"Tom Buskey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On 6/1/06, Richard A Sharpe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> I must say I agree with Ben, I did the same search through text books, >> manuals when I was bored, just to see what was there, I think that is >> missing in computer searches. >> >> > You've never wandered on Google? Read a post & followed some random links > to similar topics? Followed the "See Also" section of a manpage? Wandered > Wikipedia?
While I agree with Ben and Richard, and Tom, I think the flaw presented here is the original statement that "discovery" is unique to computers, and the assertion/implication that computer searches are somehow deficient in the area of discovery. Tom pointed out some great means of discovery, another I find quite educational are Wikis, especially those I can surf on my cell-phone browser. I've spent many a train ride surfing the emacs-wiki, the cliki (Common Lisp wiki), and countless others just "discovering" things. Not to mention places like CPAN, slashdot, etc. Discovery is something innate to the person, not something any given media has or doesn't have. My wife has 3 or 4 books she's read literally 100s of times. When she doesn't have anything good to read, she grabs one of these, and randomly opens to a page and begins reading. She claims she finds something new every time she does this, from books which she's read cover-to-cover countless times. The dictionary[1] definition of discovery, which states: 1. The act or an instance of discovering. 2. Something discovered. Even implies that it is something done by a *person*, not something which is dependant upon a thing. Look at Columbus, the desire for exploration and discovery were so strong in him that it led him to risk the very lives of himself and 3 ships worth of people for a non-existant trade-route! Footnotes: [1] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/discovery -- Seeya, Paul _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
