BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: freda underhill
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 06:58 AM

Donuel

as you know many of us here are in awe of your talent. However you express it, your creative ideas are astounding.

Good luck in this next phase,

freda

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 11:05 AM

IT feels good to be angry at the moment. As a stay at home dad for 9 years I practicaly have lost the ability to converse with adults and have communicated through pictures and poetry to retain some modicum of literacy.

I will get busy the best I can but lately my best accomplishment has been procrastination. Anger was a strong motivation but so is   perfection albeit very time consuming.

I have spent time getting some performence skills back on the cello at the expense of other expressions. I have been doing lots of blusy jazzy forms of standards by ear and have improved technique without thinking about it so much.

Real life at the moment is being amazed at my friend getting his piano concerto performed at the Kennedy Center in DC this summer.
The politics and money and promotional skills to get a project like that off the ground requires as much genius as the work itself.
I am in awe and humbled at what it really takes to succeed as a world class artist/composer.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Amos
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 10:10 PM

Donuel:: Goddamit, reboot on a nother goddamn ISP!! Don't stand still for this crap!


A

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Joe_F
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 09:22 PM

When I was little, I got tearful if I couldn't hear my usual daily radio programs. I will not claim to have grown up since then, but my attitude has changed somewhat.

I suppose I spend a couple of hours a day on the Net. In the morning, I look at Google News. Then & at various times during the day, I read my email, which includes subscriptions to half a dozen mailing lists. In the evening, I look at alt.politics.libertarian, alt.quotations, alt.suicide.holiday, alt.suicide.methods, alt.usage.english, comp.emacs, gnu.announce, gnu.emacs.announce, gnu.emacs.bug, gnu.emacs.gnus, gnu.emacs.help, gnu.misc.discuss, ne.transportation, rec.music.folk, sci.lang, alt.books.george-orwell, soc.motss, Dilbert, Doonesbury, For Better or for Worse, Danziger, Pluggers, the Mudcat, Tony Berno's blog, Martha Bridegam's blog, and Language Log. I skip almost all of that. As I have frequently remarked, here & elsewhere, the human visual system is a wonderful instrument for ignoring things.

--- Joe Fineman    [e-mail]

||: We ought to say, not disillusioned, but transillusioned. :||

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Jun 06 - 06:29 AM

Now that I have been denied the use of my website by the powers that be, I have little reason to add my unique illustrated opinion so I rarely post anywhere anymore.

Its sort of like a modern day black list. As in the 50's, the artist merely fades away and outrage (if any) lasts for a few seconds and the crowd moves on.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Don Firth
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 07:28 PM

Hi, Skipjack. My upgrade of Dragon Naturally Speaking Preferred to version 8 arrived a few days ago, and although I haven't had enough time to really play with it much, I've noticed that, right out of the box, it is considerably more accurate than earlier versions. Contrary to lots of software these days, the box contains a genuine bound manual (not a PDF file you have to download and print, like some) that explains step-by-step how to use the program. Logically laid out and quite "user-friendly."

The more you and the program "train" each other, the more accurate it gets. "Training a new user" (page 14 in my copy of the manual) and "Adapting to your writing style" (page 16) explains how you and the program can wind up speaking the same language, and I've noted that if, from time to time, I repeat the process of reading material into the computer that the program is already familiar with, it really refines its accuracy.

There is a kind of "pain in the neck" factor that can arise when it is necessary to make a lot of corrections. When I first started using the program, I felt like I was wasting an incredible amount of time correcting things. But then I noticed that, even so, I was cranking out about three times as much wordage as I did what I just typed it. Now, I don't worry about it.

When it comes to dictation and voice commands, we haven't achieved the precision of the Enterprise's computer yet, but I think we'll get there a lot sooner that Gene Roddenberry anticipated.

By the way, one of the neat things about the program:   you can get it to read back what you have dictated. Just say "select sentence" (or "paragraph" or "document") and "read that," and this feminine sounding voice reads it to you. You can also do that with things you haven't written using Naturally Speaking as well. The voice sounds fairly human, not particularly "computerish," although there are occasional weird pronunciations. But as far as inflection and emotion is concerned, you know it's definitely not Dame Judi Dench who's reading to you. By the way, if you ask it to read a thirty-page document to you, be prepared to sit through the whole thing, because short of shooting the computer (or at least, hitting the "reset" button), I don't know of any way to stop it.

Apparently you can pretty well run the whole computer with voice commands, but I haven't gotten into a lot of that yet.

