First appeared in High Technology Careers, Vol 15(2w), p.26
It seems Ken Thompson, one of the people who wrote Unix, was asked what he thought of the date-rollover problem in Unix (In the year 2038, the Unix date value wraps around to 0). His reply was that he didn't care as he was going to be dead by then. A speaker at the UniForum NZ 97 conference at Rotorua quoted this anecdote. When I mentioned this to a friend, he said that this speaks a great deal for Unix since the questioner implicitly assumed that Unix was still going to be around in 2038. Well is it? Is it worthwhile learning Unix skills and still be employable in the decades to come?
Continue reading "Is Learning Unix Worth the Time?" »
This chapter is still in its very early draft stage, consisting of just loose thoughts and collected material put together in one place for later refining. But I hope there is enough here to make for some interesting food for thought. I will come back to edit this after I finish some more chapters - & (anand)
Way to go!
In Tokyo, Katsuo Katugoru, a commuter, caused havoc in a crowded tube train when his inflatable underpants suddenly and unexpectedly went off. The rubber underwear was made by Katsuo himself. He designed it like a car airbag to inflate to 30 times their original size in the event of a tidal wave.
``I am terrified of water, and death by drowning is my greatest fear'' said Katsuo, 48. ``Unfortunately I set them off accidentally while looking for a boiled sweet. They were crushing everybody in the carriage until another passenger stabbed them with a pencil.''
Some of us go to great lengths to ensure that we don't die in particular ways that we deem especially unpleasant. Like Katsuo in the commuter train incident, we may take pains to ensure that we don't, for example, die by drowning. Some others, like LeFrevier below, will spare no effort in making sure that we do die in particular ways of our choosing.
In France, Jacques LeFevrier left nothing to chance when he decided to commit suicide. He stood at the edge of a tall cliff and tied a noose around his neck. He tied the other end of the rope to a large rock. He drank some poison and set fire to his clothes. He even tried to shoot himself at the last moment. Just as he jumped, he fired the pistol. Unfortunately, The bullet missed him completely and cut through the rope above him. Free of the threat of hanging, he plunged into the sea. The sudden dunking in the water extinguished the flames and the shock made him vomit the poison. A kind fisherman dragged him out of the water and took him to a hospital where, however, he died of hypothermia.
Continue reading "Heaven and Hell (previously "The Hell Syndrome")" »