Wednesday 10 April 2013

How many Linux users are needed to change a lightbulb?

1 to post a thread in a forum telling the bulb has burnt.
1 to suggest to try to turn the lamp on through command lines.
1 to complain that the user broke the thread.
1 to ask what new bulb will he install.
1 to advice that we shouldn't use the word burn for meaning a broken lightbulb, because it would mean that the bulb was set on fire and that it would be right to say that the bulb broke due to an excess of electrical current.
25 to suggest to install all the kinds of existing and imaginable lightbulbs.
5 who say that the burnt bulb is an upstream issue that doesn't belong to the distro. There's an open bug on the bulb's developer mail list.
1 noob to suggest to install a Microsoft lightbulb.
250 to flood the noob's mail address.
300 to say that a Microsoft lightbulb would turn blue and that you'd had to reboot continuously to get back to normal.
1 former linux user who still frequents the forum, to suggest to install an Apple iBulb, which has a fresh and innovating design and it costs 250 $.
20 to say that iBulbs aren't free, and that they have less functions than a 20 times cheaper standard lightbulb.
15 to suggest to install a national lightbulb.
30 to say that national lightbulbs are crippled remasters of foreign lightbulbs and that they don't bring nothing new.
23 to argue if it must be a white or a transparent bulb.
1 to remiind everyone that the right name is GNU/Lightbulb.
1 to say that lightbulbs are a Winbugs users thing and that real Linux users aren't afraid of the dark.
1 to announce finally which will be the model of the installed bulb.
217 to discard the chosen model and suggest another.
6 to complain that the chosen lightbulb has propietary elements, and that another should be used.
20 to say that a 100% free bulb, isn't compatible with the lamp switch.
The same previous 6, to suggest to change the switch for a compatible one.
1 to yell out: “STOP ARGUING AND CHANGE THAT LIGHTBULB FOR GOD'S SAKE!”
350 to ask the previous user what God is he talking about, and that if he has scientific proofs of his existence.
1 to say that we can't trust in corporation-made bulbs and that we should trust in community-made bulbs.
1 to post a link to an ODF file explaining how to build a lightbulb from scratch.
14 to complain about the format of the previous file and asking to send it in txt or LaTeX.
5 to say that they didn't like the taken decission and that they'll fork the house's electric installation and install a better lamp.
1 to post a series of commands to put to change the lightbulb.
1 to comment that he executed the commands and had an error message.
1 to advice that the commands must be executed as root

And finally:
The father of the first user, who while everyone were discussing, he went to the shop and bought the cheapest lightbulb.

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Define: Procurement

The act of obtaining or buying goods and services. The process includes preparation and processing of a demand as well as the end receipt and approval of payment. It often involves
(1) purchase planning,
(2) standards determination, 
(3) specifications development, 
(4) supplier research and selection, 
(5) value analysis, 
(6) financing, 
(7) price negotiation, 
(8) making the purchase, 
(9) supply contract administration, 
(10) inventory control and stores, and 
(11) disposals and other related functions. 
The process of procurement is often part of a company's strategy because the ability to purchase certain materials will determine if operations will continue. A business will not be able to survive if it's price of procurement is more than the profit it makes on selling the actual product.

Use of eval in python

The eval function lets a python program run python code within itself.
eval example (interactive shell):
>>> x = 1
>>> eval('x + 1')
2
>>> eval('x')
1
 
eval() interprets a string as code. The reason why so many people have warned you about using this is because a user can use this as an option to run code on the computer. If you have eval(input())and os imported, a person could type into input() os.system('rm -R *') which would delete all your files in your home directory. (Assuming you have a unix system). Using eval() is a security hole. If you need to convert strings to other formats, try to use things that do that, like int().