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On Sat, 5/3/14, Timothy Collinson <xxxxxx@port.ac.uk> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [TML] On the testing bandwagon...
 To: "xxxxxx@simplelists.com" <xxxxxx@simplelists.com>
 Date: Saturday, May 3, 2014, 12:26 PM

 > On 3 May 2014, at 09:15, Ros
 Knox & Michael Barry <xxxxxx@homemail.com.au>
 wrote:
 >
 > These days I teach touch-typing (among an assortment of
 more intellectual business topics, I must hastily add!) and
 I use what are essentially Timothy Collison's arguments to
 respond to students' objections.

 Timothy or tc is fine with me!  Thank you though. 
 I've noticed Brits
 are happy to call me Tim without asking.  On the
 Continent (and yes, I
 know the UK is technically part of the continent of Europe)
 they're
 much more likely to ask.

 >
 > When I learned to touch-type, a friend of mine said I
 was crazy. Why would I bother, when in a few years' time
 we'd be able to speak to our computers...
 >
 > That was in 1990.

 I think I was promised it in the 80s!

 tc
 -----

[TONGUE-IN-CHEEK mode - ON]

Well I just know that some gadgets respond to talking!

Case in point;

I once was using an indoor antenna & it just would NOT deliver a consistently stable signal.

I was always jiggling it around, sometimes only a few inches, to get things right.

So, naurally, I began threatening to get rid of the damn thing.
No response.

However, when I went out & purchased a replacement & then showed it to recalcitrant device will repeating the same threat, well naturally the signal cleared right up!

[TONGUE-IN-CHEEK mode - OFF]

This is actually a true story, I never did figure out what really happened but I did keep the replacement around for as long as I used the original, just in case..

In addition, a number of people I used to work with swore that talking (sometimes even shouting) at their PC's or other electronic gear, actually did work sometimes.