Fools for Linux

[3fRI]

I wish my fellow fools for Linux a happy April Fool's Day!

Perhaps we can share foolhardy Linux experiences?

[viking777]

It isn't a bad idea, I will join in, although the 'experience' I am about to share has nothing to do with Linux at all, it is about computing in general (in fact I think it was a Win98 box where this happened, but that is irrelevant). This is not an April Fools joke btw this is absolutely, 100% true.

First some background.

I was 40 years old before I ever saw a computer, and my first experience of them was not so much a love/hate relationship, it was a hate/hate one - I hated them and they hated me. The place I was working at the time introduced computers for specific tasks, which they deemed would be more 'productive' than the old paper method of doing the same tasks. Translated of course it meant they could get rid of the people that used to process the paperwork. We certainly did not have a computer each, in fact there were two machines to be shared between about 40 people, this meant that whenever you had to use them there was a queue of people waiting to do the same. Now some of the younger employees had a certain amount of knowledge of computers, but I had none, when I was at school we were taught to use an abacus (in history classes) and a slide rule (in maths classes), nothing else, it wasn't a deprived school by any means, but that is all it had, in fact that is all there was at the time. Anyway the rule was that whenever I was in the works computer room, there would be an even longer wait than usual as I didn't have the slightest idea what I was doing. This was compounded by the fact that I only had to walk into the room for both of the computers to crash, I didn't even have to touch them

So now the 'experience'.

I was in the computer room trying to do what I had to do and as usual I was failing to do it. I was muttering under my breath and cursing the day that computers were ever invented when one of the younger employees that actually new a little bit about them looked over my shoulder and offered to help (I guess he was tired of waiting).

"What is the problem?" he said, or words to that effect. My answer was something like, "I am trying to click on this button here, but it doesn't work properly".

"Show me" he says.

I clicked the button again and nothing meaningful happened.

"See what I mean" says I.

"But you right clicked on it he says, you need to left click".

I looked at him with a very pained expression and said,

"I don't know what difference that is going to make?"

"Well just try it" says he.

I moved the mouse from my right hand to my left hand, clicked the same button, got the same result, turned around and with a triumphant look upon my face said,

"See, I told you it wouldn't make any difference".

I can't remember exactly what happened next, I think he said he would come back later, or maybe he just fell on the floor laughing, who knows.

But for me, I felt totally vidicated, and carried on my hate/hate relationship with my companies computers for quite a long while, until I got one of my own in fact. After that it didn't take me that long to learn the difference between 'right click' and 'left click', but if you come from a background such as I did, that difference is nowhere near as obvious as you would imagine.

I try and remember that incident when I am answering questions on the forum, but I must say it is difficult to do so.

[ASmith]

Some NBC exec's rabid for attention played the Zimmerman 911 tapes backwards on their Linux system and thought it said 'Paul is Dead'. Look for that doctored report to come out later today.

Related:

The Zimmerman phonogram: NBC (allegedly) edits phone call to portray Trayvon Martin’s killer as racist? http://rt.com/usa/news/trayvon-zimmerman-call-racist-902/

[3fRI]

Viking 777,

Great story! (BTW, I still have my slide rule, which I once used for math and chemistry classes, but I've pretty much forgotten how to use it.)

Here's a little background: Although I had some theoretical and less hands-on computer training in 1967 when I served in the USAF, I didn't actually use another computer until around 1986, when I worked for the US affiliate of a German firm. The techies and warehouse used custom in-house software, which may have been based on COBOL, but I can't remember. By the late 1980s, I was with an ad/PR firm, where we used DOS on IBM ATs and XTs. Back then, WordPerfect was much, much better than MS Word! Since then, it's been either Apple/Macs or Windows boxes no matter where I worked and what I did.

