Can someone provide some backstory to this? Who is _why, and why is his reappearance interesting?
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_why's site is updated
81–90 of 149 posts
Re: _why's site is updated
#82Can someone provide some backstory to this? Who is _why, and why is his reappearance interesting?
I remember reading [Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby](http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/) back when I first started out learning ruby. I'm not familiar with his other projects, but I think they mainly dealt with ruby. A few years ago he randomly deleted his entire web presence and essentially disappeared.
Re: _why's site is updated
#83Summary:
Who's this guy _why? (also known as why the lucky stiff):
http://bit.ly/whytheluckystiff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_the_lucky_stiff
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The site http://whytheluckystiff.net is being hosted on GitHub under this account:
https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com/
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The git repo for the site has seen activity today, and has sparked conversation:
https://github.com/cwales/cwales.github.com/issues
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The site is serving up files in PCL:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_Command_Language
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Here are the contents of these files converted from PCL into images:
http://www.gironda.org/pcl/SOLICIT.png
http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635255/DESOLEE
http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635189/Trumpets
Re: _why's site is updated
#84_why, to respond to your questions in SOLICIT, you don't have to play the _why character if you don't want to. Most of us are happy to see you, whether you act bizarre or not. We miss your insight and commentary and sense of humor. Experiment if you like, and ignore the jerks.
For everyone else, _why made some videos before, here is my favorite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXZ_htL1rOI
Re: _why's site is updated
#85Another new file: HOMEWORK PDF version here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/135658986/-why-Homework (I've rotated the PDF 180 degrees; the original PCL is upside down)
Looks like the homework is to make an OCaml client for reading the spool files. Perhaps this is the start of a poignant guide to OCaml?
Re: _why's site is updated
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a corollary, we need more men & women in the world who love and appreciate people like _why, so that people who are like him but are less confident about showing their character in public (or even just to their immediate peers) would be more comfortable with doing so. In other words, to be more accepting and appreciate of each others' quirks and differences.
It works the other way around. Be who you are first. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
This is a nice message, and I know what you're trying to get at, but this is really just a great example of survivorship bias (history being written by the victors).
Re: _why's site is updated
#87Here are all the PCL files rendered to PNG: http://www.gironda.org/pcl/DESOLEE.png http://www.gironda.org/pcl/SOLICIT.png http://www.gironda.org/pcl/TRUMPETS.png
Confirmed. Uploaded the PDFs I got to Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635291/Solicit http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635255/DESOLEE http://www.scribd.com/doc/135635189/Trumpets http://www.scribd.com/doc/135650965/Caprice
Other people have been uploaded it, but for the sake of completeness (edit window on parent expired):
Re: _why's site is updated
#88Just a random-lol-thought but somehow my brain floated this. Could _why = Satoshi Nakamoto?
Re: _why's site is updated
#89If you look in the revision history there was an IDEAS file. Someone mentioned it and got downvoted, not sure why.
Sorry, best I could do:
Re: _why's site is updated
#90There is also TEST, but as far as I can tell, it's pretty boring and not worth posting.