Text 12229, 73 rader
Skriven 2009-01-01 17:03:36 av Maurice Kinal (1:261/38)
     Kommentar till en text av Miles Maxted
Ärende: all over but the crying
===============================
Hey Miles!

> Which programmer hasn't dashed off their own version of a tropical
> fishbowl, waterfall or somesuch ?

I have no idea.  I can't say one way or another if the ones I used to encounter
have ever done that as the programs that I say had little to do with graphics
and more to do with math.  The end result could be turned into graphics but I
dout it would be amusing to the general populace.  I recall once turning data
from an EM survey into a 'movie' which slowed down time so that anomalies could
be more readily observed but that went nowhere.  It was fun though.  That was
on Solaris (forget which version) using gcc on an early Sparc station.  Those
were the days, except I have to admit that my x86_64 box running my version of
a Linux
'distribution' - it's a bastard - purely in franebuffer console mode is
WAY better and cheaper than Solaris on the Sparc could even dream about. Times
have changed for the better in some ways.

> which in humans automatically respond to the scene-shifts on
> screens

Me too.  I think that is a natural response to the surrounding enviroment.
Probably a survival instinct.

> Shouldn't think so - last versions seems to be dated 1999 or so

I'd already abandoned DOS by then.  There are far better tools available in
Linux distributions that could be tied together to replicate what you're taking
about that could do the same to a wider variety of hardware and/or formats
and/or protocols.  For drives nothing beats dd.

> Sidekick was my favourite pre-Norton utility - it allowed me to
> highlight, copy and paste long before the guis swam into my
> orbit..

gpm is a keeper here.  Currently it is what I am using to paste in the quotes
to this and other messages.  I do the same with web based forums and is my
cheat for offline messaging including email.

> I had a routine of starting off in raw DOS

That can be replicated in an xterm with bash scripts.  Unixie shell scripts are
vastly more powerful than DOS batch files.  The only simularity is that they
are scripts created using a text editor.

> All they really want to know is how to answer the grandson's
> emails

Understood.  A piece of cake these days.  The only danger in email is opening
yourself to spam since many of the providers spread lists of email users
around, usually at a price, but sometimes inadvertantly when their system gets
hacked from the outside or more often an inside job methinks. Stuff happens
which is why I don't usually join in on web based forums and the such. 
Identity theft seems to be the number one threat these days to the average
user.

> and to do so attaching some cute little 10 megapixel
> photograph without swamping their dialup connection.

Or go beyond what their account's allowable temporary storage on the server
allows at any given moment.  What they really need to learn is how to clean up
their account(s) every so often.  Also on their local systems, perhaps even
moreso there.

> Hopefully,  the 2009 students will be brighter

Don't bet the farm on that.  ;-)

Life is good,
Maurice

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