"Cat(h)" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 03:57:27 -0700, Des Higgins
wrote:

On Oct 9, 10:35 am, "Mary Fisher" wrote:
"Des Higgins" wrote in message

ups.com...



On Oct 8, 6:28 pm, (Nick Maclaren) wrote:
In article ,
David in Normandy writes:
| In article
.com,
Des
| Higgins says...
| ahhhhhhhhh when computers were easy to use and were proper big
things
| and made noises and had flashing lights.
|
| And carrying a backup disk to the fire safe made your arms ache!

Ah, you youngsters! Mountable disks are a recent development, and
traditional backups were on tape.

Tape?? Tape?? Luxury; in my day we had to take the hot valves from
the glass blowing department and design our own circuits and invent
computers and keep the operating system in our heads (backwards
because that was how you loaded it). We had to wait 40 years before
tape was invented. We had wax tablets and small boys as back up.

I MAKE wax tablets - and the styli.

A couple of years ago we made some for a top computer 'expert' who later
attended a US computer convention and caused astonishment and more
interest
than the speaker when everyone else in the audience opened their lap
tops
and he pulled out his codex of tabulae :-)

Mary
gasp :-)
do you have to keep them in the fridge on a hot day or keep them away
from mice?


If they melt, you can make them into very good earplugs,

How can you make tabulae into earplugs? And at body temperature beeswax is
too hard for earplugs - I've tried it.

and when
you're finished with them a few drops of mint oil and they make
spiffing chewing gum -

Why bother adding flavour? Beeswax tastes delicious as it is/

which can be composted in the end.

Why compost? Why not swallow it?

But the wastrel that you are would now know anything about that...
Cat(h) (I think Desmond is taking the Michael. He only does it very
very rarely and you have to be really careful to notice.)

He doesn't do it very well.

Mary