Fun_People Archive
29 Jan
DESPERADO excerpts

Date: Sun, 29 Jan 95 15:39:06 PST
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: DESPERADO excerpts 

Forwarded-by: tompar@world.std.com (Tom Parmenter)
Excerpted-from: DESPERADO #5 Stinkhorn

From: noah@eldar.hw.stratus.com (Noah Theodore Vawter)

I was reading the man pages the other day, found some much deeper advice
than I was expecting.

from nsrwatch(I think):
To resolve conflict, first answer the question, "Do you want to be 
prompted when conflict occurs?"  If you select "No," then specify a
global resolution.

from lpr:
Create a job as facilities become available.  Each job consists 
of control and data.  The data are copies;  the area is managed.  
Jobs that specify are forwarded.

from rm :
If an entry was the last link, the contents are lost.  To remove,
you must have permission; If you do not have permission, wait for 
a response.  Otherwise, it is left alone.

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From: jo@odi.com
Subject: Report From Our Far-Flung Correspondents

S writes:

   P.S.--The farm and ranch store here in the bustling metropolis of Portales,
   New Mexico, has two specials listed on their flashing arrow sign: Spackling
   Compound and Lactation Chow.  This has nothing to do with anything.  I just
   like saying Lactation Chow.

   Lactationchowlactationchowlactationchow.

   S (who is already bored with school after only a week)


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From: jo@odi.com
Subject: [Just to put it all in perspective (fwd)]

The following is from the business section of The Kansas City Star,
Jan 17, 1995:

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
	- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
	- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.

" I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked
with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is
a fad that won't last out the year."
	- The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.

"But what ... is it good for?"
	- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,
	1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
	- Ken Olson, president,
	Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.


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From: Nevin Liber <nevin@cs.arizona.edu>
       ___    _    ____    _    ___
      /   \__/ \__/    \__/ \__/   \      "Hey Rocky!
      |          _|@ @ __          |      Watch me pull some intelligence
       \________/ |    | \________/       out of the internet!"
               __/    _/                  "But that trick never works."
              /) (o _/                    "This time for sure."
              \____/

				 =*=


From: Robert Mathews <rom@harlequin.com>
Subject: trademark wars

Microsoft's expropriation of Bob hits too close to home.  I'm relying
on Bob Dylan to keep Microsoft from trademarking it.  He could well
end up with two simultaneous lawsuits: one against Microsoft to
protect Bob, the other against Apple to protect Dylan.

[But then who brings the suit against Dylan Thomas?  -psl]

				 =*=

Forwarded-by: Gerald Sacks <sacks@notime.enet.dec.com>
From: seeds@freetown.etla.et
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: East Timorese Seeds Free!
Organization: East Timor Liberation Army

Exotic seeds from East Timor are available free.  A small 
donation for the East Timor Liberation Army is appreciated.
For info email to seeds@freetown.etla.et.

				 =*=

[The following comment from Tom Parmenter (Mr. Desperado) was inspired by the
News of the Weird item about a senior test developer at Educational Testing
Service making pitiful excuses for the S.A.T. reading comprehension test.  -psl]
 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 
			  THE SAT IS A CROCK

 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The SAT is a crock.  It is with profound schadenfreude (joy at the
 pain of others) that I hear that the Educational Testing Service has
 adopted my view.  I have known the SAT was a crock since I took the
 PSAT.  I financed my number one son's college education by "coaching"
 him on the National Merit Scholarship Test.  "Just answer everything
 the way a boring white man would answer it."  I wasn't able to induce
 such cynicism in number two son, but he chose his college, in part at
 least, on the grounds that they didn't require the SAT.  It is a hoax
 and a con game, an Ivy League stunt.  For starter, the ETS has
 nothing to do with Princeton and is not even in the town of Princeton
 except through the courtesy of a mail drop.  The questions are
 insipidly fake and lame and the only univerisities in America that
 really pay any attention to the SAT (over grades and recommendations)
 are the Ivy League schools, which already have finer tools of
 discrimination at their disposal.  See the book "None of the
 Above:Behind the Myth of Scholastic Aptitude" for a complete
 demolition of these horrid people.

 While we're at it, IQ tests are a crock too.  Steven Jay Gould's "The
 Mismeasure of Man" takes the measure of the mental measuring crowd
 and finds them lacking in stature.  Although it was written in 1981,
 it destroys the arguments of this year's model, "The Bell Curve".
 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

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 Digital technology is the universal solvent of intellectual property rights

		    Copyright 1995, Tom Parmenter

				[\|/]
				[/|\]

© 1995 Peter Langston