Dave -- your message was great. I would hope that there would be
more like it on the list in the future.
I'll add one thing to the list, if I may be so bold, is a little bit
about approaching problem solving in a unix environment, remember, it's
usually PATH, PERMISSION
If linuxpeople is a newbie -- or if anyone else is a newbie -- then I'd
like to offer this bit of advice that may or may not be useful, as your
mileage may vary: When working with new systems/apps/etc, try to do
things in an incremental way. Now, this may sound simplistic -- but
I'll give some more ideas.
First, it's always a heck of a lot more difficult to fix something when
there isn't an error. I always tell people that if there is an error
message -- I can fix the error (well, under unix). So, if there isn't
an error message -- try to find or generate one. That is, a
reproduceable error is usually easier to track down than a transient
error. In any case, the one thing search engines excel at is matching
exact text -- just take the error message and paste it into a search
engine and usually between the linux/pron/make-money-fast stuff, the
answer will be more than likely be there, and if not, there is probably
a forum somewhere to go to next.
Next, if nothing is working, get something working. Even if it's just a
little something. Each time you get something working, you can learn
just a little more... you can try not to make the same mistakes or go
down the wrong paths in the future. Best of all, you can document your
path to share with others, if you are so inclined.
Finally, and this is the part the list will not like -- don't worry a
lot about all the assholes out there who think they're god's gift to
whatever they think they're god's gift to. As I said in one of my other
posts -- it seems to me that many newbies get one little clue and then
they try to cash that in as often as possible. Yes, we'll be grateful
when you learn about the UNIX path, but for the other newbie who tears
you a new one because [s]he learned about the path LAST week, don't
sweat it.
