The Changelog - Humor

Troops

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 18:57:37 -0500

Back in 1997, long before the days of Youtube, there was a film short called Troops. Troops is about 10 minutes long, and an absolutely hilarious piece of work. It's done in the style of Cops, but set on Tatooine in the Star Wars universe. Many people today credit it with kickstarting the fan film genre and inspiring what has evolved into stars of Youtube.

I remember giving a talk at the Air Capitol Linux Users Group (Wichita, KS). I brought with me my laptop, and had downloaded Troops onto it. I played it for the group. This was at a time when being able to play video on a laptop was something new and interesting, and under Linux no less, even more so. Also, at a time when video of this size may have taken a day to download. Everyone there loved it. I think I used xanim to play it (remember that?)

Anyhow, you can still download that same original file from theforce.net. Or, for the less patient, just watch it here:

Hacking Traffic Signs

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 06:55:01 -0500

One of the funniest things I've seen in a long time:

Electronic Road Signs and Me

If Version Control Systems were Airlines

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 07:44:06 -0600

Many of you have seen the net classic If Operating Systems Were Airlines. Today, let's consider what the world might be like if version control systems were airlines...

Before anyone gets mad, this is all in fun, OK?

RCS Airlines: One of the first airlines, from way back when this whole aviation thing was new and exciting. Each RCS flight carries exactly one passenger, which RCS believes is a superior way to fly. Although most RCS airplanes are rusty and battered today, RCS Airlines still retains its historic dedication to security. Each airplane is kept locked as much as possible for safety. Occasionally flights will be delayed for hours because the pilot can't open the locked plane. When this happens, the pilot will frantically try to get the cell phone number of whoever it is that has locked the plane. When the plane finally gets unlocked, you may be tempted to ask why it was locked for so long. Veteran RCS users have learned that the answer is usually disgusting, and never ask anymore. Main competitor: CP/M airlines.

CVS Airlines: Founded on the belief that they could be more efficient than RCS by carrying multiple passengers per flight. They still carry each passenger in a separate RCS-built airplane, but the airplanes fly in a goose-like ",V" formation. Watch out for layovers, though. It can take hours to merge new passengers into the formation properly, and it might take several attempts to take off afterwards.

CVS flights often feature fights over who gets to fly. CVS piloting fights are legendary; rumor has it that OpenBSD got started after CVS airlines refused to allow a passenger to board on the grounds that he had in the past refused to stow his tray table in the upright and locked position.

CVS airlines mostly counts as customers the "over-50" crowd who grew up using CVS and don't like change. Its in-flight magazine features advertisements for balding-reversal treatments and uuencode tools.

Main competitor: AIX airlines.

Subversion Airlines: Started by some grey-haired CVS executives with long, wispy beards, Subversion airlines got started by trying to be "CVS, but better". Subversion airlines was the first major airline to use planes that seat more than one passenger. Unlike CVS airlines, all passengers on a Subversion flight travel in the same plane.

Subversion airlines is famous for its Soviet-like centralized control. All operations must be approved by the Kremlin, and you are allowed, by the grace of the Party Leader, to gaze at the massive airplanes. Those that have served the Party and Airline well for many years are allowed to enter the Great Shrine of the First-Class Comitter, and actually make changes to the airplanes themselves. Plainclothes Subversion Airlines security agents lurk on every flight, and you should not be surprised to be thrown out an airplane window if you make a joke in bad taste about the pilot's flying skills.

Subversion airlines thrives on the concept that "photocopying is cheap". You are encouraged to make photocopies of your ticket, or to photocopy your photo ID, and give copies of each to as many people as you can. At checkin time at the gate, if more than one person arrives with a copy of the same ticket, they are ushered into the "merging room" and each person is given a brick. The door is closed, something magical occurs, and the one person that emerges still able to walk is allowed to board the plane.

