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