Hugo Jorge Muller - H.J.M. Hardware & Softwa <hjmuller@satlink.com>
wrote:

> Estoy suscripto a la lista desde Argentina y realmente creia que
> aqui se trataban temas "SERIOS" pero los ultimos dias lo estan
> poniendo en duda. A ver si de una vez y por todas nos dejamos de
> joder con marcianos y venusianos y otros cuentos estupidos, no
> puede ser  que de 10 o 15 mensajes mas de la mitad sean
> "estupideces". Encima de que esta en Ingles y cuesta lleva tiempo
> leerlo, mandan boludeces...
>
> Andrew sure YOU have time to translate this to English otherwise
> you will continue writing about martians and venusian
> !$%%^&!@#&@^&%@^&


No problem, Hugo... In fact, I ENJOY receiving messages in languages
other than English.  In school, I only learned Latin and French, so
I appreciate your giving me this opportunity to broaden my
linguistic skills.

I'm actually becoming pretty good at reading Spanish, although I
still can't write well enough to do the language justice.  I DID
just think up the following joke, though... Tell me what you think:

        Como se llama una mujer sin piernas?

        Consuela!

Funny, no?

Anyway...

I'm sorry that it costs you time and money to download and translate
PICLIST messages that you don't find interesting.  Please excuse my
bluntness -- I mean no offense -- but this is YOUR problem, not
mine.

If list-members are careful about choosing appropriate "Subject:"
lines for their posts, perhaps you'll be able to discard
uninteresting messages without taking the time to translate them
completely.

I hope that you (and other list-members who may share your feelings)
find the following comments helpful:

    1.  Subscribing to the list costs nothing; if you feel that
        you're not getting your money's worth, it's very easy to
        unsubscribe.

    2.  Anyone can start his own mailing list; there's nothing
        keeping you from forming your own list with strict rules as
        to its content. You could even require that all messages be
        sent to your list in Spanish, if you like.

    3.  The people who were primarily involved in the recent
        off-topic discussions are VERY active on the list, and
        nearly all of our posts are strictly on-topic.

        Those of us who participated -- me, Bob Fehrenbach, Scott
        Dattalo, Kalle, etc. -- spend most of our time on the list
        ANSWERING questions posed by other members.  In fact, I
        can't even REMEMBER the last time Scott, Bob, or Kalle asked
        a PIC-related question here.

        While I understand that you must work very hard to get
        information from the list, I think you'll agree that the
        four of us work at least as hard as you do, for a much
        smaller return.

    4.  As another user pointed out, the "cuentos estupidos" puzzles
        teach problem-solving skills and number-theory knowledge that
        you may find useful in the future.

    5.  If you have a problem with a specific list-member's posts,
        it might be more productive to complain to that user in
        PRIVATE e-mail.  In general, I feel that publicly-posted
        complaints invite public responses.

-Andy

Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com
Fast Forward Engineering, Vista, California
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499