Main competitor: Windows airlines with no Administrators allowed.

tla airlines: Founded by one of those eccentric British noblemen, Lord Tom's airline is the utopian philosopher's airline. Chafed by the heavy-handed control of Subversion Airlines, tla airlines wants every passenger to be created equal. As you approach the gate area in the terminal, you will find many philosophers occupying the gate area, extolling the virtues of tla airlines. They compare tla airlines to reaching out and touching the heavens, leaving behind the bonds of a ground-based life, actually merging with the stars. Oh, the gorgeous beauty of it all! The things we will see!

As you see people arriving from another flight, you observe that some of them have burn marks. One of them comments that "merging with the stars doesn't work." Immediately, a dozen philosophers get in a fight with him, claiming that he simply doesn't understand what it means to merge with the stars, and that if he gets his inner being in the proper state first, he'll have a much better experience.

As you board the tla airplane, you obvserve that the jetway is a mile long. The airplane itself reminds you of something of a cross between a gothic cathedral and a level of Doom. There are spectacular archways everywhere, sometimes where they don't really belong. Each archway is supported by ornate curly braces which you don't normally see on airplanes, and frankly, you'd rather not, because they look all pointy and confuse the kids.

As you arrive as your destination terminal, you see it too is full of philosophers, most of them dining.

Main competitor: VMS airlines.

Darcs Airlines: Unlike every other airline, this one uses physicists instead of engineers to design its airplanes. One brilliant Darcs physicist has finally come up with The Theory of Everything, and as such, Darcs knows where you want to go before even you do. Darcs airlines prides itself on customer service, and asks your preference for even the tiniest details about your trip.

Each seat pocket features a copy of the Theory of Everything for your reading enjoyment, but nobody actually understands it.

Occasionally, you will find that Darcs pilots get into angry conflicts with the control tower in mid-flight. This results in the control tower revoking your permission to land. Legend has it that one Darcs pilot of a plane with exceptionally large fuel tanks actually resolved his conflict with the tower and landed two weeks after taking off. Experienced Darcs users board with several parachutes: one for themselves, and a few more for the newbies.

The Darcs physicists claim that the Theory of Everything predicted the pilots would act this way, and that all pilots eventually act this way throughout the entire universe. They toil day and night finding a way to adjust the gravitational constant of the universe, thereby reducing the anger factor of the pilots.

Main competitor: OS/2 airlines.

bzr airlines: Founded by a South African who had been injured by a curly brace on tla airlines, bzr airlines aims to be "tla done right". They have shortened the jetway, gotten rid of the curly braces, chased out the philosophers, and no longer have a vision of merging with the stars. Many that were injured on tla airlines fly bzr airlines, and out of respect for tla airlines, bzr airlines will still honor tla tickets.

bzr passengers consider themselves part of an exclusive club because each flight takes off from a launchpad. They often can be seen standing in the terminal passing out bzr literature, trying to get passengers of other airlines to fly bzr, and can't understand how other airlines continue to exist while people keep walking past their airplanes.

Main competitor: BeOS Airlines.

Bitkeeper Airlines: One of the world's faster airlines, Bitkeeper airlines occupied that obscure gate for rich people at the end of the terminal for many years. Tickets on Bitkeeper Airlines were rumored to cost thousands of dollars, and were rare and jealously guarded. Then for awhile, Bitkeeper Airlines started giving away tickets for free, though they also kept around the expensive tickets for those with discriminating tastes. Free tickets were made widely available, but the 3-point type on the back of tickets said that you were never allowed to think about another airline before, after, or during your flight, and some people claimed they actually saw the small print morphing right before their eyes.

Bitkeeper flights often featured arguments over whether people were harboring secret thoughts of other airlines. If you were caught thinking about another airline, you were expected to scream vigorously while being thrown out the escape hatch without a parachute. All of this commotion tarnished the rarified air that the rich people paid to experience, so one day it was decided that there would be a Great Purge, because obviously all free ticket holders had harbored lustful thoughts of other airlines, so they were all thrown off the airplanes simultaneously. Today, people aren't exactly sure where the Bitkeeper gate is, but everyone suspects it still lurks somewhere.

