Re: time sync? time servers give wrong time

Unruh wrote:

That's all to true. A lot of people are using (and worse, running)
computers and have absolutely no idea what it is doing, never mind how
it is doing what it is. Some of the problem is the modern concept of
"you don't need to know - I'll set things up do that they work". Of
course, if the user needs to do anything other than click on one icon,
then the user is out of luck.

So do you know in detail how your body works, how your mind works? Do you
understand the chemistry of all of the reactions in your body? And yet you
use it? Why not just kill yourself as incompetent to live?
Or do you feel that making it just work is more important that
understanding all of the details?
Why should they care how and why it does what it does. That is not their
job. A computer is a tool not a life.

There is nothing wrong with using the computer as a tool.
And there is also nothing wrong in trying to understand how it works.
Linux offers both possibilities.
It is important in my view to maintain a balance
between these two aspects of the system.

So while there should be clear instructions on how to use Linux,
it is just as important to maintain access to the underlying mechanism,
for those who want to look deeper into how things work.

The alternative is a kind of priesthood who know how everything works,
but only tell the ordinary user as much as the priesthood
think they need to know.
Like Microsoft, in fact.


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland
.

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