Have fun!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 05:44 PM

Rich bastard!!
G ☻

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 05:40 PM

I got it for about £115, from a company called Ecost Software who are from Kingston upon Thames. It took one day to arrive and it has just taken me two hours to set it up properly. Dead impressed.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 05:34 PM

How much did you pay for it Greg?
G

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 04:58 PM

With the help of the idiot guide, I have been able to understand this blasted system quite easily. So this is my first attempt at speaking to this blinking machine. It has taken 10 times longer to write this message because of the number of corrections, but I understand I need to train the program.

I have to say I am very impressed with the program, if this is the standard right at the beginning, as I would agree that roughly 80% of the dictation is correct. In fact, that last paragraph was totally correct first time. The biggest problem I am having is making the machine recognise the word full stop.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 04:54 PM

Ooh er Mrs.
G.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 04:09 PM

Shirt lifter?

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 03:37 PM

Eye dropper!

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 03:34 PM

Name dropper!

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 15 Jun 06 - 02:44 PM

Right, Don, the contraption has arrived, and I've had my IT provider weld it to the computer, there is a headset on the desk, and one of them icons on the desktop. Trouble is that there's an instruction manual a centimetre deep sitting on the desk, and I've got a serious dose of Bloke Fear.

I was lucky enough to have a night out in the Natural History Museum in that London last night, for a black tie dinner. I had that nice Sandi Toksvig sitting next to me, who was the star turn. She admitted that wimmin are smarter than men, nothin' startling there, but the example she gave was that if a woman doesn't want a man to read something on her computer, she names the file 'Instruction Manual' safe in the knowledge that it will never be opened.

I suppose I'm going to have to open this ghastly book. Hopefully, this will be the last time I need a keybord9!

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 01 Jun 06 - 12:38 AM

Drat!

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 06 - 11:36 PM

the "dude" has just given you away lepus....

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: heric
Date: 31 May 06 - 10:56 PM

Yes, Chico Marx was funny. "Idiot" as a joke? Okay, I'll ponder that for a very short while. Good luck on the internet thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 31 May 06 - 10:49 PM

heric, dude. Have you never heard of the Marx Brothers?

The above was meant as a joke.

Sorry you took it the wrong way too.

Tough gig, this internet thing.

As to the seven years thing, is that more Mudcat code talking?

Damn it's tough to figure YOU PEOPLE out. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: heric
Date: 31 May 06 - 10:26 PM

Damn, Sori, I was trying to defend you on that other thread, to the extent you can be defended. Sorry you took it the wrong way. Seven years of people hating you is a tough record to defuse.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 31 May 06 - 10:08 PM

You people?!?!

Hey, some of my best friends are those people!

Gentlemen, Chicolini here may talk like an idiot, and look like an idiot, but don't let that fool you: he really is an idiot.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: heric
Date: 31 May 06 - 09:49 PM

I'll volunteer to be a clone!!! I could delete the fucking shit out of you people!

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 31 May 06 - 08:48 PM

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

But that is what I'm getting from the clones in another thread. It seems they fervently believe I am someone other than who I am.

Amusing, yet pathetically sad at the same time. Pathetically sad that anyone would hold a grudge for as many years as Jeri and Mick have against this person.

Blows the mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 06 - 04:10 PM

The management IS Max...you want him to shake himself up?

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Kaleea
Date: 31 May 06 - 01:54 PM

whaddya mean real? ain't this real? you mean I'm gonna wake up?

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 31 May 06 - 01:49 PM

Also if you can find clones that will please all of the people all of the time, it will be a miracle.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 May 06 - 01:20 PM

Question: Knowing the abuse they take, why on earth would anyone else volunteer to be a clone? I'm happy with the ones we've got.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,MrMr
Date: 31 May 06 - 12:57 PM

Actually, the problem with some, if I am understanding the drift of opinions here, is that this place IS their life.

That is as unhealthy here, as it is anywhere online, whether in forums, using IM chat excessively, gambling, porn, whatever.

If your life is disappearing into the computer screen, that's a problem.

The other theme in this thread seems to be about control and power issues here. In that regard, some people really do need to get a life.

Azizi said it well when she said her concern was with unfair and unequal treatment of forum participants.

In this and other threads, I also notice people (not Shambles) commenting more and more frequently about editorial abuses of authority, power, and control over others.

IMO, Max should take a serious look at recruiting new clones, regardless of how well (or not) they are doing. When perceptions like this are of this magnitude, it is a sure sign it's time to shake up management.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: number 6
Date: 31 May 06 - 11:34 AM

"No need to moan about what's right/wrong; just find your place in the order of things & get on w/ life."

