Re: The quaternion group as a product

I am a little confused by the fact that there are two almost identical replies to my last post, but I will try to reply to both in one.

I am looking at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_forum

and it mentions
"...forums perform a function similar to that of
Usenet newsgroups ...that were common from the late
1970s to the 1990s."
"Precursor systems like Usenet have been archived as
far back as 1981 by Google Groups"

Sigh.

If you call the tail of a cat a leg, then how many
legs does the cat
have?

Answer: Four. Calling the tail a leg does not make it
one.


I would say "five", but I think you would then say I was being "contrary".

Your intentions do not control the nature of the
medium you are using.


No, unfortunately I have no control over said medium.

It's not just a river in Egypt, dear, and it's about
time you realize
that you are quite simply wrong and mistaken about
the nature of the
messages you have been sending.


Again, very patronising.

Drexel's Math Forum is not an "Internet forum" within
the meaning of
the wikipedia page you are reading, despite its name>
Drexel's Math
Forum is a portal that administers a number of
mailing lists, AND a
portal to the usenet groups
[...]
and you will see right at the top that it reads:

sci.math.*

Usenet newsgroups about mathematics.
^^^^^^

Yes, indeed my posts have been sent to usenet newsgroups by mathforum.org.

I am quite prepared to accept that mathforum.org is, technically, an interface to Usenet. But I choose to ignore it.

This is not a new concept. When I _finally_ beat that last race in the video game, I choose to ignore that really all that is happening is a lot of zeros and ones buzzing about inside my games console. When I watch that emotional scene on my DVD player for the umpteenth time, I choose to ignore that really it is a tiny laser shining onto a load of bumps and troughs on the back of a disc. The interface is an abstraction of the boring technical stuff underneath. It is _meant_ to make you ignore what is really going on.

Clearly, you were not aware that you were posting to
sci.math and to a
usenet group. But when you were informed of this,
your reply was to
blame me

I did not blame you. If by asking you to check if you were running the latest version of Firefox, you thought I was blaming you, then you misunderstand me. I was merely offering a suggestion to attempt to solve the problem. I was trying to help.

then blame mysterious "others" who had been
"copying" your
message in places you did not intend, etc.

The reason why these "others" are mysterious is because they do not exist. What is happening is that the message is being transmitted automatically over Usenet. But it is mathforum.org who have chosen to set up their system this way.

It provides appropriate end-of-line characters to
me, as shown by the link I sent you.

Sigh. Are you really this dense, or just contrary?


I do not believe I am either.

Math Forum does not in fact provide end-of-line
characters. What you
are seeing is a rendering of the message you are
sending, local to
Math Forum's display.

Most portals to Usenet (of which, whether you like it
or not, Drexel's
Math Forum is one) format their messages in some way.
Most include
either soft or hard carriage-return characters for
formatting purposes
->in<- the text. Drexel's Math Forum does not. The
interface of the Math
Forum handles this (as does the Google interface).
But this is not
part of the MESSAGE, it is part of the interface.



I agree. Math Forum provides appropriate end-of-line characters to me, through its interface.

Please do not patronise me.

Then perhaps you should not try patronizing me,
telling me about
checking my browser or learning all about the Maths
Forum if I am
"interested in Math".

I could say the same, Mr "If you are interested in
maths you should
check out the forum", nee "Perhaps you should update
your browser".


You have interpreted my comments as patronising, that was not how I intended them. I think that mathforum.org is a great site, obviously you don't, but I was just suggesting maybe you could give it a second chance. This is not patronising, I am not assuming that you are stupid. I just thought that perhaps you had not realised the full scope of what was offered by mathforum.org, and perhaps I was mistaken.

I have a 2:1 Masters degree in Maths from a major
university
(graduated last July) and I really do not appreciate
it when you use
phrases like "saying those big words you don't
understand" and
calling me "son" like I am still in high school.

Congratulations. Then perhaps you can stop calling me
"Doctor" or
"Professor" and stop patronizing me about visiting
the Math Forum if I
am "interested in maths".

Point is, you just don't know what you are talking
about but you
pretend you do. That's why you are being patronized.
Son.

Congratulations! I have a Ph.D. from, let's say a
reasonably good
university, and have had it for a bit longer than 11
months.


Well congratulations back then. I think you have misunderstood me as perhaps boasting or claiming superiority. I was merely asserting that I am not still in high school and I found the tone of your messages to be a little patronising. I was _not_ demanding respect, or anything of the sort. Certainly the rank of professor does demand some respect. However, you continue to patronise me.

You are demonstrating that you enjoy giving advise
from a position of
ignorance, and blaming mysterious "others" for doing
what you yourself
did (in ignorance). That suggests how you ought ot be
treated.

Yes. However, we are all "ignorant". There is no one who knows everything there is to know. All of us are still learning and that is the prerogative of any academic or further, any individual. However, we still give advice, that is human nature, we are attempting to help our fellow man, especially when he is in trouble.

and I do not think that many people are
experiencing the same
problems as you.

How would you know? It is pretty clear you don't
really have much of a
clue as to what you are doing or what is going on.


I didn't attest to know, I simply stated that I _think_ this to be the case. This assumption comes from the fact that in the last 5 years I have not encountered anyone else with this problem.

Suppose I am a prolific author (I'm not by the way) and I write books in English which are distributed worldwide. And everyone who understands them, reads them, but those who don't just ignore them. It is just a normal, status quo. However then one day, someone comes along from Japan and says to me that they don't understand my books because they don't speak English. And could I, from now on, translate all my published books into Japanese, so that they can understand them. I might consider it, but eventually refuse, because my target audience is those who speak English, and I do not feel that I am obligated to appease those who speak a different language.

It is the same here: I am writing posts intended for people who use mathforum.org, but they are being read worldwide by people who use other Usenet interfaces. And some of those are not compatible with the messages that I am sending. However, I am fine with that, because I expect such people to just ignore my posts. I know that anyone who uses mathforum.org, or any other interface which wraps my lines, can understand and reply to my messages, and this is a large enough target audience.

I know previously I "suggested" that you just ignore my posts from now on. Well perhaps I should go a little further and "request" that you ignore them. We are at a complete \textit{impasse} here, and I do not think there is anything to be gained from continuing this discussion, as we have conflicting viewpoints. I will just get more offended, you will get more angry, and anyone else reading this thread will get more bored! I will try, from now on, not to reply directly to any of your posts, and I will not expect you to reply to any of mine. There is nothing stopping you from doing so, though, and so you have the "last word" in this discussion.

Once again, despite the fact that you believe it to be an "empty phrase", I am truly sorry for the problems I have caused you.
.

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