One thing I’ve always found entertaining in technical works is how authors bring in their random non-technical hobbies and interests as examples. I’ve learned a lot of trivia over the years because an author happened to also be into exotic cooking or had traveled in South America.
Here’s a prime example Jim Blandy’s book Programming Rust. I had no idea that these three famous Renaissance artists had each committed murder. (I’ve slightly Photoshopped the text to make it more compact).
In case you’re wondering:
- Gesualdo killed his wife when he found her inflagrante delecto with the Duke of Andria.
- Caravaggio was a brawler with a temper problem, and in one of his many fights, he killed a man.
- Cellini killed his brother’s murderer in a case of revenge. He had a pretty wild life. While later imprisoned, someone tried to kill him by sneaking diamond dust into his food, though the attack failed because a lesser gemstone was used.
The things you learn!
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raindog308 is a longtime community LETizen, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, raindog308 runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.
Beyond the command line, raindog308 has a life-long love of German Shepherd Dogs, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, playing guitar, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.
His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.
You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.
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