6 Feb
1999
6 Feb
'99
12:40 p.m.
Not to worry.
Notice that there was a ":-)" (AKA "emoticon", AKA "stupid smiley
face") at
the end of my message. The part about it being rude or nasty or insulting
was no more nor less serious than the speculation that the wooden laptop
was sent back from the future. Decide or yourself how seriously to take
THAT hypothesis.
Feel free to use them as necessary. If Jonathon Swift were to have used
them in "Gulliver's Travels", then perhaps more people would understand
that it was an attack on current politics and society, not a children's
tale. Great comic writers, such as Douglas Adams, manage to convey the
concept of what is to be taken seriously without using them; the rest of
us need them on occasion. Particularly anyone dumb enough to try to
write something funny within 24 hours of a root-canal.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred
On Sat, 6 Feb 1999, John Amirault wrote:
Grumpy Ol' Fred,
Thanks for answering my question to Sam. I will make sure I do not use " : )
"
in my messages. I was WAY off base in my guess.
Bye for now and have a nice day,
John Amirault
Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:
> Computers of the future will have what appears to be a keyboard on them to
> be comfortable for old farts like us. They will respond to voice
> commands, AND to hand gestures. In addition to Chuck's ASL, they
> will readily support using 8 fingers to input raw ASCII.
>
> But, ... when anyone other than the primary user attempts to use them,
> Windoze 1900 will fail, displaying the woooden screen of death. Actually
> the whole thing will go wooden, not just the screen! (Based on
> Microsoft's invention of multitudinous new ways for computers to go dead.)
>
> There is some concern that their use of zero-point 3-phase power sources
> may occasionally cause some of them to move through time, and possibly
> even end up in pre y2K time periods! Fortunately the "go-wooden"
security
> failure system should be sufficient to prevent anyone finding one from
> realizing what it really is. (unless they offer it up as a RARE PROTOTYPE
> on e-bay).
>
> Ever have a neighboring passenger on a plane be exceptionally annoying
> about your laptop? Wooden ones are great for that situation.
>
> BTW, " :) " is an extremely rude and nasty way to insult somebody by
stating
> that they are too stupid to know what is or isn't a joke :-)
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred