Subject: Battle Cries (strange and pointless pondering)

From: Chen Shapira <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 16:13:19 +0200

Hi,

I was thinking a bit about battle-cries. You know, that thing you scream as
you leap into battle, to scare your enemies and encourge yourself.

They are extremely common in literature. In "Lord of the Rings" Aragorn
screams "Elendil" before slaying orcs, and the Rohirrim cry "Forth
Eorlingas" as they ride into battle.
In Niven's known space, the Kzinty made a motto of this: "you scream and you
leap".
In comic books they are about the only reason to hire writers.

Battle cries exist in real life as well. In WWII Soviet soliders screamed
"za Stalina" as they fought with the germans. Muslim fighters are known for
saying "Allah il Allah Akbar" before they go into certain death.

Sometimes I feel the need for something similar.  In a somewhat smaller
magnitude.
What should the student mutter before he opens the door of the dreaded
department secretary? What should a worker say to encourge himself before a
performance review? What does a programmer cry before checking in a
particularly dangerous code? Should GNU programmers cry "In the name of
Stallman" before a release?

Battle cries are intended to let off steam when the adernalin runs high, and
to encourge one's self. 
Modern life is colorless and boring, but sometimes a call of encourgment is
still in place in moments of stress.

Thanks,
Chen.

---

From: "Nadav Har'El" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 16:47:07 +0300

On Sun, May 05, 2002, Chen Shapira wrote about "[hackers-il] Battle Cries (strange and pointless pondering)":
>...
>...

Don't forget the Japanese cry "Banzai!" [1]

> department secretary?

How about "Shma Israel"?

> What should a worker say to encourge himself before a
> performance review?

How about "Screw them all!"?

> What does a programmer cry before checking in a
> particularly dangerous code?

How about "F***"?

Or "Why did I choose this profession???" (pulling out some of your hair
while you're saying this)

> Should GNU programmers cry "In the name of

"In the name of the Penguin, the Sun, and the holy Ghostscript!"

(while saying that, move your right hand on your chest as if spelling out
the letters G P and L. Also, if you're keeping a statue of a Penguin nearby,
kneel down and kiss its feet for extra luck).

Other good cries:

"Linus, Mary and Joseph!"

and

"Holy penguin!"

> still in place in moments of stress.

Judicious use of the F-word can sometimes help ;)

[1] Please don't confuse this with "bonsai", which is a potted tree. Pnina
    Dvorin made that mistake on The Weakest Link...

-- 
Nadav Har'El                        |        Sunday, May 5 2002, 23 Iyyar 5762
[email-masked]             |-----------------------------------------
Phone: +972-53-245868, ICQ 13349191 |Seen on the back of a dump truck:
http://nadav.harel.org.il           |<---PASSING SIDE . . . . . SUICIDE--->

---

From: Oleg Goldshmidt <[email-masked]>
Date: 05 May 2002 17:44:59 +0300

> What should a worker say to encourge himself before a

Yahoo! 

- to search for jobs, that is? ;-)

> What does a programmer cry before checking in a particularly
> dangerous code?

The only thing that helps here is muttering an incantation, cf.

http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/m.html#mutter

unless the danger is security-related indeed, cf.

http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/i.html#incantation

In everyday situations, I think I don't use battle cries. I found out
by experimenting that certain 4-letter words do provide a higher level
of mental relief than others.

-- 
Oleg Goldshmidt | [email-masked] 
"We work by wit, and not by witchcraft,
 And wit depends on dilatory time..."

---

From: "Amir Abiri" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 5 May 2002 20:10:06 +0200

From: "Chen Shapira" <[email-masked]>

> What does a programmer cry before checking in a particularly dangerous
code?

"I'M GONNA GET YOU, YOU LITTLE <bad word>... !!!"

Then i light a cigarette, take a deep breath, and usually, feel strong
enough to go on...

--
http://abiri-e.com/
"God is a programmer".

---

From: Gilad Ben-Yossef <[email-masked]>
Date: 05 May 2002 20:37:48 +0300

> "I'M GONNA GET YOU, YOU LITTLE <bad word>... !!!"

Thus spake Dougles Adams: "Open this door now or I will re-program you
with a very large axe..." ;-)

Gilad.

-- 
Gilad Ben-Yossef <[email-masked]>
Code mangler, senior coffee drinker and VP SIGSEGV
Qlusters ltd.

"To err is human. To realy fsck up you need a computer. For
 those really large scale disastears, an SSI cluster is a must."