yoink

[gfish]

I'm not usually much for memes, but this looks like fun.

1. Pick something on my interests list that you also like. Why do you like it?
2. Pick something on my interests list that you don't like. Why don't you like it?
3. Pick something that is on my interests list that surprises you. Why does this surprise you?
4. Pick something that is on my interests list that you know next to nothing about. What do you *think* it is?
5. Pick something that you think should be on my interests list. Why do you think it should be there?

Comments

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

1) Opposable thumbs. So much of what I value in the human experience is possible only because of them. Even small things, like reading a book, are much harder without thumbs.

2) Filk. Because I have never heard any filk that I found musically interesting, and that did not give me the uncomfortable impression that the creator was hiding from their own life by writing songs about Data, or Pern, or whatever. (NB, I have a long history of hiding from my own life in fiction, so part of this is just my own emotional reflection in the funhouse mirror.)

3) Herman Hesse. I wouldn't normally put him in the same list with Vernor Vinge and Larry Niven. Of course, I have not read widely in the work of any of those writers, so that may be simple ignorance.

4) Only ONE thing? Pity, there are a number of things that I'm pretty sure I don't understand, but to pick one: Grep. According to Dictionary.com, it's a Unix command for searching for patterns. If so, what does that mean, exactly, and what does it mean to you?

5) You should be interested in ancient technology. Check out Peter James's and Nick Thorpe's fun book: Ancient Inventions if you haven't already. Also, check out this website: http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/ Marjorie Senechal does a class at Smith every other year on this stuff, and these are recreations built by students as class projects. It's a really cool class, and I enjoyed it a lot.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

4. Yes, grep is a unix tool for finding instances of patterns in files. It is both simple and amazingly powerful, a combination I find very sexy. By itself, I think it makes an excellent case for the continuing utility of command line interfaces. It summarizes everything I like about the unix paradigm. Plus it's just a fun little word.

5. Ooooo, that looks like a wonderful class. I wish I could take it. I don't think I have a broad enough range to legitimately claim 'ancient technologies' as a whole, but I'll think hard about adding it if I get into a couple more. And I've already been thinking it would be interesting to try making a bow... and with the smithing I could do a crossbow. Hrm. Maybe I should just add it now. :)

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

What is a command line interface? You mean like those old DOS interfaces? And what, exactly, is the UNIX paradigm?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Like those, but not sucky. :)

(The following contains simplifications. And I certainly don't claim unix is perfect, etc. The pedants out there can hold their tongues.)

Everything in unix is a file (or a stream of text). This makes combining tools and scripting actions amazingly simple. It has a graphical interface (several, in fact!) but the command line is still the real interface. It is also designed to be multi-user, and has a sane separation of applications and OS functions, making it more secure and stable.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

So, once one learns the language, programming becomes a matter of grammar and editing? I can dig that.