I remember when I became a buddhist I was told that the most important thing one can do and the best way to live a good life was to take refuge in the buddha, the dharma and the sangha.
I have recently began to see how this parallel works with the perl community.
Buddha himself was not a god and will not ever be. Buddha was a simple monk who achieved what every man can achieve, enlightenment. When entering a shrine room it is part of the Mahayana tradition to prostrate before the buddha as a symbol of respect. One does not prostrate to buddha as an external deity, one prostrates to what buddha represents: the ability to become enlightened. What you could be. Take refuge in the fact that you can become enlightened. Respect your inner buddha.
Many of us think of Larry Wall as the ubergeek, and published reports would have us believe that he doesn't particularly care for this designation as the god king of perl. Larry also loves the commonly perceived enemy, Microsoft.
"Your friend is your enemy and your enemy is your friend".
Thankfully that quote has not expired yet. It's a ridiculous notion that Microsoft is the devil. Microsoft only wants happiness as we do. There are many in the Microsoft camp whose actions do not match this but then again I'm sure that Microsoft could point out to us members of our own Perl ranks who think that Microsoft can only do wrong. Larry wants this to work on Microsoft and serves as an excellent role model. Larry is like buddha in that respect. Compassion and understanding for ones perceived enemies is important. Microsoft seems to be a favorite but as one extraordinarily wise member of our ranks pointed out at YAPC2001, there are things to learn from other communities particularly Python. This bring us to our next point..
Taking refuge in the dharma. Taking refuge in the dharma means that there is a wealth of information in the teachings of our community that you should call upon should you need an answer. We have ALL been here. One particularly nice piece of work is the Perl Cookbook. Should you need help traversing a hash or reading a file backwards by line or paragraph, it's there. In buddhism, trails of spiritualism have been blazed by the masters before and like those trails, so paths to other problems have been figured out for you by perl mongers that have such a knowledge of code that to call them perl monks would be understating it. People such as Damian Conway, Ziggy, Nat Torkington, Randall Schwartz, and Lincoln Stein have all achieved perl lama status for the knowledge they demonstrate in their writings. Taking refuge in the dharma should begin with you amassing as many of these books as you can. Firstly because they are perl dharma teachings that will serve you well and secondly because it's your duty to support your community. If you think to yourself "I wish I could help the community as these guys have helped me" then support these same folks by buying their books and stocking your book shelf. Go to half.com and get them if you have to. If nothing else you can give the illusion that you are really smart while you are working towards perl enlightenment.
For our discussion dharma in our community represents many things. CPAN is probably the best example. I recently had a need for sending an ICQ message recently from a script. Luckily for me Jeremy Muhlich had the same problem and not only solved it, but was thoughtful enough to make a module so that others could have an easier time of it. Mr. Muhlich didn't have to be this nice. Now consider that there are thousands of modules there now and that there are at least hundreds of developers that were equally thoughtful as Mr. Muhlich. Hundreds of developers and they all thought enough to put it out there to make YOUR life easier. Can you think of any other group of people that would do this? Oh sure there are those groups that can pay lip service to this idea but to see it in practice is something different.
Then there's the sangha, or Perl Mongers. Once a month, pay the visit and you will find that there is much to learn. Being an active participant is an also an exercise in ego reduction. Here's an experiment that not only will help you be a better programmer but a better person: bring your code to a Perl Mongers meeting, and let your fellow mongers ridicule you in front of your peers. It NEVER happens that way at these meetings. When you put away that programmer's pride and ask questions, something funny happens: people will give you answers. It's amazing really. The sangha will support you. If you can't make a PM meeting, then start reading and participating in comp.lang.misc.perl or perlmonks.org. Many times you will find that sangha members will give you an answer in just a couple of hours.
Taking refuge in the buddha, dharma and sangha: it's not just for buddhists anymore.
To have a monopoly (already proven in court), put out an inferior product and not have to worry about being sued for all the damaging worms and viruses that said products inflict upon your clients.
If a totalitarian regime put out software for it's masses it would be just like this.
(Go ahead Redmond disciples and mod me down. What good is a ton of karma if you can't burn it?)
It's patent pending? Well then....
on
CD Copy Stopper
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· Score: 2
Someone go to uspto.gov and get the specs.
Then again maybe they aren't published yet.
Anyone ever try to get news in the morning? CNN has been taken over by morons doing all fluff. Fox is a pandering channel for Republicans that hide behind the fair and balanced crap (it's neither).
The best time to watch news is when you are out of the U.S. CNN International is a totally different creature than what you see here.
Shame we don't have the option here to get it in the states.
Don't be unfair to the author......
on
Perl & LWP
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Yeah yeah spammers can use it. So what?
Spam/email harvesting is only one of thousands of uses for LWP and focusing on that fact alone is VERY unfair to the author. You want to address the spamming issue? Don't use mailto tags in your HTML. Use form submission instead. If you use mailto: tags you DESERVE to be spammed.
There. Now shut the fsck up about the issue.
I manage a few government web sites and this book has been tremendous help in writing the spiders that I use to crawl the sites and record HTTP responses that then generate reports about out of date pages, 404s and so on. That alone has made it worth the money.
Sean did a great job on this. His book doesn't deserve to be slammed for what the technology MAY be used for.
I have a lone Linux box in a sea of NT boxes here at the Corps of Engineers. That box was put here because I was able to code a few dynamite apps that have since proven to be invaluable to the Corps.
It was the services that I was able to provide to the Corps that mandated inclusion of Linux into our infrastructure. I was able to more with my open source tools than the NT guys could with theirs.
I would not have wanted this box here by any method.
If you believe that Open Source can trounce proprietary methods based on its merits then you need to be against mandating Open Source.
All we need is a Microsoft disciple being FORCED to use OSS and being turned off forever. That converts no one.
I contract for a defense branch. My employer is pretty wormy though. They tried to get me to sign a non disclosure/non compete agreement that was quite draconian. Running it by 4 attorneys they all told me that I would have a bright future as a stock clerk if I signed it. So I didn't. The agreements would have given them rights to practically everything in my head.
I then proceeded to create an application that the defense folks wanted.
So I copyrighted in my name. I give it to the military, my employer gets zip.
I code for the government as a contractor and I copyright my code before giving it to the government.
2 reasons why: 1. So the company I work for doesn't get to say it's theirs and I can give the benefit to the customer. 2. So I can sell it commercially.:-)
Right now get Dell computers at an insanely low price! That's right! We've been threatened by Microsoft and our loss is your gain! Get this 2 Ghz Linux box for only 599.00!
Seriously, can we look forward to a sale since they have to be out by Sep 1?
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Interesting post on use.perl.org
I remember when I became a buddhist I was told that the most important thing one can do and the best way to live a good life was to take refuge in the buddha, the dharma and the sangha. I have recently began to see how this parallel works with the perl community.
Buddha himself was not a god and will not ever be. Buddha was a simple monk who achieved what every man can achieve, enlightenment. When entering a shrine room it is part of the Mahayana tradition to prostrate before the buddha as a symbol of respect. One does not prostrate to buddha as an external deity, one prostrates to what buddha represents: the ability to become enlightened. What you could be. Take refuge in the fact that you can become enlightened. Respect your inner buddha.
Many of us think of Larry Wall as the ubergeek, and published reports would have us believe that he doesn't particularly care for this designation as the god king of perl. Larry also loves the commonly perceived enemy, Microsoft. "Your friend is your enemy and your enemy is your friend". Thankfully that quote has not expired yet. It's a ridiculous notion that Microsoft is the devil. Microsoft only wants happiness as we do. There are many in the Microsoft camp whose actions do not match this but then again I'm sure that Microsoft could point out to us members of our own Perl ranks who think that Microsoft can only do wrong. Larry wants this to work on Microsoft and serves as an excellent role model. Larry is like buddha in that respect. Compassion and understanding for ones perceived enemies is important. Microsoft seems to be a favorite but as one extraordinarily wise member of our ranks pointed out at YAPC2001, there are things to learn from other communities particularly Python. This bring us to our next point..
Taking refuge in the dharma. Taking refuge in the dharma means that there is a wealth of information in the teachings of our community that you should call upon should you need an answer. We have ALL been here. One particularly nice piece of work is the Perl Cookbook. Should you need help traversing a hash or reading a file backwards by line or paragraph, it's there. In buddhism, trails of spiritualism have been blazed by the masters before and like those trails, so paths to other problems have been figured out for you by perl mongers that have such a knowledge of code that to call them perl monks would be understating it. People such as Damian Conway, Ziggy, Nat Torkington, Randall Schwartz, and Lincoln Stein have all achieved perl lama status for the knowledge they demonstrate in their writings. Taking refuge in the dharma should begin with you amassing as many of these books as you can. Firstly because they are perl dharma teachings that will serve you well and secondly because it's your duty to support your community. If you think to yourself "I wish I could help the community as these guys have helped me" then support these same folks by buying their books and stocking your book shelf. Go to half.com and get them if you have to. If nothing else you can give the illusion that you are really smart while you are working towards perl enlightenment.
For our discussion dharma in our community represents many things. CPAN is probably the best example. I recently had a need for sending an ICQ message recently from a script. Luckily for me Jeremy Muhlich had the same problem and not only solved it, but was thoughtful enough to make a module so that others could have an easier time of it. Mr. Muhlich didn't have to be this nice. Now consider that there are thousands of modules there now and that there are at least hundreds of developers that were equally thoughtful as Mr. Muhlich. Hundreds of developers and they all thought enough to put it out there to make YOUR life easier. Can you think of any other group of people that would do this? Oh sure there are those groups that can pay lip service to this idea but to see it in practice is something different.
Then there's the sangha, or Perl Mongers. Once a month, pay the visit and you will find that there is much to learn. Being an active participant is an also an exercise in ego reduction. Here's an experiment that not only will help you be a better programmer but a better person: bring your code to a Perl Mongers meeting, and let your fellow mongers ridicule you in front of your peers. It NEVER happens that way at these meetings. When you put away that programmer's pride and ask questions, something funny happens: people will give you answers. It's amazing really. The sangha will support you. If you can't make a PM meeting, then start reading and participating in comp.lang.misc.perl or perlmonks.org. Many times you will find that sangha members will give you an answer in just a couple of hours.
