I posted this via Twitter and Identi.ca a few days ago.
25 useful cheat sheets:
http://www.techiebl
Roy
2009/10/27 Roy <linuxcanuck@
> There are sites such as Linxquestions.
> You respond in their site only. This has the advantage that everyone is
> seeing the same thing and responding the same way. It has the disadvantage
> that you have to remember to logon regularly. This is why I use the email
> approach with Yahoo and Google groups. I don't have to remember to do
> anything. The messages come to me.
>
> The only way to level the playing field in the forum would be to make a
> rule that you can only access it through the groups site. (ie. no email)
> However, Yahoo encourages email so it would take a decision at a much higher
> level. You can guarantee that participation would drop off significantly as
> a result.
>
> Choose your poison.
>
> Roy
>
> 2009/10/27 J <dreadpiratejeff@
>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 27, 2009 at 10:17, ... <BearJerCares@
>> wrote:
>> > May I advance an opinion without generating too much controversy?
>>
>> No, of course not. Your post must include a minimum of 25%
>> controversy to be acceptable :-)
>>
>>
>> > I thought this site was going to be just that - a place where new users
>> > to Linux could get very practical down-to-earth advice without much
>> > technical jargon. I don't think that is the case. Too often, I find
>> > endless banter of those of you who are extremely experienced with Linux,
>> > use of the command line, etc. And the information is so involved and so
>> > technical, that I just scroll on past and don't have the time or
>> > background to absorb it.
>>
>> It is, but there are not a lot of questions floating around at the
>> moment, so the group turns to discussing other things...
>>
>> You should read that endless banter anyway, though. Even if it is
>> technically above your head, which it may or may not actually be.
>> You'll learn something new that way. To use myself for an example, I
>> know next to nothing about global networking, but I follow the North
>> American Network Operators Group discussion list and while I still do
>> not know squat about global networking, when I see the terms come up
>> elsewhere, the memory is triggered and I at least have an idea about
>> what's being talked about.
>>
>> It's also a good way to learn about Linux... For another arbitrary
>> example, lets say there was some long technical discussion going on
>> about a certain kernel module. You may or may not know anything about
>> kernel modules or the kernel itself... but if you still read the
>> discussion, at some point later, you'll ask a question like "Why does
>> my network card not show up in the network configurator?
>> ask something like "Is the driver loaded?" and subconciously, you'll
>> remember having read a discussion about kernel modules and draw the
>> link to drivers being kernel modules, and then it will "click".
>>
>> Of course, that was really just an arbitrary example I pulled out of
>> thin air, but really, NOTHING we discuss here, or at least 99% of what
>> we discuss here, is really that involved and technical. Believe me.
>> Check out the Linux Kernel Mailing List sometime ;-) And besides
>> which, if you're following along one of these discussions and see a
>> term or an idea you don't understand, all you have to do is ask... and
>> if, for some reason, your question gets overlooked, don't take it
>> personally, it's not people ignoring you so much as people being so
>> wrapped up in the discussion that they may forget to reply to a
>> question that is on a different track... So just ask again, like you
>> did here.
>>
>>
>> > Then I post a simple (maybe not so simple question) about why those
>> > extraneous lines appear in the posted e-mails, and those annoying >>>
>> > characters, and none of you pros even address it.
>>
>> You're right... it's a simple not-so-simple question. It has
>> everything to do with A) the mail program you are using, be it the
>> Yahoo mail interface, gmail, thunderbird, pine, mutt, outlook (and
>> PLEASE tell me you are NOT using outlook), lotus notes, blackberry,
>> etc... and B) Yahoo Groups taking your mail and converting it to yet
>> another format and C) Yahoo groups then converting to a third format
>> for people who opted to get "traditional style" posts as opposed to
>> their new, shiny "enhanced style" posts that are just chock-full of
>> HTML garbage.
>>
>> One thing you can do to fix weird line wrapping things is to figure
>> out how to configure whatever you're using for a mail client to word
>> wrap at a certain character limit. Of course, that's not always
>> possible, depending on your mail agent of choice, but it's a start.
>> Some things (like most web mail interfaces) will not allow you to set
>> arbitrary line-wrap limits so there's little you can do there beyond
>> continuously hitting the return key after you get a line that looks to
>> be about the right size.
>>
>> I see cases where, using the gmail interface and replying, that quoted
>> text in replies either wrap quickly and look like this:
>>
>> > this is quoted text that I am using as an example. You see, I am typing
>> this
>> > out to give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Now I'm just typing
>> gibberish
>> > to add in an extra line here.
