eugene@eos.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (08/26/89)
A lot of our problems with computing and news come from inconsistency.
Recently, I did a walk around survey of different news systems. The
people runing news using rn, vn, readnews, nn, etc. have no appreciation, nor
vice versa for Notesfiles, nor those people reading different BBS software
such as on big IBMs or VMS sytems, nor do these people appreciate what those
who read groups using mail on gatewayed groups because they don't have news
software. Hence a great spade of incorrect mail and news advice. Truly
amazing, truly sad.
This lack of consistency is part of the reason why some people don't know
what cross-posting is, aren't aware of Follow-up: fields, or Distribution:
or Sender, etc. Their systems don't have them, or they are not aware
of the function, etc. of these things.
It is interesting to see how some of the different "corporate cultures"
act out their parochialism. There is the big centralized machine
group, there are the "minis," and so forth.
I started on an non-standard IBM system, and the early ARPAnet taught me
things as a frosh: there are different character sets out there,
different operating systems, different programming languages,
you can't trust them. This affected my FTP-ing of ASCII files on a DEC-10 to
an EBCDIC IBM 360. Characters got improperly mapped. DELETE versus
BACKSPACE arguments raged ("What DELETE key?"). Dumb. We had IBM keyboards
without DELETE keys.
I've learn to hate arrow keys, I've learned to hate keyboards in general
(QWERTY is okay it's the rest of the keyboard), I don't even trust TAB
keys because their effects vary between systems. Programmed function
keys, especially in heterogeneous environments, are marginally useful.
(Correction, not useful 8). Should it be "HELP" or 'H' 'E' 'L' 'P'?
We carry much "cultural baggage" from the "physical world."
I've learn to hate the 1-2-3 buttom mice, the mouse versus track-ball, versus
light pen, versus anything other than a stylus/tablet ;).
Compatibility largely isn't, portability usually isn't,
but things are getting better.
Why do you think I don't trust mailers? Not the software, not the machine,
just the people maintaining the machine, including me. Or it may be
intermediate machines which neither I nor my receiptant control.
Forces beyond immediate control are part of why networks fail.
So what would you do to learn? Find a willing network mentor.
Use email instead. If you are worried about looking dumb, don't worry,
it's to one caring person rather than a network of strangers.
What if you are a system administrator? Especially if you are a
sys admin. Read. Learn about places like Comp. Lit Bookstore.
Have a bit of patience.
Another gross generalization from
--eugene miya, NASA Ames Research Center, eugene@aurora.arc.nasa.gov
resident cynic at the Rock of Ages Home for Retired Hackers:
"You trust the `reply' command with all those different mailers out there?"
"If my mail does not reach you, please accept my apology."
{ncar,decwrl,hplabs,uunet}!ames!eugene
Live free or die.