Thursday, November 19, 2009

Has Writing Really Touched A Nerve?

Wow! I really didn't think my idle and off-hand comments would elicit such response! I do believe this is more responses than I have ever had before… Well, maybe second most.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting on my blog!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you’re having a good day!

Don Bergquist – November 19, 2009 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA

6 comments:

Sara Lynne said...

I never learned how to so a cursive capital S...and have you ever tried to read the hand writing of the founding fathers - or my grandmother. Good riddance!

SLK

Unknown said...

Hey, Sissa!

As a matter of fact, I have read the founding fathers' handwriting. I have been to the Smithsonian!

The capital S in cursive is fun! It is almost like the G-Clef in music. (I actually used to draw a G-Clef while writing;it made my teachers who knew music smile.)

Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog, Sissa!

Don

Anonymous said...

Thank you for letting me go off topic in my comments on your rant about cursive writing. I found your opinions about the Iphone to be interesting. I'm curious to see what you think about Apple's other big selling product - the Macintosh. Are you a PC guy or a MAC guy?

Anonymous Reader

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous Reader,

Thanks for your comments!

It is interesting that you refer to the Macintosh as “Apple's other big selling product.” I would have expected that iPod was more prolific than Mac and therefore would have been more deserving of the epithet.

However, since you ask about the Mac. I really do like Macs. They are well designed, look wonderful and work well. Their operating system is still rare enough that it is not as appealing a target for Bugs, Trojans, and other hack attacks. It is this same low market share of the OS that has historically meant it was not as attractive to some legitimate software developers.

I understand that this is no longer the case. I may one day actually buy a Mac. But at present, my software is all PC compatible and have never been sufficiently provoked by Microsoft to go through the hassle and expense of changing all my software. (…though they have come close with Vista!)

The iPod is brilliant, though! Sure, there are other MP3 players, but I have become an iPod fan. Plus, with the market saturation they enjoy more people create integration with iPod than with other players. I love and use my iPod all the time. My car stereo was purchased/installed solely on the fact that it controlled my iPod.

I program playlists for my road trips, books from Audible, music, podcasts. The miles fly by. And this is not entirely because I tend to drive a little bit on the fast side.

I have only a couple bad things to say about Apple where the iPod is concerned. First of, they have discontinued the larger disc-based iPods. Not that this is usually a problem, but when I go to the beach, I need to the storage space for enough books and music for the thirty-hour trip each way.

The other problem is that in the past few releases of the software, the iPod will no longer allow me to compile podcasts into a playlist. I have to change the media type to “music” in order to get them to download to a playlist.

Hope this answers your questions about my technology preferences.

Thanks again for reading and commenting on my blog!

Don

Anonymous said...

That's explains some things. Some people use the argument that Windows must be really bad because MACs have an OS that can fight off viruses better. It didn't occur to me that because of the MACs low market share, the best hackers might not try (and therefore the operating system might not really be as good as people think). Maybe as they become a more attractive target for hackers they should do what RIM (makers if the Blackberry) do. If my source is correct RIM has competitions where they encourage hackers to try invade their products so they can build protection from viruses into their products.

Anonymous Reader

Unknown said...

Dear Anonymous Reader,

I would not doubt that. I have no personal experience of the practices of either company but it is not uncommon in the software industry to get an outside look at what can be done to break the software. And as I learned in my days testing software, the strangest things can break it. There are some combinations of things that I was told "nobody would ever think of doing" by the developers.

Totally missing the point that if I had thought of doing it as part of my testing, then the likelihood is that someone would think if doing it. I, in fact, had thought of doing it or I would not know that these bizarre things broke the software.

My younger brother once told me that his axiom is that it is impossible to make software foolproof because fools can be so ingenious!

Thanks again for reading and commenting on my blog!

Don