Cosmo

[eeckel]

I like Cosmo.

[mollete]

Cosmo!!

Get back in here before I slap you upside your head!!

If you think you're going to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time, you have an impossible goal.

Nobody can do that.

OK, except for Dori. Dori can do that.

And Amy. Amy can do that, too.

Come to think about it, CF and Nan are pretty good as well.

Hmm. I guess my 15% rating doesn't look so hot right about now.

Boy, am I depressed.

I think I'll turn all my posts into dots...

[fredn]

Hello everyone,

I'm the fredn that was the other 1/2 of the exchange with Cosmo. Believe me when I say had I known it would have taken the route that it did I would have sat back and posted nothing. Not getting into all of the exchanged posts I think maybe my sarcastic Mom post may have hit a nerve and it spiraled downhill from there.

Please Cosmo come back .... I really mean that. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you ... EVERYONE is important on this board .... EVERYONE's help is needed. Had I known you better I would have acted differently.

Fred

[49er]

I may be flamed for what I am about to say but here goes. For those of you who don't understand why people got upset with Cosmo, let me give you a general example.

Someone says something to you in life that appears to be innocent but yet, there seems to be a subtle dig at you. Because it isn't blatant, you let it go.

Then it happens again and you're going hmm, what is this person about? All right, maybe I am too sensitive but I know what I heard didn't sound very nice even though the person didn't say it directly. But I don't want to ruffle any feathers so I will let it go.

Then it happens again and you notice that a few people react similarly to this person but no one will say anything because no one wants to ruffle any feathers either. Then when this person angers you again, you finally decide to send an email and try to be as respectful as possible. The person doesn't respond.

Again, the person says something agitating and finally, you can't take it anymore and unload on them. You're seen as the bad person when no one sees the previous events that led up to the current situation.

Yes, if someone does agitate you on a board, the ignore feature is a good thing to use. But I still think my points are important and should be considered by everyone who reads this as sometimes things aren't what they appear to be.

Finally, at one point, I greatly considered leaving this board for various reasons. I am glad I didn't but at one point, I felt the "just suck it up" mentality was a bit much to deal with especially in light of my struggles with pap therapy. Fortunately, I think that has greatly changed. Furthermore, I received wonderful support by PM which made me so glad I didn't leave.

Anyway, my point is I took responsibility to deal with the issues that arose and didn't just leave in a huff. I am kind of amazed that no one has even mentioned Cosmo's part in this whole issue.

Also, I hope that when other people feel abused on the board as Cosmo feels he was, that they will be defended in a similar manner. It seems we are kind of inconsistent as to who we defend and who we don't. I am guilty of this myself by the way.

Finally, I do take a positive from this thread as I really appreciate Fred N's generosity towards Cosmo even though I have to disagree with him saying it is his fault. But I loved his statement about how we need everyone's contributions.

Peace!

49er

[Grand-PAP]

And that accumulated knowledge - some of it just plain gets outdated . . . Wordstar . . . Fortran . . . ASCII code is for a page feed!!

Hi idamtnboy,

What a hoot!

I'm still smiling. I appreciate Nooblakahn's comment, but you're absolutely correct. It's amazing the amount of crap we had to learn -- all of which is worthless today.

After "retirement" I taught computer programming for five years at a state college. It was amazing to watch the "youth" struggle with the learning process. If they ONLY KNEW!

One of my favorite youthful comments is, "You mean Paul McCartney was in a band prior to Wings?"

Ha! Guess the Justin Bieber fans would ask, "Who is Paul McCartney?"

Memory Lane:

Wordstar vs Word Perfect

They identify with USB, but when's the last time they had to isolate the IRQ and DMA to attach ANYTHING.

Basis (Yes junior, there was a language prior to Visual Basic) having to write your own code to create the fields for a database record.

TRS80 Basic. Waiting the 20 to 30 minutes for the TRS80 to load a 1K program from the tape recorder, then having it immediately crash. Same kinds of issues with Micral N, Altair 8800, Apple, Commodore Pet, and on and on.

Paying $800 for a TRS80 with 16K of memory and an extra $300 for the Expansion interface. BTW no hard drive vs a couple hundred dollars for a loaded laptop today.

Since the TRS80 didn't have memory, paying an extra $400 - $500 for a Vista Floppy Drive with maybe 100K storage (don't remember the size -- but SMALL) vs $30 for a 1G Thumb Drive or a $100 or so, for a 1T hard drive.

Drilling a hole in the side of the TRS80, soldering the wires to install the button on the side of the computer case to allow the computer to display LOWER CASE characters. (SPECIAL NOTE to JohnBFisher --> I wasn't the one who did this! )

Paying $1,200 for a NEC Spinwriter (Built like an IBM Selectric Typewriter, but used a Thimble-like device instead of the IBM Selectric Ball. It was about as fast and the IBM) vs $49 for a 25 page per minute inkjet printer.

