Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!super!udel!princeton!njin!rutgers!apple!well!ewhac
From: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: CRETIN MANOR MAIL
Message-ID: <7369@well.UUCP>
Date: 14 Oct 88 07:58:12 GMT
References: <7699@gryphon.CTS.COM> <3220@hubcap.UUCP>
Reply-To: ewhac@well.UUCP (Leo 'Bols Ewhac' Schwab)
Organization: Shyster & Shaft Legal Services
Lines: 82
Quote: "Men, take Binkley's head."  -- Coach Bloom

[ I saw "Tin Toy" at the Hacker's Conference.  No, I can't rip it off. ]

	In an attempt to end this dreck.

	Jerry is not computer literate, despite the fact that he owns many
computers.  This is because computers are not his job.  His vocation is
writing books and articles, not programming.

	Jerry is not unique.  There are many other computer illiterate
people out there.  Not all of them are writers, but this doesn't change the
fact that they're illiterate.

	Look, Jerry's just this guy, you know?  By a quirk of fate, he
happen to start writing a column in BYTE magazine about his experiences with
computers, and that irritates a lot of us because we "know" he's not
qualified to write about computers.

	When he blasts something, it's because he couldn't figure it out.
The probablilities are that one of us could have figured it out in a second.
Thus, we tend to write Jerry off as, "stupid", "drunk", "a cretin".  The
trouble is that there are a heck of a lot more people like Jerry than there
are like us.

	Consider for a moment the gymnastics you have to go through to
connect to your local BBS by phone.  We innately understand why, when
something goes wrong, why it went wrong.  Garbage on the screen?  Ah, must
be line noise; hang up and try again.  Purposeful garbage on the screen with
patterns?  Hmmm, could be the wrong baud rate; try another one.  Computer
not talking to the modem?  Uh, try switching pins 2 and 3 in the serial
cable.

	J. Random User has no chance in Hell of understanding this arcana.
And why should he have to?  Why should anyone be required to learn about
RS-232 pinouts, baud rates, telephone line quality, the ASCII character set,
VT100 escape codes (to correct any messes made by line noise), etc. etc.
etc. just to call a BBS?  This is what Jerry is trying, in his own rather
irritating way, to tell us: This is all artificially complex, and it
shouldn't be.

	Jerry saw an experienced, highly intelligent, extremely computer
literate person unable to manipulate a code wheel to get a *GAME* to work.
Jerry told us about it.  And guess what?  He's right.  I've used that code
wheel myself.  On occasion, it's taken me three tries to get into that game.
I'm not stupid.  Neither is Joanne.  Yet we're unable to figure out the code
wheel in one go.  It's artificially complex, and it shouldn't be.

	I've met Jerry multiple times in person; Joanne even more
frequently.  To me, Jerry is articulate, even when inebriated; forthright;
and brutally honest.  Nothing escapes his candor.  Apple failed for the
second year in a row to appear at the West Coast Computer Faire; Jerry
flamed them for it, in front of a large audience.

	Jerry does not like the Amiga.  We all understand it because we've
been completely through the machine six zillion times.  Jerry hasn't.  So
when a piece of software breaks, we say, "Oh, well obviously the programmer
called FreeMem() on a NULL pointer."  This doesn't help Jerry.  FreeMem()?
NULL pointer?  What are these things of which you speak?  All I know is that
the #&^@!&^%! thing doesn't work, and also crashes the raytracer which I had
running in the background and was 99.9% finished with the image I was
generating, and also took out eight hours of work in my RAM disk, and....

	Jerry does not like the Amiga.  He is not obligated to like it.
Just because he got a free 2000DK and has Joanne come running to his rescue
every time he has a problem does not obligate him to say nice things, nor
does it obligate him to keep silent if he doesn't like it.

	We want him to not only like it, but love it.  To do this, we have
to pander to him.  The thought of this may irritate you even more.  However,
keep in mind that, by pandering to Jerry, you are also pandering to "hundreds
if not thousands" of other computer illiterate people.  You'll make the
Amiga easier to use by J. Random Users everywhere.  If you can make Jerry
happy, chances are you'll make them happy, too.

	And *THAT* will sell Amigas.

	Did this make sense?

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
Leo L. Schwab -- The Guy in The Cape	INET: well!ewhac@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU
 \_ -_		Recumbent Bikes:	UUCP: pacbell > !{well,unicom}!ewhac
O----^o	      The Only Way To Fly.	      hplabs / (pronounced "AE-wack")
"Work FOR?  I don't work FOR anybody!  I'm just having fun."  -- The Doctor