off-topic encomium and Y2K

["Jonathan Beard" jbeard@xxxxxxxx]

   I have just read the submission by R. Tennenbaum, and it seems
   to fit into a disturbing pattern: it is well composed, the
   spelling and grammar are good, and it incorporates not only
   humor, but onomatopoeia. I am, or have been on, several lists
   over the last two years, discussing OS/2, military history,
   entomology, and science writing. The last was restricted to
   professional writers. Yet this list, inhabited by XyWrite
   users, many of them also OS/2 users, seems to enjoy by far the
   best postings: less invective, very little flaming of non-TTG
   employees, and, most of all, good prose.

   I guess it is because XyWrite was marketed to writers from the
   beginning, and anyone still using it today must be literate if
   not literary. If anyone has a better explanation, please
   share it.

   And speaking of Y2K. It is a commonplace that you do not want
   to be in an airplane the night of December 31, 1999. The air
   traffic control system will almost certainly fail in large
   measure. But anyone techie should get the June 1998 issue of
   IEEE Spectrum. It has an overview piece on Y2K and computers,
   and a fascinating account of embedded controller problems. It
   particularly implies that you might prefer to be on a 747 ap-
   proaching JFK to being in any hospital receiving IV medication
   via an infusion pump on December 31. www.spectrum.ieee.org

   Gotta go write for money.

   Jonathan

Jonathan D. Beard
Science Writer-Photo Researcher
938 N. Alameda, Las Cruces, NM 88005-2125 USA
jbeard@xxxxxxxx voice 505-647-0850