Main competitor: SCO Airlines.

Mercurial Airlines: The "there's one right way to do it" airline, Mercurial is a sterile, agile, and shiny airline. Every Mercurial airplane looks identical to every other one, shiny and clean. You could swear that all the passengers look alike too, and as you approach the gate, it seems like you too look like everyone else. Mercurial passengers tend to be a happy bunch, who can't comprehend anybody that flies Git Airlines. Specks of dirt and dust confuse the pilots, so it is best to make sure you have showered before boarding. It is rumored that, through bolting on more engines, some Mercurial airlines can fly to as many places as Git airlines can, but most Mercurial passengers are content to not worry about that.

Main competitor: Python Airlines.

Git Airlines: The "there's more than one way to do it" airline, Git flies the world's largest and fastest airplanes. Git Airlines was founded by some priests who were flying for free on Bitkeeper Airlines and survived the fall after the Great Purge. Git airplanes start as spartan, empty cabins, with no carpeting, chairs, or piloting controls. At the departure gate, each passenger is handed a bag containing 173 standard airplane components, accompanied by a 4x5" sheet of information on the theory of flight, written in 1950. Once onboard, the passengers use these components to finish out the airplane for flight: installing chairs, rudder controls, etc. Every flight results in a plane assembled in a different way, and passengers on each flight believe they are flying the world's best airplane. Arguments in the terminal after a flight are common, as passengers from different flights debate the merits of their particular design.

Despite all this, Git planes turn out to be safe, and Git passengers believe they get to their destinations in half the time it takes any other passengers, though sometimes they secretly wonder if the Mercurial flight got there faster. Occasionally, passengers on Git airlines build an airplane that appears to go into a tailspin. When that happens, they simply assemble a tool that lets them go back in time and change history so that it doesn't crash, although it is rumored that if you are a member of the public watching this happen from the ground, it will lead to seizures.

Git airlines takes special pride in the one piece that passengers don't have to assemble: the plumbing. Every Git lavatory is equipped with state-of-the-art never-fail plumbing, and the best porcelain washroom fixtures money can buy. None of these cheap plastic toilets like you get on every other airline. Here, we have fine porcelain fixtures.

During a flight, after passengers use the lavatory, they frequently get into arguments with each other about which style of porcelain toilet is the best. These arguments are only resolved by the Zen-like Git Priests, who insist that only inferior passengers need to use a toilet while in the air.

Main competition: Perl Airlines.

Finally

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 22:04:20 -0600

About a week and a half ago, I had to call in to work. The conversation went about like this:

Me: I'm going to be a little late today. I'm stuck in the mud, but I'm still on the road.

Other end: (Laughter).. *ahem* I'm sorry, but that sounded really funny.

From our house, we can take either the south road or the north road to lead to the highway. The north road always has at least some rock or sand on it. The south road is just dirt. And at the corner where it meets our road, it's dirt in a flood area with lots of trees around it. Meaning that is is often impassible.

But the south road saves me 1.3 miles each way on my drive in to work. So I like to take it when I can.

Lately we've had moisture, but since it's winter, the mud and water on the south road freezes overnight sometimes. Generally I figure that if the mud all over on our own yard is frozen, it's safe to take the south road.

Last week, our yard was frozen. The mud was solid and there were patches of ice. So I started heading towards the south road. I got to the corner, and there was ice and solid-looking frozen mud. So I went ahead. And promptly fell through the ice and landed in the water -- and mud -- beneath it.

Not good. I figured I'd try to get out of it. I actually was able to move the car, and got to within 5 feet of the solid ground, but there was just no going past there. So I called a neighbor with a tractor, and called in to work while he made his way over. He wasn't sure if he wanted to pull our car out from the front, so, due to his location, he had almost a 3-mile tractor drive.

