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While watching util-linux-ng compiling on Crux, I noticed, among many familiar commands, a command ddate which I'd never heard of. So I did a whatis and found that it was ...
- 05-04-2011 #1Linux Engineer
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Ever heard of Discordeanism?
While watching util-linux-ng compiling on Crux, I noticed, among many familiar commands, a command ddate which I'd never heard of. So I did a whatis and found that it was a command for converting Julian dates into Discordian dates. Well, naturally, I had no idea what those were so I went to Wikipedia.
It seems Discordianism is a half-serious fake religion with its own calendar. You can read about it here. Now I have no strong objection to fake religions (they frequently do less harm than some real ones) but what is a thing like that doing in a set of basic linux utilities? Someone at GNU must have a very twisted sense of humour.
Has anyone found any other weird things like this tucked away within Linux?"I'm just a little old lady; don't try to dazzle me with jargon!"
- 05-04-2011 #2Super Moderator
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Interesting Hazel and yes, someone with GNU has a sense of humor. You've probably heard of this one.
lp0 on fire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaI do not respond to private messages asking for Linux help, Please keep it on the forums only.
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- 05-04-2011 #3Linux Engineer
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Now that I come to think of it, I know of another one. If /etc/nsswitch.conf has not been set up properly, you can get the message "Go away! You don't exist" when trying to access your files.
"I'm just a little old lady; don't try to dazzle me with jargon!"
- 05-04-2011 #4Linux Engineer
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Often seen as related to Discordianism, Slackware gets it's name from the Church of the Subgenious, wherein J. R. "Bob" Dobbs teaches the pursuit of 'slack' to it's followers.
Also, the Church of the Subgenious is the only church offering guaranteed salvation, or triple your money back
Can't tell an OS by it's GUI
- 05-05-2011 #5Linux Enthusiast
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My favorite dry Linux humor was in the old syslogd manpage, giving options for dealing with syslog flooding:
Use step 4 and if the problem persists and is not secondary to a rogue program/daemon get a 3.5 ft (approx. 1 meter) length of sucker rod* and have a chat with the user in question.
Sucker rod def. - 3/4, 7/8 or 1in. hardened steel rod, male threaded on each end. Primary use in the oil industry in Western North Dakota and other locations to pump 'suck' oil from oil wells. Secondary uses are for the construction of cattle feed lots and for dealing with the occasional recalcitrant or belligerent individual.
- 05-06-2011 #6Just Joined!
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Well, I think having a Discordian calendar is just a bit of whimsy on the part of the writer of the program.
But consider this: Most countries now use the Gregorian calendar, as opposed to the earlier Julian calendar (nothing to do with Julian dates!). This calendar was adopted in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, to be used in a Catholic lands. This was in the early decades of the Protestant Reformation, so Protestant (and Eastern Orthodox) countries kept using the Julian calendar for many decades or centuries. It wasn't adopted in the British Empire until after the Calendar Act (New Style) (or "Chesterfield Act") of 1751 was passed, which went into effect in September 1752 (run 'cal 1752' on your *nix system to see the missing days!). But the Act didn't call the 'new' calendar "Gregorian" - Britain was still anti-Catholic, and still is, to a much smaller degree. It was the "New Style" calendar in the Act.
- 05-06-2011 #7Super Moderator
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Very cool. Here's a screenshot for anyone that wants to see the above command output.
Code:cal 1752 1752 January February March Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 29 30 31 April May June Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 26 27 28 29 30 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 28 29 30 31 July August September Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 1 1 2 14 15 16 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 26 27 28 29 30 31 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 October November December Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1 2 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 29 30 31 26 27 28 29 30 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31I do not respond to private messages asking for Linux help, Please keep it on the forums only.
All new users please read this.** Forum FAQS. ** Adopt an unanswered post.
- 05-06-2011 #8Trusted Penguin
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And it was a Leap Year, for a kicker!
Originally Posted by MikeTbob 
- 05-06-2011 #9Linux Engineer
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You might be interested to know that it was the change of calendar which caused the UK financial/tax year to begin on April 6th. Before the change, England had a year that began on Lady Day (March 25th). When the calendar year changed, the tax year didn't (the government weren't going to forgo 11 days of tax revenue!). So the beginning of the tax year moved forward to 6th April, where it still is.
But what started all this off was my surprise that a package of absolutely basic Linux utilities should contain something as whimsical as a Discordian date calculator."I'm just a little old lady; don't try to dazzle me with jargon!"
- 05-08-2011 #10Just Joined!
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Funny. I'm reminded of an old, old DOS (third-party, not M$) command called "ddate.com" -- I'm pretty sure is was *.com not *.exe -- but it was something completely different
The DOS ddate was intended for use on floppy-based PC's, to set or update the system date when one had a bad system clock battery, or a flat-out unreliable system clock. It would read back the last access date from the A:\ drive, then show that to the user; with the arrow keys and PGUP/PGDN, the user would then navigate through the calendar, months or days at a time, then commit the new date, which would then be saved back to the floppy AND set as the system date. You couldn't use ddate on a hard-drive based DOS install, it was hard-coded to seek to A:\
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