Message-ID: <5860@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 17-Nov-84 03:05:13 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.5860
Posted: Sat Nov 17 03:05:13 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 19-Nov-84 02:49:50 EST
Sender: news@brl-tgr.ARPA
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab
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Well, if no one else will defend JEP, I will.

he logs into ARPANet on MIT-MC.  MIT-MC is a DEC PDP10 running ITS
(Incompatable Timesharing System (I kid you not)).  If you think
unix is less user friendly than it should be, youd hate ITS - to
get a directory you type ^F, for example, and you can kill a fork
with "$^X."  Log out with $$U  and so on.  Its lots of fun.

As far as I know, he follows several special-interest mailing lists,
but last I heard he was dialing up at 300 baud.  Lets see - he last
logged in on 9-NOV, and currently has 55 blocks (I forget how big
an ITS block is though (1K 36 bit words, I think)) of mail that looks
like it hasn't been read.

JEP listens a lot, but doesn't talk much.  Why?  There seems to be
something about public figures that makes everbody think that they
are entitled to crucify them in public.  I don't think Ive ever
seen him post a message that hasn't resulted in the net being clogged
with rebutles, flames, comments that he doesn't know what he is talking
about, and so on.  Far more than any normal net user would encounter.
So he stopped sending messages.  His time is better spent writing for
users who know very little about computers, who appreciate his advise,
and for which he gets paid (presumably large) sums of money.  Why should
should he try to talk to people who seem sure that they already have the
answers? (I am guilty of this myself, I recall.  Seems JEP doesn't like
EMACS, which I think is wonderful, and at one point I tried to convince
him that I was right.  I changed my mind - EMACS is wonderful for me,
but that doesn't mean that everybody has to like it.)

JEP's Byte column is an extremely valuable service.  Not so much to
us, since we are frequently able to make our own intelligent decisions
about equipment and software, but to truly naive users.  Too many other
reveiws are always coated with honey - no one wants to say anything bad
about a new product.  JEP is well off enough to say what he thinks.  We
may frequently disagree, and ocasionally he may be wrong, but frequently
another persons opinion is all a beginning computer user will have to
base an expensive decision on.  In such a case, that person is probably
much better off following Jerry's advise than most others.

I present Westfield's Law:
	"Strongly opinionated people are much more fun to talk or
	 listen to.  Especially if you dont disagree with them."

BillW