David L. Farquhar on technology old and new, computer security, and more
The next time ZDNet runs a story about Linux and you start feeling the urge to click on the link and read it, I’ve got a piece of advice for you.
Lie down until it goes away.
If you have a clue about Linux, the story will just make you mad. If you’re trying to learn about Linux, ZDNet will fill you up with enough misinformation to confuse you for weeks.
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One of my professors at the University of Missouri, whom I fully expected to outlive me, as well as all of my classmates, died in 2002. His name was Walter Johnson. He was the most unforgettable professor of my career.
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I keep seeing “someday someone will write a DOS edit clone for Linux”-type longings in Linux publications. These are pointless, because someone already did, years ago.
And no, its name isn’t vi or emacs. It’s a true blue (it really is blue) DOS-like editor that uses a lot of the same keystrokes as the Microsoft QuickBasic-derived editor we all learned to tolerate, if not love, in the early ’90s. Hey, it wasn’t very powerful or fast, I know, but it was easy to learn and a whole lot better than edlin.
This one’s called SETedit, it’s from Argentina, and it’s just as easy to use but a whole lot more powerful. It’s also been ported to Win32, if you want to run it in more than just Linux.
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Probably everyone who’s ever been to Sunday School is familiar with the story of Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, Isaac.
Matchbook-cover version: To test Abraham’s faith, God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his long-promised son, born to him and his wife Sarah when they were aged 100 and 90, respectively. He was their only son. Abraham loaded them up, and as he prepared to slay his son on the altar, an angel came to him and stopped him.
Did you know there’s another case of human sacrifice to God in the Old Testament, and the Bible is a whole lot less forthcoming on whether the burnt offering actually happened?
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Journalists never mess up.
OK, sometimes they mess up. Let’s talk about one obvious mess-up and something that just looks like a mess-up.
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You’re a well-spoken, well-respected guy. I know that. And I’m sure it’s not just guys who think that. But every once in a while, when we get around members of the gentler sex, we get ready to say something, open our mouths, and make people wonder just how long ago it was that our brain melted.
What, you mean that’s never happened to you? I’m the only one that happens to? Rats… Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me I’m the only one with the third eye.
Well, gather round, come share my experience with me anyway.
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Steve and I have been working for a couple of hours, and the old Greymatter site is no more (well, it still exists but it’s offline), replaced by this. The old static files are still out there for posterity’s sake. Well, for your bookmarks’ sake, anyway.
While I was moving archives around and changing templates, Steve was fixing karma. I think we’re 100% functional again. I’ll be back later with new stuff. Meanwhile, enjoy the new site.
I had to put a Linux server out all alone in the big, bad world today. Before I turned it loose, I did a few things to give it a fighting chance out there.
The biggest thing I did was make the machine volunteer as little information as possible. Here’s how.
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I just came up with the most sensational lead-in of my entire adult life. But I can’t use it yet because it has someone else’s name in it and I really ought to clear it with him first.
There’s no shortage of other things to talk about. I’d really love to use that line because it’s so politically incorrect… But I need something to make you come back tomorrow anyway. Meanwhile I’ll talk about something else. Politically incorrect, of course.
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Mozilla 1.0 went gold Wednesday, and it’s a keeper.
After years of suffering through Netscape 4.x, Netscape loyalists finally have a browser that’s worth upgrading to. Mozilla 1.0 offers speed that’s comparable to the latest versions of Internet Explorer (when it’s not downright faster), along with better standards compliance, fewer security holes (did you catch the security hole in IE’s gopher implementation Wednesday?) and compelling features that IE lacks.
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