Bottom posting

[Grunff]

I will never forgive MS for building what started to look like a half-decent OS, then instead of making it better, turning it into XP!!

[Capitol]

If you're lucky.

LOL Capitol

raden wrote:

[Rob Morley]

Who's going to moan about the cost of a free operating system? I'm not so sure about hardware support with Solaris though.

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Had enough now of your antisocial posting "style".

*plonk*

[Bob Eager]

What crap.

*plonk*

[stuart noble]

So, is there a newsreader that skips quoted text, and that would make top/bottom posting irrelevant? Maybe newer versionsof OE? I'm still on 4.72

[Richard Porter]

In normal email it has always been good practice to edit the quoted text and reply point by point as necessary. Bad habits came in with tin-pot office mail systems like Quickmail and ICL's abortion the name of which escapes me. Quickmail definitely encouraged you to reply at the top and use silly graphical backgrounds.

And then you've got all the new people coming in who buy Windows PCs because they don't know there's anything better and they just do what seems easiest at the time. It's laziness that actually gives you more work to do, like driving forwards into a parking space.

I really hate computers that pretend they're filing systems and therefore have all the disadvantages of paper-based systems. I call a directory a directory, not a "folder". Have you ever tried folding one?

The fact that 90% of mail readers on personal computers are OE is the main cause of the Microsoft virus problem we have today.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

In article , stuart noble >you personally. Not so with newsgroups. You might well be reading

Given that MS products try and change standards to tie you into them, I doubt they're capable of making anything that works to agreed ones.

[:::Jerry::::]

No it is not, if MS wasn't around then people would be writing viruses for what ever OS was most popular.

The REAL cause are the idiots and criminals who write and deploy the viruses, MS are just as much a victim as those who become infected. You wouldn't blame the victim of a mugging, after they had used a cash machine, nor would you blame the Banks for making cash machines available, you would blame the mugger.

[Peter]

I have a problem with the use of directory, referring to the file structure on a computer. You see a directory is a list of things with further attributes, i.e. a phone directory, or a office personal directory etc. In computer speak a directory should refer to the list of users/systems/etc in the organization/domain/etc... Microsoft have there Active Directory and there's the equlivents in other OS's such as LDAP.

What connection does a directory really have with a hiarchical filing structure??

So MS is taking a good step at shifting the thinking to the term folder.

Anyway this thread is a long way away from DIY.

Peter

[Brian Sharrock]

snip

But ... in my reader's view this thread comes immediately below the 'Blocked Toilet' thread ... seems appropriate!

[Richard Porter]

The crucial bit is the "90%". If most people are using the same OS, the same browser and the same mail/news reader, and that 90% includes near enough 100% of naïve, inexperienced or just plain stupid users then we have the ideal environment for propagating viruses. You're right that it doesn't matter which OS it happens to be, but the fact that Microsoft is the corporation that everybody loves to hate because of the way it does business just makes it even more attractive as a target.

Maybe, but if you leave your laptop on the car seat or if you leave your wallet sticking out of your hip pocket, or if you leave your purse in an open shopping bag over your shoulder then it's partly your fault when the inevitable happens.

If I buy a house with doors and windows that can't be secured properly then I shouldn't be surprised if I get burgled. If I leave my back door wide open because I don't even know I've got a back door it's even more likely. If I buy a computer that's equally vulnerable and is one where every miscreant is familiar with the internal workings, then I shouldn't be surprised if someone walks in and steals my personal information, passwords, etc.

It's not that other OSs are any more secure (though some are inherently more robust than Windows): if we had more diversity then it would be harder for viruses and worms to spread.

[Rob Morley]

Windows has a virtual monopoly of the desktop, and has historically put convenience and fancy features before security. Were it not so prevalent, or had Microsoft woken up to the problem they were creating before their current "security before all else (but you have to buy XP to do it, and SP2 might break your favourite applications)" marketing ploy, then it would be harder for viruses to spread like wildfire in the way that we have seen over the past few years.

[Andy Hall]

The two come together. There are cash machines that use NT4 as part of their operation. I was quite concerned when I learned that.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Rob Morley]

In a filesystem directory the further attributes are creation and modification date, size, owner, permissions.

More than with the filing-cabinet/folder/file metaphor that Microsoft wants us to use - how often do you find folders within folders within folders in the real world? But then MS has always been a bit challenged when it comes to designing useful file systems.

[Terry]

................................... rest of message snipped ....................................

Good idea. S'pecially with some of my long diatribes, eh? You mean; like this? Terry.

[Simon Barr]

I came across one such cashpoint one Monday morning that had 'blue screened', quite amusing, it made my day.

[Terry]

I agree with Dave Plowman. The expression "Start at the beginning go on the end and then stop" (Sounds like something from Alice in Wonderland, like this whole thread!) seems to apply. For e-mails yes; most recent at the top. As in "what came in, did xyz reply to me etc.". But especially when a thread gets long and tedious, like this one maybe, a quick resume of what the thread is/was about is necessary? While we try to keep titles brief they sometimes don't help one remember what the original topic/question was. When one sees something such as "Fluorescent lamps", it can be about almost anything to do with fluorescent fixture, lamps, voltages, method of mounting, earthing, you name it! Also the unreliability and timing of some providers seems to ensure that I don't always see the original posting and/or some in between current and the original. However many of us seem to assume that everyone DOES get to see everything and in short order from when it is posted? Considering these factors, regardless of netiquette(sp?) bottom posting seems to make most sense; even formal business letters traditionally start with something along the lines of "In regard to your enquiry about/of ........... etc. ............". That is they 'introduce' or refer to the topic first, then make their reply/comment. .08 pence and all help from here much apprecaited. Terry..

[Steve Firth]

Bwhahahahhahahahahahaha

Yeh, MS, right about 25 years after Xerox and 20 years after Apple.

[Rob Morley]

Gravity can display a fixed number of quoted lines (default four, but you can set it to zero) and you can toggle this feature with a single key-press while reading.