*BSD News Article 68982


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From: jdege@winternet.com (Jeff Dege)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.bill-gates,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,alt.org.team-os2,alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Is Microsoft's Internet plan more about its love of power than about users?
Followup-To: alt.fan.bill-gates,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.misc,comp.os.ms-windows.win95.misc,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy,alt.org.team-os2,alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.linux.advocacy,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: 20 May 1996 22:15:08 GMT
Organization: StarNet Communications, Inc
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References: <4mlpnf$d4p@sidhe.memra.com> <4mqq8o$6js@news.aros.net> <4mrg49$pok@dfw-ixnews5.ix.netcom.com> <4muhf9$giv@phobos.Candle.Com> <4npu4t$c7j@access1.digex.net>
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On 20 May 1996 10:04:13 -0400, R. D. Davis (rdd@access1.digex.net) wrote:
: In article <4muhf9$giv@phobos.Candle.Com>,
: Ralph Goers <rgoer@rgoer.candle.com> wrote:
: 
: >Dumb is perhaps not the right word. Ignorant seems to fit better.  Part
: >of this ignorance is simply based on cost.  It costs "real" money to
: >learn something new so many simply choose to stick with whatever seems
: 
: I fail to underatand why you say that one must spend money to learn
: anything new.  Why can't people just read manuals, etc. and ask other
: people questions after reading the manuals, etc.?  What is so
: expensive about doing this?  Are so many people so stupid that they
: must always be told what to do by others, unable to figure anything
: out on their own?  (the answer is yes, unfortunately).

    I've never seen a competent programmer who didn't believe that he
could learn nearly anything, given decent documentation.  But learning
stuff takes time, and time _isn't_ free.  How _long_ does it take to
learn how to use Win32's printing APIs in a program?  Two days? Three
days?  At $115/hour that's $2760.  Do you bill this to the customer?
or does the company eat the cost?  Or does the programmer simply print
raw text to a device name until there is some good reason to do otherwise?

-- 
When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl.