Cycling and *nix operating systems

[maxo]

For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.

(you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)

Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?

hmph.

 

[Dane Jackson]

maxo <[email protected]> wrote:
> For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
> bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>
> (you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)
>
> Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
> technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?

I imagine Usenet in general has a higher *N*X user population than most
other venues of discussion. That might account for some of the effect.
And I think that anyone who rides a bike habitually is likely to be more
comfortable being outside the cultural norm.

Of course, some of us take that farther than others...

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
"He who laughs last probably made a back-up"
-Murphy's Laws of Computing #7

 

[maxo]

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 10:05:02 -0700, Dane Jackson wrote:

> I imagine Usenet in general has a higher *N*X user population than most
> other venues of discussion. That might account for some of the effect.

Definitely, that's part of it, as my local Nashville group seems to be
about 5-10% *nix users, and it's not like you often hear the phrase, "so
I opened a bash shell, ya'll..." at the local bbq joint. LOL

I'm thinking, that at least here in Nashville, a good number of serious
cyclists are connected to universities and academia where they might pick
up such computing habits.

 

[Dane Jackson]

maxo <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 10:05:02 -0700, Dane Jackson wrote:
>
>> I imagine Usenet in general has a higher *N*X user population than most
>> other venues of discussion. That might account for some of the effect.
>
> Definitely, that's part of it, as my local Nashville group seems to be
> about 5-10% *nix users, and it's not like you often hear the phrase, "so
> I opened a bash shell, ya'll..." at the local bbq joint. LOL
>
> I'm thinking, that at least here in Nashville, a good number of serious
> cyclists are connected to universities and academia where they might pick
> up such computing habits.

Either that, or cycling is a *gateway* to using *N*X systems. First it's
just a little Perl script to log your cycling miles, next you start
fiddling with rtin to post to the newsgroup instead of Outlook. Next
thing you know you're using rsync to backup your log files to a computer
on the other side of the continent over SSH. But it's not like you *have*
to use it, you can stop any time you want. Soon you're compiling Gentoo
on some Pentium 100 that had been used as a doorstop. But, it's cold
out, and it's putting out plenty of nice heat which you're using to dry
out your cycling gloves and shoes...

--
Dane Jackson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
"Contrary to popular belief, penguins are not the salvation of modern
technology. Neither do they throw parties for the urban proletariat."

 

[John Everett]

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:31:56 GMT, maxo <[email protected]> wrote:

>For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
>bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>
>(you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)
>
>Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
>technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?

Funny thing, as I sit here typing this response on my Windows XP
system, sitting on the shelf right above my monitor is my copy of The
Bell System Technical Journal, July-August 1978 edition. ;-)


jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

 

[Peter Cole]

maxo wrote:
> For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
> bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>
> (you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)
>
> Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
> technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?
>
> hmph.

Hey, this is a dead-of-winter thread topic. We're riding now, so things
should reflect that...

But to answer the question, I wrote my first program 40 years ago, and
have used a broad variety of languages, environments and OS's as a
working software engineer. I though Unix was hopelessly geeky 20 years
ago, I used to joke with my wife about it (she taught a Unix course).
Now, it's completely absurd. I can't be bothered with any of that brain
garbage. I don't even bother with a news reader anymore, never mind a
Linux one. This is posted from the Google beta. It sucks, but brain
garbage sucks worse.

 

[maxo]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 07:30:09 -0700, Peter Cole wrote:

> It sucks, but brain garbage sucks worse.

Brain garbage is why I use an "alternative" OS. I'm no geek at all, just
want computing with zero fuss. Linux installed on my box with zero config
needed and just worked, including the newsreader Pan.

Nothing wrong with XP, I just don't have time for it to d/l all the
"updates" it always seems to need on dial up.

Honestly, it was Clippy that made me do it: http://tinyurl.com/c6exw

 

[David L. Johnson]

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:31:56 +0000, maxo wrote:

> For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
> bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>
> (you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)
>
> Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
> technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?

Nerds use usenet.

--

David L. Johnson

__o | Do not worry about your difficulties in mathematics, I can
_`\(,_ | assure you that mine are all greater. -- A. Einstein
(_)/ (_) |

 

[The Wogster]

John Everett wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:31:56 GMT, maxo <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
>>For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
>>bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>>
>>(you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)
>>
>>Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
>>technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?
>
>
> Funny thing, as I sit here typing this response on my Windows XP
> system, sitting on the shelf right above my monitor is my copy of The
> Bell System Technical Journal, July-August 1978 edition. ;-)
>

I sit here writing on an old Windows ME based computer, the ancient
computer sitting right under it (build in 1993), is a gateway running
Smoothwall..... In both cases they work, and work well....

W

 

[maxo]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:07:52 -0400, David L. Johnson wrote:

> Nerds use usenet.

Does that explain why my bike has a kickstand?

 

[Tom Keats]

In article <[email protected]>,
"Peter Cole" <[email protected]> writes:

> But to answer the question, I wrote my first program 40 years ago, and
> have used a broad variety of languages, environments and OS's as a
> working software engineer. I though Unix was hopelessly geeky 20 years
> ago, I used to joke with my wife about it (she taught a Unix course).
> Now, it's completely absurd. I can't be bothered with any of that brain
> garbage. I don't even bother with a news reader anymore, never mind a
> Linux one. This is posted from the Google beta. It sucks, but brain
> garbage sucks worse.

That's sort of how I feel about bicycle computers --
they're something to outgrow. But now I have to live
without being able to brag about my winter mileage.
I think I'll survive. Except lately I've been compelled
for some reason to write a ride-logging app, which sux
because my original intention was to create a big, cycling
themed collage on a doorskin 4x8.


cheers,
Tom

--
-- Nothing is safe from me.
Above address is just a spam midden.
I'm really at: tkeats [curlicue] vcn [point] bc [point] ca

 

[John Everett]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 13:15:49 -0400, The Wogster <[email protected]>
wrote:

>John Everett wrote:
>> Funny thing, as I sit here typing this response on my Windows XP
>> system, sitting on the shelf right above my monitor is my copy of The
>> Bell System Technical Journal, July-August 1978 edition. ;-)
>>
>
>I sit here writing on an old Windows ME based computer, the ancient
>computer sitting right under it (build in 1993), is a gateway running
>Smoothwall..... In both cases they work, and work well....

I posted the above wondering if there was anyone else here who would
recognize that edition of the Journal. It's the famous UNIX edition,
with articles by Thompson, Ritchie, Bourne, Kernighan, Lycklama, et
al; basically all the "founding fathers".

BTW, when I first started participating on rec.bicycles (before the
"great division") I was using rn. Subsequently I went to work for a
company that had IBM PC based products and they gave me a home system.
Thus my conversion to the MS side of the world. ;-)


jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

 

[maxo]

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:22:39 -0700, Peter Cole wrote:

>
> maxo wrote:
>>
>> Nothing wrong with XP, I just don't have time for it to d/l all the
>> "updates" it always seems to need on dial up.
>
> Dial up, geeez, where do you live, Mongolia?

BB around here means having to get a package deal with a very evil cable
company, there are no other options. For usenet and email, dial up is more
than sufficient.

 

[Peter Cole]

maxo wrote:
> On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:22:39 -0700, Peter Cole wrote:
>
> >
> > maxo wrote:
> >>
> >> Nothing wrong with XP, I just don't have time for it to d/l all
the
> >> "updates" it always seems to need on dial up.
> >
> > Dial up, geeez, where do you live, Mongolia?
>
> BB around here means having to get a package deal with a very evil
cable
> company, there are no other options. For usenet and email, dial up is
more
> than sufficient.

Sure, well from my address you can see I'm with Comcast (the great
Satan), before that ATT, before that MediaOne, before that
RoadRunner... they were all evil, but I'm never going back to all that
hissing and spitting (I know all the technical names, I worked for a
modem company).

 

[John Thompson]

On 2005-04-14, maxo <[email protected]> wrote:

> For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
> bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>
> (you can tell what somebody's using by looking at their headers)
>
> Either it's a gear-head thing, as alternative OS's require a bit of
> technical know-how, or perhaps just nerds like bikes?

I vote for "nerds like bikes."

Running a home network with Win2k, linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD and IRIX
machines here...

--

John ([email protected])

 

[Just zis Guy, you know?]

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:31:56 GMT, maxo <[email protected]> wrote in
message <[email protected]>:

>For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
>bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.

Once you discover the efficiency and freedom of cycle transport you
start looking for efficiency and freedom elsewhere too ;-)

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

85% of helmet statistics are made up, 69% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

 

[bbaka]

Just zis Guy, you know? wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:31:56 GMT, maxo <[email protected]> wrote in
> message <[email protected]>:
>
>
>>For a nonacademic newsgroup, there seems to be quite an overwhelming
>>bunch of Linux and other non MS users on this group.
>
>
> Once you discover the efficiency and freedom of cycle transport you
> start looking for efficiency and freedom elsewhere too ;-)
>
> Guy

I am on Windows now, LINUX later, maybe even DOS, depending on my mood
and what software I need to use. Why follow the word of Gates (to Hell).
Bill Baka (multi boot computer guy).