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Subject: [humorix] Kernel Hackers: Detectives For A Day
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Kernel Hackers: Detectives For A Day
December 4, 1999

Disaster struck Augusta, Maine yesterday when a
mission-critical Linux server crashed and died
unexpectedly.  The tragic incident prompted Linus
Torvalds,  Alan Cox, and other kernel hackers to
immediately fly to Augusta on charter flights to
investigate the cause of the computercide.  "I've never
heard of a Linux box biting the dust like this," Torvalds
said.  "I had to find out what caused this freak mishap."

The tragic incident occured in the Computer Science Lab of
Maine University yesterday morning.  The Linux server, used
by students in CS235 ("Non-Microsoft Operating Systems")
and CS315 ("Advanced ed & vi", a five-hour course), crashed
unexpectedly, and then refused to boot.  Word quickly
spread throughout campus of the tragedy, and a crowd of
onlookers and gawkers quickly assembled near the lab.  The
CS faculty moved the dead machine to another room,
replacing it with a rectangular chalk outline, and they
surrounded the disaster area with police tape.

The kernel hackers arrived that afternoon.  A goon from the
Department of Public Safety, trying unsuccessfully to break
up the crowd of gawkers by yelling, "Move along! There's
nothing to see here!", obstructed the new arrivals.  "Who
are you?  Where's your ID card?  If you're a guest, you
need to register," he demanded of Linus Torvalds.  However,
one of the students recognized the hackers and shouted,
"Look!  That's Linus Torvalds and Alan Cox!"

Several dozen CS majors surrounded the kernal hackers and
demanded autographs from their idols.  Even a few CS
professors joined in.  "Wow, this is what I call tech
support!  If you have a major problem with Linux, the head
gurus themselves will show up personally to provide
assistance. Mr. Jesse "Linux-Is-Unsupported" Berst can bite
me," Professor Gruhenwald said.

Eventually the commotion died down and Torvalds & Co. were
able to sit down in front of the dead machine and perform
an autopsy. They opened the case up and were shocked to
discover that the Intel CPU had melted.  "I've always joked
about how you can fry eggs on a Pentium, but this is
ridiculous," Stephen Tweedie said.

The rest of the machine appeared to be intact.  Cox
unplugged the hard drive and installed it in another nearby
machine, hoping that the drive's logfiles might provide
some clue as to what happened. The final entries in
/var/log/messages provided no help.  The Kernel Krew
grepped the entire drive for clues but came up empty
handed.

The group discussed the situation and Alan Cox threw out
possible theories. "Maybe it was the Slashdot Effect.  Or a
Denial Of Service Attack. Or cosmic rays.  Or a Big
Uncontrolled Singularity.  At any rate, we've got ourselves
a bona fide mystery.  Torvalds responded, "Dammit, Cox, I'm
a kernal hacker, not a detective!"  

And then, an epiphany hit Linus.  He'd solved the mystery. 
Just like Sherlock Holmes could take a few trivial clues
and deduce that the butler did it with a knife in the
Conservatory, he had pieced together the mystery.  Torvalds
suddenly announced, "This was not a random kernel bug or a
hardware fault.  Somebody committed murder."

"I remember seeing a file called crash.c in a student's
home directory," he said to the other stunned hackers and
professors.  Sure enough, the file, found in
/home/student153, was the culprit.  It contained a C
function called guess_what_this_does():

void guess_what_this_does()
{
   char *p = malloc( 1024 * 1024 );
   fill_it_with_crap( p );
   dump_crap_out_to_disk( p );
   guess_what_this_does();
}

"Hmmm... a recursive function that eats up memory, CPU
time, and disk space. Probably every teenage hacker writes
one of these just to see what will happen," Cox said. 
"But, why would something like this crash the machine?
We're not dealing with Windows here, Linux should be able
to handle this. When the system runs out of memory, malloc
returns a null pointer and the program segfaults.  No harm
done.  So what happened?"

Tweedie chimed in, "This recursive program ate all of the
CPU time, causing the Pentium to overheat.  The darn thing
got too hot and melted. We've solved the mystery. 
student153 committed the computercide."


---

James S. Baughn
http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
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Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Sun Dec  5 03:22:52 1999
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From:   Satya <satyap@bom2.vsnl.net.in>
To:     humorix@nl.linux.org
Subject: [humorix] Fwd: Re: Fw: Old jokes retold (fwd) (fwd)
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>One day, Eris calls Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates to her and tells them
>that they're the two most important people in the world and so she's
>telling them the world will end tomorrow.
>
>They shrug with a distracted air (Torvalds was working on this really
>weird swap space problem, and Bill was wondering what to buy next) and
>return to their homes.
>
>A while later, Bill calls all his top executives together and tells them,
>"I have some good news and some great news. The good news is that Eris
>thinks I'm one of the most important people in the world, and the great
>news is that we won't have to worry about Y2K!"
>
>Around the same time, this email shows up on comp.os.linux.misc:
>"I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I got
>that swap problem fixed, and the bad news is that we have to get kernel
>2.4 out by December!"
>

-- 
Satya. http://satyaonline.cjb.net/
Beta test of Mumbai bus guide at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/ !
FREE! Email reminder service at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/rem.html
<<<       Hi! I'm a tagline virus! Steal me & join in the fun!       >>>


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Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Sun Dec  5 16:24:14 1999
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Good One!

