Do you understand that your computer is "interrupt driven"? You go to post here and you are entering your text and you put an icon there and you go back to typing. The mouseclick was an interrupt.

Print is procedural. Old programming languages were like that:
BEGIN PAYROLL
OPEN EMPLOYEE-FILE
START
READ LASTNAME, FIRSTNAME, HOURS

and so on. You start here and you work to the end. Print is like that. The publisher gets an idea for a book and the editor finds a writer and all that happens and the book gets sold and it is over. Nothing good can interrupt that.

So, online numismatic writing is interrupt driven. It is true that it is also procedural. I still write the old print essay kind of posts and really they stand out as being different from everything else online. When someone asks a question, a longer answer can be all right, but after a screen, you better be pretty darned interesting.

"What Did the Postman Bring?" is another kind of process. In other words, someone has a good idea for a topic and other people contribute to it. That is not the way most books are created, though some are. There are "festschrifts" (celebration writings) where to honor someone, their students get together and publish a book of new essays in honor of their mentor. But that is kind of limited. The ANA used to publish compendium books, but knowledge moved beyond them rather quickly.

In print, we call them "readers" and online, they are "lurkers." The assumption online is that you are a particpant. Poster -- though the minority position -- is the default. That is not true in print.

Print is like a college classroom where an expert tells you what they want you to know. Online is more like industrial training where the experts are in the audience and the facilitator is just helping things along.

Another difference that can be somewhat daunting is instant feedback. Online, if you write something in a forum environment, you get instant feedback, corrections, flames , and input, etc.

In print, you don't get that kind of instant feedback. Maybe a letter to the editor a couple weeks or a month later. Or maybe someone stops you at a show or other time when they see you in person. But those things are somewhat few and far between, I imagine.

But, online, you are critiqued instantaneously. That can be good but it can also be a little intimidating.

That's too true Stu, i've been on both ends of the critique there, praised and flamed. Often on the same post!

That was nice Ætheling now burn. Just kidding of course.

I confess that I have been disdainful of people who ask, "Where is a good online resource for (ancients) (world) (Carpathian Bank Notes)? And I think of the excellent books that cover those topics in depth unimagined online. Apparently, some people just want a picture of the item and prices in three grades. To me, without the historical context, the object is worthless (or nearly so). That is why, in my column for Numismatist I tout the sites that present the history, at least of the money object, if not the society it served. I found several numismatic museums online, for instance. Still, most of what I write about for our hobby is supported by books.

What we do is a bit unusual. We are a little behind the curve. We are, after all, antiquarians.

When I write in other markets, I seldom open a book while composing my text. If I am writing along and I want to make sure of the date of the Battle of Waterloo, I do not stop to open the Columbia Desk Encyclopedia. More and more, my research tends to rely on books only for arcana, for mysterious details that require good authentication. For most of the common fact-checking, my fingers never leave the keyboard.

I still look alot of stuff up in books. I do have many shelves full though and i've got to account for their presence somehow...

So, my wife has an associate's in computer science from 1990 and she's now enrolled in a computer forensics degree. And she's sitting there on the bed with her laptop, snicking away, and then < ? > darkness. The computer shut down. "Must be hot," she said. She set it aside on a grill to cool down. We both have heatsinks with little fans for using our laptops on our desks. Anyway, I've never seen a book do that. I have read whole books cover to cover in an afternoon and never once did they overheat and shut down.

Ragged Dick is a Horatio Alger story. I recommend the series as an enlightening view of the 19th century. Inagine a 12-year old renting his own apartment.

When our hero has to write a letter, he talks it out as he creates the first draft. He corrects that and then copies the letter to be sent.

We all used to write something like that. I cannot remember what it was like to write an essay examination in ballpoint. How on Earth did I know which synonyms to choose? Was my writing better or worse then than now? Has instant editablilty delivered any benefits?

I do suspect that my speaking has declined -- and I refer not just to the effects of age. Conditioned to being able to unwrite, I have a hard time picking the right thing to say. I have become a man of few words.

I talk too much... much too much. If there's nothing to say, i'll talk about nothing, the weather, the cracks in the road... anything to break the silence.

I can remember writing with a fountain pen, i used to smudge it everywhere. Generally i can pull synonyms off of the top of my head when requested, or i can lay my hand of a book of synonyms if needs be. So that wasn't a problem. My biggest problem was changing my mind half way through a sentence, i used to put a line through it and start it again. So my work always got handed in with crossings out here, there and everywhere. But i was never tidy in presenting my work.

Type has been greatly beneficial to me in that sense. Typewriters were more hastle than they were worth, cumbersome and you really had to tap the key to make the hammer smack the page. Word Processors are a godsend for someone like me though because my writing is quite frankly dire and near illegible. Not for lack of trying.

