Posted by Andy Morley on 07/07/00 from 62.137.37.188 via proxy webcacheH06a.cache.pol.co.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Semaphore posted by andy bolgerabolger@dircon.co.uk on July 06, 2000 at 22:18:45:
> Semaphore? I see no ships!
Sorry Andy, my mistake - I now realise what has happened. I'ts because you have an iMac, which as everyone knows is much more of an intuitive computer than your average PC. The hieroglyphs that I thought represented bombs were in fact little pictures that your iMac had drawn to illustrate the theme of your reply. If you like, you can think of them as iMac equivalents of Arthur Ransome's line drawings, although of course, artistic computers have a somewhat different style from human illustrators.
If you recall, you were replying to my observation about people throwing their toys from their prams if anyone attempted to be humorous in Tarboard. I think your iMac must have considered your reply to be an example of toy-throwing, and it illustrated your text accordingly. The things that I took to be bombs were in fact rattles and dummies and so-forth. The clever computer has made it so that you can't see them, but people like me with Macintosh laptops can. I'm not sure I approve of this relationship between your iMac and my laptop. Are it's intentions honourable..? And I definitely think Arthur Ransome could teach it a thing or two about drawing.
I know that you're sensitive about your age, but I only used the term 'geriatric' as a metaphor. As I've observed before, some people are middle-aged from their mid teens while others remain open-minded into their 80s and 90s. Arthur Ransome only really became successful in middle age, so you shouldn't be too sensitive on this topic. Anyone might think that you were an American, or a member of TARS....
Cheers,
Andy