[ t e c h n o \ c u l t u r e ]
02 October 2002Roland Piquepaille found an article about an 18-yr-old named Richard Robbins in Utah trying to run as many OSes as possible on a single computer -- a project he calls the Menagerie Project (appropriate...). So far he's managed 37 operating systems, over six harddrives! He's got five different boot menus to manage them: Main, Unix, Linux, Windows, and Dos Window Managers. Asked what his favourite OS is, (or if, like children, he loved them all equally but differently), he said this:
Alas, I do share a unique type of love with each one of my beloved systems. But if I had to pick one to be crowned the birthright, I would go with BeOS. Why? Because it minds its own business, is easily pleased, and doesn't complain. If I had to pick a prodigal son, it would have to be FreeBSD, because its picky, complains a lot, and doesn't obey me.
Jaysus. I have enough trouble trying to run one.
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One of the many fascinating tidbits from the book I am slowly meandering through at the moment, Charles Sprawson's Haunts of the Black Masseur, on the history and symbolism of swimming (kind of -- this is a book that is hard to define).
Bystanders were amused when in 1726 the American Benjamin Franklin stripped and plunged into the Thames. He swam from Chelsea to Blackfriars, 'performing on the way many feats of activity both on and under the water', and was 'much flattered by the admiration of the company'. He taught many aristocratic Englishmen to swim... and came across such widespread ignorance on the subject that he considered staying on in England to make his fortune by establishing a swimming pool.
Since we only ever see that one old-man picture of Franklin, it's odd to imagine him as the virile ladies man he very definitely was, performing 'feats' in the Thames! Another thing I didn't know: in 1926 American Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel -- and also beat the existing men's record by two hours because she swam front crawl all the way, even though because of terrible weather and currents, she had to swim 35 miles at angles to do the 21 mile crossing. Up til then, men tended to swim a leisurely, high-headed breast-stroke, which was considered the proper, aristocratic stroke. Only 5 men had ever swum the channel; her record for men and women stood for 24 years. And between-the-Wars Olympic swimmer Sybil Bauer (who died at 22 from cancer) could swim a faster backstroke than any man of the time, though the record was never officially recorded. PS: What's your favourite stroke? I detest breaststroke, love backstroke, & mostly do the crawl. This is so personal for swimmers! Dependent on build, how you breathe, what feels comfortable in the H20...
Gertrude Ederle
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<<Create your very own living breathing Virtual Elvis, you can change outfits, change locales, from the White House to the Jailhouse.>> [Off the Shelves][The Shifted Librarian]
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