We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002) • Hacker News Board

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#91

Post by iso1631 » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

staycoolboy wrote: post #58

The one thing that throws a wrench in this story for me: Lattes. Latte's in 1994? In North Carolina? No way. Maybe on the West Coast, but I moved to Cali in 1989 and they were a rarity until the mid-late 90's. There were only 425 starbucks in the US in 1994 (from their site). The "fancy coffee" craze was just a blip on the radar in the mid 90's but gaining momentum. ;-)

From the FAQ

> My guess, from the office I remember being in, the coworkers I remember speaking about this to, and some other such irrelevant but timely details, place it somewhere between 1994 and 1997.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#92

Post by majewsky » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

punnerud wrote: post #67

wuster wrote: post #59

Best part of reading this is coming away having learned the existence of units the CLI. How did I spend 20 years on the shell and not have needed or discovered this?

units You have: mph You want: kph * 1.609344 / 0.62137119

I have

  alias units='units --verbose

in my shell rc which makes the output much more understandable:

  You have: mph
  You want: kph
          mph = 1.609344 kph
          mph = (1 / 0.62137119) kph

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#93

Post by czzr » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:29 AM UTC

thyrsus wrote: post #72

I've had enough years to become wiser, become a fanatic for configuration management, and get over the embarrassment: I'm the consultant that screwed things up. Some background: the Stat department was running a variety of systems besides the Solaris workstations, and there was, within UNC-CH, a separate support organization that was cheaper and more comfortable with Microsoft products where Stat was sending their su…

I’ve read this story many times, it’s hilarious (and could happen to anyone). Thanks for filling in that background - HN is so great for these kind of moments!

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#94

Post by lelag » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:37 AM UTC

bawolff wrote: post #90

I've heard this story before, but i didn't realize it was as recent as 2002. It feels like something from a much earlier bygone era, like the early 90s

The author states it happened sometime between 1994 and 1997.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#95

Post by sah2ed » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:39 AM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #86

thyrsus wrote: post #72

I've had enough years to become wiser, become a fanatic for configuration management, and get over the embarrassment: I'm the consultant that screwed things up. Some background: the Stat department was running a variety of systems besides the Solaris workstations, and there was, within UNC-CH, a separate support organization that was cheaper and more comfortable with Microsoft products where Stat was sending their su…

Can I get your autograph? The 500 mile email story has been a story since I was a teenager. Thank you for the comment. It was delightful to hear your take on the (mildly apocryphal, but highly enjoyable) tale.

How about a joint autograph from both the protagonist—Trey Harris, and the antagonist—the consultant to the Stats department :) ?

Trey Harris also on HN [0].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TreyHarris

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#96

Post by comicjk » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:45 AM UTC

cranium wrote: post #77

wuster wrote: post #59

Best part of reading this is coming away having learned the existence of units the CLI. How did I spend 20 years on the shell and not have needed or discovered this?

One thing I got bitten by was the handling of Fahrenheit/Celsius, because it's a non-linear conversion between the two. When you ask to convert `10 degC` to `degF` you get 18, which is the delta of ºF corresponding to increment of 10ºC. To get the absolute temperature, you have to ask to convert `tempC(10)` to `tempF` which is 50, as expected. https://www.gnu.org/software/units/

"Non-linear" threw me off for a second - I almost never see the mathematically correct definition of linear in computer science spaces. For anyone wondering, Celsius to Fahrenheit is an affine transform, technically not linear, because you have to add an offset, not just multiply.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#97

Post by frandroid » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 9:48 AM UTC

ip_addr wrote: post #26

Does anyone know of stories similar to this? I would like to read more.

The style is very reminiscent from The Register's BOFH line of stories (though without the mischieviousness)--now those are mostly fiction, but they're amusing nonetheless...

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#98

Post by techdragon » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 10:08 AM UTC

sah2ed wrote: post #95

sillysaurusx wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I get your autograph? The 500 mile email story has been a story since I was a teenager. Thank you for the comment. It was delightful to hear your take on the (mildly apocryphal, but highly enjoyable) tale.

How about a joint autograph from both the protagonist—Trey Harris, and the antagonist—the consultant to the Stats department :) ? Trey Harris also on HN [0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=TreyHarris

Yes. Seriously... I’m willing to pay for the shipping and everything. I’ve told this story countless times to people over the years. This and the “OpenOffice can’t print on Tuesday” bug are two of my favourite troubleshooting stories.

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#99

Post by duckerude » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 10:27 AM UTC

ornornor wrote: post #64

wuster wrote: post #59

Best part of reading this is coming away having learned the existence of units the CLI. How did I spend 20 years on the shell and not have needed or discovered this?

Be aware that currencies are stuck with rates from several years ago and don’t update.

Running `sudo units_cur` does the trick for me.

  $ units
  Currency exchange rates from FloatRates (USD base) on 2020-05-12
  $ sudo units_cur
  $ units
  Currency exchange rates from FloatRates (USD base) on 2020-07-09

(GNU units, packed by Debian)

Re: We can't send email more than 500 miles (2002)

#100

Post by bibinou » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 10:38 AM UTC

iso1631 wrote: post #89

divbzero wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love that after all these years there are still people discovering this classic for the first time.

That's a great non-cynical non-humbuggy view to have I see something like this and have to consciously think of https://xkcd.com/1053/

thanks, I was looking for this comic for some unrelated reason.