Meanwhile, I worked to get the car as far back as I could. He pulled me out with no problems. I offered to pay, but he wouldn't accept anything. I stopped at home for a quick change of clothes and shoes (I had hopped out in the mud to try to find any sort of debris or something that could provide better traction), then went in to work -- only an hour late.

I got several comments from co-workers. And some "helpful advice" regarding which road I ought to be taking for the next few days. All in good fun, of course.

Terah and I always knew it was just a matter of time before something like this happened.

So, finally, it has. What a relief!

Terah made some buried cherry cookies for me to take over to our neighbors that weekend as a thank-you. He's been pulling people out of that corner for decades, and from the sound of it, I'm just about the most boring one yet.

Sad but true

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:44:00 -0600

Here it is, folks: the complete source code to /bin/true on Solaris.

Gee Sun, I'm glad you were doing that while you were busy putting the dot in .com.

#1 on Google

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:17:45 -0600

I started this blog 5 years ago. In that time, I've written about Linux on the desktop, photography, international peace, version control systems, ice storms, Haskell, health care, rural life, Kansas, and infants.

Today I realized something: I am the #1 hit on Google when you search for smelly ducting. This will take you to a story I wrote back in 2005 about an odd odor in our house. I believe it is my most popular story ever, with almost 100 comments -- and comments continue to trickle in, a few a week.

What's the right word to use for that? When the great worldwide democratizing force that is the Internet collectively decides that your most important blog post is about smelly ducting?

I'm glad folks know what matters. Wouldn't want to worry too much about what's going on in Iraq, Washington, or Kansas if your ducts smell, that's for sure.

Obviously every single Presidential candidate has missed out on a key issue in voters' minds. If only someone would come out with a freshly-scented ducting platform, this country could finally move forward!

Attention Junkmailers

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 16:31:51 -0600

We love to hear from you. I'm sure that's what you're thinking, anyway, as you prepare volumes of paper to send to our mailbox.

But just so you know, let me explain just how much we love the material you send us.

When we get one of your catalogs, it will get added to the junk mail pile. Every so often, I will go through this pile. I will contact the company behind each and every mailing, asking them to remove me from their list and not rent my name further. If I have extra time, I will probably also write that note on your postage-paid envelope and pop it in the mailbox. I will also add your name to my list of companies that send me junk mail, so I can avoid doing business with you in the future. If you have sent me junk mail in the past, rest assured that I will find some creatively enjoyable way of dealing with your refusal to honor my removal request.

After I have processed your piece of artfully-crafted handiwork, possibly trying to sell me pink laptops or a shirt with the word "femail" on it -- whatever that means -- I will deposit your catalog, along with dozens of other similar catalogs, on the kitchen floor.

This is when the real fun begins, because now it's Jacob's turn to process them.

He will usually start by ripping out every page from the catalog. He'll start slowly and carefully, ripping out pages one at a time, savoring the wonderful rrrrriiiiippppp noise as he goes. But then he'll get faster, going for two pages at a time, then more, until finally he just will lunge for paper by the handful to crush, tear, or otherwise mutilate.

After that, there are many things he might do to your fine piece of unsolicited advertising. Perhaps he will enjoy drooling on it -- a satisfying fate for your 4-color catalog, don't you think? Or perhaps he will grab some of your pages, carefully emblazoned with your logo, and tear them into as many tiny bits as he can. Or maybe he will simply gather your work together on the floor, then spin himself around on top of it, scattering the remnants as far and wide as possible, cackling all the while. He may also smear bits of food on them if he ate recently, or perhaps he will simply resume tearing pages apart.

But whatever he does, rest assured that he will treat your catalog with the care and attention it deserves. No catalog will survive intact, and as many pages as possible will be ripped apart and left in bits. He does, after all, have a great attention to detail.

After Jacob is done, we will gather up what remains and put it all in our recycling container.

Oh, and under no circumstances will we actually make a purchase from your catalog.

