[rescue] Re: [SunHELP] Solaris 9, First thoughts

[bill pointon]

i had second thoughts on this -- but then decided that they were just 
sloppy seconds -- billp
On Sunday, January 20, 2002, at 03:47 AM, s at avoidant.org wrote:

> Brian Hechinger wrote:
>
>> machine running. i have got a pretty good brick text going here and i 
>> wonder
>> how far i can take it.  damn, laziness sets in.  screw it.
>
>
> If you want to do the justification thing, I really think we ought to
> take it
> to geeks. I'm quite good at making all my text line up nicely. I'm not
> really
> sure why, it just seems that my brain works that way. I've done whole
> mailing
> list posts this way in the past, and without any of the strange
> syntactic and
> grammatic tricks some people pull to get it to work. I've even seen
> folks try
> stupid things like inserting extra spaces in the middle of the line
> hoping it
> wouldn't be noticed. One long run-on paragraph is easy enough, but for
> better
> effect it should really be split, with each paragraph justified the same
> way.
>
> Another cool trick, which I have only managed to pull off once, and
> doubt can
> be repeated, is to write each line one character shorter than the
> preceding,
> all the way down to a final one character line, which would, natuarally,
> be
> a period to end the insane run-on sentence that paragraph would be. I'm
> no
> expert, but I don't think it can be done again, even by someone who's
> got
> all the time in the world on their hands. There was probably a typo that
> snuck in, so it looked good but didn't really work. Especially consider
> the fact that I'm such a lousy typist, and the chance that it could be
> as easy as I make it seem becomes slim indeed. Factor in the time, so
> you get a complete picture, and you begin to see that it's really an
> amazing feat if it can be accomplished. I don't think it can, but I
> give myself far less credit than I probably deserve. If I could do
> it once, why can't I do it again? It's not really so hard, is it?
> I mean, just measure your words, count letters, punctuate right,
> type carefully, and let it flow. The biggest problem I have now
> is making sure it makes sense. I mean, I could insert all sort
> of gibberish in here to fill out the lines, but that wouldn't
> be right, would it? It's got to read well, and those kind of
> things never do. Not that this is all that great, but it'll
> have to do. I mean, what kind of content do you really get
> when all you're writing wbout is writing? OK, so sometime
> I'll look for the post where I pulled this trick off and
> see just what I wrote about there. I don't doubt it was
> just as inane as this, but then, if you can do better,
> do it. But don't criticize my effort 'till you've put
> your own skills to the test. This is no small task I
> seem to have set for myself here. It gets harder as
> the lines get shorter, and it'll continue as I get
> farther and farther down the page. Soon, the line
> length will determine the maximum word length, I
> think. Have to use words like "I" and "on" more
> than I should. In fact, I've probably exceeded
> my quota of the use of the word "I" for posts
> this month in this one paragraph. Or maybe I
> can do it. It's not so hard. It's not going
> to be accomplished, though, by use of word
> manipulations that wouldn't fit in normal
> speech. That would be cheating, wouldn't
> it? Hmmm, maybe I should stop here. You
> probably aren't interested anyway, and
> this really doesn't belong on rescue,
> does it? But I'm so close, it's just
> a few more lines. What the hell? If
> it turns out that I shouldn't have
> posted this, I'll just shut up in
> shame and not post much more for
> the day. If I'm even able to do
> that, that is. I'm really past
> some theoretical point of not
> being able to stop here, and
> if I do, then sending is no
> longer an option. It's now
> do or die, with die being
> most likely. Chances are
> I'll run out of ways to
> make the text fit, and
> scrap the post before
> I hit "send". Really
> pushing it now. I'm
> running out of two
> letter words, and
> things have gone
> all funny. This
> has taken more
> time than I'd
> planned, and
> isn't worth
> the effort
> it takes.
> Continue
> typing,
> see it
> fail.
> Done
> now
> am
> I
>
>
> ---sambo
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