
_why's complete printer spool as one book [pdf] - coffeejunk
http://www.scribd.com/doc/136875051/-why-s-complete-printer-spool-as-one-book
======
sprayk
I emailed _why once, asking him how I should cite his name in a highschool
project I was working on. Here is his response:

    
    
      You can use my name (why the lucky stiff) and the date of
      publication (feb 16, 2004 - present) as frequently in your
      studies as you wish, so long as you keep your grade point
      average up and you diversify your elective credits with a
      broad portfolio of subjects.  I am specifically hoping you
      will bask in the study of 1930s Russian absurdist
      literature.  Oberiu is the name of the movement.
    
      I will never forget you.
    

Everything made sense after that, and the absurdist part of my world lit class
that year.

~~~
igravious
That is wonderful Sir. How may I cite this HN post of yours? And what subject
do you want me to take (remembering that I don't speak a word of Russian).

------
thaumaturgy
I think the thing I like about _why -- not that anybody asked -- is that I'm
never sure what to think when I'm reading this stuff. Usually I can't get
through more than a few sentences of something without judging it: "That was
smart, this was insightful, this author is a moron, I don't think that was
right, I disagree with that but I'm not bothered by their opinion..."

_why really kills that here.

I'm never sure if there's a point to what he's writing, if he's playing a joke
on people, or if he's playing a character, or if he's being totally and
completely honest in an unusual way.

I'm not sure if I'm the joke, he's the joke, or if we're sharing a joke.

Or if it's not a joke at all and I'm just too stupid to understand.

It's really neat.

~~~
eob
Nicely put. I think that you've really captured what about his writing and
persona are so special to the community.

I think the sense of sensitivity you feel through his writing adds to that,
too. If he's making a joke of you, it's a gentle one. Kind of the yin to Zed
Shaw's yang.

~~~
harrisreynolds
I thought of Zed Shaw some when reading these comments too. Definitely
different from _why but still comes at things from a different and sometimes
bizarre perspective that I like!

------
derefr
Fun moments for me:

\- The thematic element of wishing that the reader _not_ follow the
"references" in the work--the iPhone smackdown, and later more clearly with
the SACRED CLOWNS--leading later namedrops to pass without question. (In a
strange way, it almost feels like the urge to look them up was similar to an
urge to vomit: it has passed, and now I feel better.)

\- Slipping into Inform 7 to actually tell a story. I almost wanted to paste
it into an interpreter--it's valid Inform code--but it's more powerful _as
narrative_ , and more powerful _in_ the narrative because of its structure. In
the moment where he lost momentum and looked around for a next step, the world
"branched out" into a space composed of choices. This is the one more little
attempt to show people what "code as art" can mean.

\- The realization that (possible spoilers) the last third of the book is the
story of how he found himself working at a start-up. His reactions in-
narrative mirror his comment earlier in the work that he's "learning to get
over his hatred of entrepreneurs."

\---

On the whole, a very coherent story. If you're having trouble making sense of
it, make sure to interpret all the "deaths" in the story as _death of
identity_ , rather than _physical death_. Losing a job is death; breaking the
social contract of a character is death; etc.

And now, the site is down, and the _why identity is dead once more.

(And on a melancholic, perhaps overly-personal note: I do so wish that I could
be friends with that man. Not the identity, just the man. Talking about The
Happening would be fine.)

~~~
waxpancake
I OCRed the Inform 7 code and added it to Playfic:
[http://playfic.com/games/waxpancake/sacred-clowns-by-why-
the...](http://playfic.com/games/waxpancake/sacred-clowns-by-why-the-lucky-
stiff)

