Just noticed that my last 3 posts (and now this) start with “Happy” in their subject. 😮

Happy Eid-ul-Adha to those celebrating, God Bless :-). Interesting how close Thanksgiving and Eid are this year, always a good thing, and not just from a holiday viewpoint :P.

For those celebrating, Happy Thanksgiving! And more importantly, please don’t get killed on Black Friday :P.

This year (and some say this month specifically?), the Unix operating system celebrates its 40th birthday. Here are some links:

• The Open Group’s Unix History and Timeline
• A recent BBC article

This blog entry is also categorised under and tagged as ‘philosophy’ because Unix does have an elegant philosophy underlying it :-). Probably the best I’ve read on the “Unix Way” is, The Art of Unix Programming1, by Eric S. Raymond (esr)2

1 Available for free from that page, find the link. I could have provided a direct link but that page is a better start, and acknowledges the author more clearly in my view.

2 Of The Cathedral and the Bazaar fame, an authoritative piece on open source dynamics, why it works, etc.

Time

Moment built upon moment

Of units measurable and not

Of events uncountable

Continuous and discrete

Apparent eternity

And a fleeting whisper

All at once.

How it comes, how it goes

Wow, how it goes

An all-encapsulating fabric

Seemingly ever-folding

Never unraveling

Ever-consuming manifesting events

Never to return

Each merged as a read-only datum

Accessed only by Mnemosyne’s will

With Divine accordance

Time.

Dimension sublime.

— Kamal

I’ve heard various versions of this song (well, okay, maybe more like 2), but this version is a nice listen – the acoustic touch on live stage is awesome. Youtube video, enjoy. Apparently it’s live in Seattle, 2003.