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Lets so how non-Windows we can get. There's VMware ESXi, the bare-metal hypervisor that's not even a POSIX operating system. It has PowerShell support. So does Citrix XenServer, which is Linux/Xen based. (So does Microsoft Hyper-V, of course, but that doesn't count as non-Windows). That's just off the top of my head. Not that it matters, because Windows PowerShell is not surprisingly, a Windows technology. No Windows administrator cares that their Windows automation scripts don't run on their Solaris boxes.

Anyway, bash scripts aren't cross-platform either. I mean, sure, the actual bash interpreter is written in just POSIX C and can be ported to anything (I've used it on Windows myself), but that's useless with the external commands. ALL OF WHICH ARE DIFFERENT, even on one platform! Have you seen the horror that is a truly "cross-platform" script? It begins with pages and pages of if-else statements to figure out what's what, and how stuff works. Then there's ten lines of actual script.

Here's a random example from a script found with this google search:

elif [ "$os" = "OpenBSD" ] ; then
    $echo "/etc/passwd.conf :"
    egrep -v "$comments" /etc/passwd.conf

elif [ "$os" = "HP-UX" ] ; then
    $echo "/etc/pam.conf :"
    egrep -v "$comments" /etc/pam.conf

else
    $echo "/etc/pam.d/passwd :"
    egrep -v "$comments" /etc/pam.d/passwd
fi

if [ "$os" = "Linux" ] ; then
    $echo "pwck -l"
    pwck -r
    grpck -r
fi

Cross platform my ass.

Anyway, lets go back to our earlier, trivial example: "ps"

Here's two google hits: Linux, and Solaris.

Sure, they're vaguely similar, and have a bunch of options in common, but that's where it ends. Formatting is all different. Filtering has different capabilities. I bet the output is different also.

So put or up shut up. Write me a script, quickly (and I stress that word for a reason -- time is money), to do exactly the following task, across a bunch of different unixes:

Output all processes with the name "bash" into an RFC 4180 compliant comma separated values (CSV) file. Do not include extraneous processes. Don't forget the header. Make sure quotes and spaces are correctly handled. Ensure Unicode is handled on platforms that support it (e.g.: Solaris). Make sure numbers are formatted consistently, irrespective of the operating system regional options. Ensure that every platform outputs exactly the same columns, in the same order. Have it work on, at a minimum: AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, OpenBSD, and Linux. Your time starts now... go!

Yes, it does.

a longer description of Power Factor:

http://www.ee.bgu.ac.il/~instlab/Experiments/05_FlurLamp/PowerFactor1.pdf

Forget it, really.

British E-Voting Pilots Announced

I was wondering when they'd let Otto do something more than just fly the plane.

The web today is built on transferring documents and everything else is a hack on that...

Yeah, it's funny that we use a file access metaphor to work with complex, dynamic entities.

Seriously, I think the web is a nice example of Unix philosophy in action. You have the idea of files as a transport medium, which makes things rather simple, even though you're not really dealing with files. Besides, even Windows servers and browsers use forward slash as the directory separator, so it looks like we got them pwned ;)

If that doesn't work, we can round them up and send them hurtling into the sun in 11 years.

The original paper, "Direct Injection of Venom by a Predatory Wasp into Cockroach Brain"(pdf), was published 3 years ago, so I guess it's not news to entymologists. I'm not an entymologist, but I am a nerd, and it's news to me.

My apologies, the opriginal brief is located at http://www.bgu.ac.il/life/Faculty/Libersat/pdf/JCP .2003.pdf

The original paper can be found here. It actually dates from 2003. Despite my weak biology background, I found it very readable.

They also describe an interesting middle phase of the wasp attack which was not mentioned in the summary: after the brain injection, the roach furiously "grooms" itself for 30 minutes. They also note that the zombie behavior takes about 30 mins to take hold. Thus there's a possibility that the intense "itch" in the cockroach keeps it in the same place until its escape reflex has been fried.

Here is a very good explanation based on 60+ years of research into this wasp.

The venom makes the roach become lethargic, whereby the wasp leads the roach by the antenna, much like a 'ruphie' type effect. It is not mind control.

http://www.bgu.ac.il/life/Faculty/Libersat/pdf/JNB .2003b.pdf

It's not even that simple... Java 5's full name is Java2 1.5. Here's the version history of Java from what I can make out:

Java 1.0
Java 1.1

The following release was a significant upgrade, so Sun thought it should deserve a special designation. However, because Sun apparently doesn't know about the major version number, it was called...

Java2 1.2 [No, not Java 2.0 or even Java2 1.0]
Java2 1.3
Java2 1.4

Again, the next version was a major upgrade. However, instead of doing something sane, or even sane considering their previous pattern, they called it...

Java 2 1.5 aka Java 5 [no, not Java 1.5, not Java 5.0, nor even Java5 1.5]

The only thing that I can think of that is similarily warped is the Unix versions ("The different versions of the UN*X brand operating system are numbered in a logical sequence: 5, 6, 7, 2, 2.9, 3, 4.0, III, 4.1, V, 4.2, V.2, and 4.3"), but that's muddled somewhat because of many dialects of Unix...

Dave. What are you doing, Dave. Put down those Windows XP install disks, Dave.

You're not IBM-compatible, HAL

Here's the true History of Unix.

Check out the Gnu Know your System Administrator field guide and Top 100 things you don't want the sysadmin to say ...

Yishao Zhou

Two non-fugly math chicks! What are the chances?

The official history of Unix.

I smell RIPOFF. Try at least saying this isn't yours. Ripping off other people's work is pretty lame, even for karma.

Google #1
Google #2
Ahh, take the whole damn thing.

Kill me.

Ok, so when I get Quake III Arena for Linux, it'll run on your 68K Mac? Oh, what's that? Software targets specific hardware too, and it isn't enough to identify software's target by its intended operating system?

I think what you really meant to say in your rant, is that software targets a platform, and a platform consists not only of the hardware (Gateway G6-300 PC, Apple G4 PowerMac, SunBlade 1000, SunBeam Toaster), but also the OS running on it (Windows / Linux, Mac OS / Linux, Solaris / Linux, George's Custom 30-word RTOS).

You're dealing with slang here. When people say PC without any further qualifiers, they mean "the typical realization of the PC hardware platform running the current mainstream operating system for that hardware." (Which, right now, typically translates to a Wintel box.) We all use shorthand for common phrases. Get over it. At least we're not asking "Does this computer have the Internet on it?"

some code that is unmaintanable

--

I picked this up searching for TNT/Quake info on linuxquake.com.

" Version 1.4.1 (pre-release) of SVGALib has been released. Why should you care? This version adds some important support for nVida and SIS drivers. I recommend this to TnT(2) users when it is released in final form. "

I assume it means a person can run Quake2 in console mode like with a Voodoo2. Has anyone tried it?