Re: [exim] [Administrivia] Re: R: Exim4 And outgoing Filte…

On Sat, Sep 02, 2006 at 02:04:32PM +0100, Matthew Byng-Maddick wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 01, 2006 at 05:47:23PM +0200, Marc Haber wrote:
> [a painful rebuttal of some of Bill Hacker's misconceptions about Debian's
> exim packaging - discussed before - ad infinitum - on this list]
>
> Although I'm not a list moderator, having just read through this and the
> last 80 odd messages on this list, I want to say that I'm really getting
> very bored of reading (the same old) flamewars about choice of database,
> choice of OS, and "How Bill Does It So You Should Too". This list has
> been mostly on topic for many years, and has a reasonably high signal-to-
> noise ratio most of the time, but it seems to be dropping more recently.
>
> Can people please, please, please, not post if all they've got to say is
> "why're you using ToySQL?" or "Windows users aren't wise enough to make
> their own choices anyway". A smiley, winking or otherwise, should be your
> cue to go "is this comment really appropriate to this audience, and should
> I really be posting it?". Please, please take that cue.
[snip]

First, my thanks to those on this list who have helped me get past the
initial shock of Exim's configuration and operation. I'm grateful for
the help.

I agree with Matthew's post, and will add my own opinion to it. Please
excuse the diversion: I'd just say "Amen", but that might be
interpreted as sarcasm and/or being part of the problem.

This is not a new issue: it is as old as humanity. For lack of a
better term, I'll call it "The Teacher's Dilemma".

If a teacher does his job well, his student will surpass him, and will
be able to pass on more when it is time to do so. That is, of course,
both a blessing and a curse: teachers are human, and while they might
wait years for a student such as Linus Torvalds, few have the breadth
of experience and maturity to accept that at some point their students
should go ahead of them.

Of course, in the ordinary course of events, few instructors are
blessed (or cursed) with a Phillip Hazel, a Larry Wall or a Tim
Berners-Lee. Most of their instruction will, in fact, be in very
mundane aspects of the skills they've spent years learning; most
students care only about getting _their_ problem solved, and want only
a Mister Spock who can push the right button without requiring tribute
in the form of advice to rtfm or rmtfm (Read More of ...).

Thus, The Teacher's Dilemma: as one Americanism put it, "Before you
meet the Handsome Prince, you have to kiss a lot of toads". The
impedimenta of the Exim Gurus' campaign to conquer the computing world
is the legion of hangers-on who demand easy task-specific answers but
are (at best) unable or (at worst) unwilling to acquire any of the
in-depth knowledge and experience the masters are giving them for free.

As I said, teachers are human, and it's only human to become impatient
and snappish when "Toad Number 101010" turns out to be less than a
prince and less than willing to worship at the fountain of knowledge.

I'm sorry for that: I'm not in Professor Hazel's league, and that's
something I think it best to admit at the start. Geniuses are
notoriously cranky and hard to get along with, but so are we mortals
with a job to do and a boss to please and a deadline to meet.

To those greater beings who inhabit the Olympian heights and dispense
the wisdom I and others crave, I ask both patience and forgiveness:
I'm just another toad, you know?

Bill Horne