July 27, 2009
Of Debian and driving :)
A long time ago, Charles Babbage said there were people who asked him, in all seriousness, whether if one puts the wrong figures into a machine, the right answers would come out; his reaction was "I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
Today, I ran into something similar which… let's just say I really, really, really hope it's just a trollish prank! There's a person on the debian-russian mailing list who has been asking questions for a month or two — idiotic questions at first, then simply silly ones, and lately just exasperating lazy questions. Almost everyone ignores him, but every now and then somebody answers and thus keeps him going.
Today he produced this (in Russian):
What can Debian do for an unskilled driver?
………
Here's a quick and dirty translation for people who can't handle Russian very well:
What can Debian do for an unskilled driver?
I got my driver's license four years ago. Haven't driven much, I'm quite lousy at it. Hit a concrete wall twice today. :( So what can Debian do for an unskilled driver? You know, some kind of a driving simulator, so I can use the sensor panel and the keys on my laptop to create a virtual model of a situation on the road, something like a super-virtual practice program for learning the rules and maybe even some actual driving practice ;-)
………
As I said, I really, really, REALLY hope he's just a troll and this is just a prank!
Of the people who answered, two have taken him seriously — one of them said that the only thing Debian can do for him is provide a browser and an Internet connection so the OP can find some driving lessons; the other one explained in detail that the movements and the perception is quite different and that there's really nothing in common, no habits, no anything. There's also another reply which quotes the first couple of sentences and answers the "What can Debian do..." question with "Provide a tougher concrete wall".
If it's not a joke… you see, this black hole that started eating the Earth's crust moving towards its center this morning, is the trail of my trust in the survival of mankind. If it is indeed a joke — well, I guess it does have some merit then :)
