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Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸 (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 06:05:00 JST Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸

What did people do for entertainment before they had logfiles to tail?

In conversation about 16 days ago from cosocial.ca permalink
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  Maj - 🇨🇦 (maj@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 06:08:17 JST Maj - 🇨🇦
  in reply to
  
  @evan you didn't tag this rhetorical so, it looks like 'Less' was around before tail!
  "Mark Nudelman initially wrote less during 1983–85, in the need of a version of more able to do backward scrolling of the displayed text. The name came from the joke of doing "backwards more." "
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less_(Unix)
  In conversation about 16 days ago permalink
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    Less (Unix)
    
    less is a terminal pager program on Unix, Windows, and Unix-like systems used to view (but not change) the contents of a text file one screen at a time. It is similar to more, but has the extended capability of allowing both forward and backward navigation through the file. Unlike most Unix text editors/viewers, less does not need to read the entire file before starting, allowing for immediate viewing regardless of file size. History Mark Nudelman initially wrote less during 1983–85, in the need of a version of more able to do backward scrolling of the displayed text. The name came from the joke of doing "backwards more." Originally, less was developed for Unix, but it has been ported to a number of other operating systems, including MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, OS/2, and OS-9, as well as Unix-like systems such as Linux. It is still maintained today by Nudelman. To help remember the difference between less and more, a common joke is to say, "less > more," implying...
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  Kirk Zurell (kzurell@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 07:43:53 JST Kirk Zurell
  in reply to
  
  @evan cat /dev/random and look for secret messages.
  …Just me?
  
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  Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸 (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 09:04:11 JST Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸
  in reply to
  - Sheldon
  - Maj - 🇨🇦
  @sysop408 @maj for example, the disk formatting utility insdjk
  
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  Sheldon (sysop408@sfba.social)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 09:04:12 JST Sheldon
  in reply to
  - Maj - 🇨🇦
  @maj TIL. So that's why it's called less! So many Unix commands make more sense once you learn how they got named. Like everything is an inside joke.
  @evan
  
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  Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸 (evan@cosocial.ca)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 19:40:37 JST Evan Prodromou 🇨🇦🇺🇸🇬🇷🇵🇸
  in reply to
  - Rabbit Cohen
  @BathysphereHat this is a good idea.
  
  In conversation about 16 days ago permalink
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  Rabbit Cohen (bathyspherehat@mastodon.online)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Jul-2026 19:40:38 JST Rabbit Cohen
  in reply to
  
  @evan I spent a lot of time trying to invent concrete from first principles and mud/rocks I found outside.
  
  In conversation about 16 days ago permalink

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