------
coffeejunk
Direct link to the pdf:
[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/8z6j7bju8qx7g7o/WHY_FULL...](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/8z6j7bju8qx7g7o/WHY_FULL.pdf?token_hash=AAFHqKM5vjJo185d-tm7sv1pC4UXI0LdD4WUBtvy2D4vUg&dl=1)

~~~
Luyt
Thank you! A direct link is so more user-friendly than putting a mandatory
registration wall before a PDF.

------
phren0logy
Printing a book as a print spool, including a self-referential handwritten
program to print the spool? If you don't think this is fun, I just don't know
what to tell you.

Speaking purely for myself, the absurdist nature of _why's work is part of the
fun. The feeling of being a little bit confused but enjoying the moment is why
I find programming interesting in the first place.

Keep up the great work _why!

------
obviouslygreen
I really don't understand the uproar and significance here.

I read through the book because I figured there'd be something insightful,
interesting, or explanatory in there. There basically isn't. If it's just
supposed to be art -- some kind of odd, disjointed story for its own sake --
then at least that's something, even if I didn't really care much for it.

I do like some of the presentation. The print queue thing is clever, and the
variety of scans/handwriting/printing in the work, where it's not a hindrance
to reading, is fun (I can see that the hindrance is part of the work, but it
still comes off as obnoxious to me).

Still, it leaves me wondering: Why do people care about this? It's some guy
that believed he wasn't a good programmer, stopped programming, went AWOL from
the internet, was happy about it, and then apparently wrote some sort of
strange fiction. OK, whatever floats your boat, but usually these fads pass.
This one just won't go away, even though going away is exactly what the author
did (or, arguably, is continuously failing to do).

Do those of you getting high on this see it as some kind of existential
statement or puzzle? I think way too much is being read into the whole thing.

------
gnufied
On anonymous programmers, I respect this guy - Icefrog. Lead designer of
Dota2, long time maintainer of Dota1 (And the one who really brought the game
to the fore), he even works for Valve but nobody knows who he really is.

To certain extent I think remaining anonymous forces you to be humble, which I
think can be a good thing, but damn people want to put a name to everything.

EDIT: I suspect some people at Valve will at least know who he really is.

~~~
lmm
Humble is not a word I'd use to describe this stunt. If _why and their readers
are having fun then fair play to them, but this is putting more attention on
the person and less on what they've done, whereas the truly humble would want
the reverse.

~~~
vidarh
Part of the the issue for _why seems to be that he got extremely disillusioned
about criticism of his code; criticism he took to heart (in this book he also
very explicitly say "I wrote hideous code for years"). So putting more
attention on a _persona_ that is thoroughly his own creation, and away from
his code, seems to me like he is dismissing the worth of his coding.

In fact, I find it quite sad to see how he refers to his code - I admire a lot
of what he did. Sure, a lot of it was not great _engineering_ , but it was
_artful_. E.g. Camping is fantastic to _read_ , both for itself and as a sort
of practical demonstration of how bloated many frameworks are. It's not that
most people would ever have a good reason to use Camping as their web
framework, but that to me is besides the point.

That said, part of it this whole thing also does seem to be driven by (hurt)
pride.

I hope he sticks with the writing, though - so far I'm halfway through the
PDF, and I love it.

------
coffeejunk
It is easy to see _why as "the crazy ruby guy who wrote some scripts and
created all this drama around his persona". Even though _why did indeed write
some (very useful) programs, I think this view of him misses the point and
probably explains why so many people seem to be puzzled by his newest
endeavour.

Yes, he wrote some Ruby code, but the code was his least important
contribution.

_why was the first person to actually create art _around_ and _about_
software. Others before him have used software _as a tool_ in their artistic
process, but to my knowledge no one has ever taken coding as the subject of a
performance art so intricate and beautiful as the character whytheluckystiff.
All his scripts, all his writings, even all his quirky animations and songs
show a love and passion for coding as a recreational activity that defies our
conventional beliefs about software as a craft & industry.

We often hear people in this community talk about elegant code, beautiful
code, even code as art. But all these sentiments usually mean art in the form
of _craftsmanship_ : We want a shorter way to write the same web app, a more
expressive way to create our tests, a more concise DSL for data manipulation.
While all of these are worthy goals, they are only a tiny, tiny fraction of
what coding really is or at least could be. If something doesn't help us build
our MVP faster, it's useless to us. Isn't there more to software than that?
Sure, there are people focusing on more esoteric stuff in their free time,
writing their own Lisps, exploring different data structures, etc. But all of
these activities still follow the same tenets: More efficient is better,
smaller is better, better is beautiful. We are in love with perfection and
purity, because that is what we (necessarily) strive for in our daily work.

_why was different.

Similar to how the decadent and symbolist movements of the late 19th century
popularized "Art for Art's sake", _why devoted his whole opus to "Code for
Code's sake". His work as a "freelancer professor" showed how much he cared
about children learning programming as an enjoyable activity, not as a way to
increase the supply of professional programmers. He also satirized our
obsession with exactly this professionalism that tends to creep into our
thinking and permeates our culture. In short, he used his character to show us
aspects of software that were largely underrepresented or ignored in most
mainstream discussions.

Personally, reading the poignant guide was the first time I read a piece of
code not to understand the code, but to understand a wonderful story. I still
don't know how to program in Ruby, but that doesn't matter. In my opinion the
poignant guide never really was about Ruby. It was a wonderfully quirky book
that happened to be using Ruby as its language. _why's style is absolutely
unique and reflects his approach to coding: It doesn't have to be (what we
normally consider) beautiful or clean, but it nevertheless forms a great and
intricate experience for the reader.

Similarly, today was the first time that I regretted not owning a printer. To
see new pages suddenly arrive in the tray to form a crazy and beautiful story
must have been magical. Even using only a virtual printer it was wonderful to
read the new parts of the book as they arrived and this experience alone made
it worthwhile for me. The content itself deserves more than just this quick HN
comment though.

So, if you want to know why so many people seem to enjoy the works of _why,
set aside some time and start to dig through his estate of old stuff. Don't
try to find something useful, just let the whole strange collection sink in.
As is often the case with art, the subjective experience is hard to put into
words as it depends so much on your personal context and the context of the
artwork. I have definitely done a shoddy job trying to describe what makes
_why special for me, I am not even sure it can be adequately put into words.
But if you like things that are absurd, sometimes useless, yet strangely
beautiful, then take a closer look at this works.

Thank you for everything, _why.

\--

A friend asked me to post this for him.

