George RR Martin: 'Why I still use DOS'

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Probably because when he gets people talking about his process they're not asking about the next book in the series.

Very possible. There's not really all that many safe topics:

"So how about the HBO series?"
"Yeah. It's nuts how popular it is."
"So when's the next book coming out?"
"Next question."

[Glorfindel]

LOL. I love your humor.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I don't really care WHY he uses what he uses. I just get tired of the conversation coming up all the time (over the last 5-6 years). He loves talking about it, and people love asking him about it because he loves talking about his steampunk authorial difference engine.

In the past, a similar topic would have been using a typewriter (preferably a non-electric one) or writing longhand on paper. Perhaps in the future, writers will get old-school cred for using Microsoft Word instead of using electrodes placed in the brain. If it works for him, great.

[WillAdams]

Getting a nice, clean Wordstar file is much more straight-forward for pagination (or creating an ePub) than the typical finger-painted Word .doc(x).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Hmmm, maybe the reason why his books take so long is that he prints them out on a dot-matrix printer?

He has them illuminated by irish monks.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Well, Wordstar was/is purely controlled by control key combinations, which means touch-typists don't have to move their hands off the keyboard for anything. For old-school typists that is priceless. After 30-plus years his muscle memory on those commands has to be so ingrained he probably gives no conscious thought to anything but the words.

You don't have to still use it for the memory of those control key combos to stick... it's been decades since I used Wordstar but I still remember most of 'em (a lot were obvious anyway)... and I always thought that computers were supposed to be multi-purpose tools for helping with one's work rather than forcing you to relearn methods of working because everybody else expects you to change - maybe OK for gaming but, with creative work, people want what doesn't interfere with their creative flow so if George is happy with it then leave the guy alone... unless you want to wait even longer for the next book.

[frahse]

I have an old AT Turbo "Bentley" - acquired by Dell back in the day, in the basement store room. I mainly keep it because I have a bunch of 5 1/4 disks (Low and High density) that I might one day convert to 3 1/2 disk format which I also have on another computer which could then write to the cloud, a Flash Drive or a External Storage Disk, or even a CD or DVD.

It is important to keep a usable chain of conversion technology available for the apocalypse.

It goes along with my collection of potable water in old 2 liter bottles.

Also of course my collection of Iomega 100 MB disks and my 120 MB floppies.

A few paper tapes also.

[AJ Starr]

Maybe its because he can't be hacked and his manuscript stolen for the black market

[cromag]

I still have Wordstar on my Epson Geneva portable computer (running CP/M). But I stopped using it when I got my netbook. Which has a word processor -- but also runs vi for when I just want to get a lot of words inputted as quickly as possible.

But, even though I see some validity to his argument, I still think it's a way for his publicist to keep his name in the public eye without actually saying anything about how the next story is coming along.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by cromag

But, even though I see some validity to his argument, I still think it's a way for his publicist to keep his name in the public eye without actually saying anything about how the next story is coming along.

^ this

[Apache]

Originally Posted by FizzyWater

Hmmm, maybe the reason why his books take so long is that he prints them out on a dot-matrix printer?

The POS (Point of Sale not the other one ) in my store is a DOS Program. I am running it on Win 7, but it is DOS. I also use a Dot Matrix Printer to print my receipts.
Apache

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by elcreative

... if George is happy with it then leave the guy alone... unless you want to wait even longer for the next book.

Don't give him ideas.
A switch to a Mac might buy him ten years worth of excuses...

[jbcohen]

This is the company that currently legally owns the software Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology. The software is no longer made or supported.

[Rizla]

I knew a guy who was convinced that buying a better guitar made him a better guitarist.

[DiapDealer]

I knew a guy who was convinced that buying a better guitar made him a better guitarist.

If he had a guitar that had a bowed-neck which forced him to borrow a winch just to be able to pull the strings into contact with the frets, getting an upgrade very well could improve his playing.