Re: [9fans] mmap and shared libraries

["Bruce Ellis" <bruce.ellis@gmail.com>]

Wow what a lively thread. Lots of good information (thanks Ron, Rob et
al) and behavioural commentary (thanks Skip) but it seems to be of no
avail.

As I'm the only one awake in Volos at 10:30am and I have 40 cafes with
WiFi to myself I'll waste bandwidth and tell a little story with no
stated conclusions.

Three 9fans get into a taxi and need to get to Volos Bus Station. They
only speak English, Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, and Signing between them - no Greek. How do they get to
the bus station for the minimum fare (3 euros)? Sounds like a bad
joke, but it really happened. Answer at the end.

Fictional scenario: same thing with three Linux/BSD fans who only
speak English, Bash and Emacs. Their solution:

1) Whine at the taxi driver - cost 1 euro

2) Shout "why doesn't this cab run emacs?" - cost 1 euro

3) Download a language package, discover they have incompatible shared
libraries - cost 2 euros

4) Shout "mmap() me to the bus station" - cost 2 euros

5) Take out a phrase book and order a goat and a fishing village - cost 5 euros

6) Get dumped at a distant fishing village where they are savagely
beaten and dragged aboard a fishing boat as slaves - cost all their
worldly possessions

7) Get dumped back at Volos, because they can't fish without emacs,
wearing only shorts that smell of mackerel and one shoe between them -
time share the shoe and walk to the bus station - no charge

And the answer to the original question? The taxi driver spoke
Spanish. The 9fans tip 1 euro.

Sorry for wasting your time.

brucee

-- pages of replies -- elided