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"