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Thyne Oldest Known Tech Manual
johnshirley writes "How old is the oldest known technical manual? About 613 years, it seems. Written in 1391 by Geoffrey Chaucer for his ten year old son Lewis (Lowys), the manual explains in great detail but very rough spelling and grammar, the intricate workings of the Astrolabe--the predecessor to the sextant. Read Chaucer's 'A Treatise on the Astrolabe here."
Yet another technical manual I can't make much sense of....
8-)
Somehow I suspect the 1-800 tech support line at the end of the manual isn't ringing any more. Lifetime support my ass...
There will a short exam to test your knowledge at 3.
Looks exactly like my experiences of using OCR software.
No Norm, those are your safety glasses; I'll wear my own thanks...
The Karma sutra was written by Vatsyayana sometime between the 1st and 6th century AD. If that's not a technical manual, I don't know what is. Oh wait.. this is Slashdot.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
The Book of Armaments?
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Bye reeding thus lycense agerment, thee promeses...
Shame he's dead. He'd make a good Slashdot editor.
(yes, yes, I know, Olde Englishe ande alle thate...)
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
the intricate workings of the Astrolube--the predecessor to the sextant
He wrote a sex manual for his 10 year old kid?
This guy is a pervert!
Written in 1391 by Geoffrey Chauncer for his ten year old son Lewis (Lowys), the manual explains in great detail but very rough spelling and grammar,
Actually, the spelling in the manual is correct for the period, unlike slashdot articles, where one cannot even expect proper nouns like Chaucer to be spelt correctly. :P
Although the spelling and grammar are rather old fashioned, no doubt spammers will take inspiration from the text for the latest attempts to get around filters.
I can see it coming to an inbox near you soon:
"Is thyne mans penys lyttel? Than thou hast by myne oyntments"
John.
The Karma sutra was written by Vatsyayana sometime between the 1st and 6th century AD. If that's not a technical manual, I don't know what is. Oh wait.. this is Slashdot.
That's Kama Sutra, you dork. You've misunderstood the meaning of the word 'karma'. Oh wait... this is Slashdot.
[
I would have preferred a simple overview of how to operate the astrolabe. Unfortunately Chaucer had to take the tack of having each piece tell a tale about how it fits into the whole. That wouldn't be so bad, but sometimes the tales are analogies that are somewhat hard to relate to the instrument at hand.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Support could be summed up by a four-letter acronym:
RYFP - Reade Ye Focking Parchment!
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
all your constants are belong to us
/* oops I accidentally made a comment, sorry */
I attempted to find examples, but all I found was google spam. Remember when Google was useful?
And I thought 12 hours of programming was the only thing that could turn your eyes to goo.
Might as well make the font orange and the background neon yellow and really mess people up.
He must be a true geek: He would rather write an intricate manual rather than just show his son face-to-face how to use the damned thing. I can relate :-)
Table-ized A.I.
Somewhere at the bottom it says something about "firste posthethe" and an arcane mention of something called "yegoate.intercour.se" Predating slashdot standards yet again, Chauncer gave this to his son then 4 hours later gave it to him again.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
it wasn't all refined and perfect and unambiguous like it is now. ;-)
--- Ban humanity.
...the manual explains in great detail but very rough spelling and grammar...
And how this is different from any of the recent manuals I've read, again?
At least with Chaucer's manual, eventually, you WOULD understand what the fsck you were doing, which is more than can be said for some tech writings.
-Styopa
Ah yes...the time when /. editors reigned supreme.
In our day and age, we have the ability to dash things off at fifty to a hundred words a minute (depending on typing ability), and we make nearly everything we compose direct to the point of sterility.
No we don't.
Father! (Score:IV, Runelike)
by Lowysbot (0000087)
on Wednesday January 28, 1392
Overthwart this forseide longe lyne ther crossith him another lyne of the same lengthe from eest to west? WTF?
Siggurus infantium!
re: Father! (Score:II, Plagued)
by ACerteyneMortale (0000004)
on Wednesday January 28, 1392
RTAM!
(Rede thy accursd manuale!
Mie tayle is too loge for God's sig.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
For anyone too lazy to read, here's how it begins:
"Congratulations on choosing Astrolabe(TM), the most advanced device of its kind in the worlde..... blah blah blah.
Astrolabe Inc. 1391"
Wasn't K&R The first manual on earth?
....
I mean, Unix was invented, then man was created, then all the manual pages, or am i wrong?
WTF am I doing replying to an AC at 5 A.M on a Friday night?
'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three. No more. No less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'
The original manuscript was found in perfect condition, due to the fact that his son never broke the shrinkwrap on the manual.
From the text: "And God woot that in alle these langages and in many moo han these conclusions ben suffisantly lerned and taught, and yit by diverse reules; right as diverse pathes leden diverse folk the righte way to Rome."
Even in the 14th century, There Was More Than One Way To Do It !
Thomas Miconi
I tried just it through babelish, but that just made things worse.
JET Program: see Japan, meet intere
That bastard has been sending me spam! Take a look at this subject line!
"Fynde VYAGRA Cheep Ohnline and increese thine organ by moo proporciouns"
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass