spc-request@tc.fluke.COM (10/30/87)
On this day in 1982, Larry Wall, who would go on to create the most revolutionary product since the invention of the weed-eater, was taking a shower before going to bed. Unexpectedly, his bar of Dial soap slipped out of his hands and rocketed into the center of his forehead. Stunned, blinded by the irritating soap suds, he suddenly had a vision of a Unix software tool that would allow people to automatically skip news articles with/by boring or offensive subjects/authors. Pleased with his conception, he rinsed, gargled with Listerine, and went to bed a happy man. Of course, Larry went on to create 'rn', the incarnation of his vision, and has been immortalized by members of the net community ever since. His conception of the KILL file has allowed people of good taste to avoid pointless, abusive net-spats brought on by over-sensitive egotists with a lot of posting time on their hands. If not for Larry's work (and, of course, the fellow who invented regular expressions, whose name I forgot five minutes after hearing it in CS 401), net administrators in news.admin would long ago have been driven into gibbering fits by the whole Mark Allen Smith/Larry Lipman/misc.legal crossovers; thanks to the technology encapsulated in 'rn' KILL files, they can live useful, productive lives, safe from the self-consuming flames of dweebs everywhere. Larry Wall: A Pioneering American Software Guy. We at SPC salute you. [This has been a Commemaritive Usenet Minute, brought to you by Usenet, Stupid People's Court, and the Ford Motor Company, who asks "Have you driven a Ford into a brick wall at 80 MPH... lately?"] If you've got a flame, don't take it to the net. Take it to court. ****** STUPID PEOPLE'S COURT!! ****** ============================================================================ "You know what I wish? I wish all the scum of the Net had one throat and I had my hands about it." -- Rorschach (1985) Judge Moriarty Wapner Stupid People's Court COMMENTS: spc-request@tc.fluke.COM SUBMISSIONS: spc@tc.fluke.COM Manual UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, hplsla, lbl-csam}!fluke!spc-request DISCLAIMER:The ideas, opinions and implied snide remarks used above do not necessarily represent the views of my employers. They are entirely out of my dark and furtive imagination.