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Coming to Greps with Vi

Head Rambles Posted on by

I’m a sucker for messing with things I know nothing about.  It’s called ‘gaining experience’. 

I was browsing the Blogs last week and came across a blog post.  I haven’t a clue what it was about but I thought I’d try it anyway.  I bought a server.  Well.. OK, I leased it, but what the hell.

I always wanted to play around with Linux, because a lot of people say it’s great stuff, and it’s not Microsoft.  It works out cheaper to get a server than to buy a new PC so here was my chance.  I have also heard that they bundle a lot of games with Linux.

“Have you much experience with maintaining Linux servers?” says the nice man when I phoned them.

I laughed.  “Sure, I dream about Vi every night and then have Grep and Bash for breakfast” I said.  It’s amazing the words I have picked up from the Interweb.

“So you can recompile a colonel?” [I think that’s what he said].

“No problem,” says I, wondering what I was getting myself into.

So he leased me the server.

I asked him when it was being delivered, but he said I couldn’t have it, but that I would have to run it over the Interweb.  So maybe it doesn’t exist, and that is why they call it ‘Virtual’?

I dialled into this new server and began to wonder if I had done the right thing.

I poked around inside it, and at last found the folder called ‘games’.  But the fucking thing is empty.  So now I have to upload all of Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is going to take a long time.

I also copied Head Rambles onto it.  That was fun, because it blew up.  It started whinging about databases or something, so I told it to fuck off and deleted it.

Now I have to find Vi.  I know she’s lurking around in there somewhere, and when I find her, we’ll come to Greps and have a right old Bash.

Anyone know anything about Linux?

 

Comments

Coming to Greps with Vi — 30 Comments

  1. I can vaguely remember the terms Vi and Bash coming up during a lecture on operating systems some 10 years ago, which is a small personal achievement considering that I can barely remember last night.

  4. H – Would you like a job installing Flight Simulator on it? You seem to know more than I do.

    Thrifty – There is no S drive on it. In fact I can’t even find the C drive. I found a Home [though there’s no one in], and a Root [I don’t know from what plant] and a Bin, which is where I’m putting all the rubbish. OK, so far?

    Ian – Was that the fella who plays the piano?

  7. I would Grandad, but since my recollection of the whole Unix/Linux thing is so vague, I fear that your planes might fall out of the sky and possibly crash into major international landmarks.

    You don’t want us to be implicated in any terrorist investigations by the US Homeland Security, do you?

  8. Thrifty – Thanks for the advice. Those commands look like a good starting point. I can’t use Man though, as I’ll be accused of being sexist. Is there a Person command?

    H – One of the thing I want to do with it is use it to hack into the Homeland Security Database, so I wouldn’t worry about them. Does anyone know the address for the American Air Traffic Control system?

  10. vi grew up and is known as vim now.

    as for man – try “man woman”. the answer is unsurprising (“No manual entry for woman”).

  11. ESC+SHIFT wq!

    I’m having my own struggles at the moment trying to rekindle my Sun Solaris knowledge.

    If you are serious about getting to grips with vi (which I have my suspicions that you are more than familiar with it 😉 ), there is a pretty interesting cheat sheet available over here on this site.

  12. Kae – Hah! I tried that!! 😉

    Robert – You’re showing off now. I read your blog just now – all smug about your Sun Sparc Blades! If you are so smart, fix mine.

    Good god almighty!!!! I just had a look at that cheat sheet. You are joking? Right? Where do I find Notepad?

  14. *Jaw hits keyboard*
    Good Lord Man, you do like to take the back off things to see how they work! I wish you well, but if you write too many more posts like this, I won’t be around much. I don’t like to read techno-babble.

    Is that your plan?

    Bill Gates is a Prick, so rock on old dude!

  15. Robert – I thought you knew about these things? It’s ‘password’ of course. Dimwit.

  16. Sixty – Too many kids these days deride us old farts for being stuck in the stone age. I want to be able to baffle them with techno-babble down the pub. And I won’t be writing much of it here. There are too many know-it-alls.

  17. Yep, I know what you mean. I think it’s fantastic you are reactivating brain cells. I’m going the vanity route: got my hair buzzed and growing a Van Dyke. No red car in my future however.
    I don’t hesitate to the kids to feck off.

  18. Sixty – The trick is to look old, and fool them into thinking you’re past it. So I won’t be wearing the shirt open to my navel, or the gold medallion. Yet.

  19. Good point. I should have consulted you.

    I’m trying to learn as much as I can about fast internet – something you can’t see. I just add mega, giga, and terra in front of a bunch double talk.

  20. Times have changed all right. A few years ago it was Digi-everything. Now it’s Mega-everything. I’m going to start confusing people by adding Bio.
    “Hey Lads! You should see my bio-processor and bio-drive.”

  26. If you’re trying not to look like an old fart by using vi, then you’re going to wrong way about it!

    If your text editor doesn’t understand WordStar commands then it’s no use!

  27. In my case it was Xenix. I got over it, but it wasn’t easy and we still have the occasional group session.

  28. I know I arrived late, but I can’t join in the conversation ‘cos I don’t know what the buggery you’re all talking about. I’ll get me coat…

  29. Bock – I just had a load of spam from some pharmaceutical company offering me tons of Xenix. Did you send it?

    EMum – I haven’t a buggery what it’s all about either. They all seem to think I know what I’m talking about, but I don’t. You seem to be very fond of that coat?

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