Three

Sunday, 12 December 1999
Put me anywhere in Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Kluang, Kunming, Haarlem or Kowloon, and I'll find my way again, even though I haven't been there for years. My graphic memory works quite good. I'll even draw you a map if you want to.

But I get lost in the village of Amstelveen. The street plan contains some very confusing triangles. I need a map (www.mapquest.com/...) to find my way there. Three isn't right. Three is a crowd. Three is too complex for me. My brain can't cope with triangles. Triangles are most confusing. Take a corner twice and you are right back where you started. Precisely where you don't want to be. A triangle is like a boomerang. Those things are triangular too. A coincidence? I don't think so. And what about the Bermuda triangle (www.history.navy.mil/...)? Exactly, a triangle as well!

A biangle is simple, as you could have spotted in the Nut of three weeks ago. I feel fine with rectangles too. If only I could keep it that simple all the time.

Last week I got trapped in a E-Triangle. A Wordpro icon had to move from a desktop to my laptop, to bright up my resume. However, the two machines are 17 km apart.

I did not have a floppy disk available, so what to do?

Apple inspired me with their floppy less I-Mac (www.apple.com/imac/...). Their idea is: "If you want to send something, just send an E-Mail".

WordPro icon
/ \
Desktop PC IBM ThinkPad
Both computers allow me to access my E-mail. So, the solution was simple: an E-mail to myself.

It was a bit bizarre. Sending an attachment by mail is simple enough but... The icon originates from the desktop, hangs around in the blue for a couple of hours before it gets downloaded to the laptop. Those computers are irrelevant. An E-mail usually goes from one person to another. Not this time though, as I set it off to myself, and received it from myself. It's like I'm in between the desktop, the blue and the lap top.

Behold what a complex triangle. And it's not even an Bermuda one. See for yourself: The Word Pro icon is now on my on-line resume.

Till next week!
Nut