
Over-Extended Metaphor for the day - cstross
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/12/metaphor-for-the-day.html
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Theodores
"...on explaining Religion to Techies" deserves a creation myth. Please help
me to get this correct:

Day 1: Edison invents electricity

Day 2: Atari invented Pong

Day 3: Intel invented the CPU

Day 4: IBM invented the PC

Day 5: Bill Gates gave birth to Windows

Day 6: Al Gore invented the internet

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Aqueous
Can someone please tell me how Atari created Pong before Intel invented the
CPU?

I think I've found a plot hole! And we all know there were none of those in
the original 7 day creation story.

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gaius
The did the whole game in hardware. You are thinking of a computer in the
modern sense, memory, processor, software. It wasn't always thus.

~~~
Aqueous
I see - I didn't realize Pong was implemented entirely in hardware.

Chronologically, at least, Intel's first commercial processor was in 1970 but
Pong was released in 1972.

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ott2
Worryingly accurate metaphor: Unix is Christianity, complete with Linus as
Luther.

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gaius
I love the Laundry books, but this is the sort of drivel I expect from ESR.

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McUsr
Truth is that Unix has a very good design for an operating system, that gained
large popularity, and will be in widespread use throughout the foreseeable
future, because of the superiority of its machine model and design.

No matter how many blog posts there will be to try to diminish it into an
operating system for some religious cult, and weirdos. It is still the best
platform. I hope that many more users will benefit from it in the future, as
the philosphy behind it is so much more user friendly, and practical than most
other Operating Systems. Read me right, I am talking about having Unix in the
core of the OS here, not just to present a user with a shell.

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pessimizer
How does Debian not make the story, but dpkg and Ubuntu do?

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smcnally
What if the audience to whom you're explaining is non-techie and areligious?

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MoosePlissken
Areligious doesn't mean ignorant of history.

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smcnally
True; just as "religious" does not guarantee knowledge of it.

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enraged_camel
Reminds me of that one Family Guy episode...

Brian: Stewie, you're judgmentally quoting bible verses and you don't even
know how to read! Stewie: Welcome to America, Brian.

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sneak
I would have cast Jobs/NeXT as Constantine, bringing unix to the desktops of
the common user.

~~~
walshemj
so presumably we due for a schism in the apple faithful with IOS 9 being
iconoclasts - trashing apple stores and defacing icons of the late steve jobs.

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blahbl4hblahtoo
for fsck's sake. Unix fans always forget that there were other host systems
with lineages that are longer...some of which are still in use.

Unix people love to go on and on about Unix...that's the take away message.

Also, what would Hindu be in this worldview? It's older, and more people "use"
it and its decedents than Unix.

~~~
walshemj
yes thinking abotu it a bit more the unix schisms remind me of the emo philips
sketch about religion..

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said,
"Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A
Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant."
I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too!
Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said,
"Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern
Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist
Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region."
I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern
Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern
Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die,
heretic!" And I pushed him over.

