* Ohmster wrote in comp.os.linux:
> I use Fedora Core 3 and am quite pleased with it. I wanted to have the
> command line program, "fortune" on my system again, it is amusing to read
> sometimes when I am bored. I found fortune on the dag fc3 repository and
> installed it with yum. It works fine and I have my fortune back.

> [ohmster@ohmster ~]$ rpm -q fortune
> fortune-1.0-35.1.fc3.rf

> What is unsettling is some of the "fortunes". Here I did three in a row,
> pay particular attention to the 2nd one:

> [ohmster@ohmster ~]$ fortune
> I am the wandering glitch -- catch me if you can.
> [ohmster@ohmster ~]$ fortune
> nohup rm -fr /&
> [ohmster@ohmster ~]$ fortune
> A halted retreat
> Is nerve-wracking and dangerous.
> To retain people as men -- and maidservants
> Brings good fortune.
> [ohmster@ohmster ~]$

> ...are they kidding me or what? Do you see that second fortune? What if a
> newbie actually pasted that line into his prompt and ran it, especially
> as root?!

> nohup rm -fr /&

> Is this supposed to be a joke? Yeah I see it and sure, it is pretty

Dude, you are taking fortune MUCH to seriously.

[05:36:44][J:1][sinner@~]$ which fortune
/usr/games/fortune

Note where it is located. Anyone, newbie or other, that types in what to
them is a cryptic command at a prompt as root having no idea what they
are typing, gets what they deserve.

No, that is not considered an 'offensive' fortune. When you see one, you
will know it, but unless you specifically installed the offensive
package you shouldnt see very many.

--
David
The best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep. -W.C. Fields

Ohmster wrote:

Don't get your knickers in a knot. A newbie would hose his machine. Big
deal. That teaches him to think before doing.

--
Ruurd
..o.
...o
ooo

"R.F. Pels" wrote in news:d7aues$ob0$1
@news1.zwoll1.ov.home.nl:

> Don't get your knickers in a knot. A newbie would hose his machine. Big
> deal. That teaches him to think before doing.

LOL! Roger that, thanks RF.

--
~Ohmster
ohmster at newsguy dot com

SINNER <99nesorjd@gates_of_hell.invalid> wrote in news:kl8nm2xg74.ln2
@news.gates_of_hell.com:

> Dude, you are taking fortune MUCH to seriously.
>
> [05:36:44][J:1][sinner@~]$ which fortune
> /usr/games/fortune
>
> Note where it is located. Anyone, newbie or other, that types in what to
> them is a cryptic command at a prompt as root having no idea what they
> are typing, gets what they deserve.
>
> No, that is not considered an 'offensive' fortune. When you see one, you
> will know it, but unless you specifically installed the offensive
> package you shouldnt see very many.

Yeah alright, maybe I need to get out more. LOL!

Thanks David.

--
~Ohmster
ohmster at newsguy dot com

R.F. Pels wrote:

> Ohmster wrote:
>
> Don't get your knickers in a knot. A newbie would hose his machine. Big
> deal. That teaches him to think before doing.
>
I did something very much like that, way back when. It left an indelible
impression on my mind. As a rank newbie (running as root, of course), I
didn't have much on the drive yet - but I did have to reinstall. Live and
learn, and don't believe everything people tell you...


--
"If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith."
-- Albert Einstein

Baruch wrote in
news:Xc9me.2537$uu.573@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com:

> I did something very much like that, way back when. It left an
> indelible impression on my mind. As a rank newbie (running as root,
> of course), I didn't have much on the drive yet - but I did have to
> reinstall. Live and learn, and don't believe everything people tell
> you...

Yeah really. I cannot *believe* that they would put something like that in
fortune and not even put a warning on it. That would do it alright. Sorry
you got nailed, Baruch, but you learned alright, didn't you? ;>)

--
~Ohmster
ohmster at newsguy dot com

In article , Baruch wrote:
>R.F. Pels wrote:
>
>> Ohmster wrote:

[nohup rm -fr /& in fortune file]

>> Don't get your knickers in a knot. A newbie would hose his machine. Big
>> deal. That teaches him to think before doing.

"This is what happen when you insist in using root as your 'default' user.
A reinstall is a cure and punishment." If you are lucky (good backups)
and can afford the time, this is an excellent way to learn.

>I did something very much like that, way back when. It left an indelible
>impression on my mind. As a rank newbie (running as root, of course),

Yes, there is nothing quite like seeing the world explode around you that
gives an everlasting impression of "Hmmm, don't do _that_ again".

It was six months before I even knew who this 'root' account was. I got
wheel group when I had about 15 months experience, and that allowed
me to shut systems down and mount/umount disk packs. I think it took
another six or seven months before I got root. I was terrified that
something I was going to mistype was going to bring the system down, and
bring down the wrath of 350 users and more importantly, the sys-admin.
That was on 4BSD, at least 5 years before linux-0.01. With modern Linux
(and *BSD) distributions, root is often the first account a newbie gets.

