VAXman writes to my post:

Herb Johnson via vcf-midatlantic writes:

...

I went to a number of talks; quality varied. Mostly speakers overran their hour, they outta work on their presentations. Talks varied from lock-picking to solar-panel technology.

'outta work'?

1) I write 400 words, you comment on the choice of one? out·ta ˈoudə preposition preposition: outta; preposition: outa an informal contraction of “out of,” used in representing colloquial speech. "we'd better get outta here" - courtesy of Google Translate My error, my intention was a contraction of "ought to", as in "oughta". It's a (regional) homophone. I ignored the spell-checker to be colloquial. 2) My post is time-stamped Mar 22 17:10 CET (I don't know why the list chooses Central time and not Eastern time). Your reply after was time-stamped Mar 22 16:15. Looks like someone's computer clock was not set forward (not sure whose). 3) These are examples of posts that ignore the content of a thread and go off on tangents that are silly or are non-informative about core topics, or lead to harsh exchanges. Or, responses to posts so brief they are ambiguous and generate excessive dithering about their meaning or value. 4) "Don't bite my finger, look where I'm pointing", one of my favorites; from Warren McCulloch. 5) (ignore, no response) Readers: vote for your favorite response. VAXman: what fits your expected response? ;) Herb -- Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA http://www.retrotechnology.com OR .net