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239 lines
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<TITLE>Linux Gazette 70: The Answer Gang</TITLE>
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LINK="#3366FF" VLINK="#A000A0">
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<A HREF="http://www.linuxgazette.com/"
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><H1 align="center"><IMG ALT="LINUX GAZETTE" SRC="../gx/../gx/lglogo.jpg"
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WIDTH="600" HEIGHT="124" border="0"></H1></A>
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<H1><A NAME="answer">
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<img src="../gx/dennis/qbubble.gif" alt="(?)"
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border="0" align="middle">
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<font color="#B03060">The Answer Gang</font>
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<img src="../gx/dennis/bbubble.gif" alt="(!)"
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border="0" align="middle">
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</A></H1>
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<BR>
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<H4>By Jim Dennis, Ben Okopnik, Dan Wilder, Breen, Chris, and the Gang,
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the Editors of Linux Gazette...
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and You!
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<br>Send questions (or interesting answers) to
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<a href="mailto:linux-questions-only@ssc.com">linux-questions-only@ssc.com</a>
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</H4>
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<p><em><font color="#990000">There is no guarantee that your questions
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here will <b>ever</b> be answered. Readers at confidential sites
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must provide permission to publish. However, you can be published
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anonymously - just let us know!
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</font></em></p>
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</center>
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<p><hr><p>
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<!-- endcut ======================================================= -->
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<H3>Contents:</H3>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="#tag/greeting"
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><strong>¶: Greetings From Heather Stern</strong></A></dl>
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<DL>
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<!-- index_text begins -->
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<dt><A HREF="tag/1.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>Scary disk error</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/2.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>question please please please answer</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/3.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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></a>ssh NAT/Firewall Piercing Trick --or--
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<dd><A HREF="tag/3.html"
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><strong>Piercing the Veil</strong></a>
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<br>Using OpenSSH Remote Tunnels to Get Back In
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<dt><A HREF="tag/4.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>Every time Modem Hangup When Connect time 3.3 min.</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/5.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>Bash</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/6.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>question</strong></a> about fingerd
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<dt><A HREF="tag/7.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>Kernel Compilation</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/8.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>Re: Linux solution to syncing with Exchange Address books as a client</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/9.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>internet cafe</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/10.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>Password aging</strong></a>
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<dt><A HREF="tag/11.html"
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><img src="../gx/dennis/qbub.gif" height="28" width="50"
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alt="(?)" border="0"
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><strong>inetd and figlet</strong></a>
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<!-- index_text ends -->
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</DL>
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<!-- .~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~. -->
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<A NAME="tag/greeting"><HR WIDTH="75%" ALIGN="center"></A>
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<H3 align="left"><img src="../gx/dennis/hbubble.gif"
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height="50" width="60" alt="(¶) " border="0"
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>Greetings from Heather Stern</H3>
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<!-- begin hgreeting -->
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<p>
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Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting month of The Answer Gang.
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There have been a lot of fun things happening this month -- Linux turned
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10 years old, if we count its "birthday" as the day when Linus sent his
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initial message about it to the minix newsgroup. And there was Linux
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World Expo in San Francisco this month.
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</p><p>
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Attendance at a local party thrown in the park to celebrate the birthday
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was pretty good. In fact the local organizers were afraid we'd overflow
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the park... but, as it happened, we didn't. A great time was had by all
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(just how <em>did</em> they get a working fridge onsite? Wow.) and the
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park felt we were so organized that we're certainly welcome to do other
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events there. For that we can thank two things: the effort put in by
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the local Ham operators to keep things together, and the general habit of
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the Linux folk to leave the park cleaner than we left it. I showed up late
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but there were still lots of soda and some burgers left.
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</p><p>
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The LWE conference was not so well attended. I'm sure the "dot bomb" has
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had something to do with this. There weren't as many toys, there weren't
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as many people, there even wern't as many reporters hanging out in the
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press room rushing their interviews to press. But I did see some very cool
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software there anyway. We'll probably be seeing some articles come in during
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the next few months.
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</p><p>
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Now for my rant of the month. I've been watching as the notes about
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shabby customer service roll through. Lots of people come to the Gang for
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help, not because they had any idea there is a community of helpful people
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here, but because they've been driven to search engines in desperation after
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being blown off by the corporate support they thought they had paid for when
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they got their product.
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</p><p>
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The worst offender from a Linux user's point of view has got to be Sony.
