17 Oct 16 17:26, you wrote to me:   
      
    ak> the sentence "I think it is useful to read, but writing easier on   
    ak> computer" - what article should we use before "computer"?   
      
   "the" or "a"...   
      
    MD>>>>>> I will start some other topics here!   
      
    ak>>>>> I hope you will and even you will bring here some new people.   
    ak>>>>> Because many of old ones have spent most of cartridges fighting on   
    ak>>>>> the Fidonet battle fields for so long time.   
      
    ML>> hahaha... excellent analogy!   
      
    ak> ;-) Well, we also can return to those times of paper mails. Not   
    ak> writing paper letters of course, but to slow down the process of   
    ak> writing a bit. People of the paper past had very profound discussions.   
    ak> Every letter was often a piece art. Sometimes I also want to write   
    ak> letters by a pen! Letters then needed many days to reach the   
    ak> addressee, so the traffic was slower and people had much more time to   
    ak> compose their answer and to have a rest. ;)   
      
   i used to write a lot but then computers were made available to the common man   
   and i've done most everything on a computer since... my penmanship is lousy,   
   anyway... in school, my signature was the only thing that i wrote in cursive   
   (aka real) writing... i printed most everything and my teachers didn't like   
   that at all... especially in cursive writing class but when i did and they   
   couldn't read the writing, well... they eventually got the idea that i was not   
   ever going to have any form of legible cursive writing... even today, my   
   signature is the only thing that has any resemblence to cursive and even then   
   no two of my signatures have ever been the same... /i/ can tell if i wrote   
   them but others cannot unless they are professional handwriting experts like   
   the USAF brought in for me when i had to sign to get my payroll checks :lol:   
      
    MD>>>> It's hard to bring new people to FidoNet. Most of old users in my   
    MD>>>> city left FidoNet about 5-10 years ago. And it will be harder to   
    MD>>>> bring them here. People in my city usually don't want/like to   
    MD>>>> learn new languages... I don't know why.   
      
    ak>>> It's clear, the young generation prefers to play games. Absence of   
    ak>>> advertising is also very important. Those who do want to talk   
    ak>>> constantly hear "Facebook", "Twitter", "Live Journal" etc at every   
    ak>>> corner. And a person needs only a computer browser. Easy access.   
    ak>>> But you have to collect many information to find your way to   
    ak>>> FIDOnet. The GoldEd's pseudo-graphical interface IMHO is not very   
    ak>>> attractive for the modern people.   
      
    ML>> agreed... they're fooled by pretty pictures that are specifically   
    ML>> designed to make operation much too easy while hiding all the   
    ML>> details from them...   
      
    ak> But they can't have interesting discussions. Their chats are like bird   
    ak> twitter. Twitter in general is a perfect name for the modern messengers.   
      
   exactly... and these smartphones and the shorthand they use are not helping   
   them at all...   
      
     r u going 2 dinr 2nite?   
      
   gimme a break! it is like that eubonics mess they tried to bring out some   
   years back... gag!   
      
    ak>>> Another problem -- to find subjects to talk about. There is a simple   
    ak>>> rule here. If you use the language and learn it -- you have   
    ak>>> questions.   
      
    ML>> yup! that's about right   
      
    ak>>> Otherwise, there are no questions. I remember a time when I   
    ak>>> translated some Russian books into English. That was a gold time for   
    ak>>> learning. I used a pile of dictionaries, already translated books,   
    ak>>> on-line dictionaries and forums. I could sit at every sentence   
    ak>>> thinking how to translate it in a better way.   
      
    ML>> i remember when you were asking about some things related to those   
    ML>> translations... how did they come out? successful?   
      
    ak> Yes, all the works have been carried through. Each book was translated   
    ak> and checked several times by native speakers; the last book was even   
    ak> checked by an English teacher (she did it because she liked it!) ;-)   
    ak> For a while, the books are available as paper books at www.amazon.com.   
    ak> If you like, you can go there and search for: Koryagin The Three at   
    ak> the Square of Carronades Koryagin Boltik   
      
   great! i may very well go look for it... we read a lot of novels here... i've   
   just finished the complete four book set of DUNE for the second or third   
   time... it has been at least twenty or twenty-five years since i read it... a   
   week before, i had also finished reading the complete set of the Hobbit and   
   Lord of the Ring... another novel set that i really enjoyed was the eleven or   
   twelve book set of "The Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind... it is like a   
   pre-midieval time before magic disappeared... each book has a specific rule, a   
   wizard's rule, that teaches a lot about human nature... these rules help the   
   protagonist, Richard Cypher... he doesn't know his real heritage but it is   
   very important to his destiny and that of the world... the first book is   
   titled "Wizard's First Rule"... if you read them, do try to read them in   
   order... i don't know that i can compare "The Sword of Truth" series to "Lord   
   of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" doesn't even come close...   
      
    ak> I believe the work has been done well. If I forgot to tell it, the   
    ak> books were written by the famous Russian writer Vladislav Krapivin.   
    ak> The books, especially the first one, are like beams from heaven. I am   
    ak> glad that I had reflected that beams on those unfortunate people who   
    ak> were deprived of them. ;-)   
      
   and here we are sharing beams of light with each other :)   
      
    ak> Do you know, in the Russian language a translator and a rail switchman   
    ak> do such a job that is expressed by a single verb. ;) It is very   
    ak> symbolic.   
      
   i did not know that... i've thought several times of possibly trying to learn   
   russian and other languages from your area... i haven't been able to pursue   
   that, though... time and money are a factor :(   
      
   )\/(ark   
      
   Always Mount a Scratch Monkey   
   Do you manage your own servers? If you are not running an IDS/IPS yer doin' it   
   wrong...   
   ... Brevity is the soul of lingerie.   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:3634/12.73)