Hello Frank,

 Mv>> One should not confuse attitude with expert opinion. What Michael
 Mv>> Grant wants equates to making pi equal to three. I as an expert say
 Mv>> that is not a good solution. That rocket to the moon will not reach
 Mv>> it's destination if pi is made equal to three.

 FV> Attitude, expert opinion or not, is still attitude.

Then it must be my English that I see this different.

 FV>> Attitude and expert opinion once was that the Internet would
 FV>> never fly.... for that matter, the expert opinion was once
 FV>> that man would never fly. :) Of course, in fairness, man
 FV>> still can't fly, but the planes can. :-)

 FV> What can't be done today, might be done tomorrow.

Or not. One shpould not fall into the trap to conclude that just because
some believed some things to be impossible in the past and they were proven
wrong that everyione that syas something is not possible is wrong.

Some things really are impossible.

 MG> I do, however, see your point to a point.

Thank you.

 Mv>> Saying that people like me are the bane of FidoNet and that attitude
 Mv>> has to change first is not going to change the fact that equating pi
 Mv>> to three is bad juju.

 FV> I don't think I said that.

No, others did.

 Mv>> The solution to use the Pvt keyword together with an -Unpublished-
 Mv>> phone number to avoid old POTS mailers to attempt to dial IP nodes is
 Mv>> a kludge. It is not "nice" but it is the only sure
way to prevent ALL
 Mv>> old POTS mailers from attempting to dial and have them automatically
 Mv>> reroute to the host/hub. Had we foreseen this in the early days we
 Mv>> would have created a more flexible nodelist format. But we didn't and
 Mv>> now we are stuck with what we'v got.

 FV> Ok. I have no problem with the kludge.

But others apparently have. It is those that are the loudest in saying I am
the bane of FidoNet.

 Mv>> And this is what I tell people that say "if I were a
programmer...":
 Mv>> If you can't do it yourself stop claiming it is possible when the
 Mv>> experts tell you it is not.

 FV> If I were a programmer , I would be trying to do
 FV> things that the "expert opinions" say is impossible.

That is what bosses tell their programmer employees all the time. And you
know what? Very often they get their way. There are so many bright
programmers around that they get many a thing done that was considered
impossible before. That is also their downfall, because if they run into
something really impossiblke, the bosses do not believe them any more. They
get fired and replaced with someone who says it must be possible. So only
the guys that /promise/ survive. That is why their is so much shitty
software around. ;-)

 FV> That's just me. I may fail many times, but then again, I might
 FV> eventually succeed. What was impossible yesterday is now possible.
 FV> What is impossible today, might happen tomorrow.

True, but people like Michael Grant should realize that telling an unpaid
volunteer like me I am the bane of FidoNet, that I am narrow minded, that I
have a hidden agenda etc, etc, is not the most effective way to get me to
attempt the impossible.

Someone that /pays/ me might get away with that, but in a volunteer setup
that approach does not work.

Cheers, Michiel

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