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_why's site is back up

whytheluckystiff.net

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Re: _why's site is back up

#61

Post by edwardunknown »

w1ntermute wrote: post #30
mmastrac wrote: post #17

Here is the data from IDEAS, NOTES and TEST, converted to PDF format. It's somewhat readable (yes, the files are HP PCL format): Ideas: a bizarre set of story ideas http://www.scribd.com/doc/119138391/Ideas Notes: life tips http://www.scribd.com/doc/119138393/Notes Test: A typed test document http://www.scribd.com/doc/119138394/Test-1

Here's transcriptions of the texts. There might be some errors, please post corrections (make sure they are transcription errors, and not errors from the original document - there are quite a few of those, perhaps intentional). On Pastebin: Ideas: http://pastebin.com/WSfmLDA5 Life tips: http://pastebin.com/PTF4cfDJ Test: http://pastebin.com/BExqVKpv -------------- Full texts (same as Pastebin): -------------- IDEAS F…

I think he might be suggesting you fuckers go outside

Re: _why's site is back up

#62

Post by lazydon »

Oh my, did't know what was this all about. Just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff This _why guy is like Elvis/Garbo of the Ruby world.

Can somebody share more about some specific inspiring stuff _why did that makes him such an important figure in Ruby community:

Matz -> Ruby DHH -> Rails _why -> ?

Re: _why's site is back up

#63

Post by sha90 »

avree wrote: post #47
apawloski wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, you caught me. My point though, is that _why has made it clear that he wants to be left alone, and this HN endeavour seems to violate that. Maybe you're right and it is a new puzzle. And maybe he's back. (For what it's worth I posted that before most of the investigation.) Nevertheless though, given _why's wishes, this makes me uncomfortable, and I don't think it's unreasonable for me to acknowledge that.

You have it wrong. The man behind _why deleted his online presence because he grew tired of the persona and everything around it. At that point, people began searching for _why. This culminated in a Slate article that openly divulged his identity. That , is of course, crossing the line. If someone wants to distance themselves from an online tag, they should be allowed to in peace. Now, however, it seems that he's bro…

This timeline of events is inaccurate. _why's name was called out on a mailing list prior to the Slate article publication-- and prior to his vanishing. Please don't rewrite history in favor by pretending "he grew tired of the persona". He didn't quit because he wanted to move on with his life, he quit in a hissy fit because he was outed.

Re: _why's site is back up

#64

Post by PLejeck »

lazydon wrote: post #62

Oh my, did't know what was this all about. Just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff This _why guy is like Elvis/Garbo of the Ruby world. Can somebody share more about some specific inspiring stuff _why did that makes him such an important figure in Ruby community: Matz -> Ruby DHH -> Rails _why -> ?

As I understand it, _why -> The Ruby Community

Plus the Poignant guide helps.

Re: _why's site is back up

#66

Post by slurry »

PommeDeTerre wrote: post #48
bulletmagnet wrote: post #32

Am I the only one who finds this guy's affectations more than slightly annoying?

The Ruby community's attitude toward him is absurd, along with the personality cults they've formed around David Heinemeier Hansson and Zed Shaw. While other programming language communities have their notable figures, there is never as much outright drama surrounding them as we find in the Ruby community. In fact, these Ruby figures are now better known for the drama surrounding them than they are for any software t…

With regard to why:

1) Drama: fair point.

2) Personality cult: Not as sure. I've seen more than one newb told "don't waste your time" on the Poignant guide in Ruby forums. why's weakness as a coder is pretty widely recognized. In my opinion maybe over-estimated, esp. relative to people like DHH.

3) To me - I learned Ruby when Rails was in its infancy and the Agile salesmen had barely just hitched their wagon to it - why represents a more innocent period of the Ruby community.

Ruby was really a wonderful place - not-especially talented programmers could explore relatively sophisticated programming language features in a safe sandbox. Everything you'd been doing with Perl or whatever you could do with blocks and lambdas and even call/cc if you didn't mind a huge performance hit (naturally you didn't.)

Maybe it's nostalgia, but I think there was a time when MINSWAN actually meant something. Now, every doofus with a self-rolled YAML parser thinks he's the Steve Jobs Memorial Arbiter of Proper Design over Earth and All Satellites Thereof.

4) Yes, it is strange. But then, this is a Perl- and Smalltalk-based language from Japan.

Re: _why's site is back up

#67

Post by PLejeck »

w1ntermute wrote: post #30
mmastrac wrote: post #17

Here is the data from IDEAS, NOTES and TEST, converted to PDF format. It's somewhat readable (yes, the files are HP PCL format): Ideas: a bizarre set of story ideas http://www.scribd.com/doc/119138391/Ideas Notes: life tips http://www.scribd.com/doc/119138393/Notes Test: A typed test document http://www.scribd.com/doc/119138394/Test-1

Here's transcriptions of the texts. There might be some errors, please post corrections (make sure they are transcription errors, and not errors from the original document - there are quite a few of those, perhaps intentional). On Pastebin: Ideas: http://pastebin.com/WSfmLDA5 Life tips: http://pastebin.com/PTF4cfDJ Test: http://pastebin.com/BExqVKpv -------------- Full texts (same as Pastebin): -------------- IDEAS F…

The weirdest thing isthe TEST RESTAURANT REVIEW thing, because while the rest look like notes that one is just... gibberish

Re: _why's site is back up

#68

Post by slurry »

lazydon wrote: post #62

Oh my, did't know what was this all about. Just checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff This _why guy is like Elvis/Garbo of the Ruby world. Can somebody share more about some specific inspiring stuff _why did that makes him such an important figure in Ruby community: Matz -> Ruby DHH -> Rails _why -> ?

Wrote and illustrated a free online book, later published, which is accessible and somewhat fun/helpful if you don't know much about programming.

Wrote some parsers/generators for various markup languages, at least one of which is now part of the Ruby standard library (after extensive rewrites).

Kind of like ESR in that he's more accomplished as an advocate than a coder, but unlike ESR doesn't pretend otherwise, and especially unlike ESR had the good sense not to overstay his welcome.

Re: _why's site is back up

#69

Post by KVFinn »

apawloski wrote: post #22

Guys, unless he actually unveils something, just let this lie. _why did some great stuff, but he's just a man (and he wants to be left alone). If he plans on doing something, then let him, and let's discuss it if he does. But this is getting ridiculous and this sleuthing/snooping is uncomfortable. He renewed his domain name. We should be better than making this into news.

>Guys, unless he actually unveils something, just let this lie.

Point taken, except that _why seems like just the kind of person who would have of fun making an ARG. Which this kinda sorta almost seems like.

Re: _why's site is back up

#70

Post by zem »

slurry wrote: post #66
PommeDeTerre wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Ruby community's attitude toward him is absurd, along with the personality cults they've formed around David Heinemeier Hansson and Zed Shaw. While other programming language communities have their notable figures, there is never as much outright drama surrounding them as we find in the Ruby community. In fact, these Ruby figures are now better known for the drama surrounding them than they are for any software t…

With regard to why: 1) Drama: fair point. 2) Personality cult: Not as sure. I've seen more than one newb told "don't waste your time" on the Poignant guide in Ruby forums. why's weakness as a coder is pretty widely recognized. In my opinion maybe over-estimated, esp. relative to people like DHH. 3) To me - I learned Ruby when Rails was in its infancy and the Agile salesmen had barely just hitched their wagon to it -…

well said. _why really did exemplify the "coders at play" aspect of the ruby community, doing a bunch of creative and fairly bizarre things for the sheer joy of it.
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