There are two men in a trolley going up and down on wires past the window of my office. I'm on the 9th floor. They are spies I'm sure of it...
Er...Hello, yes, sorry, distracted for a moment. I've been a bit quiet lately, though I've been lurking and reading all the posts. To be honest I haven't been able to spend as much time on the Q40 exploring and learning as I'd have liked. I did start working on something with the intention of getting it in QL Today; hopefully in the new year, when I've got the house sorted out (which is taking all my spare time) I'll be able to get it finished. I'd also like to get to the Hove workshop in March and put a face to my name (so far, only Roy has seen me). I had a look at the previous disk of demos - the Q-Route program looks useful, but I haven't tried it with a mouse yet. The only one I've got is a Microsoft Wheel PS/2 mouse with a PS/2 -> 9 pin converter. I tried it once and got absolutely no response out of it at all, completely dead. Works on the PC though. Those men are still going up and down and they're not cleaning the glass... Anyway, I was reading Byts of Wood on the train yesterday evening (yes, I've experienced the deathtrap stairs in Q-Branch Towers - particularly dangerous when you are struggling down them with a plastic bag full of floppy disks, books and folders, and the bag is split and the contents are trying to escape! ;O) Where was I, oh yes, the whole article struck a chord with me - particularly the bit about IBM dropping the serial and parallel ports. I use my PC for internet and digital photography and don't do any programming. I use the Q40 for dabbling with programming because its SMSQ/E and SBASIC give me a simple and [mostly] intuitive programming model that I can understand, unlike Windoze. For me, the Q40 is a hobby machine for keeping the old grey matter exercised by programming which I no longer do professionally, so the speed of the machine is not really as important to me as it would be for someone using it as an appliance for running applications. It has enough features to keep me busy for as long as the machine lasts. I'm not tempted to keep expanding and upgrading it (even if I could :) like I have with PCs - and usually regretted it because of all the hassle. So a pat on the back to all those involved in coming up with another 'right riveting read'. It was a very good issue full of interesting articles and opinions, and the QDT screenshots looked impressive. The desktop layout reminds me a bit of the IXI(tm) Desktop I used to work with on Unix. Anyway, that's my wittering done. Enjoy the holidays everyone. With a bit of luck I'll be a bit more active QLer next year. regards, Ian. Visit our website at http://www.ubswarburg.com This message contains confidential information and is intended only for the individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately by e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this e-mail from your system. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission. If verification is required please request a hard-copy version. This message is provided for informational purposes and should not be construed as a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any securities or related financial instruments.