Here are two pictures of the scene.

Notice the careful concentration in this photo. Obviously he knows that Dell has been ignoring my removal requests for some time, and is taking note to tear their pages into the smallest possible bits.

But it's not all hard work -- processing your catalogs is fun, too.

The Day The Routers Died

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 23:07:20 -0500

Best YouTube Ever.

Seen on CircleID

Those Ironic Brits

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:05:00 -0500

The Sith arrive at last, courtesy of the British government. (Watch the first 30s)

A quote

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:54:00 -0500

Seen today in #haskell:

<newsham> you see an opening to the north. The light shining through reveals a small booklet near the base of the door. There is a small compiler here.

Survival

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 06:20:00 -0500

Long enough in the country?

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:29:14 -0500

Perhaps this conversation is a sign that we've been in the country for awhile:

"Terah, if you ever drive the pickup..."

"Why would I ever do that?"

"I don't know, but if you ever do, I just want you to know something. The reason there's a towel connecting the brake pedal to the steering wheel..."

At this point I had to wait for her laughter to die down.

"As I was saying, the reason there's a towel connecting the brake pedal to the steering wheel is that, unless you park facing uphill, the brake lights stay on all the time and will drain the battery."

More laughter followed.

I didn't even have the chance to tell her to remove the towel before she starts the truck. Oh well, guess she'll figure it out.

On the other hand, perhaps this is a sign that we haven't been in the country long enough:

Today as I went to lunch, I saw a long, narrow, light gray line across the door on my car. I was pretty annoyed that somebody would have pulled keys or something across it to do that. But as I got closer, I realized it was just a spider web. Terah and I park our cars a few feet apart, and every week or so there will be a spider web connecting the two of them when we go out in the morning.

There's a redneck joke here somewhere

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:30:43 -0500

Back when I was in high school, I heard a Jeff Foxworthy CD once. He had this "you might be a redneck if" routine. We resemble one of his comments: "If the directions to your house include 'turn off the paved road', you might be a redneck."

What if the road -- the county road, not our driveway, mind you -- has weeds growing down the middle? And you can tell that the county maintainer has been by recently because there are fewer, and shorter, weeds than before?

Progress

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:13:00 -0500

While everyone else is excited about their iPhones and whatnot, technology isn't leaving us country dwellers behind. Consider these two recent events:

1) The weeds growing down the middle of the road were gone for a bit. That was surely evidence that the county road maintainer has been by.

2) Word from our letter carrier that we just *may* be able to have our mailbox at our driveway. Someone wants to build across the road near us, and asked about getting a mailbox there instead of almost a mile away where ours is. Apparently if both of us want our mailboxes closer (Terah said "YES", I'm sure), they just may consider it.

That's right, we may need to now have only a 1/2 mile round trip to get our mail.

Back to the iPhone: we do get a signal from Cingular at our place, but I can't help thinking "what's the point?" I don't really need an always-on Internet connection everywhere I go.

Insurance

nospam@example.com (John Goerzen) — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 19:46:23 -0600

I was visiting with our homeowners insurance company the other day (very good folks). Because we weren't living in our house during renovation, we had to get a more expensive type of policy. The agent that sold it do is is no longer with the company, so the new person handling our account asked me, "Why did he want you to get this policy?"

"Well, he said it was because we weren't living there." Then I suddenly remembered the rest of what he said, and couldn't help cracking up. "Plus, he said that if something like a fire happened, people might not notice."

What can I say. Psychic insurance salesman.

On that note, I was having a discussion with someone about large windows on a house. That person was saying that "everyone" always puts their large windows on the front (or back of their house, I forget which) so that potential burglers are easier to spot. He was concerned about where we were putting windows on our house.

This had never occured to me.

But I pointed out that our yard was on fire and nobody noticed for hours. What difference would it make where our windows are?

"Ah, good point," he said.

On that note, you ought to check out rush hour in the country. Truly this is a lot of traffic for roads around here.