#Pardon me…
20 messages in this thread
Wonderful thing, AutoPilot; the Demo version not only won't let me read
my waiting messages, it won't even let me track them down manually…. I
logged on earlier tonight and saw I had seven (7) messages waiting in this
forum; and even though some of them were attached to threads I was already
involved with, I couldn't pick up a single one….
Either that, or one of our Sysops is doing this as a subtle way to tell
me to register; as for another sysop out here, if you'd actually take the
trouble to look up my User ID information (which shouldn't be hard for a
sysop to do), you'd see that I'm not USING a "handle".
… Or was that supposed to be a semi-polite way to tell me to take my
opinions elsewhere?… (Pull my name off that projected "User Letter to
C="; I'm obviously not a member of the clique.)
Mr. Challeron,
Did you checkmark the "Read Waiting" menu option? Double-click on the
AmigaUser gadget and select it if it is not already marked and while your
in there check the other settings to make sure they're correct. If all
else fails read the docs. 🙂
Your here aren't you? Then I believe your a member. The SYSOPS don't play
around with your messages to "hint" to you to register Autopilot. They
cannot suggest (coerce) you purchase any particular software offered here
on CIS. It is not part of their charter.
Chris
Read Waiting is disabled in the demo version.
Autopilot is great. The demo is only meant to give you a 'taste' of the
product. It's better than commercial program where you actually have to
purchase it to know what it's like. I think the handle is referring to
your forum name. Your first name isn't Mr. is it? We are all asked to
use first and last name as a courtesy.
-Jonathan
Here in the UK we have a children's character called Mr. Angry…
Andrew.
We ask very few things of our members – just common courtesy and the use
of their full names. I seriously doubt that your birth certificate shows
"Mr." as your given name, so you appear to be refusing to cooperate with
our basic forum policy.
The sysops have nothing at all to do with your ability to read messages.
The demo version of AutoPilot will get the messages in their regular
order, but does not allow you to "read waiting" in order to get them
first, before getting the others, nor to get the messages at the time you
are downloading just headers.
—Betty
Actually, Betty, my whole, total, and LEGAL NAME IS "Challeron"; I only
add the "Mr." to keep from confusing computers, programmed by people with
little imagination, that INSIST that Every Earthman Needs Two Names. I'll
attempt to be courteous, but what you doubt, or what you assume, has
nothing to do with me or my "cooperation".
If I told you that the three middle numbers in my Illinois State
Drivers License were "0005", would that help you believe I have only one
name?
I didn't suggest you were using a handle. I said that FORUM POLICY
requires the use of _FULL NAMES_ (which, as a member, you could easily
find out by reading RULES.TXT in the FORUM HELP section. All members must
use their FULL NAME. This does not mean just your first name. This does
not mean just your last name. This does not mean 'handles'. It means your
FIRST and LAST name. Please type OPTions at any forum prompt and change
your name to both your first and last name. Thanks for complying.
Memebers who do have a particular reason for not adhering to the rules of
membership, may take the issue up with the forum administrator, Steve
Ahlstrom/76703,2006. Anyone who does not comply with the rules of
membership, obviously, is at risk being denied membership.
With regard to AP, as it says in the documentation, there is a section in
AmigaVendor (WHAP/AP) devoted entirely to support of the product. The demo
version (as is clearly outlined in the demo documentation) has the READ
WAITING feature disabled, and unless you have ALL sections selected for
reading in a particular forum, you may miss messages addresed TO YOU. The
demo version of AP is just that, a demonstration. AP is not shareware, it
is a commercial product distributed by a company (AForums Ltd) that
believes you should be able to 'try before you buy' and be sure that the
program will function on your system…. BEFORE you lay out the $$ for
it.
Michael, please see my response to Betty Clay on this subject, because
I really don't have to change a thing in order to "comply" with forum
policy, unless you insist that I drop the "Mr.", which will probably
confuse CIS's operating system. If you or the Forum Godhead wish to deny
my membership just because I don't have two WASPish names, so be it.
My complaint about my messages was that either the Demo version of AP
gets tired of specific threads after a while, or else the Sysops have been
changing the thread NUMBERS or other background flags, because I HAD TWO
messages in the recent "CBM Marketing" thread that AP did NOT retrieve,
even though I DID select those threads; and of course I NEVER would have
found YOUR original message to me if I hadn't gone back online and
manually pulled my "waiting messages", because I've only been using the AP
Demo to pick up on headers that looked interesting.
BTW, the 3rd group of digits on my M/C number is "0008"; does that mean
anything to you?…
Should you choose not to comply with the forum policies, then you choose
not to be a member here. The forum administrator has no problem with
making exceptions for folks with legitamate reasons for using only a
single name… I've given you his user id. I've read your response to
Betty, and it sounds as if you DO have a legit reason for using one name
(that, of course, being that you HAVE only name. Now, shouold you like to
constinue to have access to the forum, I'd suggest, again, that you drop a
note to the forum administrator and make him aware of this. It's your
choice. This is a commercial forum, just like a store… and the
administrator is the owner, and reserves the right to refuse service to
anyone.