Come to think of it, probably many of the "young" readers wouldn't even know what I meant by IBM Selectric Ball.

Obviously, I could go on for hours!! Thanks for the SMILE!

[squid13]

Graand-Pap you got me, I never heard of any of that stuff either. I never touched a computer until I was 70 years old. I can remember when TV first came out, the neighbor down the street had one and we use to stand on the sidewalk and look through there front window and watch it.

[pandatx]

I feel hesitant to post this because I'm so new here and maybe it isn't my place....who knows how long I'll let this stay up, but I do have an opinion, lol (of course I do!)

This kind of stuff happens in every family, right? I hope that he comes back because I know that he is part of this family.

Different personalities, different people going through different things on any given day. Its so difficult to read someone's "voice". I know that if I'm having a bad day, I get very sensitive to other people's tones. And its usually not about them. Its about me. It sort of seemed like that was the case on that day. I think maybe he was having an off day that day. Or maybe that just IS his personality (I haven't been here long enough to know).

Regardless, I do hope Cosmo comes back. I like him and he has been very generous in helping me. I miss him here.

I also think Fred is extremely gracious.

Shit happens, you know? Just come back to the family, dude. We don't have to talk about it or make a big deal. You would be welcomed with open arms, I can tell that just by reading this thread.

I agree that everyone here has important contributions to make.

[khauser]

Paying $1,200 for a NEC Spinwriter (Built like an IBM Selectric Typewriter, but used a Thimble-like device instead of the IBM Selectric Ball. It was about as fast and the IBM) vs $49 for a 25 page per minute inkjet printer.

Tempted, VERY tempted to respond line by line to your post Grand-PAP, but this part got me the most. In my youth (and I use that word to mean late teens, when I had money without responsibilities), I purchased .... wait for it ... a DECwriter III because I wanted FAST printing.

I got some interesting looks from neighbors....

I'm only 53 (LOL) but grew up the the age you've laid out. I took a slightly different route ... building, oh .... 3 or 4 Heathkit computers (and most everything else they had in kit form)

Good thing computers don't cost as much, because I don't HAVE as much.

[quietmorning]

Cosmo left?

I hope he comes back. He's one of my favorite people on here.

**worse case scenerio** and I hope like all heck that nothing HAPPENED to him. . . I hope he's ok.

[Denial Dave]

Cosmo & I had some minor disagreements over his need for lots of gadgets, but he was a nice guy.

He tried to payback the initial help he got here by trying to help folks. Sometimes his effort to inject some humor into the moment went overboard or was misunderstood as being snarky.

Based by the content of the PM's I got from him not long before he left, I got the impression that he was very frustrated by the nastiness and sniping that has been going on here during the past 1-2 weeks.

Then add in the issue over the book seller being berated while numerous others come on and sell unwanted masks, machines.

I'll miss Cosmo and I still miss Laser's humor.

[photodork]

come back cosmo!

[chunkyfrog]

I miss him already.

[Loreena]

If people like gadgets, that is their business. I, for one, like gadgets, and if I feel like they help me, it's nobody's business. Plus, people posting their gadgets may very well help someone else who nobody knows about because they buy and use it silently. Liking gadgets is not wrong....that is a major plus, especially when they let others know what is out there! I really miss Cosmo. He saved me from supine H-E-double hockey sticks with his backpack posting.

[quietmorning]

I miss him already.

+1 (gazillion)

I hope he will keep in touch with some of us off line if he decides he doesn't want to be here.

(Post by Loreena) If people like gadgets, that is their business. I, for one, like gadgets, and if I feel like they help me, it's nobody's business. Plus, people posting their gadgets may very well help someone else who nobody knows about because they buy and use it silently. Liking gadgets is not wrong....that is a major plus, especially when they let others know what is out there! I really miss Cosmo. He saved me from supine H-E-double hockey sticks with his backpack posting.

+1 (gazillion and one)

It's not only no one's business - no one but that particular person walks in that person's shoes and looks in the mirror at their reflection in the morning. So what if someone like's gadgets. So what if they don't. That's a very personal preference. Judging it is very egocentric. People are different. Thank goodness. If you must play God and go after someone by judging against your values, at least go after things that are not so closely related to their identity (and in so doing, shaming them and bringing them to the worth of ZERO) . . . their actions that are DESTRUCTIVE TO OTHERS: abuses, harm, deceit, etc. (Helping them to become better than their perceived self worth). But before you do, take a good look in the mirror and make sure you yourself have overcome these same character flaws, yourself.

Gah. Pet peeve. . .judgmental actions are so incredibly harmful. They don't just harm the individual, the harm whoever that individual effects.

**angry**

**getting off of soap box**

**deep breath**

[squid13]

This maybe wrong to say but this is how it's coming across to me,so now were going after Denial Dave for his post on gadgets. Were not mentioning his name but the implication is there.