• The Asterisk of Complete Negation

    Quips 11.07.2008 1 Comment

    “Back Stage Tour*”

    How exciting!  A back stage tour!  I wonder what that little star refers to.

    “* for insurance reasons the tour does not go back stage.”

    Wait, I’m sorry, what?

    I’m certain there’s a Simpsons line to this effect, but I can’t think of the precise wording.

  • See You Later, Alligator

    Letters 11.07.2008 1 Comment

    Dear Frontier Airlines,

    I do not believe you are using the word “lowest” correctly.

    $219.00  
    		lowest fare
    5 seats left
    at this price
    $189.00  
    		 
    1 seat left
    at this price

    Don’t worry. All elementary school students have difficulty with this concept at first.  One of my own elementary school teachers – I vaguely recall it being Mrs. Magliolo in the fifth grade – taught us a helpful mnemonic device.  The little alligator is very hungry and always wants to eat the bigger number, so 219 > 189 because 219 is a bigger number than 189 is.

    With a little practice I’m confident you’ll be able to master this.  Don’t give up!

    Sincerely,
    Your Most (or is it Least?) Loyal Customer

  • What Does rm -rf ~/* Do Again?

    Programming 11.07.2008 1 Comment

    The following command reports the number of files in the 2006 directory, including files in all subdirectories:

    find 2006 -type f | wc -l

    The following command deletes all the files in the 2006 directory, including files in all subdirectories:

    find 2006 -type f | xargs rm

    When both commands are in your bash history (left over from when you moved the 2005 directory), you should probably be careful before hastily executing one.