geeks vs. bookworms

[TonyD]

Which book?? gulp. I am sorry comrade Elmore, I can not answer this question without the presence of my attorney... I think I may have accidently memorized a few already. YES! My O&W had pull outs in the back cover- a sleeve? A map and? a- not topo, but a contour? of the grades or something wasn't it? I guess we aren't on the same wavelength as most of this thread. Sure when it comes to modern power, modeling ideas, dcc and such, a pdf, cdrom, websites by the hundred... but... for the steam age? sup wif dat? I was reading....on a website yeeeesss, that the KCS had the same steam power designs as the D&H, 'cause old Mr Lorree was on the board of both RR's..... so, I want to find a pic, or roster of KCS steam..... oh great shots of geeps and sd's and dash whatevers..... not even a B&W of the black train... before the digital age it seems.... so if no one scanned one yet, there you sit.... then! I bring up ABEBOOKS and ALIBRIS, and a roster of KCS books, for sale on line.... only one seemed a bit steep, full color I guess..... all for the price of a dcc chip...or less...lucky me.... btw, when I found the O&W museum on RT 17, it was closed that day.... a freind who lives in the area can spot where the some of the row was, but he is no authority... the Norwich fairgrounds is the old yard, biggest section I ever found....

[Woody Elmore]

Amazing what can be found in books. As a teacher I see the changes in textbooks - especially math for high school. Today's text  books are long on pictures, color and political correctness but fall short on actual mathematical content. What a surprise.

I'm sure some of the readers of the board have no idea why we are talking about book burning. Fahrenheit 451 was a favorite book of mine. I didn't care much for Oskar Werner in the  movie role of Montag. They are working on a new version - Mel gibson has the rights (so they will do some serious burning, I'm sure).

Long live the Old and Weary and gook luck finding your KCS pictures. Didn't the builder of the KCS also start the the Kansas City, Mexico and Orient!

[TonyD]

Si comrade, los citidad kansas, oreinte y Mehico, intendar 'Presidente Aurtoro Stillwell' de KCS--btw, the 'modern' KCS 'the NAFTA mainline' now goes to the Pacific coast in southern Mexico, a hundreds years later, but better late than never.... I was a vocational teacher once too, some of the people on this site brings back baaad memories.....lots of middle aged kids needing detention.....

[Yampa Bob]

Are you referring to us Senior Delinquents?   

Parker:  I have some more information that might be helpful to you, I'll be glad to send if you will give me your email addy.

Bob

[pdlethbridge]

someone looking for KCS pics?  Go here:
http://photoswest.org:8080/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?resultsScreen+1946+1+10+0

[TonyD]

Thanx, but I clicked on it, no go, tried to type it-photoswest? into 'go to'- no go again. I'll feed it into search later.......... Well Bob, if you feel guilty, wash the blackboards and grab a broom. Then, when you're done, go to Denver and help the librarian till closing time... IF you can dig yourself to pavement before the last day of school....

[pdlethbridge]

it may be their web site,  or try this
http://photoswest.org:8080/cgi-bin/cw_cgi?resultsScreen+1946+1+10+0
I checked and this link works

[grumpy]

You may find that in a few years reading may not be necessary. The major libraries are putting thier books on disc. The computer will accept the spoken word and store it as a file in a computer. Most business are now in the process of trying to run their business without paper only files stored in their computers.My bank is now trying to go paperless. They will not be able to as long as I am alive . I have no bank card , I refuse to do my banking over the internet and I make them issue me a receipt for all my transactions.The sad thing is books will disappear due to the computer and the internet .Just about anything you want to know is on the internet.
Don

[Jhanecker2]

I have a sort of dilema .  I have always loved to Build & Make things and I am also a compulsive reader .    Whenever I indulge in a new hobby or vice I try to obtain as much information as possible .  Some stuff I can get in libraries  and some stuff I just have to put down money and buy.  While the internet is a great place to get some information ,  I do try to get books whenever I can .   I like the ability  to have reference material  available . I still miss not having a full machine shop available to use whenever  I need to do anything .   Santa: Where are you when I need You ?    I keep remembering  Orwell ' s 1984  where the "hero" was a party flack you kept rewriting history to make the leadership all Knowing . Must be getting more paranoid  with age.

