From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: ggm@algebras.org (George Michaelson) Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2018 15:23:04 +1000 Subject: [TUHS] 2018: eighteen months to the Unix 50th anniversary In-Reply-To: References: <20180109003018.GB29792@minnie.tuhs.org> <20180110033459.GB27612@eureka.lemis.com> Message-ID: I'm probably a bit of a simpleton about this stuff. I feel like my engagement with UNIX has been a succession of mind-blown moments. 1978: shown a piped command. mind blown. What.The.Holy.Hell. I cannot understand this. I entered the room with punched cards. How does this even work. 1979: shown how to write macros. mind blown. This.Is.Not.A.Program.This.is.a.meta.program. What reads this? a pre processor. whats that. mind officially blown. I cannot understand. WHERE IS MY CODE 1981: made to read about the design of the IBM 360 monotonically rising clock. mind blown. How.Can.Every.Computer.Not.Have.Had.This. What does time even mean? what is negative time? Whats the granularity of time? I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY I DONT UNDERSTAND 1982: I start work on systems where I have su privilege and can change the time. Mind blown I.Can.Tell.Lies.About.Time How come? How come there isn't some magic once-only pass through hardware abacus rat-in-a-cage machine I can't lie about ITS ALL LIES mind blown. 1984: I start doing NTP and see emails from Dave Mills. Mind blown. He.Is.Not.Typing.English.As.I.Understand.It.This.Is.The.Goon.Show mind blown. But.. in a good way. People can make fun of themselves and write real code? Time is fuzzy? Time has properties? People are thinking about 2039? Mind blown. I don't even believe I will be alive in 2039 given "star wars" and "protect and survive" I really like 1/1/1970. its been like a constant in my life. If it turned out to be 1969 I'd be ok but I have to say.. a bit .. somewhere inside.. a small squirrel inside Searles 'chinese box' is saying... mind... blown...