Newbie Question - about newbie user support

[Passive PROFITS]

nb:  Fonz - same message as just sent offlist (but I
forgot to copy it back to the list - not quite used to
the way this list is set up in that respect yet! :().
PS - Done a parachute jump before (2000 feet)! ;)

--- "Alphons \"Fonz\" van Werven"
<a.j.werven at student.utwente.nl> wrote:

> Passive PROFITS wrote:
> 
> > Alphons ... a.k.a. 'Fonz' in the future? (Let me
> know!)
> 
> My skydiving friends (yes, I have other hobbies
> besides computer stuff)
> usually call me Fonz, but either name will do.

Cool.
 
> A word of warning though:
> 
> 1) Whereas -chat is (somewhat to my surprise) a
> relatively low-traffic list,
> -questions covers a broad range of topics. So be
> prepared to receive many
> messages, most of which are of absolutely no
> interest to you (or me, for
> that matter).

Ok - that's useful to know when thinking about mail
routing/filtering - thanks.

> 2) Because of the higher traffic, it's important to
> carefully compose your
> messages so that the right people notice them and
> feel compelled to respond.
> Look for the weekly post by "grog" (Greg Lehey)
> about getting the best out
> of freebsd-questions (it can also be found in the
> online archives), it's
> quite useful.

OK - will do. ;)
 
> 3) If you ask a broad question, people will most
> likely just refer you to
> the documentation. This is not necessarily a bad
> thing, because instead of
> just saying RTFM (Read The F***ing Manual) they will
> actually tell you
> exactly which documentation you should read and
> FreeBSD is one of the best-
> documented systems I've seen so far. If you need
> more specific help, you
> need to ask more specific questions.

OK.  It's good to know that some pointers into the
documentation is possible if you ask nicely! <g>  I've
had a chance to glance at the docs CD; 500+ MB!!

> 4) I might be opening a can of worms here, but I
> think it's best not to
> mention Windows or Microsoft on -questions if you
> can avoid it. For some
> people those names work kinda like a red rag on a
> bull and they prefer
> bitching about Windows/Microsoft over actually
> answering your question. Not
> everybody is like that, but we do have a few of
> those people on -questions.
> And they are occasionally told off about that, but
> 

Noted.  I'm sort of trying but failing to keep myself
Linux; one MS machine for speech-to-text, and a  'duel
boot', though I don't spend much time in Windows on
the latter.  It would be nice to perhaps use FreeBSD
for firewall(s) and possibly also hosting.  

I might also be interested to go triple boot with the
laptop as I set aside 10GB for that purpose when
partitioning to go duel boot. :)  And thus at last
should be able to learn whatever I want on any of the
three, where ever I am.  

What do you use/play with FreeBSD as - work, fun,
coder/desktop/server, etc, etc?  Are you a comp
science student in the Netherlands, or interested in
BSD just generally?

> 5) There are many national FreeBSD lists which may
> or may not be of help,
> depending on the amount of traffic. For example, I
> live just across the pond
> in Holland. The Dutch FreeBSD lists still exist but
> seem to have sort of
> died. However, just a couple of years ago the lists
> were quite active
> and often very helpful. Also, being able to use
> their native language might
> be a benefit for some people if English ain't their
> strong suit. But in our
> case, that probably won't be an issue ;-)

Got it:  it looks like there is a London BSD grouping,
so I will check that out, though their list looks a
bit low volume to be of much use it might be nice to
meet up with another user 'real world' as it seems
they do do that sort of thing.  I'm no coder, though I
am increasingly getting confortable with messing about
with config files ... So far (in Linux)), that's been
about it.  Prior to that, only a litle HTML/CGI, and
only then, altering templates, essentially.  :(

PP

> 
> Fonz
> 
> -- 
> All right, that does it Bill [Donahue]. I'm pretty
> sure that killing Jesus
> is not very Christian.
>                               -- pope Benedict XVI,
> South Park episode #158
> 
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