Nick    959654 Mon, 02 Nov 09 08:18 AM "It's hard to understand why, after so much effort has been put into the Mozilla software, the filters are still so crude. A simple program like slrn, for example, does filtering so much better. Didn't the developers know about the prior art?" So much is pretty on the outside about Thunderbird, but utterly lacking on the inside. Easy navigation through newsgroups (including "oops, I want to go back to the last message I read", filters in so many ways (including cross-post filtering). Eventually lack of power beat prettiness and I ended up with - for heaven's sake - Gnus. Online waterways route planner: http://canalplan.org.uk development version: http://canalplan.eu Nick

	Peter Moylan    959770 Mon, 02 Nov 09 11:25 AM "At one time I would have been guided by its ... the grammatical form implies a question, and would use one." "I agree with that. If it's just a declaration of perplexity, it would take a period, but if an answer is invited, it has the sense of a question." Hmm. That seems to imply that a rhetorical question shouldn't have a question mark. Why do I feel that that sounds wrong. Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org For an e-mail address, see my web page. Peter Moylan Punctuation, Question Marks

	Aatu Koskensilta    959780 Mon, 02 Nov 09 11:40 AM "I agree with that. If it's just a declaration of ... answer is invited, it has the sense of a question." "Hmm. That seems to imply that a rhetorical question shouldn't have a question mark. Why do I feel that that sounds wrong." But surely you agree the grammatical form of a rhetorical question implies a question? Aatu Koskensilta (Email Removed) "Wovon mann nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen" - Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Aatu Koskensilta Punctuation, Question Marks

	John Dean    959781 Mon, 02 Nov 09 11:48 AM "None of my business but I'm curious - why do you exclude .cn posts?" "I have *never* received anything from China that wasn't spam. If you look at the spam in this newsgroup (or, most likely, any newsgroup), you'll see that a very high proportion of it comes from .cn addresses." I hardly ever see spam in newsgroups. I'm using the German server and I cannot remember seeing spam in this group or most of my regular groups. I don't have any filters set to catch spam on Usenet. Email is, of course, a different story. John Dean Oxford John Dean Careers, Business

	Peter Moylan    959802 Mon, 02 Nov 09 12:06 PM "Hmm. That seems to imply that a rhetorical question shouldn't have a question mark. Why do I feel that that sounds wrong." "But surely you agree the grammatical form of a rhetorical question implies a question?" Yes, I do. I'd put a question mark on any question. Conversely, I wouldn't use a question mark with statements like "I wonder how it does that." Peter Moylan, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. http://www.pmoylan.org For an e-mail address, see my web page. Peter Moylan Punctuation, Question Marks

	Athel Cornish-Bowden    959793 Mon, 02 Nov 09 12:07 PM "You could always try to persuade Athel to stop working for the Compagnies Nationales Républicaines de Sécurité." "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, rather, n'est-ce pas?" C'est ça, oui. athel Athel Cornish-Bowden

	Athel Cornish-Bowden    959801 Mon, 02 Nov 09 12:07 PM "You could always try to persuade Athel to stop working for the Compagnies Nationales Républicaines de Sécurité." "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, rather, n'est-ce pas?" C'est ça, oui. athel Athel Cornish-Bowden

	Athel Cornish-Bowden    959803 Mon, 02 Nov 09 12:15 PM "I've just realised that I never see anything that Athel wrote unless someone else quotes him. This makes me ... the "From" field contains the substring ".cn". That shouldn't exclude Athel. Can anyone guess what is happening? I'm using Giganews." And there I was thinking you were just ignoring me... As long as I continue posting mainly from my office I can't do anything about the .cn. In fact (as I just checked), I have my Preference set to my yahoo address, but that doesn't seem to affect what goes in the From field if I post from here, so I'm not sure why they ask for a Preference at all. However, the ways of software writers are mysterious. Odder still, even if I post from home it's still the CNRS address that appears in the From field. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser. athel Athel Cornish-Bowden

	Athel Cornish-Bowden    959810 Mon, 02 Nov 09 12:15 PM "I've just realised that I never see anything that Athel wrote unless someone else quotes him. This makes me ... the "From" field contains the substring ".cn". That shouldn't exclude Athel. Can anyone guess what is happening? I'm using Giganews." And there I was thinking you were just ignoring me... As long as I continue posting mainly from my office I can't do anything about the .cn. In fact (as I just checked), I have my Preference set to my yahoo address, but that doesn't seem to affect what goes in the From field if I post from here, so I'm not sure why they ask for a Preference at all. However, the ways of software writers are mysterious. Odder still, even if I post from home it's still the CNRS address that appears in the From field. Mysteriouser and mysteriouser. athel Athel Cornish-Bowden