Text 24563, 98 rader
Skriven 2006-01-31 23:45:00 av Dale Shipp (1:261/1466.0)
  Kommentar till text 24495 av Michiel Van Der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Re: Texas Grapefruit GRE
================================
 -=> On 01-31-06  10:27,  Michiel Van Der Vlist <=-
 -=> spoke to Dale Shipp about Texas Grapefruit GRE <=-

 >   Sorry -- I meant off-line.   I've never used a BBS system
 > on-line.

 MVDV> Never? Not even in the very beginning? You never used telix or
 MVDV> procomm? 

   I have heard the names, but never used them.   I dialed up using a
   modem and the program Qmodem, downloaded a mail packet (BW or QWK)
   and then read the echos using an off-line reader.  I tried several
   OLRs and went to Bluewave within a week or two.   Never used anything
   else as a primary method of reading echomail.   I now will
   occasionally check echos on line, using something like HTML or
   Hyperterm or my favored newsgroup reader to read NNTP (I use
   Gravity).

 MVDV>> I have never used an off-line reader, so I can't compare. Wjat I do
 MVDV>> know is  that most off-line reader suffer from the fatal flow of
 MVDV>> attempting to assing MSID's.
 
 >    Try again -- I don't know what you mean.  If you mean assign MSID,

 MVDV> I meant Message Id. (MSGID)
 
   So did I -- and I assumed that you meant "assign", rather than
   "assing" which might be taken to be something rude.

 >    that is not a function of the offline reader.  It happens
 > by the BBS system when the replies are uploaded.

 MVDV> Then BlueWave is the exception doing it right. Many off 
 MVDV> line readers DO assign message id's and of course they can 
 MVDV> not be guaranteed to be unique as their is no mechanism to 
 MVDV> prevent another user's off line reader assigning the same 
 MVDV> MSGID.

     Did not know that -- but I've not looked at other OLRs for quite
     some time.

 > My tagline is selected via the same function --- except that
 >   my list of possible taglines has only one entry.

 MVDV> And so the result is not random.

  Nope.  Actually, there is little generated by PC Computers that is
  random, albeit some of it looks random and would past stringent
  statistical tests.

 MVDV> Other than that: I never understood the point of random 
 MVDV> taglines. (Or random origins for that matter). if it is 
 MVDV> truly random, it just means one is spouting gibberish.

  I long ago decided not to use taglines for a variety of reasons.
  Others like them and say that they mean nothing.

 MVDV> Another observation:

 MVDV> Someone mentioned that BlueWave seems to have the uncunning 
 MVDV> ability to select the "right" tagline depending on content.

  There is a lot in the world that some will claim is unusual
  coincidence, but is really just a due to subjective observation of
  noting the things that fit, while not noticing the thing that do not
  fit.

 MVDV> My theory is that this is either a case of selective 
 MVDV> observation

   I think that is it.

 MVDV> or a case of the tag line file not being random
 MVDV> to begin with, but rather being representative of the style 
 MVDV> of the user.

  The selection of tagline from the file is random.  What the user tends
  to put into that file is not usually random.

 MVDV> F.e. if someone ONLY writes about politics in a left wing 
 MVDV> style and his tagline file ONLY contains leftish political 
 MVDV> statements, then the "random" tagline often will seem to 
 MVDV> match the content of the message.

   That is certainly one way.   BlueWave (and other OLRs) is
   configurable to allow for different tagline files for different
   echos.  That could be used to slant things towards particular topics.

                               Dale Shipp
                  fido_261_1466 (at) comcast (dot) net
                              (1:261/1466)


... Shipwrecked on Hesperus in Columbia, Maryland. 22:41:19, 31 Jan 2006
___ Blue Wave/DOS v2.30

--- Maximus/NT 3.01
 * Origin: Owl's Anchor (1:261/1466)