>>BTW, the 3rd group of digits on my M/C number is "0008"; does that
mean anything to you?<<
No.
No offense intended — I'm attempting to comment more on the general
problem than on the specific case (of this forums policy on names)…
I can certainly sympathies with someone (in this case, "Challeron") who is
inconvienienced by poor assumptions. Often, these assumptions are built
into silly COBOL programs and provide all sorts of fun for people with one
or two letter names, very long names, etc. It simply amazes me what
people will put up with when it is blamed on the computer. We all know,
of course, that a person told the computer how to behave.
When people start *acting* like a poor computer program, rather than
effortlessly adapting to unanticipated circumstances (i.e., "you need
special dispensation to have a legal name containing no spaces, even
though I now realize that there is a case I didn't account for when I made
the rule"), I really start worrying.
I hope that our forum administrator isn't a COBOL program. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Dale,
this has nothing to do with computerese… it has to do with an attempt to
encourage people to act responsibly, and as I've pointed out several times
now, anyone with a legitamate reason for not using both a first and last
name (such as HAVING only one name! <g>) is simply asked to make that
known to the forum administrator! Really no big deal.
Requiring people to use their REAL names here, in full, is for everyones
protection.
Thanks for your comments.
If he _is_, I know two keycodes (acquired from the Illinois DMV while they
tried to convince _their_ computer that I only had one name) that will
make him accept _anything_I_tell_him_to_ (heh heh heh)….
Pardon me for intruding into this thread, but I don't understand what the
fuss about names is. If someone has one name, what difference does it
make either way? I understand the reason for not wanting people to use
handles, but that doesn't seem to apply here.
And (Challeron) why all the cryptic references?
This is beginning to seem like the IM/Adpro war thread.
Probably shouldn't have given my plugged nickel, but what they h*ll
Paul
"If someone has one name, what difference does it make either way?"
It doesn't. That's the whole point. The forum policy clearly states that
the use of both first and last name are required for membership here…
obviously, if a person has only one name, they need only make the forum
administrator aware of that. No big deal.
I must come to the defense of "Mr. Challeron" from the antagonistic and
overbearing "Michael Gerard/SYSOP". I suggest that Challeron, respond by
using his first and last name, as they are the same then he should place
the same name in each blank provided. It is shortsighted and obnoxious
demi-gods like Michael Gerard, drunk on powerlust, who make telecomputing
an emotional mine field. I very much dislike the fact that reading a
simple post gets annoying. And if we want to be ever-so-picky as to names,
it would appear that the forum has made an exception for Good ole' Mikey
in allowing him to use THREE names… as I doubt his name appears as
"Michael Gerard/SYSOP" on HIS birth certificate.
Some advice Mr. Gerard.. Spend some time being helpful and stop annoying
paying customers.
The clique? What clique? I started the idea, and I see no clique.
People with different ideas, different lines of discussion, but cliques?
If there are any I don't see them. And if one was suddenly created, I
expect you'd be part of it – you've posted some long, thought-provoking
opinions. I just don't get what you're saying in general.
And as to AP being annoying as a DEMO – it's supposed to be! You're
supposed to want the full version. I'm still stuck w/ the DEMO, because
of a wierd CI$$$ screw-up that has me still waiting after many months for
_MY_ membership kit, and I can't wait to register it.
But really – I see no clique. There are probably plenty of them in these
forums, and I don't see them since I haven't been on long, but if anything
I've had to fight to penetrate _other_ cliques to get people interested in
the whole idea. So don't krap out on me now, just when people seem
interested and ideas are being bandied about and I'm dragging my dealer
into the whole thing.
Well, I've gone on too long. But explain, if you can, please.
Paul
If you've been following THIS thread (for however long the Sysops want
to continue to put up with me), maybe you're starting to see what "clique"
of semi-intelligentsia I'm referring to, which in an unfortunate
juxtaposition of words I made sound like included everyone on this forum.
(English is my only language, and it's STILL not my strong suit.)
I haven't been a real fan of "Thou Shalt" documents ever since Moses
came down from the mountain; I'm certainly not accusing you, Paul Idol, of
trying to write one, but I can't help but wonder about MOTIVES: It seems
to me that if we're all expecting Commodore to fall in with the MS-DOS
crowd, we might as well forget it; it would be stupid at this point for C=
to abandon one of the few really unique-in-the-world computers just to
become "another clone-maker".
Motives: I read someone out here suggesting that C= should "practically
give away" Bridgeboards. Why? If you need IBM-compatibility, go out and
buy a clone, cheapskate: I nearly tore a friendship of many years all to
hell just because my friend (who has several Amigas) went out and bought a
Magnavox something-or-other; but when the fire finally subsided, I could
see his reasoning: He really did need an occasional interface with
PC-bound associates, and buying the Magnaclone WAS cheaper than buying a
bridgeboard for either of his "big" Amigas.
