Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!munnari.oz.au!brolga!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!marlin.jcu.edu.au!zlraa
From: zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross Alford)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: CALL FOR DISCUSSION ON NEW GROUP
Message-ID: <1991Feb20.121359.27204@marlin.jcu.edu.au>
Date: 20 Feb 91 12:13:59 GMT
References: <6216@rex.cs.tulane.edu> <16859@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Organization: James Cook University of North Queensland
Lines: 48

I'd like to voice my support for the idea of a new group.  The most
logical thing seems to be to create comp.sys.handhelds.hp or perhaps
comp.sys.handhelds.hp2848.  The 2848 proposal may be best, as that does
allow for the possibility that hp may bring out new machines using a
different OS and not compatible with the 28/48 lineage.  It is also true
that hp may bring out new machines in the 28/48 lineage, and I can
already read the arguments that naming a newsgroup for specific machines
will cause great problems when/if this occurs.  I don't really see the
great problem:  how many net denizens currently use ibm *pc* machines?
Yet, nobody has any problem recognising that comp.binaries.ibm.pc really
means comp.binaries.ibm.pc.and.compatible.descendents.

I also get the feeling that HP28/48 enthusiasts feel that by being
shunted into a subgroup they are somehow being ghettoized.  That seems
like a very strange reaction, but I suspect it exists.  I just see it as
logical.  While the HP 28/48 are undoubtedly great machines, they *are*
a subset of the handheld machines currently available.  Making their
specialised group a sugroup of the general case group simply follows
this logical hierarchy.

Nonetheless, if the emotional reaction rules, I'd be perfectly happy to
invert the tree and have a comp.sys.handhelds.nothp2848 group.  One way
or another, I'd just like to be able to look at all the articles, and
prune back my kill file for the group.  I currently get about 40-50
handhelds articles on an average day, of which about 40 are killed.  of
the remaining 10 or so, 8-10 are on the HP28/48 anyway, but I'm afraid
that enlarging the kill file any more will increase the proportion of
articles I'd actually like to read that get zapped.

You 28/48 people out there--just think about having to wade through 49 
articles on some *fascinating* topic like what happens when the alt and Fn
keys are pressed simultaneously while turning on an Atari Portfolio for 
every article on *your* favourite toy.  Have a heart.

Just waiting for the vote call,

Ross Alford
zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au

(BTW I have no idea what happens when the alt and Fn keys are pressed
simultaneously while turning on an Atari Portfolio.)

(Probably the machine comes on)
-- 
"The first thing to tell yourself is not to panic.  Remember, rather, to
keep a calm head, and to heed these words that have helped other
wizards, in similar situations to your own, throughout the ages: 'When
in doubt, run.'" _The teachings of Ebenezum_ Craig Shaw Gardner