Cluin:

I come from a long line of writers,who did not mostly share my appetite for science and technology. My parents wrote up the world using typewriters, or #2 pencils on yellow foolscap pads. Neither one of them could have explained the leverage of the keys, the linkage of the carriage, the origins of graphite or the process for forming a pencil lead. But they were excellent writers.

My grandfather -- the one I knew -- was an engineer and he wrote his reports by fountain pen. He was a mining engineer and knew all about stopes and vents, but he could not have begun to explain the metalurgy of nibs. But he was a good mining engineer.

Stephen King, one of the most prolific and best-selling authors of all time, disappears inside the page when he writes. He uses a word processor. But he (I guess) knows about as much about registers and DRAM and thermal runaway as my grandfather knew about cell phones.

There's nothing wrong with my sense of adventure!! :D But I like to choose my battles, and fighting with my operating system grew old way back in the days of CP/M.

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