Tony Duell skrev:
>> Tony Duell skrev:
>>
>> >> I don't really understand why people care about originality. Isn't that
>> >> mainly a metaphysical matter? Or am I being too post-modern?
>>
>> >It depends on what you mean by 'originality'.
>>
>> I'm sorry, I can't find the right word...
>No, it's not that, it's just that 'original' means different things to
>different people. People collect computers for various reasons.
Exactly, original is quite ambiguous.
>> >Why? Old chips (meaning those made in the last 30 years or so) seem to be
>> >pretty reliable most of the time...
>>
>> I agree that there has occured some kind natural selection WRT those chips,
>> but... Eventually things become worn out, even solder points, traces and
>> joints in electronics.
>Considering I use equipment that's over 50 years old here, and that many
>of the soldered connections have never been touched since it left the
>factory, I don't think this is a major problem. Nor have I ever had any
>problems with (correctly stored) wire-wrap going unreliable in a
>reasonable time period (10's of years) either.
That's odd, I've read quite often that Amigas are getting more unreliable by
the day due to the contruction being worn out. That certainly seems to hold
true WRT to the Amigas we use at the usergroup. They just start behaving
irrationally as they age.
>> >True, which is why I spend far too much money on Lindsay Publications
>> >reprints of old books on radio, electical stuff, engineering, etc. The
>> >_information_ is what matters to me.
>>
>> >But, I would not be happy paying a high price for a 'rare book' and then
>> >finding out it was a Lindsay reprint that is still 'in print'. Because I
>> >have then not got what I paid for.
>>
>> OTOH, why would it be rare in the first place if it's still "in print"?
>Lindsay Publications reprints old books that are no longer in print. For
>example, the original on 'The Boy Mechanic' is out of print (AFAIK). But
>I can easily buy a Lindsay reprint that contains exactly the same
>information.
Exactly, and then it no longer is out of print.
>I would assume the original (which is out of print) will now be fairly
>rare (I have never seen it in a second-hand bookshop, for example). The
>reprint is common.
>I would therefore be annoyed if I'd paid for what I thought was an
>original, and ended up with the reprint. It is not the same thing, for
>all both are equally useful to me in the sense of providing information.
But isn't that the purpose of the book?
--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and space,
because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)
--Larry Wall in <10209_at_jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
Received on Fri May 11 2001 - 18:21:54 BST