Re: Historic Scientific Instruments (Attn: Allan Adler)
- From: Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 24 Mar 2008 13:42:00 -0500
Borked Pseudo Mailed <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
Basically, you're saying that first I have to do something to prove to them
they would be interested in talking to me. Why would I want to do that? All
you've succeeded in doing is to confirm that I am correct in my assessment
of their interest in talking to me: they don't even know who I am.
I think you sell yourself short. You sign your posts "Ignorantly" but many
of your Qs expose our (well, my) ignorance.
A fool can ask more questions in a minute than a wise person can answer
in a lifetime.
I don't mean to be picky, but should I conclude that you don't know how to
answer my question about Table 3.1 in Melissinos, even though I included
a copy of the table in my postings to sci.physics and sci.stat.math?
I don't know who you are, either, other than by the "prospectus" of gratis
communications you have submitted by posting to sci.chem.
So, you have never looked at my website?
http://www.swiss.csail.mit.edu/~adler
You come up
with some interesting stuff. If I had a collection of historical instruments,
I'd invite you to stop in and talk about them or just comp you a pass to view
the collection. But I wouldn't pay you, either.
I'm not trying to get the museum to pay me, even though I could certainly
use it, being unemployed. I was just trying to evaluate your opinion that
the museum staff would like to talk to me. I think we might have had a
misunderstanding: when you said they would like to talk to me, you must
have meant that they would be glad to try to help me. I have no problem
with that.
Anyway, I'm aware of the museum now and when I'm ready to actually do
something with any of the items I might have asked about in the past,
I can contact them.
The only "work" I was suggesting was an e-mail or a phone call. If your
rates are $500/hr and you bill in 6-minute increments, that's only $50.
I thought you might be able to write it off, just once.
Actually, getting paid would be the exception. People rarely want my skills
and when they do they normally refuse to pay for them. I used to help them
and expect them to help me, an idea they found outrageous: there is no
substance more volatile than the gratitude of someone who has the answer
to his question. So, now I ask for people to agree in advance to pay for
my services. They refuse, without exception, and feel sorry for themselves
and consider themselves victims. Under no circumstances does someone
think it is more important to keep me off the streets than it is to get
me to work for free.
Now I understand your point is not to get me to help them. It is to help
me get information about the old equipment and procedures I'm always
asking about, and I appreciate that. As I mentioned above, when I'm ready
for the kind of help they can provide, I'll contact them.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.
.
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