[Yampa Bob]

The problem is that while many of the people putting up web sites may have factual information, they don't know diddly squat about being a Webmaster.  Their "meta" tags are incomplete so the search spiders fly over their heads, their layouts are confusing at the best, and navigation is almost impossible.  Many of them get hung up on all the fancy javascript and applets which slow loading to a crawl.

There are probably over a zillion web sites,  99% of them are filth which do nothing but impede traffic on the information highway.

Frankly I don't trust half the information on the net.  When someone writes a book, you can be fairly sure the facts are accurate, as the author can't change the content of a thousand books with a mouse click to cover his rear end.

Bob 

[Woody Elmore]

Absolutely - anything on the web has to be verified. The Gutenberg Project - an ongoing project to put books on the internet - is fastidious about what they are digitizing but even  with the best scanners and  computers, errors occur.

Up here in the so called "Empire State" a few banks charge for paper receipts or check return. Chase Manhattan checks get sent by Fedex Air to Ireland where they are scanned and destroyed - labor in Ireland is much cheaper and reliable.

I am so used to using a debit card and on line check paying that I actually couldn't find my check book when some old fashioned doctor insisted on cash or a check. Some nerve.

I tell my graduate students not to rely on online encyclopedias for primary information. Things like wikipedia narrow a search but cannot be relied on for accuracy.

It is possible that books will go the way of the telegraph and phonograph.

[SteamGene]

I don't know.  Books can have errors, too.  I began a Clive Cussler novel in which there was a sunken ship in the St. Lawrence and a missing train - a crack passenger train pulled by a fast 2-8-0.  I don't fault him with having the Titanic in one piece as we were not sure when his RAISE THE TITANIC  was written what its condition was. 
Gene

[jsmvmd]

Dear Woody,

What sort of graduate areas do you teach? I am very interested in that sort of thing, education, you know.

IMHO, I believe books are here to stay.  I prefer a good bood in hand vs. an online tome. Thus I will never be "en-tomed" online. Har Har

My uncle Frank, who loved a good pun once told me of a headline in the newspaper that read:  "Man Falls in Cesspool and Lives Three Days!
He Was 'In Turd' But Not Dead!

Sorry, Mr. B.!

Best Wishes,

Jack

[rocknblues]

Wait a minute, long before the WWW came to be, I was called a "geek" because I read books. I use the WWW as just another information source. I still read books, but if your looking for an answer to a question that has you stumped, what better place to find it than in a message board like this. I think of this as a huge room of friends, brainstorming, solving problems, offering advice from experience as well as what they might have read. Aren't we all authors of life? It's just that most of us haven't put pen to paper. I bet if we could put the author to the Bible in a discussion group we could get a lot of answers to questions we have been wondering about for centuries. LOL  If the WWW would have been available 50 years ago, we all would have used it as well. If your not a "Newbie" at something, then your not trying to learn something new everyday. An author is only as valid as the reader believes them to be.

[Yampa Bob]

As I understand it, most or all the information at Wikipedia is public or user contributed and unverified.  I always follow any links on the page for additional information.

Nonetheless I find Wikipedia a good place to start my research. At least they do advise visitors to use the information at their own risk.  All sites should have that disclaimer on their opening page.

When people ask me for advice I can only tell them my experiences, and caution them to do further research.  I don't consider myself a "final authority" about anything.  I don't mind being described as "knowledgeable" but never want to be  considered an expert.

My only opinion is that there are too many opinions.  I may hold "copyright" to that statement as I've never heard it before.  Remember you first heard it here. 

As I have said countless times, opinion is defined as "A belief often held without positive knowledge or proof".  When people have questions, they want and need FACTS, not opinions.  There are too many people today who are opinionated, "Holding stubbornly to one's own opinions".

People get really irritated at me when I say "I'm not always right, but I'm seldom wrong".  It's not arrogance, it's called "conviction" that is based on FACTS.   People say I'm stubborn, no I just have "perserverance".  No one can ever accuse me of being wishy washy.   I can usually judge a man's character when I first shake hands with him.

Another one of my "quotes":  There is a big difference between "I think", and "I believe".  If I believe in my mind and heart that something is true, it's "Katy bar the door" as it will be virtually impossible to change my mind.

Bob