Other people are editing this document

In my preceding post, entitled ‘Why Symposium in question marks?’, I wrote in the PS:

I was making slight changes in the letter, and in doing so I incurred a baffling difficulty. In the original I wrote: ‘We know about his dating of Plato’ Phaedrus; why should we waste our time?’ I wanted to correct the quote, for as I began to remember it better, I realized that it was simpler, and that something important was missing in my version of the quote. I wanted to write the better remembered words: ‘He dates Plato’s Phaedrus as his first dialogue: why should we waste our time?’ The first two words were fine, but when I came to ‘Plato’s Phaedrus’, it was put on a new line. I went back to ‘He dates’ and pressed the Del button, and I got ‘He dates lato’s Phaedrus’, I corrected it, and ‘Plato’s Phaedrus’ jumped again to the next line. I tried again and again, until finally a message appeared on the screen ‘Other people are editing this document’.

***

Interestingly, ‘Other people are’ still ‘editing’ that document. For as I opened it, the same message reappeared on my monitor. The last time, I crossed the message as soon as I wrote down the headline ‘Other people are editing this document’ (the computer message cannot be copied); I clicked on the cross at the top right corner of the message, deleting it in disgust. But then I regretted that I did not write down its whole content. Since the message reappeared when I now reopened the document, I wrote the message in full: ‘Other people are editing this document’ is followed by ‘Do you want to automatically share changes as they happen’; lower on the left is a little square followed by ‘Don’t ask me again’. At the bottom are two oblongs, one with YES, emphasized in bold, the other with NO.

I don’t want anyone to share editing my documents.

***

When I was writing my e-mail to Frisbee Scheffield, who figures in Krása’s Programme as the first speaker, a similar thing happened, as will be seen in my PS.

'Dear Frisbee Sheffield,

On October 5, all the participants in the Prague Phaedrus conference received from the organizer, Mr Krása, the programme of the conference. The title of my contribution is wrong; I immediately pointed it out to Mr Krása, and asked him to inform the participants that the title of my contribution is going to be 'The Phaedrus and the Charmides – Plato in Athens 405-404'. Mr Krása has not responded to my e-mail, and I doubt that he did anything about it. How could he possibly explain the wrong title?

I am fascinated with the title of your paper: 'The Unity of the Phaedrus'.

I should greatly appreciate it, if you would read my paper; the two papers appear to be opposing each other. Unfortunately, the online format won't allow any real discussion. Why should you wait for my paper, which is to be delivered in the afternoon? 'Everybody knows Tomin's dating, his rehashing Schleiermacher's long discarded dating of the Phaedrus as Plato's first dialogue.'

But if you take into account the title of my paper, everything looks different. What do we know about Plato in Athens 405-404? On any dating accepted by academics, they know nothing; at best, they can make unwarranted conjectures: 'Plato had to do his military service; he had no time to write the Phaedrus,' as some German Platonists in the 18th century maintained.

The Phaedrus written in 405-404, and the Charmides written in 404, tell us a lot about Plato in those years.

I am sending you the paper in the Attachment. But if you prefer, you may read it on my blog, posted on September 9.

I am looking forward to your paper,

Best wishes,

Julius Tomin

I am sorry, but the computer won't allow me to attach the file. It says that it is a Microsoft Word Document and that it is in use. But I can't see it on my monitor, and so, I cannot close it.

Recently, I had difficulty with my computer; it stopped working for several weeks. Does this then mean that I cannot send anybody anything I have written? All my documents inaccessible as Attachments? Does my letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, to the Director General of MI5, and to the Chief of MI6, posted on my blog on August 24, shed some light on this matter? Is the long-lasting effort to drive me mad still going on? I have hoped that my letter, just mentioned, made an end to it. It appears that I was wrong.'

I was really distraught. I have inherited shaking hand from my father, but my hands were never shaking that bad before.

I did everything I could. At first, I tried attaching 'The Phaedrus and the Charmides – Plato in Athens 405-404' again, and again, and again; without success. In the end I decided to close the computer, and then reopen it. I did not like to do so, for my computer has become very slow in the last few months. I closed the computer, reopened it; then I reopened my letter to Frisbee Scheffield, tried to attach 'The Phaedrus and the Charmides – Plato in Athens 405-404', and failed again. I repeated this whole operation; without success. I then pulled out a plug at the back of the computer, thus stopping the computer; when the computer cooling fan stopped running, I put the plug in again, restarting the computer. I reopened my email to Frisbee, tried to attach my Symposium paper, in vain. I repeated this operation several times, for it is fairly quick. Finally, after all this, I had enough, wrote the PS (being distraught, I forgot the 'PS'), in which I wrote about my unsuccessful attempts to attach my Symposium paper, sent the email, and closed it. And as I closed it, 'The Phaedrus and the Charmides – Plato in Athens 405-404, appeared on my monitor. Obviously, my PS worked.

I closed the paper, reopened my email to Frisbee, and attached the paper. Then I wrote to Frisbee ‘a correction’: ‘Dear Frisbee Sheffield, I finally succeeded in attaching my paper. I am sending it to you in the Attachment. Best wishes, Julius Tomin’. I closed the computer, made my supper, ate it, and went to bed.

I wanted to print this text in order to correct it. The printer does not print, and a message appeared on the monitor: 'This Microsoft document cannot be printed, for other people are editing this document’.

If there are too many printing errors, I apologize.