Obsolete, was Speaking of cubes

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Sat Oct 14 21:11:00 2000

Mike Ford writes:
> I just peeked in the dictionary, Obsolete means "no longer in use". By that
> definition many things are clearly not obsolete, they are just not in the
> front lines anymore.

However, that begs the question of "in use by whom?"

If you define it as "in use by me", or "in use by someone, somewhere",
then it's not a particularly useful term. There are electromechanical
adding machines still in use by some people somewhere, but any sensible
person considers them obsolete.

The conventional meaning is "no longer in *common* use".

Last time I said on this list that something was obsolete it started
a huge flame war because people took offense at my claim that something
they own is obsolete. These people seem to associate a lot of emotional
baggage with the word obsolete, and think it's a personal insult.

For my own part, I recognize that almost every computer I own is
obsolete, and it doesn't bother me in the least. In fact, part of
my enjoyment from activities like restoring PDP-11/70s is *because*
they are obsolete.

Eric
Received on Sat Oct 14 2000 - 21:11:00 BST