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Bash.org is back

bash.org

160 pointsslifty45 comments

Good time to revisit some of the classics that have propagated into general geek culture:

The origin of "hunter2" as a password: http://bash.org/?244321

Sysadmin problems: http://bash.org/?5273 (Ever had a server accidentally walled up into an inaccessible space, but it kept working?)

"The keys are like right next to each other": http://bash.org/?5300

IRC pong: http://bash.org/?9322

Boolean awesomeness: http://bash.org/?10958

rap: http://bash.org/?870063

  <djahandarie> dont mind me while i emerge my ownage

haha, emerge. remember when Gentoo was a thing?

"its -O3 the letter, not -03 the number"

http://web.archive.org/web/20060513022941/http://www.funroll...

Still is. Chrome OS is based on Gentoo and Portage.

Those were the days... =D

I used Gentoo on my desktop for about three and a half years. I loved it. But then several things kind of added up. First, while a lot of the software was kind of bleeding edge, they took forever (more than a year IIRC) to support Python 2.5. Then POE broke, on which I had built a couple of scripts I used on a regular basis back then. All of a sudden, some of the coolest programs I had written back then stopped working. :(

And then, I was kind of offline for about a year. When I had Internet access again, the first thing I did was try to update the system. Gentoo went on a compilation spree that lasted about 36 hours, then something broke. I thought rebooting the system might help, only to discover that my system had become kind of not-booting.

So I installed Debian and haven't seen or heard much of Gentoo since. A while later somebody told me that stage-1 installs were no longer possible and was quite sad. But none of the Linux distros I use nowadays allows you the kind of control over your system that Gentoo gave you.

Bloodninja: http://bash.org/?search=bloodninja&sort=0&show=25

Man, remember back when the web had stuff that was just... you know...fun?

Not monetized, not ad-driven, not commercialized, not social--just people dicking around and having a good time?

The old internet is still there, you just stopped visiting.

Here, have a random MUD: http://www.mudconnect.com/cgi-bin/mud_random.cgi

I've had that sysadmin problem.

Somewhere in the two six-storey buildings of a tv broadcaster. Additional fun: the system was running spam-filtering software that relayed all incoming mail and was failing. Still ping-able though. And since nobody had any passwords, I needed physical access to get in.

Finally found the likely suspect in a small, locked 19" cabinet. No keys... Only time I needed a hammer and a screwdriver to restart a daemon.

"Hey, you know what just isn't cool?"

"lava?"

It's interesting how many of the things make me think, "This is awesome!" (like the "boolean awesomeness" one that JoshTriplett linked), and yet so many also are such examples of hatefulness (e.g., top ones) and the kind of things that I would not want anyone to read.

See also 4chan. Pervasively offensive and frequently hateful, yet also the source of impressive content, touching moments, activism, and miscellaneous awesomeness.

human nature in a nutshell

This one is my personal favorite: http://bash.org/?104052

  <NES> lol
  <NES> I download something from Napster
  <NES> And the same guy I downloaded it from starts 
        downloading it from me when I'm done
  <NES> I message him and say "What are you doing? 
        I just got that from you"
  <NES> "getting my song back fucker"

This deserves way more than 70 points in 2 hours. If bash.org isn't up HN's alley I don't know what is!

The main rule on HN is you have to be nice, and the main rule on IRC is exactly the opposite, so I don't see it getting many upvotes here

There's a fair amount of IRC channels which are nice (and where that's enforced). IRC is a technology, not an ideology, just like the WWW that underpins HN.

Yes, I agree that it's not all IRC channels, but you can see from the average bash.org quote how 'the social crowd' feels about this kind of talk.

WWW is a hypertext transport protocol, so it's not really like IRC at all. IRC is a group communications platform, and when you compare it to every other group communications platform, it's obvious it has a very particular culture. Part of that is inherent to the technical design of the protocol and its admin features. But mainly it's how humans interact in groups, and the features of the protocol being used by that nature, that shifts expected behavior.

The only things I can think of to compare IRC to is YouTube and Xbox Live voice chat. Short messages that are often a running commentary on some subject, which can devolve into unrelated argument, and is often filled with hateful and insulting diatribe. Anonymity preserves the behavior, and the lack of down-moderation of these comments, along with a total lack of consequence, means people get to say whatever they like. And often people have some pretty fucked up things to say.

In IRC's case, the technology can actually encourage the behavior because the ops decide what is acceptable or not. If the ops condone hate speech, it becomes acceptable culture. And due to the 24/7 nature of IRC, there's little way other than bots to monitor a channel all the time. You're right that the technology itself is not the main factor in how people behave using it, but human nature itself - when run amok - can often result in negative behavior. So IRC is a shithole not because of the technology, but because of people.

The current "most recent" quote is pretty unfortunate; not only is it sexist, but also a pun! DOUBLE WHAMMY.

But I would implore folks to look past that type of thing (by voting it down) and find true gems :)

your lack of humour is unfortunate.

oh yeah? well.... uh... your...

wait give me a minute...

http://bash.org/?754254

Sorry guys, forgot that offering opinions that say something isn't really treating women properly is a akin four letter word on hacker news!

Anyway, my point was that the most recent bash contribution (currently voted -40) doesn't represent what bash has to offer, but that newbies shouldn't be turned off by it.

Bash.org has been up and down quite a few times for the past few years, there's only one real reason that it's interesting and that's for it sentimental value. Who ever browses bash.org for new content anymore? IRC's only used for open source communication and general knowledge channels nowadays anyway, not much fun going on still.

Unless general IRC channels and networks experience a revival there won't ever be a better source for IRC quotes than the internet archive's mirror of bash.org.

> IRC's only used for open source communication

I know non-open-source companies (of various sizes/ages) that use IRC for internal dev communication...

What's the alternative to IRC, with similar characteristics?

Slack / HipChat.

XMPP, places like jabbr.net

I'm feeling a bit ignorant - could someone give a bit of background about bash.org and its history?

Long ago in the dark days of the internet, before Facebook and social networks, and Reddit, everyone communicated using a group chat service called IRC.

On IRC people often said very funny things!

Bash.org is a collection of user contributed quotes from IRC conversations. When you would see someone say something funny on IRC, you would instantly load up bash.org and submit your quote. Moderators would then approve the ones they thought were funny. If they were actually funny they would get upvoted.

About two years ago the site simply stopped updating with new quotes. People like me, who had incorporated bash.org into their "I have 30 seconds to kill, type random urls into my browser and hit enter" process still visited pretty regularly in desperate hope to see a new quote.

Finally a few days ago, after years of silence, a new one appeared.

Exactly what I was looking for - thanks slifty!

The very first page on it and I get this random gem: (do a ) tracert -h 100 216.81.59.173 ; after the 10th hop or so, watch for an imperial star destroyer.

Try 'traceroute -m 255 obiwan.scrye.net'

By suggestion of your command

`tracert -h 255 obiwan.scrye.net` for you windows bunnies out there