Good-bye. So long. Fare thee well

I bought my first Honda, a '93 Accord, in 1995. It was a wonderful car
and served us faithfully for over a decade. It was the most reliable
car I have ever owned. In all those years, all I ever did was normal
maintenance. In the last couple of years of its life, the torque
converter lock-out began acting up. The dealer assured me it was
harmless and not worth fixing.

Soon after I got the car, I found this group. I have picked up much
useful information. Especially things like the importance of using
only Honda transmission fluid and the superior quality of Honda OEM
parts.

I remember reading Elle's adventures with rebuilding the front
suspension on her Honda. (I assume Elle was a her. She did not like
me, for some reason. Something about my sig line. I invited her to
filter me, which I assume she did.)

I also discovered Tegger's Honda and Accura FAQs. That was and remains
a great resource, with just about every thing one needs to know. (It
does not seem to have been updated recently. I hope everything is
okay.)

The '93 came to an ignominious end due to an argument with a highway
concrete barrier. It has been replaced with a 2006 Accord. This new
car is comfortable and dependable. It has excessive road noise, but
that seems to be a trait of Hondas. (I expect it to last at least as
long as the '93, if not longer.) It is technologically superior to the
'93, but is just not finished as nicely, in my opinion. I like the
six-CD changer, the speakers and radio work and sound great, and all
the controls are nicely laid out. It is easy to perform minor service
on.

I regret that in the last year or so, this group seems to be
dwindling. Of course, that is true across all of Usenet. The days of
Usenet are, I suspect, numbered. People are using the Internet in
different ways and specialty forums seem to be the way most people are
going. I participate in a couple of those forums related to interests
I have, but they lack the free-wheeling anarchistic charm of Usenet.

Still, that is the way things are. I hope I have made an occasional
contribution that somebody found useful. I have found much useful
information here, but it is time to move on.

Good bye and may God bless you all.

Elliot Richmond, Ph. D.
Adjunct Professor of Astronomy
Austin Community College



Elliot Richmond
Itinerant astronomy teacher

 

Why? Why do you feel the need to "move on"?

 

All that said, I don't think that Austin has an observatory or
planetarium, yes?

JT

(Hiding out in Cedar Creek)

 

Yeah, everything's fine. I've just been busy enough elsewhere that I
haven't had the inclination to do much more than a few minor updates
here and there.

Probably. It was never big anyway. when the WWW brought people's
attention to the Internet way back around 1995, Usenet was sort of
peripheral to all the hype. Most people never found out about it at all.

The various Web boards that port Usenet through a Web interface
(e.g.: Google Groups; TalkAboutAutos) are good in a way, since they
bring participants to the discussions who otherwise may never find out
about them, but they insulate users from what made Usenet so attractive
to those participating directly. Specifically, these newcomers don't
(never get to) appreciate the simple uncluttered, text-driven, threaded
interface of Usenet. That focused simplicity is what drew me to Usenet
in the first place. Also, WWW is much better than it used to be. There's
a lot more actually useful information on WWW these days that was once
only found un Usenet.

Google isn't helping by futzing with the old Deja News to the point
where they've made it very difficult to find actual Usenet articles
instead of Web pages when you do a Google Groups search.

Most of the Web boards are graphics-heavy and lack threading, making
discussions more like a jumbled chat room than a Usenet group.

Plus, since Web boards are so easy to find and use, they attract a
certain percentage of bottom-dwellers with abysmal writing skills and
poor comprehension of online discussion.

You'll be back once your ride grows a bit of a beard and is in need of
out-of-warranty first aid. ;^)

Same to you.

I'm a PhD too. Only mine comes from the hill of dirt that's
Piled High and Deep in my backyard. That was a joke, son.

 

'Cause he's tired of the flame wars and OT stuff, I guess.