Rich Grise

That may be applicable.

No, I prefer mine lead-free. We have 'lanes', little dirt roads mostly impassible by cars, down the middle of some blocks around here, plus a respectable canyon and a mountain or two. There are tons of berries now, and for some reason nobody else seems to want them.

I've seen new condos as small as 300 square feet around here!

John

Sheesh! Sounds a mite crowded!

It's important because it tells you that, when you read posts that are full of personal attacks, the target of those attacks has chosen to use special software so that he doesn't see any posts by the attackers - they are shouting into an empty hall. It also tells you that the person being attacked has decided to rise above the pettyness and to refuse to dignify any further personal attacks with a response.

"Usenet being what it is, if you participate in newsgroups at all over a period if time you have the possibility of attracting your own personal lunatic, who considers any disagreement a personal affront, and considers it their duty and obligation to "expose" the person they fixate on. It's kind of pathetic, but they can't quite seem to figure out why no one else sees their actions as heroic." -Richard Ward

Here is the official definition:

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Plonk

See also kill file.

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Killfile

See also plonk.

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Troll

1. v.,n. [From the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban] To utter a posting on Usenet designed to attract predictable responses or flames; or, the post itself. Derives from the phrase "trolling for newbies" which in turn comes from mainstream "trolling", a style of fishing in which one trails bait through a likely spot hoping for a bite. The well-constructed troll is a post that induces lots of newbies and flamers to make themselves look even more clueless than they already do, while subtly conveying to the more savvy and experienced that it is in fact a deliberate troll. If you don't fall for the joke, you get to be in on it. See also YHBT.

1. n. An individual who chronically trolls in sense 1; regularly posts specious arguments, flames or personal attacks to a newsgroup, discussion list, or in email for no other purpose than to annoy someone or disrupt a discussion. Trolls are recognizable by the fact that they have no real interest in learning about the topic at hand - they simply want to utter flame bait. Like the ugly creatures they are named after, they exhibit no redeeming characteristics, and as such, they are recognized as a lower form of life on the net, as in, "Oh, ignore him, he's just a troll."

Some people claim that the troll (sense 1) is properly a narrower category than flame bait, that a troll is categorized by containing some assertion that is wrong but not overtly controversial.

The use of `troll' in either sense is a live metaphor that readily produces elaborations and combining forms. For example, one not infrequently sees the warning "Do not feed the troll" as part of a followup to troll postings.

See also Kook.

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It also means we're free to badmouth the plonker in front of everyone without him getting any the wiser. The main function of the killfile is to get rid of annoyances like some idiot flooding a group with dozens or hundreds of posts to create a disruption. It's also used by the weak minded to avoid questioning and criticism by other legitimate users of the group. They stare into an empty hall and think they have the stage all to themselves because they have blinded themselves to everybody else.

Though I have questioned GM at times, and poked him in the ribs once or twice I can't recall ever having attacked him. At least not very viciously.

Going over GM's msgs in my spool I seem to have lost some stuff, it expires quickly. What *is* his beef really? It seems to be cyclic, one week he's rather coherent and sensible, the next he'll rave and rage over any commentary on his posts. Then there's that playing silly buggers with the headers.

- YD.

Not blackberries along the side of well-used roads, I hope.

Egads! I have a hard time fitting into the 5000 sq ft + 2000 sq ft decking sitting on 7 acres of prime growing soil (w/hillside view) in the Willamette valley. Even with another 1200 sq ft cement slab floor shed with 3-phase power and 35' ceilings, I'm still looking for more infrastructure and land (and a good backhoe!) I like having a museum room, sewing room, library, reading room, various hobby rooms, etc.

Not worth no megabuck around here, though. A lot less. But I do have lots of blackberries....

You are a cruel one!! ;)

Jon

Then pick the darned things!

Cripes, my bird room is just that size. Three sides of glassed in walls, cement floor with drain, with 15' ceiling and skylights, parallels my upstairs hallway and is an integrated part of the house. I've got finches, chipmunks, young peacocks, young wild turkeys, pheasants, and a bird the cats caught in there, right now.

I can't imagine trying to live in a box like that, though. It's cage-sized, not home-sized.

Jon

I suspect it's too late for that......

Graham

Yes, it is getting so. The 5 chipmunks are definitely starting to complain with all those "getting bigger all the time" birds. The peacocks like to plop into the hanging plant holders where the chipmunks used to love to sit and watch, so they are running along the upper window sills more or dodging the birds on the ground as they run around grabbing peanuts or chocolate from around their legs. But we've been trotting the turkeys and peacocks outside during the day to get them ready for full-time outside life. Another week or so and they will be ready.

Meanwhile, another barn to build... and I'm now looking to buy a cement mixer for 9 cu ft. There is NO WAY I'm going to slum around any more with a cheap, consumer-grade 1 cu ft piece of crap. Way too much work and it just won't work for the cement floors I'll be putting down. And being up on a hill, with 1/4 mile paved driveway with hairpin turns, means I can't be having a cement truck driving up here. I'm going to have to mix myself, on location.

Need a chipmunk?

Jon

Yeah. Since I'm the Chief Engineer and the President and the Chairman of The Board, you'd think that I would get to make the rules. Wrong.

John

PowersThatBe? Word? Good thing that we're still allowed (required?) to use Frame.

I live on "Blackberry Rd.", but I never get to them before the birds.

$800/sq.ft. Amazing.

Cheers! Rich

And you'd need one helluva lot of mites to make it crowded. Good one, Win.

Ed

A room of my 'new' house (it's actually about a hundred years old, but let's not get picky) doesn't appear on any plans, as it was originally part of the deck, then enclosed as an aviary, then just used as a sun-room. Only about

Ken

I think it was some famous Brit, Lord Wellington or somebody, who said that "No man is a hero to his wife or to his valet." I could add a few names to that list.

John

Why does your wife care what word processor you use?

Amazing. They won't take Frame, or a PDF? A couple of friends published the CMOS SOI cookbook and they _wanted_ frame as the source[*]. Dunno if it was because it was a technical book and they'd done all the markup, but...

is one is good too: