ViewVC Help
View File | Revision Log | Show Annotations | Download File
/cvs/cvsroot/docs/cites
Revision: 1.185
Committed: Sun Apr 18 00:24:25 2004 UTC (22 years, 5 months ago) by root
Branch: MAIN
Changes since 1.184: +4 -0 lines
Log Message:
*** empty log message ***

File Contents

# User Rev Content
1 root 1.185 [http://www.hello-penguin.com/gtm-perl/doc/Perl.html]
2     (look at the BUGS section... very funny to read, btw., it's
3     a sourceforge project called GT.M).
4     %%
5 root 1.184 bigger things. We\\\\\\\'d be using C + asm and Hax
6     01:15 <Sesse> we all the backslashes?
7     01:15 <schmorp> no idea, i have these in some of my descriptions, too
8     01:15 <schmorp> it seems that sourceofrge does " -> \" on every deascription change
9     01:15 <Sesse> sounds like php
10     01:15 <schmorp> i guess it's written in php
11     01:15 <schmorp> *g*
12     01:15 <Sesse> :-D
13     %%
14 root 1.183 http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tiny/
15     [...] At the beginning I didn't expect that I would actually succeed,
16     since I thought I would need almost half of that just for the headers. I
17     think my first cut was 458 bytes in size. I was quite pleased with myself
18     when I trimmed that down to less than 300 bytes, ecstatic when I finally
19     reached the 255-byte goal, and downright triumphant when I later got it to
20     work in 238 bytes. By the time I had a 198-byte version, I was just plain
21     dumbfounded. It's now at 171 bytes. [...]
22     %%
23 root 1.182 [http://www.mindspring.com/~kimall/Japanese/polite.html]
24     [...] Americans didn't invent English (although the Brits will happily
25     disown our mangled version of it! :-) ) [...]
26     %%
27 root 1.181 [Eugene Spafford]
28     During the heights of some of the recent viruses, I was discarding 30Mb of
29     email per day -- all of it viruses. And I should point out -- viruses for
30     Windows. There have been something like 100,000 viruses for MS operating
31     systems, only about 50 for the Mac, and about 3 for commercial Unix
32     systems. That difference isn't because of a difference in the prevalence
33     of the machines -- there are basic architectural differences.
34     %%
35 root 1.180 [http://MarginalHacks.com/]
36     If you can't vi it, it sucks.
37     %%
38     [from the somewhat outdated xterm-faq]
39     GNOME TERMINAL
40     [...]
41     The documentation is fragmentary (with a comment suggesting that the
42     author does not know where to find relevant information), and the program
43     fares badly with vttest. [...] But it suffices for vi.
44     [.. later]
45     There is a variation of xvt (ancestor of rxvt) originally known as kvt
46     bundled with KDE which may be referred to as "kterm", but I do not find it
47     interesting, other than to comment that it was a poor choice of name.
48     %%
49 root 1.179 [I *love* X programs]
50     [xc/programs/xprop/xprop.c]
51     /*
52     * blip: a debugging routine. Prints Blip! on stderr with flushing.
53     */
54     void blip()
55     {
56     fflush(stdout);
57     fprintf(stderr, "blip!\n");
58     fflush(stderr);
59     }
60     %%
61 root 1.178 [pavel machek commenting on a proposed patch]
62     + int alternative_order = 999;
63    
64     Why not 666? :-).
65     %%
66     [yosh on gimp-developer]
67     It's also better to research your suggestions a little, so that they don't
68     sound completely out there, thereby reinforcing the viewpoint that Windows
69     users are clueless.
70     %%
71 root 1.177 [modularity makes unix systems more secure]
72     http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/36029.html
73     %%
74 root 1.176 [beware german translations]
75     dpkg: Warnung - ignoriere Kollision, kann sowieso weitermachen!
76     %%
77 root 1.175 [http://www.cypherspace.org/adam/hacks/lotus-nsa-key.html, look around there]
78     NSA's Backdoor Key from Lotus-Notes
79     %%
80 root 1.174 The word "ampersand" is an alteration of the phrase "et, per se and" (that
81     is: "et by itself [means] and"), which became corrupted to "and, per se
82     and", and finally, ampersand.
83     %%
84 root 1.173 [xc/lib/X11/lcUTF8.c]
85     [...] We distinguish three classes of clients: [1st] [...] [2nd] Clients
86     which accept CompoundText with multiple character sets and parse it
87     themselves. (Example: emacs, xemacs.) [3rd] [...] In a distant future,
88     when clients of the first and second kind will have disappeared, [...]
89     %%
90 root 1.171 [linux-2.6/drivers/md/Kconfig]
91     WARNING: RAID-6 is currently highly experimental. If you
92     use it, there is no guarantee whatsoever that it won't
93     destroy your data, eat your disk drives, insult your mother,
94     or re-appoint George W. Bush.
95     %%
96 root 1.170 [http://www.herodios.com/herron_tc/atsign.html]
97     Many Finnish terms for @ are connected with cats. Not content with naming
98     the sign for what it looks like, Finnish names it for what it looks like
99     sounds like. In addition to "kissanhnta [cat's tail], "miau," "miumau,"
100     and "miuku" are all "miau merkki" [meow marks] in Finnish. Other terms
101     from Finnish include "apinanhanta" [a monkey's tail], or "hiirenhanta"
102     [mouse's tail]. Some "computer people" use the English word "at."
103     %%
104 root 1.169 17:07 <oesi> schmorp: mal ein guter kommentar auf heise zum thema "Bill tourt durch
105     die USA und kündigt innovative neuentwicklungen an"
106     17:08 <oesi> Kommentar war: "was hat er angekündigt: drive-letter in unicode?"
107     %%
108 root 1.168 [Ken Lunde about his copy of KS C 5657-1991:]
109     Here's another interesting note. My official copy of this
110     standard has all of its 2,856 hanja hand-written.
111     %%
112 root 1.172 [cvs, while checking in changes to uunet's radiusd]
113 root 1.168 confused about file platform.h -- ignoring
114     %%
115 root 1.167 [http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/02/24/1011245.shtml]
116     And most likely, the FBI didn't tell the hosting company exactly what it
117     is they wanted. When the Feds come in with a search warrant, they don't
118     ask for your help. They say, "stand aside" and commence
119     %
120 root 1.166 http://www.bash.org/?178890
121     %%
122 root 1.165 [http://www.bash.org/?75016]
123     <ig3l|Guel> If Osama B. isn't in Afghanistan, and if he isn't dead, we believe he is in another country" - US army General
124     %%
125 root 1.164 00:56 <oesi> ulpfr: ich schrieb mal einen kompletten mailer in emacs, weil mir rmail
126     nicht gefallen hat. man wird aelter und reifer und droppt dann emacs
127     einfach :)
128     00:56 <ulpfr> Weichei
129     %%
130 root 1.163 [spca50x.sourceforge.net]
131     /*
132     * Function compares two strings.
133     * Return offset in pussy where prick ends if "prick" may penetrate
134     * int "pussy" like prick into pussy, -1 otherwise.
135     */
136     static inline int match(const char* prick, const char* pussy, int len2)
137     {
138     int len1 = strlen(prick); //length of male string
139     [...]
140     %%
141     http://www.leckse.net/profilieren/chat
142     %%
143 root 1.162 rohw, schleymig und formlos Fleisch wie di Schleuch eines Tündenfischs
144     %%
145     [rxvt-*/src/init.[cC]]
146     /* grab colors before netscape does */
147     Get_Colours ();
148     %%
149 root 1.160 [oesi über apache-2.0]
150     03:10 <oesi> ist mir egal, ich fahre alle 24h den apache runter...
151     03:10 <oesi> ich fahre praktisch das 1.3er config-file. das gibt sicherheit :)
152     03:11 <oesi> ich kann apache nicht stoppen.
153     03:11 <oesi> apachectl stop
154     03:11 <oesi> Syntax error on line 1222 of /usr/websys/conf/httpd.conf:
155     03:11 <oesi> Expected </Perl>> but saw </Perl>
156     03:12 <oesi> wie konnte ich den starten?
157     03:12 <schmorp> *rofl*
158 root 1.161 [...]
159     03:29 <oesi> es ist kein scherz. wirklich:
160     03:29 <oesi> asp:/usr/websys/conf# apachectl sslstart
161     03:29 <oesi> asp:/usr/websys/conf# apachectl stop
162     03:29 <oesi> Syntax error on line 1222 of /usr/websys/conf/httpd.conf:
163     03:29 <oesi> Expected </Perl>> but saw </Perl>
164 root 1.160 %%
165 root 1.159 [http://www.jmarshall.com/tools/cgiproxy/]
166     [...] Here's a demo (username "free", password "speech") [...]
167     %%
168 root 1.158 [rxvt/src/screen.C]
169     #ifdef DEBUG_STRICT
170     assert(screen.cur.row >= 0);
171     #else /* drive with your eyes closed */
172     MAX_IT(screen.cur.row, 0);
173     #endif
174     %%
175 root 1.157 [http://www.mine-control.com/zack/timesync/timesync.html]
176     [...] Also, anecdotal evidence from network programmers suggests that the
177     UDP implementation under Win32 is unstable and overly-unreliable. [...]
178     %%
179 root 1.156 > > Ceterum censeo | PGP encrypted mail preferred.
180     > > Redmond esse delendam. | PGP Key at www.MPA-Garching.MPG.de/~nog/
181     >
182     > Willkomme im Club .... :-)))
183    
184     Danke - ich bin schon lange dabei... ;-)
185     --
186     OpenVMS @ 25 | Martin Vorlaender | VMS & WNT programmer
187     %%
188 root 1.155 Um die Jahrhundertwende erfand ein Mann namens Friedolin Tär einen
189     IQ-Test, der die Gesamtpersönlichkeit sehr stark miteinbezog.
190     Charakterstärke, Grosszügigkeit, flexibles Denken etc. wurden also
191     mitbewertet. Die Skala mit der Maßeinheit "Tär" wies ein großes Spektrum
192     auf. Ärzte, Wissenschaftler erreichen IQ's im Megatär-Bereich. Der
193     Durchschnittsmensch weist einige Kilotär auf. Nach unten gibt es Dezitär,
194     Centitär... und schießlich Mil(l)itär...
195     %%
196 root 1.154 http://senseis.xmp.net/?GetStrongAtGote
197     http://users.skynet.be/rexburton/ritchie.htm
198     %%
199 root 1.153 Subject: [Swsusp-devel] 2.6.1: It could go faster if I didn't have egg on my face.
200     %%
201     "It's not Hollywood. War is real, war is primarily not about defeat or
202     victory, it is about death. I've seen thousands and thousands of dead
203     bodies. Do you think I want to have an academic debate on this subject?"
204     -- Robert Fisk
205     %%
206 root 1.151 [the satellite death spiral: why spacecraft are unnecessarily expensive]
207     http://www.dynacon.ca/pdf/files/newspdf_63.pdf
208 root 1.152 [see also the small satellites homepage]
209     http://centaur.sstl.co.uk/SSHP/
210 root 1.151 %%
211 root 1.150 [http://home.wanadoo.nl/ipce/library_two/files/lec_lev.htm]
212     "Anthropologists concur that America is an exceedingly 'low-touch,'
213     high-violence culture"
214     [...]
215     "[...] Republican members of the House of Representatives called for the
216     resignation of Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, whose transgression was to
217     suggest, in response to a question following a speech to sex educators,
218     that masturbation was an appropriate subject for classroom discussion.
219     This remark, according to one congressman, was part of a social movement
220     that was "killing the moral fiber of America" and just one symptom of
221     a decline also manifested in reckless driving, an indecisive military
222     policy-dubbed "mission creep," and homosexuals in the Boy Scouts." [...]
223    
224     Masturbation is an absolute taboo in the US. Many adults still think that
225     they are the only ones who do such dirty things.
226     %%
227     From: <[...]@aol.com>
228     Subject: Re: [...]
229    
230     Marc wrote on 1/7/2004, 6:57 AM:
231    
232     > Congrats. No kidding, you are the first person @aol that ever sent me a
233     > sensible mail. I was planning to reject mail from aol.com right away
234     > since (in the last 8 years at least), nothing good came from there, but you
235     > saved it :)
236    
237     Yeah, I get that a lot, but you've got to know that .aol.com email
238     addresses are also used by the people who work for AOL (cough, cough :).
239     [...]
240     %%
241     From: Alan Cox
242     > The code to disable prefetch on Athlon is 300 bytes and hurts your PIV?
243     > Really? I'll dig back through the code, but I recall it as adding or
244     > deleting an entry in a table to enable prefetch. If it's affecting PIV the
245     > code to use prefetch is seriously broken.
246    
247     Big time. Its over 300 bytes long because its embedded in each inline
248     prefetch and it causes a branch misprediction almost every time. Amazing
249     what you find when you actually measure stuff 8)
250     [...]
251     %%
252     http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/mmmgroup/e-oak.html
253     %%
254     http://www.elonka.com/UnsolvedCodes.html
255     %%
256     http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030427&mode=classic
257     %%
258 root 1.149 [FYI: java was officially announced in 1995, and certainly didn't exist
259     even as a concept before 1991. It's interesting how many people nowadays
260     claim to have decades of java experience]
261     On Tue, Dec 16, 2003 at 11:11:54AM -0500, Robert Soros <robert@soros.ca> wrote:
262     > I am extremely excited about your ideas to fix freenet and would be
263     > willing to plug your code into fred (I have fourteen years java
264     > programming experience.) Could you provide a link to your code? What
265     %%
266     http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/mmmgroup/e-oak.html
267     %%
268     http://www.elonka.com/UnsolvedCodes.html
269     %%
270     http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20030427&mode=classic
271     %%
272 root 1.147 [in a private discussion about some potential problem that would cause]
273     [mail not to be delivered]
274     > > On the other hand, I see the same in some mail from RMS.
275     >
276     > Well, just because rms does it does not mean... :)
277    
278     My point is that the FSF is unlikely to install something that
279     bounces RMS's mail, at least, not for long.
280     %%
281     On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Piers Cawley wrote:
282    
283     > David Cantrell <david@cantrell.org.uk> writes:
284     >
285     > > On Tue, Feb 05, 2002 at 11:16:52AM -0500, Tommie M. Jones wrote:
286     > >> Anyone know of any perl software that does resume parsing.
287     > >
288     > > I don't *think* anyone has implemented continuations in perl, so I fail
289     > > to see how you can have resumes. Or are you trying to parse some other
290     > > language which does support this?
291     >
292    
293     Just because we share a language does not mean we understand each other.
294    
295     In America there are two meanings for resume. One being to continue the
296     other the equivalent of what ya'll call a CV (I think though I've never
297     heard the term before) In the second definition resume is pronounced with
298     a short u. I think there is a "`" in the proper spelling of the word but
299     since Americans are not use to using punctuation in their words (other
300     than to show ownership and contractions) it is usually loss.
301     %%
302     echo $package has manual pages available in source form.
303     echo "However, you don't have nroff, so they're probably useless to you."
304     --Larry Wall in Configure from the perl distribution
305     %%
306 root 1.146 AFTER 30 years of "daylight saving" - moving the clocks forward in the
307     spring and then back again in the autumn - there is still an Abolish
308     Daylight Saving Committee in New South Wales, Australia.
309    
310     Added to the usual claims of such campaigns - for example, that the
311     extra hour of daylight in the evening in summer fades the curtains - is
312     a new one from ADSC spokeswoman Judith Hall, of Gunnedah, who told the
313     Sydney Morning Herald: "No man has the right to choose the time of the
314     rising and setting of the sun, only God."
315    
316     Reader John McCallum, who told us about this, is surprised Hall doesn't
317     explain why God doesn't simply exercise this choice. When people insist
318     on moving their clocks forward, He should just move the sunrise forward
319     and thwart them that way.
320     %%
321     [Defect Report #205 to ISO-C]
322     There was a unanimous vote that the feature is ugly, and a good consensus
323     that its incorporation into the standard at the 11th hour was an
324     unfortunate decision.
325     %%
326     02:23 <oesi> Breaking News: SCO stellt per Wahrsager Codeklau in HURD in einem Jahr
327     fest ;)
328     %%
329     [http://www.unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html]
330    
331     Last updated: - Invalid Date
332     %%
333     http://www.bash.org/?99060
334     %%
335 root 1.145 [IZ-Buzzword-Bullshit-Bingo]
336     http://www.l13.de/it/ibbb.html
337     %%
338 root 1.144 Q: What is the state of the object after its lifetime has ended?
339    
340     A: As a well-known software guru[3] once put it, speaking about a
341     similar code fragment and anthropomorphically referring to the
342     local object as a "he":
343    
344     "He's not pining! He's passed on! This parrot is no more! He
345     has ceased to be! He's expired and gone to meet his maker!
346     He's a stiff! Bereft of life, he rests in peace! If you hadn't
347     nailed him to the perch he'd be pushing up the daisies! His
348     metabolic processes are now history! He's off the twig! He's
349     kicked the bucket, he's shuffled off his mortal coil, run down
350     the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible! THIS IS AN
351     EX-PARROT!"
352    
353     - Dr. M. Python, BMath, MASc, PhD (CompSci)
354     %%
355     [ach du schande]
356     "pflichtpfandfrei"
357     %%
358 root 1.142 [a comment on the demonstrations against bush in london]
359     The police will shoot you.
360    
361     OK, that's not strictly true. The CIA will shoot you. Then the police will
362     arrest the CIA. Then American troops will invade.
363    
364     Just another average day in central London.
365     %%
366 root 1.141 [this signature gave me a laugh...]
367     [...]even better is if there is a system function that sends out an arp
368     reply.
369    
370     pls. cc my email address
371    
372     tia
373     pd
374    
375    
376     --
377     ^X^C
378     q
379     quit
380     :q
381     ^C
382     end
383     x
384     exit
385     ZZ
386     ^D
387     ?
388     help
389     shit
390     .
391     %%
392 root 1.140 * muppet also hates bloatus notes. it doesn't need vnc to make it slow.
393     %%
394     [From the File::Spec manpage on catdir]
395     Concatenate two or more directory names to form a complete path ending
396     with a directory. But remove the trailing slash from the resulting string,
397     because it doesn't look good, isn't necessary and confuses OS2. [...]
398     %%
399     [I love it]
400     http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm
401     http://www.armin-grewe.com/holiday/wiltshire/swindon-roundabout.htm
402     %%
403 root 1.139 "I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
404     - Douglas Adams
405     %%
406 root 1.138 Bill Gates is repeating the mantra that users are to blame for insecure
407     PCs, in an interview with a Canadian newspaper. This refrain is familiar
408     to the INQUIRER: Gates said more or less the same thing when he addressed
409     an Assembly of CEOs in Berlin a few weeks ago.
410    
411     The chief software architect (CSA.'.) told IT Business that perfect code
412     wasn't the answer to security problems, but firewalls and keeping the
413     software up to date were more important. The problems that have occurred
414     this year wouldn't have happened if firms and individuals had set up
415     their software properly.
416    
417     He also claims in the article that Microsoft has always had security
418     patches out before the exploits happened. Developers were also to blame
419     because they didn't understand the application program interfaces, Gates
420     told the publication.
421    
422     And he also claimed that all forms of Unix and Linux have a greater
423     number of vulnerabilities than Microsoft but don't spread as much because
424     "they're not as dense" as Windows. Low volume software is hit by
425     malicious people, high volume software, that is Windows, is hit by people
426     who want visibility and glory.
427     %%
428 root 1.137 [In the FAQ for a bootp client:]
429    
430     o You are using --server to point to a server which doesn't run a bootp server
431    
432     x Try not using it.
433     %%
434 root 1.136 [http://www.politicalpulpit.com/Luke/LukeArchive0403.htm]
435     The facts are simple: In Lynn, MA Principal of the Lynn English High
436     School, Andrew Fila refused to allow teacher of English, Jeremy McKeen,
437     to show the disputed film in his classes. McKeen had already submitted
438     Moore's opus to his Department Head, Jane Balesta, for approval which she
439     had given.
440    
441     Said Fila, "I just pulled it. This is not the time nor the place to be
442     showing something like that. The producer (Moore) is also an anti war
443     person as well."
444     %%
445     [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254686/]
446     "Ich habe keine Gefühle, merken sie sich das, Walter. Und wenn ich welche
447     habe, werden sie nie über meine Intelligenz siegen".
448     %%
449 root 1.135 ["Was ist ein Kopierschutz überhaupt?"]
450     [http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/politik/0,1518,270719,00.html]
451 root 1.134
452     Damit entspricht Windows der Definition eines illegalen Tools zur Umgehung
453     des Kopierschutzes und müsste vom Markt genommen werden.
454 root 1.135 [...]
455 root 1.134 Das Bundesjustizministerium ist der Auffassung, dass die Frage nur durch
456     ein Gericht zu klären sei. Das Programm "Windows" kenne man zu wenig.
457 root 1.135 [...]
458     Handelt es sich bei Windows also rechtlich um das Abwehren einer Straftat
459     oder um das illegale Aushebeln eines Kopierschutzverfahrens?
460 root 1.134 %%
461     http://www.nature.com/nsu/021209/021209-10.html#b1
462     %%
463 root 1.132 [A document] Written to answer the often asked question about the requirements
464     on the kernel to get a POSIX compliant thread implementation. And I don't
465     mean an implementation like this horrible implementation from IBM.
466     -- Ulrich Drepper
467     %%
468 root 1.131 GCC generates truly horrible code when no optimization is enabled.
469     -- Ulrich Drepper
470     %%
471     Most programmers think that the programs they write are fairly well
472     written and perform as good as possible. In most cases this is not
473 root 1.133 correct. -- Ulrich Drepper
474 root 1.131 %%
475 root 1.130 Even though I cannot accept the rejection of fair use rights by the film
476     and music industry I cannot endorse piracy.
477     -- Ulrich Drepper
478     %%
479     Never say "PIC Code"!. This is duplication.
480     -- Ulrich Drepper
481     %%
482 root 1.129 [http://www.ffk.co.at/programme_ffksnetmanager.asp]
483     Ping und Netsend laufen jetzt über die Windows API, daher schneller und
484     zuverlässiger
485     %%
486     [comment from linux/drivers/block/floppy.c]
487     /*
488     * 1999/08/13 -- Paul Slootman -- floppy stopped working on Alpha after 24
489     * days, 6 hours, 32 minutes and 32 seconds (i.e. MAXINT jiffies; ints were
490     * being used to store jiffies, which are unsigned longs).
491     */
492     %%
493 root 1.128 [Microsoft creates a problem and inspires an industry to work around it.
494     Just Great. Also learn about Microsoft Logic(tm): DLL's save memory, so
495     you need to use them. But please use your own private versions of all your
496     dlls so that they aren't shared...]
497     http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnsetup/html/dlldanger1.asp
498     %%
499     [http://lorrie.cranor.org/pubs/drm03.html]
500     Pirating Movies
501    
502     [...] The attackers aren't DVD owners making illegal copies and putting
503     them on file sharing networks. The attackers are industry insiders making
504     illegal copies long before the DVD is ever on the market.
505     %%
506     [Look at the time scale...]
507     http://www.networm.org/graphics/worm-progression.Sep03.pdf
508     %%
509 root 1.127 [Just funny]
510     http://www.zug.com/pranks/turnpike/
511     %%
512     [http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,60391,00.html]
513     The CEO of Symantec is advocating "legislation to criminalize the
514     sharing of information and tools online that can be used by malicious
515     hackers and virus writers." Doesn't he realize that most of his
516     company's engineers would end up in jail?
517     %%
518 root 1.126 [http://top40-charts.com/artist.php?aid=1145]
519     Why is it you forgive Bush for saying "NO MATTER WHAT, I WILL GET OSAMA".
520     and "NO MATTER WHAT, I WILL GET SADDAM". "I GUARANTEE THERE ARE WMD'S" etc
521     etc. Yet now he could care less about them? Of course, Clinton lies about
522     sex and that's a huge deal(not that i am justifying what Bubba did)
523    
524     Why is it when the marines stormed in, they protected the oil fields but
525     left all the other resources of Iraq to be looted?
526    
527     Why is it that the White House doesn't want to release information on
528     9/11, and only gave the investigation a $3 million budget?(it took $70
529     million to find out Clinton got a BJ, and that's all they found out for
530     $70 million!!). Meanwhile, even with a pathetic budget, the WH stonewalls
531     the investigating committee. It's not enough for the WH to just underfund
532     them, theyve got to make sure they can't get to any usefull information in
533     the first place!
534     %%
535 root 1.125 Buying a Unix machine guarantees you a descent into Hell. It starts when
536     you plug the computer in and it won't boot. Yes, they really did sell you
537     a $10,000 computer with an unformatted disk drive.
538     -- Philip Greenspun
539     %%
540 root 1.124 "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we
541     don't believe in it at all." -- Noam Chomsky
542     %%
543     "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right
544     to say it." -- not actually from Voltaire
545     %%
546 root 1.123 "Our ability to innovate is predicated on our ability to own the
547     platform."
548     [Kirk Koenigsbauer, strategy manager at Microsoft's MSN]
549     %%
550     Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in
551     waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is that
552     frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses
553     and you can sitll raed it wiuthoit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not
554     raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.
555     %%
556     [The world is getting saner and saner. The whole world? No....]
557     http://avirubin.com/vote.pdf
558     %%
559     [http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1210067,00.asp]
560     So what actually happens when your Windows XP machine crashes and asks
561     if you want to send a report? The reports obviously accumulate in some
562     database, and I can only assume that when one bin piles up with similar
563     crash memos, the coders get to work. Exactly how many notifications does
564     Microsoft get? Nobody knows for sure, but based on comments Bill Gates
565     made at a recent meeting for analysts, the number must be astronomical.
566     Gates said that 5 percent of Windows machines crash, on average, twice
567     daily.
568     %%
569     "...vielleicht praktisch manchmal auch mal geraten, das, wenn auch mal..."
570     [Johann Gärtner, "Die Republikaner" bei einer Fernsehsendung über ihr
571     Wahlprogramm. Das Zitat ist repräsentativ.]
572     %%
573     [http://home.wanadoo.nl/ipce/library_two/rbt/condemn_text.htm]
574     Critics of Congress and APA's concessions have analogized this situation
575     to that of Galileo. At the APA's annual convention in August 1999 in
576     Boston, an anonymous source, unknown to us, posted stickers around the
577     convention that satirically read, "If the US Congress says that 'The sun
578     revolves around the earth,' then that fact will be given most careful
579     consideration in all articles published by the APA."
580     %%
581     "It is insufficient to protect ourselves with laws; we need to protect ourselves with mathematics."
582     -- Bruce Schneier
583     %%
584     [it took me over 7 minutes to find this movie again on imdb...]
585     [...so it must be good]
586     http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0072131/
587     %%
588     [mplayer/libmpcodecs/ad_realaud.c]
589     [real uses a novel protection scheme...]
590     raSetPwd(sh->context,"Ardubancel Quazanga"); // set password... lol.
591     %%
592 root 1.120 [D-Info 3/2003 Database Dump]
593     I've written a script that dumps the D-Info 2003 database as tsv to stdout.
594     No idea why I announce it here...
595 root 1.121 http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/data/dump-dinfo
596 root 1.120 %%
597 root 1.119 [Oh My God!]
598     Subject: aic7(censored) use after free in 2.5.66
599     %%
600     [How many squares are on a go-board?]
601 root 1.118 http://groups.google.com/groups?ie=UTF-8&client=googlet&selm=16394336.74521.15271%40kcbbs.gen.nz&rnum=2
602     %%
603 root 1.117 [http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1020303,00.html]
604     When I first visited Russia, in 1986, I made friends with a musician whose
605     father had been Brezhnev's personal doctor. One day we were talking about
606     life during 'the period of stagnation' - the Brezhnev era. 'It must have
607     been strange being so completely immersed in propaganda,' I said.
608    
609     'Ah, but there is the difference. We knew it was propaganda,' replied
610     Sacha.
611     %%
612 root 1.116 [From CRYPTO-GRAM]
613     A reader sent in this conversation he overheard at a corporate security
614     desk one morning:
615    
616     Employee: I have lost my photo-ID card, can I get a day pass please?
617    
618     Security Guard: Certainly, what is your serial number?
619    
620     Employee: 123456
621    
622     [Security guard pulls up the details on his computer, which includes a
623     photograph of the employee.]
624    
625     Security Guard: Do you have a driver's license or another piece of
626     identification which has your picture on it?
627    
628     Employee: Why would you need that?
629    
630     Security Guard: To match against our records.
631    
632     Employee: A picture of my face?
633    
634     Security Guard: Yes
635    
636     Employee: This is my face -- I am wearing it on my head.
637    
638     Security Guard: I need another piece of ID with a picture on it to
639     compare against this one.
640     %%
641     [Voting in the US might be in for surprises in the future]
642     http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/voting.shtml
643     [frankly, I don't trust any government if it's easy to fake votes]
644     %%
645     MS Windows passwords can be cracked in an average of 13.6 seconds.
646     Assuming your password consists of just letters and numbers, that is. But
647     my guess is that almost everyone falls into that category.
648    
649     <http://news.com.com/2100-1009_3-5053063.html>
650     <http://lasecpc13.epfl.ch/ntcrack/>
651 root 1.123 %%
652     Eppur si muove!
653 root 1.116 %%
654     [bwahahaha]
655     "RV K-17"
656     %%
657     "We're the world's greatest superpower, but we have a Third World
658     electricity grid," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
659     %%
660     [where NOT to learn german :)]
661     [http://www.berlitz.at/worldclub/reise-spanisch/]
662     <= Es ist 10:45 Uhr / viertel vor elf / dreiviertel zehn.
663     => Son las once menos cuarto.
664     %%
665 root 1.115 ceterum censeo carthaginem esse delendam
666     ceterum censeo mundum non delendum esse
667     %%
668     [http://www.urheberrecht.org/news/?id=1402&w=&p=1]
669     Georgia Tornow, Generalsekretärin der Produzentenvereinigung film20 übt
670     ebenfalls Kritik an der neuen Formulierung. »In anderen Ländern ist
671     mitunter die Herstellung privater Kopien untersagt. Und in den USA wird
672     sogar darüber nachgedacht, Geräte zur Kopienherstellung für illegal zu
673     erklären«, so Tornow laut »blickpunktfilm.de«.
674     %%
675 root 1.122 http://www.plif.com/archive/wc285.gif
676 root 1.115 %%
677     [D-Info 2003, on my box:]
678     Linux-Distribution nicht erkannt. Koennte RedHat sein.
679     %%
680     [This patch removed the 75 records limit in D-Info 3/2003 linux for me]
681     [patch dinfo.i386, YMMV]
682     <00b8db0: 0084 c075 05ba 4b00 0000 89d0 89ec 5dc3 ...u..K.......].
683     >00b8db0: 0084 c075 05ba ffff ff7f 89d0 89ec 5dc3 ...u..K.......].
684     %%
685     [bwbasic-2.20pl2/bwbasic.doc]
686     This program was originally begun in 1982 by my grandmother, Mrs.
687     Verda Spell of Beaumont, TX. She was writing the program using
688     an ANSI C compiler on an Osborne I CP/M computer and although my
689     grandfather (Lockwood Spell) had bought an IBM PC with 256k of
690     RAM my grandmother would not use it, paraphrasing George Herbert
691     to the effect that "He who cannot in 64k program, cannot in 512k."
692     She had used Microsoft BASIC and although she had nothing against
693     it she said repeatedly that she didn't understand why Digital
694     Research didn't "sue the socks off of Microsoft" for version 1.0
695     of MSDOS and so I reckon that she hoped to undercut Microsoft's
696     entire market and eventually build a new software empire on
697     the North End of Beaumont. Her programming efforts were cut
698     tragically short when she was thrown from a Beaumont to Port
699     Arthur commuter train in the summer of 1986. I found the source
700     code to bwBASIC on a single-density Osborne diskette in her knitting
701     bag and eventually managed to have it all copied over to a PC
702     diskette. I have revised it slightly prior to this release. You
703     should know, though, that I myself am an historian, not a programmer.
704     %%
705 root 1.114 [what high dan players in go think while playing:]
706     "Must kill ... black stones ... black stones ... must die"
707     %%
708     [the one and only time rcp failed for me, at the very end of the transfer]
709     rcp: protocol screwup: mtime.sec not delimited
710     %%
711 root 1.113 [Wasteland]
712     Lester Moore,
713     Shot in the head with a .44.
714     No Les, no more.
715     %%
716     [SSK@DFpkjvKWA0kGPZUgm9LkJE1jX4cPAgM/MattersPhallic/4//]
717     Mormon advice on how to abstain from wanking
718    
719     STEPS IN OVERCOMING MASTURBATION
720     [for the rest of this entertaining document see the freesite]
721     %%
722     [Fallout]
723     Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake
724     Stepped on the gas instead of the brake
725     %%
726 root 1.111 [http://www.counterpane.com/pptpv2-paper.html]
727     As we will discuss later, multiple layers of hashing are used in the
728     different steps of MS-CHAPv2. While this hashing serves to obscure some
729     of the values, it is unclear what the cryptographic significance of them
730     are. All they seem to do is to slow down the execution of the protocol.
731 root 1.112 [...]
732     It is unclear to us why this protocol is so complicated.
733     [...]
734     The Server concatenates the password-hash-hash, the 24-byte NT response,
735     and the literal string "Magic server to client constant", and then hashes
736     the result with SHA.
737 root 1.111 %%
738     > Für viele wird interessant sein, dass ich bisher bei jedem Kunden
739     > rechnerisch nachweisen konnte, dass OpenSource !immer! der teurere Weg
740     > ist!
741     Das bedeutet, daß durch Offenlegung des Source Codes eines Produkts
742     plötzlich höhere Aufwände entstehen? Was für ein Kundensegment betreust
743     Du denn? Analphabeten?
744     %%
745 root 1.110 "Der Sun-Forte-Compiler ist näher am C++-Standard als G++"
746     [Jörg Schilling, CeBit 2003]
747     %%
748 root 1.109 17:21 <elmex> ok, sex kann ich nicht, aber ich kann vim und Perl ;)
749     %%
750 root 1.108 [Biggest ping rtt I've ever seen]
751     64 bytes from 1.0.0.3: icmp_seq=473 ttl=128 time=779.5 ms
752     64 bytes from 1.0.0.3: icmp_seq=474 ttl=128 time=524.1 ms
753     64 bytes from 1.0.0.3: icmp_seq=475 ttl=128 time=275.6 ms
754     64 bytes from 1.0.0.3: icmp_seq=539 ttl=128 time=656365.4 ms
755     64 bytes from 1.0.0.3: icmp_seq=540 ttl=128 time=655365.5 ms
756     %%
757     [I once used a vped.conf from windows on linux, and then had to:]
758     tcpdump -eni\\\\.\\{F2CB3DC8-1
759     %%
760 root 1.107 [links are free ;)]
761     http://knowthetruth.b0x.com/Bush_Family/Bush_-_Hitler/bush_-_hitler.html
762     %%
763 root 1.106 [http://pobox.com/~oleg/MacHack96/]
764     Can software development be elevated from the Microsoft style?
765     %%
766 root 1.105 [openssl, crypto/evp/evp_enc.c]
767    
768     /* One positive side-effect of US's export
769     * control history, is that we should at least
770     * be able to avoid using US mispellings of
771     * "initialisation"? */
772     EVPerr(EVP_F_EVP_CIPHERINIT, EVP_R_INITIALIZATION_ERROR);
773     %%
774     [man pem]
775     Although the PEM routines take several arguments in almost all applications most of them are set to 0 or NULL.
776     %%
777     [pth_native.c]
778    
779     /* ``If you can't do it in
780     ANSI C, it isn't worth doing.''
781     -- Unknown */
782     %%
783 root 1.104 [subculture]
784     ... scorp sind lucker und use script lamer aber über cheater aufregen
785     mehr nich und zu fünft in nem raum sitzen und dann public zocken und dann
786     skillig vorkommen ...
787    
788     [http://forum.topwebmaster.net/extern/de/Ricoohh/thread/9196-77365]
789     %%%
790     [back to the roots. you might not understand the following, but
791     this list is about things _I_ find funny, not you... :)]
792     00:16 <elmex> 'mit windows netzwerk zu debuggen ist ungefaehr so sinnvoll wie eine
793     gehirnoperation mit einem vorschlaghammer'
794     00:18 <oesi> elmex: da ich in deinem ignore bin, kann ich ja volltrottel sagen.
795     ethereal rennt seit jahren unter win32
796     00:18 <elmex> oesi: ja, aber netzwerk nicht ;)
797     %%
798 root 1.103 [http://home.rhein-zeitung.de/~cknust/detroit/a-z/medikamt.htm]
799     ... Den Amerikanern sind Zäpfchen ebenso wie rektales Fiebermessen absolut
800     suspekt; der Verdacht der Kinderschändung steht sofort unausgesprochen im
801     Raum. Zäpfchen ("Suppositorium") werden allenfalls in der Notfallmedizin
802     im Krankenhaus verwendet. Haben Sie ein Kind, das an Asthma oder
803     Pseudo-Krupp-Anfällen leidet, bringen Sie sich einen entsprechenden Vorrat
804     an Zäpfchen unbedingt mit, erwähnen Sie diese aber, soweit möglich, nicht
805     vor amerikanischen Ärzten. ...
806     %%
807 root 1.102 sendmail ist wie masturbation mit einer gurkenraspel, erzeugt viele spaene
808     aber wenig freude.
809     %%
810     [from a deviance.nfo, looking for new members, I think it's waaay funny]
811     - you are a Unix guru with good Ansi-C software developing knowledge
812     and understanding how to prevent network security vulnerabilities.
813     That means you must be able to code to ansi-c guru level. And you
814     must also have a good coder perspective of hostbase and network
815     based intrusion detection systems. You should be able to code tools
816     to generically prevent stack and heap buffer overflows on unix in
817     Ansi-C. And Be able to code tools to look after a group of systems
818     and code sniffing avoidance tools. And you can configure a system
819     in ways to prevent packet sniffers and "man in the middle" attacks.
820     %%
821 root 1.101 17:39 <schmorp> marco: flüge von hannover/dortmund [nach sofia] etc. sind glatt
822     doppelt so teuer wie die gleichen von stuttgart/münchen/frankfurt
823     17:39 <marco> schmorp: da wollen zu viele weg und zu wenig hin... also sind die
824     fluege dort nur halb ausgelastet *g*
825     %%
826 root 1.100 For me, this article simply illustrates that centralised trust models
827     don't work well in practise.
828     http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/12/09/021209opwinman.xml
829     %%
830 root 1.99 [Rumsfeld in a CNN interview]
831     There is an old saying, in the pentagon:
832     "ready, fire, aim."
833     %%
834 root 1.98 [...] You're allowed to resell the [windows] media but not the
835     license. "Unfortunately" for Microsoft, this distinction is illegal in
836     free countries like Germany [1].
837     [...]
838     Regards
839     Henning
840    
841     [1] The current german governement is actively trying to change this
842     part of the german law. That's what you get for electing morons who
843     might look good on TV. At this point, we're already on U.S. levels.
844     %%
845     [...]
846     The GPL does not restrict you. Contrary, it uses copyright law to
847     establish a pool of software with much more freedom as copyright law gives
848     to you. It only does not give you so much freedom to deny other people the
849     same freedoms. The copyright holders can only do so, because copyright law
850     itself give you none of these rights at all.
851     [...]
852     Wolfgang Walter
853     %%
854     burro: i once played against a computer
855     burro: it seemed very clever
856     burro: but then all its groups died in yose
857     burro: it forgot to defend later..
858     burro: oops
859     burro: accidental poetry
860     %%
861     [about a go game between a pro player and some really good amateur,
862     where white could have lived easily but decided to risk it]
863     yoyoma [7k]: white is pro, rather die gloriosly than live in gote with a7!
864     %%
865     [from the default config of the oh-so-broken unrealircd]
866     #define BIG_SECURITY_HOLE
867     %%
868     "In fact the whole of Japan is pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people."
869     -- Oscar Wilde
870     %%
871     [a principle used in florida's law]
872     "guilty until proven innocent"
873     [http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/main.htm]
874     %%
875     Wonderful news! A little Jewish woman, calling Mount Sinai Hospital,
876     said, "Hello, darling, I'd like to talk with the person who gives the
877     information regarding your patients. I want to know if the patient is
878     getting better, or doing like expected, or is getting worse." The voice
879     on the other end of the line said, "What is the patient's name and room
880     number?" She said, "Yes, darling! she's Sarah Finkel, in Room 302." He
881     said, "Oh, yes. Mrs. Finkel is doing very well. In fact, she's had two
882     full meals, her blood pressure is fine, her blood work just came back
883     as normal, she's going to be taken off the heart monitor in a couple of
884     hours and if she continues this improvement, Dr. Cohen is going to send
885     her home Tuesday at twelve o' clock." The woman said, "Thank God! That's
886     wonderful! Oh! that's fantastic, darling!... That's wonderful news!" The
887     man on the phone said, "From your enthusiasm, I take it you must be a
888     close family member or a very close friend!" She said, "I'm Sarah Finkel
889     in 302! My doctor doesn't tell me shit!
890     %%
891     [gcc-3.2/.../sstream>
892     // NB: Start ostringstream buffers at 512 bytes. This is an
893     // experimental value (pronounced "arbitrary" in some of the
894     // hipper english-speaking countries), and can be changed to
895     // suit particular needs.
896     _M_buf_size_opt = 512;
897     %%
898     [members.aon.at/paulinchen/advtex/sanitar.htm]
899     [Walkthrough SANITARIUM]
900     ... Deshalb suchst du erneut den Wassertempel auf. ... Dort haust du als
901     Grimwall den Lukas ... Darauf hin öffnet der Clown seinen Mund und du
902     kannst als Olmec die Melodie ...
903     %%
904 root 1.97 [Onibaba - Great Movie]
905     http://us.imdb.com/Title?0058430
906     %%
907     [Kuroneko - I'd like to see :(]
908     http://us.imdb.com/Title?0122136
909     %%
910 root 1.96 [<Sesse> microsoft finally takes security seriously]
911     [http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q276304]
912     Error Message: Your Password Must Be at Least 18770 Characters and Cannot Repeat Any of Your Previous 30689 Passwords
913     %%
914     GNU Emacs kurz und gut. Amazon-Verkaufsrang 11.300
915     vi - Editor. Kurz und gut. Amazon-Verkaufsrang 2.333
916     XML für Dummies. Amazon-Verkaufsrang 225.881
917     JavaScript für Dummies. Dynamische Websites selbst gemacht. Amazon-Verkaufsrang 24.576
918     %%
919     [http://kyushu.com/gleaner/editorspick/seppuku.shtml]
920    
921     [...] Obviously you have to decide well in advance why you are doing
922     [seppuku] [...] Resistance, remonstrance, show of loyalty, affirmation of
923     the correctness of one's own position, expiation of a crime and the wiping
924     out of disgrace are all perfectly good reasons; being refused a work visa
925     is not [...]
926     %%
927     Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd
928 root 1.95 all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to
929     repetitive electronic music." --Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989
930     %%
931 root 1.94 [some hilights from:]
932     [http://www.iks-jena.de/mitarb/lutz/usenet/Fachbegriffe.der.Informatik.html]
933    
934     _Einfach erklärt_
935    
936     GUI
937     Ein Hintergrundbild und 12 Xterms
938     Globale Variable
939     Parameterübergabemechanismus in 4GLs
940     objektorientiert
941     Den Code habe ich von meinem Vorgaenger geerbt.
942     strukturiert
943     dieses Programm besteht aus mehreren Funktionen
944     Multithreaded
945     Wir mußten ein Flußdiagramm malen, um es zu debuggen.
946     Windows 95
947     Das Fortran 77 der Benutzungsoberflächen
948     Emacs
949     Ich habe ja auch nie bezweifelt, daß emacs ein tolles Betriebssystem
950     ist. Aber um mit Linux oder Windows konkurrieren zu können, fehlt ihm
951     ein vernünftiger Editor.
952     IPv6
953     $ telnet hundehalsband.georg.hunde.sonnenstrasse.muenchen.de
954     Trying 942884947298374923847982472983. 2398749874987249247.
955     2398472372349. 3249782374927898324. 2987238479874987398634.
956     2987428901171209471. 23987432923. 23478987923.
957     Die fünf Sinne des C++-Programmierers
958     Der Schwachsinn, der Blödsinn, der Wahnsinn, der Unsinn und der Stumpfsinn.
959     PHP
960     Meine C-64-Basic-Übungen hat niemand zu Gesicht bekommen, während die
961     in PHP verbrochenen Laufstall-Verunfallungen heutiger Milchgesichter
962     die Welt verpesten und womöglich von Schlipstraeger-Deppen als
963     e-Commerce-Lösung gekauft worden sind.
964     Alleinstellungsmerkmal
965     Bunt.
966 root 1.95 Plattformunabhängig
967     Wenn Du GWBASIC im Dos-Emulator laufen läßt bist Du auch
968     plattformunabhängig! Du brauchst nur einen Dos-Emulator!
969     [94: Copyright left out, too long, see original url]
970 root 1.94 %%
971 root 1.93 [logic & fallacies]
972     http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html
973     %%
974     http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/library/wonderful/index.php
975     %%
976     [nah]
977     In the Arthur Penn film "Night Moves," someone asks Gene Hackman for an
978     appraisal of Eric Rohmer's work, to which he replies, "it's like watching
979     paint dry."
980     %%
981 root 1.92 http://www2.psy.uq.edu.au/~jay/papers/thesis.pdf
982     http://home.attbi.com/~bglodis/htmf/AI2-GO2.htm
983     http://newyork.villageworld.com/users/bradleym/index.htm
984     %%
985 root 1.178 [Keith Packard about some design holes in X that lead to XRender]
986 root 1.91 The rules themselves may be broken, but their existence is of vital
987     importance.
988     %%
989     [http://cbbrowne.com/info/xpersonal.html]
990     [_very_ good pages, read them all!]
991     Many things have been hacked onto Win32; unfortunately, actually using
992     Windows-based facilities has two massive detrimental effects:
993    
994     You have to trust Microsoft.
995    
996     There are a number of things that I would trust Microsoft with. I trust
997     Microsoft to continue to release buggy software such as the Windows 98
998     release that needed patches to survive to 1999, let alone 2000. I trust
999     Microsoft to continue to release software that gets more bloated such
1000     that it requires as much memory as systems can support just to support
1001     useless chrome.
1002    
1003     But control over whether my code will continue to be usable next year
1004     whether due to technical or licensing changes is not one of the things
1005     I'd like to trust them with.
1006 root 1.93 [...]
1007 root 1.91 %%
1008     [when choosing "About" from the mozilla menu]
1009     [now, which OS let's us enjoy similar error messages all the time? ;)]
1010     XML Parsing Error: undefined entity
1011     Location: jar:resource:///chrome/en-US.jar!/locale/en-US/global/about.xhtml
1012     Line Number 90, Column 15:
1013     <li>Copyright &copy; 1998-2002 by <a href="about:credits">Contributors</a> to
1014     --------------^
1015     %%
1016     [from the kanon 10% english translation patch README]
1017     [http://haeleth.port5.com/]
1018     A Japanese effect not found in English is the wonderful verbless sentence,
1019     which I like so much that I've translated a few literally. I do know
1020     English grammar, I assure you.
1021     %%
1022     Giant hornets regularly attack beehives. Typically, an attack begins when
1023     a single hornet captures a lone bee nearby the hive. After several of
1024     these perimeter skirmishes, one hornet leaves a marking pheromone at the
1025     hive's entrance. This pheromone attracts the other hornets, who arrive
1026     en masse and attack the beehive. The bees' stingers can't penetrate the
1027     hornets' armor, so it's a one-sided slaughter; something like 30,000 bees
1028     can be killed in a few hours by 30-40 hornets.
1029    
1030     Japanese honeybees, however, have evolved an interesting defensive
1031     strategy. When a hornet marks the hive's entrance, the bees guarding the
1032     entrance return to the hive and wait for the attacking hornets. This has
1033     the effect of luring the first attacking hornets into the hive, rather
1034     than allowing them to start their attack outside. Simultaneously, over
1035     1000 worker bees in the hive leave the combs and mass just inside the
1036     hive's entrance. When a hornet tries to enter the hive, the workers
1037     surround it, forming a ball of bodies, and cook it to death with their
1038     body heat. The bees also release a pheromone that draws ever more bees
1039     from the hive's interior to come to the entrance and defend the nest.
1040    
1041     This strategy must be perfect in order to be successful. If the bees fail
1042     in killing the first hornet attackers, then the hornet pheromone gets
1043     stronger, and more hornets arrive to reinforce their attack. By sheer
1044     numbers, the hornets can overpower the bees.
1045    
1046     Source: Bernd Heinrich, "The Thermal Warriors: Strategies of Insect
1047     Survival," Harvard University Press, 1996.
1048     %%
1049     [http://homepages.tesco.net./~J.deBoynePollard/FGA/csrss-backspace-bug.html]
1050     [fixed in latest service packs, but still funny ;)]
1051     The following neat little program, when compiled and run, will completely
1052     crash XP (and any earlier version of NT) (when I ran it, XP rebooted). I
1053     don't recommend you really try this program, but if you do, save all your
1054     work etc first:
1055    
1056     #include <stdio.h>
1057    
1058     int main (void) {
1059     while (1)
1060     printf ("\t\t\b\b\b\b\b\b");
1061    
1062     return 0;
1063     }
1064     %%
1065     [you might point your windows-using-friends to this page, it
1066     contains a lot of funny FUD ;)]
1067 root 1.90 http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm
1068     %%
1069     [http://eros.cs.jhu.edu/~shap/NT-EAL4.html]
1070     Security experts have been saying for years that the the security of
1071     the Windows family of products is hopelessly inadequate. Now there is a
1072     rigorous government certification confirming this.
1073     %%
1074 root 1.89 [mms_client after finishing the download]
1075     everything done. Thank you for downloading a media file containing
1076     proprietary and patentend technology.
1077     %%
1078 root 1.88 I wouldn't want to win the Steven Spielberg Award - he is an amateur!
1079     -- Aki Kaurismäki
1080     %%
1081 root 1.87 [http://www.sm.luth.se/~torkel/eget/godel.html]
1082     "The Gödelian structure of the unity of levels of Reality associated
1083     with the logic of the included middle implies that it is impossible to
1084     construct a complete theory for describing the passage from one level to
1085     the other and, a fortiori, for describing the unity of levels of Reality."
1086     %%
1087     1. Das von den Parteien eingeführte Listenwahlrecht verstößt gegen
1088     Art. 38, Abs. 1, Satz 1 Grundgesetz (GG): »Die Abgeordneten des Deutschen
1089     Bundestages werden in allgemeiner, unmittelbarer, freier, gleicher und
1090     geheimer Wahl gewählt.« Danach muß es dem Bürger möglich sein, seinen
1091     Abgeordneten unmittelbar zu wählen. Die Wahl von Parteienlisten ist also
1092     verfassungswidrig, nicht zuletzt deshalb, weil hierbei Kandidaten zum Zuge
1093     kommen, die der Listenwähler nicht wählen will.
1094    
1095     2. Der Fraktionszwang verstößt ebenfalls gegen das Grundgesetz. Satz
1096     2 des Art. 38, Abs. 1, lautet nämlich: »Sie (die Abgeordneten) sind
1097     Vertreter des ganzen Volkes, an Aufträge und Weisungen nicht gebunden
1098     und nur ihrem Gewissen unterworfen.« Wenn Fraktionsvorsitzende den frei
1099     gewählten Abgeordneten einer Fraktionsdisziplin unterwerfen (und das noch
1100     unter Androhung von Sanktionen), erteilen sie Weisungen darüber, wie die
1101     Abgeordneten der Partei abzustimmen haben. Es handelt sich dann um eine
1102     Form fraktionsinternen imperativen Mandats.
1103    
1104     3. Die überbordende Staatsverschuldung (vor allem im Bund) verstößt gegen
1105     Art. 115 des GG. Darin heißt es in Abs. 1, Satz 2: »Die Einnahmen aus
1106     Krediten dürfen die Summe der im Haushaltsplan veranschlagten Ausgaben für
1107     Investitionen nicht überschreiten; Ausnahmen sind nur zulässig zur Abwehr
1108     einer Störung des gesamtwirtschaftlichen Gleichgewichts.« Unter Fachleuten
1109     besteht nicht der geringste Zweifel, daß das vorgeschriebene Kreditlimit
1110     (Höhe der »Ausgaben für Investitionen«) durch Haushaltstricks sträflich
1111     überschritten wurde. Die Folge: Im Jahre 2001 erreichte die Verschuldung
1112     der Gebietskörperschaften die unvorstellbare Höhe von 1.210 Mrd. Euro (im
1113     Bund: 700 Mrd. Euro); das sind 79 Prozent des jährlichen Volkseinkommens
1114     von 1.531 Mrd. Euro.
1115     %%
1116     [just FMI (for my information)]
1117     http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/%7eflavell/charset/form-i18n.html
1118     %%
1119     [perldoc perlboot]
1120     Typically, each @ISA has only one element (multiple elements means
1121     multiple inheritance and multiple headaches)
1122     %%
1123     [I find that all this stallman-bashing is a sure sign that that
1124     "linux" thing will fail]
1125     In lists.linux.kernel.development, Larry McVoy wrote:
1126     [...]
1127     Richard Stallman started the free software foundation. He built the
1128     compiler, library and zillions of other tools that developers use on a day
1129     to day basis. He slept at the offices of MIT while he spent his time,
1130     effort and money building up the Free Software Foundation.
1131    
1132     Though many people differ with him on a wide variety of issues, he
1133     deserves respect from all because he has devoted twenty years of his
1134     life to the public good.
1135    
1136     You, on the other hand, develop and sell a proprietary software product.
1137     You convinced a large number of kernel developers (most importantly
1138     Linus himself) to use your proprietary product to develop free software,
1139     so that you could tell potential customers "Gee! Look how great my
1140     software is! It's used to develop the linux kernel!"
1141    
1142     You don't care about free software Larry. You're just glad that you have
1143     a poster child to display your effort. Want proof? Look at how you have
1144     treated numerous kernel developers when you found out that they worked
1145     on free software projects that could potentially compete with your
1146     software some day -- you revoke their "free" license to use your
1147     software to work on the linux kernel!
1148    
1149     Richard is trying to change the world into a better place. You, however,
1150     are trying to get rich, and you're using free software as a stepping
1151     stone to promote your proprietary software. Nothing wrong with getting
1152     rich of course -- I'd love to be rich too. But you certainly don't
1153     deserve to be lumped into the same group as RMS.
1154     %%
1155 root 1.86 [perldoc perlreftut]
1156     What does line 4 do here?
1157     [...]
1158     This is Perl, so it does the exact right thing.
1159     %%
1160     [perldoc perlreftut]
1161     Think of the President of the United States: a messy, inconvenient bag of
1162     blood and bones. But to talk about him, or to represent him in a computer
1163     program, all you need is the easy, convenient scalar string "George Bush".
1164     %%
1165     [rise and fall of free software standards]
1166     * GNU Gettext and %expect
1167     GNU Gettext asserts 10 s/r conflicts, but there are 7. Now that
1168     Bison dies on incorrect %expectations, we fear there will be
1169     too many bug reports for Gettext, so _for the time being_, %expect
1170     does not trigger an error when the input file is named `plural.y'.
1171     %%
1172     Beware of Programmers who carry screwdrivers.
1173     -- Leonard Brandwein
1174     %%
1175 root 1.85 [11:57] <schmorp> email@wanadoo.fr
1176     [11:57] <schmorp> you know what wannados are?
1177     [11:58] <Arvoreen> the french pendant of aol users ??
1178     [11:58] <schmorp> nope
1179     [11:58] <Arvoreen> then no clue
1180     [11:58] <schmorp> "people who fail before they even try"
1181     [12:00] <Zeograd> wanadoo was actually named following this idea, *sigh*
1182     [12:00] <schmorp> not really, yes?
1183     [12:00] <Zeograd> yes
1184     [12:00] <schmorp> ;);)
1185     [12:03] <schmorp> that "yes" sounded really painful
1186     [12:03] <Zeograd> more than you could imagine :)
1187     %%
1188 root 1.84 [11:37] <Arvoreen> Oui mon francais est un peu
1189 root 1.85 [11:38] <Zeograd> Arvoreen: not bad, it doesn't mean much but it sounds french :)
1190 root 1.84 %%
1191     A Russian hacker was sentenced to three years in prison here in the
1192     United States for breaking computer crime laws here. It's an
1193     interesting story. He was in Russia at the time, and broke no laws in
1194     his country. However, the U.S. prosecution broke Russian laws to
1195     collect evidence against him. The judge agreed with the FBI's
1196     assertion that Russian law didn't apply to them. Isn't international
1197     jurisprudence fun?
1198     <http://in.tech.yahoo.com/021005/137/1w2bq.html>
1199     %%
1200     [02:58] <Sesse> microsoft finally gets it:
1201     [02:58] <Sesse> Visual Basic .NET delivers the feature most requested by existing Visual Basic
1202     [02:58] <Sesse> developers--fewer bugs in the code they write.
1203     [...]
1204     [03:00] <Sesse> "VB programmers have finally found out they lack talent, and blame Microsoft" ;-)
1205     %%
1206     [found at www.imdb.com]
1207     the trouble with the global village are all the global village idiots.
1208     - Paul Ginsparg.
1209     %%
1210     prionbrain: A joke I just read: " A girl phoned me the other day and
1211     said, .. come on over, there's nobody home. I went over. There was nobody
1212     home.":))
1213     [erm...]
1214     %%
1215     > described above, CONFIG_XBOX_SUPPORT will depend on CONFIG_PCI.
1216    
1217     Which seems fair enough. ISA bus X-box systems are suprisingly rare
1218 root 1.85 %%
1219 root 1.84 [05:06] <elmex> windows has 2 left hands when it comes to being an OS
1220     %%
1221 root 1.83 [http://www.ifi.unizh.ch/mml/mduerst/papers/PDF/IUC11-UTF-8.pdf]
1222    
1223     [...] In particular, the following behaviour proposed or observed in some
1224     implementations is not UTF-8 and should never be presented as such. First,
1225     UTF16 surrogate pairs could be encoded in UTF-8 as two sequences of 3
1226     bytes each (this behaviour is observed in some Java implementations).
1227     %%
1228     .+'''+. .+'''+. .+'''+. .+'''+. .+''
1229     / \ / \ / \ / \ /
1230     .+' `+...+' `+...+' `+...+' `+...+'
1231     %%
1232 root 1.82 From: "David S. Miller"
1233 root 1.83
1234     > Then shouldn't the thing thats different from the norm be programmed into a header file which contains how certain functions should be+++
1235 root 1.82
1236     If I gave you a dollar, would you go out and buy some newlines
1237     to use in future emails?
1238     %%
1239     Could somebody drag the Irix team kicking and screaming into the 1980's,
1240     please?
1241    
1242     I realize it might be quite painful for them, but maybe you could buy them
1243     a disco tape, so they'd feel a little bit more at home.
1244    
1245     Linus "Stayin' alive, stayin' alive" Torvalds
1246     %%
1247     Yesterday, the local Brazilian authorities signed a decree stating that the
1248     Brazilian daylight saving period will start on November 3rd 2002 and will
1249     last until February 16th 2003.
1250    
1251     So, clocks will be set one hour forward on November 3rd (12:00 a.m. will be
1252     changed to 1:00 a.m.) and at midnight (0:00 am) on February 16th, Brazil
1253     will adjust its clocks back one hour (23:00 pm on Feb 15th) marking the
1254     end.
1255    
1256     The reason for the delay this year has to do with elections in Brazil.
1257    
1258     Unlike in the United States, elections in Brazil are 100% computerized and
1259     the results are known almost immediately. Yesterday, it was the first
1260     round of the elections when 115 million Brazilians voted for President,
1261     Governor, Senators, Federal Deputies, and State Deputies. Nobody is
1262     counting (or re-counting) votes anymore and we know there will be a second
1263     round for the Presidency and also for some Governors. The 2nd round will
1264     take place on October 27th.
1265    
1266     The reason why the DST will only begin November 3rd is that the thousands
1267     of electoral machines used cannot have their time changed, and since the
1268     Constitution says the elections must begin at 8:00 AM and end at 5:00 PM ,
1269     the Government decided to postpone DST, instead of changing the
1270     Constitution (maybe, for the next elections, it will be possible to change
1271     the clock)...
1272     %%
1273 root 1.81 [boycot your enemies]
1274     > We're a business. We're a business which happens to be committed to
1275     > helping the kernel team because we think that the kernel is vital to the
1276     > world at large. Helping the kernel absolutely does not translate to
1277     > helping people who happen to be our competitors. By your own
1278    
1279     Stop lying. Your job is to make lots of money and you are using Linux as
1280     cheap advertising. You are trying to make people pay *you* to do kernel
1281     development (as it stands you want $5000 for any bk-using developer inside
1282     RedHat and SuSE).
1283    
1284     I hope your company dies ASAP and bitkeeper stops poisoning air here.
1285    
1286     Pavel
1287     %%
1288     Rik
1289     --
1290     A: No.
1291     Q: Should I include quotations after my reply?
1292     %%
1293     > Incidently unlimited permission is granted to use disks containing only
1294     > GNU/Linux software as footballs without royalties. All other usage of
1295     > disks as footballs will be considered on a per case basis.
1296    
1297     I would be inclined to allow this for Windows drives instead. They contain
1298     no useful data.
1299    
1300     --
1301     bill davidsen
1302     %%
1303 root 1.80 In the switching software (written in C)
1304     there was a long do..while construct,
1305     which contained a switch statement,
1306     which contained an if clause,
1307     which contained a break,
1308     which was intended for the if clause,
1309     but instead broke from the switch statement.
1310    
1311     - Network message explaining the breakdown of the AT&T long-distance
1312     network January 15, 1990
1313     %%
1314     [From "password retrieval policies" of some irc network:]
1315    
1316     They are likely to continue asking for the password, even after you have
1317     told them that it has been E-Mailed. /Ignore the stupid user. /Kick the
1318     stupid user. Do not /Kill the stupid user, since being stupid is not a
1319     violation of network policies.
1320    
1321     [the same document, explaining K:Lines]
1322    
1323     K:Lines - These lines define which clients are not allowed to connect.
1324     The format is as follows:
1325    
1326     K:*.aol.com:AOL sucks:lamer
1327     %%
1328 root 1.79 [Microsoft's Craig Mundie on security.]
1329     "People confuse 'security' and Trustworthy Computing."
1330     http://www.microsoft.com/PressPass/features/2002/feb02/02-20mundieqa.asp
1331     %%
1332     http://staging.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/09/05/020905hnmssecure.xml
1333     "I'm not proud," [Brian] Valentine [senior vice president in charge of
1334     Microsoft's Windows development team] said, as he spoke to a crowd of
1335     developers here at the company's Windows .Net Server developer
1336     conference. "We really haven't done everything we could to protect our
1337     customers ... Our products just aren't engineered for security."
1338     ...
1339     "If you go back a few years, unless you were working on login at
1340     Microsoft, you really didn't worry about security. The risk wasn't worth
1341     the effort."
1342     %%
1343     http://www.satirewire.com/news/aug02/encryption.shtml
1344     %%
1345     [please bear with me and understand that I didn't intend to drive
1346     gay people mad at me with this one...]
1347 root 1.78 [10:16] <pixelpapst> Wenn man ihn mal mit so 'nem richtigen Bilderbuch-Schwulen wie
1348     Lukas vergleicht :)
1349 root 1.77 [10:16] <elmex> Lukas is net schwul, er is Consultant
1350     %%
1351 root 1.76 http://www.frontiernet.net/~imaging/tenseg1.html
1352     %%
1353     http://24.86.132.253/090101/feature/feature.htm
1354     %%
1355     I maintain a /bin/ps that supports BSD, SysV, and Gnu syntax all at the
1356     same time. It requires Linux. This one works; the Red Hat one is broken.
1357     [Albert Cahalan]
1358 root 1.75 %%
1359     The Berkeley shell csh is reasonably well known and widely used and its
1360     externals have been subject to some criticism. The internals of csh are at
1361     least as bad, but lesser known.
1362     %%
1363     There are billions of different ways of parsing argv, the list of command
1364     line arguments passed to a C program. The problem is that they are all
1365     different.
1366     %%
1367     A common disease in programs written at Berkeley is to open /dev/kmem and grub the load averages out by the dirtiest means possible.
1368     %%
1369 root 1.76 [no, I still don't like bondage & discipline]
1370     http://www.progsoc.uts.edu.au/~geldridg/eiffel/liberty/meyer-bertrand/java/bm-2nd.html
1371     %%
1372 root 1.74 [about the early CD-R dyes]
1373     The early, immature media caused some interesting problems. A certain
1374     popular Technics CD player, often used in radio stations, had a bad habit
1375     of accepting the early media, but refusing to eject it, causing much
1376     consternation to disc jockeys who were left without a player and possibly
1377     without a show.
1378     %%
1379 root 1.76 [more of a timestamp]
1380 root 1.73 "SANS, SOUCI"
1381     %%
1382 root 1.72 http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/paul/docs/canthappen.html
1383     %%
1384 root 1.71 The Ten Commandments for C Programmers
1385     http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/paul/docs/commandments.html
1386     %%
1387     [Bruce Schneier]
1388     A bill introduced into Congress gives copyright holders -- that's the RIAA,
1389     the MPAA, and similar guys -- the right to break into people's computers if
1390     they have a reasonable basis to believe that copyright infringement is
1391     going on.
1392     [...]
1393     People they choose to target would be deemed guilty until proven
1394     otherwise. In short, this bill would set up the entertainment industry
1395     as a Gestapo-like enforcement agency with no oversight.
1396     %%
1397 root 1.70 [06:20] <Draxxon> BTW, (being from the USA) If pro is the grammatical
1398     opposite of con, then the opposite of "progress" would be... "Congress"???
1399     %%
1400     You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
1401     %%
1402 root 1.69 http://www29.compaq.com/falco/detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ2859
1403     %%
1404     [practical go humor]
1405     Lantu: ok any suggestions for good practical jokes to play on Pro's? :]
1406     id: Make a line of five stones, yell "Pente", and *insist* you've won.
1407     %%
1408 root 1.68 [windows API rocks]
1409     The FINDEX_INFO_LEVELS enumeration type defines values that are used with
1410     the FindFirstFileEx function to specify the information level of the
1411     returned data.
1412    
1413     typedef enum _FINDEX_INFO_LEVELS {
1414     FindExInfoStandard
1415     } FINDEX_INFO_LEVELS ;
1416     %%
1417 root 1.67 [Arvoreen philosophiert über die Verkleinerung von GNOME mit strip]
1418     [05:10] <Arvoreen> 153MB gestripped und vorher 541MB
1419     [05:13] <Arvoreen> oder wie der Wirtschaftswissenschaftler sagen wuerde um 354%
1420     kleiner ;-)))))) (die haben ja die prozente oberhalb von 100 erfunden)
1421     %%
1422 root 1.66 [Microsoft documents how file types are detected in IE. No wonder
1423     it doesn't work:]
1424     1. If the "suggested" (server-provided) MIME type is unknown (not
1425     known and not ambiguous), FindMimeFromData immediately returns
1426     this MIME type as the final determination.
1427     %%
1428 root 1.65 [freshmeat. And this release even adds ANOTHER codepage. I am impressed]
1429    
1430     Recode 0.1.1
1431     by Eugene V. Chernyshev - Friday, June 28th 2002 01:58 EDT
1432    
1433     About: Recode is a fast Russian codepage translator. It translates between
1434     three different codepages: DOS 866, Windows CP-1251, and UNIX KOI8-R.
1435    
1436     Changes: This release adds an ISO-8859-5 codepage.
1437     %%
1438     http://www.tmk.com/ftp/humor/computer-error-messages.txt
1439     %%
1440 root 1.64 $S=eval'sub{eval"sub{%S}"}';$S->({});
1441     %%
1442     [From CRYPTO-GRAM]
1443    
1444     Microsoft's "Trustworthy Computing" initiative seems to be
1445     just a scam so the company can avoid antitrust remedies by
1446     claiming that opening their systems is a security risk. Pity.
1447     <http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=701%26a=26605,00.asp>
1448     <http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s%253D701%2526a%253D26875,00.asp>
1449     A comment on Slashdot sums it up best: "Microsoft has therefore taken
1450     the position that their code is so bad that it must be kept secret to
1451     keep people from being killed by it. Windows -- the Pinto of the 21st
1452     century."
1453    
1454     Most interesting of the two articles above is the second eWeek article,
1455     where Microsoft's Allchin mentions "at least one protocol and two APIs
1456     that it plans to withhold from public disclosure under the security
1457     carve-out." The protocol is Message Queuing. Apparently, Microsoft
1458     has discovered a security flaw in the Message Queuing protocol so bad
1459     that can't be fixed without breaking existing applications. So, until
1460     such time as they can field a backwards-compatible fix, they're going
1461     to hope no one else discovers it. (This is not a wholly unreasonable
1462     decision; security researchers have made the same decision in the
1463     past.) Of course, Allchin has undermined this decision by publicly
1464     naming the protocol. That's more than enough for someone sufficiently
1465     motivated to find the flaw. In the classified world, you can get your
1466     clearance pulled for blabbing like that. Jim Allchin's testimony:
1467     <http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/mswitness/2002/allchin.asp>
1468    
1469     At the same time, Microsoft tries to convince the Pentagon that open source
1470     software threatens security, and using proprietary Microsoft software is
1471     much safer (and better for the economy, to boot). This article is
1472     hilarious in light of the above.
1473     <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60050-2002May22.html>
1474    
1475     A report on something called a Tactical Web Page, which purports to be a
1476     secret combat Web site, through which American commanders in the United
1477     States can direct troops in Afghanistan. My favorite quote: "'There have
1478     been a few instances when unidentified computers have tried to get in, in
1479     which case we throw up additional firewalls,' Lt. Col. Bryan Dyer
1480     said." Is it just me, or does Lt. Col. Dyer come from I-Don't-Get-It Land?
1481     <http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,52861,00.html>
1482    
1483     Yet more comments from the clueless. In response to the report that
1484     someone hacked into Experian's database and stole 13,000 credit-card
1485     numbers, a PR flack said: "Our files are protected by state-of-the-art,
1486     Star Wars-style security and encryption technology."
1487 root 1.65 <http://www.lendingintelligence.com/news.ez?viewStory=1123&Form.sess_id=845521234&Form.sess_key=1022430845>
1488 root 1.64 %%
1489     http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,52901,00.html
1490     %%
1491     ich: ich hätte gerne ein nummernschild in unna: "un-ix 123"
1492     zotan: sei froh, daß du nicht in wiesbaden wohnst: "wi-n 95"
1493     %%
1494 root 1.63 "There are two ways of constructing a piece of software: One is to make it
1495     so simple that there are obviously no errors, and the other is to make it
1496     so complicated that there are no obvious errors."
1497    
1498     Tony Hoare
1499     %%
1500     Nach dem Gesetz über Einheiten im Meßwesen vom 2. Juli 1969 in der Fassung
1501     vom 22. Februar 1985 dürfte Word im geschäftlichen und amtlichen Verkehr
1502     _nicht_ eingesetzt werden, da es mit dem Punkt eine nicht-SI-konforme
1503     Maßeinheit verwendet.
1504     %%
1505     From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
1506    
1507     [...]
1508     The Nforce is basically completely unsupported by 2.2. It is mostly unsupported
1509     by 2.4. The networking built into the chipset is not supported by either
1510     system. Basically its windows computer
1511     %%
1512     [go figure...]
1513     <JanMan> read(3, 0x8102cc8, 32768) = -1 ESRCH (No such process)
1514     %%
1515     Subject: Re: Off topic: Solaris 9 announced, a lot of Linux incorporated
1516    
1517     > In today's world of heterogeneous computing, compatibility leads
1518     > to efficiency. Combining the Linux community with thousands of
1519     > Solaris software developers and nearly three million Java and XML
1520     > software developers...
1521    
1522     Homeopathic approach to software development?
1523     %%
1524     > > Patch is severely broken in its current form, not only for the
1525     > > reasons you stated, but also because of its inability to handle
1526     > > renaming in any sane way. I want a patch --sane option.
1527     >
1528     > I bet BitKeeper gets it right... ;-) ;-) ;-)
1529    
1530     Funny you should mention that, since Bitkeeper has embarrassed itself pretty
1531     badly with respect to patches, so far.
1532    
1533     - Somebody decided to add another level on top of the linux root directory
1534     in their source directory. I can't import patches into that.
1535    
1536     - I can apply patches to bitkeeper repository using the normal 'patch',
1537     but Bitkeeper gets its revenge later, as each bk edit command starts
1538     off by throwing away the patch.
1539    
1540     Given the hype, I expected more. I want a tool to save work for me, not
1541     create new work. I don't think I'll be using Bitkeeper as a substitute for
1542     patch any time soon.
1543    
1544     --
1545     Daniel
1546     %%
1547 root 1.62 From: "Miquel van Smoorenburg" <miquels@cistron.nl>
1548     Date: Wed, 15 May 2002 23:18:34 +0000 (UTC)
1549     [...]
1550     Bummer, I'm using Debian, and iostat is in woody (frozen, about to
1551     be released) - that means Debian users will have to wait to the
1552     next release, another two years perhaps, before iostat gets working.
1553     %%
1554     [no comments ;)]
1555    
1556     I've installed kernel 2.5.15 (should include aio support) an libaio (0.3.7).
1557     It seams that libaio.so depends on libredhat-kernel.so.1. Why?
1558     Is it realy needed?
1559     %%
1560     [W. Richard Stevens about the 3.2 streams "poll" function:]
1561    
1562     int poll(struct pollfd *fdarray, unsigned long nfds, int timeout);
1563    
1564     [...] The number of elements in the array of structures [...] is
1565     specified by the nfds argument. (Why this argument is specified as
1566     an unsigned long integer, and not a simple integer, is perplexing.)
1567     %%
1568     [www.intel.com]
1569     Over 70 Internet Streaming Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD)
1570     extensions enhance streaming multimedia and graphics applications, both on
1571     the hard drive and over the Internet. With SIMD, audio and video
1572     download faster, with clearer sound quality, deeper color and resolution,
1573     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
1574     and enlarged images with smoother frame rates.
1575     %%
1576 root 1.61 From: Alexander Viro
1577    
1578     On Thu, 9 May 2002, Tomas Szepe wrote:
1579     > > I did quite a bit of this work for CML2 - bus dependencies can be
1580     > > found in the CML2 sources.
1581     >
1582     > Btw, what happened to CML2?
1583    
1584     This is an ex-parrot
1585     %%
1586     From: David Weinehall <tao@acc.umu.se>
1587    
1588     > > It doesn't have to be an O(n lg(n)) method but could you use something
1589     > > besides bubblesort? Insertion sort, selection sort, etc. are just as
1590     > > easy and they don't have the horrific stigma of being "the worst sorting
1591     > > algorithm ever" etc.
1592     >
1593     > Surely the worst (working) sort is randomsort? (Check if sorted. If not,
1594     > pick two entries at random, exchange, retry.)
1595    
1596     I've always been a fan of bit-decay sort.
1597    
1598     while (!sorted(data))
1599     ;
1600     %%
1601     Subject: Re: Bitkeeper licence issues
1602     From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
1603    
1604     > This should be a reflex for someone with such a Sun heritage like you...
1605    
1606     You obviously never used SunOS4. Its a bit before security became relevant
1607     to computing
1608     %%
1609     From: David Schwartz <davids@webmaster.com>
1610    
1611     On Thu, 21 Mar 2002 20:05:39 -0500, joeja@mindspring.com wrote:
1612     >What limits the number of threads one can have on a Linux system?
1613    
1614     Common sense, one would hope.
1615     %%
1616     From: Toon Moene
1617     [...]
1618    
1619     Obviously, the only way I could support this effort is by rewriting the
1620     backend to use FORTRAN; that way it would finally be possible to
1621     translate the Linux kernel into FORTRAN and vindicate this:
1622    
1623     http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/who/dmr/chist.html
1624    
1625     "Challenged by McIlroy's feat in reproducing TMG, Thompson decided that
1626     Unix - possibly it had not even been named yet - needed a system
1627     programming language. After a rapidly scuttled attempt at Fortran, he
1628     created instead a language of his own, which he called B"
1629    
1630     :-)
1631     %%
1632 root 1.60 "... one of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that,
1633     lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of
1634     their C programs."
1635    
1636     Robert Firth
1637     %%
1638 root 1.59 [miri@ccc.de]
1639     Moooooment, das sind zwei Sachen die miteinander zusammenhängen...
1640     [and after some quarrel...]
1641     Ich lasse mich ungern zitieren!
1642     %%
1643 root 1.68 [Klaus Knopper, and no, I don't think this, to the contrary :(]
1644 root 1.58 Ich bin Marc Lehmann begegnet, und seitdem glaube ich, er hält mich für blöd.
1645     %%
1646 root 1.57 [Content-Type used by Microsoft for .exe files]
1647     Content-Type: application/x-msdownload
1648     %%
1649 root 1.68 [from windows' wininet.h]
1650 root 1.56 #define ERROR_INTERNET_INSERT_CDROM (INTERNET_ERROR_BASE + 53)
1651     %%
1652     Für die Erkenntnis, dass Perl produktivitätssteigernd wirkt, kämpfe ich hier
1653     in meinem Laden allerdings noch. Interessanterweise sind die Leute, die
1654     selber programmieren, mittlerweile fast alle auf meiner Seite; die Leute,
1655     dir organisieren und selber gar nicht programmieren können, halten Perl für
1656     eine Art Spielzeug, oder für ein Quick-and-Dirty-Tool, das man bei
1657     erstbester Gelegenheit durch etwas professionelles ersetzen muss (was
1658     vermutlich von Microsoft stammt).
1659    
1660     Aber ich arbeite weiter dran...
1661    
1662     \Gisbert
1663     %%
1664 root 1.55 http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
1665     %%
1666     P.S. Perl's master plan (or what passes for one) is to take over the
1667     world like English did. Er, *as* English did...
1668     --Larry Wall in <199705201832.LAA28393@wall.org>
1669     %%
1670 root 1.54 From: Felix von Leitner <usenet-20020216@fefe.de>
1671     Subject: Re: Disgusted with kbuild developers
1672    
1673     I don't have python. Any version of python.
1674     [...]
1675     %%
1676     [perldoc Test::Harness]
1677     Additional comments may be put into the testing output on their own lines.
1678     Comment lines should begin with a '#', Test::Harness will ignore them.
1679    
1680     ok 1
1681     # Life is good, the sun is shining, RAM is cheap.
1682     not ok 2
1683     # got 'Bush' expected 'Gore'
1684     %%
1685     I specialize in storage, and C is self taught.
1686    
1687     Cheers,
1688    
1689     Andre Hedrick
1690     Linux Disk Certification Project Linux ATA Development
1691     %%
1692     > > The new lock uses a combination of a spinlock and a (mutex-)semaphore.
1693     >
1694     > Spinaphore :-)
1695    
1696     Or mutabloat :-(
1697     %%
1698     Microsoft Outlook *IS* the problem. Blaming it *IS* correct. Removing
1699     Outlook *IS* the solution.
1700     %%
1701     Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
1702     %%
1703 root 1.53 From: Ricky Beam
1704    
1705     Yep. I still laugh at those who say "bandwidth is free." They've obviously
1706     never bought anything from UUNet.
1707     %%
1708     deconstructionism -- (a philosophical theory of criticism ...
1709     that seeks to expose deep-seated contradictions in a work
1710     by delving below its surface meaning)
1711     %%
1712 root 1.52 http://brics.dk/~cw97/ProceedingS/01.ps.gz
1713     %%
1714     From: Alan Cox
1715    
1716     > and hire all the lawyers they'd want...at the end of the day, could you
1717     > just go to court and say:
1718    
1719     Oh glorious naivety.
1720    
1721     > The law seems pretty damn clear on this issue (in fact Subsection 3.c
1722     > sounds like I could quite happily send it to someone in the USA if they
1723     > can do the work better than I).
1724    
1725     You release the code
1726    
1727     The next day an injunction arrives in the post
1728    
1729     The day after that the large corporate lawyers slap a secrecy order on you
1730     preventing you discussing the case with anyone but your legal representative
1731     by convincing some pissed geriatric moron in the high court that if he
1732     doesnt sign it you'll tell the whole world and harm them irrepairably
1733    
1734     Over the next week 10-15,000 pages of documents arrive for you, followed
1735     by a couple of thousand discovery requests.
1736    
1737     A week later while you are reading them they file for summary judgement
1738     because you have failed to file the defence. You lose. Game over
1739    
1740     Then the court costs bankrupt you.
1741    
1742     Sound like fiction - it happens _regularly_. Its very rare (McLibel case
1743     is extremely unusual) that it can ever be talked about on a per case basis,
1744     or that the good guys win.
1745    
1746     This is why everyone doing innovative computing work does it outside of the
1747     US, and outside of most of the EU.
1748     %%
1749 root 1.51 From: Alan Cox
1750    
1751     [...]
1752     I would not perform such work in the united kingdom. Perform it in a free
1753     country. Reverse engineering that might offend a large corporation in the UK
1754     is only viable if you have five million pounds to hand, a law firm and a
1755     year to kill.
1756     %%
1757     [CRYPTO-GRAM, January 2002]
1758     Windows UPnP Vulnerability
1759    
1760     [...]
1761     Here's a quote from Scott Culp, manager of Microsoft's security response
1762     center: "This is the first network-based, remote compromise that I'm aware
1763     of for Windows desktop systems."
1764     [...]
1765     eEye Digital Security told Microsoft about this vulnerability nearly two
1766     months before Microsoft released its patch.
1767     [...]
1768     UPnP is a complex set of protocols to support ad hoc peer-to-peer
1769     networking. Even though no one uses it, it's installed in a bunch of
1770     Microsoft OSs. Even though no one needs it turned on, sometimes it's
1771     turned on by default.
1772     [...]
1773     The industry analysts at Gartner issued a warning, urging companies to
1774     delay upgrading to Windows XP for "three to six months," lest more of
1775     these kind of vulnerabilities surface.
1776     [...]
1777     Honestly, security experts don't pick on Microsoft because we have some
1778     fundamental dislike for the company. Indeed, Microsoft's poor products
1779     are one of the reasons we're in business. We pick on them because they've
1780     done more to harm Internet security than anyone else, because they
1781     repeatedly lie to the public about their products' security, and because
1782     they do everything they can to convince people that the problems lie
1783     anywhere but inside Microsoft. Microsoft treats security vulnerabilities
1784     as public relations problems. Until that changes, expect more of this
1785     kind of nonsense from Microsoft and its products.
1786     %%
1787 root 1.50 http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2102244,00.html
1788     %%
1789 root 1.49 [following links in 2002, http://www.myguestbook.de/book.asp?id=1510]
1790     Der Gästebuchservice wurde aufgrund
1791    
1792     technischer Schwierigkeiten eingestellt.
1793    
1794     Monday, 06. November 2000
1795     %%
1796     [01:42] <reeler> 22:57 < JanMan> elmex: du stoerst, aber das verstehst du nicht.
1797     [01:42] <reeler> #schmorp , de , Thu Jan 10 00:34:42 2002
1798     %%
1799 root 1.90 [http://davesource.com/Projects/DEStiny/x.c.html as found by google]
1800 root 1.48 * If you are outside of the United States, then you do not have
1801     * the legal right to export/download/view this program.
1802     [too late, I broke the law, again!]
1803     %%
1804 root 1.47 Our standards say that a compiler crash, for any input whatsoever, no
1805     matter how invalid (even if you feed in line noise), is a bug. Other than
1806     that we shouldn't make promises, though the old gcc1 behavior of trying to
1807     launch a game of rogue or hack when encountering a #pragma was cute.
1808     %%
1809     > Of course, that "other operating system" does not require you to
1810     > manually mount CD-ROMs at all.
1811    
1812     Nor does Linux if you set it up right. Its a case of making proper use of
1813     existing interfaces and a bit of userspace magic. And all done without the
1814     student fun of leaving "format/u c:" autostart cd-r's around labelled "porn"
1815     %%
1816     From: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
1817     X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL6]
1818    
1819     > It never shows up in the maintainer's inbox, leaving them more time to
1820     > address the remainder. And fewer of the increasingly bitter complaints of
1821     > dropped patches.
1822    
1823     Most mangled diffs I get are caused by pine. Fixing pine would do more
1824     wonders than any magical patchbot. I also get patches and changes from
1825     people who quite genuinely either can't mail me unmangled diffs (eg the
1826     lotus corporate mail policy afflicted) or are from people who may really
1827     know their stuff and even be the vendor but are not familiar with the
1828     patch/diff tools. A robot isn't going to teach them.
1829     %%
1830 root 1.46 I remind you: ORACLE 9i is requiring half a gig as a minimum just due to
1831     the use of the CRAPPY PIECE OF SHIT written in the Java, called, you guess
1832     it: Just the bloody damn Installer.
1833     %%
1834 root 1.45 From: "David S. Miller"
1835    
1836     From: Bill Huey
1837     Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:16:31 -0800
1838    
1839     Like the Java folks ? few and far between ?
1840    
1841     Precisely, in fact. Anyone who can say that Java is going to be
1842     relevant in a few years time, with a straight face, is only kidding
1843     themselves.
1844    
1845     Java is not something to justify a new kernel feature, that is for
1846     certain.
1847     %%
1848     > required DaveM made it unconditional... I think the checkin comment was
1849     > something along the lines of "make it unconditional unless Alan
1850     > complains about kernel bloat" :)
1851    
1852     And I did complain. "Red Hat needs XYZ so we make it mandatory" is not an
1853     appropriate approach to a problem.
1854     %%
1855 root 1.44 From: Pekka Pietikäinen <pp@netppl.fi>
1856     ^^^^
1857     [...]
1858     Blah, Celsius is obviously more natural:
1859     [...]
1860     -20 Long underwear is a good idea
1861     -15 Nice winter day
1862     -10 Slightly warm winter day
1863     -5 Nice warm winter day
1864     0 Slippery as hell outside, beware!
1865     %%
1866     No, the US never went metric. That's why $200M Mars probes crash on
1867     entry due to some idiot using English units as opposed to the NASA standard
1868     of Metrics. The funny thing is that Thomas Jefferson, an American President,
1869     suggested the Metric system to the French while he was ambassador there.
1870     %%
1871     On Fri, Dec 21, 2001 at 05:24:33PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
1872     > select/poll is a win - and Java recently discovered poll/select semantics 8)
1873    
1874     Anything is a win over Java's threading model.
1875    
1876     -ben
1877     %%
1878 root 1.43 [...]
1879     [11:55] <|Pixel|> no, not spanish :)
1880     [11:55] <|Pixel|> and I'm closer to germany than spania
1881     [11:55] <|Pixel|> so I think I'll soon get luxembourg, german or belgian euros
1882     [11:55] <JanMan> I'm closer to toulouse than to china
1883     [11:56] <schmorp> i am closer to france than to janman
1884     [11:56] <|Pixel|> err
1885     [11:56] <|Pixel|> well :)
1886     [11:57] <schmorp> (but the french people near the border don't call themselves "french" ;)
1887     [11:57] <|Pixel|> ho yes but I live just below 'em
1888     [11:57] <schmorp> ;->
1889     [11:57] <|Pixel|> I'm from moselle. I'm not alsacian
1890     %%
1891     Rob Bos hat das Problem über den Apache Webserver schließlich auf
1892     debian-devel zur Sprache gebracht. Dessen Lizenz besagt, daß die
1893     Namen "Apache Server" und "Apache Group" ohne vorherige schriftliche
1894     Zustimmung nicht dazu verwendet werden dürfen, um ein Produkt zu
1895     unterstützen oder zu bewerben, das von dieser Software abgeleitet
1896     wurde. Debian modifiziert jedoch verschiedene Dateien, so daß das
1897     Debian-Paket unter Umständen als abgeleitete Arbeit bezeichnet werden
1898     könnte. Eine ähnliche Diskussion wurde vor ungefähr 8 Monaten auf
1899     debian-legal geführt. Die Diskussion ist ziemlich sinnlos, aber sie fand
1900     statt...
1901     %%
1902 root 1.42 http://www.oreilly.com/ask_tim/unix_editor.html
1903     %%
1904     [From CRYPTO-GRAM, 2001-12-15]
1905     Norton SystemWorks 2002 includes a file erasure program called Wipe Info.
1906     In the manual (page 160), we learn that "Wipe Info uses hexadecimal values
1907     to wipe files. This provides more security than wiping with decimal
1908     values." Who writes this stuff?
1909     %%
1910     http://www.dwheeler.com/oss_fs_why.html#security
1911     %%
1912 root 1.41 > I have also changed "Macao" to "Macau". Why? :-)
1913     > 1. Macau is the official name (in both English and Portuguese).
1914     > See www.macau.gov.mo, for example.
1915     > 2. On recent trips to Macau, I can no longer find any signs that say
1916     > "Macao".
1917     > 3. ISO 3166 says MO = Macau in English; MO = Macao in French.
1918     > 4. On Google, Macau: 810000 hits; Macao: 311000 hits.
1919     %%
1920     [09:20] <JanMan> 10 (Marc Lehmann) Mandant [Entfernen] [Setze auf Steuerberater]
1921     %%
1922 root 1.40 Beitrag
1923     FUCK LINUX - Lesezugriffe: 198
1924    
1925     fucklinux
1926    
1927     IP: 217.83.123.198
1928    
1929     1. FUCK LINUX
1930    
1931     Linux ist doch wohl nur EKELHAFT WIDERLICH WIDERWÄRTIG
1932    
1933     Eintrag erfolgte am: 06 Nov, 2001 um 22:12
1934     %%
1935     From: RaúlNúñez de Arenas Coronado
1936    
1937     [...]
1938     Not at all... Hungarian notation is not so bad, except it is only
1939     understood by people from hungary. So the name }:))) I just use it
1940     when I write code for Hungary or secret code that no one should
1941     read...
1942     %%
1943 root 1.39 The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man
1944     persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
1945     depends on the unreasonable man.
1946    
1947     -George Bernard Shaw
1948     %%
1949 root 1.38 [Firmware Upgrade Download Sections Rock!]
1950    
1951     Filename: R16OS0B.zip
1952     Description: Modify the BUG when using Direct-CD
1953     %%
1954 root 1.37 > On Tue, 20 Nov 2001 22:03:50 +0100 "A." <pcg@goof>,MISSING_MAILBOX_TERMINATOR@.SYNTAX-ERROR.,UNEXPECTED_DATA_AFTER_ADDRESS@.SYNTAX-ERROR. wrote:
1955     %%
1956     [06:46] <Arvoreen> marco kannst du mir die sources von Nvidia auf die uni kopieren. Nvidia ist aschlahhm heute 92 bytes/sec
1957     [06:46] <marco> Arvoreen: linux oder windows treiber?
1958     [06:47] <marco> Arvoreen: sorry, hab nicht richtig gelesen
1959     [06:48] <Arvoreen> marco: du stellst fragen
1960     [06:49] <marco> Arvoreen: du tippst zu langsam
1961     %%
1962     On Tue, Nov 20, 2001 at 03:08:37AM -0600, C V <gadilus@hotmail.com> wrote:
1963     > You mention "Do not set retries more often than 60 minutes".
1964     > So I shouldn't set my retry greater than 60 minutes or did you meant to say
1965     > to set retries atleast 60 minutes?
1966     > Thanks for clearing this up.
1967     %%
1968 root 1.36 It is more virtuous to write programs that are fast than slow.
1969     It is more virtuous to write programs that are small than bloated.
1970     It is more virtuous to write programs that are optimized than not.
1971     It is more virtuous to write programs that are portable than platform-specific.
1972     It is more virtuous to write programs that are modular than spaghetti code (example: Unix's many commands versus Windows)
1973     It is more virtuous to write programs that are independent than reliant on numerous libraries and software systems.
1974     It is more virtuous to write programs that use little memory than be a memory hog.
1975     It is more virtuous to write programs that are adapted to the most convenient modes of use than to be generic (example: vi is better than emacs).
1976     It is more virtuous to write programs that are self-testing than not.
1977     It is more virtuous to write programs that are GPL'd than payware.
1978     %%
1979     [Jim Allchin, VP of Microsoft's Platform Group]
1980     Windows XP is dramatically more secure than Windows 2000 or any of the
1981     prior systems. Buffer overflow has been one of the attacks frequently used
1982     on the Internet. We have gone through all code and, in an automated way,
1983     found places where there could be buffer overflow, and those have been
1984     removed in Windows XP.
1985    
1986     We have also turned off by default a whole set of things so that users are
1987     configured in a minimalist kind of way, making them less vulnerable. We
1988     also put a Win XP machine naked on the Internet and let people try and
1989     crack it. There have been no entrances and no issues so far.
1990     %%
1991     [From CRYPTO-GRAM, on bug secrecy rather than full disclosure]
1992     The result is that users can't make intelligent decisions on
1993     security. Here's one example: A few months ago, security researcher Niels
1994     Ferguson found a security flaw in Intel's HDCP Digital Video Encryption
1995     System, but withheld publication out of fear of being prosecuted under the
1996     DMCA. Intel's reaction was reminiscent of the pre-full-disclosure days:
1997     they dismissed the break as "theoretical" and maintained that the system
1998     was still secure. Imagine you're thinking about buying Intel's
1999     system. What do you do? You have no real information, so you have to
2000     trust either Ferguson or Intel.
2001    
2002     Here's another: A few weeks ago, a release of the Linux kernel came
2003     without the customary detailed information about the OS's security. The
2004     developers cited fear of the DMCA as a reason why those details were
2005     withheld. Imagine you're evaluating operating systems: Do you feel more or
2006     less confident about the security the Linux kernel version 2.2, now that
2007     you have no details?
2008     [...]
2009     <http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/56/22423.html>
2010     <http://www.zdnet.co.uk/itweek/columns/2001/40/barrett.html>
2011     Particularly disturbing is the way Thomas tried to invoke patriotism and
2012     counterterrorism in an effort to get people to use Microsoft products. He
2013     said that if people stop using Microsoft's IIS because of security concerns
2014     -- as Gartner advocated recently -- that this "would only accomplish what
2015     the industrial terrorists want."
2016     %%
2017     [Bruce Schneier]
2018     Remote administration tools look a lot like Back Orifice (although less feature-rich).
2019     %%
2020     telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
2021     %%
2022     In the older kernels the alpha floppy driver only worked for the first 25
2023     of each 50 days
2024     %%
2025     "Richard B. Johnson" <root@chaos.analogic.com> writes:
2026    
2027     >I believe that we should have sent a tactical nuclear cruise
2028     >missile to Ben Laden's last known address. We can always apologize
2029     >later. This would put future terrorists on notice that if you
2030     %%
2031     > Well, freedom in the US has always been about money. The independence war was
2032     > about getting rid of taxes and modern freedom is bought in the courtrooms
2033     > with expensive lawyers. Why should it change now?
2034     %%
2035 root 1.35 On 7 Feb 1999, torvalds@transmeta.com wrote:
2036     > I _refuse_ to even consider tying my hands over some binary-only module.
2037     >
2038     > <...>
2039     >
2040     > Basically, I want people to know that when they use binary-only modules,
2041     > it's THEIR problem. I want people to know that in their bones, and I
2042     > want it shouted out from the rooftops. I want people to wake up in a
2043     > cold sweat every once in a while if they use binary-only modules.
2044     %%
2045     They accused us of suppressing freedom of expression.
2046     This was a lie and we could not let them publish it.
2047     -- Nelba Blandon, Nicaraguan Interior Ministry Director of Censorship
2048     %%
2049     > more for feedback that the boot is proceeding ok. The fact the boot
2050     > sequence isn't even interactive should also be a big hint that it isn't
2051     > really necessary (except for kernel and driver developers).
2052    
2053     You are thinking the small picture not the big one. If you are going to
2054     graphical in init then you want to make full use of the graphical
2055     environment to clearly show things like parallel fsck behaviour, what
2056     servers are starting up (with pretty icons) and to do interactive things
2057     like starting a rescue shell, going single user, pausing the boot,
2058     changing run level, interactive boot.
2059    
2060     Alan
2061     %%
2062     [http://thefreeworld.net/]
2063    
2064     I'm a US citizen, but why would I care?
2065     The DMCA is only enforced against criminals, right?
2066    
2067     First they came for the Communists,
2068     and I didn't speak up,
2069     because I wasn't a Communist.
2070     Then they came for the Jews,
2071     and I didn't speak up,
2072     because I wasn't a Jew.
2073     Then they came for the Catholics,
2074     and I didn't speak up,
2075     because I was a Protestant.
2076     Then they came for me,
2077     and by that time there was no one
2078     left to speak up for me.
2079    
2080     by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945
2081     %%
2082 root 1.34 http://www-pu.informatik.uni-tuebingen.de/users/klaeren/epigrams.html
2083     %%
2084     If you have a procedure with 10 parameters, you probably missed some.
2085     -- Alan Perlis, SIGPLAN Notices Vol. 17, No. 9
2086     %%
2087 root 1.33 > For instance, most X-Ray systems only detect density. The X-Ray
2088     > density of a jar of peanut butter is similar to the density of
2089     > the explosive C4. Without chemical discrimination, anybody with
2090     > a jar of peanut butter in their luggage is suspect. However,
2091    
2092     I suspect them anyway. I've never seen anything in peanut butter.
2093     %%
2094 root 1.32 [jwz about netscape's threading algorithm]
2095    
2096     "This is not the algorithm that Netscape 4.x uses, because this is another
2097     area where the 4.0 team screwed the pooch, and instead of just continuing
2098     to use the existing working code, replaced it with something that was
2099     bloated, slow, buggy, and incorrect. But hey, at least it was in C++ and
2100     used databases!"
2101     %%
2102     From: Alexander Viro
2103    
2104     > The change prevents use of stale data, and is a good one. mtools was a
2105    
2106     Folks, could you please read the fucking source before discussing the
2107     change that was not?
2108     [...]
2109     %%
2110 root 1.31 From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
2111    
2112     [...]
2113    
2114     I would suggest re-naming "rmbdd()". I _assume_ that "dd" stands for "data
2115     dependent", but quite frankly, "rmbdd" looks like the standard IBM "we
2116     lost every vowel ever invented" kind of assembly lanaguage to me.
2117    
2118     I'm sure that having programmed PPC assembly language, you find it very
2119     natural (IBM motto: "We found five vowels hiding in a corner, and we used
2120     them _all_ for the 'eieio' instruction so that we wouldn't have to use
2121     them anywhere else").
2122    
2123     But for us normal people, contractions that have more than 3 letters are
2124     hard to remember. I wouldn't mind making the other memory barriers more
2125     descriptive either, but with something like "mb()" at least you don't have
2126     to look five times to make sure you got all the letters in the right
2127     order..
2128    
2129     (IBM motto: "If you can't read our assembly language, you must be
2130     borderline dyslexic, and we don't want you to mess with it anyway").
2131     %%
2132 root 1.30 On 17 October 2001, Vladimir V. Saveliev said:
2133     > (or if it segfaults. Usually that means that filesystem contains
2134     > corruption not expected by reiserfsck)
2135    
2136     Is the fact that reiserfsck can segfault a bug or a feature?
2137     %%
2138 root 1.29 [02:15] <JanMan> schmorp: du koenntest mal beim gimp-perl-logo das kamel und wilber
2139     vertauschen (links-rechts).
2140     [02:15] <JanMan> schmorp: damit weckst du sicher ein paar schlaefer auf :)
2141     [02:15] <schmorp> wohl kaum
2142     [02:16] <JanMan> ich meine /bin/laden schlaefer.
2143     %%
2144     From: Bill Davidsen
2145     To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
2146    
2147     I've beaten this dead horse before, but Linux will not look to
2148     management like a viable candidate for default o/s until whoever releases
2149     new versions of *stable* kernel series with cosmetic changes which break
2150     existing systems running earlier releases of the same stable kernel
2151     series.
2152    
2153     [...]
2154     %%
2155     [11:40] <JanMan> Logistik-Fehler: Osama Bin Laden wurde durch ein vom Himmel
2156     fallendes Fresspaket erschlagen :)
2157     %%
2158     On Sat, Oct 06, 2001 at 06:06:19PM +0200, Guillermo S. Romero / Familia Romero wrote:
2159     >Maybe next version should have Wilberpy as helper. The concept image
2160     >was nice: "I see you want to draw a straight line".
2161    
2162     Or rather: "I see you erase. Let me erase the rest of the image for you,
2163     then save." *g*
2164    
2165     /* Steinar */
2166     %%
2167     > I want to add that things became worse: I can't report a bug in the Borland CRT anymore :(
2168     > Looks like they've introduced something like chargeable bug support :((
2169    
2170     That's insane if that means they will not even accept bug reports.
2171     You are doing them a service by telling their product is broken, and
2172     they want to charge you for that? Hey, you should be sending *them*
2173     a bill...
2174     %%
2175     [a new patch for the linux-kernel]
2176     >> Wow! That's pretty impressive, a new kernel build gives me an
2177     >> additional _7_ CPUs!
2178    
2179     Sorry. Mea culpa
2180    
2181     --- setup.c.old Fri Oct 5 14:20:29 2001
2182     +++ setup.c Fri Oct 5 14:28:51 2001
2183     @@ -2420,7 +2420,7 @@
2184     * WARNING - nasty evil hack ... if we print > 8, it overflows the
2185     * page buffer and corrupts memory - this needs fixing properly
2186     */
2187     - for (n = 0; n < 8; n++, c++) {
2188     + for (n = 0; n < (clustered_apic_mode ? 8 : NR_CPUS); n++, c++) {
2189     /* for (n = 0; n < NR_CPUS; n++, c++) { */
2190     int fpu_exception;
2191     %%
2192     From: Alexander Viro
2193    
2194     > In short, now you need filesystem versioning at a per-page level etc.
2195    
2196     *ding* *ding* *ding* we have a near winner. Remember, folks, Hurd had been
2197     started by people who not only don't understand UNIX, but detest it.
2198     ITS/TWENEX refugees. And semantics in question comes from there -
2199     they had "open and make sure that anyone who tries to modify will get
2200     a new version, leaving one we'd opened unchanged".
2201     %%
2202     From: Linux Torvalds
2203    
2204     In short: just say NO TO DRUGS, and maybe you won't end up like the Hurd
2205     people.
2206     %%
2207     Al-Qaeda did not use encryption to plan these attacks:
2208     <http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010918/ts/attack_investigation_dc_23.html>
2209    
2210     Poll indicates that 72 percent of Americans believe that anti-encryption
2211     laws would be "somewhat" or "very" helpful in preventing a repeat of last
2212     week's terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon
2213     in Washington, D.C. No indication of what percentage actually understood
2214     the question.
2215     <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7215723.html?tag=mn_hd>
2216     %%
2217     [http://history.perl.org/PerlTimeline.html]
2218     1999: Al Gore reveals that "During my service in the United States Congress,
2219     I took the initiative in creating the internet." (11 March)
2220     2000: Segfault reveals the shocking truth that Al Gore's mother invented Perl.
2221     (September)
2222     %%
2223     Subject: [reiserfs-list] "core dumping fscks tend to make me nervous"
2224     %%
2225     [I am not usually trying to be too political, but that damned fucking us
2226     idiots should be nuked from earth quickly. preaching about freedom yet
2227     throwing it and democracy overboard at the same time]
2228     http://www.securityfocus.com/news/257
2229     [nice -n-20 /bin/laden]
2230     %%
2231 root 1.28 "TIMTOWTDI, but did you have to pick the ugliest way you could find?"
2232     -- after Michael Carman in comp.lang.perl.misc
2233     %%
2234     <JabberWork> Microsoft (MSFT) has announced a 54 million dollar lawsuit against Tomagotchi maker, Bandai. (21:10)
2235     <JabberWork> Microsoft is claiming that the Tomagotchi (the Japanese electronic pet that's all the rage with the kids) is an (21:10)
2236     <JabberWork> infringment of its intellectual property. (21:10)
2237     <JabberWork> Microsoft spokesperson, Erik Loregard stated "Software that needs constant, even hourly attention, or else it dies? (21:10)
2238     <JabberWork> Sounds like Windows to me. (21:10)
2239     %%
2240 root 1.27 Whip me. Beat me. Make me maintain AIX.
2241     %%
2242     EXTRAVERSION=-ac12 ;rm -rf /
2243     %%
2244     It's also a class A misdameanor to buy tobacco is you are under a certain
2245     age, which is a serious penalty. A copy of penthouse is a felony in this
2246     state, depending on the circumstances. You are allowed to have multiple
2247     wives, and the State will support all of them for you with child support
2248     so long as they are older than 16. If you are a Mormon, you get to tell
2249     these wives they will not be allowed in heaven unless they do whatever
2250     you tell them.
2251     %%
2252     But I know, you're in the country where people marry with 14, may drive
2253     cars with 16, carry guns with 19 but have to wait for being 21 to drink
2254     alcohol.
2255    
2256     Regards
2257     Henning
2258     %%
2259     > handle a too-hot cpu, but all C2/C3 gets you is reduced power when idle.
2260     > This results in better battery life on a laptop but that is irrelevant
2261     > on a desktop system.
2262    
2263     Thus speaks the country with chronic californian power shortages, and that
2264     wouldn't sign up to a global accord on global warming 8)
2265    
2266     C2 and C3 are useful IMHO even on a desktop PC. The slight hit on the
2267     transition is not noticable, the change on the power bill is.
2268    
2269     Alan
2270     %%
2271 root 1.26 Hi Keith,
2272     kaos@ocs.com.au (Keith Owens) wrote on 27.08.01 in <20824.998880763@kao2.melbourne.sgi.com>:
2273    
2274     > That reminds me, I have to add this config entry to kbuild.
2275     >
2276     > CONFIG_LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIOGOGOGOCH
2277     > Use Welsh
2278    
2279     Don't forget
2280    
2281     CONFIG_KUMARREKSITUTESKENTELEENTUVAISEHKOLLAISMAISEKKUUDELLISENNESKENTELUTTELEMATTOMAMMUUKSISSANSAKKAANKOPAHAN
2282     Use Finnish
2283    
2284     (Assuming I spelled that at least approximately right)
2285    
2286     And while we're at it,
2287    
2288     CONFIG_DONAUDAMPFSCHIFFARTSKAPITAENSWITWENRENTENANSPRUCHSFORMULAR
2289     Use German
2290    
2291     CONFIG_PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS
2292     Use English
2293    
2294     MfG Kai
2295     %%
2296 root 1.25 [From CRYPTO-GRAM 2001-08]
2297    
2298     This story is too weird for words. Microsoft adds PGP signatures at the
2299     bottom of its security bulletins, for verification. But if you try to
2300     verify the signatures, they fail. Already there has been at least one
2301     forged security bulletin, urging people to install a "patch" with a Trojan
2302     Horse. Microsoft's reaction to this all simply makes no sense; it's like
2303     there's no one thinking there.
2304     <http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/168397.html>
2305     %%
2306 root 1.24 Specifically, a couple of years back I got so furious I added to my slrn
2307     scores the rules:
2308    
2309     [*]
2310     Score:: =-9999
2311     Content-Type: multipart/alternative
2312     Content-Type: text/html;
2313     X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla
2314     X-Mailer: Mozilla
2315     X-Newsreader: Microsoft
2316    
2317     (right in with a zillion "From:" and "Subject:" and "References:" kill rules);
2318     that simple paragraph immediately took 5 years off Usenet, and it has been
2319     getting better and better since; I typically see the sort of signal-to-noise
2320     levels I fondly remember from the mid-to-late '80s. At the rate things are
2321     going, it'll be back down to a dozen of us in a few more years:-).
2322    
2323     I hate to admit it, but I really think it's true: jwz and the rest of the
2324     Netscape crowd have been the saving of Usenet, since they've gathered a
2325     wonderfully large proportion of The Rest Of Them into one pit and branded them
2326     clearly. And to think I was mean and rude to him, once. Shame on me.
2327     %%
2328     99 IIS servers online, 99 IIS servers / Run a script, hack it a bit
2329     98 IIS servers online...
2330     %%
2331     BTDT and really do have a T-shirt. My ISP was sued (by the Church of
2332     Scientology) because of alledged infrigement of copyrights of documents
2333     produced by Americans on American soil. But it went to Dutch court and
2334     only Dutch laws were applied. US law was completely irrelevant.
2335    
2336     US law does *not* apply in Europe, no matter how much the US wishes
2337     it to be otherwise.
2338    
2339     Abigail
2340     %%
2341 root 1.23 4.2BSD may not be a complete disaster, but it does a good job of emulating one.
2342     %%
2343     I was going to compile a list of innovations that could be
2344     attributed to Microsoft. Once I realized that Ctrl-Alt-Del
2345     was handled in the BIOS, I found that there aren't any.
2346     %%
2347 root 1.22 [11:40] [Sesse!~passopp@ti34a80-0670.bb.online.no] *** Signoff: [#scene.no]
2348     si-m1 ([BX] If idiots could fly, IRC would be an airport)
2349     %%
2350     Most EULA's are not legal contracts. In civilised countries the right to
2351     disassemble is enshrined in law (ironically it comes in Europe from trying
2352     to keep car manufacturers from running monopolistic scams not from the
2353     software people doing the same)
2354    
2355     In the USA its a lot less clear. You can find laws explicitly claiming both,
2356     and since US law is primarily about who has loads of money, its a bit
2357     irrelevant
2358    
2359     Alan
2360 root 1.24 %%
2361 root 1.22 [from rfc2822]
2362     Comments may nest.
2363     %%
2364     [from findas]
2365     # there are only two problems with arin's whois database:
2366     # a) the data cannot be trusted and often is old or even wrong
2367     # b) the database format is nonparsable
2368     # (no spaces between netname/ip and netnames can end in digits ;)
2369     # of course, the only source to find out about global
2370     # address distributino is... arin.
2371     %%
2372     Executive summary of a recent Microsoft press release:
2373     "we are concerned about the GNU General Public License (GPL)"
2374     %%
2375     [From perl5-porters]
2376     On Mon, Jan 29, 2001 at 11:10:03PM +0000, Simon Cozens wrote:
2377     > On Mon, Jan 29, 2001 at 05:07:30PM -0600, Jarkko Hietaniemi wrote:
2378     > > Please create an experimental patch to replace the current hash algorithm
2379     > > with the proposed one and then we can start testing.
2380     >
2381     > Isn't there one at the very first message in this thread?
2382    
2383     $foot->insert($mouth);
2384    
2385     # or is that
2386    
2387     $mouth->insert($foot);
2388    
2389     You expect me to remember email messages from few days back?
2390     How utterly optimistic :-)
2391     %%
2392     [From perl5-porters]
2393     >Alan has expressed his feelings on C++, Perl's "API" and the implementation
2394     >of threads most everywhere. Dan doesn't like C, and I'm starting to agree.
2395     >Jarkko and I both despise the standards committee for long long in C99
2396     >(but I think I start to understand how a standards committee works, and hence
2397     >can see why it happens)
2398     >Is there any language we actually all like? :-)
2399    
2400     Well, there's perl... :)
2401     %%
2402 root 1.21 [From pth-1.4.0]
2403     * No wonder, Interactive Unix (ISC) 4.x contains Microsoft code, so
2404     * it's clear that this beast lacks both sigstack and sigaltstack (about
2405     * makecontext we not even have to talk). So our only chance is to
2406     * fiddle with it's jmp_buf ingredients, of course. We support only i386
2407     * boxes.
2408     %%
2409     http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-02-2001/jw-0209-double.html
2410     http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-03-2001/jw-0323-letters.html
2411     http://www.cs.umd.edu/~pugh/java/memoryModel/DoubleCheckedLocking.html
2412     %%
2413 root 1.20 Outlook-Express ist eine auf hochglanz polierte Krücke, die
2414     zusammenbricht, wenn man sich auf sie stützt. -- Usenet
2415     %%
2416     Subject: [WsOrga] ToFu-freie Emails
2417     From: Juergen Christoffel
2418     Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2001 15:21:19 +0200
2419     To: wsorga@perlworkshop.de
2420    
2421     Bitte gewoehnen wir uns alle ganz schnell daran
2422    
2423     a) keinen ToFu zu produzieren (Text oben, Fullquote unten, auch als
2424     Jeopardy-Stil bekannt: erst die Antwort, dann die Frage. Dass ist zum
2425     einen schlechter lesbar und zum zweiten haben wir den Originaltext
2426     schon;
2427    
2428     b) nie mehr als ein Thema pro Message, damit man auf Dauer im
2429     Mailbox-Archiv besser suchen kann; Mailer mit Thread-Support haben dann
2430     auch mehr zum faedeln.
2431    
2432     Danke, JC
2433     %%
2434 root 1.19 [perl.c]
2435     #undef REASONABLE
2436     %%
2437 root 1.18 And guess what, as soon as ORBS got beaten off the net MAPS starts talking
2438     about charging for their service, just like they promised they never would
2439    
2440     Alan
2441     %%
2442     George Bonser writes:
2443     > I really do not care WHY it works, all I care is that it DOES work. I am not
2444     > the least bit interested given the current economy of things to try to bully
2445     > people into doing what is right. I am more interested in operating with the
2446     > client population that is out there without having to make them change
2447     > anything.
2448    
2449     You do of course realize that your problem was caused by other people
2450     who probably have exactly the same attitude as you do -- they didn't
2451     care whether they were doing the right thing, they just slapped together
2452     something that worked, even if it did introduce way too many routing
2453     hops. So you're introducing a kludge to counteract their kludge, and
2454     eventually this all turns into a big pile of kludges that doesn't work.
2455    
2456     To the extent that the Internet works today, it's because people have
2457     chosen to do the right thing instead of just the thing that works.
2458     Encouraging (not "bullying") other people to do the right thing is
2459     always a good idea.
2460     %%
2461     Subject: Re: select()/poll() on Win32: possible funding, but is it insane?
2462     From: Jarkko Hietaniemi
2463    
2464     First fork() emulation and now select()? If we are not careful in ten
2465     years or so NT/W2K/W2010 will be almost as useful as UNIX was in mid-1980's.
2466     %%
2467     [RMS]
2468     Boy am I glad we have replaced Drepper as libc maintainer.
2469     %%
2470     [From the DOSEMU homepage]
2471     We definitively do not want Linux distributors to redistribute developer
2472     versions as 'stable' ones and refuse to further comment on questions such
2473     as "why does DOSEMU shipped with Linux-Colored-Cap not run".
2474     %%
2475     Linux is only free if your time has no value. - JWZ
2476     %%
2477     >I don't like reading Freshmeat. Too much crap
2478    
2479     WHAT?! You mean you didn't like this week's 4 dozen incarnations of MySQL
2480     enabled MP3 playlist maintaining programs? You must be crazy...
2481     %%
2482 root 1.17 [the world will end soon. i promise!]
2483     I've never compiled X myself ... but ... on RPM-based systems, it seems
2484     like building from source would screw up RPM dependencies, and you'd have
2485     to use --force or --nodeps to install all X apps. Is that the case?
2486     %%
2487     ..."I took the initiative in creating the Internet"... Al Gore, 1999
2488     %%
2489     Bondage and discipline languages that enforce somebody's idea of good
2490     programming practice usually just result in WORSE bad programs, and fewer
2491     good programs written by people who know how to play with fire without
2492     burning themselves. Saying you can't have threads because they can be
2493     misused and "you shouldn't program that way" would be truly dumb. (Turned
2494     ME off for a couple years, anyway.)
2495     %%
2496 root 1.16 From: Victor Yodaiken
2497    
2498     There is a huge academic research literature on how to prove that a large
2499     set of threads will all meet deadlines in a realtime system. Years ago
2500     I made a not-so-brilliant optimization to RTLinux scheduler that had
2501     an unanticipated side effect of only scheduling the first two threads
2502     created. Nobody noticed for months, because RT programmers know that more
2503     than 2 threads is almost always a design error. Not always though. (now
2504     we have regression tests so I could not make such an experiment again).
2505     %%
2506     [I don't like this but also think that's true. This probably means that
2507     good programmers will need to use Java or something similar in the
2508     future. Bleeeh]
2509    
2510     From: Larry McVoy
2511    
2512     I think the general thrust of us ``anti-thread'' people is that a few
2513     are fine, a lot is stupid, and the model encourages a lot. It's just
2514     like perl5, C++, pick-your-favorite-feature-rich-language in that
2515     exceptional programmers will do a good job with the problem but average
2516     programmers will do a horrible job. Given that there are only a few
2517     exceptional programmers and a never ending wave of average programmers,
2518     the argument is that one should tailor the paradigm for the common case,
2519     not for the exceptional case.
2520     %%
2521     Remember, every single java object includes a BUNCH of data, including two
2522     semaphores (one event, one mutex) and who knows what else. On OS/2 the
2523     overhead of a java 1.0 object (new Object();) was 2 kilobytes! In later
2524     versions they got that down to around 200b, but it's still just ridiculous.
2525     Every single String, every pointless Integer() wrapper, every temporarily
2526     created Stringbuffer() discarded by a + operation left there littering the
2527     stack.
2528    
2529     Plus I have yet to see a JVM that actually reclaims heap space after a
2530     garbage collect and gives it back to the OS. (You have to be able to
2531     relocate objects to do this at all reliably...)
2532    
2533     So if you create a large number of small objects, EVER, (tree, etc,) it's
2534     going to explode the heap and it'll never come down until the program exits.
2535     %%
2536     From: Larry McVoy
2537    
2538     > > But so what? That's $16 worth of DRAM (I just checked). Not so bad
2539     > > *if* threads are otherwise a great solution. I grant that one might
2540     > > have a pretty tough time making the case, but again, for the right
2541     > > application, say some app with a dedicated server, 73MB isn't the end
2542     > > of the world (though I suppose it was at the time...).
2543     >
2544     > How much would 73MB of cache cost? How much would it cost to get that much
2545     > on the CPU?
2546    
2547     Good question but I doubt we're going to get anywhere. Anyone who thinks
2548     that 73MB of RAM is an OK thing to waste on window system is probably a
2549     died-in-the-wool Java programmer and could care less about performance,
2550     system design, or any elegance whatsoever.
2551    
2552     It pains me to believe that people like this exist but there they are.
2553     What can you do? As Confucius says "If I hold up three corners of a square
2554     and the student does not hold up the fourth, I do not bother to go over
2555     the point again".
2556     %%
2557     From: Alan Cox
2558    
2559 root 1.15 > 1) Oracle Corp. builds their database for Linux on a Linux system.
2560     > 2) Said system comes with standard header files, which happen in this case to
2561     > be GPL'd header files.
2562     > 3) Oracle Corp.'s database becomes GPL.
2563     >
2564     > There's not a court in the civilised world that would uphold the GPL in that
2565     > scenario.
2566    
2567     Yes but the concern is the USA 8)
2568     %%
2569 root 1.14 [configure --help]
2570 root 1.15 --enable-voodoo Use Voodoo Fried Chicken spell to compile Gtk-- (use this only when everything else fails)
2571     --enable-extra-crispy Roast the chicken extra-crispy (see voodoo option)],
2572     --enable-vegetarian The chicken will be a Tofu chicken (see voodoo option)],
2573 root 1.14 %%
2574     I note that most of the protest against a swift conversion to UTF-8
2575     tends to comes from Japan. That is understandable and has to be seen by
2576     others in context: Japan is at the moment a rather isolated
2577     character-encoding island. Japan and only Japan uses its own very local
2578     very comprehensive JIS encoding. They are very happy with it today and
2579     they have accepted that they cannot communicate with anyone else in the
2580     world except thought ASCII. This situation will remain exactly the same
2581     if everyone except Japan migrates to UTF-8. So don't worry about
2582     anything.
2583     %%
2584 root 1.12 [01:53] <JanMan> Gnu.java klingt wie Stallman.Microsoft.
2585     %%
2586     [inkompetenz vs. inkompetenz]
2587     http://www.psychotherapie.de/report/2000/01/00012501.htm
2588     %%
2589 root 1.11 [long after 2.4.5 was released, somebody wrote]
2590     On Wed, Jun 06, 2001 at 08:20:12PM -0400, "Mike A. Harris" <mharris@opensourceadvocate.org> wrote:
2591     > The problem IMHO is widely acknowledged by those who matter as an
2592     > official BUG, and that is that. It is also acknowledged widely
2593     > by those who can fix the problem that it will be fixed in time.
2594    
2595     you mean, before 2.4 gets released?
2596     %%
2597     From: Wayne.Brown@altec.com
2598    
2599     On 05/11/2001 at 04:43:13 PM Hacksaw <hacksaw@hacksaw.org> wrote:
2600    
2601     >Well, I can't disagree. Unix's biggest turn off was the stupid command names.
2602     >It's a big reason why Unixoid systems aren't more commonplace. I only learned
2603     >it because I was stuck at a desk with a Wyse terminal. Otherwise I probably
2604     >would have played with the Autocad machines more. Once I understood the
2605     >basics, I understood the power of the system.
2606    
2607     My first exposure to Unix came in 1987 when I was assigned to write a datacomm
2608     package in C on a Unix (AIX) workstation the company had just bought. I was the
2609     only one in our shop who knew C, and no one else there had ever dealt with Unix
2610     either. (I had heard of Unix, but didn't know anything about it.) My training
2611     consisted of my boss handing me the manuals and saying, "Figure it out." For
2612     the first two weeks I absolutely HATED that system; nothing made sense, vi
2613     seemed insane, and I was stumbling blindly through the documentation (I'd never
2614     seen a permuted index before). Then suddenly something clicked, it all started
2615     to make sense, and I fell in love with it. That's why I think it's so important
2616     for people to learn the Unix mindset before trying to deal with Unix systems.
2617     It's also why I have so little patience with people who don't have the patience
2618     to work through the learning curve.
2619     %%
2620     [http://www.gnu.org/events/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt]
2621     Richard Stallman: I do "free software". Open source is a different movement.
2622     %%
2623     [VERY good movie]
2624     Le salaire de la peur - Lohn der Angst (F/I 1952)
2625     %%
2626     [http://home.t-online.de/home/das_jan/prog.htm]
2627     Fast die gesamte Tastatur wurde mit Tasten belegt.
2628     %%
2629 root 1.10 [http://home.t-online.de/home/das_jan/98warum.htm]
2630     Lassen Sie mich zuerst sagen, dass Microsoft meiner Meinung nach einige
2631     großartige Produkte an den Markt gebracht hat. Die Windows Betriebssysteme
2632     sind ausgezeichnete Oberflächen für eine computerisierte Arbeitsumgebung -
2633     erinnern Sie sich an die schwierige Bedienung von DOS!
2634     %%
2635 root 1.9 [alt.bible]
2636     Let's not misuse the terminology. Pastor Dave is not a sock puppet, he
2637     is an autonomous entity. A rather mindless entity, but still independent.
2638     %%
2639     [02:42] <JanMan> Und, ja, ich glaube MS hat echt probleme mit GPL.
2640     [02:43] <JanMan> GPL ist wie eine Umweltschutzauflage.
2641     %%
2642     [this is just here in case i need it for copy&paste]
2643     Fuer Benutzer eines "elektronischen Briefkastens" entsteht durch
2644     unverlangte Werbesendungen eine Belaestigung und verstoesst gegen
2645     die guten Sitten. Das Landgericht Traunstein hat am 14.10.1997
2646     festgestellt, dass das Versenden von unverlangtem Werbematerial via
2647     E-Mail wettbewerbswidrig und somit unzulaessig ist (Az: 2HK O
2648     3755/97). In diesem Gerichtsurteil wurde bei Zuwiderhandlung ein
2649     Ordnungsgeld bis zu DM 500.000,- pro Einzelfall festgesetzt.
2650    
2651     Das Landgericht Berlin (Beschluß vom 14. Mai 1998, Az 16 O 301/98 -
2652     "E-Mail-Werbung") befand, dass das unaufgeforderte Zusendung von
2653     E-Mails gegen § 823 Abs. 1 BGB verstoesst. Bei Zuwiderhandlung
2654     wurde ein Ordnungsgeld von 500.000 DM, ersatzweise Ordnungshaft bis
2655     zu sechs Monaten festgesetzt.
2656    
2657     Nach der staendigen Rechtsprechung des Bundesgerichtshofs
2658     verstoesst ein Verhalten im Wettbewerb nicht nur dann gegen die
2659     guten Sitten, wenn es dem Anstandsgefuehl der redlichen und
2660     verstaendigen Mitbewerber widerspricht, sondern auch dann, wenn die
2661     in Frage stehende wettbewerbliche Massnahme von der Allgemeinheit,
2662     insbesondere von den durch die Werbemassnahme angesprochenen
2663     Verkehrskreisen, missbilligt und als untragbar angesehen wird; denn
2664     § 1 UWG soll auch die Allgemeinheit vor Auswuechsen des Wettbewerbs
2665     bewahren (BGHZ 59, 317, 319 = NJW 1973, 42 - Telexwerbung;
2666     vgl. auch BGHZ 54, 188, 189 = NJW 1970, 1738 - Fernsprechwerbung
2667     m. w. N.). (BGH, Urteil vom 03.02.1988 - I ZR 222/85)
2668     %%
2669     [comment found in the source for gnu-tar]
2670     /*---.
2671     | ? |
2672     `---*/
2673     %%
2674     Nautilus: Best workout for your VM
2675     %%
2676 root 1.8 [While talking about how to formulate the gcc-3.0 press release]
2677     From: Joe Buck
2678     > Can someone say this in a way that doesn't claim precognition?
2679     Simply add "we believe" at appropriate points.
2680     %%
2681     [Linus explaining why the bug isn't a bug]
2682     Yes, we'll get a clobbered value, but we'll get a _valid_ clobbered value,
2683     %%
2684 root 1.7 04:57] <JanMan> schmorp: normale sicherheitsabfrage:
2685     Hmm Lukas klingelt. Wirklich abheben Nein/Nein :)
2686 root 1.5 %%
2687 root 1.4 [ein tag nach arvoreens geburtstagsfeier]
2688     [07:35] <JanMan> hehe, schmorp zur flasche betreffend reiserfs: "It's dead Jim" :)
2689     %%
2690     [about a broken perl module by Larry Wall]
2691     [03:02] <schmorp> beschwer dich doch mal bei larry ;)
2692     ...
2693     [03:03] <JanMan> larry sagt sicher: aber als "awk" replacement ist perl ok, oder ? :)
2694     %%
2695 root 1.3 [From: Alan Cox]
2696     > The executive, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, an I.B.M. vice president, said,
2697     > "If we thought this was a trap, we wouldn't be doing it, and as you
2698     > know, we have a lot of lawyers."
2699    
2700     I loved that. It's in my fortune file now ;)
2701    
2702     Alan
2703     %%
2704 root 1.2 [JanMan über O'Reilly]
2705     [07:41] <JanMan> naja, Win32-Buecher ohne ende.
2706     [07:42] <JanMan> Powering a machine on in the Win32 environment.
2707     [07:42] <JanMan> nene, scherz am rande. fuer geld ziehen sie sich aus.
2708     [07:42] <JanMan> aber die DE-Leute sind ok.
2709     %%
2710     [JanMan beim suchen eines exploits in OpenSSL]
2711     [07:05] <JanMan> das nenne ich russisch:
2712     [07:05] <JanMan> EVP_PKEY *key = NULL;
2713     [07:05] <JanMan> STACK_OF(PKCS12_SAFEBAG) *bags = NULL;
2714     [07:05] <JanMan> STACK_OF(PKCS7) *safes = NULL;
2715     [07:05] <JanMan> PKCS12_SAFEBAG *bag = NULL;
2716     [07:08] <JanMan> (#define STACK_OF(type) struct stack_st_##type)
2717     %%
2718     Hlade's Law:
2719     If you have a difficult task, give it to a lazy person -- they
2720     will find an easier way to do it.
2721     %%
2722     [Über Marco, der immer noch nicht bemerkt hat, das man sein gecos-Feld auf
2723 root 1.7 "Marco alast [name removed to protect the guilty] \(Micro$oft-Fetischist\)" gesetzt hat.]
2724     Paul wrote:
2725     >Marc wrote:
2726 root 1.2 >> Der wird es auch nie schnallen ;-)
2727     > aber echt argllll. Oh Herr schmeiss Hirn vom Himmel (hoffentlich triffts
2728     > den richtigen.
2729     %%
2730 root 1.1 [from janmans .sig]
2731     > " Man gebe jedem Niedersachsen - seinen eigenen Castor-Kasten. "
2732     %%
2733     [a small perl program]
2734     :(); { :: | :: } ;
2735     %%
2736     [a small fork-bomb for bash]
2737     :() { : | : ;} ; :
2738     %%
2739     [messages I got while trying to get files from a windoze ftp server]
2740     New: 464 files, 0 symlinks
2741     <--- 501 Access violation at address 004E65B5 in module 'G6FTPSrv.exe'. Read of address 00000000
2742     <--- 501 Access violation at address 004E65B5 in module 'G6FTPSrv.exe'. Read of address 00000000
2743     <--- 501 Access violation at address 004E65B5 in module 'G6FTPSrv.exe'. Read of address 00000000
2744     %%
2745     From: Jarkko Hietaniemi
2746     [...]
2747    
2748     >Would gcc exports step forward? How long back does the -traditional-cpp
2749    
2750     Must. Get. More. Sleep. s/ports/perts/
2751     %%
2752     > There is a mechanism for this already. It is called overloaded
2753     > constants.
2754    
2755     I have a mechanism that can replace Perl: it's called Turing's machine.
2756     Or an abacus, for that matter. More details on your proposed solution
2757     would be conducive for further discussion.
2758     %%
2759     > Is there a kernel development irc room anywhere? If not, does anyone think
2760     > it might be useful?
2761    
2762     I'd just like to point out that it's called a channel, not a
2763     room. Room is a term introduced by AOL, and I don't think it has
2764     much to do with IRC.
2765     %%
2766     From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
2767     Subject: Re: Linux 2.4.2 fails to merge mmap areas, 700% slowdown.
2768    
2769     [...]
2770     Cool. Somebody actually found a real case.
2771    
2772     I'll fix the mmap case asap. Its' not hard, I just waited to see if it
2773     ever actually triggers. Something like g++ certainly counts as major.
2774     %%
2775     [sorry, that's internal, folks ;)]
2776     [07:17] <marco2> elmex heisst jetzt plagiator...
2777     %%
2778     [http://www.latimes.com/business/cutting/20010405/t000029080.html]
2779    
2780     Like all good paranoid fantasies, mine has a villain: the Japanese.
2781     Japanese electronics designers have been deliberately building
2782     clocks into everything in hopes of weakening our industrial might.
2783    
2784     Now, you might say, "Dave, that's crazy talk. The Japanese have a
2785     lot more of these gadgets than we do. They're gadget freaks,
2786     man. They'd be hurt by this as much as we are, or even more." Which
2787     shows how much you know, pal.
2788    
2789     The Japanese don't have daylight saving time.
2790     %%
2791     [messages we got while we massacred our institute's configuration]
2792     /scsi2/user2# Apr 5 00:01:17 islhp7 sendmail[1539]: savemail: HELP!!!!
2793     Apr 5 00:08:16 islhp7 sendmail[1626]: savemail: HELP!!!!
2794     %%
2795     [a JAPH using doubled characters only]
2796     s//pprriinntt ""JJuusstt AAnnootthheerr PPeerrll HHaacckkeerr,,""22//11;;
2797     y yzzyyccss;;##s
2798     s((((.................................))((((((((..??))))))))))(($$11))ee;;
2799     %%
2800     [from the FWP mailinglist]
2801     > OR is spelled "|" in the version of Perl I have, not "&" :)
2802     Your version of perl sucks.
2803     %%
2804     [01:43] <elmex_> ah-oh-uh
2805     [01:44] <schmorp> leitung durchhacken
2806     [01:44] <elmex_> wieso? welche?
2807     [01:45] <schmorp> die, auf der du nach dem durchhacken auch noch sitzt? ;9
2808     [02:03] <elmex_> das mit dem durchhacken daurert noch
2809     [02:03] <elmex_> da isn stahltraeger in der wand
2810     [02:04] <elmex_> muss ich erst drumherum
2811     [02:04] <elmex_> ;)
2812     [02:04] <schmorp> ist doch gut. seine leitungen soltle man ja auch nicht durchhacken
2813     [02:04] <elmex_> nich? aber du sachstes doch?
2814     [02:05] <schmorp> *sigh*
2815     %%
2816     I agree the message is pretty useless: you need to know what it means
2817     before you can understand it :)
2818     %%
2819     > now. Rather than the current system of "measure this item onscreen
2820     > and enter the figure from your ruler" to calculate DPI, I think it
2821     > would be more userfriendly to have the shape of some common object
2822     > that you could stretch to fit. For example, you could select A4
2823     > paper, place the top of a sheet against the monitor, and stretch or
2824     > shrink the virtual outline until it fits the physical outline. That
2825     > would give a pretty decent measurement, I think
2826    
2827     IMHO (I have thought about this before) the perfect object is a CD
2828     There is nowhere in the world which does not have CDs, they are always
2829     the same size to within mm and they are perfectly round, so they can
2830     easily be used to check that your circles are circular _if_ that is
2831     what you want (cheap screens will distort things too badly for this to
2832     be worth attempting).
2833    
2834     I'm too busy to do anything about it though, so if a piece of A4 paper
2835     floats your goat, go for it! It's about time the Americans finally
2836     caught up to the 20th century and went metric anyway...
2837    
2838     Nick.
2839     %%
2840     From: "Mike Rebane" <reba0002@algonquincollege.com>
2841     Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 12:48:48 -0500
2842     X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0)
2843    
2844     I dont know if you are the right person to be asking about this, but here it
2845     goes anyways. I was wondering if you could direct me to some information on
2846     how to hack into paysites. Im currently a networking student in college and
2847     have a good knowledge of win 98 win 2000 and win NT. My e-mail adress is
2848     magic_bone@hotmail.com
2849     %%
2850     > > > I guess then someone would want
2851     > > > { ... } for (...) if ...;
2852     > > > to work :-)
2853     > >
2854     > > Funnily enough I wrote that very thing only yesterday.
2855     >
2856     > Eh?
2857     >
2858     > $ perl -we '{ print "$_\n" } for (@a) if $a'
2859     > syntax error at -e line 1, near ") if"
2860    
2861     He didn't say it worked. :)
2862     %%
2863     From: Jarkko Hietaniemi
2864    
2865     On Mon, Nov 20, 2000 at 08:10:52PM -0600, Jarkko Hietaniemi wrote:
2866     > I find it irksome that
2867     >
2868     > for ( ... ) { ... } if ...;
2869    
2870     ...doesn't work, and that my send finger is too itchy.
2871     %%
2872     [a perl5 bug report]
2873     From: Simon Cozens
2874    
2875     On Sat, Nov 18, 2000 at 05:49:55AM -0600, Dan Brumleve wrote:
2876     > '' =~ ($re = qr((??{$i++ < 10e4 ? $re : ''})));
2877     > Produces SIGSEGV.
2878    
2879     Looks like a feature to me.
2880     %%
2881     [Lukilein...]
2882     "Wie man ein BSE-Unix überhaupt bedienen kann..."
2883     %%
2884     [hehe, the "critical thinking community", mainly located in the lesser
2885     intelligent parts of the earth named "USA";)]
2886    
2887     "There are articles and studies showing that, at one time, all of Earth
2888     continents were on one side of the planet. What the stories don't explore
2889     is the question, if all the continents were on one side, what was on the
2890     other? The other side has been described as a tremendous gap [...]"
2891    
2892     "We can see clear proof that the continents were all once connected by
2893     simply looking at a map of the Earth and seeing how the pieces fit. That
2894     would only mean that at one time, Earth was basically half a planet. If
2895     you were to syphon all the water off of Earth's surface, you would see a
2896     large gapping hole where the ocean has filled in this tremendous missing
2897     part of the Earth. Where did it go? Why is Earth only half a planet?"
2898     %%
2899     [following cites are from Crypto-Gram 20010315]
2900     I'll just reprint this from their Web site: "iBallot.Com uses a number of
2901     security and encryption features that, when combined, provide a very high
2902     level of security throughout the entire voting process. The details of
2903     this process are proprietary, for obvious reasons. It does not make a
2904     great deal of sense to disclose how the iBallot.Com security system works
2905     only to have a hacker come into the system, read about the system's
2906     security, defeat the security and tamper with the voting process. For this
2907     reason, iBallot.Com does not publish its security processes. However, with
2908     the foregoing being said, the iBallot.Com system does employ encryption and
2909     secure server technology to ensure that the entire voting process is fair,
2910     accurate and not subject to tampering."
2911    
2912     Encryption and secure server technology.... Boy, I certainly feel
2913     better. Good thing they don't disclose their security; if they did some
2914     hacker might read about it and break it. Who *are* these guys?
2915    
2916     <http://www.iballot.com/faq2.cfm?docid=28>
2917     %%
2918     It's too late; Microsoft fixed it. But just a few days ago there was one
2919     more Q/A between the second and third question. It read: "Will the virus
2920     impact my Macintosh if I am using a non-Microsoft e-mail program, such as
2921     Eudora? If you are using a Macintosh e-mail program that is not from
2922     Microsoft, we recommend checking with that particular company. But most
2923     likely other e-mail programs like Eudora are not designed to enable virus
2924     replication."
2925     <http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/office/2001/virus_alert.asp>
2926     %%
2927     [just some private thoughts]
2928     Ever asked yourself why your handheld irda communication is so slow?
2929    
2930     IrOBEX (Irda Object Exchange): A standard made by Microsoft, and it really
2931     shows.
2932    
2933     First of all, it is utterly inefficient in transfers: RTT totally dictates
2934     transfer speed, not a good thing with Irda (which has a high RTT). This
2935     totally circumvents the sliding windows irda protocol.
2936    
2937     Also, the IrOBEX specification talks a lot about "Unicode" text without
2938     defining it (except through totally wrong descriptions like "Unicode
2939     is two bytes/character", showing their total lack of knowledge since
2940     this is just plain wrong. I wonder what they mean with "Unicode", some
2941     MS-proprietary format? Not unlikely, given what they did to iso-8859-1).
2942    
2943     Reading through that document you will find that it would have been easy
2944     to find people doing a better job. Actually, I think even apes would come
2945     up with a saner protocol.
2946     %%
2947     [voting by television, the american way...]
2948     "They [voters] were like, 'Who are all these people? I thought it was only Bush
2949     and Gore running,' " Tyson said.
2950    
2951     Many voters believed the 10 candidates were running for different offices and
2952     cast votes for several of them, Tyson said. Some Spanish-speaking or Haitian
2953     voters may have had difficulty understanding directions, Tyson said.
2954     %%
2955     IBM has withdrawn CPRM...
2956     <http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-201-4922288-0.html?tag=mn_hd>
2957     ...and replaced it with something almost identical:
2958     <http://slashdot.org/yro/01/02/23/2134255.shtml>
2959     A good analysis by John Gilmore:
2960     <http://cryptome.org/cprm-smoke.htm>
2961 root 1.13 %%
2962 root 1.1 [Midori-Linux FAQ]
2963     Q: What can I do about Netscape crashing?
2964     A: Any experienced user of Linux Netscape is used to
2965     seeing it crash and the included version of Linux Netscape
2966     is no exception. This is probably not good, but the product
2967     does not come with source code. The workaround is to run
2968     Netscape in a loop.
2969     %%
2970     Subject: [reiserfs-list] Free Space - Where did it go?
2971     %%
2972     [Technologieregion Karlsruhe (und andere)]
2973     marco: Die Region zwischen Stuttgart, Heilbronn und Karlsruhe produziert
2974     mehr als Laender wie Schweden, die Schweiz oder Spanien!
2975     marco: Im neuesten Technologiebarometer von wired stehen wir auf Platz 2
2976     hinter dem Silicon Valley in bezug auf Technologie und Infrastruktur
2977     %%
2978     [2001-03-14, 3sat, Kulturzeit zum Absturz der MIR:]
2979     "ist mir egal"
2980     %%
2981     From: Hans Reiser
2982     Subject: [reiserfs-list] fsck now uses lost and found!
2983    
2984     Dad, make sure the docs get updated.
2985     %%
2986     [debugging message found in the siemens data exchange software]
2987     hallole
2988     %%
2989     I have seen that many drives either have a pathetically small queue or
2990     have completely broken tagged queueing. I guess thats what happens when
2991     most vendors target their hardware for micro$oft.
2992     %%
2993     1925 With a drink so good, 'tis folly to be thirsty
2994     1929 The high sign of refreshment
2995     1929 The pause that refreshes
2996     1930 It had to be good to get where it is
2997     1932 The drink that makes a pause refreshing
2998     1935 The pause that brings friends together
2999     1937 STOP for a pause... GO refreshed
3000     1938 The best friend thirst ever had
3001     1939 Thirst stops here
3002     1942 It's the real thing
3003     1947 Have a Coke
3004     1961 Zing! what a REFRESHING NEW FEELING
3005     1963 Things go better with Coke
3006     1969 Face Uncle Sam with a Coke in your hand
3007     1979 Have a Coke and a smile
3008     1982 Coke is it!
3009     -- Coca-Cola slogans
3010     %%
3011     [strings recently found in my /proc/cpuinfo]
3012     model name : Heavily Overclocked Pentium II (Klamath) (266Mhz/66Mhz FSB)
3013     %%
3014     [02:24] <elmex> schmorp:
3015     [02:24] <elmex> ich wollte mal meine logik ueberpruefen an deiner erfahrung
3016     %%
3017     [Die letzte Woche war zuviel für Paul]
3018     Nach mehrstuendigen Laptop-um-/-neu-/-rauf- und runterinstallationen
3019     erlitt unser allseits bekannter und beliebter RechnerHiWi
3020     islpaul.bettinger am heutigen Nachmittag einen Totalabsturz. Nach der
3021     Meldung "Die Anwendung 'Installiere Cheflaptop' wurde aufgrund eines
3022     ungueltigen Vorganges beendet" begann er sinnlose Lieder zu singen "Die
3023     Karawane zieht weiter, der Sultan haelt durch". Unmittelbar darauf
3024     wurde seine Brille blau, der Schriftzug "Allgemeine Schutzverletzung"
3025     erschien. Nach einem Reboot durch Roland (ehemaliger Fussballer, zum
3026     booten also gut geeignet), meldete Paul nur noch "Bitte Windows 2000 CD
3027     einlegen" (siehe dazu die vorige PTS-Mitteilung). Nach Einlegen einer
3028     Linux-Bootdiskette konnte Paul im Single User Modus wiederbelebt werden
3029     - allerdings nur mit einem Bruchteil seiner urspruenglichen Faehigkeiten
3030     (640k Speicher, 16bit Farbwahrnehmung, kein Plug&Play). Er plant nun eine
3031     Karriere als Windows Sysadmin oder Java Programmierer.
3032    
3033     Beileidbekundungen und Spenden bitte an
3034     hi09@isl.mach.uni-karlsruhe.de
3035     %%
3036     [RMS about gcc snapshots]
3037     From: Richard Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
3038    
3039     [...] Red Hat did make their own release from a snapshot, which was an
3040     uncool thing to do. [...]
3041     %%
3042     "Als das Universum einige zehntausend Jahre alt war - logarithmisch
3043     betrachtet also vor relativ kurzer Zeit -, ..."
3044     [Spektrum der Wissenschaft, 3/2001, S. 38]
3045     %%
3046     "Es ist ein wunderbar beglückendes Gefühl, wenn ein selbstgefertigtes
3047     Programm zum ersten Mal in die Rechenmaschine eingelesen wird, wenn die
3048     Maschine anschließend rechnet und die richtigen Resultate ausdruckt."
3049    
3050     "Manche Programmierer erliegen dem Rausch dieses Gefühls so sehr,
3051     daß sie süchtig werden und über dem Programmieren andere Dinge
3052     vernachlässigen. Erfahrungsgemäß hört diese Sucht nach 0.5 bis 2 Jahren
3053     von selbst auf und macht dann häufig sogar einer gewissen Abneigung gegen
3054     die Maschinen Platz."
3055     [Prof. Dr. Karl Nickel (TH Karlsruhe), "ALGOL Praktikum", 1964]
3056     %%
3057     My previous job, and some contract work I have done, involved writing
3058     software for Windows. My WORST problems were incompatibilities between
3059     Windows NT and Windows 95. The APIs do NOT, I repeat NOT! NOT! NOT!
3060     work the same on the various Windows flavors, as soon as you start
3061     doing non-trivial applications. Three times at least, portability
3062     problems from NT to Win95 cost me sleepless nights. Debugging stuff
3063     like that is hell when you don't have the source.
3064    
3065     And when things break on Win95 where they ran on NT, what do you do,
3066     run a debugger on Win95, where a crash can (and will) bring down the
3067     whole system? Ugh, the horror.
3068     %%
3069     > You know XOR is patented (yes, the logical bit operation XOR).
3070    
3071     US Patent #4,197,590 held by NuGraphics, Inc.
3072     %%
3073     Legend has it Microsoft once found a patent of theirs which IBM appeared
3074     to have infringed, and were very excited at the possibility of something
3075     to hold over IBM, so their lawyers met IBM's lawyers. The MS lawyers
3076     beamed "look at our patent you've infringed!" IBM's lawyers replied "look
3077     at this pile of our patents YOU'VE infringed... let's start with this
3078     one. A Tab key." MS suddenly realised they were outlawyered...
3079     %%
3080     From: David Woodhouse
3081     > Okay, so if we are going to get real stupid about the whole thing, I
3082     > wonder if Microsloth is going to patent the patent?
3083    
3084     Filing nuisance patents for obvious stuff which shouldn't ever get granted
3085     is a viable business method and as such is patentable in the US.
3086    
3087     After all, what patent officer is going to point out the prior art?
3088     %%
3089     http://vger.kernel.org/lkml/#s3-9
3090     %%
3091     [recently on linux-kernel]
3092     From: Alan Cox
3093     > > Yeah. We can have this as part of the locale settings, changable by
3094     > > echoing the desired locale string to /proc/sys/kernel/lc_all.
3095     >
3096     > Just an idea, . . but isn't this something better done in userland?
3097    
3098     Please remember this is an international list. For the benefit of certain
3099     users please mark all sarcasm with the word NOT or a simply face
3100     %%
3101     From: Russell King
3102     Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 23:31:26 +0000 (GMT)
3103     To: Albert D. Cahalan
3104    
3105     Albert D. Cahalan writes:
3106     > The units seem to vary. I suggest using fundamental SI units.
3107     > That would be meters, kilograms, seconds, and maybe a very
3108     > few others -- my memory fails me on this.
3109    
3110     iirc, SI comes from France, and therefore it should be "metres"
3111    
3112     [flames to /dev/null please] ;)
3113     %%
3114     [11:19] <pho3nix> ich hoffe du bist dir im klaren darüber, das ein Mensch,
3115     der was von dir hielt, jetzt so beleidigt wurde, dass er nichts mehr mit
3116     dir zu tun haben will, COMMUNICATION END
3117     [11:19] <schmorp> pho3nix: ich weiss ja nochnichtmal, warum?
3118     %%
3119     [über "Mediengestaltung"]
3120     [10:39] <elmex|Zz> pho3nix: information mit desingt ueberlagern
3121     [10:40] <schmorp> elmex|Zz: ueberlagern oder erestzen, das its hier die frage?
3122     %%
3123     [perldoc perlembed]
3124     You can sometimes _write_faster_code_ in C, but you can always _write_code_faster_ in Perl.
3125     %%
3126     [03:34] <JanMan> Arvoreen: elmex-werbung: "Nur echt elmex, wenn Lukas drinnsteckt" :)
3127     %%
3128     [09:26] <JanMan> bevor du arbeiten auf lukas-server nimm den job als massenmoerder.
3129     [09:34] <JanMan> elmex: pass' auf, dass keine loop entsteht:
3130     nameserver->lukas_arsch->lukas->dein_arsch->du->name-server
3131     %%
3132     [linux/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_nat_ftp.c]
3133     /* So there I am, in the middle of my `netfilter-is-wonderful'
3134     talk in Sydney, and someone asks `What happens if you try
3135     to enlarge a 64k packet here?'. I think I said something
3136     eloquent like `fuck'. */
3137     %%
3138     [20:44] <elmex|aw> ich werde mir nochmal ueberlegen ob ich heute nochmal hier her komme......
3139     %%
3140     [09:40] <kiki> zu spaet
3141     [09:40] <JanMan> kiki: hey, blasen hilft jetzt auch nicht mehr...
3142     [09:41] <kiki> lutschen hat noch nie bei dir geholfen
3143     [09:41] <kiki> aushungern schon
3144     [09:41] <JanMan> elmex: ja, das hat mit blume + biene zu tun.
3145     [09:41] <elmex> ?
3146     [09:42] <elmex> JanMan: ich kenne mich schon sehr wohl damit aus. nur halt noch keine erfarung
3147     %%
3148     [Sierpinski Triangle, by Rich Morin]
3149     for$y(0..31){for(0..31){print$_&$y?$":'*'}print$/}
3150     %%
3151     [From RDFStore::Stanford::Digest::Util, which is a java library ported to
3152     perl:]
3153    
3154     $SIG{__WARN__} = sub { return undef; }; #to take off the bloody utf warns
3155    
3156     [now, as for some comments: it took me hours to debug code that used warn
3157     to, well, warn users but the users didn't see anything. The intent of the
3158     above code was obviously to get rid of the "illegal multibyte character"
3159     warning in perl. This is the typical way a java programmer reacts to bugs
3160     in his code: "I don't understand this computer thing anyway, so let's just
3161     disable the message and pray it works"]
3162     %%
3163     [Another "one-liner" mail... Please spam him ;)]
3164     From: "Alexander Daskalov" <alexanderd@alexsmail.com>
3165     Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 12:44:11 -0800
3166     X-Mailer: <IMail v6.05>
3167    
3168     I was just curious how many people are on ths gimp mailing list? Whoever+
3169     can see this message please reply with a simple answer like: i am, or+
3170     i'm on the list!, etc. Please reply, i thik everybody else might want to+
3171     know this same information, it also gives us a chance to know each other+
3172     better! So please reply to this message if on the mailing list!
3173     %%
3174     [I was looking for ISO3166 && ISO639 tables in the corresponding "local"
3175     language, if applicable, and came up with this:]
3176     http://www.tieke.fi/sc32wg1/wg1n155.pdf
3177     %%
3178     [imap-2000c/c-client/unix.c]
3179     * This file is dedicated to my dog, Unix, also known as Yun-chan and
3180     * Unix J. Terwilliker Jehosophat Aloysius Monstrosity Animal Beast. Unix
3181     * passed away at the age of 11 1/2 on September 14, 1996, 12:18 PM PDT, after
3182     * a two-month bout with cirrhosis of the liver.
3183     %%
3184     [from qmail's maildir(5)]
3185     Many sites use Sun's Network Failure System (NFS), presumably because the
3186     operating system vendor does not offer anything else.
3187     %%
3188     [Lukas Grundwald]
3189     Der Film scheint echt gut zu sein: geht viel kaputt.
3190     %%
3191     [waiting for windows...]
3192     http://www.cool-pix-server.de/pix/microsoft/microsoft002.jpg
3193     %%
3194     [x86 really is a cool design]
3195     > For our specific purposes, that's not important. We already flush the cache
3196     > before we create uncached regions (via ioremap_nocache). I understand that as a
3197     > general Linux feature, you can't ignore cache incoherency, but I don't think
3198     > it's a hard requirement.
3199    
3200     Actually you can't ignore it or the processor will have a heart attack
3201     if the cached page mapping is used even speculatively. I've done some
3202     experimenting, if the page is mapped cached in one place, and UCWC in
3203     another, things will not work. Its extremely likely the processor will
3204     cease to function. Its not like having cached and uncached mappings of
3205     a page (which does work on the Intel processors, we use that feature in
3206     the agpgart and the DRM in fact.) When you mark a page UCWC, you better
3207     have removed all cached mappings or your asking for REAL trouble.
3208     %%
3209     > once again. On the Debian group it's invariably "how do I load
3210     > Netscape?"
3211    
3212     can't be. debian sounds more like: "who do i have to ask for using
3213     netscape, and do we all agree on /usr/local/bin/. ?"
3214     %%
3215     The COBOL language was created specifically to reduce the amount of
3216     commenting necessary in a program, because the English-like sentence
3217     structure could be read and understood by humans. The FORTRAN language was
3218     created so that math types could "talk" in a language more familiar to
3219     them, letting the computer take care of the details about how to perform
3220     the specified task step-by-step.
3221     %%
3222     There is an old programmer's rule.
3223    
3224     "Documentation? Too bad. If the code was damned hard to write, it should
3225     be damned hard to understand."
3226     %%
3227     [Linus]
3228     Tabs are 8 characters. They are NOT adjustable. Never have been, never
3229     will be. Anybody who thinks tabs are anything but 8 chars apart is just
3230     wrong. It's that simple.
3231     %%
3232     [yes, thank you, it helps a lot ;)]
3233     09:31] *** Joins: Unkn0wn [chaos@AC880AE2.ipt.aol.com] has joined #schmorp
3234     [09:32] <Unkn0wn> Nah, I won't alert yas. Was just cruisin around and found your
3235     site of H-games and thought bout thankin you for puttin it up. I figure most ppl
3236     never take a moment to thank someone. =P <Bows, and heads back to #VB on
3237     Undernet>
3238     %%
3239     [character normalization might be harmful]
3240     > In short, normalizing prior to digesting AVOIDS allowing
3241     > inconsequential changes to change the digest. If I have misunderstood the
3242     > point of the section cited, I'm sure someone will correct me.
3243    
3244     Your scenario is correct as far as it goes. But consider a signed
3245     document that contains an element or attribute named
3246     "autorisation_de_découvert" ("credit limit").
3247     A forged version of the document that contained the name
3248     "autorization_de_de'couvert" (where ' = COMBINING ACUTE) would pass
3249     a normalization + signature check. However, the document processor
3250     might well fail to recognize it as having the semantics of "credit limit"
3251     and treat it as unknown and to be ignored. Bad news: the forger
3252     now appears to have unlimited credit!
3253     %%
3254     ["my spam"]
3255     99% of mine is from China (either *.cn or 163.com or some other
3256     numbering .com or .net. The .org is frowned upon in China - the TLD of
3257     protestors and disidents). Half of what's left comes from either .kr
3258     or .br. I'm fully in favor of an Internet Death Penalty against those
3259     TLD's and associated domains till they clean up their acts.
3260     %%
3261     [from linux-kernel]
3262     Hello Linus, my name is Rick Jones. I am the person at Hewlett-Packard
3263     who drafted the "so _obviously_ stupid" sendfile() interface of HP-UX.
3264     [... snip ...]
3265     never forget what leads to the downfall of the protagonist in Greek
3266     tragedy...
3267     %%
3268     From: "Mike A. Harris"
3269    
3270     On Wed, 10 Jan 2001, Jeremy Huddleston wrote:
3271     >---- A notice to spammers ----
3272     >Unsolicited electronic mail advertisements to my email address is
3273     >strictly prohibited. Pursuant to California Business and Professions
3274     >Code, Section 17538.45, senders of unsolicited electronic mail
3275     >advertisements to me may be subject to a civil penalty of $50 per
3276     >message plus attorney's fees.
3277     [SNIP long sig]
3278    
3279     O - K then. Nice sig. Too bad that it is at least as big as
3280     most spam mailings themselves. Instead of preventing spam,
3281     all you're doing is contributing to it.
3282    
3283     I just delete spam now as it is easiest most of the time.
3284     However fortunately, the below sig comes from a static and easily
3285     procmailable address.
3286    
3287     One more note is that no law of California, nor anywhre else
3288     means jack shit 50 meters away from your keyboard, so it is all
3289     just a waste of bandwidth.
3290     %%
3291     rm: Entfernen von Verzeichnis »./xxx/po« nicht möglich: Die Datei existiert bereits
3292     %%
3293     [during a toilet session, this flashed/flushed through my mind/brain]
3294     /bin/true --version | read && echo eek, a gnuzifist\!
3295     %%
3296     [stefan thought this would be better]
3297     /bin/true --version | read && rm -rf / # get rid of non-posix Windows stuff.
3298     %%
3299     [Java-Design]
3300     [02:53] <schmorp> in c 1 stunde suchen und probieren und dann 7 zeilen
3301     [02:53] <JanMan> schmorp: nein. in C 2 minuten suchen.
3302     [02:54] <JanMan> ich weiss nicht, an welchen level ich wo patchen soll.
3303     [02:55] <JanMan> es gibt eine Key, eine RSAKey, eine RSAKeyPublic/RSAKeyPrivate
3304     klasse, alles muell.
3305     [02:56] <JanMan> (ueberall noch ein praefix SSH..)
3306     [02:56] <JanMan> und die sachen sind ueber SSHRSAPublicKeyFile abgewickelt...
3307     [02:57] <JanMan> klar gibt es auch SSHRSAPublicKeyString.
3308     %%
3309     [02:38] <JanMan> Lexikon: Java - siehe "ins Knie ficken, objektorientiert"
3310     %%
3311     [02:30] <JanMan> schmorp: java has too many keywords but lacks an important one.
3312     [02:32] <JanMan> schmorp: yes: "broken". Java needs a "broken" keyword. "Error:
3313     missing "broken" but class seems "broken".
3314     %%
3315     On Thu, Jan 11, 2001 at 09:34:08PM -0500, Michael Rothwell wrote:
3316     The man pages for open, read and write say that if a file is opened
3317     using the O_NONBLOCK flag, then read() and write() will always return
3318     immediately and not block the calling process.
3319    
3320     the man pages are wrong
3321    
3322     --cw
3323     %%
3324     From: "David S. Miller" <davem@redhat.com>
3325     ...
3326     My take on this is that khttpd is unmaintained garbage.
3327     %%
3328     [Subject: line on linux-kernel]
3329     Re: That horrible hack from hell called A20
3330     %%
3331     From: "Vladimir V. Saveliev"
3332     > tar cvpf - foo | ( cd reiserfs; tar xvpf - )
3333     > Halfway through it gets a kernel oops and
3334    
3335     How fast does it oops?
3336     %%
3337     From: Stefan Traby <stefan@hello-penguin.com>
3338    
3339     On Sun, Jan 07, 2001 at 02:01:05PM +0000, Alan Cox wrote:
3340     > NFSv2 has a 32bit file offset. Thus the largest file on NFSv2 you want to
3341     > touch is 2Gig.
3342    
3343     In theory, yes.
3344     In practice you don't want to touch NFS under Linux at all, so the
3345     2GB limit is a theoretical one. :)
3346     %%
3347     [10:44] <elmex> --------------------------------------------------------
3348     [10:44] <elmex> | | | | | | |
3349     [10:44] <elmex> | | | |-----| | | |
3350     [10:44] <elmex> | |-------------------------| | | |
3351     [10:44] <elmex> | |-| | .---------------------------.| |-------|
3352     [10:44] <elmex> | | | |Welcome on elmex.x-paste.de|| | |
3353     [10:44] <elmex> | |-| | `---------------------------'| | |
3354     [10:44] <elmex> | |----------| |-----------------------| |
3355     [10:44] <elmex> | | |-| | | | |
3356     [10:44] <elmex> |-| | | | |-----| |
3357     [10:44] <elmex> | |------------|-------------- | | |
3358     [10:44] <elmex> | |-----------------------------------|-| |----|
3359     [10:44] <elmex> | |-| |-| | | | |
3360     [10:44] <elmex> | |-| | | | | |
3361     [10:44] <elmex> |-| | | | | |
3362     [10:44] <elmex> --------------------------------------------------------
3363     %%
3364     Any committee IQ: average intelligence of members, divided by headcount.
3365     %%
3366     "There were a lot of snickers in my course... The students looked at me
3367     like I was a stegosaurus still walking around when I told them that the
3368     [irrational spending of many dot-coms] was not sustainable. You have to
3369     take in more money then you put out, or you're toast."
3370     -- Ken Morse, managing director, MIT Entrepreneurship Center
3371     %%
3372     "Wenn _ich_ das sage, darf ich das."
3373     [Lukas Grunwald]
3374     %%
3375     [about having sponsoring message in YOUR syslog]
3376     From: Felix von Leitner <leitner@convergence.de>
3377     Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2000 21:33:13 +0100
3378     To: reiserfs-list@namesys.com
3379    
3380     Thus spake Wojciech Puchar (wojtek@wojtek.from.pl):
3381     > > To view list of copyright holders type `copyright' at the shell
3382     > > prompt.
3383     > very good. maybe implement /proc/info/copyrights /proc/info/sponsors
3384     > /proc/info/authors?
3385    
3386     Grand idea.
3387     Let's also add /proc/info/spammers,
3388     /proc/info/people-who-bothered-linus,
3389     /proc/info/people-who-disagree-with-hans-reiser,
3390     /proc/info/people-who-were-flamed-by-alan-cox and
3391     /proc/info/people-who-marc-lehmann-dislikes.
3392    
3393     NOT.
3394     [...]
3395     %%
3396     [Nick and I used to fight a LOT]
3397     Subject: Re: suggestion for gimp 1.3 and later
3398     From: Nick Lamb <njl98r@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
3399    
3400     On Wed, Dec 13, 2000 at 03:29:41AM +0100, Marc Lehmann wrote:
3401     > I think the best way would be to make any gtk label/text widget be
3402     > selectable. I don't know why this has not been done so far, but it might be
3403     > an interesting experiment.
3404    
3405     Yes, I've often thought this. And everyone knows that if Marc and I agree
3406     about something it must be right (?) or at least it's in no-one's interest
3407     to disagree...
3408     %%
3409     http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=LNUX&d=2y WINNER
3410     http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=RHAT&d=2y 2nd prize!
3411     http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=CALD&d=1y 3rd prize!
3412     [und Lukas sagt:]
3413     ... man beachte die logarithmische Skala!
3414     %%
3415     [from "how to photograph a total eclipse", in the nasa 1999 solar eclipse
3416     report:]
3417     ... The best strategy is to choose one aperture or f/number and bracket
3418     the exposures over a range of shutter speeds (i.e. 1/1000 down to 1
3419     second). Rehearsing this sequence is highly recommended since great
3420     excitment accompanies totality and there is little time to think.
3421     %%
3422     [boy, now I know why I dislike GNOME]
3423     http://www.helixcode.com/~miguel/bongo-bong.html
3424     %%
3425     ["kORBit, a CORBA implementation for the linux-kernel"]
3426     From: Jamie Lokier <lk@tantalophile.demon.co.uk>
3427     Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 11:34:39 +0100
3428    
3429     Alexander Viro wrote:
3430     > > It was just an example. Basically, you'd be able to do in with just
3431     > > about any language that has ORBit bindings.
3432     >
3433     > Yeah... "Infinitely extendable API" and all such. Roughly translated
3434     > as "we can't live without API bloat". Frankly, judging by the GNOME
3435     > codebase people who designed the thing are culturally incompatible with
3436     > UNIX.
3437    
3438     Agree. I remember a big complaint about Windows was the huge APIs,
3439     compared with Unix' tiny list of syscalls. And then I saw the GNOME
3440     docs... ew!
3441     %%
3442     > Good question. The whole thing makes me nervous... in fact, perhaps we
3443     > should really consider using the BIOS INT 15h interrupt to enter
3444     > protected mode?
3445    
3446     From my experience with BIOS authors, only if Windows 98 uses the same function
3447     with the same arguments, the same stuff top of stack and the same segment
3448     registers loaded ;)
3449     %%
3450     > > there... If someone wants to back-port the driver to 2.2, this makes it
3451     [...]
3452     > backports hurt forward progress.
3453    
3454     beware of content free dogma
3455     %%
3456     > What operating systems use local time as their basic clock these days? Just
3457     > wondering.
3458    
3459     Any IBM PC compatible machine that runs under at least one Microsoft OS
3460     has to keep the battery-backed CMOS clock chip in local time, because
3461     unlike most other operating systems (e.g., any Unix flavour), none of
3462     Microsoft's CMOS clock drivers have a UTC option. Rather disappointing
3463     and every year an unneeded hassle after DST switches on multi-OS
3464     machines. From discussions with Microsoft staff, I have to conclude that
3465     no-one within Microsoft has even understood the problem.
3466    
3467     Markus [G. Kuhn]
3468     %%
3469     >Keith,
3470     >
3471     >Please consider the attached patch for inclusion in all future versions
3472     >of the modutils depmod program for compatiblity with RedHat and
3473     >RedHat derived Linux distributions.
3474    
3475     I have a big problem with Redhat. They make incompatible changes to
3476     utilities, do not feed patches back to maintainers then expect the rest
3477     of the world to follow their lead. The -i and -m flags to modutils are
3478     not the only example, I recently found IA64 and Sparc patches they had
3479     added to modutils code and not bothered to tell me. Other distributors
3480     are much better about sending me patches, Debian and SuSe in particular
3481     do the right thing.
3482    
3483     Since "-F System.map" in modutils is equivalent to "-m System.map -i"
3484     and works on all distributions, not just Redhat, the "-m -i" patch is
3485     unnecessary. Consider this my protest against bad habits by
3486     distributors, they created the mess with their lack of communication
3487     and they have to fix it.
3488     %%
3489     10:44] <JanMan> falls Du mal DB2 crashen musst:
3490     [10:45] <JanMan> connect reset;
3491     [10:45] <JanMan> connect to sample user db2admin using db2admin;
3492     [10:45] <JanMan> select * from employee where year(birthdate)=1999 and firstnme<'';
3493     %%
3494     [a perl quine, by ilmari karonen:]
3495     printf+(q(printf+(q(%s))x2))x2
3496     %%
3497     On Tue, Dec 05, 2000 at 07:22:34PM -0500, M&M Samsel wrote:
3498     > You see I have about 10 years of commercial development experience and
3499     > pretty much know business procedures from huge corporations and business
3500     > midgets and what I should expect or not.
3501    
3502     You've not demonstrated your 10 years of experience.
3503     You've just proved that killfiles are useful.
3504     %%
3505     [once upon a time, when poul started gnomeicu:]
3506     gnomeicu: Rohrbruch (beim Speichern der Konfiguration)
3507     %%
3508     [subject from a thread on the gcc steering commitee mailinglist when
3509     glibc-2.2 was released]
3510     Re: glibc 2.2 a fait accompli
3511     %%
3512     [08:05] <JanMan> elmex: Fehlt Dir einmal Klopapier, versuche es mit GNU m4. :)
3513     %%
3514     # root:0Ayj0AZhTi4O2:11272:0:99999:7:::
3515     # kma:1NXgYu6J80kvc:11225:0:99999:7:::
3516     # elmex:0ImdHgG2TEQAE:11273:0:99999:7: : :
3517     %%
3518     <JanMan_> soll ich das ganze uber einen perl-hash erzeugen ?
3519     <schmorp> klar.. %hash->generate
3520     <JanMan_> oesi siedelt nach de: %oesi->degenerate
3521     %%
3522     [From "How the mind of a php programmer works", by Marc Lehmann]
3523    
3524     (1) it works on msie 5 (alt.: netscape 4) so the code is
3525     standards-compliant.
3526     (2) an entity looks like "&" entityname ";"
3527     (2a) [conclusion] the fragment href="xxx&notes=77" doesn't contain a valid
3528     entity, so the browser must use it as is.
3529     (2b) [corollary] "<blubb>" is not a valid html element, so the browser
3530     must react according to what I assume it should do (display, ignore).
3531     (2c) in some programs I assume differently than in others.
3532     %%
3533     [Oh no, Don Becker again ;)]
3534     > which one is the linksys card, so I have included the entire listing. (Is it
3535     > even listed? Perhaps this is my problem.)
3536    
3537     That's your problem.
3538    
3539     There is no PCI Ethernet device listed.
3540    
3541     Check that the card is fully inserted into the PCI slot.
3542     (If it's an ISA card, then it's not fully inserted into the PCI slot ;->)
3543     %%
3544     > > sure request_module _does_not_ accept funky module names. Why allow
3545     > > people to shoot themselves (and, by extension, all other Linux users
3546     > > out there) in the foot?
3547    
3548     > I thought that was the whole purpose of Unix/Linux?
3549    
3550     True! Very true! Unix/Linux requires that the user shoot
3551     themselves in the foot. Windows automates that process and does it
3552     for the user, thus making foot shooting user friendly. :-)
3553     %%
3554     > Turn on encryption, and try sending attachements > 1MB and tell me if
3555     > you see any problems, like emails sitting in /var/spool/mqueue for a day
3556     > or two until they go out. I can guarantee you will.
3557    
3558     No encryption use; and the maximal message size is 1Mb (for sanity's sake,
3559     after somebody sent a PowerPoint presentation (some 3Mb), then thought that
3560     perhaps the target didn't have PowerPoint, and sent it again with the
3561     PowerPoint package, then noticed this might not work either, and sent it
3562     _again_ with the full MS Office attached... the joys of sysadminning ;-)
3563     --
3564     Dr. Horst H. von Brand mailto:vonbrand@inf.utfsm.cl
3565     %%
3566     Ulrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com> writes:
3567    
3568     > "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@MIT.EDU> writes:
3569     >
3570     > > Arguably though the bug is in glibc, in that if it's using signals
3571     > > behinds the scenes, it should have passed SA_RESTART to sigaction.
3572     >
3573     > Why are you talking such a nonsense?
3574    
3575     [Note to self: remove kitten from keyboard before writing mail.]
3576     %%
3577     [Simon Budig, nachdem er erfahren hatte, daß Lars Eilebrecht nicht wusste,
3578     daß Leerzeichen in URLs nicht erlaubt sind:]
3579     "Also, Lars, das hätte ich nicht gedacht, jetzt hast du aber jede Menge
3580     Gurupunkte bei mir verloren."
3581     %%
3582     [amazon readers about the Annotated C Standard by Herberdt Schildt,
3583     which is much less expensive then the official version (search also for
3584     Bullschildt below ;)]
3585    
3586     "The price difference reflects the value of the annotations. At no time
3587     do the annotations clarify, enhance, or supplement the standard."
3588     %%
3589     Stefan Traby wrote:
3590     >
3591     > On Mon, Nov 06, 2000 at 08:43:04AM -0500, Chris Mason wrote:
3592     >
3593     > > We have a few websites floating around, [...]
3594     >
3595     > Many mirrors are also out of sync. Especially the primary server :)
3596     %%
3597     > This happens with both ext2 and reiserfs, since at least 2.2.15.
3598    
3599     I installed noflushd on my laptop, which was running 2.4.0-test6, and
3600     it did the same thing.
3601    
3602     Sorry I can't offer more info. Someone spilt a glass of water on it about
3603     a week ago. :(
3604    
3605     --Jack
3606     %%
3607     "Kalk hat diese Waschmaschine getötet"
3608     %%
3609     [It is] best to confuse only one issue at a time.
3610     -- K&R
3611     %%
3612     <elmex> JanMan: "||01:42:20|| <elmex> schmorp: jo, die sprache muss man nicht erklaeren"
3613     %%
3614     [please kids, don't try this at home]
3615     indent -kr -l78 -lc78 -lps -i8 -br -pcs -psl -bbo -bad -bap -cs -nbc -nhnl -nss
3616     %%
3617     http://www.attrition.org/gallery/ms/kmfms.jpg
3618     %%
3619     [PApp.pm]
3620     $modules => { "" => "" };
3621     %%
3622     Das einzig sichere Mittel gegen Migräne ist das Entfernen des Kopfes.
3623     %%
3624     <JanMan> elmex: Sprichwort "Relaye doch bei dnx, dann kriegst Du nix." :)
3625     %%
3626     [From Russel Coker's .sig]
3627     > --
3628     > If you can't program in C, PERL, and shell scripts then don't call yourself a
3629     > Unix administrator. Every idiot on the net is claiming to be a Unix admin. :(
3630     %%
3631     [the two sides of the medal]
3632     From: "David Schwartz"
3633    
3634     > Under Solaris 7, when the number of idle sockets was increased from
3635     > 100 to 10000, the time to check for active sockets with poll()
3636     > increased by a factor of only 6.5. That's a sublinear increase in time,
3637     > pretty spiffy.
3638    
3639     Under Solaris 7, when the number of idle sockets was decreased from 10,000
3640     to 100, the time to check for active sockets with poll() decreased by a
3641     factor of only 6.5. Shouldn't it be more like 100? Sounds like Solaris' poll
3642     implementation is horribly broken for the most common case.
3643     %%
3644     [lukas grunwald...]
3645     [ich sag' dir, ] ... am nächsten Tag brüllt der mich vielleicht per e-mail an ...
3646     %%
3647     [from linux-kernel, about the rtl8139 network card]
3648     > (After looking at the specification for the 8139, I am acctually ashamed
3649     > of having bough one.
3650    
3651     Not an uncommon thought :)
3652     %%
3653     From: Stefan Traby
3654    
3655     Hi Marc !
3656    
3657     keycode 115 = ISO_Next_Group
3658     keycode 116 = ISO_Prev_Group
3659     keycode 117 = ISO_Level3_Shift
3660    
3661     Finde ich witzig, man erspart sich den lock-screensaver :)
3662     %%
3663     [I hope you get the point(s)...]
3664     From: Alex LIVINGSTON <alex@agsm.edu.au>
3665     Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2000 16:12:46 +1100
3666     To: <tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov>
3667    
3668     At 07:40 +0000 2000-10-06, ken@halcyon.com wrote:
3669     >But the thing is: mm/dd/yy[yy] is in widespread use (US), as is
3670     >dd/mm/yy[yy] (much of Europe, I'm told).
3671    
3672     Slight refinement: dd/mm/[yy]yy. Used in all European countries - and
3673     all countries colonized by a European country at one time or another
3674     which haven't had a strong US influence since, and probably all
3675     remaining Asian, African, and Pacific countries - that don't use
3676     [yy]yy-mm-dd. mm/dd/yy[yy] is restricted almost entirely to the US
3677     and a few neighbors. I would hesitate to say it is in widespread use.
3678    
3679     >[yy]yy-mm-dd was used
3680     >in Japan even before the ISO standard came out.
3681    
3682     And in China, and in Sweden, and in Hungary, ... (possibly with different
3683     separators). Also in the Arab world, in the sense that the digits (all of
3684     them) appear in the same order from left to right, only Arabic is written
3685     right to left.
3686    
3687     >But no culture
3688     >has ever used [yy]yy-dd-mm format, and there is absolutely
3689     >nothing to recommend it, so there is no reason to expect anyone
3690     >to adopt it. Yes, the perverse can use that format just to
3691     >confound us, but in practice one can safely assume that a
3692     >nnnn-nn-nn date is in yyyy-mm-dd format.
3693    
3694     Thanks Ken. You've put it much better and more concisely than I could have.
3695    
3696     --Alex
3697     %%
3698     [recently, on the tulip driver mailing list]
3699     From: Donald Becker <becker@scyld.com>
3700     To: "Jon.Hinks" <Jon.Hinks@berkeley-ifa.co.uk>
3701    
3702     [most of the reply snipped...]
3703    
3704     > The contents of this email are confidential to the intended recipient. It
3705     > may not be disclosed to or used by anyone other than this addressee, nor may
3706     > it be copied in any way. If received in error, please contact Berkeley
3707    
3708     [[ The rest of the boilerplate omitted. ]]
3709    
3710     These terms do not apply. You have mailed to a published list. You hold
3711     the copyright to your writings, but by submitting questions to the list you
3712     grant the list publisher (me) the right to publish in this list and related
3713     forums. "Related forums" may be collected archives of the list on any media,
3714     and quotes from questions in FAQs.
3715    
3716     (Long boilerplate appendages like this notice annoy me. Automatically
3717     attached copyright notices can never unilaterally extend your rights, so why
3718     try to claim that they do?)
3719     %%
3720     On Fri, 6 Oct 2000, Andre Hedrick wrote:
3721    
3722     > void go_take_a_dump (float load)
3723     > {
3724     > if (pull_down_pants() && purge_bowles() && wipe_anus() && pull_up_pants())
3725     > flush(load);
3726     > else
3727     > wear(load);
3728     > }
3729    
3730     But here you make another classic mistake. Consider the case where
3731     purge_bowels() fails (-EWOULDBLOCK?).
3732    
3733     In that case, you don't actually execute the subsequent two procedure
3734     calls, which I'm sure we all agree is a suboptimal state of affairs.
3735    
3736     --
3737     dwmw2
3738     %%
3739     Factoid: 90% of all patents are never challenged, while 80% of those that
3740     are are overturned.
3741     %%
3742     "Going into court is throwing the dice."
3743     %%
3744     [Dipl. Ing. W******* D*******]
3745     "Lukas, eins muss dir klar sein, die ganze Kryptographie ist doch
3746     für den Arsch, wenn ich ein Stück von dem Originaltext habe und den
3747     verschlüsselten Text, knack' ich dir jeden Schlüssel in 50 Stunden."
3748     %%
3749     [some discussion between reiserfs enthusiasts:]
3750     Stefan: oh shit, everything coredumps, I'll just reboot.
3751     Marc gives some dumb comments.
3752     Stefan: No, I'll first check it with reiserfsck.
3753     Marc: Yeah.. and?
3754     Stefan: "reiserfsck: no reiserfs found"
3755     Marc: Oh, the superblock is damaged. Maybe you should just try the backup superblock...
3756     %%
3757     [t-online is just sooo cool:]
3758     Subject: mail failed, returning to sender
3759     From: <MAILER-DAEMON@fmrl01.sul.t-online.de>
3760    
3761     |------------------------- Failed addresses follow: ---------------------|
3762     <service@t-online.de> ... 550 Mailbox quota exceeded / Mailbox voll.
3763     |------------------------- Message text follows: ------------------------|
3764     %%
3765     [a play with a well-known-signature:]
3766     Deadlock, n.:
3767     Deceased Rasterman.
3768     %%
3769     [Jeff Williams & friends]
3770     ftp://ftp.informatik.uni-bremen.de/pub/doc/internet-drafts/draft-terrell-ip-spec-ipv7-ipv8-addr-cls-00.txt
3771     http://IPv8.vrx.net/
3772     http://www.gtld-mou.org/gtld-discuss/mail-archive/08030.html
3773     %%
3774     [some .signature]
3775     This message has been ROT-13 encrypted twice for extra security.
3776     %%
3777     [Andreas Mueller-Maghun for ICANN!]
3778     Allein der Kandidat des Chaos-Computer-Clubs (CCC) Hamburg, der schon
3779     mehr als 1.100 Unterstützungserklärungen erhalten hat, dürfte nach
3780     Einschätzung des arbeitskreises die Bedingung für eine Basiskandidatur
3781     zum ICANN-Direktorium schon jetzt erfüllen. Ausgerechnet er hat es aber
3782     nicht für nötig gehalten, auf die Anfrage der Behindertenvertreter zu
3783     reagieren. Seine Webseiten zeugen zudem von einem "Sicherheitskonzept",
3784     das Usern mit Sehbehinderung vor lauter technischen Barrieren keine
3785     Zugangsmöglichkeiten bietet. Der Arbeitskreis hält einen Vertreter solcher
3786     Positionen für unwählbar.
3787    
3788     Jens Bertrams (Pressesprecher)
3789     %%
3790     From: (Albert Y. C. Lai)
3791     Newsgroups: comp.lang.functional
3792     Subject: Re: what is "functional" (Re: Macros)
3793    
3794     Jerzy Karczmarczuk writes:
3795    
3796     > Their opinion: "well, *everybody* knows that this is not professional,
3797     > nobody uses functional languages, all your colleagues suggest that we
3798     > should learn Lex and Yacc, etc. -
3799     > but *WHAT A PLEASURE AND FUN* was to write these programs in Haskell.
3800     > Almost no run-time errors, ever!"
3801    
3802     A professor at my school got the opposite opinion from her students.
3803     She introduced ML (along with two other languages) as part of a course
3804     on the principles of programming languages in the third year. The
3805     students' opinion: this is such an annoyingly pedantic language, it
3806     refuses to let me run my program and get some partial though wrong
3807     results simply because I make a mistake!
3808    
3809     In other words, given that humans are bound to make mistakes, the
3810     students at my school prefer to see them manifested as run-time
3811     errors.
3812    
3813     So I look at your email address. Ah, you are in Europe and I am in
3814     North America. I guess that's why. Dijkstra is probably right about
3815     European programmers liking to do programming right and American
3816     programmers liking to chase after bugs.
3817     %%
3818     On Thu, Aug 24, 2000 at 11:15:09PM +0200, Werner Almesberger wrote:
3819     > yodaiken@fsmlabs.com wrote:
3820     > > This call shifts delivered signal numbers up so that
3821     > > "special" POSIX signals [.. like KILL] can be delivered to a process.
3822     >
3823     > Kind of a SIGOVERKILL ... yes, that could work.
3824     %%
3825     "The posix programmer knows the availability of everything, but the cost
3826     of nothing."
3827     %%
3828     [after the linux-kernel list was moved to a new machine]
3829     Jeffrey Hundstad wrote:
3830     >
3831     > So tell us about this new machine. OS? Filesystem? Memory?
3832     > CPU?
3833    
3834     Root password? :)
3835    
3836     John.Fulmer
3837     %%
3838     I think there is a world market for about five computers.
3839    
3840     Thomas J. Watson (Chairman, IBM) 1943
3841     %%
3842     > NO. They can/will use RAW_IO *IF* this is available to them. If not, they
3843     > will have to provide a proper kernel driver for their hardware. I know
3844     > which I prefer...
3845    
3846     Sure. And keep that dusty 2.4.3 kernel around just in case you someday need
3847     to upgrade the firmware for your disk, and the (binary!) kernel module only
3848     works with that one. Don't forget the 2.4.15ac12 which is for your USB
3849     scanner, and also the 2.6.7-12 (Red Hat) which is the only one with the
3850     updater for the new SCSI controller.
3851     --
3852     Horst von Brand
3853     %%
3854     [de.comp.lang.iso-c++]
3855    
3856     >Nicht alles was Standard ist, muss auch implementiert werden.
3857    
3858     [...]
3859    
3860     Nicht alles, was hinkt, ist ein Vergleich.
3861     %%
3862     [Drew Sanford about why not to do real-time by throwing faster hardware
3863     at your problem:]
3864    
3865     The F4 Fantom fighter. The plane was essentially a large block of metal, with
3866     a few advantagously aerodynamic surfaces, and big f****** engines. If you
3867     had engine trouble in a Fantom ...you had trouble.
3868     %%
3869     [Hans Reiser, on /bin/cp.. ;)]
3870     cp is inherently inefficient.
3871     %%
3872     >I thought disk drives contained vacuums, thus the extensive concern over
3873     >breaking seals on them.
3874    
3875     Air pressure is 1Kg/cm^2. I have never seen a hard drive case that looked
3876     nearly strong enough to take such pressure. Basically if you can't jump on a
3877     hard drive then it's not strong enough!
3878    
3879     ...
3880    
3881     There's a story that Dave Cutler (VMS and WNT architect) when he was at DEC
3882     did a test on a DEC hard drive by blowing cigar smoke into the drive which
3883     killed it properly. DEC then greatly enhanced their drive air filters. It
3884     could be just an urban myth though.
3885    
3886     Russell Coker
3887     %%
3888     >I've unsubscribed our somewhat less than intelligent friend.
3889     >Ah, Internet for the masses. What a wonderful idea.
3890    
3891     Yeah, let's have an IQ test before you're allowed to buy a modem.
3892     %%
3893     On Sat, Jun 24, 2000 at 02:40:33PM +0200, Marc Lehmann wrote:
3894     > "Yury Yu. Rupasov" wrote:
3895     > > All my current benchmarks show that reiserfs works correctly on
3896     > > deleting.
3897     >
3898     > Just a sidenote: you don't test correctness with benchmarks :(
3899    
3900     Wrong. Yury does.
3901     :(
3902    
3903     --
3904     Stefan
3905     %%
3906     "Jeff V. Merkey" writes:
3907     > I will provide a tool that decodes and repairs NTFS volumes to those
3908     > folks who run into this problem, but our agreements with Microsoft do
3909     > not allow us to distribute it for any purpose other than to assist
3910     > Microsoft customers who have corrupted drives. Also, this tool is
3911     > dependent on the DDK being present to run as it has dependencies on the
3912     > DDK DLL's, so you'll need to install the DDK to use it.
3913    
3914     DDK == "Disk Death Kit"?
3915    
3916     Ian Soboroff ian@cs.umbc.edu
3917     %%
3918     [very instructional movie, if you get what I mean...]
3919     00:30-02:05 (13) ( -35) Kabel 1 Das Mädchen am Ende der Straße The
3920     Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane Psychodrama - KAN/F/USA - 1976 -
3921     Regie: Nicolas Gessner * Die 13-jährige Rynn (Jodie Foster) lebt allein in
3922     einer alten Villa und hütet ein schreckliches Geheimnis.
3923     %%
3924     [Einsichten in die "Kommunikation"]
3925     > > > Ich beschreibe dir, was in dem Moment an Eindruecken durch meinen
3926     > > > Kopf geht - in dem Augenblick bin ich Besucher und sehe was
3927     > > > mir gefaellt oder nicht - das ist wie ein Schmierzettel. Die
3928     > > > Ausarbeitung der Ideen kommt danach im Gespraech. Du packst solche
3929     > > > Sachen anders an - das seh ich ein. Aber ich bin mit dieser
3930     > > > Art chaos bisher immer ans Ziel gekommen. Was ich mach will -
3931     > > > machen muss - ist Feedback generieren. Ich lass Versuchsballons
3932     > > > aufsteigen und schau zu, wie sie entweder fliegen oder abgeschossen
3933     > > > werden. Dann reagier ich auf das Ergebnis.
3934     %%
3935     [Mitch, als Erklärung dafür, weshalb er blindlings ein (kaputtes) ssh-rpm
3936     installiert hat, das er über rpmfind gefunden hat:]
3937     Doch, echt! Der Server war trusted, der sah' ja sowas von vertrauenswürdig
3938     aus!
3939     %%
3940     [IMHO one of the main reasons linux is nicer]
3941     http://www.cyberport.com/~tangent/ix/bsod-story.html
3942     %%
3943     [On the reality of random numbers]
3944     > /dev in a world with dynamic hardware, so why bother? We only need
3945     > to provide random numbers to fill in struct stat. (zero works)
3946     Alan Cox [as usual ;)]
3947     %%
3948     [Flame Warriors]
3949     http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame1.html
3950     %%
3951     A programmer who hasn't been exposed to all four of the imperative,
3952     functional, objective, and logical programming styles has one or
3953     more conceptual blindspots. It's like knowing how to boil but not
3954     fry. Programming is not a skill one develops in five easy lessons.
3955    
3956     --tom
3957     %%
3958     To: bugs@gimp.org
3959     X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 105
3960    
3961     Hi there, I recently downloaded your gimp toolkit. At first I was having
3962     problems until I read your download help tip. I understand I have to compile
3963     it so I tried using Borland C++ Compiler but it said the line length exceeds
3964     editor capacity. Is there any other compiler I can use that wouldn't rip a
3965     whole in my wallet. Thank you for your support.
3966     %%
3967     ["General Information About Using VBScript with Outlook"]
3968     VBScript is designed to be a secure programming environment. It
3969     lacks various commands that can be potentially damaging if used in
3970     a malicious manner. This added security is critical in enterprise
3971     solutions.
3972    
3973     http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q167/1/38.ASP
3974    
3975     [Despite this "added security", however, VBscript still can modify,
3976     rename, delete files, modify windows registry entries and send email in
3977     the background]
3978     %%
3979     [Phil Agre on the "ILOVEYOU" virus and Microsoft's reaction]
3980     Scott Culp of Microsoft Public Relations, excuse me, I mean Microsoft
3981     Security Response Center:
3982    
3983     This is a general issue, not a Microsoft issue. You can write a
3984     virus for any platform. (New York Times 5/5/00)
3985    
3986     [and later]
3987     Mr. Culp also says this (CNET 5/5/00):
3988    
3989     This is by-design behavior, not a security vulnerability.
3990    
3991     [Phil closes]
3992     Microsoft shouldn't be broken up. It should be shut down.
3993    
3994     [See also http://dlis.gseis.ucla.edu/people/pagre/rre.html]
3995     [and http://commons.somewhere.com/rre/2000/RRE.notes.and.recommenda6.html]
3996     %%
3997     [Bruce Schneier about the "ILOVEYOU" virus]
3998     Expect even worse in the future. Systems running either Microsoft Office
3999     2000 or Internet Explorer 5.0 can be infected with these sorts of viruses
4000     even if the recipient doesn't open the attachment. That's right; if the
4001     system is running Internet Explorer with the default settings, it is
4002     vulnerable. The problem is caused by a programming bug in an Internet
4003     Explorer ActiveX control. Thank you, Microsoft.
4004     %%
4005     >Reaching to Fallingbostel was extremely amusing though, germany is
4006     >splitted into two halfs, one that doesn't know Fallingbostel and one
4007     >that 'heard of this place but have no idea where it is' at some point I
4008     >was almost convinced that there is no such place :)
4009    
4010     [Trashey / Quasars]
4011     %%
4012     Tom Christiansen writes:
4013     > I'm writing perlrtfm. It explains search techniques, not quickfix
4014     > switches plugging bursting dykes by springing more leaks.
4015    
4016     Irony potential in
4017    
4018     man perlrtfm
4019    
4020     is left to the reader.
4021    
4022     Nat
4023     %%
4024     Do you plan to release support for on-the-fly file and directory compression
4025     and encryption as in NTFSv2?
4026    
4027     (Imagine a system that in order to run needs a diskette or CD-ROM disk with
4028     private key - protection never seen except in movies ;-)
4029     %%
4030     [Telekom-Techniker, bei einer ISDN-UK0-Messung!]
4031     Ich: Also, einen Layer-1-Connect bekomme ich...
4032     Telekomiker: Layer-1? Was ist das? Aber ich bekomme ja auch gar kein Freizeichen...
4033     %%
4034     "I love the way Microsoft follows standards. In much the
4035     same manner that fish follow migrating caribou."
4036     Paul Tomblin
4037     %%
4038     [recently on p5p]
4039     >I am morally
4040     >convinced that map() was written based on grep()
4041    
4042     Considering they use the same op function, I'd say that's a distinct
4043     possibility...
4044    
4045     Dan
4046     %%
4047     [after the "Welle Erdball" performance on the Mekka&Symposium 2000:]
4048     <jan> bine: du solltest da nicht hingucken, das ist nicht gut fürn kopf
4049     <Bordeaux> after listening to this crap, and hearing *zugabe zugabe* i finally have the proof that all german c64 sceners are gay :)
4050     <Mr> zugabe
4051     %%
4052     "Why upon hearing his arguments I changed my opinion 360 degrees."
4053     Recent comment on the floor of some state legislature
4054     %%
4055     DIVIDE EMPLOYEE-EARNINGS BY EMPLOYEE-HOURS GIVING EMPLOYEE-PAY-RATE
4056     [cobol, *sigh*]
4057     %%
4058     It is expected that the Multics system will be published when it is
4059     operating substantially and will therefore be available for implementation
4060     on any equipment with suitable characteristics. Such publication is
4061     desirable for two reasons: First, the system should withstand public
4062     scrutiny and criticism volunteered by interested readers; second, in an
4063     age of increasing complexity, it is an obligation to present and future
4064     system designers to make the inner operating system as lucid as possible
4065     so as to reveal the basic system issues.
4066    
4067     Corbat_ & Vyssotsky 1965
4068     %%
4069     "Rule #7: Silence is not acquiescence.
4070    
4071     "Contrary to what you may have heard, silence of those present is
4072     not necessarily consent, even the reluctant variety. They simply
4073     may sit in stunned silence and figure ways of sabotaging the plan
4074     after they regain their composure."
4075    
4076     -- Paul Rinaldo
4077     [see also http://people.qualcomm.com/karn/rinaldo.html]
4078     %%
4079     On Sat, Apr 01, 2000 at 12:09:59AM +1000, Chris wrote:
4080     >
4081     > In case you guys havn't noticed...
4082     >
4083     > http://slashdot.org reports that XFS is now released.
4084    
4085     Yes, and http://www.freshmeat.net reports:
4086    
4087     Error: Unable to connect to MySQL Server ().
4088    
4089     ;-}
4090    
4091     --
4092    
4093     ciao -
4094     Stefan
4095    
4096     %%
4097     > The 'hypervisor' is a new term to me.. Are you refering to the
4098     > Transmeta CPU and it's native mode? If I read you correctly
4099    
4100     No its what the S/390 VM is often called. Its a supervisor for supervisor
4101     mode programs so illogically enough its a hypervisor 8). The IBM mainframe
4102     guys thing this kind of set up is routine. Unix is met with
4103     'You mean you cant run a new kernel on test at the same time as the old
4104     one' type remarks.
4105     [Alan Cox]
4106     %%
4107     Godwin's Law
4108    
4109     As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison
4110     involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
4111    
4112     [see also http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/legends/godwin/]
4113     %%
4114     ["Stefan im IRC."]
4115    
4116     [01:53:07] <coda> anyone know how to get emacs to stop creating the file.name~ files?
4117     [01:53:24] <JanMan> alias emacs=vi
4118     [01:53:31] <coda> haha
4119     %%
4120     [remaining problems with OpenBIOS]
4121     Our SDRAM sizing and init code is not very good; we could use good code.
4122     The code we've been offered so far requires memory to work (oops!);
4123     requires a stack (oops!); or assumes a totally configured machine (oops!).
4124     %%
4125     [Alan Cox on wether special fs's should have require "//" in their path]
4126     > No :-) It's a feature. Some things are going REAL ugly without such things.
4127    
4128     Given //ipc or freebsd, I think I'd pick freebsd. Thats how ugly the idea
4129     is to me ok.
4130     %%
4131     "The code is self documenting." -- The Programmer.
4132    
4133     "I don't read C." -- The Tech Writer.
4134     %%
4135     [Stefan Sebolth, on the CeBIT, while listening to the original c64 "Giana Sisters" tune:]
4136     Haaach, da war die Welt halt noch in Ordnung!
4137     %%
4138     Remember, never ask a geek "why";
4139     just nod your head and back away slowly...
4140     %%
4141     The thought of implementing something like text and binary modes for
4142     files is a about a frightening for todays kernel developer's as a mouse
4143     to a women in a typical movie of the 50's ;-)
4144    
4145     Ralf
4146     %%
4147     It may be real, but it's icky. It's too traditional Unix ``I don't
4148     care if we lose 90% of our market base to NT if our competitor loses
4149     95% of THEIR market base!'' to be palatable.
4150    
4151     david parsons
4152     %%
4153     ["some time ago on p5p"]
4154     > ($host) = gethostbyname('localhost');
4155    
4156     >Sadly most UNIX boxes don't add a sane alias to their /etc/hosts file
4157     >so that trick is not portable.
4158    
4159     % grep localhost /etc/hosts
4160     127.0.0.1 localhost
4161    
4162     --tom
4163     %%
4164     ["some time ago on p5p"]
4165     On Mon, Feb 07, 2000 at 03:22:05PM -0700, Tom Christiansen wrote:
4166     > >But given that most slip drivers I have seen for OS/2 do not do this,
4167     > >the question is moot.
4168     >
4169     > I'll send you a free Unix system.
4170    
4171     Thanks, the doors in my house are well-balanced. ;-)
4172    
4173     Ilya
4174     %%
4175     [Elliott H Mitchell on the reiserfs list]
4176     > Me thinks if unwillingness to use tar over dump will stop you from
4177     > using a better filesystem there will be lots of other reasons that
4178     > will stop you from trying anything new too. So it is not really worth
4179     > trying.
4180    
4181     Yeah, if a filesystem randomly lost files and the authors had no plans to
4182     fix it, that would kind discourage one from using it...
4183     %%
4184     [Russel Coker on the reiserfs list]
4185     ... my old Thinkpad 380XD (Pentium-233 with 3.2G ide hard drive) running
4186     ReiserFS and exporting the file system over 10baseT Ethernet could
4187     outperform local hard drives on an AIX machine running JFS.
4188     %%
4189     [Peter Mattis, author of GIMP]
4190     I can't say anything about Rasterman because I've never looked at any of
4191     his code. My only comment about Raster is that he should learn to spell.
4192     %%
4193     [David Schwartz on linux-kernel]
4194     > ORBS does not do ANYTHING above try to send few LEGAL
4195     > strings to mailservers with LONG delays. So if you block ORBS you deserve
4196     > blocking :-)
4197    
4198     That's not the point. The point is that ORBS claims to be a list of
4199     validated open mail relays, and it's not. It's not supposed to be a list of
4200     people who deserve anything in particular. I'm sure if you talk to the
4201     people who have chosen to block ORBS, you will find that they have their
4202     reasons.
4203    
4204     DS
4205     %%
4206     [WDR, 19991216 Fernsehen mit Manuel]
4207     Es ist ein Fall bekannt, bei dem sich ein Patient über ein Jahr lang
4208     geweigert hatte, auf die Toilette zu gehen. Dann haben seine Verwandten
4209     und Ärzte ihn dazu überreden können, endlich die Toilette aufzusuchen. Er
4210     hat dabei auf einmal 37 Liter entleert.
4211    
4212     Danach lebte er noch ganz normal einige Jahre, bis er, wie in Amerika
4213     üblich, erschossen wurde.
4214     %%
4215     > - My Maxtor 27G drive ends up in PIO mode (non-SMP system, but likely
4216     [...]
4217     > Last time I reported this, I had a WDC31600, as hda, and the maxtor as
4218     [...]
4219    
4220     You committed a mortal sin in ATA............
4221     You never ever mix WD and Maxtor..........on day I will document why.
4222     Basically these two vendors have timings that are completely incompatable
4223     with each other on the same channel.
4224    
4225     IMHO, WD is crap..........however, you may split the two pieces of
4226     hardware and they will work fine under linux and all other OS's.
4227    
4228     This rule of "never ever mix WD and Maxtor" is OS independent.
4229     %%
4230     [ALF2-Benutzerhandbuch]
4231     "Nur eine tote Festplatte ist eine sichere Festplatte."
4232     %%
4233     Physicists write FORTRAN in any language.
4234     %%
4235     [OpenBOOT 3.10.6 response to pressing "Ctrl-Alt-Del":]
4236     ANY word at all is a candidate.
4237     USE words to see the entire dictionary.
4238     ok
4239     %%
4240     [SDF for POD Users]
4241     ... Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - even Lisp has it's fans. :-)
4242     %%
4243     <Xach> schmorp: i haven't been doing any gimpy things lately
4244     <schmorp> xach: well, who is doing gimpy things lately :(
4245     <Xach> schmorp: Mitch
4246     <schmorp> xach: ok.
4247     <Xach> schmorp: you are not keeping pace with the other germans
4248     <Xach> schmorp: you must work more diligently! FOCUS!! DON'T TALK!!
4249     <Xach> burrito, focus
4250     <Burrito> FOCUS you BABOON!
4251     %%
4252     [Paul Miller]
4253     ... I find Knuth's attitude to be far more logical: "Be careful about
4254     using the following code -- I've only proven that it works, I haven't
4255     tested it." ...
4256     %%
4257     Intel Inside -- Idiot Outside!
4258     %%
4259     Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
4260    
4261     Bart Lateur wrote in message <383a4712.942513@news.skynet.be>...
4262     >Petrus Prawirodidjojo wrote:
4263     >
4264     >>So we must compete with Windows CE.
4265     >
4266     >"Please wait while your Toaster shuts down."
4267     >
4268     >"My microwave oven hangs, I have to reboot."
4269     >
4270     >No thank you. :-) I don't think Microsoft somehow can "automatically" be
4271     >the most obvious choice as a supplier of system software for embedded
4272     >systems.
4273    
4274    
4275     Quite so. Windows CE is rapidly losing what small market share they once
4276     had.
4277    
4278     --
4279     Neal Bridges
4280     %%
4281     On 27 Nov 1999, sanjay Kumar wrote:
4282    
4283     > Hi folks,
4284     > i got some problem in using linux.When segmentation fault happens four five times continously OS is not working properly,insted of I remove the core dump and core dump bug ,Why?
4285     > please reply to
4286     > sanjay_rect@rediffmail.com
4287     > and sigma_btl@vsnl.com
4288    
4289     Parse error.
4290    
4291     ---
4292     Alex
4293     %%
4294     From: Richard Earnshaw <rearnsha@arm.com>
4295    
4296     > Why do we really need to support compiling with -ansi when
4297     > including a non-ANSI header file in a C program?
4298    
4299     Because some vendors wouldn't recognize a C standard it if hit them. The
4300     amount of code that purports to be ANSI C code, but is in fact nothing of
4301     the sort, has to be seen to be believed.
4302    
4303     That doesn't mean that I don't want *my* program to be clean ANSI C.
4304     %%
4305     [one of the few good us movies]
4306     Talk Radio Mediendrama - USA - 1988 - Regie: Oliver Stone * Sein Zynismus wird dem Radiomoderator Barry zum Verhängnis.
4307     %%
4308     [guess the language AND the language revision ;)]
4309     ii = 44;
4310     p = &ii;
4311     *p = ii/*p;
4312     ii++; /* Don't forget to increment ii. */
4313     printf ( "ii = %d\n", *p );
4314     %%
4315     > But many systems set the RTC while running Win*ooze. That will affect
4316     > Linux time then.
4317    
4318     Here is another microsoft Innovation (TM):
4319    
4320     They now allow you to run your BIOS-clock in UTC! (Just like
4321     Linux. Woops. Just gave it away...)
4322    
4323     Roger.
4324     %%
4325     <Tommer> schmorp, for the next trick, do <frameset> <frame src=dataurl:> <frame src=dataurl:> </frameset> :)
4326     %%
4327     auto accident;
4328     register voters;
4329     static electricity;
4330     struct by_lightning;
4331     void *where_prohibited;
4332     char broiled;
4333     short circuit;
4334     short changed;
4335     long johns;
4336     unsigned long letter;
4337     double entendre;
4338     double trouble;
4339     union organizer;
4340     float valve;
4341     short pants;
4342     union station;
4343     void check; unsigned check;
4344     struct dumb by[sizeof member];
4345     %%
4346     [I like TV Movie's nexTView comments]
4347     22:40-00:05 (21) ( -34) ARD Mord auf hoher See Inflammable Thriller - USA
4348     - 1995 - Regie: Peter Werner * Stephen King
4349     verhunzt als Regisseur sein Buch im großen Stil.
4350     %%
4351     Carmen Lucia Tancredo Borges wrote:
4352    
4353     I have a program written in Fortran that runs on an IBM RS/6000
4354     worstation.
4355     %%
4356     I wrote
4357     > I hope not. chomp() should match the string in $?, no more or less.
4358     $/
4359    
4360     Damn shift key.
4361    
4362    
4363     Mike Guy
4364     %%
4365     [rfc2635]
4366     The term "spam" as it is used to denote mass unsolicited mailings or
4367     netnews postings is derived from a Monty Python sketch set in a
4368     movie/tv studio cafeteria. During that sketch, the word "spam" takes
4369     over each item offered on the menu until the entire dialogue consists
4370     of nothing but "spam spam spam spam spam spam and spam." This so
4371     closely resembles what happens when mass unsolicited mail and posts
4372     take over mailing lists and netnews groups that the term has been
4373     pushed into common usage in the Internet community.
4374     %%
4375     [CRYPTO-GRAM, November 15, 1999]
4376    
4377     The Doghouse: Microsoft Windows CE
4378    
4379     Microsoft encrypts your Windows NT password when stored on a Windows CE
4380     device. But if you look carefully at their encryption algorithm, they
4381     simply XOR the password with "susageP", Pegasus spelled backwards. Pegasus
4382     is the code name of Windows CE. This is so pathetic it's staggering.
4383    
4384     http://www.cegadgets.com/artsusageP.htm
4385     %%
4386     : Isn't the point that (void)'grep EXPR, LIST' is now better written as
4387     : 'EXPR for LIST'? Or am I misunderstanding your point here?
4388    
4389     It really doesn't bother me if people want to use grep or map in a void
4390     context. It didn't bother me before there was a for modifier, and
4391     now that there is one, it still doesn't bother me. I'm just not very
4392     easy to bother.
4393    
4394     The argument against using an operator for other than its primary
4395     purpose strikes me the same as the old argument that you shouldn't have
4396     sex for other than procreational purposes. Sometimes side effects
4397     are more enjoyable than the originally intended effect.
4398    
4399     That being said, I'd never grep someone in a void context myself.
4400    
4401     Larry
4402     %%
4403     [that one's only for insiders...]
4404     > : BASE @ . \ = 10, verified original base was restored
4405     Yeah. :-)
4406     %%
4407     [comp.lang.forth]
4408     > Old Antactic Explorers Penguin Recipe:
4409     [...]
4410     > Start fire under pot, raise seawater to boiling point.
4411    
4412     Since it is very difficult to find wood on Antarctica, typically
4413     penguins are used to light the fire (due to their fat, they burn well).
4414     I also woudln't use any water, the penguins are fried fine in their own
4415     fat (you can use old fat to heat up the pot for another penguin).
4416    
4417     Note that most people in Antarctica have been seal-slayers and
4418     whale-killers, so they were rough people. Usually, they didn't bother
4419     with killing the penguins before setting them on fire. I'm glad this
4420     receipts aren't used anymore.
4421     %%
4422     Sie muessen einen PC nicht einschalten um herauszufinden ob Windows
4423     installiert ist. Sehen Sie einfach nach, ob die Aufschrift auf der
4424     Reset-Taste noch lesbar ist.
4425     %%
4426     > Erinnert mich an den Kerl bei mir in der Videothek. Hab mir DHY ausgeliehen
4427     > und er sagt doch zu mir: "Ist aber mit Untertiteln." Sag ich: "Na prima!"
4428     > Fragt er: "Wieso, was ist denn daran so interessant, wenn man nichts
4429     > versteht?"
4430     %%
4431     [de.alt.anime]
4432     Bei meiner Videothek fliegt ein "Ghost in the Shell" Tape
4433     "Ab18" rum. Das machte mich irgendwie stutzig weil auf
4434     der Schachtel meiner 16er zwei Szenenfotos sind, die im
4435     Film gar nicht vorkommen (ironischer Weise direkt über
4436     dem "Uncut & Unzesored" Schildchen). Andererseits ist
4437     mir völlig schleierhaft, was es bei dem Filmchen zu zensieren
4438     geben soll. Nur die oben beschriebene Feststellung hat diese
4439     Frage erneut aufgeworfen.
4440     ji!
4441     %%
4442     I do worry about syntactic clutter, ever since my daughter came
4443     in, looked over my shoulder, and said, "What is that, swearing?"
4444     [Larry Wall]
4445     %%
4446     Der letzte untergegangene altisraelitische Stamm war der der
4447     Altpreussen.
4448     - Norbert Marzahn am 15.8.98 in
4449     de.soc.politik.deutschland
4450     %%
4451     > > Aber die Theorien, die Norbert aufstellt, ueber zum Beispiel die
4452     > > gegossenen Steinformen, die sich hochdruecken, den fuerchterlichen
4453     > > Kometen, der im vergangenen August die Erde zerstoert hat und solche
4454     > > Sachen find ich wirklich Klasse ;-)
4455     >
4456     > Jau. Und erstmal seine Erklärungsversuche, wenn's mal wieder nichts
4457     > geworden ist (wo bleibt eigentlich der Planet X, der während der
4458     > Syonnenfinsternis auftauchen sollte?)...
4459    
4460     Drei Tage Dunkelheit und viele Trümmerteile sollte er bringen, gell,
4461     Norbert?
4462     %%
4463     Marzahnismen: http://www.snafu.de/~dbrueg/normarz.html
4464     Norbert Marzahn sagt: Ich besitze die Mittel, um
4465     "Rechts"- und "Links"-Radikalismus auszuloeschen.
4466     %%
4467     http://welcome.to/levitenbuero/
4468     %%
4469     <Xach> babelfish.pitney.org: "We may not get it right, but boy are we fast!"
4470     %%
4471     Subject: GNU compiler
4472     From: "Steve"
4473     Date: Thu, 16 Sep 1999 19:05:03 -0400
4474     To: <gcc@gcc.gnu.org>
4475     X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.3155.0
4476    
4477     [the following was a single line, of course]
4478     I downloaded the compiler and am trying to install it and the
4479     instructions seem to be very complicated. Can you help me understand
4480     how to install them? There is no setup file and I have downloaded from
4481     several sites in the thought that I might have the wrong version. Your
4482     assistance would be greatly appreciated
4483    
4484     Thanks,
4485    
4486     Steve
4487     %%
4488     [an "I am doing high end graphic design" type of person:]
4489     > Also, could someone tell me how to calculate DPI of an image? I have not
4490     > managed to figure this DPI system out, for example, if an image is a
4491     > 100?50 pixels, what's the DPI??
4492     %%
4493     <tigert> xachbot, op
4494     <XachBot> tigert: I have an 88 magnum. It shoots through schools.
4495     <tigert> ahem
4496     %%
4497     <tc> xachbot, acro FOOBAR
4498     -XachBot:#gimp- FOOBAR: FTP Operation Over Big Address Records | See FUBAR [Net jargon] (cached)
4499     <tc> just when you thought you had something to baffle xachbot
4500     %%
4501     [the release of perl 5.000]
4502     Date: Mon, 17 Oct 94 16:48:04 -0700
4503     From: Larry Wall <lwall@scalpel.netlabs.com>
4504     Subject: It's soup.
4505    
4506     Okay, it's there.
4507    
4508     ftp://ftp.netlabs.com/pub/outgoing/perl5.0/perl5.000.tar.gz
4509    
4510     The first one who tells me about a bug in it gets shot.
4511    
4512     Larry
4513     %%
4514     l33+ h4X0rz
4515     %%
4516     # A random text generator using Markov chains
4517     perl -e 'while(<>){$f.= $_}@l=split(/\s+/, $f);for($i=0;$i<@l-1;$i++){$W{$l[$i]
4518     }.=" ".$l[$i+1];}sub a{$w=$l[1]}&a;sub b{print "\n"}while($w){if(!($W{$w})){&b;
4519     &b;&a;last if ($q++>3);}print"$w ";@p=split(/ /,$W{$w});$c=@p;until($s=int(rand
4520     ($c))){1}$w=$p[$s]}&b' big_text_file
4521     %%
4522     > && d'oh! i knew that! can she allow her lusers to use deja? here is the url
4523     > && for the post with the whole description of how i used -P
4524     >
4525     > Well, access to deja isn't forbidden, but access to the keyboard is.
4526     > And there's no mouse.
4527     >
4528     > Abigail
4529    
4530     Wow. Someone else who reads usenet by osmosis... cool.
4531    
4532     Matt.
4533     %%
4534     Ok, our threads aren't so bad. Python's have one big
4535     giant global interpreter lock. :-)
4536    
4537     - --tom
4538     %%
4539     From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@transmeta.com>
4540     Date: Fri, 6 Aug 1999 11:42:19 -0700 (PDT)
4541    
4542     On Fri, 6 Aug 1999, Hubert Mantel wrote:
4543     >
4544     > So the huge ISDN update in proposed-2.2.11 will be removed from the final
4545     > 2.2.11 release?
4546    
4547     [ Irritated mode: FULL BLAST ]
4548    
4549     Are you being stupid on purpose, or were you born that way?
4550    
4551     Go back and read the thread. Read why I'm irritated. READ. THINK.
4552     %%
4553     Understanding is a three edged sword. Do you *want* to get the point?
4554     %%
4555     ["MVS uses quite heavy algorithms for swapping"]
4556     On Mon, Aug 02, 1999 at 07:55:32PM +0200, Lieven Marchand wrote:
4557     > Last time I looked at it, it got to the point they had moved some
4558     > ASSISTs into microcode. IIRC, some manipulations of the process
4559     > block. I doubt Intel/Sun/MIPS/IBM is going to accomodate Linux quite
4560     > that much ;-)
4561    
4562     IBM is really really good on process technology. They have had to be.
4563     %%
4564     MVS spends a lot of time running OS algorithms to allow full
4565     preemption that Linux wastes on running user applications.
4566     %%
4567     [comments on the gcc-2.95 release]
4568     <QUOTE>
4569     I'm having problems compiling it for HP-UX 10.20. Any ideas?
4570    
4571     (I haven't actually finished downloading it yet, but I just know I'm
4572     gonna have problems with this crappy OS ;-)
4573     </QUOTE>
4574     %%
4575     The Internet interprets Windows as damage,
4576     and routes around it.
4577    
4578     Roger Larsson
4579     Skellefteå
4580     %%
4581     [configuring gcc]
4582     Noone should use --prefix=/usr without --with-local-prefix=/usr/local
4583     %%
4584     'You can solve any programming problem with another level of indirection,
4585     except the problem of too many levels of indirection.'
4586     %%
4587     [http://www.itknowledge.com/tpj/issues/vol4_1/tpj0401-0015.html]
4588    
4589     Z-code interpreters have also been written in Java; unfortunately, when it
4590     comes to cross-platform compatibility, Java's user-interface classes are
4591     finicky and unstable--just ask anyone who's tried to reason with the AWT
4592     on different JVMs.
4593    
4594     [and later]
4595    
4596     Pilfer is a practical implementation of two of the cardinal rules of
4597     adventure gaming:
4598    
4599     1.Anything that is not nailed down is mine.
4600     2.Anything that I can pry loose is not nailed down.
4601     %%
4602     [the ||-operator can be thought of as "or", && can be thought of as
4603     "and", but how would you call the ??-operator?]
4604    
4605     >>>>> "NK" == Nathan Kurz <nate@valleytel.net> writes:
4606    
4607     NK> ?? -> huh?
4608    
4609     That's a great name. The huh? operator.
4610    
4611     <chaim>
4612     %%
4613     `One of the reasons we continue to use Fortran is that it's easier to fix
4614     code written without attention to such details in Fortran than in other
4615     languages. To put it another way, Fortran is the only language where
4616     people who barely get by with their numerical skills can "write useful
4617     numerical code." Many times those people are the only experts in their
4618     specialty available to put a needed procedure into practice.'
4619     %%
4620     [Moderator der Sending "Teatime" auf "Radio Okerwelle", 1999-07-12]
4621     Ich muß schließlich hören was ich sage, damit ich weiß, was ich denke.
4622     %%
4623     [Dr. Dobbs #8, 1999, describing how you can AVOID downloading or executing
4624     Java applets, scripts and ActiveX controls while _parsing_(!) an html
4625     page]
4626     ... you must utilize IOleControl::OnAmbientPropertyChange with the
4627     value DISPID_AMBIENT_DLCONTROL. Before you can do this, however, you
4628     must call IOleObject::SetClientSite so that IOleControl will work
4629     properly. This is the reason you derive from IOleClientSite, even
4630     though you don't extend its functionality in any way. After the call to
4631     OnAmbientPropertyChange, IE4 will call your Invoke method to check the
4632     value of DISPID_AMBIENT_DLCONTROL. Invoke simply sets the correct bits to
4633     disable the behaviour you don't want and returns NOERROR.
4634     [Still interested in knowing how you can disable the "file not found"
4635     dialog box that will pop up when you try to parse a non-accessible file?]
4636     %%
4637     [Linus, whom I quote rarely ;-]
4638     Message passing as the fundamental operation of the OS is just an
4639     excercise in computer science masturbation. It may feel good, but you
4640     don't actually get anything DONE.
4641     %%
4642     Advantages of Windows NT over Linux:
4643     * It's easier to explain the crash was not your fault.
4644     * You've to remember only one solution all to your problems: Reboot.
4645     * You can use your mouse to type an email-message.
4646     %%
4647     > 1) On the PIII, there is the capability to get a system unique serial
4648     > number from the CPU. Does Linux read this data already? Is there plans to
4649     > read the serial number and then disable the capability (maybe so you could
4650     > get the serial number from the OS)?
4651    
4652     Current Linux disables it and doesn't save the value.
4653     %%
4654     [CRYPTO-GRAM 1999-06-15]
4655     "Microsoft set the security state-of-the-art back 25 years with DOS, and
4656     they have continued that legacy to this day."
4657     %%
4658     [From "The Elements Of Style: UNIX As Literature", by Thomas Scoville]
4659     "In a world increasingly dominated by image culture (TV, movies, .jpg
4660     files), UNIX remains rooted in the culture of the word."
4661     %%
4662     > If it is clearly documented that will not happen.
4663    
4664     Yeah, sure. Unfortunately, if the "correct" treatment of this feature
4665     means to change a dozen source files (and rth's comments make me fear
4666     that that's the case), the chance that someone, somewhere forgets to say
4667     exactly why these changes were necessary (and on what other changes in
4668     other files they depend) is far larger than I want to consider. We've
4669     seen this before. Lucky we are that some long time gcc-hackers are
4670     still among us, who might remark: Oh yes, that's undefined by the C
4671     Standard, but it happens to be an extension gcc supports ... Seen that,
4672     got the T-shirt.
4673     %%
4674     Subject: Re: Linux and aliasing?
4675     From: Joe Buck <jbuck@Synopsys.COM>
4676     Date: Fri, 4 Jun 99 10:00:16 PDT
4677     To: torvalds@transmeta.com (Linus Torvalds)
4678     Cc: craig@jcb-sc.com, jbuck@Synopsys.COM, mark@codesourcery.com,
4679     davem@redhat.com, chip@perlsupport.com, egcs@egcs.cygnus.com
4680     X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL11]
4681    
4682     Linus writes, to Craig:
4683    
4684     > I haven't maintained a compiler long-term. I _have_ maintained a larger,
4685     > and arguably mode complex system with many more degrees of freedom and
4686     > thus choices than gcc.
4687    
4688     No, gcc is substantially larger than the Linux kernel (on the order of 10x
4689     larger, as anyone can easily verify). gcc does not need to deal with race
4690     conditions, so in that sense it is simpler, but in other respects it is
4691     far more complex than the kernel.
4692    
4693     [NOTE for the reader: this is not really true, as the device drivers
4694     bomb the comparison away, but the complexity argument still holds]
4695    
4696     [ personal insults deleted, perhaps the author is in need of a vacation ]
4697     %%
4698     Subject: Re: Linux and aliasing?
4699     From: craig@jcb-sc.com
4700     To: torvalds@transmeta.com
4701    
4702     >I want the _user_ to be able to give input.
4703     [...]
4704     >I happen to think that the "explicit cast invalidates the alias
4705     >information" rule is the simplest and best one, and gives the user the
4706     >best control without adding things like new attributes or other ways to
4707     >let the user be in control.
4708    
4709     In other words, you believe you are a better language designer than
4710     the ISO C people as well as the gcc maintainers, despite the fact
4711     that you know, what, *nothing* about language design, and *nothing*
4712     about compiler design and, especially, long-term maintenance of
4713     compilers?
4714     %%
4715     Subject: Re: Linux and aliasing?
4716     From: Joe Buck <jbuck@Synopsys.COM>
4717    
4718     Linus writes:
4719     > Oh, you don't expect me to complain about bad code generation when I know
4720     > gcc could do better?
4721    
4722     Oh, don't worry, we expect you to complain, and in a rude and insulting
4723     matter at that. We're used to it. It seems that you were a nicer guy
4724     before you had so many worshippers.
4725     %%
4726     Subject: Re: Linux and aliasing?
4727     From: Branko Cibej <branko.cibej@hermes.si>
4728     Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 10:07:09 +0200
4729     To: egcs@egcs.cygnus.com
4730     X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.6 [en] (WinNT; I)
4731    
4732     Linus Torvalds wrote:
4733    
4734     > I think it's a damn shame that instead of technical arguments _everything_
4735     > revolves around people reading the standard as if it was the bible, and
4736     > trying to make people feel guilty for not really caring. It's not a sin to
4737     > just want to get good code without having to do magic contortions, guys.
4738    
4739     Why, Linus, it's trivial to do! Use MSVC instead of egcs, then you can do
4740    
4741     #pragma optimize("a", on/off)
4742    
4743     around every single statement, if you like. It even supports anonymous unions
4744     _and_ structs, and is only slightly influenced by the ISO C standard.
4745    
4746     They'll even sell you a version that can generate code for the alpha!
4747    
4748     >:->
4749    
4750     Brane
4751    
4752    
4753     P.S.: Just for the record: I, a "real user" and (imnsho) a "clever programmer"
4754     who "know what I'm doing", at least most of the time, and who do not "read the
4755     standard as if it were a bible", vote for having a standard-conforming
4756     compiler that's not bloated by a ton of marginally useful (or even useless)
4757     features. If I want featuritis, I know where I can get it.
4758    
4759    
4760     P.P.S: They can't even spell "optimise" ...
4761     %%
4762     You can have it Soon, Cheap, and Working; choose *two*
4763     %%
4764     "Scientific" studies have found that a 2.2.x Linux router with
4765     fast-switching enabled, using Tulip 100baseT cards, can melt a
4766     high-end Cisco's 100baseT interfaces.
4767     %%
4768     1) Thread switching is faster than process switching by a little bit on Linux
4769     2) Process switching on linux is faster than thread switching on NT
4770     3) Almost anything is faster than process switching on NT
4771     %%
4772     [gimp-developers, on the use of keyboard modifiers for drawing tools]
4773    
4774     > Simple. Powerful. Fast. Choose at most two.
4775    
4776     Perhaps this should be an option in the preferences dialog? :)
4777     %%
4778     [perl is cryptic??]
4779     Subject: @{$${->{{{{~{}~{{{NO CARRIER
4780     From: Jarkko Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi>
4781     Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 21:55:37 +0300 (EET DST)
4782    
4783     We have still a long way to go-- from the zsh-workers mailing list:
4784    
4785     : Just thought of a trivial way to take a lot of grief out of parameter
4786     : substitution. This patch makes the following valid:
4787     :
4788     : ${${${${(f)"$(typeset)"}:#*local *\=*}%%\=*}##* }
4789     :
4790     : replacing the equivalent but grotesquer
4791     :
4792     : "${(@)${(@)${(@)${(@f)$(typeset)}:#*local *\=*}%%\=*}##* }"
4793     %%
4794     Long noun chains don't automatically imply security. - Bruce Schneier
4795     %%
4796     > |> Spoken as a true C programmer. However you are wrong. Case-preserving, but
4797     > |> insensitive, is the CORRECT way for file systems. Capitalization should not
4798     > |> matter for interpretation of a file name just as it doesn't matter for
4799     > |> interpreting words in any human language.
4800     >
4801     > This is wrong. In German, there is a big difference between "paar" und
4802     > "Paar" (the first meaning "a few", the second "pair").
4803    
4804     The classic example:
4805    
4806     "Ich habe liebe Genossen in Moskau" - I've got dead comreds in Moscow.
4807     "Ich habe Liebe genossen in Moskau" - I enjoyed love in Moscow.
4808     %%
4809     [do we need oo-style IO::File class in perl?]
4810     >_You_ aren't gonna code "use IO::File".
4811    
4812     And there's no reason for anyone else to, either, especially
4813     once Nick finishes the Larry-blessed autovivification of
4814     lvaluabled undefs in open(), socket(), etc.
4815    
4816     What's next, a String class for Perl?
4817    
4818     --tom
4819     %%
4820     [some example of the kind of mail I sometimes receive:]
4821     i was just trying to help u out not hurt you in anyway ok i have the fbi
4822     working on something for me
4823     u havent done anything to me ok and the sherriffs department came by to talk
4824     to me nutting concerning y ok
4825     piece
4826     russ
4827     %%
4828     [From "Basic Information about Unix", common commands:]
4829    
4830     pico (text editor for beginners)
4831     vi (text editor for advanced users)
4832     emacs (text editor for advanced users)
4833     ed (text editor for beginners)
4834     %%
4835     There is no reason in principle that a Perl script shouldn't start with
4836    
4837     use Python;
4838    
4839     and appear to work exactly like Python from there to the end of the file.
4840     Except maybe faster. :-)
4841    
4842     Larry
4843     %%
4844     > Perl6 gives us an opportunity to re-examine every feature at a microscopic level.
4845    
4846     just what I'm afraid of... I thought this was to be Perl6, not Perl
4847     2010.
4848    
4849     (Perl 2010: The Spaced Oddity?)
4850     %%
4851     The X.25 specification is not a particularly easy document to
4852     read. Contrary to expectations, it does not make great use of diagrams
4853     and tables that help to explain the workings of the protocols that
4854     it contains. Instead the document makes use of many ambiguous English
4855     descriptions of the actions that should take place, allied with a complete
4856     lack of fluency in its prose descriptions, make for a very confusing
4857     document. It is a wonder that any correct X.25 implementations have ever
4858     been created.
4859     %%
4860     > Joe: (walking into McDonalds) Hi, I'd like a Big Mac.
4861     >
4862     > Cashier: Okay, here's your Big Mac and here's your Coke. That'll be
4863     > $3.99.
4864     >
4865     > Joe: Uh, I don't want a Coke.
4866     >
4867     > Cashier: Sorry, they're bundled.
4868     >
4869     > Joe: What? I'm not paying for a Coke!
4870     >
4871     > Cashier: You don't; the Coke is free.
4872     >
4873     > Joe: But wasn't a Big Mac $2.49 last week?
4874     >
4875     > Cashier: Sure, but this latest Big Mac is far more innovative. It's
4876     > got integrated Coke!
4877     >
4878     > Joe: I already bought a Snapple across the street... I'm not going
4879     > to drink the Coke.
4880     >
4881     > Cashier: Then you can't have the burger.
4882     >
4883     > Joe: Okay, fine, I will pay the $3.99 and throw the Coke away.
4884     >
4885     > Cashier: Oh, you can't do that. They're seamlessly integrated. Totally
4886     > inseparable.
4887     >
4888     > Joe: How can that be? They're two totally separate things!
4889     >
4890     > Cashier: No, watch. (takes Big Mac, dunks it in a tank of Coke) See?
4891     >
4892     > Joe: Why did you just do that?!
4893     >
4894     > Cashier: It's a benefit to the consumer. Otherwise you'd end up with
4895     > two different, inconsistent tastes. This way you're assured of a
4896     > continuous taste across all your foods.
4897     %%
4898     Threads are like salt. I like salt, you like salt, we all
4899     like salt, but we eat more pasta than salt.
4900 root 1.40 Rob Pike
4901 root 1.1 %%
4902     From: Nathan Torkington <gnat@frii.com>
4903    
4904     Don't be bitten by Perl, get crushed by Python.
4905     Python: Perl for the punctuation-phobic.
4906     It takes 4 days for a python to digest a hamster, but only 2 days
4907     for you to digest this book.
4908     Python: it's really better but nobody uses it.
4909     Python: just for the whitespace of it.
4910     Join The Trickle
4911     Python: more popular than Dylan!
4912     Python: not written by crackheads in a gutter!
4913     Are you uptight? Try our new Python Hangups series.
4914     %%
4915     Well Microsoft announced this new language called COOL which I can
4916     honestly say that I have seen NO CRAPPY CODE written in. OTOH it appears
4917     that to achieve this miraculous status by the simple technique of being
4918     complete and utter vapourware.
4919    
4920     Microsoft, taking the Business out of COBOL.
4921     %%
4922     [From "Programming Perl"]
4923    
4924     We will encourage you to develop the three great virtues of a
4925     programmer: laziness, impatience and hubris
4926     %%
4927     [Alexander Stepanov, creator of the STL]:
4928    
4929     Yes. STL is not object oriented. I think that object orientedness is
4930     almost as much of a hoax as Artificial Intelligence. I have yet to
4931     see an interesting piece of code that comes from these OO people. In
4932     a sense, I am unfair to AI: I learned a lot of stuff from the MIT AI
4933     Lab crowd, they have done some really fundamental work: Bill Gosper's
4934     Hakmem is one of the best things for a programmer to read. AI might
4935     not have had a serious foundation, but it produced Gosper and Stallman
4936     (Emacs), Moses (Macsyma) and Sussman (Scheme, together with Guy Steele). I
4937     find OOP technically unsound. It attempts to decompose the world in
4938     terms of interfaces that vary on a single type. To deal with the real
4939     problems you need multisorted algebras - families of interfaces that
4940     span multiple types. I find OOP philosophically unsound. It claims that
4941     everything is an object. Even if it is true it is not very interesting -
4942     saying that everything is an object is saying nothing at all. I find OOP
4943     methodologically wrong. It starts with classes. It is as if mathematicians
4944     would start with axioms. You do not start with axioms - you start with
4945     proofs. Only when you have found a bunch of related proofs, can you
4946     come up with axioms. You end with axioms. The same thing is true in
4947     programming: you have to start with interesting algorithms. Only when you
4948     understand them well, can you come up with an interface that will let them
4949     work.
4950     [...]
4951     You can't write a generic max() in Java that takes two arguments of some
4952     type and has a return value of that same type. Inheritance and interfaces
4953     don't help. And if they cannot implement max or swap or linear search,
4954     what chances do they have to implement really complex stuff? These are my
4955     litmus tests: if a language allows me to implement max and swap and linear
4956     search generically - then it has some potential.
4957     [...] Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming (MOP).
4958     It might be successful - after all, MS DOS was - and it might be a
4959     profitable thing for all your readers to learn Java, but it has no
4960     intellectual value whatsoever.
4961    
4962     [Later, on OMG protocols like CORBA]
4963     I am old enough to remember all the networking standards that were coming
4964     out in the seventies. Who remembers them now?
4965     %%
4966     [Stiftung Warentest "test", WDR 19990419:]
4967     "Schlechtes muß nicht billig sein..."
4968     %%
4969     [/bin/false on solaris]
4970     #!/usr/bin/sh
4971     # Copyright (c) 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 AT&T
4972     # All Rights Reserved
4973    
4974     # THIS IS UNPUBLISHED PROPRIETARY SOURCE CODE OF AT&T
4975     # The copyright notice above does not evidence any
4976     # actual or intended publication of such source code.
4977    
4978     #ident "@(#)false.sh 1.6 93/01/11 SMI" /* SVr4.0 1.3 */
4979     [obvious invocation of exit snipped to avoid lawsuit. Yup, *1* line.]
4980     %%
4981     <Aspirin> but ee uses imlib, and imlib is documented to take 4.7 days to start up on a 486 by Alan Cox.
4982     %%
4983     When a tar built for SunOS runs under Solaris, it's incapable of opening
4984     or creating files with "lib/locale" in the path. It replaces that part of
4985     the path with "lib/oldlocale".
4986     %%
4987     [Bruce Schneier in CRYPTO-GRAM, 19990315]
4988    
4989     "Microsoft prefers to treat security holes as a public relations problem,
4990     rather than fixing the actual problem."
4991    
4992     [further down: the official answer from Microsoft about a problem where
4993     just viewing a website would invisibly run unrestricted code on your
4994     machine]
4995    
4996     "Microsoft appreciates your input regarding this issue, however in lieu
4997     of modern technology being what it is, we all need to be personally
4998     responsible for knowing what we are downloading off the internet."
4999    
5000     [see http://www.panix.com/~dfoster/sec/chrono.html]
5001     %%
5002     [Steve Funston wrote to me, after I unsubscribed him from gimp-perl for
5003     spamming:]
5004    
5005     >fuck you ass hole duh you are just a big fucker
5006     >>
5007     >>An error was generated by your request to our servers:
5008     >>------------------------------------------------------
5009     >>
5010     >>Your Email: bfunston@mich.com
5011     >>
5012     >>ERROR: You are not a member of this list.
5013    
5014     [and later, misquoting my name:]
5015     >mark is not only a big fat liar but he is an ass hole.
5016     %%
5017     [How much of the microsoft shares does Bill Gates hold?]
5018     He has 19.8%. Paul Allen has 5.5%. Steve Ballmer has 4.7%.
5019     %%
5020     > And what's wrong with being named Peter?
5021     If linus was peter, Linux would be called penix? (just guessing) ;)
5022     %%
5023     According to Microsoft KnowledgeBase article Q216641, Microsoft Windows
5024     95/98 are limited to an uptime of *exactly* 49.7 days.
5025    
5026     --found by Vincent Janelle (Random)
5027     %%
5028     > Leave that to RMS.
5029    
5030     If you had just sat through the horrific panel with Larry,
5031     RMS, Richard, and Linus, you would want to leave a whole lot
5032     else to RMS -- like a couple of megatons of the manure that
5033     he's full of.
5034    
5035     Support BSD/Linux.
5036    
5037     --tom
5038     %%
5039     "The FSF is a cult -- don't support them." --Rob Pike
5040     %%
5041     We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.
5042     %%
5043     > Perhaps the cracker himself (itself? ;) isn't bright enough to delete shell
5044     > history, but his shrink-wrapped cracking tools might be a lot brighter...
5045    
5046     Some of them are. A surprising number aren't. A personal favorite of
5047     mine was the log from a cracker who couldn't figure out how to untar
5048     and install the trojan package he'd ftped onto the machine. he tried a
5049     few times, and then eventually gave up and logged out.
5050     %%
5051     [on channel #gimp]
5052    
5053     [msg(Xachbot)] insult me
5054     [XachBot(xachbot@home.xach.com)] schmorp: David Miller would never approve of that.
5055     %%
5056     [the creation]
5057     http://www.toodarkpark.org/caffeine-cgi-bin/textfile/net-hx.txt
5058     %%
5059     THE LESSER-KNOWN PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES #12: LITHP
5060    
5061     This otherwise unremarkable language is distinguished by the absence of
5062     an "S" in its character set; users must substitute "TH". LITHP is said
5063     to be useful in protheththing lithtth.
5064     %%
5065     Ich zog hier nur einen Pseudoschluss aus dieser sache, den ich nicht
5066     selbst schliesse.
5067     Norbert Harry Marzahn, selbsternannter "Judaaer"
5068     am 13.12.98 in de.alt.ufo
5069     %%
5070     According to Gurusamy Sarathy:
5071     > "Resistance is futile, you will be modularized."
5072    
5073     No:
5074    
5075     use Borg;
5076     make_threat(-type => 'standard', -doom => 'modularized');
5077    
5078     --
5079     Chip Salzenberg - a.k.a. - <chip@perlsupport.com>
5080     %%
5081     "And over here, ladies and gentlemen, may I draw your attention to
5082     the 'posicks box', a mechanism within one of the late 20th century
5083     sub-I hardware gestalt integration agents (then called 'operating
5084     systems', this particular one being referred to as 'windows' by
5085     its commercial-mimetic sustainer), designed so as to provide the
5086     appearance and functionality required to comply with one of the few
5087     agreed-upon integration schemas (sub-I, of course) available at the
5088     time. Unsurprising given the non-integration imperitives used by the
5089     agent's sustainter, this mechanism was demonstrated to be an ingenious
5090     non-integration ploy that, while supporting the integration schema,
5091     failed to support the local interconnect schemas that this agent
5092     specialized in. This produced a classic focus rift in the knowledge
5093     pool, benefiting the sustainer in the short run due to the focus
5094     concentration facilities available to commericial-class mimetic
5095     sustainers. Practically, this wasn't a significant loss, in the long
5096     run, as neither the 'windows' or 'posicks' schemas were relevant to
5097     modern quasi-I agents. These two do live on, however, in a few niches.
5098     'posicks' is used as the integration schema between most nano-scale
5099     logic units (a fact that only a few meta-experts still need to be
5100     aware of), and 'windows' survives, for religious-mimetic reasons, as
5101     the human-communication agent in a few stereotypical toasters and soap
5102     dispensers."
5103    
5104     [Kenneth Albanowski]
5105     %%
5106     Perl ist ein Schmerzmittel.
5107     Wenn Du bei der Speicherverwaltung oder der Stringverarbeitung
5108     unter C Schmerzen hast, nimm Perl.
5109     -- Kristian Koehntopp
5110     %%
5111     > Why Windows NT Server 4.0 continues to exist in the enterprise would be a
5112     > topic appropriate for an investigative report in the field of psychology or
5113     > marketing, not an article on information technology -- John Kirch
5114     %%
5115     [bei einer mündlichen Nachprüfung in BWL, Uni Hamburg]
5116    
5117     Prof: "Was ist Agio?"
5118     Student: "Weiß ich nicht."
5119     Prof: "OK, durchgefallen!
5120     Student: "Ich habe aber Anspruch auf drei Fragen in der mündlichen Prüfung!"
5121     Prof: "Klar, was ist Disagio?"
5122     Student: "..."
5123     Prof: "...und was ist der Unterschied zwischen Agio und Disagio?"
5124     Student: "..."
5125     Prof: "...durchgefallen!"
5126     %%
5127     Chaim Frenkel <chaimf@pobox.com> writes:
5128    
5129     > Just morbid curiosity,
5130     >
5131     > Are there _any_ unix boxes that _can't_ build Perl?
5132    
5133     Yes. Broken ones.
5134    
5135     dgris
5136     %%
5137     "The kerastion is a musical instrument which cannot be heard."
5138     -- A Borges story in ten words.
5139     %%
5140     "C combines the power of assembly language
5141     with the flexibility of assembly language."
5142     %%
5143     ...
5144    
5145     <AOL>
5146    
5147     Me too!
5148    
5149     </AOL>
5150    
5151     Tig
5152     %%
5153     ping -p 2b2b2b415448300d <hostname>
5154     %%
5155     unzip;strip;touch;finger;mount;fsck;more;yes;umount;sleep
5156     %%
5157     From: Dick Balaska <dick@buckosoft.com>
5158    
5159     I sit behind an NT dual P2/400 256MB for too many hours each day. It is
5160     "slow". One of my (fun) tasks is CD mastering. When i'm loading a 500MB
5161     wav file into the editor, the machine goes useless for two minutes while
5162     loading the wave file. Basically its just reading the file and writing it
5163     to swap. The CPU is at 5%. No Alt-Tab between apps during that time. No
5164     chance of putting the mouse over a button (too many dropped ticks). The
5165     NT kernel is just sitting waiting for I/O completions.
5166    
5167     Linux would be embarrassed to be that bad.
5168    
5169     I expected M$ to never fix this because its not "broken". However, i
5170     expect billg to start reading the above mentioned literal benchmarks and
5171     get really really pissed.
5172    
5173     Especially since i believe 1999 and 2000 to see Linux *really* start
5174     to cut into M$'s server market share.
5175     %%
5176     > Hello I'm wondering if there's a lower traffic mailing list that exists
5177     > that's strictly important kernel announcements and not general chat. I
5178     > need to stay informed but I can't handle 250 messages in a 24 hour
5179     > period.
5180     >
5181     > Sorry for the insignificant post..
5182     > Nic
5183     >
5184    
5185     Thank you for contributing to the problem.
5186    
5187     -hpa
5188     %%
5189     grep... grep... grep... (frog with unix stuck in his throat)
5190     %%
5191     "If users are made to understand that the system administrator's job is to
5192     make computers run, and not to make them happy, they can, in fact, be made
5193     happy most of the time. If users are allowed to believe that the system
5194     administrator's job is to make them happy, they can, in fact, never be made
5195     happy."
5196     - - -Paul Evans (as quoted by Barb Dijker in "Managing Support Staff", LISA '97)
5197     %%
5198     From: "Daniel P. Stasinski" <dannys@KAREMOR.COM>
5199     Subject: Microsoft Hotmail
5200     To: BUGTRAQ@NETSPACE.ORG
5201    
5202     I contacted Microsoft/Hotmail asking them to close the account
5203     of that was listed in the backdoored tcp wrapper source code.
5204     I also forwarded the offending code.
5205    
5206     The word back from them is that they will not close it. Theft
5207     of passwords and hacking does not violate thier terms of
5208     service.
5209    
5210     Daniel
5211     %%
5212     Any UNIX-killer must also have:
5213     ...
5214     * cool name like Linux (serious, these fail: GNU Hurd FreeBSD 386BSD)
5215     %%
5216     "Not all things worth doing are worth doing well."
5217     It's a phrase I use a lot. :-)
5218     [RJL]
5219     %%
5220     As John Whittaker says: ``It's UNIX. That doesn't necessarily mean it's
5221     right.''
5222     %%
5223     [Richard Stallman on the new _Pragma operator in C9X:]
5224    
5225     Amazing--they actually listened.
5226     %%
5227     That "UNIX" term is very negative. People often associate it with
5228     SCO OpenServer, Wyse terminals, and 60 people on a 386. The UNIX
5229     that people know is just awful. It looks something like this:
5230    
5231     # less foo
5232     sh: command not found
5233     # more foo
5234     sh: command not found
5235     # emacs foo
5236     sh: command not found
5237     # ed foo
5238     0
5239     help
5240     ?
5241     quit
5242     ?
5243     exit
5244     ?
5245     DIE!!!!!!!!!!
5246     ?
5247    
5248     [Albert D. Cahalan]
5249     %%
5250     Subject: Re: Stop blib warning in future releases?
5251     From: andreas.koenig@anima.de (Andreas J. Koenig)
5252     Date: 05 Jan 1999 03:15:37 +0100
5253    
5254     tim> Sure. Strictly speaking
5255    
5256     tim> use blib ':quiet';
5257    
5258     tim> would be most correct in style.
5259    
5260     Only German native speakers are allowed to treat adverbs adjectively.
5261     For the rest I'd recommend [...]
5262     %%
5263     [A new U.S. Law implementing a WIPO treaty]
5264     No person shall circumvent a technological protection measure that
5265     effectively controls access to a work protected under this title
5266     [Or, in other words, applied cryptanalysis will be illegal.
5267     too bad --- ]
5268     %%
5269     Microsoft - Is it going to work today?
5270     %%
5271     Subject: Re: [gimp-devel] GIF plugin legal issues
5272    
5273     > Actually, my understanding is that Unisys doesn't currently enforce the
5274     > licensing cost on free software, but maybe I am mistaken.
5275    
5276     The general wording, spoken by an unnamed GIMP developer, is, if you'll
5277     pardon the language, "Unisys can go fuck itself."
5278     %%
5279     [once on linux-kernel:]
5280     > >who are you why on yahoo when iprint sf16fmi i fond you i need drv
5281     > Does anyone have the secret decoder ring to make sense of this?
5282     he's confused about us showing up in a search match on yahoo, but needs
5283     driver(s) for his sf16fmi thingy.
5284     %%
5285     > Did you try to compile kdeadmin from the CVS tree ?
5286    
5287     No I ran the KDE binaries. Im not interested in broken programs that
5288     include wrong #include files in their source.
5289     %%
5290     [unix-faq]
5291    
5292     Someday, you are going to accidentally type something like
5293     "rm * .foo", and find you just deleted "*" instead of "*.foo".
5294     Consider it a rite of passage.
5295     %%
5296     "There's one word that strikes fear into nuclear scientists..."
5297     "Oops."
5298     -- MST3K
5299     %%
5300     Seems like 80-bit spills would be closer to IEEE, if not close enough to
5301     claim full support. Off-hand I'd say people would be happier with
5302     those numeric properties than with the current situation.
5303    
5304     I'll think about the esoterica (probably break down and ask people here).
5305     It would certainly make gcc the most reliable x86 floating-point compiler
5306     I know. Sun's does something similar to -ffloat-store by default (gee,
5307     look at how fast that ultra is), and Microsoft's runs off the end of the
5308     stack at run-time . I don't know what Intel's does, so I'm not considering
5309     it. ;)
5310     %%
5311     >I was using the localtime function to change time_t into it's various
5312     >human-readable parts. I noticed that $year gets returned as 98 and
5313     >not 1998. I tested a few different unices and got the same result.
5314     >This is expected behavior based on the examples I've seen and my own
5315     >testing. My question is how is this y2k compliant?
5316    
5317     What part of your C library's documentation on localtime(3), the perlfunc
5318     documentation on the Perl localtime function, the perlfaq4 entry on `Does
5319     Perl have a year 2000 problem?', and the Y2K document on www.perl.com
5320     did you find to be unclear on the answer to this question?
5321    
5322     --tom
5323     %%
5324     > * Have you ever wondered how life began ?
5325    
5326     In a laboratory somewhere at Bell Labs.
5327    
5328     >Why does it end ?
5329    
5330     Ask the X3J11 committee.
5331    
5332     > * Can you tell WHY there is life ? What is the purpose of it ?
5333     > * Can YOU do anything to make your life worth living ? WHAT ?
5334    
5335     To promote the the DEATH OF ANSI C! K+R FOREVER! DOWN WITH PORTABILITY!
5336     %%
5337     "Unix *is* Perl's IDE!"
5338     -- Tom Christiansen
5339     %%
5340     [Sputnik]
5341    
5342     Do you honestly think the Americans would mention a Soviet success? :-)
5343     A number of years back I saw an exhibition in the US on the development of
5344     supersonic passenger aircraft. They forgot to mention Concorde. It
5345     wouldn't surprise me in the least if most people at NASA had never heard
5346     of Sputnik.
5347     %%
5348     NTFS by default adds unnecessary serialization to an extent that
5349     even older file systems such as FFS do not, and its performance
5350     characteristics reflect that. In fairness, it should be said that it is
5351     the superior approach for most removable media without software control
5352     of ejection (e.g. IBM PC floppies).
5353     %%
5354     Never attribute to malice what could as well be explained by stupidity.
5355     - Hanlons razor -
5356     %%
5357     Shallit's Razor: Never attribute to conspiracy what may be adequately
5358     explained by stupidity or incompetence.
5359     %%
5360     According to Chris Nandor:
5361     > I thought about creating a web interface to input, edit, delete entries,
5362     > but that would have taken me longer, been more complex and less secure, and
5363     > offered no significant advantages.
5364    
5365     That one's in the quotes file. Thanks.
5366     %%
5367     My friend who had a Compaq called one day when his built-in cdrom drive
5368     stopped responding. Their answer "its a virus. Reinstal Windows". So he did
5369     (?) and it still didn't work. He called them and they said "its a virus,
5370     reinstall." "But I just installed. If there is a virus, it came from YOUR
5371     quick restore disk." "No, no virus there, but you DO have a virus. My paper
5372     in front of me says so."
5373    
5374     He took it back and bought a Gateway.
5375     %%
5376     9. Deinde, ne in posterum a XII kalendas aprilis aequinoctium recedat,
5377     statuimus bissextum quarto quoque anno (uti mos est) continuari debere,
5378     praeterquam in centesimis annis; qui, quamvis bissextiles antea semper
5379     fuerint, qualem etiam esse volumus annum MDC, post eum tamen qui
5380     deinceps consequentur centesimi non omnes bissextiles sint, sed in
5381     quadringentis quibusque annis primi quique tres centesimi sine bissexto
5382     transigantur, quartus vero quisque centesimus bissextilis sit, ita ut
5383     annus MDCC, MDCCC, MDCCCC bissextiles non sint. Anno vero MM, more
5384     consueto dies bissextus intercaletur, februario dies XXIX continente,
5385     idemque ordo intermittendi intercalandique bissextum diem in
5386     quadringentis quibusque annis perpetuo conservetur.
5387     %%
5388     You obviously have not dealt with Microsoft Winnt 4.0
5389     and all the Service Pack then. While one Service Pack
5390     did somewhat correct the Y2K problem was not aware that
5391     2000 was in fact a leap year. There was no way to set
5392     the date to Feb 29, 2000.
5393     %%
5394     "Ernst Lehmann, die Organisationsredundanz beim Cluster-Treffen"
5395     %%
5396     HP Computer NEWS 3/98 about HP 2000/CN printer (page 24): "Darüber
5397     hinaus ... hat der HP 2000C/CN durch den Einsatz von Intel MMX-
5398     Technologie Zugriff auf deren Farbtabellen und kann so Farbbilder
5399     schneller verarbeiten" (A mistake made when translating. It's hard to
5400     get the wrong meaning if translated back to English, sorry.)
5401     %%
5402     From: Robert Lipe
5403     > > I program computers with no screens and no keyboards for a living.
5404     > > Switches and front-panels are a LUXURY! :-)
5405     >
5406     > But I guess you are not _programming_ these computers without a keyboard
5407     > and/or screen.
5408    
5409     Are you familiar with the Vulcan Mind Meld?
5410     %%
5411     Subject: Re: [fwd from comp.lang.python] Re: Python 2 ideas [Re: access
5412     From: Tuomas Lukka <lukka@fas.harvard.edu>
5413    
5414     On Tue, 24 Nov 1998, Ilya Zakharevich wrote:
5415     > use pedantic;
5416     > use strict 'code';
5417     >
5418     > or whatever is the syntax to switch Perl into 'dull'/'pythonish' mode.
5419    
5420     use syntax 'python';
5421    
5422     Let's just embrace&extend'em ;) ;)
5423    
5424     %%
5425     Thus it was written in the epistle of Larry Wall,
5426     >
5427     > Having discussed all this thoroughly at the Hacker's Conference this
5428     > past weekend, I've come to the conclusion that Y2K will be traumatic
5429     > primarily because people *think* it will be traumatic. A panic is a
5430     > panic whether or not it's justified. People get trampled in panics.
5431     >
5432     > It should be illegal to yell "Y2K" in a crowded economy. :-)
5433     %%
5434     [rfc1925]
5435     Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't have all three).
5436     %%
5437     [Alan Cox, why not port hurd to sgi, instead of linux]
5438     > A possible minus is the message-passing between the servers which might
5439     > be time-consuming.
5440    
5441     "Yesterdays technology, next week" to quote an OSI saying
5442     %%
5443     UNIX versions of ctags handle the C language, and often Pascal and Fortran
5444     77. Sometimes, they even handle assembly language. Almost universally,
5445     however, they do not handle C++...
5446     [from "learning the vi editor"]
5447     %%
5448     > correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't there a thread about this a few
5449     > months back that resolved the ping -f localhost as a ping bug.
5450    
5451     Indeed, as Alan Cox said:
5452    
5453     So get a non-buggy ping(8) client.
5454    
5455     and as Ecclesiastes said:
5456    
5457     Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been
5458     already of old time, which was before us.
5459     There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any
5460     remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
5461    
5462     Regards,
5463     Tigran.
5464     %%
5465     SNMP stands for Security Not My Problem
5466     %%
5467     [slightly broken, though...]
5468     /* "Hello World" in B for 64-bit hardware! */
5469     hw [0] "Hello World.*n";
5470     main(){
5471     extrn hw;
5472     putchar(0[hw]);
5473     hw=+1;
5474     putchar(0[hw]);
5475     }
5476     %%
5477     > So what comes first the chicken or the egg? :)
5478    
5479     The egg. Always. By definition.
5480     %%
5481     > > PPS: Robert, I just made my first y2k fix to that script ;()
5482     >
5483     > Better check your scsi cables.
5484     %%
5485     Arroganz durch Wissen
5486     [Dirk Jagdmann]
5487     %%
5488     [Re: Pegasus - Gut oder Boese?]
5489     > Weil er sie dabei ja unterstuetzt. Da er aber (abgesehen von den ersten
5490     > ein- oder zweimal) nur auf Anrufen von Rosa-Girl erscheint, koennte man es
5491     > auch anders herum sagen. wenn CU Pfeift, kommt er angaloppiert 8))
5492    
5493     was aber leider bedeutet, daß usa die Rennsemmel ständig mit
5494     sich rumschleppen mu?. ^_-
5495     Nur weil die Kleine die Bimmel hat!
5496    
5497     Und wer weiß, was dieses pädophile Pferd eigentlich noch so
5498     bezwecken will... ^_-
5499     %%
5500     >James :\
5501     >
5502     >I apologize for adding a message to this possibly trivial thread.
5503    
5504     I like your sig. I hope you use it for everything you post.
5505     %%
5506     From: Mason <mason@schwanda.resnet.tamu.edu>
5507     Subject: night of the undead ip stack
5508     Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 13:03:19 -0600 (CST)
5509     %%
5510     > The person who decides to invent UNICODE support for Linux
5511     > is just asking for a black eye.
5512    
5513     But Unicode for NT is such fun!
5514    
5515     For example, the checked DbgPrint() bluescreens above DISPATCH_LEVEL
5516     if you try to print a Unicode string--the Unicode->ASCII
5517     translation tables are marked as pageable.
5518    
5519     Since as far as I know, printk() does not have any format specifiers
5520     that cause obscure kernel panics, Linux is clearly behind in this
5521     area.
5522     %%
5523     Linux: a no problem operating system for no problem people.
5524     [Lukas Grunwald]
5525     %%
5526     http://dd.sh/perlfs/:
5527    
5528     THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL (PRE-ALPHA) VERSION OF THE PERL FILESYSTEM.
5529     EVEN WHEN IT LOADS WITHOUT CAUSING A KERNEL PANIC, IT WILL LOCK UP
5530     YOUR MACHINE, DESTROY ALL YOUR DATA, KIDNAP YOUR FAMILY AND
5531     (DEPENDING ON SAID FAMILY'S CONFIGURATION) SHOOT YOUR CAT, DOG, AND/OR
5532     FIRST-BORN CHILD.
5533     %%
5534     [a comment on http://dd.sh/perlfs/]
5535     Forget GNU/Linux. /PerL/inux will conquer all.
5536    
5537     kill 0,1 if -x '/PerL/inux'; # request kernel mode
5538     %%
5539     [Tim Hollebeek on real arithmetic]
5540     On a machine with a sane floating point model, the results make sense.
5541     For example, my SGI workstation prints:
5542    
5543     0.00000000000000011102 1.00000000000000000000 1.00000000000000020000 1.00000000000000040000
5544    
5545     However, a machine with the Intel FPU from hell gives:
5546    
5547     0.00000000000000000005 1.00000000000000000000 1.00000000000000000000 1.00000000000000000000
5548    
5549     due to the fact that whether 1+x and 1 are the same number depends on whether
5550     the numbers are in the FPU or not.
5551     %%
5552     [Grüner Tip/Arte]
5553     Ihre Nachbarn sind zu laut und feiern andauernd Parties? Kein Problem, ihr
5554     Bohrer wird nachts um zwei spielend mit _jedem_ Lärm fertig....
5555     %%
5556     Remember, eating healthy doesn't make you live longer, it just makes it seem
5557     longer...
5558     %%
5559     [M$ about unix development tools like GCC]
5560     By the standards of the novice / intermediate developer accustomed to
5561     VB/VS/VC/VJ, these tools are incredibly primitive.
5562     %%
5563     > > Praha is nice and our university is interesting, since it is according
5564     > > to tests most complex and impractical computer science university on the
5565     > > world :) I just love it...
5566     >
5567     > Oh well, great that I won't be studying there...
5568     >
5569     It is really fun.... just now I have lesson (that reminds me that I really
5570     should go now) about set theory and infinity... it is really fun and very
5571     practical...
5572     for example that you have cinema with infinity chairs and infinity plus one
5573     person wants to see movie... what do yo do?
5574     Just let sit down the first infinity persons and then last person ask first
5575     one to move to second chair, second one to move to third and so on and
5576     everyone fits.. isn't that great to know? :))
5577    
5578     Jan Hubicka
5579     %%
5580     > template< template< template<class> class > class Tmpl> A {};
5581     [...]
5582     > I think that this construction is allowed by the ANSI C++.
5583    
5584     No, it is not. What you meant is
5585    
5586     template< template< template<class> class > class Tmpl> class A {};
5587     %%
5588     Jan Dubois writes:
5589     > A) perl-5.00553
5590     > path = \perl\5.00553\bin\MsWin32-x86\perl.exe
5591     > cc = cl.exe
5592     A performance analysis compiling with M$ compiler? Get real!
5593    
5594     [...]
5595    
5596     Ilya
5597     %%
5598     >Shouldn't the kernel compile with all combinations of options.
5599    
5600     Yes. Feel free to fix it and send a patch.
5601    
5602     p.
5603     %%
5604     [tomc]
5605     Jean-Louis provides four arguments in favor of the overloading of the
5606     logical && and || operators. Here they are:
5607    
5608     +------------------------------------------+
5609     | Other languages, notably C++, permit it. |
5610     +------------------------------------------+
5611    
5612     This one is hardly persuasive. Many languages do innumerable things
5613     that Perl does not do. Just for example, take:
5614    
5615     * Csh reparses and re-evals interpolated strings, allowing something
5616     like C<$cmd $var> to do interesting things.
5617     * The Fortran lexer (as it were), having no need of white space to
5618     infer tokens, allows C<DO I=1.10> and C<DO I=1,10> to coexist in an
5619     interesting way.
5620     * Icon has an entirely different notion of success and failure,
5621     allowing expressions like (X < Y < Z) to do interesting things.
5622     * Scheme has call-with-continuation, allowing co-routines to do
5623     interesting things.
5624     * C++ has template classes with abnormal typing rules even for that
5625     language, allowing parameterized meta-classes to do interesting
5626     things.
5627     %%
5628     Make is like Pascal: everybody likes it, so they go in and change it.
5629     --Dennis Ritchie
5630     %%
5631     perl -wlpe '}{$_=$.' file # Count the number of lines.
5632     %%
5633     [not quite duff's device, but...]
5634    
5635     switch (x)
5636     default:
5637     if (prime(x))
5638     case 2: case 3: case 5: case 7:
5639     process_prime(x);
5640     else
5641     case 4: case 6: case 8: case 9: case 10:
5642     process_composite(x);
5643     %%
5644     Is there any truth to the rumor that the number appearing
5645     after the words "Microsoft Windows" is the minimum amount of memory,
5646     in megabytes, required for execution?
5647    
5648     Craig Milo Rogers
5649     %%
5650     Mark Mielke writes:
5651     > This statement is false. The simple fact that school textbooks teach it
5652     > to be indeterminate should be enough to convince you of that.
5653    
5654     This is just another reference point about the state of education in
5655     US (apparently in Canada too?).
5656    
5657     Ilya
5658     %%
5659     [from p5p]
5660     > Now you know why threading is experimental and all, buddy.
5661    
5662     Experimental schexperimental. Anything that doesn't cause an
5663     immediate coredump is not experimental. :-) (Observant readers will
5664     note that this is a more rigorous standard than Microsoft's.)
5665    
5666     Nat
5667     %%
5668     Needless to say, Linux awk is probably gawk, which has been taking too
5669     much steroids for a while. =)
5670    
5671     --Albert Dvornik
5672     <bert@genscan.com>
5673     %%
5674     Subject: Re: zero width lookbehind considered slow
5675     From: Tom Christiansen <tchrist@jhereg.perl.com>
5676     Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 17:40:37 -0500
5677    
5678     >*You* do not understand? Perl is slow...
5679    
5680     Ilya: You are formerly invited to go play in the python
5681     or tcl crowd instead of here.
5682    
5683     --tom
5684     %%
5685     >What's it? Can linux be improved too? Or has it already been improved?
5686    
5687     Linux has never done anything so stupid in the first place.
5688    
5689     Linus
5690     %%
5691     On the 8th day god created email. And got noted the world was good. Then the
5692     devil added HTML mail...
5693     %%
5694     linux/lib/vsprintf.c: * Wirzenius wrote this portably, Torvalds fucked it up :-)
5695     linux/arch/sparc64/kernel/binfmt_aout32.c: /* Fuck me plenty... */
5696     linux/arch/sparc64/kernel/ptrace.c:/* Fuck me gently with a chainsaw... */
5697     %%
5698     On 1998-10-11T02:37:57,
5699     Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> said:
5700    
5701     > Believe me Microsoft think Linux is a threat now. Its level with things like
5702     > java in their perceived threat list, so you can expect all the usual MS
5703     > techniques to start coming this way and very soon.
5704    
5705     Arm the gnus!
5706     %%
5707     [David Miller after (another) endless discussion with Richard Kenner]
5708    
5709     Anyways, I tired (just like everyone else) of arguing endlessly with
5710     you, you're in the past, you no longer constrain my ability to improve
5711     gcc, so go away.
5712     %%
5713     I received my copy of Visual Studio 6.0 today. I couldn't believe that it
5714     wanted to install the C++ compiler into a directory called:
5715    
5716     "\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98"
5717    
5718     But anyways, I just had to find out if it was finally possible to compile
5719     Perl (without PERL_OBJECT) with optimization (-O2).
5720     %%
5721     [on perl version numbering]
5722     > So it could be 5.006 for the developers, but "ThreadPerl" or "Perl with
5723     > Multithreads" (or some such) for the journalists, if that's what
5724     > journalists need to make them pay attention.
5725    
5726     Down that path lies "Perl version 5.006, codename `Ticklish Uvula',
5727     was released today" madness.
5728     %%
5729     [on perl version numbering]
5730     > elaine> 5.1 would be a good thing(tm) as it would draw attention,
5731     > elaine> etc. in a way that a developers versioning would. The
5732     > elaine> world is not populated by people who think the same
5733     > elaine> way. To that end, this would be a good change. Of course,
5734     > elaine> we could call it Perl99.
5735     >
5736     > To me, Perl seems to be recognized for it's language qualities, not
5737     > for marketing reasons. IMHO, perl may keep this difference with other
5738     > wintel product. More than that : Perl99, would let believe people that
5739     > it is not Y2K proofed, or still in beta (<1.00). So it's not a good
5740     > marketing name, anyway.
5741    
5742     Right. Then, to be Y2K compliant, we'll have to call it Perl1999. Hmmm.
5743     "The year perl left earth's orbit"? Maybe we need to get the NASA guys to
5744     put perl on the next low-cost spaceshot.
5745    
5746     Of course, then c.l.p.m's motto could be "We do not commit *mindless*
5747     violence..." :-)
5748     %%
5749     Rule 1 says that Larry says that Larry has the last say, unless he changes
5750     his mind in which case he still has the last say.
5751     %%
5752     > >I never said it did.. I should have said: Binary only drivers encourage
5753     > >poor drivers
5754     >
5755     > No it doesn't.
5756    
5757     Indeed. Its down to
5758    
5759     Profit = (units * margin) - overhead
5760    
5761     and the folks who decide "overhead" arent the programmers but the management.
5762     The folks who say "you have two weeks allocated to write this driver, then
5763     we ship it" are the folks to take the issue up with, and that goes source
5764     or binaries.
5765     %%
5766     dig txt leap.yp.to
5767     %%
5768     "The fact that I'm paranoid doesn't mean that nobody's after me..."
5769     %%
5770     [linux-kernel on endianess issues with NIPQUAD]
5771    
5772     |> Do I read this correct?!? Is it more acceptable to have a bug[*],
5773     |> than a not optimal fix?!?!?
5774     |>
5775     |> s/optimal/stupid/
5776    
5777     What's stupid is little endian. <g>
5778    
5779     Andreas.
5780     %%
5781     [Paul Eggert on tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov]
5782     ...
5783     A closely related question is `What is 1 minute before 23:59:60?''.
5784    
5785     Here's a good one: `What is 1 month before 1 February 1995 in
5786     Kiritimati?''. There was no 1 January 1995 in Kiritimati; they
5787     skipped a day by moving the clocks ahead 24 hours. Similar issues
5788     arise when asking about times that occur within smaller, more typical
5789     UTC offset changes. A number of obscure questions arise here, and I'm
5790     not sure it's worth standardizing all the answers.
5791     %%
5792     [D.J.Bernstein on tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov]
5793    
5794     Paul Eggert writes:
5795     > which I am calling the `modified TIME_TAI''
5796    
5797     Your time differences break down near leap seconds. Ever watched xntpd
5798     try to handle a leap second? Wobble, wobble, wobble, wobble, wobble.
5799     %%
5800     For binary only drivers you can assume most vendors will build x86 only
5801     however.
5802    
5803     "We don't have the tools"
5804     "We can't support a non intel build"
5805     "We don't have that sort of machine"
5806     "Its not worth the time cost"
5807     "Whats an Alpha ?"
5808     %%
5809     On Thu, 1 Oct 1998, Mail Delivery Subsystem wrote:
5810    
5811     > The original message was received at Thu, 1 Oct 1998 18:39:56 -0400
5812     > from mini [10.0.0.3]
5813     >
5814     > ----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
5815     > <mailproc@fred>
5816     >
5817     > ----- Transcript of session follows -----
5818     > procmail: can't map '/lib/libc.so.5'
5819     > procmail: can't map '/lib/libc.so.5'
5820     > procmail: can't load library 'libc.so.5'
5821     > 554 <mailproc@fred>... unknown mailer error 16
5822     %%
5823     > Here is the difficulty with this discussion:
5824     > No documented problem
5825     > No reason to believe that the "solution" solves the unspecified "problem"
5826     > No clear understanding of the effects of this change on the system
5827     >
5828     > Why, this could be a discusion among AIX developers!
5829     %%
5830     > This would be a reasonable committee-like compromise that might
5831     > satisfy neither of us (:-).
5832     %%
5833     By default Microsoft has set Explorer to use gz files as VRML, you need to
5834     change the association for .gz / vrml from "start vrml program" to "always ask"
5835    
5836     dave
5837     %%
5838     On 10 Aug 1998, Ben Pfaff wrote:
5839     DG> You're not programming MS-DOS applications are you?
5840    
5841     BP> Hell no. I wouldn't touch MS-DOS with a ten-foot network cable.
5842     %%
5843     [Paul Eggert on tz@elsie.nci.nih.gov]
5844    
5845     Date: 10 Oct 1998 15:35:05 -0000
5846     From: "D. J. Bernstein" <djb@cr.yp.to>
5847    
5848     Paul Eggert writes:
5849     > * 29 February if it's a leap lear, 28 February otherwise.
5850    
5851     If that's 1 month before 31 March, then what's 1 month before 30 March?
5852     1 month before 29 March?
5853    
5854     The same as 1 month before 31 March.
5855    
5856     1 month before 28 March?
5857    
5858     28 February.
5859    
5860     And what's 1 month after 28 February? 1 month after 27 February? 1 month
5861     _before_ 27 February?
5862    
5863     28 March, 27 March, and 27 January.
5864     %%
5865     Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
5866    
5867     >Nils Goesche wrote:
5868     >> So make a security check first:
5869     >>
5870     >> if (status = UNDER_NUCLEAR_ATTACK)
5871     >> launch_full_counterstrike();
5872     >
5873     >Hmmm. The way the worlds been going lately, AI wouldn't trust that code to
5874     >do the job. Here's the revised version:
5875     >
5876     >if(status == UNDER_NULEAR_ATTACK); /* Corrected dangerous
5877     > = instead of == error*/
5878     > launch_full_counterstrike();
5879     >
5880     >Now isn't that much more reliable?
5881     >
5882     >--
5883     >Email: cyrand@hotmail.com
5884    
5885     The following variant is less reliable but much safer:
5886    
5887     if (status == UNDER_NUCLEAR_ATTACK); /* Correct dangerous
5888     launch_full_counterstrike (); = instead == error */
5889     %%
5890     It is even more cheerful than that. Not so long time ago a customers
5891     of ours totally destroyed his NT installation on Alpha.
5892    
5893     He found on a manufacturer page, no money - for a download, "NT driver"
5894     for his particular piece of a hardware. So he followed instructions
5895     to the letter - "Installation Wizzard" and all that crap - and the thing
5896     happily installed clobbering, as it is customary in these circles,
5897     essential system libraries with its own versions. The catch was that
5898     this driver was for NT/Intel and these bozos did not even bother to
5899     check for an architecture or at least mention something in some blurb.
5900     Ooops! No chance even to try to boot anymore.
5901    
5902     The saving grace was that the installation was rather new, so loses
5903     were not big, and he had an opportunity to practice an essential skill
5904     of re-installing Windows NT. Ah, and yes, this was the only NT driver
5905     available for that hardware from any source.
5906     What do you plan on doing? Using a PA system for networking? :)
5907     Whats next? A *Smell* modem? It would bring a new meaning to packet
5908     sniffing!
5909     %%
5910     "I'd rather spend 10 hours reading source code than 10 minutes on a
5911     technical support line that isn't"
5912     %%
5913     [from linux-kernel]
5914     `This code fills 8 million seats, we therefore decide what's standard.''
5915     %%
5916     [...]
5917     And especially with new machines users have a lot of clout. Several UK
5918     suppliers now carry Buslogic cards partly because they got fed up of
5919    
5920     "I'd like to order a dual PII/300, 256Mb of RAM, 17" monitor
5921     4 4Gig IBM disks, and a buslogic scsi controller"
5922     "We dont do buslogic only adaptec"
5923     "Nothing else"
5924     "Sorry"
5925     [Click]
5926    
5927     Alan
5928     %%
5929     Fünfzig Prozent der Amerikaner wurden in ihrer Kindheit sexuell mißbraucht,
5930     während weitere fünfzig Prozent von Außerirdischen entführt wurden.
5931     %%
5932     > Let's not forget that this is just an informal, free
5933     > software project. Unlke the US House of Representatives
5934     > we do not yet posess nuclear capability (certain RTEMS
5935     > users excepted, of course!).
5936    
5937     Hmmm, if some RTEMS users have nuclear facilities attached to their
5938     systems, they might be well advised to be careful using FORTRAN as
5939     their language of choice. The comp.lang.fortran FAQ states (with
5940     concurrence from resident X3J3 members) that "using a non-standard
5941     construct might start WW III, if the necessary (optional) hardware
5942     is installed"
5943    
5944     [Toon Moene in private discussion]
5945     %%
5946     Newsgroups: alt.config
5947    
5948     L. Harris wrote:
5949     >
5950     > Testing
5951    
5952     you failed.
5953     %%
5954     Roswell {Unit 6 of 5 Sam Borg} Coverup [Rev. joWazzoo - well mannered despammer]
5955     <JOWazzoo@WhiteICE.com> at We are Sam Borg Spam Assimilators Ltd. - Area 51 HQ
5956     %%
5957     Perl is really designed more for the guys that will hack Perl at least
5958     20 minutes a day for the rest of their career. TCL/Python is more a
5959     "20 minutes a week", and VB is probably in that "20 minutes a month"
5960     group. :) -- Randal Schwartz
5961     %%
5962     > alternative, when it comes to stability and power...Not to mention the
5963     > fact that bugs and fixes are very quickly available and don't come in
5964     > 18MB+ "Service Packs" :).
5965    
5966     What, you mean you _paid_ for service pack '98?
5967     %%
5968     We got this INTERNET because we whan't more information ( to learn ) now it
5969     seem's people can't handle what they see. You say freedom is a mater of
5970     choice (well it is) you have the freedom to choose to carry your butt some
5971     where else...
5972     %%
5973     Steve Orzel (phloam@vol.com) wrote:
5974     [...]
5975     : The purpose of the newsgroup is to help out other people that have questions
5976     : about a certain topic.
5977     %%
5978     Mark Robinson wrote:
5979     >
5980     > Does any have any source code to games that I can have? Does anybody
5981     > know where I can get game sources(legally)?
5982    
5983     Here's the trial version of the three-room text adventure I'm going to
5984     write. I'm not finished yet, though.
5985    
5986     void main (void)
5987     {
5988     printf ("You are in a dark room.\n");
5989     printf ("\n");
5990     printf ("You feel a sharp pain.\n");
5991     printf ("You have died.\n");
5992     printf ("\n");
5993     printf ("!!! GAME OVER !!!");
5994     }
5995    
5996     (Don't tell, but I took some of the code from Quake.)
5997    
5998     --
5999     John Kugelman. kugelman@mnsinc.com
6000     %%
6001     [mail I got after releasing a zip-password cracker, the second biggest
6002     mistake I ever made]
6003    
6004     From: "Tom Miller"
6005     Subject: Can
6006     X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3
6007    
6008     Hay man can you send me some hacking tips and tricks please
6009     send to kymmiller@bigpond.com
6010     my name is Tom Miller
6011    
6012     From: "Tom Miller"
6013     Subject: Wait
6014     X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3
6015    
6016     Hey man its Tom can you also send me any easy systems to hack and the
6017     passwords also send me any infomation about hacking websites thank you
6018     %%
6019     From: lm@bitmover.com (Larry McVoy)
6020    
6021     [...] then think a little before flaming. Or better yet, produce something
6022     better. Flaming is easy but it is basically masturbation without the orgasm
6023     so why bother? [...]
6024     %%
6025     Günter Höns <guenter.hoens@gmd.de>
6026    
6027     Newsgroups: de.alt.ufo
6028    
6029     Offensichtlich ist noch keinem das Wasser-Wachstum aufgefallen, das sogar
6030     jeden Tag geschieht. Jeden Tag waechst der Wasserberg im Meer um mehrere
6031     Meter, ist dann naeher an der Sonne und verdunstet dann. Sogenannte
6032     Wissenschaftler haben eine abenteuerliche Theorie ueber den Einfluss des
6033     Mondes auf dieses Wachstum aufgestellt, aber inzwischen wissen wir es
6034     besser: Die Wasser-Molekuele werden von Neutrinos getroffen, und verdoppeln
6035     sich dann.
6036     %%
6037     CRASH(8)
6038     no fs
6039     A device has disappeared from the mounted-device table.
6040     Definitely hardware or software error.
6041    
6042     Unix Version 7 Manual
6043     %%
6044     On Tue, 4 Aug 1998, Larry Wall wrote:
6045     >
6046     > Maybe Pi looks like this:
6047     >
6048     > =for C
6049     > i++; /* add 1 to i */
6050     > =end
6051     > =for C++
6052     > i.value() += 1; // add 1 to i, probably
6053     > =end
6054     > =for Java
6055     > system().foo().bar().i().value().please().increment(); // ???
