Elaine, Folks,
I rarely respond to comments, questions, yes, but almost never to opinions.
However, in this case I am making an exception since I feel strongly about
the value of this list.. I am deeply grateful to whoever created this list
and allows me access to it. By no other means that I am aware of, do I have
the ability to ask so many knowledgeable people questions. A few months ago
I was researching a scanner system and had made about 30 phone calls (most
misdirected) and visited many, many web sites that sounded as though they
should have what I needed. Most of that was wasted time. Then I posted a
question to the group and received over 60 good answers. I finally had to
yell "uncle" because I was getting more info than I could process. I have
not yet purchased the scanner, but will in the next few weeks or so. Now I
have most of the information I needed. Last week I bought a Stratasys
Quantum FDM machine. Again, much of the information used to make the
decision came from people on this list.
I remember when I was a young engineer, now I am an old engineering manager.
One of the few things that has not changed between being young and old is
the lack of resources available for information on other than mainstream
processes. I am not a novice at prototyping, I was Gen. Mgr. of a
"Development" shop in 1978, but at the rate RP is changing today, almost
everyone is behind the learning or "being current" curve. It is truly
amazing to me how little today's engineers know about RP. I think it should
be at least a part of every eng. school's curriculum. We have some of the
very best engineers in the world working here but they don't know beans
about RP. If I were to tell one of them to go off and research a way to
prototype glass bottles, for instance, they wouldn't stand a chance. But if
I suggested they start at this list they would probably come back with many
good suggestions.
Who do you call if you don't know? Do you just call up a shop and say you
need to prototype a new projector enclosure and take his word for it that
the best way is to carve a wooden mockup or style it from clay because he
too is 10 years out of date. There are many of those guys still around. How
do you when you are being smoked like a cheap cigar? The rp list is a way to
at least get more information.
I agree that there is a lot of stuff on the list, about 95%, that I care
nothing about but that 5% is a treasure. So far as spam is concerned I don't
see it as that much different than the 95% I don't care about, so it's just
part of the price.
Please keep up the great work.
James R. Burt
Mgr., Prod. Des Services
VOX 503.685.8543
FAX 503.685.6544
jim.burt@infocus.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Rapid Dude [mailto:rp-adm@ltk.hut.fi]
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 1999 10:04 PM
To: rp-ml@ltk.hut.fi
Subject:
Just one more...
Yours truly
Hannu Kaikonen <rp-adm@ltk.hut.fi>
'owner rp-ml'
*Share and Enjoy!*
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 01 Sep 1999 13:33:01 -0400
To: rp-ml@bart.lpt.fi
From: Elaine Hunt <ehunt@ces.clemson.edu>
Subject: RPML rights, rules, and regulations
At 12:29 PM 9/1/99 -0400, Thomas Wickson wrote:
>come up with a consensus about the proper protocol for communicating
Thomas and everyone,
The recent rash of unsubscribers prove one thing..... a lack of true
interest in the RP technology. I bet none of you have stopped receiving
postal deliveries because you got nothing but junk mail.
As one of the first contributors to this list I have to defend its original
intentions as best I can. It was never intended to be a moderated list and
I can certainly appreciate the reasons behind this decision. Only a few of
us communicated in the first year or two, today over 1300 or so attempt to
learn more about RP everyday. While I could create my own set of email
addresses grouped to support every whim of every individual subscribers,
why should I? Do you wish to include why you subscribed, what you want or
need so I can place you in the 'correct'' grouping?
Maybe the RPML is proving how flawed our expectation of technology really
is. We want what we want, when we want it, and not have to be bothered by
spam and other interruptions........ Well life doesn't happen that
way....... What becomes apparent on the desktop is thrown into the waste
can at home, in the office or in the post office with little regard.
If companies are limiting how much mail, what type mail, and from
who....what does that tell about the future of electronic communication.
If they don't understand what the RPML provides then that is not the RPML's
fault.........the individual subscriber should inform employers or IS
departments about why they are subscribing to this list and that it is
unmoderated. Maybe the company will offer to pay for a moderator?
The RPML has reached a stumble point....either it has to satisfy the few or
continue to provide the same communication route it has in the past for
those of us who continue to appreciate its offerings. If most of the
communications go off line, then the value of RPML diminishes in value and
everyone loses. Just like junk mail.............spammers are here to
stay......... So why let spammers win?
Thanks RPML guys for a tremendous effort.
*******************************************************************
Opinions, suggestions, and other controversial matter VOID where prohibited.
******************************************************************
Elaine T. Hunt, Director
Clemson University Laboratory to Advance Industrial Prototyping
206 Fluor Daniel Bldg. Clemson, SC 29643-0925
864-656-0321 (voice) 864-656-4435 (fax)
elaine.hunt@ces.clemson.edu
http://rafiki.vr.clemson.edu/credo/persall/persall.html
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
For more information about the rp-ml, see http://ltk.hut.fi/rp-ml/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Tue Jun 05 2001 - 22:52:37 EEST