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<font size=3>At 03:23 PM 7/25/2003 -0400, William Adams wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Herb said:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite> If so, I must protest.
Microsoft is the best thing that ever happened to computer users,
ever.</blockquote><br>
I'll have to remember that the next time a Word document gets repaginated
merely 'cause I tried to update the
index.</font></blockquote><x-tab> </x-tab>I
agree with you. I only use Word when I have to. I wrote my own word
processor years ago that is much better. BUT, only for me.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>Millions
of people successfully use Word without advanced schooling or the time to
RTFM.<br><br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font size=3>
As for money, Bill Gates is the greatest humanitarian charitable giver in
the history of the human race, and the profits Microsoft makes are
minuscule in comparison to the power he has given people to control
information without being beholden to the technocratic gurus of this
world.</blockquote><br>
Right, one is instead beholden to the technocrats at Microsoft and at
their mercy re: whether or no bugs get fixed.<br><br>
Moreover, he achieved his fortune by steamrolling over other companies
which often had much better technologies or architectures---take a look
at Jerry Kaplan's book _StartUp_ for one example of
this.</font></blockquote><x-tab> </x-tab>It
is inevitable that when something become universal, better products get
shunted aside. The point is that it be universal, so that people don't
have to learn 17 different ways of doing things. Standardization is the
enemy of creativity. But creativity is the enemy of mass popularity and
usability.<br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>I'm sorry
for sounding off like this. I am an economist and we are trained to look
at products from the point of view of the user, not the creator. I would
hate to have to work for MS, and I hate to have to deal with their
products (except PowerPoint, which is pretty cool, and IE, which is the
best there is).<br><br>
Best,<br><br>
Herb<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font size=3>As regards doubts on
TeX & Latex, well, ``The TeX Showcase'' should dispel any such:<br>
<a href="http://www.tug.org/texshowcase" eudora="autourl">http://www.tug.org/texshowcase</a><br><br>
William<br><br>
-- <br>
William Adams, publishing specialist<br>
voice - 717-731-6707 | Fax - 717-731-6708<br>
<a href="http://www.atlis.com/" eudora="autourl">www.atlis.com</a></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
Herbert
Gintis
<br>
Emeritus Professor of Economics, University of
Massachusetts
<br>
External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM <br>
15 Forbes Avenue, Northampton, MA 01060 <br>
413-586-7756 (Home Office) 206-984-9873 (Fax)<br>
Recent papers are posted on my
<a href="http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~gintis">web site</a>.<br>
Get <b>Game Theory Evolving</b> (Princeton, 2000) at
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0691009430/qid=1057311870/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-8882889-4632849?v=glance&s=books">Amazon.com</a>.<br>
New Email Address is hgintis@comcast.net
<dl>
<dd>There is no sorrow so great that does not find
<dd>its background in joy.
</dl>
Niels Bohr (1938)<br><br>
<b>
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