I also hear of the occasional developer who has a personal hard on for
CBM (not just here; I personally know one hardware & two software Amiga
developers); I also hear lots of other developers who have no complaints.
What's motivating the complainers? If CATS is tremendously supportive but
"corporate CBM" is nodamngood, it sounds to me like a greed problem (and I
won't even suggest on which side).
A funny thing happened to me when I got this A4000 up and running: All
of a sudden I started seeing other ends of "The Computer Field" in a
different light. March 1993 issue of _PC_Computing_ magazine, part 11 of
the "In Search Of The Ultimate PC" series by Executive Editor Ron White,
who thinks he has "finally, after a year and a half, assembled the basic
ultimate PC", at a cost — are you ready for this? — of $39,621.
Now, once upon a time I would have drooled over such a system (bear in
mind that the last sentence of the article reads: "Now I can really start
to have some fun with projects that take me beyond the ultimate."); today
I can't help but think, All that time, and all that money, and he hasn't
actually done anything WITH the computer yet; but with the same amount of
money, and in considerably less time, a bunch of guys calling themselves
"Rattlesnake Productions" created all the special effects of the movie
_Babylon_5_, on four Video Toasters. Ron White didn't build the Ultimate
PC; what Ron White built was simply the Ultimate Stroke Job….
I subscribe to _The_HP_Palmtop_Paper_, whose executive editor has a CIS
mailbox; I used to look forward to receiving it to read about new and
better ways to use my HP 95LX. Now, since buying and using a _real_ home
computer, I think about cancelling my subscription, because I can see that
HPPP isn't marketed toward me; I'm neither a "fast-track executive" nor a
"gotta have it" yuppie wannabe. (Yes, I do, and always did, use my 95LX
at work, because of the power of its calculator functions as well as the
Lotus Phonebook, in which I keep manufacturing-specific information on
piece parts and system assemblies, all conveniently cross-referenced,
simply because I can keep all that information in my shirt pocket.)
I'm also beginning to believe that CIS isn't "marketed toward me": The
more I read of _CompuServe_Magazine_ the more I reach the conclusion that
CI$, like cocaine, is God's way of telling you you're making too much
money: Granted, there's lots of information available online, but it all
tends to be Godawful expensive to retrieve (unless, of course, you're one
of those "fast-track" types for whom time is more important than money);
and we all know that the new "basic service" would NEVER have happened if
CI$ wasn't feeling a pinch from Plodigy et al….
Actually, I think it's significant that CATS is on BIX but not here;
and this is one of the reasons why I'm not sure I want to be involved in a
"User Letter To C=": I think there might be merit in such a letter, if
for no other reason than it might show CBM some of the diversity of their
not-well-tended US market (remember, kids, that WE ALONE support the Amiga
on the WORLD'S BIGGEST COMPUTER INFORMATION SERVICE, and we've been doing
it with NO HELP FROM CBM) … and yet, as an Amiga user who bought this
machine with the full understanding that it was incompatible with every-
thing in the known universe (i.e., MS-DOS), I don't know what I would want
Commodore to change. (SOFTWARE developers, on the other hand….)
… Maybe CATS isn't out here because CI$ is a "yuppie haven"?…
I don't want them to become a clone maker, that's for sure. I don't want
them to abandon the computer, or anything like that. I'm just worried by
what I see in the world, which is (in this department, anyway) the
increasing domination of the Clones and the decreasing availability of
software for the Amiga. I'm hardly alone in my perception that C= in
general and the Amiga in particular are in trouble. And my letter isn't
going to be a "Thou Shalt" document (I know you didn't suggest it was, I
just wanted to clear up the point in general) though I also have no
interest in sending C= a sugar covered honey coated candied apple.
I'm just going to offer my opinions, couched in non-inflammatory language,
about what I see, good and bad, and what I'd like to see. Hopefully
enough of the letter will be non-partisan enough that a lot of people will
sign it, so that maybe it will do some good. I can't imagine, for
example, that anyone could honestly commend C='s ad campaign, such as it
is. Lousy cartoons in PC Magazine? A really bad mismatch of ad and
audience.
And as to CIS not being marketed towards you, I don't think it's really
marketed towards anyone in the sense you mean. Sure, CI$ markets it, but
it's not going to suit anyone's needs perfectly, because it's too big if
for no other reason. And sure it has lousy policies, and stupid control
programs, but so does everything else! You get what you can take. I
don't like my CI$ bill, but I'm sure I can reduce it.
And CATS should be on BIX and here, IMHO.
But anyway, I'm still not sure I understand what you mean about cliques.
The first I saw of this thread was you Pardon Me post about AutoPilot
problems, among other things. The only clique, maybe, is the sysop
clique, which is formed by necessity of maintaing CIS policies (stupid or
otherwise). And I agree with you – it's stupid for someone to have to
drop a line to the _Man_Upstairs_ if s/he has an unusual name – if
anything, unusual name options should be dealt with in the first logon
procedure. And how is anyone supposed to know about the policy in the
first place if it's only described in some file that has to be known
about, found, and downloaded?
Oh well.
Paul