.. well said bbc

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 31 May 06 - 11:27 AM

The balance is finding & keeping the info & people in Mudcat that enhance your life & avoiding the threads & people that have a negative effect on you. For each of us, that balance is different, but I think the concept is valid. No need to moan about what's right/wrong; just find your place in the order of things & get on w/ life.

best,

bbc

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,quarcoo
Date: 31 May 06 - 11:22 AM

I couldn't have agreed with you more Aziz.


BTW, still in the bush.

Quarcoo.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 31 May 06 - 11:16 AM

Oh, you're from Wales? Do you know a fella named Jonah? He lived in whales for awhile.

Hey ... was that a humorous, off-topic, post, Sori? ;0)

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John Hardly
Date: 31 May 06 - 09:04 AM

"John Hardly, there's hope. The next box of Depends we get at our parish thrift shop (people pass on and pass things on)-- I promise, it has your name on it."

Wow. that's the nicest thing a mudcatter has ever done for me! Imagine.......my very own monogrammed depends!

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Bobert
Date: 30 May 06 - 09:50 PM

Well, not to sound smug but...

... I have met the enemy and it is Mudcat, lol....

But seriously, in the past I have spent hours a day here... I'm too busy fir that now so I check in a couple times a day....

May expalin why I dopn't get as many PM's these days... PM's are directly porportionate to the hours one is willing to throw at this joint...

I just don't have them these days... Too busy... But, hey, I should get credit fir showin' up everyday, even if it is fir jsu' a little here an there...

I AM CONCERNED (sorry fir screamin') about a couple of my frineds here who obviously could be making better use of their time... No names, please... They know who they are...

Addictions are costly....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 30 May 06 - 07:55 PM

Oh, you're from Wales? Do you know a fella named Jonah? He lived in whales for awhile.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Who's Sori now?
Date: 30 May 06 - 06:33 PM

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Amos
Date: 30 May 06 - 06:32 PM

Get it said, 'Zizi!! You are so full of right attitude you sound like music all by your lonesome!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: wysiwyg
Date: 30 May 06 - 06:21 PM

John Hardly, there's hope. The next box of Depends we get at our parish thrift shop (people pass on and pass things on)-- I promise, it has your name on it.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Azizi
Date: 30 May 06 - 06:13 PM

Like others have noted in this thread, for some persons who read Mudcat threads and post on Mudcat, doing so becomes a part of their real life. It has become so for me.

I like being a member of the Mudcat community. I like reading threads that stimulate my mind and provide different perspectives on subjects that I am somewhat familiar with or completely unfamiliar with. I also like being able to kick back, relax, and enjoy myself with friends I have met throughout the world.

Along with others, I have very much disliked and sometimes been dismayed at the different stances and attitudes and actions that
I have witnessed from some persons on Mudcat. However, I recognize that in any community, people aren't going to get along with everyone.

Sure there are problems in this community-as they are in any community where people live and interact. The problem within the Mudcat community that I'm most concerned about is not that there are different groups of people and that some people within different circles don't get along with others. As far as I'm concerned, such is life. However, my overarching concern is that-in my opinion, there have been times when moderators have not been fair, and consistent in their deletion of individual's threads or posts. dividual's posts and threads. What I want within Mudcat is fair, just, and equitable treatment of folks without regard to who they are,how long they have been on Mudcat, or other indices.

I recall that Max indicated that he would provide additional information about Mudcat in another thread in a week or two. I look forward to that thread in the hope that this issue will be addressed.

While I wait for Max's next thread, I intend to continue contributing to threads, and starting new threads if the spirit moves me. I also intend to continue to be careful in my responses or not respond at all-in public threads or in pms-to comments that I consider to be contentious. This is my choice. Others can do as the spirit moves them.

In continuing to start threads and write posts, I'm striving to contribute to the health & wellbeing of this community which has become so integral a part of my real life.

I want to be part of the solution here, and not part of the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 30 May 06 - 04:48 PM

Because I dare to stand up and name the guilty parties by name?

I'm sure that does make me troublesome to the guilty.

And proud to be a thorn in their side, thank you very much.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Not sorry
Date: 30 May 06 - 02:59 PM

Now that Martin Gibson is gone, it's becoming clear who the problem posters are that are dragging the level of discussions here down into the gutter.

It would seem that you are one of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: open mike
Date: 30 May 06 - 02:57 PM

it wasn't "T" it was an "M"

politics/polemics

going thru d.t.'s from nearly a week without the cat...

ahhhhhhhh

getting my "fix" again..

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 30 May 06 - 02:14 PM

I have to agree with you, Bob. Whether or not the state of union will be too little, too late only time will tell.