==================
At 11:29 PM 12/4/1999 +0530, you wrote:
>
>>One day, Eris calls Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates to her and tells them
>>that they're the two most important people in the world and so she's
>>telling them the world will end tomorrow.
>>
>>They shrug with a distracted air (Torvalds was working on this really
>>weird swap space problem, and Bill was wondering what to buy next) and
>>return to their homes.
>>
>>A while later, Bill calls all his top executives together and tells them,
>>"I have some good news and some great news. The good news is that Eris
>>thinks I'm one of the most important people in the world, and the great
>>news is that we won't have to worry about Y2K!"
>>
>>Around the same time, this email shows up on comp.os.linux.misc:
>>"I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I got
>>that swap problem fixed, and the bad news is that we have to get kernel
>>2.4 out by December!"
>>
>
>-- 
>Satya. http://satyaonline.cjb.net/
>Beta test of Mumbai bus guide at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/ !
>FREE! Email reminder service at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/rem.html
><<<       Hi! I'm a tagline virus! Steal me & join in the fun!       >>>
>
>
>-
>Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
>Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
>Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
>

-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Mon Dec  6 10:27:47 1999
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Date:   Mon, 6 Dec 1999 01:26:13 -0800 (PST)
From:   Gavin Lawrence <gavlawrence@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [humorix] Fwd: Re: Fw: Old jokes retold (fwd) (fwd)
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monkey

--- Charles Montford <cmontford@mindspring.com> wrote:
> 
> Good One!
> 
> ==================
> At 11:29 PM 12/4/1999 +0530, you wrote:
> >
> >>One day, Eris calls Linus Torvalds and Bill Gates
> to her and tells them
> >>that they're the two most important people in the
> world and so she's
> >>telling them the world will end tomorrow.
> >>
> >>They shrug with a distracted air (Torvalds was
> working on this really
> >>weird swap space problem, and Bill was wondering
> what to buy next) and
> >>return to their homes.
> >>
> >>A while later, Bill calls all his top executives
> together and tells them,
> >>"I have some good news and some great news. The
> good news is that Eris
> >>thinks I'm one of the most important people in the
> world, and the great
> >>news is that we won't have to worry about Y2K!"
> >>
> >>Around the same time, this email shows up on
> comp.os.linux.misc:
> >>"I have some good news and some bad news. The good
> news is that I got
> >>that swap problem fixed, and the bad news is that
> we have to get kernel
> >>2.4 out by December!"
> >>
> >
> >-- 
> >Satya. http://satyaonline.cjb.net/
> >Beta test of Mumbai bus guide at
> http://satyaonline.cjb.net/ !
> >FREE! Email reminder service at
> http://satyaonline.cjb.net/rem.html
> ><<<       Hi! I'm a tagline virus! Steal me & join
> in the fun!       >>>
> >
> >
> >-
> >Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a
> lighter note
> >Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
> >Web site:    
> http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
> >
> 
> -
> Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a
> lighter note
> Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
> Web site:    
> http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
> 
> 
> 

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Thousands of Stores.  Millions of Products.  All in one place.
Yahoo! Shopping: http://shopping.yahoo.com
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Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Thu Dec  9 15:20:48 1999
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From:   Satya <satyap@bom2.vsnl.net.in>
To:     humorix@nl.linux.org
Subject: Re: [humorix] Fwd: Re: Fw: Old jokes retold (fwd) (fwd)
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On Dec 6, 1999 at 01:26, Gavin Lawrence wrote:

> monkey
> 
> --- Charles Montford <cmontford@mindspring.com> wrote:
> > Good One!

Okay, you got me. What monkey??

-- 
Satya. http://satyaonline.cjb.net/
Beta test of Mumbai bus guide at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/ !
FREE! Email reminder service at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/rem.html
<<<       Hi! I'm a tagline virus! Steal me & join in the fun!       >>>


-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Thu Dec  9 15:22:39 1999
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I don't agree with the prices, but I found this funny:

>
>2GB hard drive.... $70
>P2 processor..... $100
>AGP card......... $200
>32MB RAM.......... $80
>RedHat 6.2......... $2
>
> Look on cubicle neighbor's face when his $2000 Windows PC crashes for
the >nth time today, while mine hasn't rebooted for the last month....
>Priceless. >

-- 
Satya. http://satyaonline.cjb.net/
Beta test of Mumbai bus guide at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/ !
FREE! Email reminder service at http://satyaonline.cjb.net/rem.html
<<<       Hi! I'm a tagline virus! Steal me & join in the fun!       >>>



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Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Fri Dec 10 04:05:14 1999
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Date:   Thu, 09 Dec 1999 21:02:39 -0600
From:   James Baughn <jbaughn@ldd.net>
Organization: http://i-want-a-website.com
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Microsoft Acquires Red Hat
Bernhard Rosenkraenzer, bero@redhat.de
December 9, 1999

REDMOND, WA -- Microsoft stock surged 86% earlier today on
rumors that the company had acquired Red Hat, Corel, and
SuSE.  Ziff-Davis was the first to publish the rumors in
the story, "Pigs Are Flying: Microsoft Acquires Linux
Companies". MSNBC quickly followed suit with their article,
"Bill Gates Will Feast On Cooked Penguin Tonight".

However, both news agencies were forced to retract their
sensational stories after it was discovered (thanks in part
to Humorix's Vast Spy Network(tm)) that the rumors were
greatly exaggerated.  Bill Gates did indeed purchase Red
Hat... or rather, a nice bright red fedora at a fashion
store in Redmond. And, he did purchase two gifts for his
daughter: a piece of coral from the Pacific, and a Dr.
Seuss book.

In a retraction posted reluctantly by Ziff-Davis, the
reporter states, "One of my well-placed sources inside
Microsoft called me and said that Bill Gates had just
acquired a red hat, some coral, and a Seuss book.  The
connection wasn't very clear, so I thought he said that
Bill Gates had acquired Red Hat, Corel, and SuSE..."

At the height of the maelstrom Taco Boy demonstrated his
journalistic integrity by posting an article titled "HOLY
SHIT! ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!" on Slashdot,
generating upwards of 850 comments within an hour.  The
responses ranged from "First post! I rule!" (Score 2,
Funny) to "I told you Red Hat was like Microsoft" (Score 5,
Insightful) to "Did anybody actually read the press release
that Microsoft just issued?  Bill Gates purchased a red
hat, not the company!" (Score -1, Flamebait)

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Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Fri Dec 17 21:23:13 1999
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Humorixia Nation Founded
Jon Splatz
December 17, 1999

The red tape has been cut, the T's have been crossed and
the I's dotted. It's official.  Humorixia -- the island
paradise in the Pacific built for geeks by geeks -- is now
an officially recognized independent nation-state by the
United Nations.  The day for revolution against the
oppressive regime of lawyercrats and ultra-Capitalists is
at hand.

For the revolution to succeed, however, we need your help.
We need people to man the waste-to-energy power plants, to
staff our Vast Spy Network(nontm), to grow food in our
hydroponics farms, to mine precious metals from the sides
of volcanic Mt. Coredump, to administer the nation's
computer systems and cryptographic data havens.  Most of
all, we need people to defend the ideals of Humorixia and
fight for the rights of the common man against the
bourgeois class of greedy middlemen, of evil lawyers.

Citizenship is free (think free speech AND free beer...
especially free beer) to those who qualify.  If you love
freedom, and individual rights, and the spirit of voluntary
sharing, then apply for Citizenship.  Agree to the liberal
terms of the General Social License[1] and become an
official Citizen of the World's first true meritocracy with
the underlying philosophy, "No Lawyers, No Microsoft, No
Bullshit".  If, however, you hold a Law Degree, or have
ambitions to enter the so-called legal "profession", then
you need not apply.

You can apply for Citizenship from the comfort of your own
browser within minutes.  Simply post a comment to the
Humorixia Grand Message Board[2] stating your intention to
join this nation, along with a brief essay on why lawyers
are evil (or, if you prefer, a juicy lawyer joke), and you
shall become a Citizen, with all of the Rights, Privileges,
and Responsibilities enumerated in the General Social
License.

Humorixia is based on a set of beliefs and principles
designed to eliminate the injustices that occur in
traditional lawyer-centric societies. Tossing all modesty
out the window, I am calling these ideas the "Splatzian
Doctrine" and codifying them in my soon-to-be-published
book,  "Unleashing Your Inner Pundit".  (This book,
licensed under my new OpenPundit License, will be provided
to all new Humorixia Citizens.)

The Splatzian Doctrine is based on these five tenets:

1. The laws and regulations of a government should be 'Open
   Source'.
2. Intellectual property laws should be as minimal as
   possible.
3. Society, politics, and the legal system should be
   structured so as to eliminate any need for lawyers.
4. Democracy is obsolete; government should be operated as
   a meritocracy.
5. Individual rights should not be abridged without a damn
   good reason.

Guided by these five principles, Humorixia shall triumph
against the hordes of lawyers that have oppressed the rest
of society for centuries long.  The days of frivolous
lawsuits, pork-barrel government spending, totalitarian
governments, and stifling intellectual property laws are
over. The Revolution is at hand.  Will you join it?


[1] http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/nov99.shtml#Humorixia
[2] http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=humorixia

-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Mon Dec 20 23:07:08 1999
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Date:   Mon, 20 Dec 1999 16:01:21 -0600
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Jargon Coiner 2.0
December 20, 1999

Jargon Coiner is an irregular Humorix feature that aims to
give you advance warning of new jargon that we've just made
up.  If any of this jargon is actually adopted in the Real
World, rest assured that we will waste no time in bragging
about it.  Of course, if it isn't adopted, then we will
quietly delete this article from the archives and nobody
will be the wiser.

sjs@sjswebhack.com sent in these Microsoft-inspired
phrases:

* Patch-22: An endless cycle of releasing patches to fix
  bugs, that cause more bugs, that require more patches.

* The Hair of the Dogfood that Bit Me: When you force your
  employees to use the same shabby products you sell to
  others.

* You Windows Some, You Lose Some: Grouping disparate
  products under a common title, like "Windows Powered," in
  the hope that customers won't know which base technology
  to blame for poor performance.

* BIMBY (Buried in My Backyard): A truely stupid piece of
  software, like Bob, that you never want anyone to see
  again.

* Act Like a Little Billby: When you order the dumping a
  popular product, like Visual J++, because you don't want
  to answer to someone else's contractual rules. 

* Stuck in Net-tral: Waiting for an Internet company to do
  something innovative, so you can buy it.

* Just Off the Bloat: The release of another gigabyte-sized
  product, like Office.

* A Pain in the Net: The supreme effort involved in keeping
  a Web site running with a system like Windows NT.