~~~
jacquesm
> _why was the first person to actually create art around and about software.

That's complete rubbish. But it probably is correct that he was the first
person that created art around and about software that you are aware of.

~~~
skoodge
[OP here, figured it might be helpful to actually create an account...]

In that case, could you please name a few artists that you believe did exactly
that? I'm honestly interested in finding more of such art. But before you do,
let me rephrase what I wrote above, because it's easy to misunderstand one
short sentence (and I'm definitely guilty of not explaining very well what I
mean): When I talk about art _around_ and _about_ software, I mean

a) art, i.e. not just something beautiful or well-crafted, but something which
explores _the human condition_ with an artistic purpose

b) around software, i.e. art that uses code as an integral part of the artwork
(not just a painting about programming for example)

c) about software, i.e. it does not only use code to convey something, but
code itself _is the subject_ (Code for Code's sake)

I'm honestly not aware of anything that fits this description before _why's
work (or at least of nothing that I would consider as art, and yes, that's
somewhat hard to define). More concretely, I would exclude any works that
simply praise mathematical / structural elegance, perfection or purity. Even
though their creators may be artists and use artistic methods, I would
hesitate to call such works "Art" with a capital A.

So, games/demos/processing sketches/audi-visual programming/software
patterns/etc all do not fit these criteria. They may be very skillful works of
art, but none of them tackle the subject of software & code at their core.
While many focus on the mathematical perfection in code, _why focused on human
imperfection and a creator's struggle while writing code.

~~~
jacquesm
> or at least of nothing that I would consider as art

That probably is part of the problem here.

For starters, you could try looking into Jeffrey Shaw & Gideon May.

Netochka Nezvanova is another name that springs to mind (but that likely will
not qualify by some of your criteria), the Electronic Disturbance Theater is
another.

There are probably 100's if not 1000's of artists that have chosen to use the
computer as their medium of choice, usually they don't make the code central
to the expression because the code is the vehicle.

But there are definitely artists that craft with the code as their central
means of expression.

I feel that by first stating something overbroad and now redefining it in a
way that is overly narrow to then be able to say that 'see, nobody fits the
exact same niche' is a bit of a cheap trick, after all, _why was just _why,
unique, like every other artist. So no, if you keep on adding conditions why
nobody was like him or even crafting 'art' you can easily exclude the rest of
the world and maintain your claim. But that's a pretty limiting act and it
seems like a very technical way to win the argument.

