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Re: Re: Re: Orientation of characters in FrameLabel

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg22086] Re: [mg22076] Re: [mg22040] Re: Orientation of characters in FrameLabel
• From: Andrzej Kozlowski <andrzej at platon.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
• Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 01:14:04 -0500 (EST)
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

on 00.2.13 3:06 AM, Bojan Bistrovic at bojanb at physics.odu.edu wrote:

>> on 00.2.11 4:38 PM, Jens-Peer Kuska at kuska at informatik.uni-leipzig.de
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> You may switch to a modern computer with a less primitive operating
>>> system
>>> (i. e. not a Mac)
>> 
>> This just shows ignorance or prejudice, particularly in view that most
>> professional DTP work is still done on Macs. There is a lot more to an
>> operating system than the ability to rotate text. Besides, what is primitive
>> depends on ones perspective. I use the Mac all the time and Linux fairly
>> often and "primitive" is just the word that  comes to my mind whenever I do
>> the latter.
>> 
>> 
>> Andrzej Kozlowski
>> Toyama International University
>> Toyama, Japan
>> http://sigma.tuins.ac.jp/
>> 
> With all due respect to Mac users, I have to agree with Jens-Peer here.
> You might not like your favorite pet (i.e. MacOS) being called primitive, but
> try leaving a VERY long computation (over a month for example) on a Mac; the
> odds are it will crash the very first day, if not the very first hour.
> Windows will probably crash on the second or the third day. Any Unix
> (including Linux) will not only do it, but will do it's daily amount of work
> as well. I DO know professionals in DTP; they use Mac's for digital image
> processing. What do they do after EVERY PICTURE? They reboot their Mac's
> because if they don't, the odds are it will crash in the middle of next
> picture. This is a real-life example. People don't like Unix/Linux because
> "you have to use the keyboard to get anything done" (this is again a real
> citation). Well, first of all, that's not really true, and second, not
> everybody is allergic to keyboards. Some people like them. "Primitiveness" of
> an operating system isn't related to the fact how often do you have to use the
> keyboard, but to the stability, reliability, speed, etc. Apple/Microsoft duet
> has managed to convince the world that a computer is a tool EVERY idiot should
> be able to use. While I agree that reading your email or browsing the web
> shouldn't require a PhD in computer science, I just don't see how can ANY
> user of very technical product like Mathematica be delighted by the power of
> Mathematica and at the same time dislike an operating system because some
> thing can't be done with a click of a mouse. Let me make an analogy: would
> you prefer to drive a nice looking car that broke down EVERY SINGLE DAY or
> a less pretty one that drives forever without breaking down? If you're a Mac
> user, I bet you never changed the oil or a flat tire on your car yourself, did
> you? Not changing the oil or ever doing any work on your car yourself doesn't
> make you a bad person; it just makes you unqualified to discuss properties of
> an engine or the transmission. Well, the same hold for OS; if you buy a
> particular computer because it comes in nice colors, it doesn't' mean you're a
> bad person; it just makes you unqualified to judge the "primitiveness" of
> other operating systems.
> 
> Bye, Bojan
> 
> PS:if you're into DTP, I'd say that rotating text is pretty IMPORTANT for you,
> don't you agree?
> 
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Bojan Bistrovic,                               bojanb at physics.odu.edu
> Old Dominion University, Norfolk VA & Jefferson Lab, Newport News, VA
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------

 
As for the rest of your diatribe: all I can say is that if you can spend
your time on learning ridiculous Unix commands or trying to work out why
your " advanced" Linux system cannot recognise your newly installed,
(supposedly compatible network card), than I can't see how you can ever do
any serious work in mathematics, or physics etc (though you may perhaps call
yourself a "IT" expert, whatever that is)..  Anybody who does not believe
this should join for a short time the Red Hat mailing list (
redhat-announce-list at redhat.com); you will then proceed to receive about a
hundred messages a day and see for yourself what sort of absurd problems
people waste their time on, just to give themselves the illusion of
superiority. I for one prefer to spend my time proving theorems (or at least
trying to). That's, by the way, why I use Mathematica and not, for example,
C.

On a personal note: I have have used the Mac and a variety of unix systems
(the latter unwillingly)  for about 15 years so I know quite a bit about
both.


--
Andrzej Kozlowski
Toyama International University
Toyama, Japan
http://sigma.tuins.ac.jp/