Welcome to khan.org

Universix

I'm a fan of computer science history (my favorite CS artifact is probably "As We May Think" by Vannevar Bush), but I'm surprised to find out how many people have no idea what the oldest version of Unix is.

Some people think Unix is less than 40 years old, when in fact, it is much, much older than that.

While the originals have been destroyed, I uncovered a 132-column printout (on green-white form feed paper) of the following transcript which is evidence of the true origins of not only the oldest version of Unix, but the very origins of the Universe.

Lest you think I exaggerate, read on.

universe login: god
Password: *******

Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 01 0000
# mknod heavens
# mknod earth
# touch light
# ls -l light
-rw-r--r--   1 lord     root           0 Jan 01  0000 light
# wall
light is good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# mv /darkness/light /light
# ln -s light day
# ln -s darkness night
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 02 0000
# mknod expanse between the waters to separate water from water
mknod: too many arguments
# mknod sky
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 03 0000
# mknod water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground
appear
mknod: too many arguments
# mknod land
# ln -s gathered_waters seas
# wall
land and sees are good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# mknod land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land
that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds
mknod: too many arguments
# touch seed
# cat seed > fruit
# cat fruit > trees
# touch seed-bearing_plants
# cat seed-bearing_plants trees > vegetation
# cat vegetation > /dev/land
# wall
vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees and fruit are good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:02 ...
---more---
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 04 0000
# mknod lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the
night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and
let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.
mknod: too many arguments
# mknod night
# mknod seasons
# mknod days
# mknod years
# mknod sun
# mknod moon
# wall
night, seasons, days, years, sun and moon are good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 05 0000
# mknod water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth
across the expanse of the sky
mknod: too many arguments
# mknod living_creatures
# mknod birds
# wall
living_creatures and birds are good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# bless living_creatures birds
bless: command not found
# chmod 777 living_creatures birds
# write living_creatures

Message from god@universe on ttyp1 at 0:02 ...
Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let
the birds increase on the earth.
^D
EOF
# write birds
Message from god@universe on ttyp1 at 0:02 ...
Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let
the birds increase on the earth.
^D
EOF
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 06 0000
mknod the land produce living creatures according to their kinds:
livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each
according to its kind
mknod: too many arguments
# touch livestock
# touch creatures
# touch wild_animals
# cat livestock creatures wild_animals > /dev/land
# wall
livestock, creatures, and wild_animals are good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# bless livestock creatures wild_animals
bless: command not found
# chmod 777 livestock creatures wild_animals
# wall
Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let
the birds increase on the earth
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# adduser man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the
fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the
earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground
too many arguments
# adduser
Adding a new user. The username should not exceed 8 characters
in length, or you may run into problems later.

Enter login name for new account (^C to quit): man

Editing information for new user [man]

Full Name: Man
GID [100]:
Group 'users', GID 100
First unused uid is 100

UID [100]:

Home Directory [/earth/man]:

Shell [/bin/sh]:

Password [man]: ******

Information for new user [man]:
Home directory: [/earth/man] Shell: [/bin/sh]
uid: [100] gid: [100]

Is this correct? [y/N]: y

User [man] added
# chown fish man
# chown birds man
# chown livestock man
# chown earth man
# chown creatures man
# bless man
bless: command not found
# chmod 777 man
# write man

Message from god@universe on ttyp1 at 0:02 ...
Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over
the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature
that moves on the ground
^D
EOF
# write man
Message from god@universe on ttyp1 at 0:03 ...
I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and
every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And
to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the
creatures that move on the ground--everything that has the breath of life
in it--I give every green plant for food.
^D
EOF
# wall
man is good
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 07 0000