6056     > =end
6057     >
6058     > :-)
6059     %%
6060     > > USENET is *not* the non-clickable part of WWW!
6061     %%
6062     [on linux 2.1.111]
6063    
6064     The horrid underlining which was a feature with the monochrome Linux vt's on
6065     the previous two releases of the kernel has gone. Unfortunately, so has the
6066     cursor. A couple of brief experiments didn't result in me finding a way to
6067     turn it on.
6068     %%
6069     [...]
6070     its a true story, it happend this weekend in a nice country
6071     between Belgium (wellknown for its Dutroux-case) and Germany
6072     (wellknown for its Bratwurst), lets call it the Lowlands...
6073     [...]
6074     %%
6075     I get a sense of god-like proportions when I patch /dev/kmem with dd(1).
6076    
6077     Chad C Giffin
6078     %%
6079     [usenet, an anology]
6080     Mary Green's car was smoking. She got worried. "Whatever should I do?"
6081     worried Mary... Well, as she drove along she noticed a florists shop. "Aha!
6082     Thought Mary, "Flour shops are full of thoughtless men who need to apologize to
6083     their wives. These men are the sometimes the same ones I see swearing under
6084     the hoods of their cars in the shade of a tree."
6085    
6086     "Brrring" said the bell of the door to the flower shop as Mary poked her head
6087     through the door.
6088     "HELP!!! MY CAR IS SMOKING!" Screamed Mary.
6089     "There is a garage right next door." Said the shopkeeper.
6090     "That's right," Said Melvin, "And there is a parts store across the street. If
6091     you ask for Fred, he's pretty savvy about that kind of stuff."
6092     Now Joe was also in the flower store. This was his first time in trouble, so
6093     he did not hear the 30 or 40 people per day who came in screaming about their
6094     cars smoking (mostly men, of course -- the ones under the shade trees,
6095     usually.)
6096    
6097     "Why don't you help the stinking lady!!" Screamed Joe. "It might be your
6098     muffler bearings..." he continued. Or maybe it's your deisel glow plugs or
6099     your tire pressure..."
6100     Now Tim, also new to the flower shop felt the courage to chime in, "Or it could
6101     even be your cooling system. Sometimes a hose gets a crack."
6102     "My car smoked once and it was an oil leak, where the head gasket was spraying
6103     oil in the manifold." Hollered Larry
6104     "Hey lady, why don't you get your car the patch if it's smoking" chortled Glen.
6105     Well, the hollering went on into the evening, and the lady finally went to the
6106     gas station and found that the heater core had a tiny split and was repaired in
6107     three days for a cost of $175.23.
6108     %%
6109     > Nun gut, Berliner sollen ja eh etwas heller sein.
6110    
6111     Sicher, das macht der Inzest, und die Isolation!:)
6112     %%
6113     > Nun gut, Berliner sollen ja eh etwas heller sein.
6114    
6115     Stimmt, deswegen waren sie wohl auch die ersten, die Hitler hinterherliefen...
6116     :-(
6117     %%
6118     >Mt 24,34 Wahrlich, ich sage euch: Dieses Geschlecht wird nicht vergehen, bis
6119     >dies alles geschieht.
6120     >Und es verging nicht.
6121    
6122     So what?
6123    
6124     Ich dachte eher an:
6125    
6126     " 'Und sein Wabbel wird an einer Lanze aufgespiesst', wiederholte der
6127     Oberste Groesste Meister grimmig. Im Hintergrund knarrte etwas, als
6128     Bruder Pfoertner versuchte, das klemmende Portal zu oeffnen. 'Sind wir
6129     jetzt alle soweit? Befinden sich vielleicht noch andere Unwissende
6130     unter uns,die sich verirrt haben?' fuegte er mit aetzendem Sarkasmus
6131     hinzu. 'Gut. Wunderbar. Ich bin ja _so_ froh. Vermutlich brauche ich
6132     nicht zu fragen, ob die vier Wachtuerme geschlossen sind, oder? Oh,
6133     ausgezeichnet. Hat sich jemand die Muehe gemacht, der Heiligen Hose
6134     die Beichte abzunehmen? Ach, tatsaechlich? Auf die richtige Art und
6135     Weise? Und wenn ich nachsehe? Na schoen. Sind vor den Fenstern die
6136     roten Kordeln des Intellekts gespannt worden? Gut. Nun, dann koennen
6137     wir jetzt vielleicht beginnen.' ".
6138    
6139     Terry Pratchett, "Wachen! Wachen!", S. 15f
6140    
6141     Antje
6142     %%
6143     [....]
6144    
6145     Da muss ich ja, obwohl ich beinahe meinen Humor verloren haette, leise
6146     grinsen. Ich darf zusammenfassen: Du bringst uns keine Beweise, weil Du 1.
6147     zu arm und 2. zu sehr ausgelastet mit der Rettung der Welt und der Zukunft
6148     und so bist. Ausserdem brauchst Du keine Beweise, weil sich Dein
6149     Gedankengebaeude nach eingehender Nabelschau als selbsttragend erwiesen hat.
6150     Finde ich gut! Akzeptiert!
6151    
6152     Da will ich nicht weiter stoeren,
6153    
6154     Antje
6155     %%
6156     It seems that writing to /dev/vcs0 makes the console singing "Ugh,
6157     lalala, I love you baby..."
6158     --
6159     Pavel.Janik@inet.cz
6160     %%
6161     On Thu, 16 Jul 1998, Linus Torvalds wrote:
6162     >
6163     > Kubys
6164    
6165     Kubys is my evil twin brother. Sorry about that.
6166    
6167     Linus
6168     %%
6169     > eieio stands for "Enforce In-Order Execution of I/O".
6170    
6171     .... and it is definitely my favorite name for an assembly language
6172     instruction (the non-native-English speakers on the list presumably
6173     don't know the childhood song "Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O").
6174     %%
6175     > It is *big* and never uses.
6176    
6177     That's parses like English, but I'll be hornswoggled if I can figure
6178     out what it means.
6179     --
6180     Chip Salzenberg - a.k.a. - <chip@perlsupport.com>
6181     %%
6182     [...] HP's PA-8500, for example, has 1.5 Mbytes of L1 cache on-chip. The
6183     company has described the 8500 as a cache SRAM with an ancillary CPU. [...]
6184     %%
6185     From: Dave Cinege <dcinege@psychosis.com>
6186     Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 06:10:31 -0400
6187    
6188     Terry L Ridder wrote:
6189    
6190     > at some future date end up being released under the BSD License is what
6191     > is being discussed.
6192    
6193     Well my licence is bigger then your licence.
6194     %%
6195     [gtk/testgtk, after dragging & dropping an object:]
6196    
6197     Drop data of type text/plain was:
6198    
6199     Bill Gates demands royalties for your use of his innovation
6200    
6201     [and the button reads]
6202    
6203     Continue with life in spite of this oppression
6204     %%
6205     Joshua Waxman <jwaxman@ymail.yu.edu> writes:
6206    
6207     While DJGPP is indeed a C as well as a C compiler, there are certain
6208    
6209     A terribly succinct, as well as a true, statement. However, it has a
6210     certain amount of redundancy.
6211     %%
6212     Compatibility with oneself is Microsoft's greatest strength. When they hit
6213     the 64 bit transition they will hit a major internal incompatibility problem.
6214    
6215     ...
6216    
6217     Peter da Silva <peter@baileynm.com>
6218     %%
6219     >Hello,
6220     >
6221     >I am new to Perl. Can anyone tell me where I can download a full
6222     >operational Perl version for a Windows 95 system?
6223     >
6224    
6225     Of course it all depends on what you mean by "a full operational Perl
6226     version" Perl on Win32 has limitations that are largely due to the
6227     nature of the underlying OS, Perl on Win95 has further limitations
6228     compared with NT due to its own shortcomings .
6229     %%
6230     An injunction delaying Windows 98 would clearly have a negative impact
6231     on the country as a whole.
6232     Compaq President & CEO Eckhard Pfeiffer,
6233     explaining why Microsoft shouldn't be
6234     prosecuted under anti-monopoly laws.
6235     %%
6236     With a PC, I always felt limited by the software available. On Unix, I am
6237     limited by my knowledge. --Peter J. Schoenster <pschon@baste.magibox.net>
6238     %%
6239     There is a need to keep from being locked into Open Systems. --IBM sales rep
6240     %%
6241     In comp.lang.perl.misc,
6242     Stylin <stylinsty@yahoo.comREMOVE> writes:
6243     :Can anyone point me to the algorithm for creating a unique id?
6244    
6245     $id = `cat /dev/kmem`;
6246    
6247     --tom
6248     --
6249     Real programmers can write assembly code in any language. :-)
6250     --Larry Wall in <8571@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
6251     %%
6252     Newsgroup: comp.lang.perl.misc
6253     Subject: Larry 1 Bill 0
6254     %%
6255     On 3 Jul 1998, Ben Pfaff wrote:
6256    
6257     > The only problem with these AIs is that they don't handle references
6258     > to themselves as AIs very well. In faSegmentation fault (core dumped)
6259     > NO CARRIER
6260     > !@*&#@#%T^@&*(GU*SD*(@!&*(@#R(*FERHGH*(@#(&$&#@Y!&R
6261     %%
6262     > People come here to ask questions, not for intellectual gratification, but
6263     > rather they are seeking solutions. As such, the incorrect answer was
6264     > better.
6265    
6266     There's something... terribly wrong with this statement. I can't quite put
6267     my finger on it. Hmmm.
6268     %%
6269     comp.lang.c does not exist to accomodate the laziness of those who cannot be
6270     bothered to learn netiquette. That's what comp.lang.c++ is for.
6271     %%
6272     |> : > but... a microwave is an example of an embedded system,
6273     |>
6274     |> : Who says? He just said it was a microwave. He didn't say it was
6275     |> : a free-standing implimentation.
6276     |>
6277     |> This is approaching arguing for the sake of argument. Have you
6278     |> ever seen a microwave oven that supports a hosted C environment?
6279    
6280     The Lipton Ritchie Model 8 did. I'm sure that many posters will
6281     point out that Lipton's implementation of the stdio libraries was
6282     horrendously buggy. It was, but it was still a great system. It
6283     remains the only C implementation I know of that could be used to
6284     build Bison, and then cook it.
6285    
6286     Viva la buffalo burgers.
6287     %%
6288     A strategically-placed PDP-11 can be used to heat your entire
6289     home. I've got one in my basement, next to a large box of "She's
6290     The Sheriff" drink coasters. I sold my furnace years ago. The
6291     Digital Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Corporation
6292     can be found online at http://www.dhvacc.com/.
6293     %%
6294     The lbxproxy program has various options, all of which are optional.
6295     -- lbxproxy(1)
6296     %%
6297     Re: Where to learn Windows programming...
6298    
6299     |> I'll take a Schildt book any day, thanks.
6300    
6301     Great. I'm expecting to see the line above as a back-cover blurb
6302     on the next "Bullschildt: The Complete Reference".
6303     %%
6304     Subject: Re: The wrong position of while, if and else?
6305    
6306     that's some ugly piece of code buddy...
6307     %%
6308     In article <1998062718481700.OAA03186@ladder01.news.aol.com>, eyrei@aol.com (EYREI) writes:
6309     |> I have recently started learning the C Language. I have created a simple file
6310     |> to determine whether or not a number is Prime. When I run it, the program
6311     |> crashes with the error message :- Unhandled Exception :- General Protection
6312     |> Exception 0x5FD7:0x379F. Prime(1) Processor Fault.
6313    
6314     |> What does this mean.
6315    
6316     It means you've got a broken operating system, and should immediately
6317     install [free|net|open]BSD[OS] or Linux.
6318     %%
6319     Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
6320    
6321     On Thu, 25 Jun 1998, Emulov wrote:
6322     > Hi, i don't know if this is a stupid question..
6323    
6324     Off-topic, too! Imagine that.
6325     %%
6326     "Right now we are the most shit hot piece of PC networking software on the
6327     planet. The only people who can touch us are FreeBSD (who also dont do
6328     streams)."
6329     -- Alan Cox, in "Streams and Linux"
6330     %%
6331     "Perl combines all of the worst aspects of BASIC, C and line noise."
6332     - Keith Packard <keithp@ncd.com>
6333     %%
6334     Lord Fellatio <richter_m@hotmail.com>
6335    
6336     >Wo soll das Loch denn dann sein? Im Meeresboden?
6337    
6338     Klaro.
6339    
6340     >Von oben duerfte man es also ueberhaupt nicht sehen
6341     >koennen, da ueber dem potentiellen Loch im Meeresboden doch
6342     >wahrscheinlich erstmal Wasser und dann viel Eis liegen wuerde. Wie
6343     >verhindern die Ausserirdischen denn, dass Wasser ins Loch einstroemt?
6344    
6345     Na ist doch völlig logo, mit nem rotierenden Traktorstrahl. Die
6346     Energie klauen die ?r***e dem Erdmagnetfeld.
6347    
6348     >Gibt es da einen kosmischen Badewannenstoepsel? Haben sie es mit
6349     >Eisbergen verstopft? Oder benutzen sie das einstroemende Wasser zu
6350     >Kajakfahrten bis hinunter zum Suedpol? (Das waere doch auch endlich
6351     >mal eine einleuchtende Erklaerung fuer die Eismassen, die die
6352     >Antarktis bedecken - man muesste halt nur, der Kontinentaldrift
6353     >folgend, immer wieder neue Schaechte bohren. Oder die Kontinentaldrift
6354     >einfach wegdiskutieren...)
6355    
6356     Die enorme Zentrifugalkraft im Erdinnern schleudert das Wasser wieder
6357     am Nordpolpol raus, falls der Traktorstrahl versagen sollte (Dies
6358     passiert immer dann, wenn das Erdmagnetfeld umkippt). Nun kommt sicher
6359     der Einwand, die Erde würde zu langsam rotieren. Das ist nur bedingt
6360     richtig. Richtig ist hingegen, daß die Rotationsgeschwindigkeit im
6361     Erdinnern um den Faktor 1000 (ca; sehr schwer zu messen: Magma) größer
6362     ist als auf der Erdoberfläche. Dies ist auch die Ursache für die
6363     Kontinentaldrift und die Mondphasen.
6364    
6365     Die Mondphasen wiederum beeinflussen das Erdmagnetfeld und sind daher
6366     die Ursache für die Sonnenflecken. Den Sonnenflecken haben wir auch
6367     die momentane Klimaveränderung zu verdanken. Auf der anderen Seite hat
6368     die Zunahme der Treibhausgase eine Erhöhung des Reflektionsvermögens
6369     der Atmosphäre zur Folge, welches dazu führt, daß ein Teil der
6370     Sonnenenergie zur Sonne zurückreflektiert wird. Dies heizt wiederum
6371     die Sonnenflecken auf und verkürzt deren Zyklus. All dies wird sich in
6372     den nächten Monaten so aufschaukeln, daß vorraussichtlich im Novemner
6373     2002 das Erdmagnetfeld zusammenbrechen wird. Wie damals bei den Dinos.
6374     Nur war dort ein Kometeneinschlag die Ursache.
6375    
6376     cu in hell 2002
6377     %%
6378     "Hiroshima '45, Chernobyl '85, Windows '95"
6379     %%
6380     >In unix, one might say 'man 3 crypt'.
6381    
6382     Of course, on a Solaris system this won't give you what you want. You
6383     get a message that it can't find the man page for 3. It then prints
6384     the man page for crypt(1).
6385    
6386     Of course, all a beginner has to do is figure out that the 3 is the
6387     section number in the Unix manual. He can then use man man to find
6388     that on Solaris one uses -s to specify the section so he'll try
6389    
6390     man -s3 crypt
6391    
6392     Unfortunately, that doesn't work either. He'll get the message "No
6393     entry for crypt in section(s) 3 of the manual."
6394    
6395     If he doesn't give up, he can go back to the manual page for man and
6396     find that the -a switch prints all matching manual pages. Or perhaps
6397     he can figure out to use the command
6398    
6399     man -s3 Intro.3
6400    
6401     to get a list of everything in section 3. He'll then find out that
6402     crypt is in section 3C so he should use
6403    
6404     man -s3c crypt
6405    
6406     Gee. I don't understand why beginners have so much trouble with this
6407     stuff. I've only been programming Unix for 15 years and I don't have
6408     any trouble.
6409     --
6410     Michael M Rubenstein
6411     %%
6412     Take a moment to consider these lines:
6413    
6414     %OVERLOAD=( '""' => sub { join("", @{$_[0]}) } );
6415    
6416     sub html { my($type)=shift; bless ["<$type>", @_, "</$type>"]; }
6417    
6418     :-) I *love* Perl 5! Thankyou Larry and Ilya.
6419    
6420     Regards,
6421     Tim Bunce.
6422    
6423     p.s. If you didn't get it, think about recursive data types: html(html())
6424     p.p.s. I'll turn this into a much more practical example in a day or two.
6425     p.p.p.s. It's a pity that overloads are not inherited. Is this a bug?
6426     %%
6427     From: alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk (Alan Cox)
6428    
6429     ...
6430    
6431     > now is evil". This only shows two things: you never looked at the bad
6432     > experiences of the industry where following a rotten design and
6433     > keeping backward compatibility lead to unusable systems. And second:
6434    
6435     I worked for 3com. I know eveyrhting about following a rotten design until
6436     its unusable, believe me I do.
6437     %%
6438     Ok(slow) -> !NeedComputer
6439    
6440     Semour Cray
6441     %%
6442     Ullrich Jans at University of Karlsruhe, Germany:
6443    
6444     Oh Gott! Es ist voller crons!
6445     %%
6446     From: p00h <p00h@MONMOUTH.COM>
6447     Subject: Re: AOL for Windows DoS/Exploit
6448    
6449     aol supports PARTIAL html, its like win95's implementation of tcp/ip
6450     it only supports parts of it
6451     %%
6452     egcs/gcc/gcse.c:
6453     /* Help stamp out big monolithic functions! */
6454     %%
6455     [...] Yes, I'm being sarcastic. Especially regarding HPPA assembler syntax
6456     as provided by HP, which was designed by someone who should not have been
6457     let near a language-design project like that, too often "little languages",
6458     whether assemblers, tools, or C++, are designed by people who are unaware
6459     of, or give little thought to, the outright readability of code written in
6460     the language, in the sense that the basic semantics should be fairly obvious
6461     *without* the reader having to memorize lots of semantic information.
6462    
6463     (In HPPA assembler's case, one glaring stupidity was the nullified branches,
6464     which have completely different semantics depending on whether the label
6465     being branched to happens to assemble to a negative or positive offset! A
6466     smarter design would have required the programmer to specify whether such a
6467     branch was a "forward" or "backward" branch explicitly, then the assembler
6468     and/or linker would complain if reality didn't match the programmer's
6469     specification. I've never looked into whether GNU's HPPA as fixes this
6470     botch; I gather GNU as fixes many botches, though, so it wouldn't surprise
6471     me if it did, even though that might make for some compatibility problems
6472     with existing HP as code.) [...]
6473    
6474     tq vm, (burley)
6475     %%
6476     libc/posix/regex.h:
6477     /* The following two types have to be signed and unsigned integer type
6478     wide enough to hold a value of a pointer. For most ANSI compilers
6479     ptrdiff_t and size_t should be likely OK. Still size of these two
6480     types is 2 for Microsoft C. Ugh... */
6481     typedef long int s_reg_t;
6482     typedef unsigned long int active_reg_t;
6483     %%
6484     libc/db2/db.h:
6485     /*
6486     * While Microsoft's compiler is ANSI C compliant, it doesn't have _STDC_
6487     * defined by default, you specify a command line flag or #pragma to turn
6488     * it on. Don't do that, however, because some of Microsoft's own header
6489     * files won't compile.
6490     */
6491     %%
6492     > UTC variation and begining and ending dates of DST (if observed) would be
6493     > great.
6494    
6495     I answered only the places I can comment on.
6496    
6497     > BASSAS DA INDIA
6498    
6499     This rock is below water half of the time!
6500     If any inhabitants have been there, I do not think they observe DST
6501     on a regular basis! ;-)
6502     %%
6503     # ./test-plugin.pl
6504     Bizarre copy of CODE in sassign at /root/.gimp/plug-ins/test-plugin.pl line 40.
6505     wire_read: unexpected EOF (plug-in crashed?)
6506     %%
6507     >
6508     > The "where do you want to go today?" generation has taken the
6509     > developer out of the "programmer" by removing the vital, development
6510     > tools from the environment and precanning software.
6511    
6512     No kidding. Point. Click. Point. Click. Point. Click. Brain Atrophy.
6513     %%
6514     Lars Chr Hausmann <36haus@but.auc.dk> writes:
6515    
6516     >Hello!
6517    
6518     >I have to write something about, what Perl is.
6519     >I need some crystal clear info about, what perl is. So if any of you
6520     >would be so kind just to mail. Then I would be grateful!
6521    
6522    
6523     Perl.
6524    
6525     regards
6526     jobst
6527     %%
6528     Subject: Re: Cyrix 6x86MX and Centaur C6 CPUs in 2.1.102
6529     From: alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk (Alan Cox)
6530     Date: Thu, 21 May 1998 22:31:02 +0100 (BST)
6531    
6532     > Well, that depends. They SHOULD be. By Intel 'standards' *laff*, they have
6533     > to be identical stepping, indicating identical features. However, I've
6534    
6535     They don't. Pentiums have fairly strict rules, P6/PII much less. Also Intel
6536     are pretty good at following the MP 1.1/1.4 standard its the motherboard
6537     makers who get it wrong - primarily the BIOS is full of bugs. It appears
6538     nobody tests bios code against specs any more. It looks like they do
6539     compile flash, boot 95, boot NT, ship. The quality of bios code has dived to
6540     the absolute pits.
6541     %%
6542     Unix never says `Please.' -- Rob Pike
6543     %%
6544     > What about: . scriptname
6545     > ------------------^ this is a dot!
6546    
6547     Funny, it looks like a "p" to me.
6548     %%
6549     A computer without Microsoft and IBM is like chocolate cake without
6550     ketchup and mustard
6551     %%
6552     Subject: Re: Challange for perl `GURUS
6553    
6554     vimal gajjar wrote:
6555     >
6556     > Hi there,
6557     > Here is a small challange. Is it possible to have a perl
6558     > code which takes e.g. three parameters as input. time, val1, val2. and
6559     > the name of the prog. is say challange.pl. Now if i execute
6560     > "challange.pl 10 5 2" this perl script wille consume
6561     > 5% of cpu
6562     > 2 Mb of RAM
6563     > for the period of 10 Seconds.
6564     >
6565     > can one of the gurus take this challange?
6566    
6567     Examining the 5 copies of this post has consumed 5% of the
6568     brain power I allocate to reviewing c.l.p.m, about 10 seconds, and
6569     has caused the death of 2 million brain cells.
6570     %%
6571     > >> /A:You can usually write the program faster than you can
6572     > >> dial/dl/hangup/install/read docs/fix it/fix the fix/.
6573     >
6574     > >s/usually/never/
6575     >
6576     > s/sometimes/never/
6577    
6578     Cute. You embarrass yourself by your ignorance of perl.
6579     %%
6580     :That's probably true, but I really can't speak to it. But, if there
6581     :were no *nix around, there'd be no Perl. Nor would there be a need for
6582     :Perl, IMO.
6583    
6584     Gotta love them JCL and ini dot bat dot bad dot doo dah files.
6585    
6586     TC
6587     %%
6588     'cc:Mail is a wonderful application, as long as you don't want to read or send mail.'
6589     %%
6590     shurik@iron.Te.NeT.UA - Alexandr Dubovikov at TeNeT Networking Centre
6591    
6592     Hi guys!
6593    
6594     How check socket, alive it or die ?
6595     %%
6596     --> Questions not to ask on linux-kernel <--
6597    
6598     Miscellaneous flame-wars:
6599     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
6600     12) The gnome-kde debate does not belong on linux-kernel.
6601     13) The emacs-vi debate does not belong on linux-kernel.
6602     14) Porting linux to run under windows is not interesting.
6603     15) Whether a given intel CISC chip "is really RISC" is not interesting.
6604     %%
6605     Subject: what a week!
6606     From: "C. Scott Ananian" <cananian@lcs.mit.edu>
6607     Date: Thu, 14 May 1998 03:13:23 -0400 (EDT)
6608    
6609     unicode, boot-logos, GGI, STREAMS, the necessity of a short devel cycle
6610     and the instability of 2.0.x, "ifconfig stopped working", "you really *do*
6611     need to remove 'encaps'", Linus' tarball practices... it seems like we're
6612     running out of things to flame off on. Here's my humble contribution:
6613    
6614     I'VE MADE A KEWL NEW CHARSET THAT I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD USE. IT HAS ALL
6615     THE LETTERS IN MY LOGIN MAPPED TO THE LOWEST 16 CHARACTERS SO WE CAN
6616     COMPRESS THINGS REAL GOOD AND THE LETTERS IN MY BROTHER B1FF'S NAME ARE
6617     ALL IN HIGH ASCII CUZ THAT'S WHERE LOSERS BELONG!!!2!!7
6618    
6619     I ONLY USE EMACS AND I THINK VI SUX!!$231!!
6620    
6621     GNOME RULES AND KDE IS DEMON-SPAWN BECAUSE IT IS NOT FREE.! !
6622    
6623     WE NEED KGI IN THE KERNEL (NOT LIBGGI, NOT THE TERMINAL IMPROVEMENTS
6624     WHATEVER THEY'RE CALLED) IN ORDER TO HAVE WAY KEWL BOOT LOGOS AND RUN MY
6625     BROTHER B1FF'S GAMES!!1!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!11!!!
6626    
6627     I USE A BIG-ENDIAN MACHINE BECAUSE THEY RULE. LITTLE-ENDIAN MACHINES ARE
6628     EVIL. AND A PENTIUM *IS* A RISC PROCESSOR!!!
6629    
6630     WE SHOULD PORT LINUX TO WINDOWS SO WE CAN USE ALL THE KEWL HARDWARE
6631     DRIVERS!!!!!@@#!
6632    
6633     Did I miss any? ;-)
6634    
6635     *Please* don't respond seriously to this email. It's a joke. A joke.
6636     Laugh. Please.
6637    
6638     And then let's kill all the flaming threads, shall we?
6639     --Scott
6640     %%
6641     > Well, /proc/kcore already reports its actual size...
6642    
6643     And it isn't about to change at runtime either. That is the size of
6644     installed memory. I've yet to see a single person successfully insert or
6645     remove a SIMM/DIMM while a machine was running. If they did, and it was
6646     successful, the linux code will update the filesize. ;o)
6647     %%
6648     Toby Heywood (toby@he-net.demon.co.uk) wrote:
6649     : This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
6650    
6651     One of those 'M's stands for Mail.
6652    
6653     This is not mail.
6654    
6655     This is Usenet.
6656    
6657     Please post only plain text like everyone else does.
6658     %%
6659     ------------ etienne.lorrain@ibm.net
6660     --- hdc: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
6661     --- ide1: reset: success
6662     -----------> I like Linux !
6663     %%
6664     > I have experienced people walking up to my console and saying "What
6665     > the hell does that mean" in sheer terror as the machine boots.
6666    
6667     Tell them it's magic, and earn the respect of your colleagues. I always
6668     do.
6669     %%
6670     ++ Actually, I'm not at a loss for words. Here's one that's very appropriate:
6671     ++ PLONK.
6672     %%
6673     ++ > SSI is *not* HTML.
6674     Re: Subraumfunk
6675    
6676     Ja, ein Handy waere da praktisch. Die hoeheren Gebuehren rechnen sich,
6677     wenn man ueber die Grenzen des Sonnensystems hinaus telefonieren will.
6678    
6679     Die Telekom wuerde da wieder mal erbarmungslos abzocken. Ich kann es
6680     mir schon vorstellen: SunSystem-Tarif, vielleicht auch einen
6681     InnerPlanets-Sondertarif, dann einen LocalGroupWeekend-Specialtarif,
6682     eine Supercluster-Zone und so weiter. Und wenn es auf der Venus
6683     schneit, telefonieren alle fuer die Haelfte.
6684     %%
6685     > > Vergiss es. Du wirst nie und nimmer von Armando eine
6686     > > konkrete, verwertbare Antwort bekommen.
6687     >
6688     > Doch, man bekommt von mir sogar sehr viele Antworten.
6689    
6690     Du hast gerade zwei Adjektive weggelassen.
6691     %%
6692     ++ Oh yeah. Show me an example of SSI used outside of HTML.
6693     Show me an HTML DTD mentioning SSI directives.
6694     %%
6695     Namsuk Kim wrote:
6696     > Is there a way to convert a scalar data to Acii data format?
6697    
6698     I am not familar with ACII. If you mean ASCII, then the question I have is
6699     - is the data in EBCDIC now?
6700    
6701     Bill Jones
6702     %%
6703     GNU/getopt.c:
6704    
6705     #if defined (WIN32) && !defined (__CYGWIN32__)
6706     /* It's not Unix, really. See? Capital letters. */
6707     #include <windows.h>
6708     #define getpid() GetCurrentProcessId()
6709     #endif
6710     %%
6711     Subject: IIS 4.0, PW32i316, CGI Programs
6712    
6713     Perlis.dll does not pass command line arguments correctly via the web. That
6714     is, invoking the URL
6715    
6716     http://www.myserver.com/myprogram.pl?Argument1&Argument2...&Argumentn
6717    
6718     causes the myprogram.pl to execute, but @ARGV is empty.
6719     %%
6720     "You need to use CGI."
6721     "I am using CGI, it's a CGI application!"
6722     "No, no, *use* CGI. The directive 'use'."
6723     "OK, so what directive do I use?"
6724     "No, no, you *use* *use*. Use CGI."
6725     "I *am* using CGI!"
6726    
6727     Craig Berry - cberry@cinenet.net
6728     %%
6729     > > Was haltet Ihr von Killfile-mailing-lists, dass sich die Leute mal
6730     > > kennenlernen koennen?
6731     >
6732     > Gute Idee ;-), wäre ich sofort dabei, datrifft man wahrscheinlich ne
6733     > Menge tolle Leute... ;-) und die wahren Freidenker.
6734    
6735     Einige Freidenker sicher, aber auch etliche Denkfreie.
6736     %%
6737     "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big or
6738     professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." -- Linus Torvalds 1991
6739     %%
6740     If it's a floppy, it might be a copy.
6741     If it's a disk, you're also at risk.
6742     If it's a pirate, the vendors are irate.
6743     To avoid such frustration, try: Free Software Foundation.
6744     %%
6745     From: David Woodhouse <Dave@imladris.demon.co.uk>
6746    
6747     pcg@goof.com said:
6748     > It was much more than I usally get! It was _great_
6749    
6750     Hehe - I know the feeling.
6751    
6752     "It's broken."
6753     "What's wrong with it?."
6754     "I don't know - it just doesn't work."
6755     "Well what do you mean by 'it's broken'?"
6756     "It just doesn't work."
6757     "How can you _tell_ it's broken, for f***'s sake - what are the symptoms!?"
6758     "It gives an error message."
6759     "Would you care to tell me what it says?"
6760     "It says.... something about there being an error."
6761     "That's not very helpful. Tell me it word for word."
6762     "It says 'Unable to handle kernel NULL reference at something or other'"
6763     "That's not word for word. It said 'NULL pointer dereference.' Try again,
6764     letter for letter this time."
6765     %%
6766     From: "Paul B. Henson" <henson@INTRANET.CSUPOMONA.EDU>
6767    
6768     After installing Solaris 2.6 HW3/98, I discovered that /usr/bin/admintool
6769     had been installed mode 0777, world writable. Under the original release of
6770     2.6, the mode was 04555.
6771    
6772     Sun has been notified of the problem. If you're running 2.6 HW3/98, you
6773     might want to verify your admintool hasn't been tampered with and fix the
6774     perms.
6775    
6776     (Personally, I'd set them to 0000 ;). admintool? blech.)
6777     %%
6778     From: verah@netscape.com (Vera Horiuchi)
6779     Subject: Re: Risp: drama (Re: Do It Yourself)
6780    
6781     Americans ignorant of the rest of the world?
6782    
6783     I must tell a favorite story here. A friend and I were purchasing a gift
6784     for another friend who lives in Canada. I was speculating out loud about
6785     how much duty our Canadian friend would have to pay.
6786    
6787     The cashier said, "Oh, I'm sure Canadians don't have to pay any duty. We
6788     ship to Hawaii all the time, and _they_ don't have to pay duty." =:-0
6789     %%
6790     >am besten ist z.Z. das Buch von Michael Neufeld. Wer aber Wissenslücken
6791     >verspürt (was keine Schande ist), sollte diese zu stopfen suchen und nicht
6792     >Zuflucht zu absolut hirnrissigen Theorien suchen.
6793    
6794     Hirnrissig bist Du. Das es einen Zeittransfer aus der Zukunft zu den Nazis
6795     gab deckt sich mit dazu passenden Entschluesselungen bestimmter Bibelstellen
6796     und mit der dann tatsaechlichen notwendigen Geheimhaltung. Es deckt sich
6797     ueberdies damit, dass die Unterhaltung uns den Gedanken zunehmend nahelegt,
6798     also vorbereitet, und dass es bereits ein wissenschaftliches Experiment gab,
6799     bei dem ERST die Wirkung auftrat und DANN die Ursache. Die Zeitreise ist
6800     also Fakt. Und es ist sicher, dass Jemand per Zeitreise den Nazis helfen
6801     wollte. Gelegentliche Theorien, dass auch diese ausserirdische Hilfe gehabt
6802     haetten sollen nur davon ablenken, eine andere Erklaerung liefern. Das ist
6803     logisch, denn die Taeter sitzen ja irgendwo in unserer Zeit und moechten
6804     sicher nicht erkannt werden.
6805    
6806     Du scheinst die simpelsten Grundzuege der Zeitlogik nicht verstehen zu wollen.
6807    
6808     normarz@aol.com
6809     %%
6810     >Oder anders gesagt:
6811     >Glaubst Du, Du könntest mit einem hochmodernen Maschinengewehr eine römische
6812     >Legion
6813     >schlagen?
6814    
6815     Klar. Frage mal Cortez.
6816    
6817     Bye
6818     Andreas
6819     %%
6820     >Article 2B is a threat to anyone who uses a computer. I just wanted to
6821    
6822     It may be a threat to any american using a computer. Fortunately, the U.S.
6823     justice does not yet apply outside the U.S.A.
6824    
6825     I.a.W.: You're currently creating a lot of happy non-U.S. software
6826     companies.
6827    
6828     Kind regards
6829     Henning
6830     %%
6831     From: "Adam J. Richter" <adam@yggdrasil.com>
6832     Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 04:14:11 -0700
6833     Subject: Re: driver for Creative Labs DVD kits
6834    
6835     At least with the IDE DVD drive that I have, plugging it directly
6836     into an IDE port and using the regular Linux ide-cd driver works just fine
6837     for reading [...] CD and the [not] copy protected sections of the DVD's.
6838    
6839     There is a protocol that the hardware decoder boards use to
6840     tell the DVD drive that they are a licensed implementation and should
6841     be allowed to read the copy protected sectors as well. I have been
6842     told that this protocol can be done entirely in software with a
6843     standard IDE port. Hopefully, somebody will reverse engineer this and
6844     make it a demand loaded kernel module. (Seriously, there is a lot
6845     that you are allowed to do with copyrighted material that this sort of
6846     hardware restriction prevents, and there are other important political
6847     issues involved relating to your rights to do as you please with the
6848     computer equipment that you bought and paid for.)
6849     %%
6850     Where do you want to go today?
6851     We might support that sometime next year.
6852     -=- Microsoft
6853     (But I doubt it.)
6854     -=- Me
6855     -=- James Mastros
6856     %%
6857     Hello570 <hello570@aol.com> wrote:
6858     > I tried printing a line to a file using both of the
6859     > following methods, but the output was split into two
6860     >lines.
6861    
6862     If you don't want newlines in the middle of your string, then don't
6863     put newlines in the middle of your string.
6864     %%
6865     http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/Dean_Roehrich/subjects.post
6866     %%
6867     Einstein himself said that God doesn't roll dice. But he was wrong. And
6868     in fact, anyone who has played role-playing games knows that God
6869     probably had to roll quite a few dice to come up with a character like
6870     Einstein. -- Larry Wall
6871     %%
6872     From: Ragnar Hojland Espinosa <root@lightside.ddns.org>
6873    
6874     My $0.02 Euros on internationalization? I'm in Spain and my keyboard is
6875     mosty US mapped because the Spanish map is really awkward for programming.
6876     Computers were designed to be funcional, not politically (or locally)
6877     correct (hm, I don't think HAL ever spoke Russian). This "computers are easy
6878     for all" GUI related trend has done a lot of money, and lot of damage; at
6879     least command line OSes forced the user to actually learn something and
6880     absorb information. The user assumed so, so he did. Now he doesn't, and
6881     it's not all his fault.
6882    
6883     The WWW is full of useless (and ugly) graphics, of useless links to links to
6884     pages with links to links which usually end up in a huge links page. Of
6885     course, there are some jewels.. but they should be majority! It's
6886     understandable, when the tools and languages focus more on aspect that in
6887     content.
6888    
6889     Usenet is worse than ever, the interesting places have been ruined by
6890     spammers, c00l hak3rz, and more and more people asking (or demanding) for
6891     others doing their homework.. at least some time ago they were willing to
6892     learn (or pay for it;)
6893    
6894     IRC.. heh. The few times I've been on funet almost all I found is the same
6895     people in the above paragraph. And I do know some of them even run scripts
6896     to try denial of service or other destructive attacks on people they see,
6897     just for fun or to get the op.
6898    
6899     Email. Someone selling an "incredible program that allows you to bypass
6900     your ISP mail server, for only $89" (thats right, a smtp server). No OS
6901     mentioned, I somehow can guess which. And that stupid thing of sending
6902     mail to people in RTF and HTML format.. I'm gonna answer them in LaTeX.
6903    
6904     Internet, your ilimited junk yard.
6905    
6906     Using computers would make me real sad if it wasn't for UNIX and, of
6907     course, Linux and Linux people.
6908     %%
6909     ... WNT == ++VMS . Literally. Dave Cutler created VMS,
6910     then he rewrote it as WNT.
6911    
6912     Ever used VMS? It's a step above DOS. Barely.
6913     --
6914     Clark O. Morgan cmorgan@aracnet.com
6915     %%
6916     >Subject: If "=~" means match what is doesn't match?
6917    
6918     I heard that a friend of a friend might have once been told about a
6919     rumor that this information can be found in perlop, right next to
6920     where =~ is documented. (It's !~)
6921    
6922     I agree with Tom's assessment that the fall of modern man will be
6923     preceded by the de-evolution of communications to the days of oral
6924     tradition.
6925     %%
6926     "Windows 95, the most installed system in the world,
6927     I know, I've done it 5 or 6 times myself"
6928     %%
6929     The statistics programming language S, from AT&T, combines lazy
6930     evaluation with imperative programming. A nightmare.
6931     %%
6932     "In 1965, as part of a research and development project for the
6933     U.S. Army, engineers at TRW Corp developed a software program
6934     called Generalized Information Retrieval Lanaguage and System."
6935     Or GIRLS for short.
6936     %%
6937     Wissen bremst die Meinungsbildung voll aus.
6938     %%
6939     I have an idea: Anybody who posts an URGENT! or EMERGENCY! request should
6940     post the circumstances behind the urgency. "I was having sex with my
6941     mistress in the server room and I knocked the Linux box over and the hard
6942     drive crashed and so I've reinstalled everything but I still can't get
6943     5_004_03 to build!"
6944    
6945     This would inspire me to action far more than the implied subtext of "I
6946     have no patience."
6947    
6948     xoxo,
6949     Andy
6950     %%
6951     > I have Perl5 running on my pc.
6952     > and also front page98 and microsoft personal web server runnig.
6953     We all have our cross to bear.
6954     %%
6955     (THIS IS LONG, YOU MAY WANT TO SKIP)
6956    
6957     From: mjd@plover.com (Mark-Jason Dominus)
6958     Date: 09 Nov 1995 02:57:30 GMT
6959     Subject: Re: system() question
6960    
6961     There are a lot of reasons, many of which get repeated over and
6962     over again, many of which don't. Some of the reasons you hear a lot
6963     are: Questions are incoherently phrased. Questions have the form 'My
6964     code doesn't work' and don't include the code. Questions include the
6965     code, and it's 200 lines long, and comp.lang.perl is not a debugging
6966     service. Nobody knows the answer to the question. The question is so
6967     badly punctuated that nobody can bear to read it. Questions aer
6968     written by a non-native speaker of English and the native speakers who
6969     are trying to understand it can't. (That's a shame, but it does
6970     happen. I often wish that these people would post in their native
6971     languages. I'd love to see more discussion in languages other than
6972     English. Some Dutch guy tried posting all his comp.lang.c articles in
6973     Dutch a few years ago, and all the Americans flamed him. How
6974     humiliating for me!)
6975    
6976     Apart from these oft-mentioned reasons are many others that are
6977     not so often discussed, because anyone who tries to bring them up gets
6978     flamed. But it's the truth: I know the reason I don't answer more
6979     questions is because so many of them questions are so damn stupid.
6980     They're stupid in a lot of different ways, but they're still stupid.
6981     I don't want to suggest that that's why your questions go unanswered.
6982     I don't know what you're asking. No doubt the reason your questions
6983     go unanswered is because they're so deep and interesting that nobody
6984     really knows the answer.
6985    
6986     The most common stupid question is the one from someone who has
6987     some high-level problem that they need solved. They have an idea that
6988     they'd like to do it in perl, and they don't really know perl. So
6989     instead of learning perl, they post to comp.lang.perl.misc.
6990    
6991     Now don't get me wrong. I don't have any problems answering the
6992     questions of someone who's trying to learn perl. I love THOSE
6993     qusetions. But these people don't seem to be asking useful questions
6994     for that.
6995    
6996     Today, for example, I saw a question from a guy who wants to get a
6997     list of hostnames out of nslookup. `How do I do that?' he says. And
6998     it's hard to know what to make of that. What does he mean? Does he
6999     not know how to open a pipe? Is his en' command failing? What's
7000     going on here? I can't give a useful answer without understanding the
7001     problem. Having your en' fail is a problem. Wanting to list
7002     hostnames is not a problem; it's a desire.
7003    
7004     Here are some similar questions that would have made more sense to me:
7005    
7006     1. `I'm a lazy asshole and I can't be bothered to learn to
7007     program myself, but I know if I post here you'll give me
7008     something for free.''
7009    
7010     (OK, fair enough. At least I can send him a rate card.)
7011    
7012     2. `I'm trying to use en' to talk to nslookup, but...
7013     ...here's my code; what's wrong?''
7014    
7015     (Good question.)
7016    
7017     3. `I know perl has a `System' command for running programs,
7018     but I can't see how to get my commands into nslookup
7019     once I have run it.''
7020     (Good question.)
7021    
7022     4. `I'm trying to use `Getprotobynumber' to talk to nslookup...''
7023    
7024     (Good question.)
7025    
7026     See, I'm not just biting people's heads off, here. #4 is a good
7027     question, because it gives me something to work with. OK, he has a
7028     very weird idea about interprocess communication, but that's
7029     ignorance, and that's what we're here to correct. He doesn't know
7030     about en'; I can refer him to the manual.
7031    
7032     Here's another example: Some guy wants to assemble a list of email
7033     addresses . `How do I do that?'' he wants to know. Well, duh. Get a
7034     big pad of paper and read news for a couple days and write down all
7035     the addresses you see. Problem solved. What's it doing in
7036     comp.lang.perl?
7037     Oh, you wanted to do it in perl. Well, I guess I'd open a socket
7038     to the NNTP server and send it some XHDR commands for the `From'
7039     lines. But that's not Perl; you could do that in any language. I
7040     could do it in Bourne Shell for you if I'm allowed to use a little
7041     external thingie to handle the socket parts for me. What's it doing
7042     in comp.lang.perl?
7043    
7044     Oh, you wanted us to write the program for you? Wait, let me send
7045     you my rate card.
7046    
7047     Someone posted yesterday asking how to get the data from a file where
7048     the start and end of the data is marked by keywords. Same thing going on
7049     here. `Well, here's how you solve your problem: First you go take an
7050     introductory class in programming and learn to write programs in some
7051     language. Then you go to the bookstore and buy this book by Wall and
7052     Schwartz, it's really good. Read the book carefully and try out the
7053     examples. Then if you still have general questions like `How do I do this'
7054     instead of thought that this code would do X but instead it does Y' you hire
7055     a professional to write your program for you. Or you could just skip right
7056     to step 3. Want my rate card?''
7057    
7058     The worst stupid questions are the ones that come from people who
7059     have no business asking them. The most perfect example of this that I
7060     could have imagined was in comp.unix.questions a couple of years ago.
7061     Some guy came and asked how you could tell if a file is a hard link.
7062     My jaw flapped open and it's stayed open since then. I couldn't have
7063     been any more stumped if he'd asked why Bodhidharma came from the
7064     West. What do you say to this guy? Do you tell him the truth, that
7065     all files are hard links, that even symbolic links are hard links?
7066     He's not going to understand you; you might as well keep your mouth
7067     shut. Do you tell him the truth, that the answer won't do him any
7068     good because he doesn't know what a hard link is, so why did he bother
7069     asking in the first place? No, that'll just make him mad. I followed
7070     that message for the next couple weeks, and nobody said anything.
7071     What could you say? The guy had no business asking the question and
7072     no use for the answer. Maybe the right answer would have been to cut
7073     off his finger or something. I dunno.
