Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!apple!amdahl!key!jsp
From: jsp@key.COM (James Preston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: America Online
Message-ID: <1318@key.COM>
Date: 16 Dec 89 00:34:33 GMT
References: <1989Dec9.170635.22759@cs.rochester.edu> <24891@cup.portal.com> <1989Dec11.165834.7605@cs.rochester.edu> <24941@cup.portal.com>
Reply-To: jsp@penguin.key.COM (James Preston)
Organization: Key Computer Laboratories, Fremont
Lines: 55

In article <24941@cup.portal.com> Armadillo@cup.portal.com (Russ Armadillo Coffman) writes:
>Mark Fulk:
>
>"So what solution suggests itself?  Storing the menus on the user's Mac is
>clearly needed." Unfortunately, this would do away with one of AO's main
>features: the ability to dynamically change the way screens look. . .

Fade in:
Mark is sitting in front of his Mac.  He double clicks on the _America
OnLine_ icon and goes through the connect procedures.  He then clicks to
go into the "current news" area.  

Mark's Mac says to the America OnLine main computer, "Hi, George, this 
guy's going into "current news".  I've got a menu here for that area that 
was last updated on 12/3/89."

The AOL computer responds, "Sorry, Mac, that menu was just changed again
last night.  These humans are always changing their minds.  Here comes the
new one."

The receive light blinks furiously on Marks modem.

Mark's Mac says to the AOL computer, "Got it, George, thanks.  Uh oh, he's
moving again; guess he didn't want to go there after all.  Now he's heading 
for the software library.  My menu for that is current as of 11/23/89."

"No problem there," answers the AOL computer, "that menu hasn't change in
three months."

Fade out.

Imagine.  A world where software does something intelligent.  Gues this
just proves that you can't have software that is smarter than the human
that wrote it.

>"I am also sick of being told that my problem is that I am not just like
>you, and if I would just see the light and start behaving like you want me
>to, everything would be just hunky-dory." Exactly why I took the time to
>emphasize that there are, "as in any good Mac application, several ways of
>doing things" in AO. You have choices - don't "jump in the lake," use them!
>
>I'm not in customer service or sales, just a user like you for most of the
>board except for the small area I maintain. 

Yes, but you did keep telling him to use keywords after he repeatedly said
he didn't want to use keywords.  You posted a lengthy message telling him
how great it works for you when you do things your way.  You did not address
his complaints, you told him to change the way he worked.  I know you were
just trying to be helpful, but you remind of that old joke about the guy
who goes to the doctor and says, "Doctor it hurts when I do this."  And the
doctor says, "Then don't do that."  You expect a doctor to help, not give
you obvious advice.  And if one is not a doctor, one should not respond to
someone's medical complaint, right?

--James Preston