finger, the father of blog

This thought (hardly a breakthrough correlation, but a bit of history for the kids) came to mind while playing a game of Doom 3. I was pondering what Carmack's perception of the release has been, and that reminded me that for years Carmack, and most other big industry names, kept up to date finger entries that were basically diaries, ruminations of programming, the industry, etc. Basically exactly the role that blog fills today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finger_protocol

Just a little flashback there. Sorry.

Dennis Forbes
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Dude, you spend too much time on this forum.

Angel
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Dennis Forbes? He's harmless. Did a little too much LDS in the sixties.

Captain Kirk
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

LDS?

worthless old hippie
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092007/quotes

Captain Kirk
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

LDS - drug of choice for dyslexics.

dexlysia
Wednesday, September 1, 2004

Yeah. I overdosed on the Latter Day Saints the other day. A couple of 'em stopped by my house and wanted to chat about God and such. Silly kids!

But more on topic. I actually think that's pretty cool. Thanks for the trivia.

SW
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Sally was the user name of our sysadmin in college.  Like some pre-Bevis/Butthead scenario, we used to say

heh-heh I fingered Sally...

heh-heh
Thursday, September 2, 2004

When dyslexic addicts trip out, do they see Dog?

Yep, it's time for bed.

Edward
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Trivia?

It's a frightening world, where 'finger' is considered Trivia.



/misses GEnie

muppet
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Finger ....

I guess finger got ditched, the main reason being that information would give clues for social engineering attacks.

Now blogs are the same... i guess they will ditch blogs some day, due to the same reason.

Michael Moser
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Finger was notoriously unsecure on some unix platforms. One of the first things I'd do when setting up a unix box was disable finger.

What about "talk" as the father of instant messaging?

old_timer
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Tnanks for the Star-Trek link. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing this scenario soon with our kids:

faced with a 20th century computer]
Scotty : Computer. Computer?
[Bones hands him a mouse and he speaks into it]
Scotty : Hello, computer.
Dr. Nichols : Just use the keyboard.
Scotty : Keyboard. How quaint.

Stephen Jones
Thursday, September 2, 2004

C0mpuS3rve 0wns joo!

L33t Hax0r
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Ahh, but you forgot the part where Scotty, despite using a computer with a voice interface all of his life is able to type approximately 100WPM using a keyboard he's never seen.

Heck, if you could type that fast why would you waste time speaking to a computer anyway?

Don't get me started on Scotty's knowledge of the either the keyboard commands for a CAD package he'd never seen, or his ability to code a CAD package from scratch in about 10 seconds on a computer he'd never seen.

That movie burned out any trekkieness remaining in my then adolescent mind.

Steve Barbour
Thursday, September 2, 2004

Oddly enough, the database table that stores my blog is named "finger" as a nod to history.  My finger file went away when I discovered the web, back in the days of lynx and modems and before the September That Never Ended when all of you other folks found out about it.

Flamebait Sr.
Thursday, September 2, 2004

>>> Don't get me started on Scotty's knowledge of the either the keyboard commands for a CAD package he'd never seen, or his ability to code a CAD package from scratch in about 10 seconds on a computer he'd never seen.

>>> That movie burned out any trekkieness remaining in my then adolescent mind.

What are you talking about?  This is _Scotty_ you're talking about, the man who reads his engineering journals for shore leave.  Of course he'd be able to use any imaginable computer, even a primitive one, and a 1980s-vintage CAD package would be so trivial compared to whatever he used to design/modify warp drives that 10 seconds would be plenty of time to master it.  And typing 200wpm would be nothing compared to all the quick moves he routinely has to make to keep the engines from blowing on the Enterprise.

Ward
Thursday, September 2, 2004

How's this to tie this thread together:
Did you know that James Doohan, actor who plays Scotty, had a finger blown off in WWII (at Juno Beach, I think).?

pb_canuck
Thursday, September 2, 2004

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