Okay, fine. It isnâ(TM)t ad hominem, I was wrong. But the insults (in both his and your posts) are totally unnecessary.

I'm confused here. Are you referring to my quote? Because I think we agree that Microsoft has acted very shitty in the past and that's hard to forget...

I should clarify:

These do not support his argument, other than to attempt a personal attack to discredit me due to my "age" (which the poster could only assume).

Also arguably (but possibly not):

Name calling is also considered an ad-hominem attack:

https://www.logicallyfallaciou...

I honestly stopped reading his argument after the first ad-hominem attack.

It was a long time ago, yes. But point was that the level of damage will take more than a few good vibes to undo.

Microsoft has built up so much distrust over the years from Linux supporters that it's going to take more than a few "friendly engineers" for us to forget the really shitty things they've done in the past.

Anyone else remember the Halloween Documents?

Douglas Adams told us how in the 1980's:

https://www.goodreads.com/quot...

Funny enough, the Kremlin joke has held up remarkably well over the decades...

I believe Hitchhiker's Guide game had the Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses as the feelie.

I tried wearing those while driving once. It didn't end well.

Didn't AOL try this back in the 90s with the 'AOL Keyword'? IIRC, it failed miserably.

It's interesting that you mention this. I actually teach a Theory of Programming Languages course at a state University, and the first (out of five) languages that I introduce to my students is Inform 7. I do so for a few reasons:

1. It's a great introduction to "specialty" programming languages. An example of how languages can be created and used for highly specialized use cases.
2. It's a very unique way of looking at programming (unlike Java, which has been drilled into the CS students since Freshman year).
3. It has full language documentation in an accessible form, like grammar tree and parse generation tables.
4. It's fun to make games and I think logic games fit in well with a Computer Science course in tandem with CS language concepts.

Although, strangely, #4 is quite polarizing among my students. I only get one of two responses typically: "I hate it!", or, "This is awesome!". I guess game creativity isn't something that people usually take CS courses for...and since it's the "easiest" of the five languages to pick up, my students typically have a shortened time to learn it. So maybe that's it...

Ah, yes. You are correct. I believe that I've seen TNCs that will handle 9600 baud data on VHF/UHF frequencies.

It would, IMHO (being an amateur radio operator). What would violate FCC rules is sending any encrypted traffic over the radio waves, including any HTTPS or SSL traffic, making any transactions online pretty useless or extremely insecure.

Not only that, but the laws as currently stated only allow RTTY speeds up to 1200 bauds due to bandwidth limitations. Of course, that could be changed with any new laws/specrtum allowance.