Taking refuge in the buddha, dharma and sangha: it's not just for buddhists anymore.
long after there is an equal/better alternative?
"I think most people on /. are warming up to Linux".
:-)
You might be onto something!
And given AvantGo's recent slide like every other dot com there probably isn't much reason to think this will be fixed.
Well I went and hacked the Army.. Dad said son you're fucking high.....
No it wouldn't M$ disciple! Obviously if you compile your own code, they you are responsible for the blow up. Now back and patch your M$ machines!
To have a monopoly (already proven in court), put out an inferior product and not have to worry about being sued for all the damaging worms and viruses that said products inflict upon your clients.
If a totalitarian regime put out software for it's masses it would be just like this.
(Go ahead Redmond disciples and mod me down. What good is a ton of karma if you can't burn it?)
Someone go to uspto.gov and get the specs. Then again maybe they aren't published yet.
Since a diamond is the world hardest substance, you're guaranteed immortality. At least until the sun supernova.
Turns out that Slashdot already did a story about this. Sorry for not including the link.
ASCAP! The mafia that controls music. There's a great story at wired about travelfinder.com's links to radio stations.
ASCAP wanted them to fork over royalty fees even though the music wasn't archived on their site! The links were clearly denoted as external.
Then again this isn't suprising behavior considering that ASCAP tried to strongarm the girl scouts into paying royalties for songs sung around the campfire.
Anyone ever try to get news in the morning?
CNN has been taken over by morons doing all fluff. Fox is a pandering channel for Republicans that hide behind the fair and balanced crap (it's neither).
The best time to watch news is when you are out of the U.S. CNN International is a totally different creature than what you see here.
Shame we don't have the option here to get it in the states.
that rightfully thought the US was backwards with Fritz Holling, DMCA, etc: Welcome!
I got karma to burn. Mod me down if you must.
If you are in their service area, use their service. Support them!
More has always been accomplished under prohibition than not. Enterprising young 'uns will always be a step ahead.
Besides Jack, you can't live forever.....
Of course I always thought that fiber was always pretty secure anyway since it's a lot harder to tap than copper
Boy did you think wrong. The USS Jimmy Carter is being retrofitted just for the purpose of tapping fiber optic cable.
Yeah yeah spammers can use it. So what? Spam/email harvesting is only one of thousands of uses for LWP and focusing on that fact alone is VERY unfair to the author. You want to address the spamming issue? Don't use mailto tags in your HTML. Use form submission instead. If you use mailto: tags you DESERVE to be spammed.
There. Now shut the fsck up about the issue.
I manage a few government web sites and this book has been tremendous help in writing the spiders that I use to crawl the sites and record HTTP responses that then generate reports about out of date pages, 404s and so on. That alone has made it worth the money.
Sean did a great job on this. His book doesn't deserve to be slammed for what the technology MAY be used for.
Microsoft gives N'Orleans the first one and they have to pay later? Like drug pushers? (First one's free).
New Orleans has a larger looming problem if they head down this path: the cost of hardware upgrades.
The problem with tying oneself to M$ is that you need more powerful hardware everytime they release a new version of bloatware.
If New Orleans can't buy software, how the hell are they going to keep upgrading their hardware with every release?
Really? Call MIT! Scientists might want to study that.
Yes it is Anonymous Coward. But that is not the single governing reason.
Even if OSS costs, I would still be able to do more than the NT guys. Not sure how the argument turns on itself based on your reasoning.
I have a lone Linux box in a sea of NT boxes here at the Corps of Engineers. That box was put here because I was able to code a few dynamite apps that have since proven to be invaluable to the Corps.
It was the services that I was able to provide to the Corps that mandated inclusion of Linux into our infrastructure. I was able to more with my open source tools than the NT guys could with theirs.
I would not have wanted this box here by any method.
If you believe that Open Source can trounce proprietary methods based on its merits then you need to be against mandating Open Source.
All we need is a Microsoft disciple being FORCED to use OSS and being turned off forever. That converts no one.
I contract for a defense branch. My employer is pretty wormy though. They tried to get me to sign a non disclosure/non compete agreement that was quite draconian. Running it by 4 attorneys they all told me that I would have a bright future as a stock clerk if I signed it. So I didn't. The agreements would have given them rights to practically everything in my head.
I then proceeded to create an application that the defense folks wanted.
So I copyrighted in my name. I give it to the military, my employer gets zip.
I code for the government as a contractor and I copyright my code before giving it to the government.
:-)
2 reasons why:
1. So the company I work for doesn't get to say it's theirs and I can give the benefit to the customer.
2. So I can sell it commercially.
Because at the end of Godzilla 2000 there's a little japanese guy that says that "There's a little Godzilla in all of us".
Don't know if that's legally binding or not.
Right now get Dell computers at an insanely low price! That's right! We've been threatened by Microsoft and our loss is your gain! Get this 2 Ghz Linux box for only 599.00! Seriously, can we look forward to a sale since they have to be out by Sep 1?