_why was neither the first, the last or particularly special in what he did
unless you mean special to be used as 'specific' rather than as a claim to
quality. He successfully promoted himself, his art and incidentally the ruby
language. But that does not warrant such overbroad claims as were made above.

~~~
skoodge
I agree that at least my use of the word "art" wasn't sufficiently explained
(isn't that always the case? ;)), but my other 2 conditions were definitely
present in the original text. I am not trying to "win" this argument by
artificially narrowing the definition, I am honestly interested in finding
more artists with the same qualities.

Regarding the artists you selected, I am not familiar with all their major
works and I will definitely look into their artworks more thoroughly later,
but at first glance all of them can be categorized as Audi-Visual-Software art
/ Internet art / political activism using code as art / etc. Put differently,
I could imagine seeing all of them in connection with the Ars Electronica
selection for example. Would you really label _why with any of these genres?
Or suggest that his work might fit in the Prix Ars Electronica categories? To
me his work has a very distinct feel from all the artists you listed and
belongs in a different genre. I tried to capture this distinct quality in my
above definition, where the most important aspect is definitely that the art
must be "about software" (and more specifically about code). His works are all
much more introspective than what I have seen elsewhere.

The best allegory that springs to mind is this: While other artists often used
code ingeniously to look at many different aspects of technology & culture,
_why was the first artist who used code to look back at code and its
development process itself and also necessarily the developer cultures around
it. This is probably also one reason why he was so tied to the Ruby community.
I could understand if you find this definition to be too narrow, but to me
this "closing of the loop", this self reference is a very distinct quality.

~~~
286c8cb04bda
_> this self reference is a very distinct quality_

<http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/little-schemer>

~~~
reeses
I am surprised that it too so long to mention the most obvious inspiration for
_why's poignant guide to ruby.

------
pervycreeper
>84 pages

This saga is the height of self-indulgence.

I would provisionally explain all the hubbub around _why by the desire to
flatter oneself that he can cross the gap between snow's two cultures (cf.
apple).

~~~
mattmanser
I'm not sure what reaction you want to elicit by being so scathing, but I
disagree with your assessment as it relies on the premise that programming is
a science, which it's not.

It's a two headed beast, part science, part craft and _why lives deep in the
craft territory. I think many of us here took time to realise that, that
there's not just a right answer. When you realise it's a craft you want to be
artistic with it, but you can only be with the output, who ever sees the
input?

In my opinion _why neatly bridges that desire to be artistic with the
invisible nature of the craftsmanship of code. It's an outlet that coding
can't sate. And it happens by doing that he also taught and helped a lot of
people.

Have you noticed how a lot of programmers are also musicians? I think that's
part of the same desire.

~~~
pervycreeper
There's nothing wrong with combining, say, technical and expressive aims. In a
way, that's kind of the holy grail of making stuff. That's not the problem
though.

I have spent a great deal of time interpreting, appraising, and creating works
of art myself, and when I read the OP pdf, pretension and self-absorption ooze
through every page. Hollow writing. Whimsical and heartfelt? I say arbitrary
and jejune.

It's because the community that follows him is so desperate for an existence
proof of the above mentioned combination (hey look, we're arty too!), that
they neglect to really look at the situation objectively.

~~~
vidarh
I find this kind of response entertaining, because to me, _your_ comments
about it reek of pretentiousness. Then again, if there's one thing I've come
to detest through all the time I've spent reading and writing, it is people
who make a big deal of of spending time "interpreting" and "appraising"
creative works of art rather than simply enjoying the experience.

To me, that usually ends in something that's the very height of pretension and
self-absorption where said person tries to inject their own subjective ideas
of what is important into the core of someone elses work, often presented as
objective truth, or at least insinuated to be the truth.

~~~
khalstvedt
Source: def'n.

------
yathern
On page 58, there is more text that can be seen through the partially
transparent page. I messed around with it trying to find the right amount of
blur and noise removal and various effects on it to make the text most
readable, and this is what I came out with: <http://i.imgur.com/CyyWWBR.png>

It looks like the title is "A-Power-Plant".

This leads me to believe that this section of the book has been printed out,
laid on top of another book and scanned, so that it looks like a full book.
Does anyone know what book it might be on top of?

~~~
vosechu_
Maybe this? <http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-power-plant/>

~~~
yathern
Definitely. I was thinking the second word was "invisible" to begin with.

------
davidcollantes
With very few exceptions, all this comes across (to me) as mumbo-jumbo.

------
taylorbuley
I've read _why's guide to Ruby but feel out of the loop here. What is this?
Why is it significant?

~~~
MrUnknown
I am not following this nearly as much as everyone else, but I can explain why
I am interested in it.

