mark wrote:

the bulletin boards I dialed up way back then. Remember how frustrating
it was to get the constant busy signal on the really popular ones?

Yeah, and the really schmootzy ones had two or three phone lines.

Back then the only real-time chatting you ever did was with the sysop.
Sysops could never type worth a damn.

I find the same is true more broadly of the general population now that
instant messaging stuff is abundant. I never have been able to adapt to
real-time. I don't IRC or ICQ or AIM or blah blah blah because I can't
stand to sit there for 45 minutes waiting on the putz on the other end of
the line to finish a sentence.

I don't type fast enough to pass a typing test for a secretary job, but I
type leaps and bounds faster than anyone I've ever chatted with online. I
find it all but impossible to believe that vast numbers of office types can
hammer out words faster than I can.

Wow, now there's a thought. Best non-woodworking thing you ever bought.
Has to be the Microsoft Natural Keyboard from 1991. I forget how many
millions of words I've typed on this thing, but it's up there. Hrm.
4,500,000 as a very, very conservative estimate. It might be up to three
times that.

Damn I yack a lot.

The new ones are crap, and this one exceeded its life expectancy several
million switch cycles ago, I'm sure. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I
really, really, really hate the new ones. Anybody want to get rid of an
early '90s vintage Microsoft Natural Keyboard, from before they redesigned
it, when they were still made in the USA?

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/