[10501] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: ASCII and economics,PDL,Acroread.
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Paul Wittry)
Thu Aug 8 05:59:02 1996
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 1996 15:31:33 -0500 (CDT)
From: Paul Wittry <ppw3@everett.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Hello All,
I must confess to being a lurker, in fact, lay-lurker. I subscribed to this
forum to be informed about the problems and triumphs of public access
computer systems. I have gained some knowledge in that respect. And I am
content in that knowledge.
However, there is something being discussed here that cries for feed back
from someone other than the "educated library elite".
The thread/threads in the subject line started with a brave woman, speaking
about what she believed to be a problem with universal access to
information. From a lay-users point of view her observations regarding the
use of PDL were "right on". As I followed this thread through postings by
Michael Hart, of the Gutenberg foundation, and others, I found, in myself,
through these postings, an anger and a frustration. I am finding these
emotions in others of my kind.
We the people, the common people, are slowly finding a way to access
information, as that same information is slipping away, due to the
ever-increasing prioritization of the medium which brought it to us. It's
called progress, when in fact it is nothing more than elitism. . .Didn't
mean to rant, but it becomes emotional for me.
The bottom line is this: I have a 386DX-33 an EGA Monitor and 4megs of RAM.
(I'm pretty proud of this old relic. I built it myself, using discarded
parts.) I took "FREE" Acroread off my hard drive because, it ran so slow and
jerky as to be useless, and because I needed more room for E-Mail Mailboxes.
I can access any information I need or want through E-Mail, and that's where
the real empowerment is. And guess what? I'll bet you already know. E-Mail
uses ASCII.
The signature below does not mean that I have any Degree in anything. I am
self proclaimed.
___________________________________________________________________________
Paul Wittry, Visual Artist, Philosopher, Poet|"A poet is a dethroned king
Internet:<ppw3@everett.com> <bi065@scn.org> |sitting among the ashes of
Homepage:<http://www.everett.net/users/ppw3> |his palace trying to form an
PGP Public Key=Finger:<ppw3@everett.com> |image from out of the ashes."
Please, encrypt your messages!!!! |_______________Kalil Gibran__
