Date: Mon, 27 Nov 2000 01:54:56 -0500 From: Jim Conner <jconner@enterit.com> To: Cliff Sarginson <cliff@raggedclown.net> Cc: Jeremiah Gowdy <jgowdy@home.com>, Chris Wasser <cwasser@v-wave.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: The real Unix problem Message-ID: <5.0.0.25.0.20001127013212.0221f6a0@mail.enterit.com> In-Reply-To: <20001127003556.C3462@buffy.local> References: <003701c057ea$28854400$aa240018@cx443070b> <200011260323.AA149619028@wdc.callgtn.com> <200011260323.AA149619028@wdc.callgtn.com> <5.0.0.25.0.20001126044504.01e58bb8@mail.enterit.com> <003701c057ea$28854400$aa240018@cx443070b>
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At 12:35 AM 11/27/2000 +0100, Cliff Sarginson wrote: >On Sun, Nov 26, 2000 at 12:47:57PM -0800, Jeremiah Gowdy wrote: > > of help. I don't believe in screaming RTFM to calm (although repeated) > > questions, from newbies. You sit and think THAT QUESTION HAS BEEN ASKED > > 1,000,000 TIMES. >I believe that point people at manuals and sources of more lengthy >explanations is a good thing to do. >Saying RTFM is offensive, trite and arrogant. >People who feel compelled to say it should stay out of news groups >whee Newbies are likely to ask questions, or not say anything at all. This is exactly what I was *trying* to say but didn't quite say it correctly :) Heh, newbies will most likely ask what the heck RTFM means!! :) > > But from the other point of view, that person has only > > asked the question once, and is honestly trying to become a new member of > > the FreeBSD community. >Exactly ! > >Cliff We should never lose sight of the fact that we will NEVER learn everything about the computer. We should try to remain humble about what we do know and we should always endeavor to learn more about computers. I mean EVERYTHING about the computer; past, present, and future. I really honestly feel that a previous point about M$ making everything so "simple" for the end user has truly blemished our society when it comes to the end user and the computer. I was one of those who's first computer was a Commodore Vic 20! My first PC was a Dos 3.3 machine. It was a tandy 8086 just after the trash 80. I will never forget the time I had trying to learn DOS. I didn't ask anyone...I just tinkered and it took me a good few days before I actually got the computer to do something recognizable to a beginner. I had the DOS books there but didn't quite understand them. Of course I was only in 8th grade in Jr high at the time. But time went on. I learned DOS and Windows 3.0, then 3.1, on up to Windows 95 (which I hesitated to do). Then I was exposed to this telnet thing :). Telnet was a Unix thing, I learned. I bought my first Unix book "Unix for Dummies". Now, here I am and my only regret is that I didn't start with Unix as a young child. People these days are spoiled...and it really chaps my hide when I realize that the usual computer end user refuses to learn why a computer does what it does. They take on this attitude of "I just want it to work" and "I don't care how it works, I just want to use it". What this tells me is that people don't care what happens as long as they are capable of remaining in their own little bubble and it doesn't matter at who's expense. It isn't the people who try that bother me. It is the people that don't put forth any effort whatsoever in learning even their own bubble. They rely on others to fix their own problems. Perhaps this is one of the most frustrating things to me. I didn't mean to make this big to do on this subject as it does not even pertain to the mailing lists subject matter anymore...so without further delay I close this and say...its my $(echo "\$ $(echo "1 - .98" | bc)") cents worth. - Jim - NOTJames - jconner@enterit.com - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - | Today's errors, in contrast: | - | Windows - "Invalid page fault in module kernel32.dll at 0032:A16F2935" | - | UNIX - "segmentation fault - core dumped" | - | Humans - "OOPS, I've fallen and I can't get up" | - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - (To view this properly use a non-proportional font in your MUA) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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