3 Aug
1998
3 Aug
'98
3:45 a.m.
At 06:19 PM 7/31/98 -0700, Kai wrote:
I just had to pass this on to the list.
http://shell.rmi.net/~bslatner/humor/pournell.html
The parody mentions his kids - week before last, I bumped into
Alex Pournelle walking around in one of the computer history
exhibits (where one of my Teraks was on display) at the
ACM SIGGRAPH computer graphics convention in Orlando.
For many years while I was working as a freelance writer, I'd see
Jerry in person at press events at computer shows, and I knew many
of his assistants / toadies. Ugh. It was frightening what he was
given, and how little time he spent with it, and how little he
understood it.
Alex has certainly inherited or adopted many of his father's traits,
including the condescending dismissal and endless bumming of
software and hardware. He and another writer are working on
a WinNT "studio" book, and are gathering all the 3D and video
stuff they can find - but of course, many writers do all that.
Where does it all go? It depends. The more pricey the toy,
the less likely someone gets to keep it forever. Software
often has no value on this spectrum, and stays in the hands of
the reviewer, who might keep it or even resell it.
(I was once appalled by the brisk cash gathered by a "reviewer"
of books for a newsletter for librarians, who'd turn a bagful
of new books into cash each week at the nearest used book store,
after dismissing each with barely a paragraph "review".)
For someone of Poor-Nelly-ian magnitude, you've ultimately
got to *hire* someone to be in charge of returning and
donating all the stuff that arrives. Keep in mind, a great
deal arrives unsolicited.
I note that the parody was written by Ed DeJesus, an actual
editor at Byte, who oversaw my first and last Byte article (see
<http://www.byte.com/art/9507/sec8/art5.htm>.
I recently saw a summary of the mindset of the Pournellian branch
of science fiction as "Space is like Texas, only bigger."
- John
3 Aug
3 Aug
2:17 p.m.
John Foust wrote:
The parody mentions his kids - week before last, I
bumped into
Alex Pournelle walking around in one of the computer history
exhibits (where one of my Teraks was on display) at the
ACM SIGGRAPH computer graphics convention in Orlando.
For many years while I was working as a freelance writer, I'd see
Jerry in person at press events at computer shows, and I knew many
of his assistants / toadies. Ugh. It was frightening what he was
given, and how little time he spent with it, and how little he
understood it.
Remember that Jerry's column used to be called "The User's Column".
not "The Engineer's Column". His perspective is on "using" the
damned stuff, and the stuff that doesn't die in infancy due to
hardware failure or simple unusability he will try for several
months. So will his staff (who are _not_ toadies). I've known
Jerry for over twenty years (a side effect of being a fellow member
of the Los Angeles Science Fiction Society). He's damned honest.
I've had _serious_ arguments with him over the years, about politics
(he's in favor of limiting government, I'm in favor of eliminating
it completely), computers (I hate the Wintel standard, he recognized
that the world would spend time in that Purgatory whether he or I
liked it or not -- I showed him the TRS-80 Model 100 when it was less
than a week on the market, due to his bad experience with the Mod One
Radio Shack sold him, he bought a NEC 8201), space development (he
[despite evidence] still thought the government has a role to play,
although in recent years his writing has been less pro-NASA -- I
haven't had a good cathartic argument with him since I moved to and
got trapped on the east coast 6.5 years ago). Be aware that we are
not friends -- our politics and willingness to express them sort of
prevent that. But Jerry won't say something good about a product
unless it works and he won't say something bad unless it _really_
fucks up.
I recently saw a summary of the mindset of the Pournellian branch
of science fiction as "Space is like Texas, only bigger."
What other writers are in that branch? Reply privately unless it
means old computers. Or at least send me a pointer to that summary,
as I suspect that it includes a number of writers I get along with
far better than Jerry.
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram@cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
4 Aug
4 Aug
5:12 a.m.
At 10:17 PM 8/3/98 -0400, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote:
I believe it was in Greg Benford's (?) book review of Tom Disch's (?)
overview of the SF field, in this month's Reason magazine.
- John
Remember that Jerry's column used to be called "The User's Column".
not "The Engineer's Column". His perspective is on "using" the
damned stuff, and the stuff that doesn't die in infancy due to
hardware failure or simple unusability he will try for several
months.
If I wanted to hear the travails of clueless users, I'd get a job
in tech support. JP's "experience" with new products (as in the
parody, having unlimited amounts of support, from the techs to the
president of said company) was entirely out-of-this-world and
arguably not useful to Byte's readers. It's hard enough to
pick the right bleeding-edge products when you get opinions from
smart people. But our exchange here perhaps shows why the editors
loved him as a columnist - he stated strong opinions, and he caused
strong reactions.
I recently saw
a summary of the mindset of the Pournellian branch
of science fiction as "Space is like Texas, only bigger."
What other writers are in that branch? Reply privately unless it
means old computers. Or at least send me a pointer to that summary,
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