[Am-info] Re: Election2000/Nader/Microsoft

[Dan Strychalski]

Gene Gaines (gene.gaines@gainesgroup.com) wrote --

> I looked all over my keyboard.  I do have a Ctrl key, actually I
> can find two of them (never noticed that before), but I can't
> find the "alphabetic Ctrl-key" you mention.

[Insert series of appreciative smileys here.]

The combinations Ctrl-A through Ctrl-Z. I could have expressed it
better, for sure. I was het up, and it was time to leave for the office.

> But I have all sorts of extra keys.
>
> I have three keys with pretty windows on them, right where the
> space bar should be, keys which used to aggravate me, but
> Microsoft has released a program to disable them.  See, those

Wow! I thought only the open-source crowd had such utilities. Of course,
it's best to get everything from Microsoft....

> people are great.  Hey, I know quality support when I see it!

Yup. Just like Detroit -- they're real good about recalling cars with
design flaws that kill people. What a GREAT system we have.

> Then I have keys like Print Screen - Sys Rq and Pause -
> Break and Scroll Lock.  I remember using those keys long
> time ago, but forgotten now.

Oh, I still use software that requires some of those. Once the goal had
been achieved -- that is, once the vast majority of the computing public
couldn't imagine using a keyboard without all the outlying keys IBM had
added -- those keys kind of got lost in the shuffle.... At least this
brought about a STANDARD, so all keyboards are the SAME -- and for this
we are eternally grateful to Mr. Gates....

> There are Insert and Home and Page Up and Delete and End and
> Page Down keys.  Wow, have they gotten complicated!  Whatever
> version of Word (not God's Word, Bill's Word, you can't say
> God's Word any more cuz the piracy police will get you) I am
> using, those keys transmogrify so I don't use them any more.

It gets even more complicated when you use X Window System programs.
When will these people realize that the only kind of system to design
for is the IBM Personal Computer series, and all keys should do exactly
what it says on the Enhanced PC AT keyboard's keycaps?

> And Dan, I don't NEED any of those double-triple key combos
> any more.  Microsoft Bob or one of those newer things does

Ah, the triplets are still in there. If you want to keep your hands
somewere near the typing keys when you issue commands, ya gotta use 'em.
That's why we're so grateful to Mr. Gates for making it possible to use
a mouse....

> everything for me cept type.  Besides, when all your documents
> look the same vanilla, you are forced to look more at content
> anyway.

Right -- and things like fi and fl ligatures were a bad idea in the
first place....

> All that neat formatting stuff I used to think was important
> back in the Mac days and the DOS days -- adobe type fonts,
> kerning -- layout control -- graphics that stayed where you put
> them on the page -- type that didn't move around and jump off
> the page if you used another printer.
>
> All gone now.  Like Computer Science, obsolete.  Why study
> Touring and that Bacchus notation stuff when you can get the
> real skinny and learn about Microsoft Extensions?

Ah, memories.... I used to scale typefaces in tenths of a point and
nudge characters, lines, and graphics in pixels. Now I've forgotten what
a pixel is....

Dan Strychalski