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- Newsgroups: rec.models.rc
- Path: sparky!uunet!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!rice!rusty
- From: rusty@masc.rice.edu ( Robert Kelley)
- Subject: Re: Hover achieved... with my Glider! FINAL FLAME
- Message-ID: <1992Jul23.213231.8498@rice.edu>
- Followup-To: rec.models.rc
- Summary: You'll see.
- Keywords: extinguisher, Ctl-D, End-of-File
- Lines: 69 (but worth it)
- Sender: RS Kelley
- Organization: Dept. of Math. Sciences, Rice University
- References: <1992Jul22.141326.18484@linus.mitre.org>
- Distribution: na
- Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 21:32:31 GMT
-
- Re. My flame on "Hover" article:
-
- First, Mike, my apologies. If you vetted your letter before you sent it out
- and discovered nothing wrong, then indeed the problem was an exceptional
- condition or a flaw in my mailer (or the like). However, I have discovered
- that a number of posters of incomplete maturity appear to delight in calling
- attention to their messages by their format rather than their contents.
- I am sure many of us remember the rash of who-has-the-longest .sig file
- contests. I even posted one myself, in the hopes of making a perhaps
- too-subtle hint. Other tactics which I've encountered (often) are:
- quoting entire articles of preferably not less than 100 lines long only to
- add someone's -er- humorous one-liner at the bottom, and whole files
- far too wide for a standard 80-column terminal. There has been at least
- one gentle and tactful posting --not mine :) -- on the subject, reminding
- readers that, as I said, not everyone has X-windows, which appeared to
- have a beneficial effect for at least three or four months, but which
- regrettably appears to be wearing off.
-
- I am sorry to say I'm concerned that the intentionally-too-wide trick may be
- a new and rising one. I have noticed its use by a number of posters
- regarding whom I was already developing doubts.
-
- (A word of warning here. SOME mailers, mine included, display what appear
- to be truncated lines but which are not. Saving and editing the file will
- not infrequently give you a perfectly readable rendition.)
-
- Incidentally, I use a Sun, which gives few problems of this nature.
- However, especially w.r.t. mail I do most of my work late at night from
- a dial-up line on an 80-column glass TTY at 1200 baud. I'm sure I'm not
- the only one.
-
- Second, to Robert Weinberg. Thank you for your excellent suggestion about
- writing the postmaster; I should have thought of that myself, though I will
- hope I am never put to the trouble of having to use it.
-
- Third, to the various posters, including the two above, who took a calm
- and reasoned approach to the controversy and even made additional
- contributions, often in good humor: Warm Thanks. And Mike, if I had
- not thought your article worth reading I would hardly have spent thirty
- minutes in the middle of the night trying to read it. Ahem.
-
- Finally, at this time it is, I believe, traditional to make some reference
- to the numerous moralists and would-be hate mailers (don't you just hate
- mailers?) who have been kind enough to share their mindset, both in posting
- and in personal mail, with the perpetrator, i.e., me. I respectfully decline.
-
- However, if you should see fit to forget the use of the carriage return
- (as I believe one of you did) in your own postings, I can assure you that
- the distinction will leave me deeply gratified.
-
- And for what it's worth, in my own defense, I should like to say that
- I have been a reader of the net for some years, and this is only the second
- time I can recollect (they say the memory *is* the first to go) flaming
- anybody. The other occasion involved what I regarded and still regard
- as an unwarranted and even unconscionable invasion of privacy, directed
- against someone not on the net, and therefore unable to defend themself,
- and FWIW, subsequent developments appear to have borne me out.
-
- To a generally good net, and especially those wo actually took the trouble
- to *read* this-- thank you for your patience. Regards.
-
- Robert S. Kelley, Ph.D.
- Mathematical Sciences
- Rice University
-
- rusty@rice.edu
-
-
-