ddate unix utility no longer part of binutils package.

[trix]

ddate is a command-line utility that for a very long time came standard with most Linux distributions as part of the "binutils" package, and when executed displays the current discordian date.  Recently, one particular upstream maintainer of the binutils package decided this very tiny 12k utility was not worthy of inclusion and removed it, despite a rather large amount of negative feedback and absolutely no benefit to doing so.  This prompted many many bug reports and other bitching, due to many people (myself included) using ddate in various scripts to various effect.

Is anyone else annoyed at this?  I mean sure, some distros handle it themselves, either by adding a separate "ddate" package into the repository or by using an older version of binutils or even by patching the upstream binutils to reinclude ddate.

But still, I either have to revert to an older binutils, rewrite about a dozen scripts per computer in each of the 16 PC's in my cluster, or wait until each of my OS's add ddate directly to the repo and download it.  Or do a fuckload of patching.  Not the end of the world, but an annoyance for no good reason whatsofuckingever.

Speaking of which, on an unrelated note, I have a ton of decent computers (average power = Core2Duo cpu with dedicated ATI HD 2400 Pro video card and 3GB RAM) that I got for free, by replacing all of them at my brother's work with newer models and being gifted the old ones for my trouble.  Anyone that pays for shipping can have one, for free.  I'll even toss in a keyboard and monitor, though I am low on mice so you'll need one of those.  First come first serve until I run out of extras, have about 8 I'm not using right now, and another 5-10 coming next week.

Anyway back on topic.  What the fuck.  The guy that changed binutils responded to all the complaints with (and I'm paraphrasing strongly here) "Yeah well I don't use it so everyone else can go fuck themselves".  I'd congratulate him on some very excellent trolling, if I believed that was his true purpose, but I think it's more likely that he just really is a prick.

No real point to this post, most of you wont give one whit of a shit, I guess I just need to vent my frustration before I start rewriting some scripts.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'd be interested in a computer, depending on how  much shipping would be?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'll even send you something pretty made out of glass.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

ddate is a command-line utility that for a very long time came standard with most Linux distributions as part of the "binutils" package, and when executed displays the current discordian date.  Recently, one particular upstream maintainer of the binutils package decided this very tiny 12k utility was not worthy of inclusion and removed it, despite a rather large amount of negative feedback and absolutely no benefit to doing so.  This prompted many many bug reports and other bitching, due to many people (myself included) using ddate in various scripts to various effect.

Is anyone else annoyed at this?  I mean sure, some distros handle it themselves, either by adding a separate "ddate" package into the repository or by using an older version of binutils or even by patching the upstream binutils to reinclude ddate.

But still, I either have to revert to an older binutils, rewrite about a dozen scripts per computer in each of the 16 PC's in my cluster, or wait until each of my OS's add ddate directly to the repo and download it.  Or do a fuckload of patching.  Not the end of the world, but an annoyance for no good reason whatsofuckingever.

Speaking of which, on an unrelated note, I have a ton of decent computers (average power = Core2Duo cpu with dedicated ATI HD 2400 Pro video card and 3GB RAM) that I got for free, by replacing all of them at my brother's work with newer models and being gifted the old ones for my trouble.  Anyone that pays for shipping can have one, for free.  I'll even toss in a keyboard and monitor, though I am low on mice so you'll need one of those.  First come first serve until I run out of extras, have about 8 I'm not using right now, and another 5-10 coming next week.

Anyway back on topic.  What the fuck.  The guy that changed binutils responded to all the complaints with (and I'm paraphrasing strongly here) "Yeah well I don't use it so everyone else can go fuck themselves".  I'd congratulate him on some very excellent trolling, if I believed that was his true purpose, but I think it's more likely that he just really is a prick.

No real point to this post, most of you wont give one whit of a shit, I guess I just need to vent my frustration before I start rewriting some scripts.

Sign me up for a free halfway decent computer! How do I make this happen?

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

What sorts of things were you relying on this ddate script for?

Maybe this guy wasn't remotely aware of what he was wrecking by simply omitting it.

[Faust]

Hrm, looks like lessons about snubbing eris have not been learned.

[Cain]

Unix fails to include ddate.

Massive security vulnerability found in Unix.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Card looks interesting, but my current setup should suffice for now...assuming it actually gets fixed.

[Faust]

For Public record: The princicipiadiscordia.com server proudly uses Debian and when I log in via ssh I am greeted with the current DDATE.

It makes me very sad that we have been victims of religious persecution over this tiny 12k token

[Pæs]

This is the person who removed it: https://github.com/karelzak

Looks kinda outlandish.

[trix]

For Public record: The princicipiadiscordia.com server proudly uses Debian and when I log in via ssh I am greeted with the current DDATE.

It makes me very sad that we have been victims of religious persecution over this tiny 12k token

Yeah my girlfriend uses Debian on her laptop (well, Kali, but Debian based) and Debian was one of the first distros to solve the ddate problem in their own repo, and the first to file a bug report on it that I noticed (and I watch the bug trackers like a hawk when my shit breaks).

What sorts of things were you relying on this ddate script for?

Maybe this guy wasn't remotely aware of what he was wrecking by simply omitting it.

Well, on the one hand most of my greeting scripts (the ones that run upon logging in) included the ddate, but that's not an issue as those just omit it when it's broken.  But I had a good amount of other scripts that used various syntax of ddate as a sort of a random generator when I don't really need that much random.  I've also been trying to memorize the Discordian calendar, though with no success thus far.  For that last purpose though, this drama has helped rather than hindered, due to turning my attention to the utility.