* Op'd a Feel: The process of grabbing the best features
  from another operating system and trying to cram them
  into yours.

* Buggy Wuggy: A form of dance wherein you skip around
  saying the word "bug," instead you always say "issue."

* That's Where I Draw the Linux: Refusing to cooperate with
  the open source movement because you might lose your
  overpriced tech support income.

And the rest came from various members of our Vast Spy
Network(tm):

* HOBTOB (Hanging Out By The O'Reilly Books): Seeking free
  Linux technical support at a bookstore by waiting near
  the computer books for a geek to come by and then
  casually asking them for help.

  Example: Eric The Linux Zealot walked over to the
  Operating Systems shelf and was accosted by a hobtobber
  who said slyly, "Hey, I see you're looking at a Linux
  book... Do you happen to know anything about Linux?  You
  see, I've been having this problem setting up PPP..."

* MOOLA (Marketing Officially Organizes Linux Adoptance): A
  press release issued by a Dot Com (or Dot Con?) heralding
  their "support" for Linux (i.e. "BigPortal.com adopts
  Linux as their official operating system by adding five
  Linux-related links to their BigDirectory"); used to
  inflate their stock price and rake in moola even though
  none of their employees have ever used Linux and don't
  really care.

* Segfault Effect: The recent wave of "Naked and
  Petrified", "Grits", and "MEEPT" junk comments posted to
  Slashdot by insecure teenagers who came from Segfault
  after the low-budget humor site disabled comment posting.

* Karma Kollector: Slashdot user who treats the acquisition
  of "karma" as a game; often has a detailed strategy on
  how to sucker moderators into raising the score of their
  posts (i.e. posting a comment with a title like
  "Microsoft Sucks!!! (Score 3, Insightful)" or using "Only
  a fool would moderate this down" as a signature). Also
  known as "Karma Whore" in some circles.

* IPO (I've Patented the Obvious): Acquiring patents on
  trivial things and then hitting other companies over the
  head with them.  

  Example: "Amazon just IPO'd one-click spam and is now
  threatening to sue B&N."

* IPO (I'm Pissed Off): Exclamation given by a Linux user
  who was unable to participate in a highly lucrative Linux
  IPO due to lack of capital or E*Trade problems.  Also
  uttered by Linux hackers who did not receive The Letter
  from Red Hat or VA Linux even though their friends did.

* YAKBA (Yet Another Killer Backhoe Attack): The acronym
  that describes network outtages caused by a careless
  backhoe operator.

  Examples: "Don't blame us, our website was offline after
  we suffered a YAKBA".
  "Don't worry about Y2K, what we need to think about is
  YAKBA-compliance."

* Ninety-Niners: In 1849, a horde of people
  ("Forty-niners") headed to California to pan gold and get
  rich quick.  In 1999, a horde of people ("Ninety-niners")
  headed to California to invest in Linux companies and get
  rich quick.  Some things never change.

* Zoo: The ubiquitous shelf of O'Reilly Animal Books that
  many nerds keep next to their computer

* They're Multiplying Like Portals: The proliferation of
  Linux portals that have the latest headlines from
  Slashdot and LinuxToday but offer little original
  content.  

* You Can't Spell EVIL Without vi: A curse uttered by
  freshman Computer Science students struggling with vi's
  insert mode for the first time.

---

James S. Baughn
http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
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Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Thu Dec 23 05:23:03 1999
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The Truth About Microsoft Linux
Bernhard Rosenkraenzer, bero@redhat.de
December 22, 1999

Microsoft accidentally revealed some details about the
upcoming top-secret release of Microsoft Linux [Microsoft
is a registered trademark of Microsoft. Linux will be a
registered trademark of Microsoft as soon as the government
accepts the bribes] in an article published on their
website:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q247/8/04.ASP?LNG=EN&SA=ALLKB

It explains how to remove Linux and install an inferior OS.
The article, however, apparently due to incompetence of its
writer, reveals some secrets about Microsoft Linux:

> The partition types used by the Linux and Windows
> operating systems are incompatible

Microsoft has added a very valuable patch to the kernel -
it has removed support for some inferior technologies
(msdos, umsdos, fat, vfat and ntfs filesystems) that
bloated the kernel for quite a while. Thank you, Microsoft.
It's about time someone dared to do this.

> The Linux operating system is generally installed on
> partition type 83 (Linux native) or 82 (Linux swap)

Microsoft Linux introduces another innovative(tm)
technology - the possibility to install the whole system on
a swap partition. The Vast Spy Network informs us that this
is for FUD purposes ("Linux becomes unstable if you use it
with less than 64 GB RAM - it will overwrite arbitrary data
on your harddisk").

> "Superblock" in Linux terminology means that the Linux
> partition should be the active partition

Microsoft Linux introduces a new filesystem that doesn't
need superblocks anymore (and it's not fat or ntfs - they
removed those... Maybe cpmfs?) - but apparently the new
filesystem can't be booted from.

> Remove native, swap and boot partitions used by Linux

Cool - another feature from Microsoft Linux - partition
type boot (type b0). What's it for? 
dd if=vmlinux of=/dev/hda1?

> Insert either a bootable floppy disk or a bootable CD-ROM
> for the Linux operating system on your computer, and then
> press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart your computer. [...] To
> remove LILO, type fdisk /mbr at the command prompt, and
> then press ENTER.

