discuss: Al Devs HOWTOs (was Re: Is PHP-HOWTO some kind of joke ?)
Subject:
Al Devs HOWTOs (was Re: Is PHP-HOWTO some kind of joke ?)
From:
David Lawyer ####@####.####
Date:
11 Nov 2003 07:50:48 -0000
Message-Id: <20031111060248.GC1136@lafn.org>
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> On Sun, 9 Nov 2003, David Lawyer wrote:
>
> > The PHP-HOWTO is by Al Dev and he's written a number of other HOWTOs
> > which are likely just about as bad as PHP and probably should be
> > removed. But I've haven't read most of them so if anyone has time,
> > could they briefly review his other "works" (or "pranks").
>
On Sun, Nov 09, 2003 at 04:24:16PM -0600, Machtelt Garrels wrote:
> Shouldn't we be more careful here? Say that your work was to be called a
> prank, I bet you are not going to like it. Maybe the author submitted his
> work in good faith? No need for killing our frustrations on the man.
Well, he has seriously hurt the LDP with his junk, but something he
wrote recently (the LILO one which I just read 1/3 of after writing this
paragraph) seems better since it avoids hype. I once searched for his
posts to newsgroups. He claimed that a bomb exists the size of a
quarter that can destroy the entire world and then went on to explain
who developed it and how it works (sort of). Isn't this a prank? He
also posted a notice that all computer users must synchronize their
clocks with the atomic clock by midnight tonite. Then he offers a
complex procedure to get software to do this (he may be selling it, I
didn't take the time to find out).
> Let's go politely as long as we don't have an anonymous comment repository
> ;-)
I've just read the first:1/3 of Al Devs: LILO, Linux Crash Rescue HOW-TO
Here's the abstract:
This document discusses methods to recover from Linux system failures.
Various reasons for linux system failures can be - LILO is destroyed, or
linux fails to boot, or Master Boot Record (MBR) is damaged or linux fails to
boot when another operating system like Windows NT is installed which erases
LILO or MBR.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The above, while misleading, may be somewhat better than what he
typically writes. He means: How to recover from certain Linux System
failures, namely those of failure to boot when LILO is damaged (provided
one uses LILO to boot --many don't). He also discusses repairing the
partition table. So the abstract should read something like this:
Discusses how to recover from failure to boot due to a corrupted LILO
boot loader or a damaged partition table.
Even the title is misleading. Failure to boot is not a "crash".
He tells you what to do if LILO is damaged but doesn't tell you how to
determine if it's damaged. What he says to do includes a lot of
unnecessary work. He also assumes that you have the disk partitioned
exactly like he does on his PC with a different partition for each of
the major first level directories.
I say it's garbage and now think that all Al Dev's HOWTOs need to be
removed except for cases where he took over someone else's HOWTO. For
those cases, we might want to retrieve the copy of it before he took
over maintaining it. Once removed, they could be processed as new
HOWTOs except that if the first part is really poor, then reject the
entire HOWTO. This will save time. The reviewer needs to know at least
a little about the subject.
If one were to tell him all the things that are wrong, the reviewer
would essentially become the new author, but Al Dev would get credit for
a well done document. No way. Has anyone ever been successful in
designing a CPU based on his CPU-Design-HOWTO? He teaches you what a
binary number is and apparently assumes that someone who is computer
illiterate will be able to design a CPU after reading his HOWTO. But
that's another story. Has he ever designed a CPU? Probably not.
The blind leading the blind.
Still, I think, these HOWTOs should remain in an online "Rejects"
directory. There are some useful references in them, but people should
be warned not to follow his procedures. I apologize for not proposing
this sooner.
David Lawyer