>>
>> and other times, that look like this:
>>
>> > this is a second block of fake quoted text that I'm creating out of thin
>> air to
>> demonstrate another artifact of weird email behaviour. I also wonder
>> why it is that
>> I started typing the word behaviour with a "u". That's a decidedly
>> Queen's English
>> way of doing it.
>>
>> So the first example is really what quoted material "should" look like.
>>
>> The second example is what happens when A: you send an e-mail from
>> some program or interface that does NOT wrap lines at all and B: my
>> mail agent then decides to wrap at a certain interval, BUT because the
>> original text does not have a new-line character embedded in it, the
>> insertion of >> is never triggered, and the quoted text looks weird.
>>
>> Now, to address your other question. > >> and >>> are the "normal"
>> and accepted markers for quoted text. The more > you see, the more
>> levels of quote... in other words this:
>>
>> You send me an email. When I get your mail, your text looks like this:
>>
>> Hi, I'm some text.
>>
>> I quote you in my reply:
>>
>> > Hi, I'm some text.
>>
>> Hi Text, I'm some reply.
>>
>> You quote in your reply:
>>
>> >> Hi, I'm some text.
>> > Hi Text, I'm some reply.
>> What's up?
>>
>> I quote you:
>>
>> >>> Hi, I'm some text.
>> >> Hi Text, I'm some reply.
>> > What's up?
>> Not much, just chilling.
>>
>> and it goes on and on. The OLDER a bit of quoted text is, the more >
>> will appear in front of it. And before you ask, there is no magic.
>>
>> Look at the first line of my final example... ">>> Hi, I'm some text"
>>
>> The first email sent a line of text that looked like "Hi, I'm some text"
>> The first quote then added a single > to the line.
>> The next email quotes again, and that adds another > to the quoted
>> line "> Hi, I'm some text."
>> The next email quotes yet again, and adds yet another > to the quoted
>> line ">> Hi, I'm some text"
>>
>> And it can just snowball.
>>
>> Look at the "FWD: HAHAHA THIS IS FUNNY TOO CUTE KITTEH ON THE
>> PIANO!!1!" forwarded messages that people insist on forwarding to
>> everyone they know, over and over. You'll see things like this:
>>
>> >>>>>>>>>>>>
>> >>>>>>>>>>>>
>> >>>>>>>>>>>>
>> >>>>>>>>>>>>
>>
>> Because that e-mail has been quoted and forwarded Bob knows how many
>> times and NEVER been trimmed. Messes like that is why we generally
>> request that you trim the quoted material down to only what's
>> necessary in your reply to keep the conversation going.
>>
>>
>> > If there are simple sites out there to address common and simple
>> > problems without going into endless detail, which may or may not address
>> > the problem at hand, I would be glad to know about it.
>>
>> There are tons of them and they all start with Google. But to be
>> honest, the endless detail is the important stuff. There's an old
>> saying thrown about by good Christians..
>> eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he's fed for a lifetime.
>>
>> And that's what many of us believe... I'm not implying ANYTHING about
>> anyone's choice in religion here, or lack thereof, but this ideal is
>> VERY pervasive in the F/OSS community. The community, despite what
>> inexperienced people would have you believe, grew up on people
>> actually learning what they were doing, not being spoon fed answers,
>> because spoon feeding answers to people generally does nothing to
>> enhance their knowledge, and thus does nothing to enhance the
>> community as a whole.
>>
>> THAT is why you'll sometimes ask a simple question, as you did here,
>> and get a long, drawn out reply as I have just provided.
>>
>> Of course, if there is a quick simple answer, you may get that as
>> well, but if it's something that sounds simple to you, but in reality
>> is not necessarily simple, then prepare for a potentially lengthy
>> reply. As I said, your question seems simple on the outside, but in
>> reality, there are a LOT of factors that affect even something as
>> trivial sounding as the way lines of text are wrapped in an e-mail
>> reply. And that is NOT Linux specific either. It has NOTHING to do
>> with Linux at all. It's a feature/problem with some mail programs,
>> regardless of what Operating System they run on.
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>>
>> >
>> > Just venting a little, sorry!
>> >
>> > Jerry in Michigan
>> >
>> > PS--I just corrected my text and used the delete key, so I'm quite sure
>> > I'll have extraneous spaces. What do I do, put everything into a
>> > text-based word processor and fix everything first, then paste into my
>> > e-mail? Maybe I'll try that.
>> >
>> >
>> > ------------
>> >
>> > To unsubscribe from this list, please email
>> LINUX_Newbies-
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>>
>> --
>>
>> Ogden Nash - "The trouble with a kitten is that when it grows up,
>> it's always a cat." -
>> http://www.brainyqu
>>
>>
>
>
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