As regards the fortunes - I'm slightly curious where the O/P found them,
as 'fortune-mod' was removed from RH9 (actually, from 'phoebe' which was
the beta for RH9) because of unclear copyright status, and I don't see
that package on fc-3.91 which was the second beta for FC4. 'fortune-mod'
version 1.0 was derived from the FreeBSD package, and goes back before
1995. The specific fortune that's got the O/P concerned is in
/usr/share/games/fortunes/computers and the third fortune in that file
ought to give a clue - a Sun2 (not a Sparc 2, but something that quite
predates the Sparc architecture) and the "apparent" uname output shows
this to be positively ancient.

Old guy

Ohmster wrote:

> Baruch wrote in
> news:Xc9me.2537$uu.573@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com:
>
>> I did something very much like that, way back when. It left an
>> indelible impression on my mind. As a rank newbie (running as root,
>> of course), I didn't have much on the drive yet - but I did have to
>> reinstall. Live and learn, and don't believe everything people tell
>> you...
>
> Yeah really. I cannot *believe* that they would put something like that in
> fortune and not even put a warning on it. That would do it alright. Sorry
> you got nailed, Baruch, but you learned alright, didn't you? ;>)
>
I got nailed, but in my case it didn't matter much... and yes, I learned all
right. It's kind of like sticking your finger into a light socket. You
only do it once.


--
Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics.
-- Fletcher Knebel

ibuprofin@painkiller.example.tld (Moe Trin) wrote in
news:slrnd9l1a5.iso.ibuprofin@compton.phx.az.us:

> As regards the fortunes - I'm slightly curious where the O/P found them,
> as 'fortune-mod' was removed from RH9 (actually, from 'phoebe' which was
> the beta for RH9) because of unclear copyright status, and I don't see
> that package on fc-3.91 which was the second beta for FC4. 'fortune-mod'
> version 1.0 was derived from the FreeBSD package, and goes back before
> 1995. The specific fortune that's got the O/P concerned is in
> /usr/share/games/fortunes/computers and the third fortune in that file
> ought to give a clue - a Sun2 (not a Sparc 2, but something that quite
> predates the Sparc architecture) and the "apparent" uname output shows
> this to be positively ancient.
>
> Old guy

Got this version of fortune from the dag repository, added it to my
yum.conf and let yum grab it.

[dag]
name=Dag RPM Repository for Fedora Core
baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/fedora/$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
enabled=1
#gpgcheck=1

URL directly to the file:
http://apt.sw.be/fedora/3/en/i386/RP...c3.rf.i386.rpm

Quite a few of them in there, go see:
http://apt.sw.be/fedora/3/en/i386/RPMS.dag/

--
~Ohmster
Put "Read Ohmster" in the subject to get past the
spam filter. Do this and your mail will get through.
ohmster /a/t/ newsguy dot com

Ohmster wrote:

> Yeah really. I cannot *believe* that they would put something like that in
> fortune and not even put a warning on it. That would do it alright. Sorry
> you got nailed, Baruch, but you learned alright, didn't you? ;>)

Oh, come on. That's as moronic as putting stickers on a lighter that it is a
fire hazard...

--
Ruurd
..o.
...o
ooo

R.F. Pels wrote:

> Oh, come on. That's as moronic as putting stickers on a lighter that it is
> a fire hazard...

I have a packet of book-matches from an American restaurant that warns
"contents may cause burns"!

Chris

--
Everything gets easier with practice, except getting up in the morning!

* chris wrote in comp.os.linux:
> R.F. Pels wrote:

>> Oh, come on. That's as moronic as putting stickers on a lighter that it is
>> a fire hazard...

> I have a packet of book-matches from an American restaurant that warns
> "contents may cause burns"!

Your point? The warning is still moronic. If we didn't live in a society
where people feel they have the right to sue because they burned themselves
on a match where the warning was not present, these MORONIC warnings
would not be necessary.

'Don't make toast in the shower with this product'

FFS, DUH!

--
David
Everywhere in the world, women outnumber men
-- Murphy's Laws of Dating n°4

chris wrote:

> R.F. Pels wrote:
>
>> Oh, come on. That's as moronic as putting stickers on a lighter that it
>> is a fire hazard...
>
> I have a packet of book-matches from an American restaurant that warns
> "contents may cause burns"!
>
> Chris
>
Some coffee makers have a warning, "Caution. Burners may be hot".


--
Fine day to throw a party. Throw him as far as you can.

