Re: Hacker FAQ (please comment and help fix)

Article: 7681 of alt.hackers
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
From: grobson@netcom.com (Gary D. Robson)
Subject: Re: Hacker FAQ (please comment and help fix)
Message-ID: grobsonD79qGp.Gwr@netcom.com
Followup-To: alt.hackers
Organization: In alt.hackers?  Are you kidding?
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Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 06:10:00 GMT
Approved:  Yea, verily!
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Sender: grobson@netcom7.netcom.com
Status: RO

Tommy-

   I think we need to be careful about propogating the myth that all
hackers are social misfits who need to be treated with kid gloves.  As
someone else in this thread pointed out, being a hacker does not mean
being immature.

   In your responses to Bernie, you sound *proud* of the fact that you
don't fit in with the rest of the employees, and that you consider the
marketing, sales, and administration people beneath you.  I've worked
with many hackers who are actually able to work with other people, and
who don't have to be treated like a "delicate tropical fish."
In other
words, they are creative and highly talented without being eccentric.

   When my wife and I started dating lo these many years ago, she told me
that I was the first programmer that she had met who could actually
communicate with non-programmers.  In reality, there are lots of us, but
the hackers people remember are the ones who can't cope with society.

   IMO, there are creative and talented hackers, sales people, managers,
artists, technical support people, QA/QC people (if you think testing
code is drone work, you obviously don't know how to test code properly!),
and secretaries.  I've been priviledged to work with all of the above.
Don't sell the rest of us short by telling management that we're *all*
hopelessly temperamental.  We're just like all those other good people,
and in a properly-run company, it's all one team!

   Well, time to get off my soapbox and post my

ObHack:
   I recently purchased OS/2 Warp, which came as a CD-ROM with a couple
of 3-1/2" install diskettes.  I placed the install diskette in my B:
drive and tried to use it.  No go.  It has to be in the A: drive (which
in my system is a 5-1/4").  I would expect better than that out of garage
shop, and it mightily dissapointed me that a so-called professional
organization like IBM would do something so lame.

   The system reboots several times during installation, so ASSIGN won't
work.  There's too much to fit on a 5-1/4" diskette, so copying won't
work.  I finally opened the case and swapped my A: and B: drives (with
the accompanying tweak to the CMOS settings) to run the installation.
Not much of a hack, but it annoyed me greatly that *any* kind of a hack
would be required!
--
 /---------------------------- Gary Robson ----------------------------\
 |   Internet: grobson@netcom.com | "If it ain't broke, fix it anyway. |
 | CompuServe: 76130,1111         |  How else can you truly learn it?" |
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