I was down at my favorite coffee shop this morning, and
borrowed a friend's Window's computer to log into this box
and check my mail using an app that's like telnet. (can't
recall the name).

There were some guys at an adjacent table "texting" on their
cellphones, and when they saw me reading my mail in console
mode they all started snickering.

I asked them what was so funny and they pointed at my screen
and broke out into gales of arrogant laughter and their
verbal replies could be summed up as "What a primitive
you are to be doing email without a lot of eye-candy
or a mouse."

But mutt on the computer I was using had a far more sophisticated
display than than the text message screen on their cellphones, and is
a far more sophisticated "texting" application than the one they
were using. As is my console IM client and console IRC client.

(Yes. technologically illiterate trolls who are going to replying to
this even though I won't see those replies: modern cell phones
are computers. They aren't "phones" at all.)

Then there's the guy I know who sits in front of his computer
all day long, watching videos.

He's utterly contemptuous of people who sit in front of their
TV's all day long and watch videos. I guess it's because they
punch buttons on a remote control and he punches buttons with
a mouse...

Which reminds me: I had a visitor a while back, who brought
his laptop with him and connected to my neighbor's unprotected
wireless network and was browsing the Web.

He runs KDE and honestly thought that I was a silly primitive
because I brought up Firefox, which is just as sophisticated as
the browser that comes with KDE, by entering "ff" on a screen
with nothing but a shell prompt on it, instead of clicking
on a cutesy icon with a mouse.

I guess I have to applaud the advertising department at
KDE. They have managed to convince a lot of people that
their collection of apps with a common graphical theme
is something other than a collection of apps with a
common graphical theme.

Must be the same people who convinced those guys that
console mode email is sophisticated if it's on a handheld
computer instead of a laptop, and that a couch potato
sitting in front of a computer is superior to a couch
potato sitting in front of a TV.

Tom

Email me here, the other address is just a spamtrap:
calhobbit AT
gmail DOT
com