# rest
rest: command not found
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 08 0000
# mv /earth/man /earth/eden
# ls -l /earth/eden
total 0
# mv /earth/eden /earth/man
# mkdir /earth/eden
# mv /earth/man /earth/eden
# ls -l /earth/eden
drwxr-xr-x   3 man    users        1024 Jan  6 00:01 man
drwxr-xr-x   3 god    users        1024 Jan  6 00:01 garden
# write man
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will
surely die.
^D
EOF
# echo "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper
suitable for him"
It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him
# touch /etc/nologin
# mv /earth/eden/man/rib /earth/eden/woman
# rm /etc/nologin
Message from man@universe on ttyp2 at 8:00 ...
This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called
`woman' for she was taken out of man.
# finger man
Login: man                              Name: man
Directory: /earth/eden/man                     Shell: /bin/sh
On since Sat Jan 06 14:16 (ET) on ttyp2 from eden.earth.universe.com
   1 second idle
No mail.
No Plan.
# write man
Where are you?
^D
EOF
#
Message from man@universe (ttyp2):
I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.
# write man
Who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded
you not to eat from?
^D
EOF
#
Message from man@universe (ttyp2):
The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I
ate it.
# write woman
What is this you have done?
^D
EOF
#
Message from woman@universe (ttyp3):
The serpent deceived me, and I ate.
# write serpent
Because you have done this, cursed are you above all the livestock and all the
wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the
days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will
strike his heel.
^D
EOF
# write woman
I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give
birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule
over you.
^D
EOF
# write man
Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I
commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of
you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It
will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of
the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you
return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to
dust you will return.
^D
EOF
# touch skin
# mv skin clothes
# mv skin /earth/eden/man
# touch skin
# mv skin clothes
# mv skin /earth/eden/woman
# wall
The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not
be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and
eat, and live forever.
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# mv /earth/eden/man /earth/
# mv /earth/eden/woman /earth/
# chmod 000 /earth/eden
# cherubimd --sword=flaming --direction=flashing_back_and_forth --dir /home/eden
Cherubimd started, protecting Eden.
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 09 0000
You have new mail.
# mail
Message from: abel@earth.universe.com
Dear God: I have placed fat portions of some of the firstborn of my flock
on /dev/altar. Do as you please with them.

Your servant, Abel.
EOM
# chmod 777 /earth/abel
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 10 0000
You have new mail.
# mail
Message from: cain@earth.universe.com
Why did you not bless me? You did not look with favor upon me and my offering?
Signed, Cain.
EOM
# finger cain
Login: cain                             Name: cain
Directory: /earth/cain                  Shell: /bin/sh
On since Sat Jan 06 08:16 on ttyp4 from earth.universe.com.
No mail.
No Plan.
# write cain
Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will
you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching
at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Jan 11 0000
# who
god     ttyp1    Jan 10 8:26 (heaven.universe.com)
adam    ttyp2    Jan 10 8:42 (earth.universe.com)
eve     ttyp3    Jan 10 9:23 (earth.universe.com)
cain    ttyp4    Jan 10 13:24 (earth.universe.com)
# write cain
Where is your brother Abel?
^D
EOF
#
Message from cain@earth (ttyp4):
I don't know, am I my brother's keeper?
# write cain
What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the
ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened
its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the
ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless
wanderer on the earth.
^D
EOF
#
Message from cain@earth (ttyp4):
My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the
land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless
wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.
# write cain
Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over.
^D
EOF
# chmod 666 /earth/cain
# logout

<... some time passes ...>

universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
# wall
My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet
his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# wall
I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both
man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it
repenteth me that I have made them.
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# ls -l /home/earth/noah
drwxr-xr-x   3 noah    users        1024 Jan  6 00:01 noah
# ls -l /home/earth/
<... violence, evil, corruption ...>
# finger noah
Login: noah                             Name: noah
Directory: /earth/noah                  Shell: /bin/sh
On since 08:11 on ttyp11 from earth.universe.com.
No mail.
No Plan.
# write noah
The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with
violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and
shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which
thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits,
the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A
window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it
above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with
lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to
destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and
every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish
my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy
wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all
flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive
with thee; they shall be male and        female. Of fowls after their kind,
and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after
his kind, two of every sort shall come unto
thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is
eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee,
and for them.
^D
EOF
# write noah
Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee
by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by
two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male
and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet
seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty
nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off
the face of the earth.
^D
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
# ls -l /earth
<... violence, evil, corruption ...>
# cat /dev/ark
<... two of each unclean animal, seven of each clean animal, and seven of
birds and fowl, noah's family, etc...>
# rm -rf /earth/*
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
# write noah
Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives
with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of
all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that
creepeth        upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the
earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
^D
EOF
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
You have new mail.
# mail
Message from noah@earth:
Dear God:
I have done as you asked, and I have built an altar unto you, upon which I
have given thee burnt offerings, and I trust thou wilst find them to be of
sweet savour.
Yours truly,
Noah
EOM
# wall
I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the
imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again
smite any more every thing living, as I have done. While the earth
remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter,
and day and night shall not cease.
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# bless noah and all his sons
bless: command not found
# chmod 777 /earth/noah
# chmod 777 /earth/shem
# chmod 777 /earth/ham
# chmod 777 /earth/japheth
# wall
Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and
the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every
fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the
fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing
that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you
all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof,
shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at
the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the
hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made
he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in
the earth, and multiply therein. And I, behold, I establish my covenant
with you, and with your seed after you; And with every living creature that
is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth
with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a
flood to destroy the earth. This is the token of the covenant which I make
between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for
perpetual        generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be
for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to
pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in
the cloud: And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and
every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a
flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may
remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of
all flesh that is upon the earth. This is the token of the covenant, which
I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
Unable to allocate memory for stack
Out of disk space.
# df
Filesystem         1024-blocks  Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/sda1            1921678  507612  1314738     28%   /
/dev/sdb1            4026924 4026924        0    100%   /earth
<...>
# du -s /earth/* | sort -n | tail -1
3920499      tower
# ls -l /earth/tower
-rw-r--r--   1 men    users           3094 Aug 28  0001 babel
# ls -l /earth/tower/babel
-rw-r--r--   1 men    users        3920499 Aug 28  0001 tower
# wall
Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they
begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have
imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language,
that they may not understand one another's speech.
^D
Broadcast Message from god@universe
	(/dev/ttyp1) at 0:01 ...
---more---
# rm -rf /earth/tower
# mkdir /earth/a
# mv /earth/a* a
mv: cannot move a to a.
# mkdir /earth/b
mv: cannot move b to b.
<... and so on ...>
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
# finger abraham
Login: abraham                               Name: cain
Directory: /earth/a/abraham                  Shell: /bin/sh
On since Wed Jan 01 11:12 on ttyp4 from earth.universe.com.
No mail.
No Plan.
# write abraham
Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's
house, unto a land that I will show thee: And I will make of thee a great
nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a
blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth
thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
^D
EOF
# write abraham
Unto thy seed will I give this land
^D
EOF
# logout


