--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, Michael Everson
<everson@...> wrote:

> At 15:34 +0000 2005-09-03, Jonathon Blake wrote:
>
> >TTF: True Type Font.
> >GIF: Graphic Information File
> >
> >The differences between those two formats are more

important to know,

> >than the difference between GIF and Tagged Information File

Format

>
> My point was that the file extensions are four-character strings
> using the Latin script: ".tif" and ".gif".

I did mean .tif and .gif but there it is again. Because the tag is
contextual all I have to know is that the one beginning with 't' is
the big one and the one I don't want unless I have a particular
reason for it. So my point about being in one sense illterate in
computer lingo is true, as everyone knows.

However, I can email instructions half way round the world
abouut how to convert an image to the right format for email,
receive the attachment and post the image on a website in less
time than it takes to figure out what that TIFF phrase means.

I brought up this point at dinner last night, for its entertainment
value and JC has noted, and asked a family that I considered
might not be as intellectually limited as myself what they thought.
.
The nuclear physicist father said, "I have banned technology and
all discussion thereof from my lecture hall."

Computer geek son said, "Ah, yes, the URL, technically it does
exist. Have I ever seen it used? Let me think."

Teenage daughter, "Daaaaddy, Of course they are taping you
with their laptops and taking pictures of your lecture notes with
their cellphones. Do you think they are actually listening to the
lecture?"

Younger daughter, "Curtis is 3 1/2 years old and he knows how
to download games from the internet."

Teacher mother, "Let me think. Of course, Tommy, 10, who can't
read (disabled) can access any internet site. He just can't read
anything when he gets there but if they are images ... And
teachers who haven't used computers before, they just click
around, I do wish they would read the instructions once in a
while."

Suzanne