ftp archives disappearing? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

14 Mar 2007

Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 17:35:19 -0400
From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com>
Subject: Re: ftp archives disappearing?

<snippage>
...
...
 The massive influx of clueless morons has changed the 

Internet considerably, to be sure, but the core of what it was is  
still there and still works just fine, IF you choose to make use of it. --------
Well, I think that the biggest change, at least in a negative sense,
is the malware and security problems so prevalent today, and in my 
opinion many of the people ultimately responsible for the trojans
and virii and keeping the spam ahead of the filters are not clueless
morons at all. In fact, they're probably a lot like you, computer literate,
elitist and contemptuous of anyone who chooses to invest his or her
time and intelligence in areas other than the arcane intricacies of
computers and just uses them as tools (and runs Microsoft software 
of course ;-).
=====================
On Mar 14, 2007, at 12:44 PM, Jules Richardson wrote:
...
 > (I had exactly the same issues with VCRs the other
day - they're  
> still useful *to me*, but planet-wide they're dead as a dodo,  
> superseded by DVD and PVR technology, so I had to bite my tongue  
> when someone declared them obsolete :-) 
Dave:
...
    Indeed, I know how you feel...the same thing happens
to me with a  
few things that I use that just happen to be "not new" (which, to the  
99% of our society that doesn't think, now means "old"). 
Jules:
...
 > [and there's a real danger with people
confusing obsolescence with  
> "no longer any good" - to my mind they're often totally different  
> things] 
Dave:
...
    Yes, that is infuriating.  I emailed a question to
the  
manufacturer of a piece of test equipment that I have here, and the  
response was "that product is obsolete".  Well that's interesting...I  
use it every day, it works great, and the company hasn't released  
anything better since then. 
...
    Despite what corporations seem to think, true
obsolescence is  
determined by the USERS and the CUSTOMERS, not the vendors.  There's  
a big, big difference between "this is obsolete" and "we'd like to  
sell you something different now". 
...
    Now, of course there's the matter of
unreasonably expecting a  
company to spend the resources to support a product long after it has  
been discontinued.  But again, that's not "that product is obsolete",  
that's "we don't make that product anymore and we can't spend the  
resources to support it".  BIG difference. 
...
    Infuriating. 
...
            -Dave
-----------------------------------
Sorry to hear that the word "obsolete" troubles you both so. As one of the
99% that (in Dave's opinion) doesn't think, I'd certainly consider something
that's no longer manufactured or supported "obsolete" and, in comparison
with something new, even "old." Whether it's still useful or, like Tony,
you
or I accept or even prefer its limitations in the current context and continue 
to use an AT to browse the 'Web is not really relevant.

Sorry to say, it's the rest of us who prefer the convenience and extra 
features of DVDs & PVRs and enjoy full colour and motion video and audio on 
the 'Web (and of course the manufacturers who give us what we want) who
decide what's obsolete. 

And you should be grateful: if DECs, HPs etc. weren't considered obsolete 
you probably wouldn't be able to afford 'em. And Jules, the next time someone 
you know buys a DVD player to replace that "obsolete" VCR, instead of
biting your tongue just take the VCR off their hands and smile because
you just got a free spare.

m