On Tue, Nov 06, 2001 at 07:04:45AM -0800, Justin Keyes wrote:
<snip>
>
> Another P.S.: why do we have to write "s*bscr*be if we are sending to
> slug@nks.net, when majordomo@nks.net is the one that processes
> commands?
Majordomo is the program that manages the list, but you don't send email
directly to it. Majordomo@nks.net only handles list admin commands,
which are only available to admins. NKS has set up their systems so
that when you send mail to slug@nks.net, it's passed off to majordomo to
handle.
Writing s*bscr*be is called "armoring" the word. The reason for this is
that sometimes people don't bother to find out how to actually
uns*bscr*be, and instead send emails trying to uns*bscr*be to the main
list. If majordomo let them through, you'd see all kinds of uns*bscr*be
traffic on the main list from people who didn't RTFM. So... majordomo
looks for this (and other admin type words) and diverts those emails to
the admins. The short version is that if you _don't_ armor the words,
your posts bounce to the admins, and never make the list.
> Yet another P.S. (YAPS): why do people write "un*x"?
Because the word UNIX is actually a trademark owned by someone. They
don't like it, for instance, when we compare Linux to UNIX, because in
order to have a Real UNIX System (TM), you have to shell out all kinds
of money and give them your first born and such. Which Linux doesn't do.
Maddog suggested we say instead that UNIX is a lot like Linux. And of
course, UNIX isn't really one thing. There's HP-UX, AIX, etc. So Un*x
sort of covers them all. Linux is a trademark too, but unlike the major
UNIX vendors, Linux as a trademark really only applies to the kernel.
And beside, also unlike the UNIX vendors, we're all friends here.
(Now, although I've used the word UNIX here, I have decades of training
and endless degrees. Don't try this at home, kids! No, really.) ;-}
Paul
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