Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Tuesday 30 March 2004 15:23, Peter Kirk wrote:
> On 30/03/2004 13:18, Bill Rea wrote:
> >On Tue, 30 Mar 2004, Peter Kirk wrote:
> >>Easy: Mozilla 1.6, with the contributed builds listed at
> >>http://www.mozilla.org/releases/#1.6. I'm not sure about the last
> >>requirement, but that's an internal matter for the Solaris system.
> >
> >This just tells me you don't understand what you're talking about.
>
> Bill, I am not now a computer professional. I used to be, 15 years ago,
> and I worked with a similar setup with terminal emulators to a (local)
> Unix system. But we didn't do e-mail. So I don't understand the details
> of what your problem is. I am aware that there are GUIs available for
> Unix systems but it seems you choose not to use them. While I accept
> that I don't understand the details, I don't like the tone of your ad
> hominem remark "you don't understand what you're talking about".

Peter,
I'm afraid you're just digging the hole deeper with these comments.  Yes, 
there are GUI's available for Unix, but not all dial-in Unix systems allow 
them because of the load they put on the system.  Nyx, where I have had my 
email address for 15 years, is one of them.  Thankfully, I don't have to dial 
in to them and can now get my mail by POP3 instead of having to either dial 
or telnet in and use a text-based client such as pine or elm.  But not 
everyone has that luxury, and it's unreasonable to expect people to be able 
to exceed the bounds of their ISP.

> >I think we need to distinquish between people with a professional interest
> >in Hebrew whom you could expect to customize their computer systems around
> >their professional needs and people who are merely Hebrew amateurs and
> >whose systems will be customized around some other personal or
> >professional need. If this list is to be for professionals only, then I
> >guess I should shut up and go away. But that's not a direction I would
> >like to see it take as I don't know anyone else who has any knowledge of
> >Hebrew. In the approximately 12 years I've been on the list it has been
> >invaluable in keeping my interest in Hebrew alive.
>
> This list is not only for professionals in any field. It seems that you
> are using a specialised computer system for your own professional
> requirements and expecting it to work well for your personal interests,
> including Hebrew. You would do much better to get a cheap general
> purpose computer and use that for e-mail unrelated to your professional
> specialisation. Go into any store, buy their oldest and cheapest Windows
> PC (as long as it has a modem), and you are there immediately - or use
> Linux if you prefer. (Well, you need Mozilla or Outlook rather than the
> default Outlook Express if you want to use IMAP.) Or ask the
> administration section of your university if they have any old PCs to
> give away (minimum Windows 98). Or probably you already have some kind
> of PC, as your VT-100 emulation must be on some platform. Would Mozilla
> or something similar run on that same platform?

Here again, if the machine he's dialing into allows remote mail access, this 
might be possible.  But not all of them do.  Bill, and at least one other 
member who contacted me privately during this exchange, seem to be in such a 
situation.  A different PC isn't going to make any difference, because the 
restriction is at the other end, not theirs.

-- 
Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
Learning about Christianity from a non-Christian
is like getting a kiss over the telephone.