These are good questions and I didn't know the answers either, so I used Google and found a lot of answers, but these seem to sum them up best:

Scroll Lock:
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mscrolllock.html

Tilde:
http://diveintomark.org/archives/200...y_of_the_tilde

By the way, I didn't think this really belonged in the Windows 9x forum so I've moved it to the Geek's Lounge

hmm thx for posting info on that i ain got time to read them but im surprised that there was enough inof that u had to pick thru them lol :mrgreen:

interestingly in-depth especially the tilde page. i guess it doesnt have a use in the english language as a character but ibm created it hmmm...
i like the scroll lock one to and i can make myself look like i know something about excel now by mentioning that part about keeping the cursor box in the same place :cheesy:

ok here's another "I'll probably sound stupid" question: what the heck is a blog? most sites start going into really complicated information when i look them up

Actually, the only language usage of the tilde in English is in dictionaries, where it is called a 'swung dash'.

Where the various suffixed variations of a word are being listed, they are preceded by a tilde which is being used to represent the root word.

There are also many uses of the tilde in various branches of mathematics and science.

http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/Tilde

Basically, "blog" is short for web-log, an online journal.