On 2017-05-14 01:10:26 -0800, "gxs" <bikini@oll.boom> said:
>
> On 14-May-2017, Griff wrote:
>
>> Thank you for informing I do have all of season two of Jamie's Super Food.
>>
>> Also, I noticed your reply over on a.b.teevee ...
>>
>> 1. Nothing annoys someone trying to start a fight more than people
>> refusing to cooperate with their effort. You just have to be careful,
>> when you walk away, to be prepared in case your refusal to participate
>> pushes them into resorting to physical violence. (Obviously, that
>> precaution doesn't really apply to the Internet.)
>>
>> 2. Whenever someone resorts to name-calling, they've lost a large part
>> -- if not all -- of the argument.
>>
>> I didn't respond to that person largely because of 1. above. I have no
>> interest in starting -- or participating -- a flame war. Furthermore,
>> if someone believes they've won the argument (or fight) when I walk
>> away, I have no problems leaving them to their self-disillusionment.
>>
>> For those interested in my attitude and approach to conflict, I
>> recommend reading Sun Tzu's Art of War. (James Clavell wrote an
>> excellent translation/interpretation.)
>>
>> In that "ruckus" over on a.b.teevee, I appreciate you posting a good
>> rebuttal to that person's contentions and citing a specific contrary
>> example in your rebuttal.
>
> Heya Griff, that person was a complete dick!
> They had no compulsion to assist or expand knowledge (teach).
> That person wanted nothing more than to show off what they *think* they know
> about Usenet and used you as a platform, poor form!
> I'm glad I was able to jump I there, there was no need for their rant and I
> hope they reply, I will happily become the most hated person on Usenet (read
> cuss words, religion and politics ) to put this dickhead off. personally I
> think they're a shill, replying to your post as a one of....we'll see..
>
> g.
I don't want to go too long off topic but ...
I started studying and experimenting with digital circuitry in 1967.
Began programming computers in 1970, on a DEC PDP-8 and IBM 1401.
Entered USAF as an enlisted computer programmer in 1975 and spent my
entire career in the computer field, including going through the merger
of the computer and communications fields, finally retiring as a Master
Sergeant in 1996. Am now semi-retired, although I still sometimes
accept consulting contract when the job is personally interesting and
the customer is willing to pay me enough. Instead, I am continuing
decades long research into n-valued logic and the problem of how to
identify and reflect data element for which the appropriate value is
unknown.
I was partially responsible for what is probably the first ever written
high school policy about playing games on school computers in 1972. (I
wrote the game ... someone else triggered it with a very loud scream
when the empire he'd spent an hour building up suffered a sudden famine
... and that scream brought the principal and nurse, as well as others
running down the hall.)
My first time in a chatroom was in late 1873 or 1974. (I can't recall
exactly when I "discovered" Simtalk on MERITSS.) In the process of
chatting, I made a date with a young lady located roughly 250 miles
away.
I can't begin to list all the things I accomplished in the Air Force.
I did develop a reputation early in my career for comparatively
bug-free software. (30 thousand lines of COBOL code -- analyzed,
designed, and coded by me alone -- with exactly two bugs, one being a
printout field one character out of alignment and the other
self-identifying a potential miscalculation arising from an intractable
real-world scenario.)
I also had a reputation for bringing systems development projects in
on-time (often ahead of schedule) and under budget. Likewise, I often
accomplished thing that "experts" said were impossible. (It didn't
matter if it was technical or bureaucratic, when told something was
impossible, my response was invariably, "Watch me.")
Throughout my military career, I was heavily involved in getting
homogeneous and heterogeneous computers to "talk" to each other,
starting with 4800 baud modems and on to token-ring, CSMA, and PTP
protocols via RG-59 coax, twisted pair, and fiberoptic cable. (In the
early 80s, I had to work out how to transmit files across half a
hemisphere using a 4800 baud modem and an undedicated telephone "line"
that was bounced off a satellite.)
The programming languages I mastered included BASIC (the original, in
addition to Bill Gates version), Fortran IV, COBOL, and Ada ... as well
as number of assembly "languages", operating system commands (direct
and executable files), and special purpose languages like Java, PHP,
SQL, Perl, HTML, and so forth. (I actually reached the point where I
designed systems independent of any language and implemented the
designs in whichever language was available, mandated, or best suited
to the design goals ... sometimes mixing languages depending on what
suited various parts of the system design.)
Enough! I think you get the idea.
I will say it was evident from what the person said, and how they said
it, that they had a little bit of success in a very limited part of the
industry and felt they knew ALL about everything. I never really had
that attitude and quickly lost the what little I did have when I kept
running nose first (HARD) into things I didn't know or hadn't learned
yet.
People like that exist in every field of endeavor ... it a form of
bigotry and it's best treat is as such ... shrug your shoulders and try
to ignore them.
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