From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.1 (2015-04-28) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.7 required=5.0 tests=FAKE_REPLY_C, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.1 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 4b13264e for ; Sat, 30 Jun 2018 01:37:05 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id C52EDA1B46; Sat, 30 Jun 2018 11:37:03 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8F570A1563; Sat, 30 Jun 2018 11:36:53 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id E84ECA17CA; Sat, 30 Jun 2018 11:31:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mcvoy.com (mcvoy.com [192.169.23.250]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9C815A1563 for ; Sat, 30 Jun 2018 11:31:29 +1000 (AEST) Received: by mcvoy.com (Postfix, from userid 3546) id 9447135E130; Fri, 29 Jun 2018 18:31:28 -0700 (PDT) Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2018 18:31:28 -0700 From: Larry McVoy To: tuhs@tuhs.org Message-ID: <20180630013128.GC18031@mcvoy.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.24 (2015-08-30) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Sat, 30 Jun 2018 11:36:51 +1000 Subject: Re: [TUHS] Any Good dmr Anecdotes? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" I've told this story so much that my kids hear me start it and go "is that the Unix guy? Yeah, we've heard this". And I think many of you have heard it as well so you can hit delete, but for the newbies to the list here goes. Decades ago I was a grad student at UWisc and pretty active on comp.arch and comp.unix-wizards (I was not a wizard but I've lived through, and written up, the process of restoring a Masscomp after having done some variant of rm -rf / so a stupid wizard wanna be?) >From time to time, some Unix kernel thing would come up and I'd email ...!research!dmr and ask him how that worked. He *always* replied. To me, a nobody. All he cared was that the question wasn't retarded (and I bet to him some of mine were but the questions showed that I was thinking and that was good enough for him). I remember a long discussion about something, I think PIPEBUF but not sure, and at some point he sent me his phone number and said "call me". Email was too slow. So yeah, one of the inventors of Unix was cool enough to take some young nobody and educate him. That's Dennis. I've tried to pass some of that energy forward to my kids, telling them that if you want to learn, smart people like that and they will help you. Dennis was a humble man, a smart man, and a dude willing to pass on what he knew. I miss him and cherish the interactions I had with him.