X-Message-Number: 11901
Date: Sun, 06 Jun 1999 00:14:29 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Splitting the list, symbols.

In regard to splitting the list, and particularly with reference to Perry
Metzger's complaint (some of us *do* care--I do, even if I am one of the
main culprits on "philosophical" postings), again, I'm willing to help with
it. To me the simple suggestion of some sort of prefix for headers, and
those messages dropped for those requesting this, seems workable. (I just
checked, and the basic idea was expressed by Thomas Donaldson, #11842,
before I seized on it.) In this way, for instance, Perry and others like him
would never see messages whose subject starts with a colon or some other
chosen symbol. They could also post their own messages just as before and
read each others' and others' messages that did not broach the topics they
aren't interested in. It would be a slight additional burden and minor
judgment call for those posting the messages-with-colons--a really minor
issue I think. Occasionally it might be necessary to do a little extra work;
split up a message that has both philosophical and non-philosophical parts.
Occasionally there might be reasons to let a little philosophical content
spill over into an otherwise "regular" message--again this could be left to
the poster's judgment. If, on the other hand, a really separate list is
wanted and nothing else will do, I'll ask what would be required to set one
up. (Kevin Brown, do you read me?)

For Thomas Donaldson: as far as I can see, digital computers (as opposed to
analog devices, which do exist but are not the dominant kind of "computer")
inside simply crunch bits, whether they are modeling neural nets, running
Fortran programs or what. Bits come in 2 flavors, "0" and "1"--two symbols,
that's all you need.

Mike Perry

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