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Maddog's New Hampshire "Unix" Plate Turns 20
An anonymous reader writes "Local newspaper talks to Linux International's Jon 'maddog' Hall, who lives in New Hampshire, and who since 1989 has had a 'Live Free or Die' UNIX license plate — a real one, not a conference hand-out — on his Jeep. From the story:
'The day he installed the UNIX plates, he went early to work at DEC's office on Spit Brook Road in Nashua, to be sure to get the parking space right next to the door used by all the Unix engineers. He watched them come in and, one after another, do a double take at seeing the real-world version of the famous fake plate. "People would race in and yell, 'Who is it? Whose plate is it?!?'" Hall said. It was his then and it is his now. After 20 years, one suspects you will have to pry it from his cold, dead fingers.'"
I saw a chick driving a car with a Connecticut LINUX plate in Danbury. I just about divorced my wife right then and there. :)
I have a friend whose last name starts with P. His parents gave him and his brother the initials TCP and IP.
All your base are belong to Wii.
We here in Sweden celebrate New Hampshire license plates all the time. And this one is certainly the most celebrated here, without a doubt. I mean.. Why wouldn't we celebrate a license plate from New Hampshire? It would be silly not to really.
It's little known in the nerd community that "unix" has also negative conotations for example in certain ghettos in california an unix is a one-legged chinese hooker.
Call me sceptical, but this is remiscent of the bullshit entries near the bottom of the list on Urban Dictionary (3 thumbs up from the submitter and friends, 10 thumbs down from everyone else who stumbled across that piece of nonsense).
I live near Spitbrook and I've seen that plate around the area for years. I've never known the story behind it though.
" Je me souviens."
Set your phasers on "funky"!
What about their sister Ulva Daphne?
Uh huh. I gather you aren't from these parts. Might I suggest you google Article 10 of the NH state constitution? Very interesting read and is occasionally brought to the attention of the Pols here.
Live, Freeze, and Die.
Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds.There upon the rainbow is the answer to a neverending story
My late father had "RS 232" as his license plate on his PT Cruiser. It's not as cool and hard-to-get as UNIX, I suppose, but considering recent popularity of UNIX derivatives in general it's certainly more obscure in the geek crowd.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Ah yes, the famous Swedish Hampplattrsdag! I understand you even have a crispbread shaped like the plate.
Here in the UK we named a county 'Hampshire' in honour. I have the misfortune to live 'next door' in West Sussex, but I am considering moving.
AT&ROFLMAO
For those that are too lazy to look it up: Article 10
That was the windows version.
Read what I mean, not what I wrote.
Well considering NH has the highest number of vanity plates per capita, I'd say, quite a few. I personally like the Linux and BSD license plates better, though those from NH would probably agree IH8RT3 is also in the top tier.
The summary made me do a double-take, and if you RTFA you will see the summary is wrong. The real plate isn't based on the fake plates. The fake plates were a copy of Armando's plate long ago, he made them himself. When Armando left New Hampshire, maddog apparently took over the plate.
I have one of the fake plates from Usenix, when Armando had dec make them.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
Yeah, I don't remember quite having the same connection with her.
(or GNU/Linux if it wasn't too long to fit)
The most you can have is 7 letters on NH plates.
All give, no take?
Is it sad that I am more likely to recognize you and your posts by your sig than your name or UID?
Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yer?
See the løveli lakes
The wonderful telephøne system
And mani interesting furry animals
Plates with "H8" in them referred to as "hate plates" have been banned in the state, there was a big to-do about it a number of years ago when they started revoking plates with that in them.
FWIW I live in NH and all of my cars have vanity plates. Though only one of them is nerdy.
Collector's Edition
And mani interesting furry animals
Not funny. A møøse one bit my sister :(
a one-legged chinese hooker.
... named Irene?
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
To beat a bunch of UNIX engineers? I guess he got in at about 10.30am
I don't think that author understands the meaning of staple.
Excuse me, I believe you have my stapler...
Squirrel!
Eunuchs?
Unreliable.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
MICRO~1