3.557 various (55)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Mon, 9 Oct 89 21:51:09 EDT

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 557. Monday, 9 Oct 1989.

Date: Fri, 06 Oct 89 20:14:42 CDT
From: Charles Ess <DRU001D@SMSVMA>
Subject: 3.5" Sysgen; graduate school

1. For those who _may_ be interested in 3.5" drives for computers they
may or may not own -- the gorgeous but expensive external Sysgen drive
worked in my Zenith 158. Sort of. It turns out that any calls to either
the A: or D: drives (internal, external floppies, respectively) now further
send an interrupt signal through LPT1, so that my dot-matrix printer
burps... Sysgen technical support eventually returned calls, and proposed
two hypotheses: (a) conflict with another add-on card, or (b) incompatibility
with Zenith DOS. Removal of the add-on card disproved (a). I'm not sure
how to test (b) -- and so I have defaulted to the simple, if inelegant
solution of turning the printer off when I'm not using it.

Of course, the vendor assured me that the Sysgen drive would work perfectly
with the Zenith. Moral: let the buyer beware -- and check for the friendly
sorts of advice I received from over a dozen humanist readers who responded
to my initial query on this allegedly irrelevant and uninteresting topic.

2. Another sort of query which has generated very useful response in the
past regards recommendations for graduate schools. Let me ask along these
lines.
One of our students is interested in graduate school in philosophy, with
an emphasis on political philosophy. While I believe I have a good feel
for philosophy graduate programs in history of philosophy and continental
thought (though any additional information along these lines would also be
welcome) -- I have little sense for graduate programs with an emphasis on
political philosophy.
Any suggestions?

3. The Indigo Girls sing:
There's more than one answer to these questions
Drawing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source in some security
Closer I am to find...

I, for one, am pleased that HUMANIST remains somewhat ill-defined --
it seems more useful and interesting that way.

With continued gratitude,

Charles Ess
Philosophy and Religion
Drury College
Springfield, MO USA 65802