Well, I just got "Unable to open /mbr" when trying this on
Red Hat Linux - seems Microsoft indeed ported Microsoft
fdisk to Linux! Is it GPL? Where can I download it? And why
would I want to? Microsoft is rather good at throwing up
interesting questions lately.

> Also, Linux recognizes more than 40 different partition
> types

"More than 40" is a nice way to put "about 100 last time I
checked". I wonder if they'll advertise that Windows 2000
can make use of more than 10 kB RAM.

-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Thu Dec 23 05:27:12 1999
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The Latest Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: Bashing Linux
December 22, 1999

At this point everybody knows that the easiest way to
increase a company's stock price is to insert the magic
word 'Linux' in a press release.  However, many people
haven't caught on to the latest way to make money from
Linux: writing an editorial bashing it.  This strategy,
once tightly guarded by the likes of Jesse Berst and Fred
Moody, is now open to any pundit, and it can be quite
lucrative -- as USAToday.com columnist Will Rodger
discovered today.

The idea is simple:

1. Write a scathing article attacking some facet of Linux
   ("I had trouble installing it..." articles are the most
   popular).

2. Publish it on the Net.

3. Arrange for the article to be mentioned on LinuxToday or
   Slashdot.

4. Watch as thousands of angry Linux zealots storm your
   article and load the advertising banners.  Listen to the
   ca-chink sound of the advertising revenue that's pouring
   in.

5. As soon as the maelstrom quiets, publish another
   scathing article about the immaturity of the Linux
   "community", excerpting some of the nasty flames from
   Linux longhairs denouncing your intelligence and
   claiming that you're on the Microsoft payroll.

6. Arrange for the article to be mentioned on LinuxToday or
   Slashdot.

7. Watch as thousands of angry Linux zealots storm your
   article...

8. Wait for a few weeks, and repeat.  Cash your inflated
   paycheck, invest the proceeds in some Linux stocks, and
   retire early.  You've "earned" it!

Fred "I've Been Assimilated By Microsoft" Moody and Jesse
"Could You Get Fired For Choosing Linux?" Berst have
successfully used this strategy for years.  Indeed,
advertising revenue from Berst's "AnchorDesk" is probably
the only thing keeping Ziff-Davis afloat.  Today's
anti-Linux op-ed[1] on USAToday.com ("Linux: Windows
competitor... Not!") is currently enduring the LinuxToday
Effect[2] and the author is undoubtedly receiving at least
2.32 flames per minute.

To help you get started with this latest get-rick-quick
scheme, we here at Humorix have composed the perfect
anti-Linux diatribe guaranteed to increase your hit count
manyfold.  Just take this article, make a few
modifications, publish it, and sit back and relax (while
ignoring the 10,000 irate flame emails and bomb threats you
receive).


LINUX WORLD DOMINATION?  YEAH, BUT ONLY IF THE "WORLD" IS
THE SIZE OF A PENNY

By Mr. Jesse Berst Wannabe, Whiff-Davis AnchorSoapBox

Linus Torvalds, the ultra-geeky hippie get-back-to-earth
spirtualist who created his own operating system, is said
to be plotting world domination. Hell will freeze over
before the you-must-be-a-geek-to-use-it Linux operating
system becomes more than a Wall Street fad.  The only thing
Bill Gates needs to worry about is whether some
unaccountable federal court breaks up Microsoft and the
whole notion of free-market Capitalism with it.

Linux is based on Unix, a system born of the Drug Culture
'60s that has this quaint little thing called a "command
line".  I for one am glad that Bill Gates innovated the
concept of a graphical desktop with cascading menus,
colorful icons, and intuitive dialog boxes, because command
lines just plain suck.  Imagine trying to converse with
somebody who doesn't speak English using only
two-cans-and-a-string, and you'll understand what a command
line feels like.

Of course, it doesn't matter what interface Linux uses if
you can't install it.  And, if by some miracle of the
heavens, you are able to successfully install and boot it
before the next Ice Age, the system will probably not
recognize 50% of your hardware.  Meanwhile, you can
purchase a new PC at Wal-Mart, boot it up, and Plug-n-Play
Windows will automatically auto-detect your hardware and
you'll be all set (plus you'll never deal with a command
line).

I speak from experience.  Last week I obtained the book
"Linux For Dummies" in the bargain bin of the local
bookstore; the book comes fresh with the Slackware 1.0
distribution on CD-ROM.  It was a nightmare. My first
impressions were horrible; Slackware (what kind of a name
is that?) had the outright gall to force me to
"re-partition" my hard drive, and then, to make matters
worse, demanded that I save a backup of my Windows
partition because it might be accidentally deleted.  Which
is exactly what happened.

To make a long story short, I finally got Linux up and
running. Sort of.  The sound card doesn't work, the USR
WinModem isn't detected, and the behavior of the
[expletive] DELETE and BACKSPACE keys varies in every
program!  I haven't been able to use something called the
"X Window System" (whatever that is); I keep getting dire
warnings that improperly configuring my monitor settings
might cause it to blow up or something.  I've never had to
face that kind of risk with Windows, so I gave up on that.

As you can imagine, I haven't accomplished much.  It seems
I can't do much in Linux without running into my new enemy,
the vi "text editor". I can't begin to describe how
appalling this software (created by Satan, no doubt) truly
is.  Forcing criminals to use it on a regular basis would
be declared Cruel and Unusual Punishment by the courts. I
say: Give me WordPad or give me death!