SINNER wrote:

> * chris wrote in comp.os.linux:
>> R.F. Pels wrote:
>
>>> Oh, come on. That's as moronic as putting stickers on a lighter that it
>>> is a fire hazard...
>
>> I have a packet of book-matches from an American restaurant that warns
>> "contents may cause burns"!
>
> Your point? The warning is still moronic. If we didn't live in a society
> where people feel they have the right to sue because they burned
> themselves on a match where the warning was not present, these MORONIC
> warnings would not be necessary.
>
> 'Don't make toast in the shower with this product'
>
> FFS, DUH!
>
I remember seeing something that suggested that, while stupidity shouldn't
necessarily be made a capital offense, it might be a good idea to just
remove the warning labels from things and let nature take its course...


--
"I'd love to go out with you, but there are important world issues that
need worrying about."

* Baruch wrote in comp.os.linux:
> SINNER wrote:

>> * chris wrote in comp.os.linux:
>>> R.F. Pels wrote:

>>>> Oh, come on. That's as moronic as putting stickers on a lighter that it
>>>> is a fire hazard...

>>> I have a packet of book-matches from an American restaurant that warns
>>> "contents may cause burns"!

>> Your point? The warning is still moronic. If we didn't live in a society
>> where people feel they have the right to sue because they burned
>> themselves on a match where the warning was not present, these MORONIC
>> warnings would not be necessary.

>> 'Don't make toast in the shower with this product'

>> FFS, DUH!

> I remember seeing something that suggested that, while stupidity shouldn't
> necessarily be made a capital offense, it might be a good idea to just
> remove the warning labels from things and let nature take its course...

Likely over at The Darwin Awards. Truer words...


--
David
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
-- Raymond Chandler

Baruch wrote:

> I remember seeing something that suggested that, while stupidity shouldn't
> necessarily be made a capital offense, it might be a good idea to just
> remove the warning labels from things and let nature take its course...

Absolutely! Natural selection! The gene pool would be better off without
many of the idiots that appear in http://www.stellaawards.com/!

Chris

--
Everything gets easier with practice, except getting up in the morning!

In article , Ohmster wrote:

>Got this version of fortune from the dag repository, added it to my
>yum.conf and let yum grab it.

>URL directly to the file:
>http://apt.sw.be/fedora/3/en/i386/RP...c3.rf.i386.rpm

OK, that's just another of the many builds of fortune-mod-1.0 that had been
part of Red Hat for many years. You can check that by looking at the source,
or the rpm .spec file that comes with the src.rpm. If you are going to
blame anyone for including that fortune, the maintainer was Amy A. Lewis a
student at unc.edu in the mid-90s and Dennis L. Clark, a student in Oz, but
I think that group of fortunes originated at Berkeley in the 1980s. At that
stage of the game, you have to remember that _very few_ students had wheel,
never mind root. All that would happen is that the user who ran that
command wasted a lot of CPU cycles (getting a slew of "Permission denied"
messages), till the system finally got around to the user's home directory
(then in /usr/home/$USERNAME), or the student would get bored with the
constant stream of error messages. The only excitement might be trying to
find out how to get the job back into the foreground (or simply saying the
hell with it, and killing is after a 'ps' to get the process ID).

>Quite a few of them in there, go see:

ftp ibiblio.org or ftp ftp-linux.cc.gatech.edu
cd /pub/linux/

-rw-r--r-- 1 keeper users 14581180 May 30 10:34 ls-lR.gz

[compton ~]$ zwc dir.lists/sunsite-ls-lR.05.30.05.gz
799430 6867743 67329304
[compton ~]$ zcat dir.lists/sunsite-ls-lR.05.30.05.gz | awk '{total += $5 };
END {print total }'
5.42287e+10
[compton ~]$

So, the recursive directory listing is only 799,430 lines long, and the
amount of "stuff" on that server is 54.2287 Gigabytes.

Old guy

ibuprofin@painkiller.example.tld (Moe Trin) wrote in
news:slrnd9nbts.pn7.ibuprofin@compton.phx.az.us:

> [compton ~]$ zwc dir.lists/sunsite-ls-lR.05.30.05.gz
> 799430 6867743 67329304
> [compton ~]$ zcat dir.lists/sunsite-ls-lR.05.30.05.gz | awk '{total +=
> $5 }; END {print total }'
> 5.42287e+10
> [compton ~]$
>
> So, the recursive directory listing is only 799,430 lines long, and
> the amount of "stuff" on that server is 54.2287 Gigabytes.
>
> Old guy

Gee old guy, you are pretty good with that command line stuff. The story
was entertaining, thanks.

--
~Ohmster
"Read Ohmster" in subject, bypass spam filter.
ohmster /a/t/ newsguy dot com

This is an interesting thread and all about how newbies scxxw themselves.
However I have just two points.

[ohmster@ohmster ~]$ fortune
nohup rm -fr /&

1) This is not a fortune it is probably a bug.
2) When people type in fortune, I highly doubt they want to see command
line syntax. Or I suspect that they would not be wasting time typing in
fortune in the first place.


maybe fortune is no longer worth installing and will go the way of oh
"pascal" or my commodore 64 which yes had a port of fortune.

cheers