Saturday, November 22, 2003
(2:28 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Insights into internet culture
Via Wikipedia, here is an article on the Chewbacca Defense, which Atrios enjoys using. In addition, one might note the exhaustive articles on Slashdot trolling and general Internet trolling. This is what happens when one applies the open source method to an encyclopedia -- basically, the encyclopedia ends up being kind of cool.
This is why I am implementing an all-GNU/Linux policy on The Weblog effective immediately. We can only refer to open-source programs. For instance, if we wish to discuss a word processor, instead of talking about Microsoft Word, we would have to mention AbiWord. Instead of talking about Notepad, we would have to mention emacs, vi, elvis, joe, jove, ed, or any of the other million UNIX-based text editors that are included with the average GNU/Linux distribution. Further translations are as follows:
- "PhotoShop" or "Paintbrush" become GIMP
- "Windows" becomes "X," "KDE," or "Gnome"
- "DOS prompt" becomes bash
- "Copy" becomes cp
- "Move" becomes mv
- "Rename" becomes mv
- "Searching a text file for a particular standard expression and displaying the lines containing that expression on screen or piping them to another program" becomes "grep"
- "Inserting a disk and using its contents" becomes "inserting a disk, then typing a command with a thousand parameters in order to 'mount' the disk to the filesystem, then using its contents"
- "Doing routine file maintenance" becomes "using sudo to gain root privileges for your normal user account, then keeping a second window open in order to view the HOWTO files using 'less,' and frustratedly trying the same commands over and over while not quite getting the parameters right until you inadvertantly use your root privileges to delete your 'passwd' file, log out as root before you realize what has happened, then slowly come to understand that you have officially rendered your computer useless"
- "Ignorance" becomes "strength"
- "War" becomes "peace"
- etc.
