My Favorite April Fool of the 2009

[RoyGBiv]

For some ridiculous reason, of all the April Fool jokes I saw today, this is the one that will stick with me.

by Shlomi Fish

Interview with the author of "Mastering cat"
Published on: 1-April-2009

Shlomi Fish, acclaimed author of "Mastering mv" and "Mastering rm" has taken the time to sit down with us for an interview on his latest book, "Mastering cat". In this 344 pages-long book, Fish details everything you wanted to know about the UNIX cat command. We decided to have an interview with him to find out more about the book's motivation, content, and philosophy.

O'Reilly Net: Hi Shlomi!

Shlomi Fish: Hi!

http://www.shlomifish.org/humour/bits/Mastering-Cat/

I am geek, hear me meow.

(The 'cat' command is a *nix program that concatenates files, e.g. it's most basic practical use is to merge file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt into filemerged.txt. In short, it's really simple to use, and the idea of a book (a 344 page book, no less) to "master" it is rather absurd. The commands 'mv' and 'rm' are similarly rather simple. This is a play off the O'Reilly books on 'sed' and 'awk' which are quite complex.)

[ChromeFoundry]

1. I can hardly wait...

for "Mastering echo" to be released this fall. With only 344 pages, I'm surprised that this was not released under a "cat For Dummies," title. :)

[charlie]

2. Psst

Mastering Finger. In a plain brown wrapper, delivered discreetly. Only $20.

[RoyGBiv]

3. That would have to be a sequel ...

... to "Mastering tail"

[charlie]

5. Wrap up a copy, send it to Drudge

He could use a little guidance. His earliest preserved Usenet posts are bizarre missives to his "love", whom he is Fingering right now... an astronomical observatory in Hawaii. Which are immediately followed by a message from the observatory admin telling him to knock that shit off, their resources are thin enough without him humping the server.

[RoyGBiv]

4. I keep hearing there are problems with it ...

:evilgrin:

The most fascinating thing I learned from "Mastering cat" is that once it is started, it can only be stopped with:

kill -s 9 <processID>

[SKKY]

6. SWEET! "Mastering 'top'" was phenominal...

...I was wondering where they would go next!