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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=11901