_why is more of an artist instead of a programmer, he became popular, wanted
to be anonymous (or at least his actions and code be more important than the
person) but didn't really hide his identity. Once who he was became semi-
popular (an actual name and, I believe, where he worked) he completely deleted
his online presence. All of his code, etc. and just disappeared with no
mention as to why he did it.

Now he is back and telling a story. I see it as a art project he is doing with
his alternate identity. The character of _why is just interesting. First we
have no idea why he disappeared, now we have no idea why he is reaching out to
us.

In the end he could say "Drink More Ovaltine," disappear again, and I wouldn't
be surprised.

~~~
ep103
But why would he? He's literally turned the internet into his printer. File
--> Print --> To Internet. And this way, he can still stay offline.

------
AliEzer
"Toutes les grandes amis que je n'ai jamais pu avoir." should be "Toutes les
grandes amies que je n'ai jamais pu avoir." or "Tous les grands amis que je
n'ai jamais pu avoir." (masculine). And even with the correct grammar, it
sounds very awkward. Just sayin'.

~~~
derefr
Read the bottom half of the book. It's likely a quote in "Jobsian derelict
French."

------
spur_ous
The aspect I enjoy, almost as much as his writing craft, is his presentation
craft, any insights into how the 'book' was produced?

I'd love to understand better how things like the overbled text were created.
A photocopy of laser printed text, then scanned perhaps?

The font faces and spacing seem to have been chosen with care, can anyone
names the various faces used? guess at the layout software?

Then the PCL is some kind of concatenation of page (bitmapped) images I guess?

~~~
vidarh
> I'd love to understand better how things like the overbled text were
> created. A photocopy of laser printed text, then scanned perhaps?

The typed parts looked like a combination of a typewriter and a low-ish
resolution inkjet to me.

------
parnas
I'm sorry.. I don't understand the fanatical devotion and sacrifice(for
example, having a nervous breakdown, or leaving a job for some startup when
you've got wife and family because of devotion to the python community) for
scripting languages that are all more-or-less the same +- curly braces as
ruby/python/perl/php/C whatever. Look for something else to be interested in--
OCaml and F#.

~~~
pekk
Languages don't matter, so use OCaml and F#. What?

------
Luyt
Does anyone have this PDF available for download? (without the need to
register first, and without the need for a Facebook account)

~~~
iamdave
user coffeejunk has since posted one to dropbox:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5575823>

------
macarthy12
At least _why makes life a little more interesting...

And why not.

------
wbhart
I only have questions, and _why is only one of them. The two burning ones for
me are to what extent is he deliberate with the role his persona plays and to
what extent are individuals trying to take a stab at what they think his role
is, in the vain hope that he will take up the role again, having been given
new direction by their witty proposal? (Easier to feel good about someone's
role when they aren't disappeared. And let's face it, everyone is secretly
itching to points whore all the forums with "_why is back!") And secondly,
what did he mean that it is dangerous to come to us in this way? Are printer
spools dangerous, or is he worried about the effect of the publicity on the
person(a). Or is it dangerous for us? Has it really taken a year? Seems like
forever and just a few days!

~~~
jacquesm
The guy is just really good at implementing one of the rules of PT Barnum:
"Always keep them wanting more".

------
drawkbox
Read a good portion of it, he is a good writer. Maybe that is the goal, the
writing felt a bit Hunter S. Thompson gonzo style. Funny though that the more
of a jerktoaster he became after being known, the longer he will be known,
more than most. "I like what you've done with the character..."

~~~
iamdave
Curious, what about his writing compelled you to draw the comparison to HST?

~~~
drawkbox
Just kind of random, rollercoaster presentation, direct experience intertwined
with the overarching theme of withdrawing. The whole thing mentions writers he
has read or influential to him so it is rooted in that. I guess it seems like
a writing experiment as would HST maybe would do and a next step.

------
philwelch
This could be just the first part--remember that the last page was called
NOTYET and shows a hand covering a handwritten journal page, implying that the
story of why's escape from the Jobsians (which you can barely make out between
his fingers) will be published in the future.

------
cag_ii
It looks like a big commit was just made to the site repo... New site?

<https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com>

------
charlieflowers
Why the Lucky Stiff is brilliant, so much so he is completely strange. But you
can see the brilliance a mile away. His Ruby comics were technically brilliant
and artistically brilliant at the same time, and they did both _effortlessly_.

When someone blows you away with real ability, and does it while juggling
apples and telling dirty jokes, without breaking a sweat, it (rightfully so)
makes an impression.

