What was up with the non-sequitur bags of water link?
Where have I been these past few years?
11–20 of 68 posts
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#12What was up with the non-sequitur bags of water link?
I haven't read the article, but I would assume any mention of 'bags of water' would be a reference to a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Specifically, the episode where the crew of the Enterprise encounters a silicon-based life form capable of communication with humans. Humans are three quarters water, so the silicon lifeforms (rightly?) refer to the humans as 'ugly bags of mostly water'.
To put this into context, it's not uncommon to have the set of people who use and work with technology overlap with the set of people who are sci-fi fans. This is prevalent enough that the culture itself overlaps. Here, I would guess a non-sequitur referring to 'bags of water' is a form of signalling; 'I'm one of you', or something to that effect.
I would go so far to say that knowledge of certain sci-fi tropes, plot lines, and even quotes is a requirement for working on certain teams. At the very least, active displays of ignorance of sci-fi culture should be avoided.
But then again, I haven't read the article linked to by the OP. It's just a guess.
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#13Misbehaving binary and no source?
xxd -> vi -> xxd -r
Fierce. Love it.
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#14Have you been by the bay?
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#15Misbehaving binary and no source? xxd -> vi -> xxd -r Fierce. Love it.
It isn't even that there is no source - the code is available (upstream is here: https://people.freebsd.org/~abe/ ).
She figured that since it was a 1-bit bug, xxd -> vi -> xxd -r was going to be quicker and simpler than downloading, modifying and recompiling the source.
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#16What was up with the non-sequitur bags of water link?
I haven't read the article, but I would assume any mention of 'bags of water' would be a reference to a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Specifically, the episode where the crew of the Enterprise encounters a silicon-based life form capable of communication with humans. Humans are three quarters water, so the silicon lifeforms (rightly?) refer to the humans as 'ugly bags of mostly water'. To put this into cont…
>>I would go so far to say that knowledge of certain sci-fi tropes, plot lines, and even quotes is a requirement for working on certain teams.
In other words, know your shibboleths[1] to enhance in-group cohesiveness.
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
I haven't read the article, but I would assume any mention of 'bags of water' would be a reference to a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Specifically, the episode where the crew of the Enterprise encounters a silicon-based life form capable of communication with humans. Humans are three quarters water, so the silicon lifeforms (rightly?) refer to the humans as 'ugly bags of mostly water'. To put this into cont…
>>I would go so far to say that knowledge of certain sci-fi tropes, plot lines, and even quotes is a requirement for working on certain teams. In other words, know your shibboleths[1] to enhance in-group cohesiveness. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth
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Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#18Can someone give me some context? Who is rachelbythebay? I gather she is probably someone well known for her writing on software, tech culture, etc in the HN community, but I am not that immersed in the community(hence my ignorance). Thanks!
I had the pleasure of working with her at Rackspace before she moved to Google. Easily the smartest Linux tech I've ever met.
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#19What was up with the non-sequitur bags of water link?
I haven't read the article, but I would assume any mention of 'bags of water' would be a reference to a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Specifically, the episode where the crew of the Enterprise encounters a silicon-based life form capable of communication with humans. Humans are three quarters water, so the silicon lifeforms (rightly?) refer to the humans as 'ugly bags of mostly water'. To put this into cont…
Another famous source of the "bags of water"/"bags of meat" phrase is the short story They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson.
Re: Where have I been these past few years?
#20[deleted]