Hi, Bob.

BL>  BL> It's got a few little quirks. What you see on screen is not
BL>  BL> always what you get whne you print (or FAX) it, and its style
BL>  BL> sheets are a

BL>  FM> Maybe not in Page Layout mode, but I think it's OK in Print
BL>  FM> Preview.

BL>   Nope. I've been caught a few times there, too. It's not foolproof,
BL> and it can be a nuisance with a FAX when you don't actually get to see
BL> what happened at the other end. I use a standard boilerplate that I
BL> had them FAX me back to check it...

Ordinary memos don't matter, but when you've got a "selling" document
that you've taken particular care to lay out to best effect, it does.
In such cases, if it's a fax, I fax it to myself first.

BL>  FM> The problem I have is something slightly different between the
BL>  FM> one at home and at work - a document formatted exactly as I
BL>  FM> want it on one might have the last line flow onto the next page
BL>  FM> on the other

BL>   Yes... that sort of thing.

BL>  FM> The bells & whistles in Word 6 clutter and complicate it (IMHO)
BL>  FM> for no added functionality, and some of the things I want to do
BL>  FM> seem to have disappeared - they're certainly not in the menus
BL>  FM> where they used to be.

BL>  BL> (grin) I even cut the bells and whistles out of Word2.

BL>  FM> Oh? How?

BL>   The grammar... and other stuff I can't be bothered looking up.

I always spell and grammar check my documents, and consider each "rule"
violation carefully. The one I most often ignore is "Consider using
*that* instead of *which* as the relative pronoun" (but I still consider
in each case) - I think that's probably an American thing.

BL>  FM> Yeah, what happened to that project? :-)

BL>  BL> Delphi. It's almost trivial to do it now...

BL>  FM> If you want < than 32k documents you could use a TMemo, more
BL>  FM> than that it's a bit harder. Plus if you want to put in
BL>  FM> graphics, formatting, etc.

BL>   I wrote something that loads 32K at a time as you page down and up.
BL> It was a bit jerky on the old 386 but on the 486 is works quite well.

And including graphs, charts, pictures of Elle?

BL>  BL> I don't think I'd like to be a kid now, trying to decide a
BL>  BL> future. Even Medicine is changing! If you look 20 years ahead
BL>  BL> it's impossible to see. Do we end up the brains-trust feeding
BL>  BL> the industrial giant of China, or food-peasants feeding Asia, a
BL>  BL> nation taking in each other's washing in the service
BL>  BL> industries, or what?

BL>  FM> But I don't think that's much different from then. I did
BL>  FM> science and engineering but became a banker and now
BL>  FM> stockbroker. Hardly relevant skills. The post-grad Comp Sci. I
BL>  FM> did was probably useful though, when I was a programmer.

BL>   I assume you choose an education appropriate to your career, which
BL> is really the whole point, isn't it? I did Engineering because I was
BL> an engineer. Why would I want to do Commerce unless I wanted to be a
BL> banker and a stockbroker? This is the point I was making... 40 years
BL> ago I could predict where I would end up (not as it turned out, in
BL> fact) but today there is no way to know. I suppose the 60s were the
BL> end of predictabilty.

My point is, and why I think "nothing's changed" is that I didn't know
in 1966 what I wanted to do either.

BL>   I don't think there is a danger in a narrow education. You learn as
BL> you go along anyway, and mostly you learn how to learn, but the waste
BL> is prodigous!

I don't think there is a danger in a vocationally-oriented education
either - for some. We need to reverse the travesty of Dawkins, and have
proper tertiary (and secondary for that matter) technical schools which
can teach the higher levels of the trades like engineering, law and
medicine.

And we need to have true universities where knowledge is the objective.
Perhaps there's only one faculty - philosophy. :-)

BL>   Personally, I think the answer is a shortened non-Uni education that
BL> finishes High School at 16, and goes on to a polytechnic for 4 years.
BL> I can't see that universtities have a function any more. A profession
BL> will no longer be recognisable after 20 years, and if this is so, the
BL> Uni will always be teaching 10 years out of date!

I agree with the first sentence above. But pure, non goal-directed
learning will enhance the long-term potential of any society which
embraces it.

BL>  BL> Instead of being a real big deal with lots of continuing
BL>  BL> business and an entire department... they cure ulcers forever
BL>  BL> now. You get a breath test, a bottle of yoghurt, and ta ta
BL>  BL> ulcers. The local GP could do it, and probably will.

BL>  FM> I thought I'd heard that they've discovered that it's a
BL>  FM> bacteria that causes ulcers. Where do the breath test and
BL>  FM> yoghurt come in?

BL>   The C13-urea breath test is used to diagnose presence of helibacter
BL> pylori, and yoghurt is used as the medium to deliver the antibacterial
BL> goop to the gut where it does the most good.

You've become a real expert in medical technology, haven't you! :-)

BL>   I was using that as an example of the big change in gasterentiology.
BL> Ulcers were the major part of the speciality, and now they're the
BL> least of it.

BL>   I wonder if cardiology might go the same way. I notice a similarity
BL> to ulcers... too many known causes, an undefiend genetic link, stress,
BL> food... and it turns out to be a bloody germ! One effect, one cause.

Yeah, and these "known causes" are so often a statistical wank.

Regards, fIM.

 * * Mary had a little lamb, then the police were called!
@EOT:

---