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Not only have they made special efforts to blow off Linux users in the press,
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but this particular one takes the cake - from the Debian Laptops mailing
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list, archives visible over at debian.org:
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</p>
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<blockquote>
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BTW, a funny thing happened to me when I wanted to register the laptop
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online on Sony's Vaio site. It didn't work, so I sent an email to
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support, saying that I can't register. Told them that I use
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Linux/Mozilla, and asked if that's a known prob. The next day I got a
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replay, saying, paraphrased "We don't support that OS. If the hardware
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is damaged through that OS, you're on your own. Also we have no programs
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to download for that OS" and so on, in unfriendly tone for lines and
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lines. I asked back if they have gone crazy, it works fine, thank you
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and I don't want to download anything. Just want to register the darn
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thing like any other customer. Next day I got a reply: "We apologize for
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the autoreply".
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I guess they have a filter like "if body contains linux|bsd then reply
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'f**k off'".
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</blockquote>
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<p>Turning on the way-back machine, I remember a time, not that long ago
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really, when real people answered the main phone line for companies, and
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directed your call. Okay, so they weren't paid much, in fact they were a
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glorified portion of the PBX system, but they were a little brighter than
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the "phone tree" (you know, press 1 to get bored to death, 2 to stay on
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hold until your ears melt, 3 to get lost in a maze of twisty menus). They
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really did have an interest in directing your call accurately (if they do
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then they never have to worry about your call any further) and it gives
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people a great feeling to reach a person - even though we know perfectly
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well it's not the right person yet. They might be able to listen to your
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tale of confusion amongst their products and pick the right sub-department
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that you don't happen to know about. In one step, not seven.
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</p><p>
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The sad fact is, open source, great as it is, doesn't guarantee any pixie
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dust will be applied to your customer service either. I've seen some of
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these mailing lists. Heck, we've gotten our share of flames here at TAG,
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being occasionally grumpy about some oddity of Linux life even as we answer
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someone's question. And this is where we have an editor throwing out stuff
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that doesn't look like it relates. Some people on the general lists out
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there need to go stand in a corner for awhile. Just because a question
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looks like it came straight out of the FAQ doesn't mean you shouldn't
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actually <em>READ</em> it before trying to answer it... it might only be
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<em>similar</em>. And, the world changes - last years FAQ might answer
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today's odd case incorrectly. So keep those FAQs up to date.
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</p><p>
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(Yeah, I know, fine one I am to talk, the Past Answers Index is so old it's
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growing blackberries. Anyone out there want to give a shot at updating it?)
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</p><p>
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Nothing gets someone's ire up much faster than making them feel foolish for
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using your product. There's two ways they can use that ire - to fix things,
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or to vote with their feet. So anybody staying in the commercial, proprietary
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world should continue to pay attention to their customers ... since obviously
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they aren't allowed to change anything, unless it's through YOU. The other
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thing about open source is, the world has gotten pretty big. The odds are
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quite good that if someone has dreamed up a piece of software, so has someone
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else, in a different garage, possibly on a different continent. And yes, with
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a slightly different outlook on life, but probably close enough (especially
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since we have source) that they are not trapped in your product, not hardly.
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</p><p>
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So the value add if you want to get well known (and not evilly so) is to not
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only have a good product that works for you, but keep your enthusiasts
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cheerful on your lists. Have a bug tracking system that encourages better
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bug reports than "uh, it broke". Nail bugs when you've got 'em or report back
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why things are getting pushed around on your schedules. Actually consider some
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of those things that were "as designed" and get complaints, to be documentation
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bugs or the subject of your next redesign. And get those oddball cases to try
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out your overnighter code. Lastly, don't be afraid to say when you've gone
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and gotten a new life, and someone else should take up the project now. In
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the case of proprietary projects shelved like this, consider releasing them
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once they no longer have direct value for you. (It might turn them into some
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advertsiing for the company, at least.) Make it easy for your projects to
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live on their own, and they'll make you proud.
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</p><p>
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The sanity you save may someday be your own...
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</p>
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<!-- end hgreeting -->
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<!--startcut ======================================================= -->
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<P> <hr> </p>
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<!-- *** BEGIN copyright *** -->
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<H5 align="center">This page edited and maintained by the Editors
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of <I>Linux Gazette</I>
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<a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html"
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>Copyright ©</a> 2001
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<BR>Published in issue 70 of <I>Linux Gazette</I> September 2001</H5>
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<H6 ALIGN="center">HTML script maintained by
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<A HREF="mailto:star@starshine.org">Heather Stern</a> of
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Starshine Technical Services,
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<A HREF="http://www.starshine.org/">http://www.starshine.org/</A>
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</H6>
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