Altair Fan

[Tony Duell]

> I do, though, think it a bit excessive of Tony to, in effect, criticize
> (or at least criticise :) others for not sharing his feelings here.

Well....

I am not, and never will be (I hope) a 'yes man'. I see no reason to
necessarily agree with anybody (eqyally, of course, I see no reason for
people to agree with me). I prefer to get the facts (and maybe opinions 
of others) and to work out what I should do. Yes, I may well do the wrong 
thing, in fact I often do the wrong thing. But at least I try to have a 
reason for doing it.

This is claimed to be a discussion list IIRC. A discussion necessarily 
has people with differeing viewpoints, it would be darn boring if not. 
Equally, this list would be boring if everybody agreed with each other IMHO.

The fact that I criticise somebody (and I think that's a pretty strong 
word for simply disagreeing with them) does not mean I think they're an 
idiot. Or that they're necessarily wrong. It just means that I would do 
something differently. My aim in posting such messages is to give an 
alternative point of view. I don't expect to change everybody to my way 
of thinking. In fact I don't expect to change anybody. I just feel I have 
something that _may_ be worth considering.

Somebody else commented that I wouldn't spend $100 on a PC that he thinks 
I need. Well, firstly of course, the total cost is a lot more than $100. 
I've explained that before. And seconding _I_ don't think I need a PC. If 
I think I need something, I find a way to buy it. Like the Myford lathe. 
Or an other example, I don't have a digital camera, I don't see that I 
need one. But I've bought a lot of film-based photographic equipment that 
I consider to be more use to me than a digital thing. My choice, OK.... 

Now I presume the reason said person thinks I need a PC is to read 
manuals as pdf files. I don't need a machine to do that. I have many of 
the manauls I need as originals on paper. If I don't have them and 
they're only available on pdfs, then I find a way to get them in a form I 
can read. Maybe by using a machine in an internet cafe (an analogous 
argument is that because I don't drive or own a car (true statements), I 
can't, say, go to a place 100 miles away Of course I can, I can use 
public transport). 

What I have never done (I hope), at least not recently, is flame the 
people who contribute to, or run, the pdf document archives on the web. 
Becuase that's certainly not my intention. I regard them as a very useful 
resource, even if _I_ can't make use of them easily. 

-tony