Every Friday we publish a list of inFrequently Asked Questions and answers to help you, the Crazy Apple user, get more out of your Crazy Apple products.
This week: Terminal
Q: D00d, ru a 1337 HAXX0R?
A: No, I speak English. Not idiot.
Q:Whatev, man. I’m a total hacker. I could hack your Mac right now, and you wouldn’t even know it.
A: Uh-huh. Did you have a question of some sort?
Q: Why do you use that Mac, man? My box is a dual-booted Windows XP and Ubuntu system, and in Ubuntu I can rule the world from the command line.
A: Nnnnnno, you can’t. I use the Mac because it’s simple, clean, stable, and friendly to developers and bloggers alike. Did you have any other questions?
Q: You don’t even have a command line, dude. You’re all “I gotta click on a picture or it’s not a real program.” I could P0wn you so hard. Just tell me your IP address and your Mac is my slave.
A: Not a question. But actually, there is a command line interface for OSX. It’s called Terminal. It lets me do all the Unixy things that the Mac is so good at, just like your little Ubuntu box. And my IP address is 127.0.0.1. Hack away!
Q: Yeah right. I’m not a total newb. I know that one.
A: You’ve done it before, haven’t you?
Q: Shut up!
A: You totally did, didn’t you? You were all, “I’m gonna hack this dude’s system, look, I totally have root access #rm -rf / oh noes, where are all my files?”
Q: I did not! I just… I just wanted to try a new distro. At three in the morning!
A: Yep. Look, you already have a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. Why not get yourself a little something? I think we’ll all be happier.
Q: I can’t, my allowance is cut off ever since my mom saw what I was doing on her computer…
A: Let her know that the Mac has real parental controls, she’ll get you one. Bye bye, script kiddie!
Note: The editor–who works as an IT person for a living and is tired of script kiddies attacking the systems for which he is responsible–needed to blow off some steam. I promise more insightful, less vitriolic posts next week. Maybe even tomorrow; maybe even with footnotes, we’ll see. And remember: Friends don’t let friends speak Leet.
Ace Deuce on September 20th, 2008 at 12:00 am says:
You work for a living? No wonder you can sustain a web site with minimal clickage and ad revenue. And disrespectful and ungrateful commenters.
Keep up the good work and don’t quit your day job!
Sue on September 20th, 2008 at 5:50 am says:
Posts don’t have to be insightful. Just keep them funny! Good job!
Sue on September 20th, 2008 at 7:32 am says:
Hey! I’m not ungrateful!
Nate on September 20th, 2008 at 5:24 pm says:
Ace, Sue, It’s comments like this that make it all worth it. Cash would be better, of course, but people being grateful is almost as good.
I’m just kidding. Seriously, thanks.
Papascaught on September 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm says:
so are you kidding seriously?
or are you seriously kidding?
There’s an infrequently asked question you can use, with no royalties or anything
Ace Deuce on September 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm says:
That’s what the sign at the Planned Goat Parenthood office said: No Kidding.
Sue on September 23rd, 2008 at 5:47 pm says:
Hee hee hee ……..