Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!gatech!rutgers!uwvax!uwslh!lishka From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Fish-Guts) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Mr. Pournelle is brain-dead. News at 11:00. Message-ID: <386@uwslh.UUCP> Date: 28 Sep 88 14:33:05 GMT References: <3060@hubcap.UUCP> <70319@sun.uucp> Reply-To: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Fish-Guts) Distribution: na Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab Lines: 53 In article <70319@sun.uucp> cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) writes: >In article <3060@hubcap.UUCP> disd@hubcap.UUCP (Gary Heffelfinger) writes: >[Complains about Jerry Pournelles troubles with F/A-18 and draws the following > conclusion.] > >Actually, his comments are quite to the point and show up a really poor >policy on the part of EA. Here, their biggest competition is Jet from >SubLOGIC and *that* isn't copy protected. So what's their problem? The >fact that Jerry has trouble running a text editor without some serious >handholding is well known. The problem is to assume he is unique. He isn't. >Really stupid people use computer programs every day. There is no reason >that it has to be any more difficult for them than it does for the rest of >us computer "pros". I do not think the problem is that Mr. Pournelle is really stupid, or that there are a lot of "really stupid people [using] computer programs every day." Just because someone does not use a computer does not make them automatically stupid. After working for a lab where very intelligent Microbiologists have to cope with raw Unix every day, I have found that if anyone is to be called stupid, it should be the people who made the decision to present such a complex programmer-oriented system to those without computer skills. My point: there are very many bright and intelligent people out there who have a hard time using computers. Just like there are many bright and intelligent computer people who find it difficult fixing a bicycle (although Leo and myself are probably not among them). Just because someone has trouble using a machine does not make them stupid. Now, what makes Mr. Pournelle so damned frustrating is that he is not *really* a computer professional; instead, he just acts like one. I am beginning to think that he knows very little about computers, which is a bit contradictory to the fact that writes a looooong column in a major PC/Mac magazine (i.e. Byte). And what makes it all worse is that his ego is so large that he assumes if *he* cannot get something to work (or if someone will not do it for him), then it must not be worth the time of day (this is *not* the kind of attitude that made Unix popular!). No, I do not think that his problem is stupidity, but rather that he thinks he is intelligent in the ways of computers. >--Chuck McManis >uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com >These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you. -- Christopher Lishka ...!{rutgers|ucbvax|...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene lishka%uwslh.uucp@cs.wisc.edu Immunology Section (608)262-1617 lishka@uwslh.uucp ---- "...Just because someone is shy and gets straight A's does not mean they won't put wads of gum in your arm pits." - Lynda Barry, "Ernie Pook's Commeek: Gum of Mystery"