universe login: god
Password: ********
Welcome to Universix 7.7.7
You have new mail.
# mail
Message from abraham@earth:
Dear God:
I have done as you asked. I have also built several temples unto thee. Also
I am going to Egypt with my most fine wife. Alas, since the Egyptians are
perverts and scoundrels they will kill me if they know that my wife is she.
Therefore I will introduce her as my sister, and thus I will spare being
killed by the Pharaoh and his men.
Yours truly,
Abraham
EOM
# ps axwu | grep pharaoh
pharaoh     12300  0.0  1.6  1692  1036  p2 S     13:52   0:01 -bash
pharaoh     24909  0.0  0.4   908   312  p2 S     17:16   0:00 sex -partner=sarai
# plague pharaoh
plague: command not found
# echo "logout" > /earth/pharaoh/.login
# logout

---

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The Carpet Salesman (Part 2)

Here's the rest of the story. Enjoy.

Like lambs to a slaughter, I suppose I should say, we entered his store. It all started innocently enough. "Let me show you a little about our carpets. These are prayer carpets. These are single knot kilims. These are double knots. These are buharas. These are wool, this one has silk, this color comes from pomegranite. This color comes from vegetable dyes, from the plants in these areas. You can tell this carpet is from the black sea, as the color comes from tobacco leaves." Soon, we had over three or four dozen carpets sprawled around the room. In the process our sneaky salesperson had surely used every trick in his book. Get them to take off their shoes, to prevent a hasty retreat. Ask them to feel the luxurious quality of the carpets with their bare feet. Get the men to pull on the carpets as hard as they can to demonstrate strength of the carpets to impress them. Feed them lots of tea to ingratiate yourself. Talk about your history, and ask them to share, to build comfort and familiarity. Slowly, but surely, the sales pitch was coming.

"What kind of carpet do you like the most", he started out innocently enough. I pointed at the deep crimson red buhara carpets, and Richard liked the beige silk/wool carpets. Soon, he knows he has us in his grasp, and is asking questions such as "what size do you like", and which of these do you like better? Finally, we picked out our favorites, and having told the man that I lived in and speak Turkish, he says to me, "you are essentially my countryman," he offers, "I will give you a special deal!"

I respond, a little uncomfortable, "Don't give me any special deal. If you want to give us a deal, we thank you, but I don't want to take advantage of my good friend." I respond. Always the sly one, he counters even this, "Ah yes, an honest country man indeed. I will give you both a good deal!" he says.

Moments after this discussion, he has his nephews shine and shake the two carpets we selected under the bright lights, making them shimmer and bringing out their gorgeous colors. This one, he stated, is $450, pointing to the carpet I had selected. That one is $850 he tells Richard. Richard asks about the price difference, and he explains that not only is yours larger, it also has a large amount of silk in it, making it much more expensive to make.

