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Comment by davi | Hacker News Reader

Agreed. See also these pearls from Greenspun [1]:

  Computers are the tools of the devil. ...

  Everything I've learned about computers at MIT I've boiled down into three principles:

  Unix: You think it won't work, but if you find the right wizard, he can make it work.

  Macintosh: You think it will work, but it won't.

  PC/Windows: You think it won't work, and it won't.

[1] http://books.google.com/books?id=RpCERTXtzJIC&pg=PA202&#...

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At least the Unix wizard can pretend he is going to make it work. All he needs to do is pipe this into that and write just one more filter. Then he can ....

By that time both he are you are lost in a blur of keystrokes and flashing characters on the display. As you leave the computer room, you can hear him muttering: "Oh, damn. I am in the wrong shell. I have to do it this other way...tap...tap...tap...."

The truth is, it doesn't really work there either. You are simply tired of waiting and are willing to accept almost anything to stop the annoying tapping noise and the endless muttering.

Hey, it keeps us off the streets so it isn't all bad.

No, no, don't you see, that's a bad wizard. You just have to go on a quest for a good wizard. Then everything will be fine.

and the one ring to control them all.

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