Re: Linux Is A Bore

From: Sinister Midget (sinister_at_stinkfoot.biz)
Date: 10/17/04 

Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2004 09:40:24 -0500

On 2004-10-18, Dan Kumen <spiced@regulous.net> sputtered:
> I thought the toughest part about switching from windows to
> linux would be learning to edit config files, but it is turning
> out to be learning to do something other than play with security
> programs.
>
> There are a lot of files that could use some editing, if I want
> to get more control of the OS, but that is too difficult, and I
> am doing no more than I can with the gui. It turns out that's
> pretty much all I want to do - web, email, news, some graphic
> stuff, so there isn't much distasteful stuff to do.
>
> The thing is, I realize now that most of my enjoyment of windows
> came from installing and playing around with anti-virus and anti-
> trojan programs, getting the updates, reading about the latest
> versions, etc.; but with linux, Guarddog was installed, and I
> installed f-prot, and at this point, I have nothing to do.

Put some fun back into your computing! Try one or more of these:

1. Write a script to delete a random file. Make sure it's truly random
across the entire system. Be certain that it runs with root privileges
so it will get an important one every now and then.

2. Put a cron entry in that will reboot the machine, preferably during
some period of likely heavy use. You can even set it up for multiple
intervals, such as 0-59/4 for a crash every 15 minutes.

3. You can take number 2 a step further by radomizing things via
scripts that can test for certain conditions (possibly machine load,
for example) and use those periods to reboot things.

4. Randomly kill the X server.

5. Create a directory that contains porn pictures, has copies of credit
and other financial information, etc. Write a script that parses your
addressbook, extracts an address or three, pulls one of the items at
random from the above named directory and emails the item to the
addressee(s).

6. Fix your lilo or grub configuration files to tell the system you
have 3 times more memory than you really have. Get rid of all swap.
Then reboot. Getting rid of swap might not be necessary, but it ensures
success should the system startup complete uneventfully.

Those are good for starters. Use your imagination and you'll have just
as much fun as you're already accustomed to enjoying. 

-- 
If Bill Gates had a penny for every time a Windows box crashed...
...Oh, wait a minute. He already does!