owen@euclid.enet.dec.com (Steve Owen) (10/18/90)
Taken without Permission from "Dec Professional". Written by John C. Dvorak.
THE MAN IN THE MACHINE
Marci Peoples Halio, assistant director of the writing program at the
University of Delaware, has discovered a peculiar phenomenon. Freshman taking
her writing course who use Macs produce worse compositions than those who use
IBM PCs.
Based on experience and a computer-aided analysis, she claims that Mac
users make more spelling and punctuation mistakes and write at an eighth-grade
level. The PC users were at a college level.
If this isn't bad enough, the Mac students write on vapid subjects.
They concentrate on issues such as dating and television. The IBMers write
about teen pregnancy, war and stuff like that. My conclusion: The computer
makes the man (or woman, as the case may be).
I thought it might be worthwhile to take the concept a step further and
compare writing on a Mac, a PC clone, and Atari Mega, and Amiga 2000, a VT100
hooked to a VAX and an IBM 3270 hooked to a 3090.
Unable to do this scientifically, I took a different tack. I was
hypnotized and make to believe that whatever computer I used was my favorite.
I was encouraged to express my thoughts about the machine and use it to list
five topics about which I'd like to write.
While the unscientific results don't completely confirm the
unscientific conclusions of Halio, they show a definite pattern and indicated
that "you are what you write on." Here are the results, computer by computer:
MACINTOSH
Thoughts:
This is a neat machine. I love the mouse and feel superior to the poor saps
who use anything else.
Topics:
1. New ice cream flavors.
2. Bruce Willis: actor, singer or Renaissance man.
3. Do those cleaners/waxes advertised on TV really work?
4. Was Rob Lowe unfairly treated after those incriminating video tapes were
released?
5. Where's Brazil, anyway?
PC CLONE
Thoughts:
This is a very functional machine. I like it and feel superior to the poor
saps who use anything else.
Topics:
1. Phenomenology in an age of bleached blondes and the implications of such a
culture and its effects on Eastern Europe.
2. Tissue culture fraud at laboratories
3. Mating habits of native tree frogs.
4. Use of the word 'indeed' in 18th century literature.
5. Is "form versus function" a dead issue in modern architectural theory?
ATARI MEGA
Thoughts:
This machine is a bargain, and I can even make it run Mac software! I feel
superior to people who paid more than I did.
Topics:
1. Atari compared to Mac.
2. Mac software on the Atari.
3. What's wrong with the Mac?
4. Why the Atari is the best deal.
5. The decline of bowling in America
AMIGA 2000
Thoughts:
This machine is fabulous, but nobody wants to talk about it. It's a cover-up.
I love this machine but feel sorry for myself.
Topics:
1. Why the Amiga is never discussed.
2. Fancy video techniques done easily on the Amiga
3. How Commodore is blowing Amiga's marketing.
4. How good is true stereo on the Amiga.
5. New uses for the Amiga.
VT100 hooked to a VAX
Thoughts:
This is a real computer. I like it and feel superior to the poor saps who use
anything else.
Topics:
1. Button collecting
2. I wish I had invented C.
3. How to borrow money.
4. Is the sponge bath making a comeback?
5. Efficiency in rebooting a VAX.
IBM 3270 hooked to a 3090
Thoughts:
This is a real computer. I like it and feel superior to the poor saps who use
anything else.
Topics:
1. VM is the best thing ever!
2. Is RPG-II a victim of bad press?
3. How to make a bureaucracy work.
4. The history of corporate dress codes and their importance.
5. Alternate realities.
When the exercise was over, I looked at the results, went home and
wrote this column - in longhand.