My most foolhardy Linux experience occurred very recently while I was distro hopping and was triple-booting Linux distros alongside Mac OS X on my MacBook, which I use as my "Linux lab." Since I don't find testing a distro from a live CD very convincing, I tend to install a distro next to others to get a better feel for it, if I like it enough to really try it. And since I had good luck re-partitioning the hard drive, I think I was perhaps not only too overconfident and certainly reckless, because this I time I also didn't back up anything. Well, this time I managed not only to wipe out the Mac OS partition, but I also installed a distro that used a different grub/boot configuration. When I rebooted, nothing happened except a question mark appear on the screen This was one of those times when I wish I knew a lot more CLI than a bit of apt-get. I tried unsuccessfully to re-install the Mac OS and realized that I had two options: 1.) go to my son-in-law would have fixed the problem and razzed me for the rest of my days or, 2.) turn my MacBook into a LinuxBook, which I did and have not looked back. As it was I rarely used the Mac partition as it was. I perform most of my freelance work on the iMac, which I dual boot with LM 12, and thanks to AbiWord and Libre Office Writer, I only need the iMac and MS Word when I need to do some heavy-duty editing with some else's files.

In sum, what began as a foolhardy experience for being careless in the beginning, turned into a blessing of sorts because I realized that--for the most part--I no longer really need Windows or OS X. My next challenge is to convince my wife to begin using Linux regularly, which she's not adverse to doing, she says.

[nomko]

bla bla bla

Reminds me of my first computer i bought 20 years ago when i was 17.... I knew 1 or 2 things of computers, i learned some on those Philips P2000 systems (for the youngsters amongst us: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philips_P2000). I bought my first computer with the money i earned and saved. Went to the shop with my dad and bought a computer i could pay.
Specifications:
486SX50
1 mb ram
120 mb HDD
512 kb videocard
no sound card (just beeps)
no cd drive
a mouse that big compared to the latest models you couldn't speak of a mouse but more of a big fat rat!
14 inch CRT monitor

For the youngsters and those who don't know the dfference between SX and DX: A SX was in fact a DX without the FPU installed, basically a crippled DX.

It costed me all my saved money but i was proud! I had my own computer!

Back home i unpacked everything, connected the monitor to the videocard, plugged in the powercable, switched on the monitor, switched on the computer. I saw some lines and data appearing on the screen (later, much later i found out it was the output lines of the BIOS) and full of expectation i waited! Blanck screen, some text appearing saying there was no operating system installed..... and i kept waiting for things to happen but after 10 minutes it still said there was no operating system installed. Switched off the computer and switched it back on, same thing after this reboot: no operating system installed.... What the hell was an operating system??? Next at school i asked a friend what an operating system was.... I never felt myself that stupid when they laughed at me!

Add to the specifications this line:
No operating system installed.
This line solves the whole mystery!

[Miekuxi]

Nomko, these sound like exceptionally "ancient" informations today.
I would call a computer with 256MB of RAM barely usable by today's standard.

[nomko]

Nomko, these sound like exceptionally "ancient" informations today.
I would call a computer with 256MB of RAM barely usable by today's standard.

Well....20 years ago, 1 mb ram was a lot and standard! And buying 1 mb ram.... take a guess how much that cost.

[antikythera]

my first computer, an Amstrad CPC6128 with a 16 colour display. That taught me how to program in a rudamentary way with BASIC. Programs were either saved to plugged in external cassette tape (half the fun was making sure the damn thing was at the right volume for programs to load) or 3" floppy disc via the built in drive next to the keyboard. There was a 464 version as well.

as for people going near computers for them to crash, my father has that effect. he only has to walk into a room and whatever computer is in there will lock up. he also has a knack of killing off people's dogs. everytime he has asked someone recently how their dog is, the beloved dog has died. so he either needs to stop asking or make friends with people who have immortal dogs.

[nomko]

.....he also has a knack of killing off people's dogs.....

Could you send him over to Holland to visit my neighbourhood......?????

[antikythera]

Could you send him over to Holland to visit my neighbourhood......?????

I'll see what I can do