libertus

Elegant, perfect and eternal.

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It’s the same philosophy, honest! It just takes account of evolution.

The Unix Philosophy, circa 1970, the one we all know and love:

$everything is a file_

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There are people in the world who have never even seen a computer.
There are people in the world who have seen computers but have no idea how to use them.
These people are all over the world, of all ages, all cultures and all creeds.
They know no boundaries but one.
They are barred from here.
The internet.
Technology.

Imagine being barred from something so powerful, so wonderful, so easy because of something as simple as a keyboard, mouse and monitor. And it’s your fault for being stupid.

How would that make you feel?

Thus begins a revolution.

Libertus winks at Bellman and Cornz.

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I’m open to argument.

Could sending more children to state-sponsored faith schools tip the balance one way or the other?

Watch Google squirm.

The Gospel, according to John, Brignell:

One of the first rules of systems engineering is that, if you want to investigate reasons for variations of output, you look first at variations in the prime input forcing function.

So right, in so many ways, about so many things.

One of the first rules of engineering is that there isn’t a first rule, only many rules, any of which may be the first, all the time.

Anyway, it’s only weather.

HAH! If that were true, people wouldn’t get so het up about it.

List of people widely considered eccentric

Excuse me? Why am I not on it? C’mon guys… what’s the world coming to? What do I need to do to be widely considered eccentric?

I’ll hold my breath until I’m on that list or die trying!

Cornz, and now all his mates, are on the lookout for eskimo sex. We won’t pay for it. We’re not like that. We’re from Yorkshire.

Just plain, free eskimo sex. The real deal. Not some fake shite.

Did I mention we won’t pay?

Like the typical ones from supermarkets. Maybe works for other bag-like structures, I dunno.

1. Empty the bag
2. Flatten it
3. Fold it up lengthwise into a single strip
4. Twist it up tight into a string
5. Bring the two ends together
6. Twist it up tight again
7. Bring the two ends together
8. Twist it up tight again
9. Thread the loose end through the loop
10. Tighten gently

Voila! A stable, knotted plastic bag, albeit at a fair amount of time and effort! The reward is that unfolding is easy - it practically springs apart itself when untied.

I encourage you to try it, as the structure formed is oddly familiar, and the saving in storage space considerable.

A picture tells a thousand words. (more…)

Who’s This For?

Me, those involved in the conjuring discussion and both the common and lesser-spotted varieties of web standards geek.

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The fact is, you can always come up with made-up problems, and try to solve them. That’s what “Throwing out the baby with the bath-water” _means_ for christ sake! Using a solution that has _known_ problems (GPLv3) for a problem that you made up and don’t even know it’s real.

In engineering, it’s called over-desiging, and it’s stupid. In law, it’s called “billable hours”, and it’s encouraged.

From this post on the Linux kernel mailing list.