I'd be interested in a computer, depending on how  much shipping would be?

No idea?  I live in Wisconsin.  I have not a dime to my name so any expense is on you.  The PC's are all Dell Omniplex 755 and 745.  I have 8 of them available, but only two extra monitors until I get the next load of equipment, which should also include several printers and other stuff.  I can even include a free printer/scanner/fax combo thing (Epson stylus cx3200 is the model closest to my chair ATM) assuming I get a few more on the next load like I was told.  Currently I only have two though, and I'm keeping one and dismantling the other to steal parts from so I can make a robot.

Anyway if you look up shipping from Waukesha, WI to your house (Portland?) and are willing to pay it I can start prepping it for you.  Just tell me what OS you want (choices are: Windows Vista Ultimate with valid CDKEY printed on the case, Linux of any flavor, or both) and I will get started formatting and installing OS and drivers.  Keep in mind that the hard drive is only 50GB though, so if you choose to have both Windows and Linux you will be low on space for both, and will have to tell me what ratio to partition the drives in.

Also I'll have to look up the glass stuff you make to know what you mean, but if you feel you must give me something back for my efforts, you could always make me a delicious, healthy, home made meal and ship it... if that's doable.  I don't know how shipping food works though so that might be a stupid idea.  I'm just so goddamn sick of noodles I sometimes skip an entire day of eating and drink lots of water instead.

Sign me up for a free halfway decent computer! How do I make this happen?

See above for Nigel.  Same plan, tell me what I need to know to set up your computer, and look up shipping prices from me to you.


Oh I should also mention, the specs I listed are for the PC I'm currently using, there's a few different specs within the Omniplex 745-755 line so your specific PC may very.  The best I have is the specs I posted (Core2Duo etc) and the worst I have is a Pentium D (dual core) with 2GB RAM and ATI X1300 Pro.

Err actually the worst I have is much worse than that but I'm not giving away the very old ones, I like the old ones.


Also specify if you want keyboard, monitor and printer.  Like I said I don't have extra mice, but I do have these tiny Dell LCD monitors and decent USB keyboards.  As for printer, I can tell you within a week if I have extras I can give away.


Also FAUST, that makes me happy that PD is hosted on Debian!  That's my second favorite distro behind only Gentoo (Portage is amazing!).

[trix]

Oh and I made a mistake, ddate is part of util-linux not binutils.  Gimme a break, it's 5am and I haven't slept since the other day.

Also, another mistake, the computers are Dell OPTIPLEX, not Omniplex.

Fuck I am tired.

[trix]

Also an interesting anecdote is this manpage correction for ddate, mentioning Emperor Norton:

Code Select Expand

.\" All Rites Reversed.  This file is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN.
.\" Kallisti.
-.TH DDATE 1 "Bureaucracy 3161" "util-linux" "Emperor Norton User Command"
+.TH DDATE 1 "Bureaucracy 3161" "ddate" "Emperor Norton User Command"
.SH NAME
ddate \- convert Gregorian dates to Discordian dates
.SH SYNOPSIS


And the above is precisely why I love nerds and geeks so goddamn much sometimes.

[Junkenstein]

Err actually the worst I have is much worse than that but I'm not giving away the very old ones, I like the old ones

I met a guy the other day who's got an old 486 running 24/7. It is calculating Pi, one extra number at a time. Basically all it's displaying is:
3.1
3.14
3.141
3.1415

And so on. His entire reason to for doing this was "I want to see how long it takes it to break". I can respect that.

[trix]

Oh also (sorry for the quadruple post) I don't have a scale and my tape measure is missing, so I had to look up and download the technical reference PDF on the optiplex series to get the dimensions and weight, which you will need to calculate shipping costs:

DIMENSIONS:
H: 16.3" W: 7.3" D: 17.3"
WEIGHT: 25.8 lbs. for tower only, 43.5lbs including all packaging materials

That's just for the tower itself, the monitor will add more.  I will probably use whatever box UPS or FEDEX or whoever you use sells me, since I don't have empty ones.  So if I were you I'd count on 50lbs weight, and for dimensions just use the dimensions of whatever box the shipping service sells that's big enough for everything.

I'm probably over-thinking this, I wonder if I can just take the whole mess to the UPS office and have them ship it cash-on-delivery instead of all the other crap.  I don't really ship stuff so I have no idea how it works, I'm just guessing.

Err actually the worst I have is much worse than that but I'm not giving away the very old ones, I like the old ones

I met a guy the other day who's got an old 486 running 24/7. It is calculating Pi, one extra number at a time. Basically all it's displaying is:
3.1
3.14
3.141
3.1415

And so on. His entire reason to for doing this was "I want to see how long it takes it to break". I can respect that.

Hehe, sounds like my kind of geek!  I have an old 486 IBM PS/2 running MSDOS, Windows 3.11, and Linux Mandrake (not Mandriva... Mandrake).  I still have the old DOOM installed on it, because I lost the pile of floppy disks long ago and cannot reinstall it.

[trix]

OH I was reading another thread and was reminded of the awesome Googley Eyes thing.

Feel free to substitute the meal or your glassware with googley eyes!  I'd love a pile of those to start sticking on things.  That'd totally be worth the OS/driver install and driving the PC to the UPS store.

I'd get months of fun from those things!  I just can't ever seem to remember to dig up some change and go get some.

But in seriousness, none is required for this offer.  The effort is worth getting some of my space back in the cluster room so I can fill it back up with disassembled printer and CDRW parts.