Although i have to confess despite the fact that i spend most of my time typing (one finger) these days. I don't enjoy it much. I get far more pleasure out of wielding, especially if it's an expensive fountain pen. I love writing (with either hand), i just don't get chance to do much of it these days.

I said, "synonyms" and that is true, but also, as you note, there are many ways to write or re-write and like you, I ditch half thoughts and start again. I also agree on the WP as being a godsend over the typewriter. In fact, I have several typewriters, half a dozen, from an old upright to a portable electric and several "Selectric" kinds, but they are fun for about five minutes.

Now, with the fountain pen, yes! I have several of those, and four different bottles of inks. I have a several quills -- both the steel nib in a wooden stick as well as real goose feathers. I also have a Mont Blanc. My favorite two however are my old Scripto and this "fountain stick" I got from an airline advertising its "Signature" service. It has no reservoir, but the nib is the fountainpen type, not the quill, so it holds more ink. I use these for writing cheques (drafts) and signing my name to letters and manuscripts.

I have kept a journal in the past. (I am not a journaler. ) Fountain pens work best for that, giving one's ideas a meritorious weight of reality.

I've got a cheap quill lying around (with fountain pen nib), and i use it fairly often. But you'll note as a left hander it takes a great deal of patience not to smudge. If i could figure out the old copperplate freehand style where you move your whole arm to write and not just the wrist, then i'd be able to keep my hand well off of the page. This is a tad difficult to master though...

I have several nice fountain pens and use them to write notes to family and friends. I used to use them for my journaling - but I have not updated that in several years. I use the fountain pens for the tactile pleasure of it. Good ink flows smoothly and creates letters with varying widths. Something most ballpens fail to do. I've got a few nice ballpens the I used for work and the difference between them and the cheapies is significant if you are writting even a short note. The pleasures of writing - the physical relationship between your body and your pen will never be replaced by a computer. I hope!

Having had some of your notes and letters Art, i can testify to you using fountain pens.

And i've sure you're recieved some of my scratchy quill written notes in return.

Did any of the ANA members here happen to read the December Numismatist? They ran my press release. So, dust off the mat, bring out the good china. We may have guests.

Michael

I don't think I have received my Dec issue yet. Either that or I lost it...

Same, it could be in my super pile of mags/catalogs. I gotta look.

My December issues haven't arrived yet. Neither has the Coin Club's. I guess they're running a little late because of all of the holiday mail.

I did get mine last week, it was on the kitchen table. As long as the periodicals don't have to go through Chicago they get here in good order.

My copy arrived today and I did read the note about CoinPeople. I invest heavily in my library and am challenged to find new ways to house my ever expanding library. A computer will never replace the feel of a well crafted book and we are continually challenged by the problem of storing and retrieving digital data.

As a practicing archaeologist with a specialty in prehistoric art (rock art) and an IT professional, I am intrigued by the ways in which information is transmitted across time and how meaning evolves and mutates with time. I helped administer political games in the early 1970s using a rudimentary computer conferencing system linked to the orginal ARPAnet through the UC Santa Barbara mainframe, telephones and acoustic couplers, a DEC PDP 11/20, and teletypes with papertape. We ran one of the earliest instances of international conferencing with teams in the US, Japan, Begium, and Israel before anyone thought seriously about real time computer conferencing or email. In the 1990s, my wife and I launched a website for our UC Santa Cruz academic division within six months of the birth of the world wide web. Today, I use a 12 inch Mac G4 and home wireless network to browse the web as I research, catalog, and write about rock art and my revitalized interest in coins. And, I can do so in the comfort of my chair just as easily as reading a book. Communication and information creation and access has evolved rapidly in the past 30 years through the use of digital technologies and we have yet to see the technology mature into something as comfortable and durable as the book. But, it its still new despite its familiarity.

The internet has not replaced my love of books, but it does allow me access to information that I might not otherwise find using more traditional library search methods. Imperfect as they are, translation sites such as Babelfish expand the range of information available to me. The computer also allows me to combine my interests and produce hand-made books based on my prehistoric rock art research and photography. I'm not yet ready for a coin related project, but several ideas for projects are beginning to take vague shape.

For me, its not so much computers versus print as much as how they can work together to expand our access to and appreciation of knowlege.

Bill Hyder

I received my December issue today. You must really like us Michael. I think the guests are starting to arrive.

Thanks, Bill, and welcome to Coin People.

That's how I found this !! You guys can't believe how embarrased I am - I come here EVERY DAY !! And have never even seen it

And then I see that you guys nominated me for an award. God - I feel like I should go hide someplace.

Thanks - not sure I deserve it though.

Well, it seems I didn't lose my Dec Numismatist after all. It arrived today. Nice write up indeed.


Oh and a BTW: I am sure you deserve it, Doug.