[NTLK] [ANN] Patch 71J059 - Year 2010 Fix

[James Wages]

Christian,

Thank you for taking time to offer me a detailed explanation.  It is very
insightful.



Mr. Swaney,

As to my own frustrations, I was venting more at the Apple Newton team than
anything else.  The fact that this team was so brilliant to have come up
with the Newton, yet so absent-minded with regard to the 2010 problem is
truly confusing indeed.  And while some many argue that "they never thought
the Newton would last that long," it still doesn't make a satisfactory
explanation of why they did not.  For truly, it's not like my Mac 128k no
longer works now that it's 2010.

The rest of my venting was at the bug itself, not any person.  Those of you
who know me should know this.  Those of you who don't now know it.



Eckhart Koeppen <lists at 40hz.org> wrote:
> ... a little more respect for what I was able to achieve... is for sure in
>         order.
> ... Complaining how the patch is not perfect is in no way motivating me.
> ... donations from the Newton community
> If it were not for the patch, you would not be able to use your
>      Newton *at all* anymore
> ... thank again everybody who has supported me.

In my 2nd paragraph response to Mr. Swaney above, I have addressed where my
frustrations (in my original post, made several hours ago) were vented.  In
other words, not at you, Mr. Koeppen.  I am sorry that my words upset you.
They were not intended to bring hurt to you, for reasons I have just given
above.  However both you and Mr. Swaney have taken me to task in a far more
severe way than one would normally expect, making anything "negative" I said
in my original post of no significance at this point.

Unfortunately for the peace of this list, such harshness has been directed
at me a couple other times in the past too, with the fiery responses far
outweighing anything I originally wrote.  And those responses, just like
now, were fired off because the authors misread my words and judged me
improperly.  

It would seem that the era in which we live is one of tremendous harshness,
with people constantly on-edge and ready to pounce on those that they
"think" are saying something they disagree strong with.  Perhaps it is the
economy.  I don't know.  But I see so much hatred and combative words toward
others on many forums, it saddens me greatly.  Again, I was not directing
hatred toward anyone, nor am I directed hatred toward anyone now.  I have
spoken about "brotherly love" on this list before, but clearly some of you
do not recall that.  Again, I was merely frustrated with a bug, folks; and
yes that problem is indeed small in comparison with the Newton not working
at all.  But when I composed my previous post, I didn't think it a sin to
merely mention it, along with my own personal frustrations over it.

Now that it matters at this point, I nevertheless must state for the record
that I did offer my thanks "...to the brilliant mind that put this together"
when I posted my success in applying the patch, on December 23rd.  Had my
recent post (made several hours ago) been a personal attack against any one
person on this list, I would have said something along the lines of "silly
so-and-so, his work is meaningless."  But I did not.  Nor did my previous
post even imply that.  I did not retract the words of praise I gave to Mr.
Eckhart Koeppen last December.  I continue to stand by those words today.
But you misread my words if you think that I somehow did an about-face and
condemned the very author of a patch that has led to the Newton's
"salvation."  And it is so sad that I have to write all this in the first
place, as this should be a place where we all can freely exchange thoughts
and ideas without worry of fiery retribution.

Again, I am tremendously disheartened with this list in that a couple of you
could even think such horrible things of me based upon one single post.

--James Wages