minor list changes

[Tony Duell]

> 
> At 04:45 PM 3/7/2005, Tony Duell wrote:
> >> At 08:03 AM 3/7/2005, you wrote:
> >> >On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 07:38 -0600, John Foust wrote:
> >> >> Why the emotional attraction to a mailing list as opposed to the web? 
> >> >Because the web is shit for just about everything?
> >> 
> >> That would explain its unpopularity, of course.
> >
> >Anybody who believes 'popular' == 'good' is, IMHO, a total idiot!
> 
> I'd never say that, so logic dictates I must be a genius.

False. A statemnt does not imply its inverse. 

> I wonder what I'd be if I said that if something was popular
> that it must be bad.

That also happens to be false IMHO.

> I'm baffled by those who would gladly spend months searching for the 
> right NOS replacement part for a 20-year-old computer, and who would 
> cheerfully build their own computer out of sand and bamboo on a desert 
> island given a proper vacation, or who've memorized the arcana of all 
> mechanical and electrical technology in the last 100 years, or whom

I'd have thought most of those were natural for classicmp'ers...

> I regard as minor gods because they generally know how to do dozens 
> of things I can't fathom, yet these same folk claim to be unable and 
> unwilling to locate and revive a cast-off PC with sufficient power 
> to run a contemporary web browser and/or connect to the net faster 
> than dialup.  All because they're dead-certain that it's not better than 
> TECO and their VT-100?  Lordy!

Well I cetainly can't do any of those. I have never been offered a PC 
faster than a 286. I certainly can't afford broadband. And I don't mind 
admitting I am not clever enough to repair modern PCs, I don't have a BGA 
rework station (although that is something I must think about sometime), 
and actually I don't particularly want to spend my time doing any of 
that. 

[...]

> A few thoughts ran through my mind while I wrote this.  One, the
> phrase "Techno-Amish".  Hurry, the domain name hasn't been registered.
> Two, "They worship old technology, but they're scared of new technology."

I am not particularly scared of new technology. I am scared (or rather I 
object to) using inappropriate technology. For the <nth> time, just 
because something is new does not automatically make it better than that 
which came before. Classicmp'ers more than anyone should realise that.

There are times when IMHO the more modern solution is better. I use 
e-mail a lot more than paper mail or voice telephone. I use a word 
processeor (actually an editor and formatter) more than a typewriter 
(although there are times when I use a typewriter). I use an electronic 
calculator more than a slide rule (but again I do use the latter from 
time to time). 

And there are also times when for what I want to do the more modern 
solution is _NOT_ an improvement. I much perfer a command line to a GUI. 
I much prefer mailing lists to web fora. I prefer large-format film 
cameras to digital cameras. And so on. 

> 
> Not a day goes by that I don't encounter a web- or programming-
> related concept that is new to me.  I've been geek and programmer

I learn something every day too. The day I stop learning is the day I am 
6' under in a pine box.

-tony