[OS X TeX] Slow down, have a glass of red wine and make love to your wife

[Steffen Hokland]

Dear All

I have kids, and they get very uneasy and unhappy on the rare  
occasions when Mom and Dad fight. I - and possibly a lot of other  
list members - am in a slightly similar situation right now. That  
Gerben - understandably - decided to actually have a life of his own  
instead of answering 2k emails a day with Error #40 questions (the  
error is 40 cm from the screen), is very sad - especially for all of  
us who aren't experts. That Claus Gerhardt spent a lot of time  
messing around with alternative LaTeX-distros is quite comforting,  
since - at least for me - it proved that it could be done, also in  
the distant future when iInstaller for some reason no longer works.  
The technical intricacies of why or why not CG's methods are  
warranted are beyond me, and certainly the right place to discuss  
them is on this list. This has been done to excruciating lengths...

Obviously there should be no holy cows on the list (well perhaps just  
LaTeX), and Gerben isn't one either (although I haven't actually seen  
Gerben, so who knows - he might be a self-levitating GNU), but when  
expressing differences why not do so in a civilized manner. What  
applies to all other mailing lists in the universe applies to this  
one as well. A relatively very few number of people are answering  
almost all questions. The rest of the users are either silent or are  
the ones asking the questions - which are often FAQ's. Certainly the  
list would be infinitely less valuable without you guys (we all know  
who you are). But please, if you've had it up to here with the list  
and it's members - take some days off. We'll manage. The last time we  
engaged in abuse everybody ended up miserable, and Bruno has  
mentioned this event as a potential reason for drawing back from the  
community (That Ross McDonald actually has an acronym (RMcD is f.....  
up!).

This is my uneducated take on the current situation:
- I loved iInstaller. It saved me the messing around with config- 
files etc. when I was a complete *NIX illiterate
- I'm not that scarred for the future. I don't mind messing around  
with shell-based install scripts. CG has installed LaTeX and it  
seemed to work fine.
- If there are any problems, well HURRAH I belong to a list of  
experts, who apparently have nothing else to do than sit around  
waiting to answer my stupid "Hi-I-just-messed-up-my-system-trying-to- 
install-LaTeX-questions".

So if you're pissed off - before you post:
- Take it easy, it's Friday (at least in Denmark)
- Have a nice glass of red wine
- Make love to you wife (sorry for the sexist remark - I know that  
women actually also belong to this list. In that case make love to  
your husband. Sorry for the heteronormish remark - in that case make  
love to partner, and if none of the above applies to you have an  
extra glass of red wine and go build something very tall and fallic)

Have a nice weekend,
Steffen

___________________________________________
Steffen Lund Hokland, MSc.
PhD Student

The MR-Research Centre
Institute of Clinical Medicine
Aarhus University Hospital
Skejby Hospital
DK-8200 Aarhus
Denmark

AND

Department of Experimental Clinical Oncology
Aarhus University Hospital
Aarhus Hospital Noerrebrogade
DK-8000 Aarhus C

Phone Office MR-C     :     +45 89495264
Phone Office DECO    :     +45 89492620
Phone Home                :    +45 48414828
Phone Mobile               :    +45 61307461

e-mail        :    hokland at mr.au.dk
___________________________________________



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