I agree with Leonard Bloksberg regarding "sniping" on the net - I for
one agree that there is a great need for discussions of the kinds of
software that need to be readily available, and I have little patience
for "flaming" people on the net (usually preceded by "I don't mean to
flame anybody, BUT...."). It is all to easy to act wise via E-mail,
and dimiss offhand someone's honest query or suggestion. This same applies
for people who want to ask hardware questions and are snidely told that
this "nonscientific" subject matter doesn't belong on the net (as
someone else already pointed out, these "flamers" don't seem to be
forwarding any deep thoughts of their OWN to fill the void). If you
are a biologist using computers, then the machine is a LABORATORY
INSTRUMENT, even if only in the role of processing data/results.
Randy Zauhar
Penn State
