Coredump

I’m here in a new workplace. The work is okay, so far (going on one and a half months now). Got several machines to tinker with. Oh, I do get to fuddle with Linux (Red Hat and Suse Enterprise, with Centos, Fedora Core, and Debian thrown in the mix), but not as full-time as before.

So, in one of my Windows boxes, I got me:

• Bash for Windows;
• Wget for Windows; and
• of course, Vim for Windows

I.T. policies are not that strict when it comes to what we can install in our machines, but there are obligatory software, on top of the only supported OS (Windows 2000 Professional and XP Professional) — Outlook, for one. I have yet to find a way to get Thunderbird to authenticate via the company’s Active Directory.

I’ve installed several open source software. Scintilla text editor works great (they prefer UltraEdit), but I miss the command line so Vim was it. I’ll be doing lots of IM so I got me Gaim for Windows — what better way to integrate all those protocols (I have accounts in AIM, Yahoo!, GTalk and MSN). Too bad, there’s no integration for Skype yet. Of course, there’s the ever trustworthy Firefox. FileZilla is in the mix, too, and so is Ethereal.

Now, I’m a bit more comfy in my cube. Back to my reading…

Just have to write these, just have to…

Errors often encountered by tech support: “PEBKAC” (”problem exists between keyboard and chair”) and “ID 10 T” (”idiot”).

“There are two major products that come from Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don’t believe this to be a coincidence.” - Jeremy S. Anderson

ls -r / | xarg rm -f

Repair your computer using, er, brute force.

John Lennon’s Yesterday — variation for programmers.

Yesterday,
All those backups seemed a waste of pay.
Now my database has gone away.
Oh I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
There’s not half the files there used to be,
And there’s a milestone hanging over me
The system crashed so suddenly.

I pushed something wrong
What it was I could not say.
Now all my data’s gone
and I long for yesterday-ay-ay-ay.

Yesterday,
The need for back-ups seemed so far away.
I knew my data was all here to stay,
Now I believe in yesterday.

Addicted to vi

You press the keys with no effect,
Your mode is not correct.
The screen blurs, your fingers shake;
You forgot to press escape.
Can’t insert, can’t delete,
Cursor keys won’t repeat.
You try to quit, but can’t leave,
An extra “bang” is all you need.

You think it’s neat to type an “a” or an “i”–
Oh yeah?
You won’t look at emacs, no you’d just rather die
You know you’re gonna have to face it;
You’re addicted to vi!

You edit files one at a time;
That doesn’t seem too out of line?
You don’t think of keys to bind–
A meta key would blow your mind.
H, J, K, L? You’re not annoyed?
Expressions must be a Joy!
Just press “f”, or is it “t”?
Maybe “n”, or just “g”?

Oh–You think it’s neat to type an “a” or an “i”–
Oh yeah?
You won’t look at emacs, no you’d just rather die
You know you’re gonna have to face it;
You’re addicted to vi!

Might as well face it,
You’re addicted to vi!

You press the keys without effect,
Your life is now a wreck.
What a waste! Such a shame!
And all you have is vi to blame.

Oh–You think it’s neat to type an “a” or an “i”–
Oh yeah?
You won’t look at emacs, no you’d just rather die
You know you’re gonna have to face it;
You’re addicted to vi!

Might as well face it,
You’re addicted to vi!

Bye, bye, Unix! (to the tune of American Pie)

Long, long, time ago, I can still remember
How UNIX used to make me smile…
And I knew that with a login name
That I could play those UNIX games
And maybe hack some programs for a while.
But February made me shiver
With every program I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep,
I couldn’t take one more spec…
I can’t remember getting smashed
When I heard about the system crash
And all the passwords got rehashed
The Day That UNIX Died…
And I was singing:

Chorus: Bye, bye, nroff, rogue and vi
Gave my program to Phil Levy but Phil Levy was high,
The boys on the board were sayin’ “fuck this, goodbye.”
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die…
This’ll be the day that I die

Did you write the new games shell
And do you have faith in the manual?
If b:dennie tells you so…
Well, do you believe in UNIX C
Can hacking save you memory
And can you tell me why vi’s so slow
Well, I know that you’re in love with C
‘Cause I saw your code on UNIX B
You just kicked off your shoes
Man, you cleaned up every kludge!
I was a lonely young computer geek
With a program due ‘most every week
But I guess that I was meant to freak
The Day That UNIX Died And I was singin:

(chorus)

Well, for ten weeks we’ve been in this class
The professor really is an ass.
But that’s not how it used to be…
When Ira Pohl taught in CIS 12
And user limits could go to hell
And there was still space on UNIX C.
And while the board was looking ’round
The Chancellor brought the budget down
The classes were adjourned
Evaluations weren’t returned
And while Huffman read a book by Pohl
The CIS board made some prof’s heads roll

And we wrote programs that weren’t whole
The Day That UNIX Died
And we were singin’…

(chorus)

Helter skelter in the summer swelter
I went in the lab to find some shelter
Ninety degrees and risin’ faaaaaasst!!!
C stayed up for ten whole days
The hackers really were amazed
Wonderin’ how long it all would last.
Well, both the forums were really great
Nobody got us all irate
We had a stroke of luck
The system was not fucked
‘Cause the hackers kept their code real clean
The UNDR-shell was really keen
Do you recall what was the scene
The Day That UNIX Died
And we were singin…

(chorus)

Our programs were all in one place,
UNIX had run out of space
With no time left to start again…
So, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick,
Use every programming trick
‘Cause UNIX may soon crash again…
And as I watched the system fill
My login process would be killed.
The system just went down
Consternation up at Crown!!!!
The hours went on into the night
And all that we could do was rite
I saw Dennie laughing with delight
The Day That UNIX Died
And he was singin’…

(chorus)

I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some stat lab news
But she just cursed and said “grow up”
I went down through the stat lab door
Where I’d learned of UNIX years before
But the man there said that UNIX wasn’t up
And in the halls the students screamed,
The majors cried and the hackers dreamed,
But not a word was spoken
The Vaxes all were broken
And the three folks I admire most
The Father, Frank, and a.g.’s ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The Day That UNIX Died
And they were singin…

So bye, bye, nroff, rogue and vi
Gave my program to Phil Levy but Phil Levy was high.
The boys on the board were sayin’ “fuck this, goodbye”
Singin’ this’ll be the day that I die…

There are no more links. You must now turn off your computer and go do something productive.