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Geeks: UNIX Jokes Totally
Underappreciated by General Public
ST. LOUIS, MO (DPI) - In times of national crisis, many Americans
find themselves using humor to alleviate tension and elevate the
spirit. One of these humorous Americans is St. Louis network and
workstation support technician Gerald Fantow, who arrived at his job
at Bergan Restaurant Supplies Monday morning wearing a T-shirt
proclaiming, "rm -rf /bin/laden" -- only to find the message lost on the computer users
he supports. "They didn't get it at all," commented Fantow. "I
walked around real slow all morning, making sure everyone could see
the shirt. I figured they'd think it was pretty hysterical. God, was
I wrong."
In fact, none of the 72 employees who rely on Fantow's
support for proper workstation functionality understood the intent of
the shirt and few inquired about its meaning: a UNIX operating system command
used to delete files and subfolders but in this case relating to
Osama bin Laden. "It was pathetic,"
Fantow explained. "I mean, I can understand how they don't care
about setting up new users in NT or how to wire a hub, but they don't
know what UNIX is? Or LINUX? I can set up a Red Hat web server in 3
hours and they've never even spent 5 minutes on a simple UNIX
tutorial? That's pretty weak."
"No one here likes Gerald much," commented Andrew Logan, head of
the design team at Bergan. "He went from cube to cube
trying to get people to ask about that fucking shirt. He'd change
any subject. Sports? 'That's just like my T-shirt -- know what it
means?' The weather? 'That's just like my T-shirt -- know
what it means?' No one cares at all -- that's what it means."
Added sales associate Mary Thomson:
"Yeah, Gerald's a jerk. He totally gives me attitude every time he
fixes my printer. 'Ooh, it means delete bin Laden, ha ha ha, God
that's so funny, Gerald!' What a moron."
Fantow plans to send a company-wide email explaining the intent of
the T-shirt and providing a brief primer on UNIX functionality. "I
think people will appreciate this," commented Fantow. "I mean, then
they can laugh and learn at the same time!" Previously emails from
Fantow have been deleted unread from approximately 90 per cent of all
Bergan workstations.
(Reported by Mark Niebuhr)
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