30 Dec
1998
30 Dec
'98
12:21 a.m.
There is a big difference between lack of knowledge and
lack of
intellegence, even if the current so-called educational system manages to
confuse them. Being intellegent includes being sensible when faced with a
problem/situation that you've not come up against before, being able to
reason things out, and being able to obtain more knowledge. And the last
includes asking questions - I do not, and never will, consider asking
questions to be a mark of cluelessness.
Yeah, I know, but there is usually a limit to what someone can/cannot
learn. Many people's learning abilities will far outlast their lifetime...
and some just can't learn some stuff. For example, try teaching a bird to
read. You can't. Try all you will. It'll never be able to read ASCII
text. (Though my pet blue-and-gold maccaw sure likes watching TV!)
Everybody on this list is unknowledgable about
something - and yes, even
some computer.
Hehehe... yeah, but there are so many! I'm betting that you'd be hard
pressed to say get 5 of the most knowledgeable people on this list with a
computer that they'd never heard of, using an OS similiar, but not exact,
to any OS they've seen. (Seems that most popular OS's work in a similiar
way, such as how you can change between DIR and ls fairly easily, etc.
Sometimes not that related, but nothing's really far-out there.)
But equally, to be interested in classic computers at
all shows (IMHO) an
above-average intellegence and knowledge when it comes to computers. No
classic that I've ever seen has a point-and-drool GUI. You are going to
As of Jan 1, the 486 will be a classic. Windows 2.x is a classic, Windows
3.0 will be next year... Macs have had a point-and-click (not really drool,
per se, but..) GUI for quite a while (1984.)
have to work with command lines. To work without
complete/accurate
manuals - you may be able to go out at buy a <thingy> for dummies book if
<thingy> is Windows or Word or... but not if <thingy> is a PERQ or an
Apple ][ or an Altair or a C64 or ...
Hmm... well, the 'For Dummies' books are well intended, but I've found a
severe lack of books for the current level that I'm at. Yes, I know that
this is a mouse, keyboard, etc. There are lots of books like that. No,
I'm not a seasoned veteran-programmer. There seems to be relatively few
books inbetween.
But I get your point.
You may not want to go as far as some of us do
(re-writing processor
microcode, replacing hard disk heads, rebuilding SMPSUs, patching OS
binaries, etc, but you will certainly go a lot further than most computer
users.
You mean I can type? Joy. ;-)
OK, now how do we get the 20 most clueful and
knowledgeable members of
this list to be walking down the same street at the same time ... ;-)
FREE APPLE I's! GET 'EM WHILE THEY'RE HOT! (CRAYS, PERQ'S, AND
IMSAI'S
ALSO FREE, AVAILABLE ON REQUEST.) That' outta do it. ;-) But it'll never
happen.
It's not unheard-of for computer shops to
re-shrink-wrap software that's
been returned by a customer. And if that customer's PC has a virus....
Yeah, it's worth it for floppies.
So it is worth virus-checking installation _floppy_
disks, just in case.
Well worth it.
But I don't see how a CD-ROM could be infected.
I've never receieved a
commercial software product of a CD-R, either, and would be _very_
suspicious if I did.
Neither do I. And it wasn't on a CD-R, and as far as this guy was
concerned, they didn't exist.
-tony
Tim
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