The only Linux program I've been able to successfully use
is fortune, a virtual children's toy that spits out a
random epigram with each execution.  It usually spits out
obfuscated quotes or obscure in-jokes that only a long-time
nerd could possibly find interesting.  Indeed, the fortune
program seems to be Linux's way of telling me: "You don't
belong here.  You're not a nerd.  You don't eat, sleep, and
breathe computers.  You're not a snot-nosed 14 year old
punk with acne and no life.  This operating system is not
for you.  Go away."

Linux's technical problems account for only half of the
picture.  The Linux community, and its constituent members,
are another force to be reckoned with (or, more precisely,
to be avoided).  The system's developers, often
socially-inept teenagers, are more interested in
ego-reinforcement than in producing an innovative,
user-friendly, paradigm-shifting, enterprise-capable
operating system that can compete with Microsoft offerings
(which Linux is NOT by any means).

Ego-boosting for Linux "hackers" often revolves around Code
Envy ("my  program requires more command-line options than
yours does!"), adding bloat to programs without any real
planning ("my patch to fortune allows it to read email and
surf the Web!"), and producing jokes and parodies that only
other nerds could appreciate ("Get rick quick by bashing
Linux!").  How these anarchistic Gates-wannabes have been
able to produce an operating system that works at all is
something scientists will ponder for centuries to come.

To top it off, a new wave of carpetbaggers, Wall Street
moguls, and get-rich-quick schemers have joined the Linux
ranks now that the system has become (for now) financially
fashionable.  I, for one, do not want to use an operating
system controlled by money-grubbing, grave-robbing,
spin-doctor marketers who would sell their own mother for
stock options.  That's why I use Microsoft Windows and not
Linux.

Windows has been, and always will be, the foundation of
computing. Linux longhairs might be having fun now, but it
won't last long. Mark my words, next year all of today's
high-flying millionaire Linux zealots will be flipping
burgers at MickeyD's after the Great Linux Stock Bubble
implodes.

Linux will suffer the same fate as Beta VCRs, New Coke, and
the Edsel. It's doomed.  Long live Microsoft and the best
operating system ever devised, Windows!


[1] http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crg733.htm
[2] http://linuxtoday.com/story.php3?sn=14136

---

James S. Baughn
http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/
-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
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Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Wed Dec 29 00:58:12 1999
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What Did Santa Claus Bring You?
December 28, 1999

Right now is that bizarre intra-holiday week between
Christmas and New Year's Day when nobody wants to do
anything but eat, sleep, and play with their gifts.  We
here at Humorix were desperate for some comedy filler
material to round out the year, but at the same time we
didn't to do anything that would require extensive mental
effort.  So, we decided to interview several people and ask
them what they received from Santa Claus (or their local
equivalent).

LINUS TORVALDS: Santa didn't bring me anything, but Tim
O'Reilly just gave me a large sum of money to publish my
new book, "Linus Torvalds' Official Guide To Receiving
Fame, Fortune, and Hot Babes By Producing Your Own
Unix-Like Operating System In Only 10 Years". Of course,
once Transmeta has its IPO next year, I'll be so wealthy
that I won't need to care about Christmas presents ever
again.

BILL GATES: Will you people quit bothering me?  I'm Bill
Gates of Winchester, Tennessee!  Next Christmas I'm going
to get a restraining order against Humorix reporters.  I
should get a legal name change to, maybe something like Mr.
Humorix Sucks.

LINUX HACKER: I kept hinting to my friends and family that
I wanted to build my own Beowulf Cluster.  My grandmother
got mixed up and gave me a copy of "Beowulf's Chocolate
Cluster Cookbook". I like chocolate, but I would've
preferred silicon.

JON SPLATZ: No, Santa Fraud didn't bring me anything.  You
know, Santa Claus and the whole Christmas holiday represent
exactly what's wrong with this country.  It's yet another
manifestion of the evil that lawyers and marketers have
spread throughout American culture.

Think about it... We have millions of parents lying to their
children about Santa Claus.  They use the Santa myth to get
their children to behave, effectively bribing them with the
gifts. Such behavior scars children at an early age,
preparing them for a career in the legal field.  It's a
simple fact: the children of immoral parents will
subconsciously yearn to become immoral lawyers when they
grow up.  We are raising a generation of liars, lawyers,
and marketers all because of some stupid myth designed to
sell more overpriced made-in-China-with-slave-labor toys.

And don't get me started about the commercialization of the
holidays! This is supposed to be the "Season of giving". 
Giving to whom? Large multinational corporations, of
course.  Christmas, as practiced today, is all about
sharing your money with greedy Capitalistic fatcat
materialists in exchange for crappy merchandise nobody
really wants.  It's a wonderful life... but only if you're
a CEO.

Oh, and one other thing... [rest of Splatz diatribe snipped
for brevity]

ANONYMOUS COWARD: all i wanted for xmas was a T1 line so i
can post "FIRST POST ABOUT NAKED AND PETRIFIED GRITS
MEEPT!!!" comments on /. at ten times the rate i do now...
it didnt happen.

LINUX CONVERT: I kept hinting for a SGI box, but instead my
wife got me an old Packard Bell.  Unfortunately, she bought
it at CompUSSR, which doesn't take returns, so I'm stuck
with it. I haven't been able to get Linux to boot on it, so
this machine will probably become a $750 paperweight.

