spotting cygwin ml trends

spotting cygwin ml trends

[Christopher Faylor]

It seems like this type of email is on the rise:

"<some program in the cygwin distribution> is <describe strange behavior>
since I last updated Cygwin."

<send several messages expressing confusion and consternation>

"Oh, I found the problem.  I had previously done <describe unusual and
hard-to-forget thing>.  When I reverted that, things started working
fine."

I wonder if that's a sign of anything.  It might mean that there is an
increase in people/organizations using cygwin and they are including
stupid instructions to work around real or imagined problems.

cgf

Re: spotting cygwin ml trends

[mwoehlke]

Christopher Faylor wrote:
> It seems like this type of email is on the rise:
> 
> "<some program in the cygwin distribution> is <describe strange behavior>
> since I last updated Cygwin."
> 
> <send several messages expressing confusion and consternation>
> 
> "Oh, I found the problem.  I had previously done <describe unusual and
> hard-to-forget thing>.  When I reverted that, things started working
> fine."
> 
> I wonder if that's a sign of anything.  It might mean that there is an
> increase in people/organizations using cygwin and they are including
> stupid instructions to work around real or imagined problems.

There is *NEVER* a shortage of stupid people doing stupid things. :-)

-- 
Matthew
Warning: This message has not been approved by the FDA.

Re: spotting cygwin ml trends

[Corinna Vinschen]

On Jul 13 13:04, mwoehlke wrote:
> Christopher Faylor wrote:
> >It seems like this type of email is on the rise:
> >
> >"<some program in the cygwin distribution> is <describe strange behavior>
> >since I last updated Cygwin."
> >
> ><send several messages expressing confusion and consternation>
> >
> >"Oh, I found the problem.  I had previously done <describe unusual and
> >hard-to-forget thing>.  When I reverted that, things started working
> >fine."
> >
> >I wonder if that's a sign of anything.  It might mean that there is an
> >increase in people/organizations using cygwin and they are including
> >stupid instructions to work around real or imagined problems.
> 
> There is *NEVER* a shortage of stupid people doing stupid things. :-)

Wait, doesn't that mean stupidity is the perfect perpetuum mobile?  Wow,
finally endless energy for everybody!  Unfortunately the engineers are
too stupid to get it working...


Corinna

Re: spotting cygwin ml trends

[Christopher Faylor]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2006 at 01:04:48PM -0500, mwoehlke wrote:
>Christopher Faylor wrote:
>>It seems like this type of email is on the rise:
>>
>>"<some program in the cygwin distribution> is <describe strange behavior>
>>since I last updated Cygwin."
>>
>><send several messages expressing confusion and consternation>
>>
>>"Oh, I found the problem.  I had previously done <describe unusual and
>>hard-to-forget thing>.  When I reverted that, things started working
>>fine."
>>
>>I wonder if that's a sign of anything.  It might mean that there is an
>>increase in people/organizations using cygwin and they are including
>>stupid instructions to work around real or imagined problems.
>
>There is *NEVER* a shortage of stupid people doing stupid things. :-)

Right.  I'm theorizing that cygwin's popularity is widening and we're coming
in contact with more of them.

cgf

Re: spotting cygwin ml trends

[Shankar Unni]

Christopher Faylor wrote:
> Right.  I'm theorizing that cygwin's popularity is widening and we're coming
> in contact with more of them.

And the fix is obvious, of course: hardcode everything everywhere in 
Cygwin. None of this weenie registry/Path crap. Make it a completely 
closed system, released once every 6 years, with "security updates" 
every 3 months (or so..).

Re: spotting cygwin ml trends

[Christopher Faylor]

On Thu, Jul 13, 2006 at 12:47:40PM -0700, Shankar Unni wrote:
>Christopher Faylor wrote:
>>Right.  I'm theorizing that cygwin's popularity is widening and we're
>>coming in contact with more of them.
>
>And the fix is obvious, of course: hardcode everything everywhere in
>Cygwin.  None of this weenie registry/Path crap.  Make it a completely
>closed system, released once every 6 years, with "security updates"
>every 3 months (or so..).

You know, that just might work!  It follows a known successful software
release model.

And, maybe I'll get some job security out of this plan.

cgf