Date   : Wed, 28 Nov 2001 10:02:46 EST
From   : MJBramham@...
Subject: Re: BEEB Stuff

Do you know, I've been on this list for months and I haven't had this much 
fun on it in some time, this is getting rather good!

To address your first two points, I only use AOL as a service provider 
because I am under my parent's account as an additional screenname, they use 
the internet for business, so it's no skin off anyone's nose.   I also like 
the software package, especially for medical news, and I'm not afraid to 
admit it.  Beats the living daylights out of buying the journals.  As a 
student, my ability to be any kind of 'Infotech Guru' are severely limited by 
my monetary welfare, so my outdated PC will be with me for some time to come. 
 As for downloading extensions and adjusting settings, I really do not see 
the necessity.  I intended that statement to make a point, the 'mouse click' 
part was placed there for emphasis, it would take an idiot to think something 
that extreme were true.

So as I hope you are able to see, the technology I find myself lumbered with 
is hardly any reflection of my knowledge of ICT or my ability to drag myself 
from the past, I have little of my own behind me for comparison in any case.

I have no recollection of you saying to run Windows, and I have experimented 
with Linux a great deal - agreed, it is better in every aspect from the 
distinct lack of viruses it suffers from to the amount of information it can 
handle safely, but I would urge you to refer to the paragraph before last for 
the reasoning behind my continuing use of Windows.

As for a difference in philosophies, I am sure you are correct.  I do, 
however, believe that your view of people's 'extreme' uses for the BEEB is a 
little out of proportion.  I did tell you my reasons for using a Master in 
the first place.  It's hardly nostalgia, I was five years old when mine was 
new.  I just happen to believe that, since it is more than adequate for my 
current needs, and meets them faster and with more ease on my part, I should 
be allowed to continue undeterred.  As should anyone else who would like to 
see it do something different for a change.  What is wrong with 
sending/receiving mail if you can?  I would see that as only a small step on 
from viewing Teletext, which I have done on the BEEB for years.  This isn't 
about state-of-the-art, this is about not deducting from the usefulness of a 
machine simply because there are others that are more advanced.

I would hardly say that things have not moved on.  I am aware of that.  I am 
going for a career where things move on daily.  Yet I would not say for a 
second that newer is always better in every respect.

As for people getting outraged, I would hope not.  I am only pursuing your 
statements because I happen to be enjoying myself.  I would hope that we 
could have this kind of discussion more regularly on the list with no risk of 
anyone 'taking it personal'.  I know you are only trying to be rational, and 
you are, there is no answer to this, only opinion because everybody's wants 
and needs differ.  For my part, I use the computer for word processing in the 
main so why do I need the most up-to-date PC?  I don't.  Pipelining 64 bits 
and addressing more memory space is useless to me at this time, and internet 
access is the only real use I have for a PC for the next few years, so if a 
BEEB could handle it, it may save me some seat-hopping.

Marc