to let me in, but no luck. So Maggi and Michael joined me in the chatroom at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/. During the conversation, we found that Maggie could not access our webheads website at tripod.com (and so she hadn't seen the chat transcripts from the week before - we had moved from Geocities to Tripod partly because Moral had not been able to reach Geocities from China). However, she was at that moment in the chat hosted at homestead.com, and Michael gave her the url of his homestead site, which she got into easily. So, next day I copied the entire webheads site over to homestead.com where it is now mirrored at http://www.homestead.com/vstevens/files/efi/webheads.htm
Sunday, February 27, 2000 - ch0feb27.htm - One of our most interesting and confusing chats yet: Maggi and Vance were checking to see if the Virtual Schoolhouse at the Palace worked, and surprise! It did. So we waited there chatting about life until Michael appeared, but surprise again, he couldn't get to that Palace. By then Ying Lan and Bridgett had appeared (by "appeared," I mean they came online in ICQ and sent messages asking where we were). Ying Lan easily came to the Palace to join Maggi and Vance, but Bridgett found it easier to meet Michael in his voice chat room. Ying Lan went there as well, but Maggi and Vance had to shut down and switch machines. When I returned I found Moral had joined them, though without mic OR speakers. Moral made several valiant attempts to crash through the firewall barrier, and I was able to type to him, but he couldn't hear what Michael, Ying Lan, and Bridgett were saying. Maggi meanwhile was having less success than Moral; she couldn't even get IN to the voice chat, and she ended up back at the Palace. She sat there "pushing up daisies" as she put it until Michael decided to go to bed, and Vance, Bridgett (who had figured out while online with us how to reach the Palace), and Ying Lan rejoined her in the Palace chat. Conversation continued there awhile, though after the constant sounds from the voice chat, it seemed very quiet. Still, we finished out evening in the familiar surroundings of the Virtual Schoolhouse, where our Webheads class began well over a year ago.
Sunday, March 05, 2000 - ch0mar05.htm - A very long chat this evening, lasting well over five hours. Maggi and Vance were waiting at efi.virtualscholar.com at the Palace when Ming and Michael C appeared. We got them in an ICQ chat and talked Ming through the process of installing the Palace and meeting us at the schoolhouse. Maria from Chile arrived at about the same time that Ming did. Ming proved to be a lively conversationalist and so the chat was going strong when Moral appeared on ICQ three hours after class time. Moral too had to install the Palace client before he could join us, but he managed it. The conversation was still in progress when Vance left and we were very pleased to have participants from Taiwan, China, and Chile.
Sunday, March 12, 2000 - ch0mar12.htm - Michael's commentary: This was another long chat, and for a change it all happened at the Palace - just like the good old days! Michael and Maggi started off talking about Maggi's visit to Amsterdam (where she is going to meet Vance) and then one by one, Moral, Ying Lan, and Felix joined in. Ying Lan and Moral talked about the relationship between Taiwan and China, and then Ying Lan told a story from Taiwanese history. After Michael went to bed, the others continued till the Palace froze. Finally Bridget joined and she and Maggi talked women's business!
Friday, March 17, 2000 - Michael C, Maggi, Moral,Ying Lan and Ming all join Vance at the TESOL Conference in Vancouver for a memorable session attended by at least 100 people. Only Vance was physically there. The others attended via the Palace and our voice chat. The sound from the voice chat was projected to the audience, and that screen and the Palace screen were projected on two screens at the front of the room. Members of the audience talked on the chat lines while Vance explained to those present about Webheads and how they communicate.
Here's Michael's commentary: Yesterday me, Maggi, Ming, Moral and Ying Lan had a great time when we joined Vance's presentation LIVE in Vancouver in 2 chat rooms (The Palace and my talk chat site). It was just AMAZING to be part of it. We could talk to the people at the worshop and some of them joined in the chat and asked questions.
I felt like I was really there in Vancouver. It was fantastic. It's a wonderful world we live in these days where this kind of thing is possible.
If you would like to read the logs of the chats during the workshop you can find them at http://www.chariot.net.au/~michaelc/vancouverchat.htm
Sunday, March 19, 2000 - ch0mar19.htm - The class met at the Palace. Talk centered on the conference just past and upcoming plans for the class. Maggi is being asked to present the Webheads class at a conference in Germany. She needs to invite Dave Sperling to her conference as well < http://www.esl-cafe.com >. She is meeting Vance on his way through Amsterdam later this week (the first time Vance has met anyone in Webheads face to face; Michael and Maggi met once before in San Francisco). Michael wants to start a regular voice chat class at another time regularly each week. Ying Lan informed us of the political unrest in Taiwan as a result of the recent elections.