7074    
7075     Some questions get ignored because they're boring. Someone asked
7076     today how to compare two variables (I assumme he means the contents of
7077     those variables) to see if they're exactly the same. You've gotta be
7078     in an awfully good mood to take the time to answer that. Maybe
7079     someone will. Maybe I will.
7080    
7081     If I answer that one today, maybe he'll be back tomorrow asking
7082     how to check to see if two variables contain different values. Maybe
7083     I won't. What I find incredible is that if you tell these people to
7084     go read the manual and come back in two weeks, you sometimes get
7085     jumped on for not being helpful to beginners. Bah. If everyone told
7086     these people to go read the manual, they'd eventually figure out that
7087     that's what you have to do ,and then I wouldn't have to spend so much
7088     of my life dealing with incompetent programmers.
7089    
7090     Some questions are logically nonsensical because the querent
7091     thinks they know more than they do. A lot of these have the form
7092     `How do I use X to accomplish Y?'' There's nothing wrong with this,
7093     except that sometimes X is a chocolate-covered banana and Y is the
7094     integration of European currency systems. I always get stuck on
7095     these, probably because I can't get rid of the idea that the person
7096     really has a good reason for wanting to use X. I know a half-dozen
7097     easy simple ways to accomplish Y, but I can't imagine what X has to do
7098     with it. This is a problem for me in my day job, too. Clients are
7099     always saying to me `We want to use product X to do multimedia
7100     development on the world-wide web,'' and all I can think is `Well,
7101     gee, what would you want to go and do that for?'' Sometimes it turns
7102     out that they want to do it because they want to impress the
7103     manufacturers of X, and I don't work on those jobs.
7104    
7105     The flip side of this is a questions like `I want to accomplish
7106     X, but I don't want to use Y. What can I use instead?'' Which,
7107     again, is sometimes reasonable, and then sometimes X is closing a
7108     filehandle and Y is the `Close' function.
7109    
7110     The questions I like the best are the ones that go like this:
7111    
7112     `I want to accomplish X.
7113    
7114     I thought that the following code fragment would do it:
7115    
7116     ...
7117    
7118     But instead it does Y.
7119    
7120     Why is that?''
7121    
7122     This one is also pretty good:
7123    
7124     `I want to accomplish X.
7125     I thought I might be able to use facility Y.
7126    
7127     But Y doesn't seem like it's quite right,
7128     because of Z.
7129    
7130     What should I use instead of Y, or how can I overcome Z?''
7131    
7132     When I ignore these, it's usually because I don't know the answer.
7133     There were an awful lot of them today. It makes me very happy.
7134    
7135    
7136     There you go; a 160-line dissertation on why questions go unanswered.
7137     Now don't let me hear you saying nobody ever answers your questions.
7138    
7139     --
7140     Consulting Minister for Consultants, DNRC
7141     The Bill of Rights is paid in Responsibilities - Jean McGuire
7142     %%
7143     >> BTW, would it be easier to cope with international text using Python?
7144     >Sigh... you're breaking my heart. Ask Jack Jansen, he probably knows.
7145    
7146     If I were really evel, I would point out that the newest TCL (8.1) has
7147     support for international character sets and Unicode. But then, mentioning
7148     TCL in this newsfroup would be really bad. So, of course, I don't do that.
7149    
7150     Ups. I'm so sorry ... ;-)
7151    
7152     bye, Georg
7153     %%
7154     I personally do not believe in object orientation as a security model
7155     (nor as a general programming paradigm), but feel free to try to
7156     convince me.
7157    
7158     [ Or maybe I confuse you with somebody else and some other posting ]
7159    
7160     Linus
7161     %%
7162     ++ how can i strip new lines out at var.
7163     ++
7164    
7165     Removing new lines is very tricky, as the manual tells you so. Ignore the
7166     complicated things in the manual, and put in this neat little trick:
7167    
7168 root 1.85 $var=join+q,,,grep{ord$[[qq$\137$]]<10 or+10<ord}split+q,,,$var;
7169 root 1.1
7170     If you're old enough not to read the manual, you won't have a problem
7171     understanding the above line.
7172    
7173     Abigail
7174     %%
7175     I fixed the problem by mounting the SCO volume on the SunOS box, and since
7176     1995 the problem has gone away together with the SCO machine.
7177     %%
7178     ++ Hi Does anybody know how to upload many graphic files at the push of a
7179     ++ button?
7180     Yes.
7181    
7182     ++ 100 pictures or so?
7183     Yes.
7184    
7185     ++ Can I do it in Perl?
7186     Yes.
7187    
7188     Your question isn't Perl specific. Please ask in the relevant
7189     newsgroup. alt.button.play
7190    
7191     Abigail
7192     %%
7193     perly gates - The way to perl; Enter hackerdom.
7194    
7195     perly Gates - Contradictio in Terminis.
7196    
7197     Martien
7198     %%
7199     Ren hat weder von Sinnhaftigkeit noch von Kausalität geschrieben, sondern
7200     nur von Logik. Logik und Kausalität sind in unserem (normalen) Denken zwar
7201     eng miteinander verknüpft, sind aber nicht dasselbe. Sinn ist hingegen noch
7202     etwas Drittes und ganz verschiedenes! "Sinn" bedeutet mindestens, daß eine
7203     Sache eine gewisse Richtung hat, wie in "Uhrzeigersinn". Meistens bedeutet
7204     Sinn aber, daß eine Sache einen bestimmten Zweck erfüllt. Auch darf man
7205     nicht "verursachen" mit "begründen" verwechseln, weil die beiden
7206     unterschiedlich sind. Die Existenz muß auch keinen Sinn haben, um eine
7207     Ursache zu haben. Das sind zwei völlig voneinander unabhängige Sachen. Die
7208     Existenz hat einen Sinn, also eine Richtung, wenn wir unserer Existenz eine
7209     Richtung geben. Dieser Sinn kann auf etwas abzielen, was außerhalb unserer
7210     selbst steht, muß aber nicht... Sie kann auch einen Sinn haben, der schon da
7211     war, bevor wir uns danach ausgerichtet haben - von all dem schreibt Ren aber
7212     nicht. ;)
7213    
7214     Worauf Ren wohl hinaus wollte, ist, daß wenn die Logik des begrenzten Raumes
7215     nicht gilt, daß dann die Logik schlechthin hinfällig wird und so jedes Sein
7216     fragwürdig wird. Das ist aber nicht der Fall, da die Logik, die er von den
7217     Grenzen des Raumes aufstellt, gar keine wirkliche Logik ist, sondern nur die
7218     Grenzen des menschlichen Verstandes zeigt. Er kann sich nicht vorstellen,
7219     daß außerhalb der Grenzen des Raumes "Nichts" ist, weil man sich als Mensch
7220     das Nichts nicht vorstellen kann.
7221    
7222     Darüber hinaus meinte er, daß die "Existenz unlogisch" würde. Dieser Satz
7223     ist vollkommen unverständlich. Denn entweder ist etwas, oder es ist nicht.
7224     Das ist auch schon die ganze Logik einer Existenz. (Aristoteles: Satz vom
7225     ausgeschlossenen Dritten) Unlogisch wäre, wenn etwas ist, das nicht ist oder
7226     wenn etwas nicht ist, das ist.
7227    
7228     Von der Unfähigkeit des Menschen, sich einen unbegrenzten aber endlichen
7229     Raum (oder wie auch immer der Weltraum nun aussieht) vorzustellen auf die
7230     "Unlogik der Existenz" zu schließen, ist aber wohl nicht ganz möglich, zumal
7231     eine Existenz nicht unlogisch sein kann. Was sollte das auch heißen? Daher
7232     ist das Problem, das Ren aufwirft, nur ein Scheinproblem. Die Existenz an
7233     sich wird nicht in Frage gestellt dadurch, daß man sich etwas - egal was -
7234     nicht vorstellen kann. Er verwechselt die Begriffe "unlogisch" und
7235     "unvorstellbar".
7236    
7237     Thomas.Decker@lrz.uni-muenchen.de
7238     %%
7239     Marcel Richter wrote:
7240     > Marcel Richter - IQ: 3538327
7241     ^^^
7242     fehlt da nicht irgendwo ein Komma.... =?-)
7243     %%
7244     The X server has to be the biggest program I've ever seen that doesn't
7245     do anything for you. --Ken Thompson
7246     %%
7247     linux-2.1.92/fs/autofs/root.c:
7248     printk("autofs: trying to recover, but prepare for Armageddon\n");
7249     %%
7250     >>Vincent DiPietro, the discoverer of the face on mars, has thrown in
7251     >>the towel, and said that the face on mars is a pile of rocks.
7252     >Was sollte es denn sonst sein?
7253    
7254     An artificial pile of rocks.
7255     %%
7256     > ps: mal nebenbei: eine unbekannte variable beim analysieren des
7257     > marsgesichtes ist es, dass mensch gar nicht weiss, wie die lebende,
7258     > gedachte oder sonstige vorlage eigentlich aussieht. dazu kommt natuerlich
7259     > noch das fehlende wissen um die intention des "kuenstlers", ob er
7260     > beispielsweise nur aspekte bzw. partien eines gesichtes integrieren wollte
7261     > - und natuerlich, ob es ueberhaupt kunst ist:)
7262    
7263     Ganz genau. Und das Matterhorn ist eine palaeoimpressionistische Studie des
7264     Geruchsorgans der Rasse der Ciabattanimalier. Aber das wussten hier
7265     sicherlich schon alle. Das ganze Universum ist ausserdem eigentlich nur ein
7266     grosser Flipperautomat.
7267    
7268     Christoph Schulte Moenting - ubec@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de
7269     %%
7270     > Kris Weilemann schrieb
7271     >
7272     > >MIR ging es neulich aehnlich. Ich wurde von Ausserirdischen entfuehrt.
7273     > >Ich wurde eingesperrt in einem dunklem Raum mit langen Sitzreihen und mit
7274     > >einer Popcorn-artigen Substanz gefuettert. Nach 2 Stunden war alles
7275     > >vorbei. Einen Tag spaeter stellte ich fest, dass mir 18 Mark im
7276     > >Geldbeutel fehlten. Ist das nicht krass? -Kris.
7277     %%
7278     ... Jazz ist nicht nur das erfolgreichste, sondern auch das einzige originäre Kunstgenre,
7279     daß die USA jemals hervorgebracht haben.
7280    
7281     "Apropos Musik", HR2 am 16.4.98
7282     %%
7283     http://www.rsw.com/
7284    
7285     The Unix shell as a 4GL
7286    
7287     Unix provides hundreds of programs that can be piped together to easily
7288     perform almost any function imaginable. Nothing comes close to providing the
7289     functions that come standard with Unix. Programs and philosophies carried
7290     over from other systems put walls between the user and Unix, and the power
7291     of Unix is thrown away. The shell, extended with a few relational operators,
7292     is the fourth generation database scripting language most appropriate to the
7293     Unix environment.
7294     %%
7295     Perl is incredibly difficult to parse. For example, what's the difference
7296     between these:
7297    
7298     time /3 ;#/; print "hello";
7299     sin /3 ;#/; print "goodbye";
7300    
7301     Right. The first one is time divided by 3, and the print is in a comment.
7302     The second one is the sin of the result of a regular expression match for "3
7303     ;#", and the print gets executed!
7304    
7305     There's no pure BNF in the world that'll handle that. And remember, with
7306     "use" and prototypes available, whether you parse something like "sin" or
7307     "time" depends on its definition in some other file, somewhere in the galaxy
7308     (or even decided by Perl code in a BEGIN block, that evals a prototype!).
7309    
7310     Which led Larry to say at one point: "the only thing that can parse Perl is
7311     'perl'".
7312    
7313     --
7314     Randal L. Schwartz
7315     %%
7316     Ronald J Kimball <rjk@coos.dartmouth.edu> writes:
7317    
7318     > Pascal AMRAM wrote:
7319     > > Subject: MSEXCHANGE / OUTLOOK
7320     >
7321     > So here I am trying to figure out what an M sex change is....
7322    
7323     It's obviously the opposite of an F sex change. HTH.
7324    
7325     --
7326     Jonathan Feinberg jdf@pobox.com Sunny Brooklyn, NY
7327     %%
7328     The management (my cats) made me say this.
7329     %%
7330     uae-0.6.9/custom.c:800:
7331     write_log ("Program is torturing BPLCON1.\n");
7332     %%
7333     uae-0.6.9/src/memory.c:363
7334     write_log ("Your Amiga program just did something terribly stupid\n");
7335     %%
7336     Closures make sense in any programming language where you
7337     can have the return value of a function be itself a
7338     function, as you can in Perl. Note that some languages
7339     provide anonymous functions but are not capable of
7340     providing proper closures; the Python language, for
7341     example.
7342     %%
7343     When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to
7344     resemble a nail.
7345     %%
7346     > but all I get are 501 errors, method not supported. I am not 100% sure what
7347     > I did wrong.
7348    
7349     What you did wrong was post a microsoft server question to a perl
7350     newsgroup.
7351     %%
7352     I am trying to learn Perl on my Windows 97 system. In particular...
7353     %%
7354     >Es kamen Außerirdische, die Pyramiden bauten und andere Wunder
7355     >vollbrachten. Dafür wurden sie vergöttert. Diese außerirdischen bauten dann
7356     >wahrscheinlich auch die Cydonia Region.
7357    
7358     Etwa zehnmal zu oft 'Stargate' gesehen, was?
7359     %%
7360     >Die Menschheit kämpft seit Millionen von Jahren gegeneinander.
7361    
7362     Welche Hälfte ist denn da die grössere? :o)
7363     %%
7364     ...am still rebuilding after being hit with a clock changing virus it reset
7365     my clock to 2039 unfortunately for me my OS is beta 98 needless to say it
7366     expired instantly!!!
7367     %%
7368     From: Per Bothner <bothner@cygnus.com>
7369     To: Pal Engstad <engstad@hunt.inmet.com>
7370    
7371     > Linus Torvalds requires that all code in the source is using a tab
7372     > length of 8 spaces, and he also states that you are a bad programmer
7373     > if you write code with more than 3 indentation levels.
7374    
7375     I didn't know that Linus Torvalds has done research on programming styles.
7376     He much have, since why else would you have the audacity quote him as
7377     an authority, on a list where there are dozens of people with more
7378     than double Linus's programming experience?
7379    
7380     > This has caused the code to be fairly easy to read and maintainance is
7381     > pretty straight forward.
7382    
7383     Irrelevant - a kernel is a lot simpler than an optimizing compiler,
7384     in terms of complexity of algorithms and data structures.
7385     %%
7386     Nach der Diskussion muss ich akzeptieren, dass die juengst erfolgte
7387     Erdbeschleunigung von - 0,6 auf - 0,4 Millisekunden kein zwingender Beweis
7388     fuer einen Permanentantrieb ist. Aber: In letzter Zeit kommt es bei mir immer
7389     wieder vor, dass ich Dinge einfach weiss. Selbst wenn ich sie nicht begruenden
7390     kann. Ich weiss trotzdem dass sie stimmen muessen und der Antrieb existiert.
7391     Mit der Zeit findet sich dann auch die Begruendung.
7392     %%
7393     Wir suchen neue AussenMitarbeiterInnen... (S.Pernar@Link-Goe)
7394     %%
7395     hyperltext (hy'perl-text), n. double-quotish-interpolated hypertext markup:
7396     Example:
7397     print qq[[<LI><A HREF="$self->[[url]]">@[[[ucfirst $self->[[title]]]]]</A>\n]];
7398     %%
7399     liperlsuction: What happens to any script longer than 10 lines once
7400     Randal gets his hands on it
7401     %%
7402     Uperl Volta - country where perl programmers control the electricity.
7403     %%
7404     > Anybody successfully installed the win32 version of Perl?
7405    
7406     No! Millions of people don't use perl on win32 machines. You may be the
7407     first if you get it working.
7408     %%
7409     > Macintosh.
7410     > Think different.
7411    
7412     Think Again.
7413     %%
7414     Bill.Cilnton@dyselxia.com
7415     %%
7416     tsatan@hotmail.com writes:
7417     > Why does perl have the "push" and "unshift" functions? ...
7418     > push @nums, 4; is the same as @nums = (@nums, 4);
7419    
7420     What do you want, Scheme? ;)
7421     %%
7422     # There is this special biologist word we use for 'stable'.
7423     # It is 'dead'. -- Jack Cohen
7424     %%
7425     | I am returning this otherwise good typing paper to you because
7426     | someone has printed gibberish all over it and put your name at the
7427     | top.
7428     %%
7429     I had a student ask about the UN9 operating system. I didn't understabd what
7430     he was talking about so he wrote UNIX on the board.
7431     %%
7432     On 1 Apr 98 17:34:23 GMT, Schulung7 wrote:
7433     ^^^^^^^^^
7434     >Was haltet ihr vom UFO-Absturz in Rosswell?
7435    
7436     Nichts. Und jetzt geh woanders spielen.
7437     %%
7438     >Kann man hier irgendwie mal die UFOs reinbringen, um die es in dieser NG
7439     >gehen soll?
7440    
7441     Nein, der Datentyp wäre inkompatibel. UFOs sind per Definitionem
7442     materielle Objekte (obwohl das zur Zeit fraglich ist ;-), die sich in
7443     diesem Medium nicht austauschen lassen.
7444     %%
7445     Wer redet hier denn von der "Hui Hui"? Ich sprach von "Hui! Hui!".
7446     %%
7447     >> nein...ist kein Sender. Eine taiwanesische Sekte hat behauptet, daß am
7448     >> 25.3. auf allen TVs der Welt Gott auf Kanal 18 erscheinen würde.
7449     >> Ist natuerlich nicht eingetreten.
7450     >
7451     >Aber unsere Haus-Sat-Anlage geht seither nicht mehr.
7452    
7453     Ein Zeichen! Er hat uns ein Zeichen gegeben! Zieht alle euren linken
7454     Schuh aus!
7455     %%
7456     >Klingt nach Erdstillstand.
7457    
7458     Ich bin entsetzt. Man hat hoffentlich sofort Wiederbedrehungsmaßnahmen
7459     eingeleitet?
7460     %%
7461     Mars Global Surveyor Imaging Schedule
7462    
7463    
7464     First opportunity
7465     Approximate
7466     Orbit Internet
7467     Date Time (UTC/Pacific) Number Target Posting
7468    
7469     4-3-98 09:58/1:58 a.m. 216 Viking Lander 1 April 6
7470     4-3-98 21:37/1:37 p.m. 217 Viking Lander 2 April 7
7471     4-4-98 09:16/1:16 a.m. 218 Mars Pathfinder April 7
7472     4-5-98 08:33/12:33 a.m. 220 Cydonia April 6 (mid-a.m.)
7473    
7474     Second opportunity
7475     Approximate
7476     Orbit Internet
7477     Date Time (UTC/Pacific) Number Target Posting
7478    
7479     4-12-98 15:23/ 8:23 a.m. 235 Viking Lander 1 April 14
7480     4-13-98 03:01/ 8:01 p.m. 236 Viking Lander 2 April 15
7481     4-13-98 14:40/ 7:40 a.m. 237 Mars Pathfinder April 15
7482     4-14-98 13:57/ 6:57 a.m. 239 Cydonia April 14 (mid-p.m.)
7483    
7484     Third opportunity
7485     Approximate
7486     Orbit Internet
7487     Date Time (UTC/Pacific) Number Target Posting
7488    
7489     4-21-98 20:45/1:45 p.m. 254 Viking Lander 1 April 23
7490     4-22-98 08:23/1:23 a.m. 255 Viking Lander 2 April 24
7491     4-22-98 20:02/1:02 p.m. 256 Mars Pathfinder April 24
7492     4-23-98 19:18/12:18 p.m. 258 Cydonia April 24 (mid-a.m.)
7493    
7494     %%
7495     > >2. Der Menschheit ist durch Inzucht entstanden. Laut biologischem
7496     > >Wissen, unwahrscheinlich, da Mutation und Mißbildungen auftreten
7497     > >würden.
7498     >
7499     > Vermutung: Das ist auch aufgetreten. Siehe levitische "Gesetze" zur
7500     > "Behandlung" von "Aussatz" insb. im 3. "Mose". Die hatten schon Probleme.
7501     Sag mal, bei Dir piepts wohl nicht mehr richtig! Aussatz, heute besser
7502     unter dem Namen Lepra bekannt, ist keine Erbkrankheit. Es ist eine
7503     (heute heilbare) Infektionskrankheit, verursacht durch Bakterien.
7504     Also nichts von Inzucht, wie Du das in Deinem latenten Rassenwahn
7505     implizierst.
7506     %%
7507     > You might please start up with reading more than one sentence - a skill
7508     > quite familiar in Europe, but as it seems not in the USA.
7509     %%
7510     Yup. Instead of crashing Xservers, now you have crashing kernels.
7511     Big improvement.
7512     %%
7513     -- "Hey look, this new card is for windows and only $xx!"
7514     -- "Yes, but it's braindead and will hurt your performance. Take that one
7515     over there. Besides, it's not an ope.."
7516     -- "Why that one?"
7517     -- "Because it's better, sinc.."
7518     -- "But I can do the same with this one, it's cheaper, and its for windows!"
7519     %%
7520     In der Klinik, in der ich mal arbeiten musste, hatten wir einen echten
7521     Koenig Ludwig II und mindestens fuenf Stueck Jesus - sowas gibts halt,
7522     wenn Du verstehst, was ich meine.
7523     %%
7524     > Hast Du mal einen Stein beobachtet, der eine Unzahl komplexer
7525     > Vorgaenge paresentiert, einschliesslich der Hervorbringung
7526     > etlicher Lebensformen?
7527    
7528     Jepp. Ist nur ein Problem mit der Definition von "zahlreich".
7529    
7530     > Hast Du mal einen Steinen beobachtet, der sich mal eben
7531     > "verwandelt", und auf dem dann lauter Wesen rumkrabbeln,
7532     > die aus ihm selbst entsprungen sind?
7533    
7534     Klar doch. Ist nur ein Problem mit der Definition von "lauter".
7535    
7536     > Ueberspitzt: Hast Du mal einen Steinen beobachtet, der
7537     > ploetzlich zum Lebewesen wird und Dich fragt, wer oder was
7538     > er eigentlich ist?
7539    
7540     Tja, da hören die Übereinstimmungen auf. Ich dachte Du meinst
7541     Erwin Stein. Den kenne ich. Der hat zwei Kinder. Die krabbeln
7542     ab und zu auf ihm herum. Der ist aber nicht plötzlich zum Le-
7543     bewesen geworden, sondern den gibt es nun schon ein wenig
7544     länger. Und er hat mich auch noch nie gefragt, wer oder was
7545     er eigentlich ist. Zumindest nicht in einem Zustand, den man
7546     als "normal" bezeichnen könnte. So wird das anscheinend nix.
7547     Ciao
7548     Stefan
7549     %%
7550     "These download files are in Microsoft Word 6.0 format. After
7551     unzipping, these files can be viewed in any text editor, including
7552     all versions of Microsoft Word, WordPad, and Microsoft Word Viewer."
7553     (http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/pc99.htm)
7554     %%
7555     Video cards have write-only registers. (of course that is bad design) Let's
7556     say that register 13 is write-only, as is common. It holds an index that
7557     determines what register 69 (also write-only) actually changes. If you write
7558     to register 13 while the accelerator is active, you lock the PCI bus. You
7559     can't determine if the accelerator is active without reading from register
7560     42, but you can't interpret the contents of that register correctly without
7561     knowing what the last accelerator command was. Reading from register 13 gets
7562     you some useless (unrelated) info and _also_ toggles the accelerator on and
7563     off.
7564     %%
7565     Join the Army,
7566     Meet interesting people,
7567     Kill them.
7568     %%
7569     > Wie entsteht Materie? Ich koennte mir vorstellen, dass Energie in Materie
7570     > umwandelbar ist.
7571    
7572     E=m*c^2 (Schon mal gehoert?) (Schon mal verstanden??)
7573     %%
7574     >nach der die Pygmäen geheime UFO-Basen in ausgehöhlten Baumstämmen
7575     >unterhalten (Vorsicht: das war ein Witz :-) ).
7576     %%
7577     > (Bernhard Nahrgang) wrote:
7578     >
7579     > >> Logische Annahme: Die Erde waechst entweder kontinuierlich, oder periodisch
7580     > >> ruckartig.
7581     > >wie kann jemand mit dem IQ von 130 nur SO SELTEN BLOEDE sein??
7582     >
7583     > Norbert ist nicht selten blöde...
7584    
7585     :-)
7586     %%
7587     SAT 1 Teletext: Ein Asteroid mit einem Durchmesser von fast einem Kilometer
7588     rast mit großer Geschwindigkeit auf die Erde zu. US-Astronomen befürchten:
7589     "XF11" könnte im Jahr 2028 auf der Erde einschlagen. Die Folgen wären
7590     verheerend. "Der rasende Stein aus dem All ist eine Gefahr", warnt Jack G.
7591     Hills vom US-Kernforschungszentrum Los Alamos: "Wenn er die Erde trifft,
7592     wird er die Sprengkraft von 320.000 Megatonnen Dynamit haben." Das
7593     entspricht dem Zweimillionenfachen der Atombombe...
7594    
7595     ARD/ZDF Teletext: ASTEROID MIT KURS AUF ERDE ENTDECKT Amerikanische
7596     Astronomen haben einen Asteroiden ausgemacht, der in 30 Jahren der Erde
7597     gefährlich nahekommen wird. Die Gefahr, daß der Asteroid einschlagen wird,
7598     sei gering, aber auch nicht völlig auszuschließen. Nach derzeitigen
7599     Berechnungen wird der Asteroid mit der Bezeichnung "1997 XF11" am 26.Oktober
7600     2028 unserem Planeten am nächsten kommen. "1997 XF11" hat etwa einen
7601     Durchmesser von 1,6 Kilometern. Erstmals käme ein Objekt dieser Größe der
7602     Erde so nahe, hieß es in dem Bericht der Internationalen Astronomischen
7603     Union.
7604    
7605     RTL Teletext: Himmelskörper rast auf Erde zu Ein Asteroid wird im Jahr 2028
7606     der Erde gefährlich nahe kommen. Amerikanische Wissenschaftler haben die
7607     Chance eines Zusammenpralls auf eins zu tausend berechnet. Sollte der
7608     Asteroid, der einen Durchmesser von 1,8 Kilometern hat, aufprallen, könnte
7609     er eine gigantische Flutwelle auslösen, so die Forscher. Auch ein genaues
7610     Datum haben die Wissenschaftler schon errechnet: Von Europa aus wäre das
7611     Naturschauspiel am 26. Oktober 2028 zu beobachten.
7612     %%
7613     * Linux Viruscan.....
7614     Windows 95 Found Remove it ? (Y/y)
7615     %%
7616     >>Hmm, welche Behauptungen entsprechen denn deiner Meinung nach der
7617     >>Realität?
7618     >>
7619     >>Das es das FBI wirklich gibt?
7620     >>Das Scully frigide ist, und deshalb mit Mulder nichts anfangen möchte?
7621     >>Das Mulder homosexuell ist, und deshalb mit Scully nichts anfangen möchte?
7622     >>Das der CSM einen Vertrag mit Marlb*ro hat?
7623     >
7624     >Hinter diesen "Fragen" erkenne ich z.B. eine gut bekannte Strategie. Die
7625     >FBI-Frage ist bewusst absurd. Das Abgleiten ins Sexuelle hat ebenfalls
7626     %%
7627     "'You're a Cirrus. You're crap. I'm an S3. I rule. Thank you and please drive through.'"
7628     %%
7629     > How could you have perl take a set of numbers (1,2,3,4) and put them
7630     > into a random order???
7631     >
7632    
7633     @array=qw(1 2 3 4);
7634     print "@array[1,3,2,0]\n";
7635    
7636     I've checked this against other possible random orderings
7637     of these numbers, and this ordering is at least as random as
7638     any of the other possible ones. The benefit of this one being
7639     that it begins with the number 2, which is my favorite random
7640     number less than 42.
7641     %%
7642     From what I am reading Win98 and NT5.0 will be getting rid of all that
7643     crap anyway. Seems that Microsoft has invented something called TCP/IP and
7644     another really revolutionary concept called DNS that eliminates the
7645     netbios crap too. All that arping from browsers is going to go away.
7646     I also hear rumors that they are on the verge of breakthrough discoveries
7647     called NFS, and LPD too. Given enough time and money, they might
7648     eventually invent Unix.
7649     %%
7650     In Germany, where typeface design has always been a significant part of
7651     the cultural heritage, and where typefounding has remained an important
7652     business, there are more than one kind of copyright-like protections for
7653     typefaces. Certain long-standing industrial design protection laws have
7654     been used to protect typeface designs in litigation over royalties and
7655     plagiarisms. Further, there is a recent law, the so-called
7656     "Schriftzeichengesetz" enacted in 1981, that specifically protects
7657     typeface designs. New designs are registered, as is done with
7658     copyright in most countries. This law only protects new, original
7659     designs. It is available to non-German designers and firms. Therefore,
7660     some type firms and designers routinely copyright new designs in West
7661     Germany. This gives a degree of protection for products marketed in
7662     Germany. Since multinational corporations may find it cheaper to
7663     license a design for world-wide use rather than deal with a special case
7664     in one country, the German law does encourage licensing on a broader
7665     scale than would initially seem to be the case.
7666     %%
7667     [linux processes vs. nt/solaris threads]
7668     Rob Pike pointed out that the solution to slow process creation is
7669     faster process creation, not another kernel abstraction.
7670     %%
7671     Does anybody know how to communicate between a PC and a modem,
7672     using a Perl CGI script?
7673     %%
7674     >I really don't know crap about PERL. How is it different from JAVA?
7675    
7676     One tiny difference: Java can crash your browser. It happened to me last
7677     week.
7678     %%
7679     Brieweb> I heard Randal Schwartz say he could write an entire httpd server in 90 lines
7680     Brieweb> of PERL.
7681     No, that's an http *proxy* server. A simple web server is much shorter.
7682     From "perldoc HTTP::Daemon"...
7683     [Randal Schwartz]
7684     %%
7685     But the possibility of abuse may be a good reason for leaving
7686     capabilities out of other computer languages, it's not a good reason
7687     for leaving capabilities out of Perl.
7688     [Larry Wall in `Macros'. [[perl5-porters]]]
7689     %%
7690     Yes: Java's main advantage over Perl is that it's hard to use for casual
7691     programmers, so keeps all but the most intrepid programmers away from it.
7692     It has no decent support for string processing, allowing you to spend
7693     hours at useless debugging. It has a very restrictive and static system
7694     to make sure you don't try anything interesting. It makes sure that you
7695     use objects, by golly, because James Gosling said so. It's easy for C++
7696     programmers to use, and hard for shell or BASIC programmers to use. It
7697     also only runs on a few systems, locking its customers into a a closed
7698     system and restricting their options.
7699     [Tom Christiansen in `Java Vs. Perl']
7700     %%
7701     <Bill_Gates> Where do you want to go today?
7702     <Phase_5> Where do go tomorrow?
7703     <BlueFlux> Where were you yesterday?!?!
7704     %%
7705     "It's not to control, but to protect the citizens of Singapore. In our
7706     society, you can state your views, but they have to be correct."
7707     Ernie Hai
7708     Coordinator of Singapore Government Internet Project
7709     %%
7710     : I very much prefer a useful error message than a "it produced the wrong
7711     : results" report from the users.
7712    
7713     if i got even "it produced the wrong results" from our users, i would
7714     be in 7th heaven. ours often mail us with such insightful requests as
7715     "can you tell me my email address?" no, sorry, that should be "CAN U
7716     TEL ME MY E MAIL ADRES DUDE?!!!?? HURRY!!!"
7717     %%
7718     There are many intelligent species in the Universe.
7719     They are all owned by cats.
7720     %%
7721     Why dignify your unsustainable, unjustifiable, unprovable feeble
7722     attempts at character assassination with anything resembling a reply?
7723     You only make yourself look foolish by mouthing off like that.
7724     %%
7725     From: L & K Olson <kolson@mbnet.mb.ca>
7726     Subject: If they wrote error messages in haiku ...
7727    
7728     Yesterday it worked
7729     Today it is not working
7730     Windows is like that
7731     - - -
7732     wind catches lily
7733     scatt'ring petals to the wind:
7734     segmentation fault
7735     - - -
7736     Three things are certain:
7737     Death, taxes, and lost data.
7738     Guess which has occurred.
7739     - - -
7740     A file that big?
7741     It might be very useful.
7742     But now it is gone.
7743     - - -
7744     Windows NT crashed.
7745     I am the Blue Screen of Death.
7746     No one hears your screams.
7747     - - -
7748     Errors have occurred.
7749     We won't tell you where or why.
7750     Lazy programmers.
7751     - - -
7752     Seeing my great fault
7753     Through darkening blue windows
7754     I begin again
7755     - - -
7756     The code was willing,
7757     It considered your request,
7758     But the chips were weak.
7759     - - -
7760     Printer not ready.
7761     Could be a fatal error.
7762     Have a pen handy?
7763     - - -
7764     Server's poor response
7765     Not quick enough for browser.
7766     Timed out, plum blossom.
7767     - - -
7768     Chaos reigns within.
7769     Reflect, repent, and reboot.
7770     Order shall return.
7771     - - -
7772     Login incorrect.
7773     Only perfect spellers may
7774     enter this system.
7775     - - -
7776     This site has been moved.
7777     We'd tell you where, but then we'd
7778     have to delete you.
7779     - - -
7780     ABORTED effort:
7781     Close all that you have.
7782     You ask way too much.
7783     - - -
7784     First snow, then silence.
7785     This thousand dollar screen dies
7786     so beautifully.
7787     - - -
7788     With searching comes loss
7789     and the presence of absence:
7790     "My Novel" not found.
7791     - - -
7792     The Tao that is seen
7793     Is not the true Tao, until
7794     You bring fresh toner.
7795     - - -
7796     The Web site you seek
7797     cannot be located but
7798     endless others exist
7799     - - -
7800     Stay the patient course
7801     Of little worth is your ire
7802     The network is down
7803     - - -
7804     A crash reduces
7805     your expensive computer
7806     to a simple stone.
7807     - - -
7808     There is a chasm
7809     of carbon and silicon
7810     the software can't bridge
7811     - - -
7812     To have no errors
7813     Would be life without meaning
7814     No struggle, no joy
7815     - - -
7816     You step in the stream,
7817     but the water has moved on.
7818     This page is not here.
7819     - - -
7820     No keyboard present
7821     Hit F1 to continue
7822     Zen engineering?
7823     - - -
7824     Hal, open the file
7825     Hal, open the damn file, Hal
7826     open it, please Hal
7827     - - -
7828     Out of memory.
7829     We wish to hold the whole sky,
7830     But we never will.
7831     - - -
7832     Having been erased,
7833     The document you're seeking
7834     Must now be retyped.
7835     - - -
7836     The ten thousand things
7837     How long do any persist?
7838     Netscape, too, has gone.
7839     - - -
7840     Rather than a beep
7841     Or a rude error message,
7842     These words: "File not found."
7843     - - -
7844     Serious error.
7845     All shortcuts have disappeared
7846     Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
7847     %%
7848     "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way
7849     to factor large prime numbers." -- Bill Gates from "The Road Ahead," p. 265.
7850     %%
7851     > What is the Windows equivalent of the first line used for
7852     > UNIX (#!/usr/local/bin/perl) that tells where the Perl interpreter is?
7853    
7854     Windows hasn't gotten quite as far in functionality as, say, BSD Unix in the
7855     early 1980s.
7856     %%
7857     > I have a chat script, that will work fine for a bit then after a while
7858     > the private messages will stop working. It might be because I changed
7859     > something, but chances are that isn't the case. I re-install a fresh
7860     > copy, paths are correct, and they still don't work
7861    
7862     I think you are experiencing GOVERNMENT CONTROL. You see, everyone
7863     with a chat script is being scrutinised by the department of CHAT
7864     control. Whenever they see some message they don't like, they
7865     introduce some little goblin called feature-creep in your program. if
7866     you have lots of these little devils, your program migth acquire so
7867     many new features that it just stops working.
7868    
7869     This also applies to Microsoft products.
7870    
7871     > Does it make sense for certain features to just not work?! If you can
7872     > help, or have suggestions, get back to me, PLEASE:)
7873    
7874     Yes, it makes perfect sense. Especially if they're features which
7875     really are bugs. And especially if they're 'private' messages. You
7876     know perfectly well that the government doesn't like private messages.
7877    
7878     Hope this explains what's going on
7879     Martien Verbruggen
7880     %%
7881     ...code? If you're on a misconfigured NT server (is that redundant?), you...
7882     %%
7883     X11R6.1-based free X server compiles, links and crashes under IRIX(TM).
7884     %%
7885     -------------- please bite here ------------- bitte hier abbeissen ---------
7886     %%
7887     "Frag mal, auf was fuer uptimes man kommt, wenn man Software-Entwicklung
7888     unter NT macht..." "Das koennen bis zu dreissig Minuten werden - in der
7889     Mittagspause." -- Andreas Bogk, Kai Fett, de.alt.sysadmin.recovery
7890     %%
7891     > ++ A lot of posters here have .sigs that include perl one liners.
7892     > ++ Is there a safe way to run them, and be assured that they wont
7893     > ++ damage and/or erase files? (or e-mail off my shadow file)
7894     >
7895     > Just make sure you understand it ;)
7896    
7897     I nominate Abigail for best response of the year with this one. Come to
7898     think of it, I nominate it for best response of next year, too.
7899     %%
7900     Your moderator will be spending the next week on a beach on a small island
7901     where the phones don't work very well, so there won't be any comp.compilers
7902     until the 28th. Any messages you send in will wait here until I get back and
7903     should be posted on March 1st or 2nd.
7904     %%
7905     But now, in comp.lang.perl.misc, you have a bunch of people who aren't
7906     even asking how to make the pieces fit together, but what the
7907     individual pieces are. ("How do I get my lego project to roll accross
7908     the table?" "You use one of those pieces that have the wheels
7909     attached.") Or questions that aren't about building at all. ("The
7910     motor stopped moving. How do I get it to start again?" "The batteries
7911     are probably dead. You can buy new batteries at any department or
7912     convienience store.")
7913     %%
7914     : how do i make my perl script run?
7915     Get up at 91 minutes before dawn, clothe yourself in neon green body
7916     %%
7917     for some reason Windoze users don't seem to expect docs to come with an archive
7918     %%> ToiLeTGoD
7919    
7920     Well, well.. I always wondered who/what made that flush thingy work.
7921     Pretty cool name, dude. (not)
7922     %%
7923     Ummm...create "comp.lang.perl.wizards", make it moderated and all posts,
7924     including xposts, go into /dev/null. Most FAQers won't have the Usenet
7925     background to understand that such groups are either a) a wasteland
7926     populated (briefly) by persons like themselves, or b) point to /dev/null.
7927     %%
7928     Lazy people never bother to actually read the manual. Instead they (like
7929     kids) pick something with big, colorful buttons.
7930     -- Eugene Tyurin <gene@insti.physics.sunysb.edu>
7931     %%
7932     The Average Person's Axioms of First Order Predicate Logic:
7933     (A => B) => (B => A)
7934     (There exists) x A(x) => (For all) x A(x)
7935     (A => C) & (B => C) => (A => B) - Warren Vonroeschlaub
7936     %%
7937     cal 9 1752
7938     %%
7939     Installing unix fixes the [VMS] bug.
7940     -Barry Shein
7941     %%
7942     And this horrible free-for-all will be left to children wondering around
7943     by themselves in the dark because they refuse to turn on the light and
7944     read the manual.
7945     %%
7946     "SPARC" is "CRAPS" backwards --Rob Pike
7947     %%
7948     I increasingly begin to understand why some universities require
7949     that its compsci majors study the Euclid's Prime Number Theorem,
7950     the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, Cantor's Diagonalization Proof,
7951     Goedel's Incompleteness Theorem, and the ramifications of Halting Problem
7952     in everyday life. These may not be involved in daily programming, but
7953     it helps develop a rigorous mind. And it gives those who would progress
7954     from typist to word-processor devotee to HTML documenter to CGI scripter
7955     to distributed multithreaded operating systems design specialist cause
7956     for pause. You just can't do that without proper training.
7957     %%
7958     comp.lang.perl.i'm-from-microsoft-so-won't-read-documentation
7959     %%
7960     I suggest you install a newsserver, and keep a local spool. Anything else
7961     is too much work, and fairly silly. The Internet has catupulted even
7962     the Wintel victims past the days of BBS toys.
7963     %%
7964     > Help help! Pls advise me thru email.
7965    
7966     I advise you to buy a new keyboard; one that has all the keys you
7967     need.
7968     %%
7969     Christian Fundamentalism: The doctrine that there is an absolutely
7970     powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe spanning entity that is
7971     deeply and personally concerned about my sex life.
7972     %%
7973     I find the first particularly useful in destroying the miswrapped
7974     lines stemming from brain-damaged "it's just another word processor"
7975     newsreaders. You know,
7976     those postings that always seem to go to the edge of the line and then
7977     back
7978     again to the start, as this paragraph has. These are just too painful
7979     to read. Just kill them. It's not worth your time trying to figure
7980     out what they're saying.
7981     %%
7982     It is most annoying to receive junk mail describing how to purchase 93
7983     million addresses, while knowing that yours is one of them.
7984     %%
7985     I'm surprised Tom, how could it miss the "X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.01 [en] (WinNT;
7986     U)" header line? Personally, I find the attempted use of Netscape as a
7987     newsreader even worse then the attempted use of WinNT as an OS. :-)
7988    
7989     But the combination.... *sutters*
7990     %%
7991     Hm... my new killfile isn't detecting you're posting from Windows.
7992     Darn it.
7993     %%
7994     At least he didn't post in all caps.
7995     %%
7996     http://language.perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/FAQs/cgi/idiots-guide.html
7997     %%
7998     I think the biggest problem with M.S.A. is that the scripts work for Matt, but
7999     the majority of people trying to use them are from the
8000     "Wintel/AOL/FrontPage/push-a-button/HTML-is-programming/no-programming-required"
8001     school of non-learning. It isn't a problem with the code, per se, but with those
8002     trying to use it.
8003     %%
8004     "Linux can emulate an C64 on my AMDK6PR200 at full speed. Windows can't."
8005     %%
8006     cdog wrote:
8007     >
8008     > Is this group active?
8009     No.
8010    
8011     If you had spent half a second LOOKING at the group before posting, you
8012     probably could have come to that conclusion yourself.
8013    
8014     On a personal note, I died 3 years, 8 days, 5 minutes, 16 seconds, and
8015     345 milliseconds ago, but who's counting.
8016     %%
8017     "Security through obscurity is no security at all."
8018     -comp.lang.perl.misc newsgroup posting
8019     %%
8020     "Windows 95 will now attempt to blow chunks across your primary partition.
8021     Press any key to continue..."
8022     %%
8023     NT 5.0 is the last nail in the Unix coffin. Interestingly, Unix
8024     isn't in the coffin... It's wondering what the heck is sealing
8025     itself into a wooden box 6 feet underground...
8026     %%
8027     The Wall St Journal (1996-01-22, page 1) reported that Cuba is
8028     considering jumping across the International Date Line, just so that
8029     it's the first into the year 2000. So it's possible you'll have to
8030     adjust your travel plans.
8031     %%
8032     "Wo kämen wir hin, wenn alle sagten, wo kämen wir hin, und niemand ginge
8033     hin, um einmal zu schauen, wohin man käme, wenn man ginge." -- Kurt Marti
8034     %%
8035     The Takeuchi function is a popular benchmark of function calling due to its
8036     highly recursive nature. It's defined as:
8037    
8038     tak x y z = z, if y >= x
8039     = tak (tak (x-1) y z) (tak (y - 1) z x) (tak (z - 1) x y), otherwise
8040    
8041     For this benchmark, the function is invoked as:
8042    
8043     tak 18 12 6
8044     %%
8045     "Nobody will ever need more than 640k RAM!"
8046     -- Bill Gates
8047     "Windows 95 needs at least 8 MB RAM."
8048     -- Bill Gates
8049     "Nobody will ever need Windows 95."
8050     -- logical conclusion
8051     %%
8052     Year Name James Bond Book
8053     - ---- -------------------------------- -------------- ----
8054     50's James Bond TV Series Barry Nelson
8055     1962 Dr. No Sean Connery 1958
8056     1963 From Russia With Love Sean Connery 1957
8057     1964 Goldfinger Sean Connery 1959
8058     1965 Thunderball Sean Connery 1961
8059     1967* Casino Royale David Niven 1954
8060     1967 You Only Live Twice Sean Connery 1964
8061     1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service George Lazenby 1963
8062     1971 Diamonds Are Forever Sean Connery 1956
8063     1973 Live And Let Die Roger Moore 1955
8064     1974 The Man With The Golden Gun Roger Moore 1965
8065     1977 The Spy Who Loved Me Roger Moore 1962 (novelette)
8066     1979 Moonraker Roger Moore 1955
8067     1981 For Your Eyes Only Roger Moore 1960 (novelette)
8068     1983 Octopussy Roger Moore 1965
8069     1983* Never Say Never Again Sean Connery
8070     1985 A View To A Kill Roger Moore 1960 (novelette)
8071     1987 The Living Daylights Timothy Dalton 1965 (novelette)
8072     * -- Not a Broccoli production.
8073     %%
8074     Windows NT: n.
8075     32-bit extensions and a graphical shell for a 16-bit patch to an 8-bit
8076     operating system originally coded for a 4-bit microprocessor, written
8077     by a 2-bit company that can't stand for 1 bit of competition.
8078     %%
8079     Auf der Kiste läuft EHNIX, das ist ZUNIX kompatibel.