euatdt@euas11g.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) (08/23/89)
I suppose I should know better than to get involved in this rather fiery
discussion, but there's one aspect of the .signature file problem which
I haven't seen anybody mention as yet.
A lot of us non-english-native-speakers use terminals adapted to other
languages. For instance, Swedish has three extra letters after z which
cause us a lot of trouble when we use computers for writing regular text
in Swedish. When the proposed 8-bit standards finally settle on WHICH
national-character table to use, we can forget these worries, but so far
we have to try to get along with just 7-bit codes and that means we
replace some of the less-used characters ([\]{|} to be exact) with ours.
Do you begin to see where this is pointing to? Every time I use a
swedish-adapted VT100 to read news, the nice big character graphics of
some of the more frequent posters of this meeting come out rather jumbled.
Every "\" is replaced with an "O" with two dots over it (OE in alternate
German writing). I can assure you this does nothing to improve the looks
of the graphics.
Following the flames thrown at the guy who proposed keeping lines down to
79 characters, I realize that there are many netters who would never
DREAM of letting the limitations of other users affect their practices, but
remember what the guy said: you put the signature there as a message to
other readers. If they can't read it, YOU have failed to get that message
across to them and that is because YOU didn't understand the full
implications of what you were doing.
I only sometimes read news from a VT100. Usually I work on a SUN workstation.
It would be no big problem for me to create incredibly complex graphic
designs which I could hex-code to get through the mailer and add to my
postings, and which would require another SUN to decode into something
readable. I wouldn't do that, though, since it would fail the basic
purpose of usenet communication: to communicate. A high percentage of the
readers wouldn't be able to read them. Kindly keep the same in mind when
you write your messages to the world.
/Torsten
P.S. 4-line .signature without graphic characters but wasting 176 bytes
on a pointless joke follows. _I_ find this a nice compromise which fills
all reasonable needs for clarity while still telling something about my
personality. If you don't like it you are welcome to come here and discuss
the matter in person.
Torsten Dahlkvist ! "I am not now, nor have I ever
ELLEMTEL Telecommunication Laboratories ! been, intimately related to
P.O. Box 1505, S-125 25 ALVSJO, SWEDEN ! Dweezil Zappa!"
Tel: +46 8 727 3788 ! - "Wierd" Al Yankowitzadweeb@right.here (A. Dweeb) (08/24/89)
In article <2146@erix.ericsson.se> euatdt@euas11g.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) writes: > >A lot of us non-english-native-speakers use terminals adapted to other >languages. For instance, Swedish has three extra letters after z which >cause us a lot of trouble when we use computers for writing regular text >in Swedish. Aww, quit yer griping! At least you don't have to wait five weeks to get parts for your Volvo. Heck, if there were half as many blonde women running around here, the last thing I'd worry about are the punctuation marks on my computer keyboard. So there! \|[{}~`$&$##)@!^? that'll fix 'em.... -- Allen Arthur Dweeb
rwb@castle.ed.ac.uk (Richard Bingham) (08/25/89)
In article <2146@erix.ericsson.se> euatdt@euas11g.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) writes: > >I suppose I should know better than to get involved in this rather fiery >discussion, but there's one aspect of the .signature file problem which >I haven't seen anybody mention as yet. ... >Following the flames thrown at the guy who proposed keeping lines down to >79 characters, I realize that there are many netters who would never >DREAM of letting the limitations of other users affect their practices, but >remember what the guy said: you put the signature there as a message to >other readers. If they can't read it, YOU have failed to get that message >across to them and that is because YOU didn't understand the full >implications of what you were doing. > >/Torsten Despite the flippant reply from someone pretending to be "A.Dweeb" (clearly a frustrated user of eunet.jokes), your article was a timely reminder that one should think of others when using the news system - well said (or perhaps I should say written)! Too many users seem to think that their terminal is the centre of the Universe, and rush for their flameguns whenever anyone else dares to have an opinion ever so slightly different from theirs, or makes a trivial blunder in netiquette, spelling etc. However if newusers stick around, wrap up warmly in their asbestos suits, they will find that there are a few helpful people on the net who will offer useful advice, or if they have a valid complaint, they will explain it courteously, as Torsten has just done. Richard -- Richard W. Bingham, | Tel: +44 31 667 1011 ext. 5281 Veterinary Pathology, | Fax: +44 31 668 4341 University of Edinburgh, | JANET: R.Bingham@uk.ac.edinburgh Edinburgh, Scotland
euatdt@euas11g.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) (08/28/89)
In article <74633@right.here> adweeb@right.here (A. Dweeb) writes: >In article <2146@erix.ericsson.se> euatdt@euas11g.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) writes: >> >>A lot of us non-english-native-speakers use terminals adapted to other >>languages. For instance, Swedish has three extra letters after z which >>cause us a lot of trouble when we use computers for writing regular text >>in Swedish. > >Aww, quit yer griping! At least you don't have to wait five weeks to >get parts for your Volvo. Heck, if there were half as many blonde >women running around here, the last thing I'd worry about are the >punctuation marks on my computer keyboard. > >So there! \|[{}~`$&$##)@!^? that'll fix 'em.... > >-- >Allen Arthur Dweeb Well "Dweeb", you certainly seem to have picked an appropriate name for yourself. Couldn't face the world with your real name so you think you're smart when you've read in some magazine how to hack News to give a false header to your little postings. There are words for that kind of behaviour. Some of them are polite. Some shouldn't be used around sensitive people. None, however, come even close to expressing the utter distaste I feel for you and your kind. Folks, these "Dweebs" are a problem. It's no good editing your "kill" files when the slimes keep changing their fake ID:s (probably can't remember from one day to the next what name they used) and you can't E-mail them because the letters bounce at every sensible mailer. The only way to get to them is to engage in flame-wars with them on a newsgroup, which never works since that was what they wanted in the first place. It's sad to see how quickly news.newusers.questions has deteriorated from a newsgroup where new users could ask the questions they needed in order to get acquainted with the system into a .flames group where self-appointed "gurus" compete in displaying the most inflated egos and who can make the worst stink when letting out their excessive gasses. How about thinking for a second about the purpose of the group before blowing it all out! This was supposed to be a place where a new user could ask a naive question without getting RTFM thrown at him from 100 directions. Oh, and "Dweeb": If you're dumb enough to drive a Volvo outside of Sweden, you deserve every punishment you can get. As regards the blond women, maybe it's because there are so many of them running around that we do have the time to worry over what are not merely punctuation marks but real, unique fully-qualified letters with their own proper places in the alphabet. /Torsten Torsten Dahlkvist ELLEMTEL Telecommunication Laboratories P.O. Box 1505, S-125 25 ALVSJO, SWEDEN Tel: +46 8 727 3788