Now that Martin Gibson is gone, it's becoming clear who the problem posters are that are dragging the level of discussions here down into the gutter. As I said, lots of mini-MGs are left behind, and as you note, they too are always spoiling for a fight, and looking for a thread to pollute with their negativity.

I think a lot of people are just now starting to wake up and smell the coffee, now that the stench of Martin Gibson has begun to fade.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Deckman
Date: 30 May 06 - 02:04 PM

Hi, Bob, the DECKMAN here. Perhaps against my better judgement, I'm going to post a reponse to this well placed thread:

I started being a MC reguliar after dear friend Don Firth turned me onto it probably four years ago. I quickly became hooked. There's no doubt that, early on, I "wasted" waaay too much time perusing the threads. The upside was that I not only learned a lot about the traditional music (which I love), but I also made some serious internet friends. You know who you are.

Then along came not just MG, but also the obvious unwillingness, or perhaps inability, of the "guiders" of MC to do anything about him. I was raised by an insane mother, true. Early on, I recognized similiar patterns. After a couple of years of frustrating efforts to get him barred, I finally just gave up.

As a result, I've not been posting much the last 8 or 9 months. A few months ago, I once again started reading the postings occasionally. As some others have noted, I also saw the decline in the "quality" of the comments. If I want to be privy to gutter talk, and constant harranging, I'll go to a tavern full of gutter talkers and bastards spoiling for a fight.

I much prefer to sit out in my yard with a few friends, swapping songs and playing guitars together.

I've been vitually sightless the last two months. Because of that, I have not be able to read the puter screen longer than a couple of minutes at a time. As my recovery from Rentinal surgery continues,I hope to be able to spend more time on the puter.

Whether or NOT I can ever get my enthusiasm back for MC really depends on the "tone" I witness. When I read Max's "State Of The Union Address" recently, I was tempted to post: "TOO LITTLE ... TOO LATE!" A great deal of harm has been done by Max's in-action.

Am I angry at him? Of course not. It's his website and he can do anything he wants with it! Will I support him financially again in the future? I 'dunno? That's a damned good question.

To all my GOOD FRIENDS here ... I'm missing you and hopefully we'll be able to pick up the pieces in the future. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: John Hardly
Date: 30 May 06 - 01:58 PM

I just sit down at the computer all day, every day, and hit the "refresh" button on the mudcat every five minutes. I wear Depends so that I never have to take my eyes off the screen. The current pair of Depends is 8 days old and I need to change it soon. Maybe later this week.

I don't eat solid food because that makes me have to use more of my Depends. I have a diminishing stack of them set up next to the computer, and I hate to use them up.

Medicare pays for the nurse that comes over and refreshes my intravenous feeding.

I have voice recognition software so that I don't have to take my eyes off of the screen to look at the keypad. I don't want to miss anything.

I open every thread every day and I post to each of them at least once. Twice on the MOAB thread.

I haven't seen a real person in five years. My dog brings me my mail, but I don't read it because I would have to take my eyes off of the computer screen in order to do so. I haven't seen my dog in four years. I can smell him though. He stopped using the dog door about three years ago. I think he's been reading the mudcat over my shoulder for some time now. I know the cat has been.

I don't play or listen to music anymore. Yes, I know -- that's not that unusual here.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 30 May 06 - 12:38 PM

Nameless guest, to whom are you referring?

And why are you attempting to cast aspersions on them?

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST
Date: 30 May 06 - 12:19 PM

'Standing up for something that is floundering, as this forum is, does require a backbone.'

The nameless one would know. Minnesota Missy threw a Hissy.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 May 06 - 11:47 AM

Mudcat is a magnificent achievement - a real oasis of civilisation, most of the time. There are those who mistake their opinions for unquestionable fact. Like (I think) Weber said, perhaps the dysfunctional are functional in their own way, they 're there to serve as an unpleasant example of how bitter the human tongue can pour it out - they unite the rest of us.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,Sori
Date: 30 May 06 - 11:28 AM

I can answer that easily, Guest TC. They come here because they once did enjoy it, and they hope that by making their feelings known about the change for the worse they have seen, the decline of manners and decency, will be viewed as the constructive criticism it is.

Taking a rude and defiant 'sweep all discontent under the rug' stance like Giok does, serves no purpose other than to heap negativity upon those who dare to stand up to the mean and nasty people who run the place these days.

Standing up for something that is floundering, as this forum is, does require a backbone.

Subject: RE: BS: Balancing Mudcat and real life
From: GUEST,TC
Date: 30 May 06 - 11:21 AM

If they don't like it why do they come here?