SLASHDOT RESIDENT LANGUAGE PEDANT: I just bought a clue
stick so I can hit Rob Malda over the head every time he
makes a dumb spelling or grammatical error on Slashdot. 
You'd think somebody as wealthy and popular as Taco Boy
would be able to use "its" and "it's" properly.  Oh, and
I'm going to knock senseless everybody that claims New
Year's Day is the start of "the new millenium".  One,
millennium is spelled with two N's, and second, the
millennium begins in 2001.  This wouldn't be a problem if
everybody counted from zero like computer scientists do.

LINUX ZEALOT: My parents bought me a nice dual-Celeron box,
which was exactly what I wanted, but they also agreed to
sign up with MSN for three years in exchange for a $400
credit.  It's like selling your soul to Satan in exchange
for a new penny.  Now I'm stuck using Windows anytime I
want to access the Internet... er, Microsoft Internet.

JESSE BERST: I got a coupon redeemable for the full copy of
Windows 2000 when it comes out in February.  Win2K is the
most innovative, enterprise-ready, stable,
feature-enriched, easy-to-use operating system on the
market.  I don't see how Linux can survive against
Microsoft's far superior offering.  I ask you: could you
get fired for NOT choosing Windows 2000?  You bet.

LINUX FREAK: Pigs are ice skating in hell right now... I
just got a beta version of Windows 2000, and IT'S NOT THAT
BAD!  I know, I know, wash my mouth out with lye soap for I
have just spoken the unspeakable.  Yes, I still prefer
Linux, and yes, only dot com millionaires will be able to
pay for all of the Windows licenses necessary to run any
kind of non-trivial network.  But still, Win2K is pretty
impressive, considering it's coming from Redmond.

LINUX LONGHAIR: My friends sent me a two-year subscription
to several Ziff-Davis publications, much to my dislike.  I
don't want to read Jesse Berst's rants against Linux, or
John Dvorak's spiels about how great Windows 2000 is. 
Still, I suppose this isn't so bad.  Ziff-Davis glossy
paper makes an excellent lining for fireplaces.

JOE SCHMOE: I suppose Santa Claus has something against me,
because I got a lump of coal for Christmas.  I'm not
complaining, though, because 500 tons of low-sulphur
Wyoming coal is quite valuable. Plus, if Y2K brings about
TEOTWAWKI, then I'll have plenty of fuel to start my own
power plant and begin the first tentative steps toward
global domination.

WEBMASTER OF LINUXSUPERMEGAPORTAL.COM: One of my in-laws
gifted me a CD-ROM containing the full text of every
"...For Dummies" book ever published.  It's a shame IDG
never published "Hiring A Hitman To Knock Off Your
Inlaws... For Dummies", because that's something I'm
itching to do.  At any rate, I'm using the CD as a beer
coaster.

-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Wed Dec 29 01:40:32 1999
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Date:   Wed, 29 Dec 1999 01:35:26 +0100 (CET)
From:   Bernhard Rosenkraenzer <bero@redhat.de>
To:     James Baughn <jbaughn@ldd.net>
Cc:     humorix@nl.linux.org
Subject: Re: [humorix] What Did Santa Claus Bring You?
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On Tue, 28 Dec 1999, James Baughn wrote:

> What Did Santa Claus Bring You?
> December 28, 1999

Well, here's the part the editors cut out:

BERO^H^H^H^HNOT-SO-ANONYMOUS COWARD: Throughout the year, I've been told
417 times, by 394 different people, to get a life - so I hoped someone
would give me a life for Christmas... But once again, it didn't
happen... Not even a response to my usual counterquestion ("where can I
download that? Will it run on Linux?"). 
I didn't even get that Humorixia Citizenship kit I wanted.
Well, guess that's enough ranting about Santa not bringing what I
expected. Time to mention my good plans for the next year.
I will stop working on Linux 24 hours a day.
I will stop working on Linux 24 hours a day.
I will stop wor...
Darn, the mailer just crashed, might be a problem in glibc...
[root@localhost /root]# vi /usr/src/CVS/glibc/sys/linux/i386.h
...


LLaP
bero

-- 
Nobody will ever need more than 640 kB RAM.
		-- Bill Gates, 1983
Windows 98 requires 16 MB RAM.
		-- Bill Gates, 1999
Nobody will ever need Windows 98.
		-- logical conclusion

-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

From owner-humorix@nl.linux.org Fri Dec 31 17:14:31 1999
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Date:   Fri, 31 Dec 1999 10:00:51 -0600
From:   James Baughn <jbaughn@ldd.net>
Organization: I Want a Website -- http://i-want-a-website.com
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Welcome to 19100!
James Baughn, Minister Of Truth, United Planets Of Humorixia
January 1, 19100

We here at Humorix would like to be the first to welcome
you into the 192nd Century.  Contrary to public opinion,
the universe did not end, the United Planets of Humorixia
didn't collapse, and Benevolent Dictator Linus Torvalds
CCIX didn't suffer a nano-breakdown. Remember, Linux kernel
152.2.12 and the Z Quad-Dimensional Windowing System
Z52R4.1 are both fully 4096-bit capable and can correctly
handle dates for the next googleplex.

Below we've compiled several first-of-the-century quickies
from around the Uni-Net.

* Where's My Asbestos Suit?