I mention to Richard that there had been an auction back home, where carpets of similar quality and beauty (of Pakistani origin) had been up for sale, and they were selling equivalent carpets for well over $800. I'm on to this guy, I suggest, but these carpets are still an incredibly good deal. Richard agrees, and we both commit to buying them. We are still cautious, so we take photographs of the vendor and carpets to ensure we would not be duped, and we pay with credit cards to protect us from fraud. In the best case, we have a photograph of the best reputable carpet dealer in the country, and in the worst case, we have proof and protection from good old Western capitalistic pillars of stability (VISA).

Richard and I both love our carpets, but there is a little buyers remorse, from feeling like we were manipulated into buying the carpets rather than coming to the decision ourselves. On the other hand, without this kind of pressure, I may have never bought the carpet-- any carpet, as our illness prevented us from doing many of the things we originally set out to do.

Many of the revelations I shared above did not come at the time, but in retrospect, thinking over the situation. Hindsight is helpful even when considering events that occurred in Turkey, at the hands of an expert salesperson.

---

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This post brought to you by Coda

As faithful readers of my blog already know, I use Blosxom as my blogging software. Thanks to the gracious hosting offered by my friend Richard, my blog resides behind a firewall and my only access to it is via a VPN.

In some ways I'm kind of old-school when it comes to maintaining my personal web site (my favorite editor is vi), but I'm also fairly new-century too, what with my preference for "all things Mac". Sometimes I straddle an uneasy fence... I don't use "xv" to manage my photo library, and I don't use "mutt" to read my email (thanks, iPhoto.app and Mail.app!). But I also can't stand the clumsy FTP clients on the Mac like Transmit and what not.

It's simple enough for me to break out ftp (1):

% ftp www.khan.org
Connected to www.khan.org.
220 XxFtpd FTP Server
Name:
331 Password required.
Password:
230 User logged in.
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> |

Now I need to create the files locally, then transfer them over.

So, sometimes, I simply prefer to log into the server and edit the files locally.

% ssh www.khan.org
...
$ vi .blog/coda.txt

Coda might just change all that. True, it isn't vim-like, but what it does do fairly transparently is to make editing remote blog entries on the server painless. No local text files to write and publish, no shells to open to the remote host to edit with screwed up termcap entries (which apparently get bungled up by either Terminal.app or by my Unix shell on the remote box-- I don't care, mostly because I shouldn't have to).

If you haven't heard about it yet, check it out. If it's good enough to make me consider leaving vi behind because of its other conveniences, it might be worth looking at.

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The Carpet Salesman (Part 1)

In 1998, Richard, Christine and I visited Turkey on what is probably the wildest "vacation" we will probably ever take.

Shortly after that time, I wrote a short story that described some of the events of that crazy trip.

Today I came across a blog entry about Turkish carpets (and peripherally about Startup Sales Tips), and it reminded me of this story, which I thought I'd share with you.

I hold salesmen to be some of the slyest, slickest people in the world. They deal with people day in and day out, and no matter what kind of people they are, rich, poor, happy, sad, smart, stupid, their only goal is to get money out of you. If they can't expertly separate you from your money, they aren't a very good salesperson. Used car salesmen get a bad rap, partially because not many people have met any Turkish carpet salesmen.

In the middle of the day on our second day in Istanbul, we're walking down the strategically placed "mosaic museum". Similar to a Disney World amusement park ride, the whole things spills out into a bunch of shops. The difference is that all of the salespeople are pressuring you to come in their shop and have some tea. There's nothing wrong with that, really, if it was easy enough to say "no thank you" and have them leave it at that.

But no, in Turkey, the evolutionary environment is such that the species Salesicus Carpeticus Turcicus has evolved to a higher level. Techniques that these fine specimens have adopted include begging, pleading, challenging, and cajoling unsuspecting tourists who are unfortunate enough to step into their lair.

We were pretty good, actually, turning down most of their requests as politely as possible. Some we acted as if we did not hear them, others I simply stated in Turkish "we're not looking to buy", effectively classifying ourselves as "pseudo-locals", and yet others we simply smiled and shook our heads.

The most devious class of salesperson to be caught by-- and the worst kind, mind you, is the one that appears as if he isn't trying. This technique involves standing up and following you down the bazaar, with a couple of his friends. As you're walking along, he throws his lure, "Why did you come to Turkey if you're not going to buy a carpet?" he asked, innocently enough, in surprisingly good English.

This lure is quite attractive to almost everyone. To some, it is to a certain degree upsetting because it holds true-- indeed, I am in Turkey, why not buy a legendary Turkish carpet? To others, it is a challenge that can not bear ignoring. I mean who is this to suggest I must buy a carpet when I come to Turkey? How dare he?

