OT: testing my x-face

[Rinaldi J. Montessi]

Bob Plantz wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-01-21 at 14:40 -0800, Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
>> Christel Robert wrote:
>> > Can you see it?
>>
>> Please don't waste our time with tests like this.
>>
> 
> Now I'm curious. I didn't see anything (other than "Can you see it?" so 
> didn't pay much attention. What was I supposed to see that supposedly 
> wasted my time?

An X-Face header.  I didn't see it either.  You use Evolution I use the 
Mozilla Suite.  Neither will natively see those things.  I could use an 
add-on if I wanted, but I'm a minimalist.

> I would like to remark on the general tone of this, and many, mailing lists.
> 
> I'm currently running Ubuntu. One of the things I like about it is the 
> people on the forum (www.ubuntuforums.org 
> <http://www.ubuntuforums.org>). Most contributors are very friendly. 
> They welcome a little light-hearted fun along with their computing.

I would imagine that anyone who was really offended by the waste of time 
has set a filter for OT by now; but that doesn't excuse mis-use of the 
mailing list.  The list operators set the tone for mailing lists and 
those responsible here wish to keep it on topic.  If you're familiar 
with USENET you know how quickly a group can fall into anarchy.

> That seems to contrast with most other *nix forums and mailing lists 
> where there seems to be much more "seriousness." It even reaches the 
> point of disdain for newcomers.

That's an individual thing.  And by that I mean some individuals are 
downright snarky when it comes to helping and some will bend over 
backwards to help out the nOObs.  USENET imitates life?

Note not all the replies were snappish.  Some actually addressed the 
question and added an admonition against further posts of that type.

> Please understand that I'm not complaining here. It could just be me. 
> But I've reached a point in life (retired, 67) where I value "play" a 
> bit more. I spent 21 years of me life teaching computer science at a 
> university. My job was to help clueless newcomers. I learned a lot from 
> that job. In particular, I learned that I am the clueless newcomer in 
> many areas of computing, and that a little light-hearted friendliness is 
> usually an effective way to help people learn things.

I see very little if any belittling of people in this list as opposed to 
the old mplayer list before Richard took over.    But even then, the 
help was there if you were willing to filter out the garbage.  No free 
lunch ;-)

-- 
*Rinaldi*
Turnaucka's Law:
	The attention span of a computer is only as long as its
electrical cord.