It is kind of scary the way so many of the old timers are gone.
Patricia, Peter, Bill Wilkinson, Paul Lutus, Jon Skeet, Linda Radecke,
Mr. Tines.

If you have spare disk space, you can use the Replicator to keep a
local mirror copy up to date you can access while offline. It comes
compressed. Won't quite fit on a PDA yet.

http://mindprod.com/products.html#SITE

Hello, Chris Smith !
You wrote:

I have certainly gone in phases. Currently I read solely on my
PDA so I am rarely if ever. Part of the problem is that the
software on the PC doesn't sync with a news reader on the PC, but
it is open source (written in Java actually) so if I get a chance
I hope to fix that. That will let me move back and forth freely
between the PC and the PDA.

I certainly agree and did not want to give any other impression.
But I wanted to be honest. I almost replied in the recent thread
where some idiot was bashing Roedy followed by a flurry of
support for him, but thought it best to keep my mouth shut.

I would still like to see the Java glossary turn into a community
project instead of the effort and opinion of Roedy alone. I don't
say that because I have anything against Roedy, but because I
thing it would make it a more valuable resource.

Then I volunteer as the champion.  I've put a lot of effort into that
site as well and I'd like to see it live.

Roedy, I know we've asked you this in the past and I've forgotten your
answer, but may we copy content from your glossary to JINX?  If so, I'll
embark on the monumental task of trying to move a lot of it over (but
probably only the most directly Java-related at first; your glossary
encompasses a lot of surrounding knowledge that's not really within the
realm of Java), and vetting it for current and accurate information in
the process.

It would also be great to do a Google of past newsgroup stuff and look
for the more insightful contributions in the past.  I'm trying to figure
out how you'd put together a reasonably search criteria for candidate
insightful posts, out of the hundreds of thousands of articles in these
groups' history.

First, though, I have to figure out why it seems to be unavailable right
now.  It worked when I tried it last week.

The problem is only a masochist can take on the job. There are not
many people out there willing to spend their days writing essays then
getting kicked in the teeth repeatedly because somebody disagrees with
one of their opinions.

I make many quiet changes to the glossary every day based on emails.
Most of the time these are matters of fact or clarification. Usually
they are entries that have gone stale or invitations to rethink
opinions in the light of new evidence. For example, check out the
recent changes to http://mindprod.com/jgloss/designbycontract.html

Since time is money, and because writing such material requires
skilled, experienced people, it is an extremely expensive undertaking.

You can't do it for the approval.  You have to do it because you
deeply believe it needs to be done.

The multi-author platform exists -- Jon's Wiki.  I even gave him the
right to import anything he wanted from the glossary. Yet it fell down
because there were no people willing to do the bullwork.

I am one of the few people motivated enough to put up with the sh.t.
Why? The answer may surprise you. My reasoning goes like this.  Man is
doing so many foolish things, he is pretty well sure to go extinct in
the next 100 years from the result of just one of his follies. See
http://mindprod.com/extinction.html

We are too stupid a species to turn around. We are preposterously
short-sighted and self-centred. Our main hope lies in the development
of artificial intelligence that will convincingly sell us on the need
to stop our destructive ways. It may be able to accurately and
convincingly model the results of various courses of action.

Nearly all computer languages seem intent on holding back this
process.  They want us to create programs the way medieval monks
created illuminated manuscripts.  I see Java holding out the most
promise for rapid evolution, with other layers built on top of Java
and the JVM.

Therefore, I am a Java evangelist.  I am out to save the world by
promoting Java, and helping people learn how to use it.  I also prod
people to think ahead with essays like
http://mindprod.com/projects/scid.html
and
http://mindprod.com/jgloss/bali.html

Java is more accessible to people in the third world than other
languages because of all the free tools.  These third world young
people whom I spend so much time with, I trust will be the ones who
actually implement the evolution.  The glossary is primarily for them,
to help them get up to speed as fast as possible.

That was one of the alternatives I suggested. Quote:

I can't remember implying this.

/Thomas

Chris Smith <cdsmith@twu.net> wrote or quoted:

For one thing:

``The Proxomitron couldn't connect to... jinx.swiki.net/
 The site may be busy or the web server may be down.''

There is precious little motivation for anyone to take on this work.
One perk is the soapbox, a way to showcase opinions.

If you take that motivation away by using groupthink to censor
individual opinion, what appeal is there for the average person who
might do the work?

You have to admit, the main thing that would motivate you, Dale, to do
the work would be to counter MY opinions.

There are a number of similar projects to the Java glossary. You focus
on mine because:

1. I keep posting links into it.
2. it is the easiest to navigate so its the one you tend to use.
3. it is comprehensive. It is one place you have a good shot
  at finding what you need.  Most of the other FAQs cover
  a much narrower ground.
4. I stick my neck out and say things you won't read anywhere else.
  I am always trying to give you the big picture.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/faqs.html for the competition.

Isn't it? You want something different, and you want people to use this
"something different". To me you have to enter into some kind of
competition to get people to use this "something different" instead of
the glossary, or at least as their first stop for information. You can
not force people, you have to convince them. That "something different"
has to be better, greater, more attractive to convince them. That's what
I call competition.

I see. You want:

    - "Something different",

    - want people to use this "something different", and

    - want someone else to do it.

Right? Still sounds like competition to me, only that someone else and
not you is supposed to do it.

I don't see anything wrong with trying to compete with the glossary.
Just do it, or find someone to do it. When you or someone else manages
to do it better and have convinced people to use it, then you have
achieved your goal of helping people in a more effective way.

What prohibits you, or someone else, to post a link, too? This would
again be the competition I am talking about. If you have a better
resource, by all means, post a link to it. You are concerned with the
glossary's influence on newcomers? Provide an alternative. People are
free to follow Roedy's or your url - if you only would provide on.

I am a little bit in the same situation than Roedy with my small
comp.lang.java.gui FAQ. From time to time I get suggestions, no, not
suggestions, demands, that I absolutely have to change this or that,
give the FAQ away, convert it into a web page, to WinHelp [sic], or to
JavaDoc or rewrite all of it from scratch. People want me to work for
them, for free. I always invite the ones who demand something like this
to do it them self, while respecting my copyright (which puts almost all
of them off). Very few have followed through. Why would that be? Could
it be that this, even for such a small FAQ, is a lot of work?

/Thomas

PS: If you haven't got the less than subtle hints until now: Don't talk
about it, do it.