Re: Headset cheap fix - works

Rick Onanian  wrote:
  > On 2 Dec 2003 10:12:46 -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Carl Fogel) wrote:
  > >Out of curiosity, do Peter Chisholm's posts look a bit different on
  > >your screen? I've never noticed anyone complaining, but posts from Qui
  > >si parla Campagnolo always show up as strangely formatted on my
  > >software.
  > We've complained a-plenty, and I bite my virtual tongue nearly every
  > day. Sometimes I write a reply and then cancel it instead of sending it,
  > realizing that I will only annoy Peter with more of the same complaints.
  > I find his posts nearly impossible to read, between the bizarre quoting,
  > the somewhat weird formatting he writes with (for example, he often ends
  > his last sentence with a '-' instead of a '.'; this leaves me expecting
  > more), and the language cues of all the french stuff I see littered all
  > over his messages, which, despite my conscious effort to ignore, trick
  > my mind into expecting weirdness that doesn't actually exist.
  > >(And again, lest I be misunderstood, I'm not suggesting that Peter
  > >should imitate my peculiar formatting, much less join me in
  > No, he should imitate mine. <G> Or, at least, use a quoting style that
  > somewhat resembles the standard, where a given character begins every
  > line of a quote. This results in many newsreaders color-coding the
  > quoted part, making it very easy to determine what's written by whom and
  > if it's new information. That is a good thing because there's so much
  > traffic on this newsfroup that a message that can't be read quickly is a
  > deleted message; and a deleted message is one that may have had useful
  > information in it.
  > >swearing off the use of semi-colons, a perfectly respectable form of
  > >punctuation that I don't mind reading, but for some reason can no
  > >longer bear to use.)
  > What, is there something wrong with semicolons? I find that they are
  > extremely useful; one example would be in sentences like this.
  > Of course, as a recovering english teacher, you can shoot holes in my
  > grammar. I have a peculiar mix of give-a-damns and don't-give-a-damns
  > which follows no known logic. Seemingly random issues are addressed
  > either by strict rule adherence, ignorance, or careless
  > stream-of-consciousness-gut-feeling writing. For example, I very often
  > abuse commas and semicolons in the elementary "where a spoken pause
  > might be found" sense, even if grammatically incorrect.
  > >Carl Fogel
  > --
  > Rick Onanian



Dear Rick,

I know of no objection to our friend the semi-colon and notice it no
more than any other fly-speck interposed between our tumbling thoughts.
A semi-colon enlivens smileys without giving me the slightest twinge.

But somehow I found myself using it less and less and finally admitted
that it had vanished from anything except source code. A stroke? Inbred
vice surfacing? A latent dislike for heroic couplets?

At the same time, I noticed another bizarre problem. I cannot bear to
break words with hyphens at the ends of lines, no matter how my various
word processors implore me to do so; yet hyphenation for format- ting
doesn't bother me in anyone else's writing.

(Pause to wipe beads of sweat from brow.)

I certainly would never tease anyone about their grammar, punctuation,
or spelling

amidst all the traffic in this

                 newsfroup.

Much less draw attention to it with a smiley. ;)

Incidentally, you might have a look at how your message appears when
viewed through cycling forums. It could give you some perspective on all
this formatting fuss.

Carl Fogel



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