Either way, the salesperson has made an inroad with you, an avenue, so to speak, where he can attempt to win your heart, your mind, and ultimately, your money. I fell into both categories. At first, I felt he was right, I lived in Turkey for many years, but don't have a carpet to show for it. But that was a fleeting thought, and suddenly I was slightly offended, and responded negatively with, "We're not interested in carpets."

Ah, a negative comment yes, but a comment nonetheless, one that our potential salesman, lagging behind us with his posse, was adept to grasp at. He threw his next sentence like a lasso, and snared us with his expert technique. "Well, come then, to my store," he started, "...don't buy a carpet, allow me to serve you some tea, and tell you a little about the Turkish people and culture through our carpets." This sounded good enough to us, and even I, as a "veteran" of Turkey, was mystified by what he might have to share regarding the people and culture of Turkey as told through its carpetmaking.

Stay tuned for part 2.

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Trip to Mount Vernon

Christine and I headed up to Mount Vernon today. I've had my eye on a Canon 70-300mm Image Stabilized lens, and today I picked it up and put it through its paces on the fields of tulips. I uploaded some of my favorites to my flickr account.

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Global Climate Change, Redux

Earlier this year I blogged about Global Warming. One of my concerns was how we'd be able to keep Global Warming under control in light of the expanding economies of countries like India and China:

...the path of least resistance doesn't just apply to electricity, it applies to the foods people eat, it applies to the modes of transportation they use, and the culture they adopt. The American lifestyle, in comparison to the struggles of most 3rd world citizens is "the easy life" and nobody with a strong sense of self-interest is likely to forego it for the sake of environmentalist tendencies...

Even if wealthy Westernized nations suddenly caught the environmentalist bug, I pondered whether it would make a difference:

[h]ow is that going to not only offset the billions of new drivers, TV watchers, and french fry eating, starbucks drinking customers in India and China, not to mention the rest of the world? Indeed, how is that going to actually roll back CO2 generation, per capita, globally, to levels in the ... 1940s?!

Last week, I came by the following article: "Gas comsumption to jump by a quarter in China by 2010".

Here's an excerpt:

One of the factors keeping the world price of oil at historically high levels is continually increasing demand and relatively static supply. One of the biggest drivers of that growth is the ever-increasing population of cars in China, which, along with India, has been the fastest growing markets. ... By 2010, gasoline consumption is anticipated to increase by almost twenty-five percent relative to 2006. Given the twenty-seven percent increase in car sales last year that is probably a very conservative estimate.

Let's do a quick math problem:

Assume the US consumed 20M barrels of oil per day in 2006.
Assume China consumed 6M barrels of oil per day in 2006.
Assume China's oil consumption grows at a rate of 25% every four years.

A simple ratio tells us China_2006:China_2010::6:7.5

Since we know that US_2006 + China_2006 = 26M barrels/day, and China 2010 is 7.5M barrels/day, the US would have to cut overall consumption to 18.5M barrels of oil/day in 2010 to maintain ceteris paribus. In other words, the US needs to cut oil consumption (and as a rough analogue to this, carbon dioxide emissions) by 7.5% over four years just to keep the glaciers melting at the rate they are now to make up for the difference in global warming the Chinese are expected to generate.

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Microsoft Gets Serious

Two articles caught my eye in the past two days, and thought I'd share the conclusion I've come to about them. First, was a blog entry by Paul Graham, who provocatively suggests "Microsoft is Dead":

"What killed [Microsoft]?... The most obvious is Google. There can only be one big man in town, and they're clearly it. Google is the most dangerous company now by far, in both the good and bad senses of the word."

While I think the title overstates the situation a bit (I'd replace "dead" with "hopelessly hamstrung"), it's an interesting read with some solid reasoning for the premise.

Then, this morning, the Seattle Times mentions that Microsoft is gobbling up real estate in Bellevue (Hey, downtown Bellevue: Make room for Microsoft), to house up to 4,000 employees (quick back of napkin math: 4K employees * $100K human resource cost (salaries, benefits, taxes, stock options, etc.) * 2 (assuming salaries are roughly 1/2 the cost of doing business)-- and you end up with what amounts to what is on the order of $800M of "opportunity cost").

So it seems Microsoft has either uncovered (only slightly less than literally) a gold mine, or they are preparing for "war of attrition" mode like they were when they sensed an impending threat from Netscape prior to the browser wars.

I conclude that Microsoft is "taking the gloves are off", and is getting ready to go to blows with Google. Maybe it was the bidding war for DoubleClick that finally motivated Microsoft to take notice?

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