Sunday, March 26, 2000 - ch0mar26.htm - Maggi is away in Amsterdam. Michael and Vance are chatting in the voice chat room when Ying Lan appears in the Palace, so we go there and have a logged discussion. You can read about it here.
Sunday, April 02, 2000 – ch0apr02.htm – Maggi and Vance waited a LONG time at the Palace while Michael popped in and out on ICQ. He couldn’t reach the Palace so he decided on second try to reinstall the software. Meanwhile, Ying Lan appeared and we solved all her problems. Michael appeared at the end of that, and Vance went off to talk to Bobbi on the balcony while Bridgett came and chatted with Maggi, MC, and Ying Lan. We also had a guest appearance from Simo from Morocco. All in all a nice chat, lasting well over 3 hours for Maggi and I.
Sunday, April 09, 2000 – ch0apr09.htm – This chat was pretty interesting. Maggi and I had just met in the Palace when we detected Ying Lan and MaggiE (with an E) on ICQ. We contacted both, and Ying Lan joined us in the Palace. But MaggiE in China had been unable to download the Palace client, so Vance met her in the voice chat room (Ying Lan was there as well, but Maggi had not yet installed the 4.0+ browser she needs to join us in voice chat). Vance tried to direct Maggie to the Palace website, but she was still unable to connect long enough to download the browser. So Vance sent it to her using ICQ file transfer. At 200-800 bps, it took a couple of hours, but it worked. Meanwhile, conversations were going on in the Palace, and after Michael C and Maggi left, Ming, Felix, and Roner moved over to the voice chat room for a noisy finale.
Sunday, April 16, 2000 – ch0apr16.htm – I arrived at the Palace to find Felix waiting there. I was at my office playing with NetMeeting, and Felix agreed to hook up with me. We made the connection but because Felix had an older version of the software than I did, he could see and hear me but I couldn’t see or hear him. Felix lost his connection, but meanwhile Maggi had come on, and she and I sat for a while at the Palace talking. Eventually I started installing CU-See-me on my computer. It was taking up the whole screen, but my computer started talking to me. It was Ying Lan. I recognized her voice. So I pressed F9 and talked to her although I couldn’t see any of my applications except the install screen. Still the hearme chat worked and we were able to converse. By then Felix had rejoined Maggi at the Palace. Just as Ying Lan had decided to join the two of them, Felix’s friend Roner appeared in the voice chat. I told Felix and he left the Palace to join Roner and I at the voice chat site. From that point, I chatted with Roner and Felix by voice and by text in the voice chat area, while Maggi and Ying Lan conducted girl-talk in the Palace. I was in both places, but paying most attention to the guys in the voice chat. I wasn’t sure if the girls wanted me to join them, but when the guys left I did. Eventually the conversation wound down and I was left all by myself.
Sunday, April 23, 2000 – ch0apr23.htm – This was not a good day for Cyberspace. Elsewhere on the language teaching lists, a popular site in Japan was reported as being inaccessible. Its manager reported that all was well, so the problem must be at servers somewhere along the Internet. We too had our problems. We kept falling out of the Palace one by one and getting back in, but eventually the Palace stopped working completely. We ended up in the voice chat, but even there, the data packets from Ying Lan in Taiwan were coming in delayed, so her speech was broken and incomprehensible. Sound between Australia, the UAE, and southern China was fine, but something odd was going on in the region of Taiwan and Japan. A day later, it’s ok. I’ve returned to the Palace and Maggie’s ears are still there.
Sunday, April 30, 2000 – ch0apr30.htm –
Sunday, May 7, 2000 – ch0may07.htm –
Sunday, May 14, 2000 – ch0may14.htm – The regular Sunday chat was held in two different places: Moral couldn't reach the voice chat and Michael hasn't been able to get the Palace lately, so those two couldn't meet. With newcomers Aline and Paolo happily talking with Michael in the voice chat, Vance and Maggi kept up with conversations in both areas. Interestingly, both chats moved onto the same topic, the value of the Internet in teaching and its impact on politics and society, at about the same time. The HearMe plugin was used to excellent advantage in the voice chat, with explanations of what was said being written out for students who had difficultly understanding spoken English. Meanwhile, in the Palace, the conversation moved on to the Falungong and whether cults should operate freely or be subject to government control or repression.
The latest chat is the last one in the chart, above.
See the start of the chat log
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