We received several flame nano-mails yesterday about our
statement that January 1st (or Raymondia 1st, for both
regular readers in the Libertarian III solar system) is the
first days of the 192nd Century.  Apparently everybody is
forgetting about Vice Benevolent Dictator Jon Splatz IV,
who in 2199 decreed that the 22nd Century would only
contain 99 years.  So there.

* Transmeta Officially Announces First Product

Transmeta (known for their slogan, "This Slogan Is Not Here
Yet(tm)"), long a running-gag on Humorix for their delays
in releasing their Crusoe processor, finally announced
Crusoe 1.0 yesterday at a press conference on the Transmeta
homeworld.  The device, however, is not a revolutionary
breakthrough, but instead a replica of the vintage Intel
Pentium IV chip (of which only two original ones are known
to exist).

Said Transmeta President Paul Allen CIX, "Antique computer
parts are a hot item right now.  The BeanieFurbyPokemon
Crazy of 19098 has been replaced with a feeding frenzy on
vintage electronics by collectors throughout the Humorixia
Meritocracy.  Transmeta hopes to meet this demand with a
authentic working replica of Intel's infamous Pentium IV
chip for only 0.95 megadollars.  Be the first on your
planet to own this piece of history!"

Transmeta stock rose 503% on the NeoNasdaq Stock Exchange
with record volume.

* My Galactic Kingdom For A Domain!

The Twentieth Borg War took a humorous twist last week when
Microsoft failed to pay its diennial registration fees with
Uni-Net Solutions for the top-level microsoft.galaxy
domain.  Several trillion Microserfs were without Uni-Net
access until Humorixia Citizen Eric B. Stallman donated 35
megadollars to pick up the tab.  

The domain mixup caused quite a bit of confusion in the
Microsoft High Command, allowing the UPH to easily capture
strategic planets in New Gatesia III, Redmond II, and
Windows IIC.  The new offensive gains open up the
possibility for a classic pincher-attack, much like was
used in the historic victory of Humorixia against Microsoft
Nation back on Earth in the Zeroth Borg War (1999-2000).

* Historians Locate Priceless slashdot.org.classic Archive

The Chief Archiver for the Humorixia Museum in New
Splatzangrad stumbled onto a priceless relic: an old hard
drive from the 20th Century containing a browser cache
filled with old websites like the original Slashdot and
LinuxToday.  "I found the drive at a yard sale on Bero I,"
the Archiver told Humorix.  "The owner, a senile
500-year-old man, didn't realize what he had."

The contents of the hard drive (a Seagate 6.4 gigabyte
model) have been uploaded to the Museum's netsite.  In
addition to the historic browser cache, the drive also
contains a copy of the Linux 2.2.0 kernel (the only known
copy in the Universe).  Historians are hailing this find as
the best one since 18523, when Bob Werner XXXI found a
vintage Red Hat Linux 5.2 CD-ROM while digging through an
abandoned landfill on Old Earth.

* Another Boring Day Of Politics

Nothing much took place on the Grand Message Board this
week except for a debate about the Bigbrother III solar
system. The totalitarian governemnt of Bigbrother recently
imposed new restrictions on encryption software and Uni-Net
browsers, in addition to strengthening their already
draconian censorship laws.  Obviously, such blatant
violations of human rights cannot be tolerated by the
Humorixia Meritocracy, but nobody knows what to do about
it.

One person said on the Grand Message Board, "Maybe we
should distribute a nano-virus that causes Bigbrother
government computers to get bloated, slow to a crawl, and
become unstable." An Anonymous Coward replied, "What? 
Microsoft has already tried that. Besides, distributing
viruses conflicts with the Humorixia General Social License
10.2."

More discussion (and hopefully voting) will take place next
week after everybody's hangover from New Year's Day wears
off.

* Pundit Finally Acknowledges Linux

Fred Berst, a descendant of 20th Century pundits Jesse
Berst and Fred Moody, finally admitted that Microsoft
Windows is not the best operating system in the Universe. 
Meanwhile, reports indicate that genetically engineered
pigs are flying over singing fat ladies in a snow-covered
Hell (third planet of Satan IV system).

In his weekly column on Ziff-Davis MegaPortal, Fred Berst
said, "Okay, I admit it.  Linux doesn't suck as much as I,
and all of my descendants, have let on.  An operating
system that has formed the backbone of a Meritocracy
spanning 75% of the explored universe can't be that bad."

Jesse Berst, known throughout history as the "Can you get
fired for choosing Linux?" idiot, and Fred Moody, a
clueless Microsoft groupie, are both rolling in their
graves.

* New Linux Development Kernel Version 152.3.512 Announced

Linus Torvalds CCIX sent word out to the linux-kernel list
that a new development kernel was ready for hacking. 
"Forget your New Year's Day parties and start hacking on
the latest, greatest Linux version since 152.3.511. 
Remember, this kernel is still a part of the venerable It
Works For Me(tm) tree and should only be touched by
hard-core Linux longhairs."

New features in 152.3.512 include enhanced drivers for the
VA Linux Time Travel Machine 2.0 and a 4.2% increase in
fuel efficiency for Linux-based hyperspace engines.  The
full source is 194 terabytes and should be available at the
usual tachyonFTP sites by the time you read this.

---

James S. Baughn
http://i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

-
Humorix:      Linux and Open Source(nontm) on a lighter note
Archive:      http://humbolt.nl.linux.org/lists/
Web site:     http://www.i-want-a-website.com/about-linux/

