Windows metrics source lies about identity

I understand there are lots of suspicious companies looking for people who can say outrageous things with a straight face.

*cough*SCO*cough*Microsoft*cough*

I had the name Randall C. Kennedy stuck in my mind when I read this. Here is why:

http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/131131/index.html

He posted a neener-neener talkback on ZDNet:

http://talkback.zdnet.com/5208-10532-0.html?forumID=1&thread...

Quoting: 2. InfoWorld didn't let me go. I resigned. In fact, up until Saturday afternoon they were still trying to salvage the situation. They didn't want to lose 2+ million page views per year, which is what the shock jock persona they developed for me delivered.

3. Craig Barth may be fictitious (though, legally, both names are in fact mine to use), but the data never was. I may like to stoke the presentation a bit, but I never embellished the facts. We've got nearly 24,000 users. We don't need to invent data.

MBT, here is a splendid role model for your shill aspirations. He even got paid.

I wonder what 2 million page views is worth. I'd describe him as more troll than shill. I'll be practicing my own trolling more in the next few weeks.

tc,

Oh if only I had the talent to bend reality as that guy I would be rich. Rich I say! Instead of a small time shill, astroturfer on LXer's domain ... whose checks still bounce routinely. That is, despite my stellar efforts.

Sniffles,

YBT

He was shilling his own company, Devil Mountain Software, so I suppose he could be both a troll and a shill.

I'm sorry Txt, those bouncing checks are very sad. The first rule of successful trollshilling is getting paid is everything. Keep trying, I have faith in you!

Keep bouncing those checks Txt, They're like the superball http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Ball, you just never know where they are going to come down..;-)

> I understand there are lots of suspicious companies looking for people who can say outrageous things with a straight face.

A highly prized skill for both lawyers and politicians (including corporate politicians, I'm non-denominational).

Txt: Admit it. Your real name is Randall C. Kennedy. No need to hide anymore behind your alter ego.

Of course, we all understand your name wasn't real, but anything else you shilled was, and so were your facts.

hk,

I thought I answered your question unequivocally in another forum thread, so why make this weak assertion again? Ask yourself this simple question: would I be wasting my time shilling for peanuts on LXer if I were really Randall C. Kennedy? Moreover had I known of his exquisite schemes I would have started fan sites on any social site I could crack to skim off just a bit of cash to support my own nefarious existence. Instead I am here chasing after nickels and dimes (U.S. five and ten cent pieces, respectively).

Hey Kennedy has class you just fail to appreciate. He is not a bottom feeder, more like a pike or bass that attacks his prey with gusto. Were I only him ...

Your Sad Buddy Txt.

> He is not a bottom feeder, more like a pike or bass that attacks his prey with gusto. Were I only him ...

I guess that means you're (typo fixed) stuck here, just carping.... :)

jd,

I would have been the last to think you were a teller of tall fish tales.

YBT

carping....bottom feeder....owwww.....

Don't worry MBT, as soon as the checks stop bouncing, you'll be singing a different tuna.

> I would have been the last to think you were a teller of tall fish tales.

> carping....bottom feeder....owwww..

What can I say, it's a gift. Or a curse. My wife can never figure out quite which.

In other news, TxtEdMacs confesses he / she / it's the very same person as Randall C. Kennedy. LXer asked Our Buddy Tux for comment, but he / she / it wasn't able to comment because he / she / it locked itself in the closet.

hk,

Sorry, it was not me. However, I am truly envious. I wish I had such a deep set of technical knowledge to have pulled that off. Maybe later when I have finished my first book on lisp*, I will disguise myself and take a crack at it.

As always,

YBT

P.S. So as not to misinform my fans, I work in my basement office not out of a closet.

* Once when I wanted to add a custom feature to emacs when I was on an assignment using Unix, I thought lisp was a useless** language that made programming more difficult than was necessary.

** At the time I did not know elisp was not lisp and it had restrictions that seem absent in the latter.

Reflective programmer huh? So basically you made a self-learning self-healing self-improving bot to be Txt - and multiple other aliases on the web. And then using evil Emacs.... Now I understand!

A novice of the temple once approached the Chief Priest with a question.

"Master, does Emacs have the Buddha nature?" the novice asked.

The Chief Priest had been in the temple for many years and could be relied upon to know these things. He thought for several minutes before replying.

"I don't see why not. It's got bloody well everything else."

With that, the Chief Priest went to lunch. The novice suddenly achieved enlightenment, several years later.

Commentary:

His Master is kind, Answering his FAQ quickly, With thought and sarcasm.

I am inspired to dig into the stacks and find _The Tao of Programming_ and _The Zen of Programming_.

Thus spake the Master Programmer: If a program be only one line long, some day it will have to be maintained.

hk,

A bot? How about ... not a bot? I am real. Let me prove it: I have always thought the battle between vi and emacs was a joke*, since no one could be that stupid. So that either makes me an ultra rational machine or a humanoid with too finely tuned sense of humor. In any case, not a simple bot.

As alway hans,

YBT

* I have used both, but I tend to rely upon the latter more routinely.

> ...I have always thought the battle between vi and emacs was a joke

You dare leave out pico. You infidel...

jd,

When it just gets too small to measure, how far do you expect I need to exert myself? Tiny, centa, mili, micro, nano ... I just stop there. Pico is just too small a dimension to measure reliably without out sized error. Even when the precision seems fine and the scatter is low we cannot be assured we are accurate at that level.

YBT

Txt: The battle was never between Vi and Emacs. It was between Vim and Emacs. That extra m makes all the difference.

I love Vim to death. It's just perfect. Emacs makes my pinky hurt. The only plus of Emacs over Vim I can see is elisp. Vim-script is a bit ... esoteric. But these days that doesn't matter anymore. Vim supports Python as a scripting language and IIRC Emacs does too.

Emacs, the other other OS. And it's a fine OS, it just lacks a decent text editor ;-)