[2307] in Humor
HUMOR: Barnes & Noble Experience
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Erik Nygren)
Wed May 13 15:20:21 1998
To: humor@MIT.EDU
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 15:05:28 EDT
From: Erik Nygren <nygren@MIT.EDU>
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From: "Tom Werges" <twerges@hotmail.com>
I have a mildly funny story for you.
I was going through the texinfo docs for GCC, searching for
documentation on a particular topic, but I was not able to find a
sufficiently clear explanation of that topic. I knew that O'Reilly made
a book on GCC, so I decided to stop by Barnes & Noble after work, to
find the book and look through it.
I went up to the fellow at the counter and said "I'm looking for a book
on gcc."
B&N: "What does that stand for? I have to know what it stands for before
searching for it in the computer. The people who enter these things in
don't allow any acronyms"
me: "You see, that's a problem. GCC stands for GNU C compiler, and GNU
stands for GNUs Not Unix, which is an infinitely self-referential
acronym. It's a like a computer joke."
B&N: "What?"
me: "I can't tell you what it stands for or we'd be here forever,
literally."
B&N: "Look, the guy who enters these things into the computer enters in
what it stands for, not the acronym."
me: "Are you saying that there's a guy somewhere typing 'GNU GNU GNU...'
over and over again, never making it past that one word, and with each
instance descending further into an abyss with no bottom?"
From there the conversation deteriorated. I'm afraid I didn't find the
book.
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