[Please don't take this article as the start of some sort of a Flame war. I
thought it was funny, and thought it might be funny to some of you. -SO]
_____ ///______________________________________________________________________
| /// Only Amiga makes it possible! | Music: Anything but slop 40 |
|\\\/// Macintosh: Marketed well... | Beer: Sam Adams Boston Lager |
| \XX/ OS/2: half an operating system | Major: Mechanical Engineering |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|Steve | owen@euclid.enet.dec.com(Now-Dec)| "Cool your jets man!"-Bart takes |
|Owen | sowen@lynx.northeastern.edu(Jan+)| Heat Transfer and Fluid Dynamics |
-------------------------All normal disclaimers apply--------------------------RIDOUT@ddnvx1.afwl.af.mil (10/18/90)
In article <16470@shlump.nac.dec.com>, owen@euclid.enet.dec.com (Steve Owen) writes: > Taken without Permission from "Dec Professional". Written by John C. Dvorak. > AMIGA 2000 > > Thoughts: > This machine is fabulous, but nobody wants to talk about it. It's a cover-up. > I love this machine but feel sorry for myself. > > Topics: > 1. Why the Amiga is never discussed. > 2. Fancy video techniques done easily on the Amiga > 3. How Commodore is blowing Amiga's marketing. > 4. How good is true stereo on the Amiga. > 5. New uses for the Amiga. > I thought of posting this artical myself so thanks for saving me the trouble. When my office mate was reading the above section to me I was thinking about how the author was going to put down the amiga. After hearing this I concluded that Amiga users are paranoid. It wasn't a day later and A user of my computer system said that the Amiga news groups were not being updated "Was this by design?" I think we Amiga users need to lighten up :-) Brian -- **************************************************************************** * Brian Ridout Internet: ridout@ddnvx1.afwl.af.mil * * wl/scev * * Kirtland AFB NM 87117 My Apple is better than your Orange. * ****************************************************************************
sysmgr@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU (Doug Mohney) (10/18/90)
In article <16470@shlump.nac.dec.com>, owen@euclid.enet.dec.com (Steve Owen) writes: >AMIGA 2000 > >Thoughts: >This machine is fabulous, but nobody wants to talk about it. It's a cover-up. >I love this machine but feel sorry for myself. > >Topics: >3. How Commodore is blowing Amiga's marketing. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >[Please don't take this article as the start of some sort of a Flame war. I >thought it was funny, and thought it might be funny to some of you. -SO] I think it is funny when I look at the article and see your signature at the end of it ;-) >_____ ///______________________________________________________________________ >| /// Only Amiga makes it possible! | Music: Anything but slop 40 | >|\\\/// Macintosh: Marketed well... | Beer: Sam Adams Boston Lager ^^^^^^^^^^^^ | >| \XX/ OS/2: half an operating system | Major: Mechanical Engineering | >|---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | >|Steve | owen@euclid.enet.dec.com(Now-Dec)| "Cool your jets man!"-Bart takes | >|Owen | sowen@lynx.northeastern.edu(Jan+)| Heat Transfer and Fluid Dynamics | >-------------------------All normal disclaimers apply--------------------------
anderson@Apple.COM (Clark Anderson) (10/19/90)
>Marci Peoples Halio, assistant director of the writing program at the >University of Delaware, has discovered a peculiar phenomenon. Freshman taking >her writing course who use Macs produce worse compositions than those who use >IBM PCs. Of course, the 12+ years of education that the students had before enrolling in Ms. Halio's class has nothing whatsoever to do with their ability to read and write. It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools. --clark ----------------------------------------------------------- Clark Anderson InterNet: anderson@apple.com Apple Computer, Inc AppleLink: C.ANDERSON BellNet: 408-974-4593 "I speak only for myself, much to my employer's relief..." -----------------------------------------------------------
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (10/19/90)
A lot of folks have been paying a lot of attention to Halio's article, even though the observations she makes were not made in a scientifically controlled setting. (Of course, it's really hard to even try to set up a good experiment for this. Get volunteers - where do you look? what media do you use to present the experiment? For an experiment that wants to make a broad statement about a general population, getting volunteers, and selecting which to employ, is probably 80% of the experiment. Statistically speaking, how many people from how many different working/living environments do you need to "test" to get a good representation of the population at large?) Even assuming you can somehow select the ideal mix of volunteers, what can you prove - that Mac users are poor writers, or that poor writers like to use Macs? It's all such hazy stuff.... And yet, people are spending real money to do research on just these questions. I admit to being curious about what the real answer may be, but I don't think it's the sort of question that can be answered to anyone's satisfaction.... -- -- Howard Chu @ University of Michigan one million data bits stored on a chip, one million bits per chip if one of those data bits happens to flip, one million data bits stored on the chip...
geoff@pmafire.UUCP (Geoff Allen) (10/20/90)
owen@euclid.enet.dec.com (Steve Owen) writes: > >Taken without Permission from "Dec Professional". Written by John C. Dvorak. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Man, that guy is everywhere! Cute article! Thanks. Nicely makes fun of the whole issue. -- Geoff Allen \ Computers are useless. uunet!pmafire!geoff \ They can only give you answers. bigtex!pmafire!geoff \ -- Pablo Picasso