Re: Apple Computers-collector's items?

[g9343637@mcmail.cis.McMaster.CA (Andrew J. Sullivan)]

I suspect that some groups can be left from this thread; NG's trimmed in
follow-ups.  More important, I imagine that this debate is of little
interest to any of the original NG's.  So, if you wish to respond, I
suggest mail rather than your group-o-choice. 

In article <4up275$elq@darla.visi.com>, Nathan Mates <nathan@visi.com> wrote:
>
>   If you're going to criticize things for being old, why don't you
>turn your efforts to real issues, like COBOL and Fortran? Yes, those
>languages were old when your parents were still zygotes, but they're
>still in widespread use IN THE REAL WORLD. 

If I may weigh in here (rather lightly, and with, I might add, some 
restraint about needless disparagement of academia), I must agree with 
[Mr/Dr] Mates.  I am, by no means, a programmer.  On the other hand, the 
fearlessness I attained as the result of the 40,212 of PEEK and POKE 
commands for a single note on a C=64 (ok, ok, not an _accurate_ number, 
exactly, but you get the picture) has allowed me play freely in DOS when 
everyone else was paralysed with fear that the system would crash.  
(Nobody who started with a hardware OS is afraid of anything.  I still 
merely check for a write-protected DOS boot disk before I start fooling 
around.  To me, the worst it can get is a re-install of everything.  So 
what?  I had to read _War & Peace_ before the average game was ready on 
the C=64!)

You learn lots with old hardware; most importantly, you realise that the
most important principle is this: f*** with it until it works.  I study
philosophy; but I help teach a course with 700 students a term, 2
instructional staff (they promise us another person next year), and a
computerised tutorial system.  We have no tech support, so I'm it.  If you
know something about the FWIUIW principle (see above), you're happy with 
whatever you run into.  If you spent your whole life (win)dozing, you'll 
be faced with problems you can't comprehend.

In short, (narrow skills training)=(narrow mind)=(narrow value of employee).

Hmmm.  Almost sounds like an advert. for liberal education, doesn't it?

-- 
Andrew Sullivan        | In the future this spectacle of the middle classes
<ajsulliv@mcmaster.ca> | shocking the avant-garde will probably become the
Philosophy, McMaster   | textbook definition of Postmodernism. --Brad Holland
Hamilton, Ontario      |