Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site nicmad.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!uwvax!astroatc!nicmad!brown From: brown@nicmad.UUCP Newsgroups: net.jokes Subject: Re: Please help! Message-ID: <293@nicmad.UUCP> Date: Mon, 5-Aug-85 18:18:45 EDT Article-I.D.: nicmad.293 Posted: Mon Aug 5 18:18:45 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 7-Aug-85 02:48:27 EDT References: <489@utastro.UUCP> <2586@ut-sally.UUCP> <291@nicmad.UUCP> Reply-To: brown@nicmad.UUCP (Mr. Video) Distribution: net Organization: Nicolet Instrument Corp. Madison WI Lines: 49 I found this in our junk file, as it was orginally sent to net.bizarre. I am moving it to net.jokes, in the spirit that it was written. In article <2586@ut-sally.UUCP> crandell@ut-sally.UUCP (Jim Crandell) writes: >> We have been running Unix 4.2bsd for a *long* time now, with very high >> load averages every day. I guess it was inevitable, but strange effects >> on many working programs have been traced to a common cause: >> >> /dev/null is full, and is overflowing! >> >> Anybody seen this problem before? Can anyone help? > >Unfortunately, this problem is very common. The primary cause seems to >be, oddly enough, the USENET community. Many posters to certain newsgroups >including (but not limited to) net.politics, net.religion, net.wobegon, >net.cooks, net.putrid_rice_eaters, net.pigeon_kickers, net.grammar.nitpickers, >net.fanatical_holycow_anti-iconoclasm_preservation_league_rumor_mongers >and probably a handful of others, habitually instruct their would-be >correspondents to ``direct flames to /dev/null'' or words to that effect. >Now, any site that has a high rate of news posting typically has a >correspondingly high rate of influx of flamage, but in many cases, this >traffic is directed to /dev/null. > >The solution apparently is not straightforward, else someone surely would >have discovered it by now. Avoidance measures should include identifying >the offending flame-redirecting news posters and threatening them with >detoxification if they refuse to mend their ways. But there still remains >the difficulty of disposing of that flamage which has already accumulated. >The majority of such material is extremely vitriolic stuff, laden with >heavy metals and complex, hyper-stable organic radicals, and it thus is >not easily eliminated from the system by natural means. Furthermore, >its inordinately high temperature typically renders it fairly inimical >to removal by manual methods. (It has been suggested that a daemon is >unusually well qualified to deal with this particular task.) > >In conclusion, let me state simply that (a) yes, it's a problem, and >(b) no, I don't know what the hell to do about it, either. We have a hose attached to the back of our VAX (like some dehumidifiers), that leads to the nearest inlet into the local sewer system. All /dev/null stuff is fed into that hose. -- |------------| | |-------| o| HRD725U & PV9600 Mr. Video | |AV-2010| o| |--------------| | | | | | |----| o o o | | |-------| O| |--------------| |------------| VHS Hi-Fi (the only way to go) {seismo!uwvax!|!decvax|!ihnp4}!nicmad!brown