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David L. Farquhar, author and computer professional
Hey, this series of pages is ancient history, provided just so your bookmarks won't break. The current site is here.
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03/21/2002 Archived Entry: "Pretentious Pontifications, Part II"
David's off on a gig. So I get to post again.
I flew my private Tu-144 out to Hearst Castle last weekend, where I rented a room and set up sound equipment. It was a grand day. Because Hearst Castle is on the ocean, the waves beat against the castle.
I sat down to pontificate, and I found that the sentient sound of the waves didn't sound nearly as inveigling as the sound of my voice.
I asked the audio engineer if he could filter out the sound of the waves. He said he could.
So I picked up where I left off, pontificating about whatever came to mind.
It was fabulous. I spoke with panache. I was laconic. It was completely unlike le Raunche a la Stenche's recent bumptious platitudes, and way out of the league of most of the drivel I read on the Web.
David actually found the Tu-144 for me. After the highly-publicized Concorde crash nearly two years ago, David read a story claiming that the Concorde was the only operational supersonic airliner. In a flash of memory that almost impressed me, he said, "The Soviets had an SST. What was it called, the Tu-144? Whatever happened to that?" So he did a Web search. Then he found out the Tu-144 last flew as a jetliner in 1978. He could have found that out a lot faster if he had just asked me, but he didn't.
But one of the pages he found listed a pair of Tu-144s for sale. His ignorance paid off, in the form of the private jet I've been looking for.
As for le Raunche a la Stenche's assertions about my aviation, astute readers will note that the Tu-144 page I linked to was from the Wayback Machine. The real page is no longer available, and for good reason. I bought the plane. It would truly be an anathema if they sold my plane, after I paid a perfectly good $10 million for it. Raunche is just mad that he couldn't schmooze his way into getting them to give the plane to him for "evaluation and review." That didn't work for this. This is quality hardware.
Too bad it wasn't built by Intel.
Replies: 6 comments
Maybe Mr. Farquhar IV should buy Gaterman a railroad or two while he's at it.
I actually have no idea which people are playing what roles here, although I'm beginning to wonder what Dave has in that glass.
Come to think of it, maybe I need some myself. After deciding that Mozilla with the modern theme was pretty cool but that I wanted tabs like Galeon, I downloaded the latest and all was good... until I had to spend an hour or two figuring out why I couldn't add items to the personal toolbar.
Having achieved success, and being a glutton for punishment, I decided to try Star Office 5.2. Having messed around with Red Hat for weeks I decided a week or two back to try SuSE 7.3 and installed everything, including the Star Office. So now I try to use it and it wants to install itself...system hang. Try two more times, same result, can't ssh from my other pc to kill the process or anything.
All of which leads back to the subject of Linux vs. Windows re reliability. To some degree Windows gets a bit of a bum rap here in that Windows 2000 (probably XP as well) is MUCH better than Win 9x, and is really a completely different OS. On the other hand, I had to reboot an NT server running IIS at work a couple of days back and it seems to need rebooting on a regular basis.
There's no doubt that a properly tuned and set up server running *nix is likely to have more uptime than a Windows any version server, but I suspect that a lot of that reliability comes from a) no gui running on a lot of *nix servers, and b) the greater ability of knowledgeable admins to tune a *nix server to have just the components that you want running, including in the kernel. I suspect that the fundamental architechture of the OS is superior as well, but can't comment knowledgeably on that.
However, Linux is certainly crashable repeatedly, when running a gui and installing lots of sometimes ill-behaved software as often happens on Windows machines, as my experience shows. Of course I'm also starting a second xserver to Ctrl-Alt-F8 to and use for my login so that when my son wants to log on I don't have to log off. And I usually also have a vnc server running, so that's 3 virtual graphical desktops, something that Windows can't do, and which no doubt may contribute some instability.
All of this also says nothing about the hardware issues that were discussed a few days back and also are a factor.
Anyway I just thought I'd throw that out for discussion if anyone is interested, while the jet set is discussing trips to the West Coast.
Posted by Steve Mahaffey @ 03/21/2002 06:30 AM CST
"Raunche a la Stenche"? Is that like pie a la mode? It is "de la Stenche", simpleton.
It's time to reveal R. Collins' dirty little secret. He travels without an entourage. Yes, it *is* shocking. That plane is empty when he travels. He pontificates to the empty seats, apparently to practice for when he drives himself up to L'estate de la Stenche in his pink Cadillac. At least he has air conditioning. And, as you'd expect, his pontifications fall short of the mark.
The truly cultured must fly in a jumbo jet, as I do. You see, enlightenment attracts a following. Being a philanthropist, I feel obligated to allow the rabble rides in the plane. At a reduced price, of course. You don't think I enlighten for free, do you?
Posted by Jacques Pierre Cousteau Vermouth Bouillabaisse le Raunche de la Stenche @ 03/21/2002 12:07 PM CST
Yeah Dave, how about railroad for the old Gaterboy here? Heck we could pick up a private rail car or two for the price of that plane.
I've been running windows 2000 for a year and a half now, and it regularly needs rebooting. My Debian server running ICEVM and lots of GUI goodies has run for 4 months without a single reboot. Now my server doesn't get pounded, so it gets it easy there.
MS OS' might be more stable if MS would give you option to not install the gui and other junk. It might help it a lot, but MS doesn't like that, you wouldn't be able to play solitaire then...
Posted by Tom G. @ 03/21/2002 05:52 PM CST
I dont get it??
Tim
Posted by Tim @ 03/21/2002 06:58 PM CST
Who would want to travel with an entourage, when one is so clearly ahead of his time that his brilliance gets voted down, and the only person who even approaches worthiness of his company is a French nobleman who cannot get over my grand Scottish heritage?
Posted by R Collins Farquhar IV @ 03/21/2002 10:50 PM CST
An entourage is a measure of social stature. Only someone without an entourage would think otherwise.
As to your heritage: houses made of mud and thatch and a strange synergy with sheep and other livestock. Or wine, cheese, art, and a distinguished accent. I believe most people will know which is true culture.
Posted by Jacques Pierre Cousteau Vermouth Bouillabaisse le Raunche de la Stenche @ 03/22/2002 01:09 PM CST
