What Have You Done That’s So Great?

Steve Jobs, in his reply to Gawker's Ryan Tate:

By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?

Indeed…

The vi/vi(1)/vi(I) Mystery Explained…

I recently got another email from a confused reader of vi(1) Tips: Essential vi/vim Editor Skills, 1st ed. I am quoting it and my reply hoping it will help those who are also confused.

Dear Sir,

Thinking to buy a good modern book on vi I looked at your book. I was startled to see an entirely new term, i.e. vi(1). Soon you introduce vi(I) that is a roman numeral inside the parentheses. It is hard for me to believe that vi(1) is the same as vi, but a series of glances through the book NEVER defines vi(1).

I may never find out what this (1) string is for but in any case

I can't recommend the book as long as this mystery hangs around it.

Sincerely yours,

(name withheld to protect the reader's privacy)

And my reply:

Dear Sir,

vi(1) is a reference to the Unix manual page for the vi editor, which you can display on the Unix command line using the following command:

$ man 1 vi

or

$ man vi

You don't need to type $, it is used to represent the Unix command-line prompt

As for vi(I) that is an artifact of the typeface we used to typeset the book. The numer 1 is represented by a shape that looks more like I and 1. We will fix it in the next edition.

Thank you for writing.

Kind Regards,

Jacek Artymiak

Still Here at 38

I recently saw my 38th birthday. Not the best birthday in my life and I decided to postpone the celebrations until I am in a better shape. But it was still a time to reflect on life and what I've done so far. I cannot say that my job is done and there are plenty of things I still need to do, fix, and accomplish, but so far, at no small expense (emotional, financial, health), I live my life the way I imagined it in 1993-1994 when I saw a UK TV programme about this thing called "the Internet". There I saw a guy travelling the world, communicating via CompuServe using his PowerBook who had his home in a remote place in California. Little did I knew that it would come true. It's not been as glamorous as I had imagined, but despite all troubles, I am still here, living my life my way, not the way others have been trying to force me to. And for that, I am thankful to everyone who makes it possible.