Plus, BACON!

------
timcederman
Did anyone else try going to the YouTube video?

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShpcjWG_Me0>

~~~
afics
hm, i thought the last letter was an O. I get "This video is not available."
using the following id. ShpcjWG_MeO

------
pmros
_why somewhat reminds me of David Foster Wallace.

~~~
spinchange
the last part of thaumaturgy's comment above (
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5576010> ) is very similar to how I feel
about Wallace's Infinite Jest.

------
Trano
For anyone who missed this yesterday like I did, _why's site was updated
yesterday but is now back offline.

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5571387> shows the progress of figuring
out what was happening.

Basically he was sending out print commands to print the book that is linked
here.

------
startswithaj
Is the oprah thing he refers to real?

~~~
RivieraKid
Obviously no.

~~~
egdelwonk
I had to look it up too! Surprisingly "Oprah Jerktoaster" brings back exactly
0 results.

~~~
vidarh
The part where they all end up dead ought to have been a dead giveaway.

~~~
startswithaj
I hadn't read that far when I posted the question. Even soo, Oprah's had some
pretty wacky guests in her time :)

------
KVFinn
In the original, pages were individually titled. The title was often quite
relevant.

Can you add that to the top or bottom of each page?

------
pathdependent
This was a great experience. It felt like a modern take on _Principia
Discordia_. Thanks, _why.

------
tetsuo_shima
It may be my own feelings and so forth, but I vote that comments are disabled
on this network.

It's getting way out of control, quality of the network exponentially
deteriorating, and far too much blatant disrespect without regard,
perpetuating the same cycles of melancholia for any of those individuals who
are genuinely interested in understanding.

For those who feel the need to be correct, the need to correct, the need to
justify, the need to express their own opinions on behalf of the though of an
other, for those who have yet to understand that they as themselves are not
the constitution of thought of all of those who are an other independent of
the self, for those who simply cannot simply recognize any/all realizations,
for those who require conclusions, for those who wish to change the order of
the world, for those who cannot be bothered with interaction that may oppose
their own desire, etc., please leave this network. Please. I beg of you to
leave. I beg of you to leave and return when you've lost the ability to use
express your opinion in the forefront of others, when you've come to
understand that every interact between your self and an other affects the
experience and understanding of others, when you've come to understand, when
you've learned to listen, when you've learned to reason, when you've learned
your own language, when you've learned your own self, and finally, when you've
learned an other relatively independent of others in relation to your selves.

The amount of hatred in the world is enough to drive anyone insane, why bring
it to a network full of though-thirsty individuals who simply wish to share
other understands?

I may be delusional in my expression of cordiality, though I only wish that
this madness stops.

Why I have even bothered to make an account to share my own realization? The
network is unique in its own right, and very difficult to find such a large
group of like-minds. The more I visit, the further such ideals deviate from
the truth, and it's disturbing. Quite a lot of this is clearly addressed in
_why's seemingly random queue, but that's not the point. The point is
[TL;DR;DC;WC;] Your opinions are going to change. If they don't, you're likely
cheating yourself, and respectively others. Please find it in your minds to
enjoy the thought of one another.

\----

For those of you on your high-horse of supreme divinity and fortitude, I
sincerely hope you come find your self humbled by your self.

Kind regards, <Let's pretend it matters>

------
gcr
Does anyone know what was up with the paypal link a few commits back?

~~~
sorghum
A few people (myself included) tried to use it while it was up and everyone
had their payment refunded soon after.

~~~
gcr
Same thing happened to me. Sent the account $20 and it was refunded about an
hour later. I mean, I'm more than happy to support this.

_why could make one hell of a kickstarter, if he wanted to.

------
dhotson
Welcome back _why. I had a feeling we'd see you again. :-)

------
MrBra
someone with free time, and will and/or passion or interest for languages
please translate it to other popular languages please

------
moeedm
He's the Daft Punk of the Ruby world.

------
kunai
_why's site 404'd just now.

I hope he's okay.

~~~
vosechu_
Some people in the irc room believe that he is doing just fine; that this was
an event to ensure that the character/role _why is returned to the public
domain in an orderly manner. The original maintainer of the _why persona
appears to be doing okay and in good spirits. He gave people combs and a
triumph message on the website.

------
pax
still no rapgenius version :/

is there anywhere any explanatory review of this?

