[conspire] stupid questions, lazy people

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Jim Auer (auerpauer at gmail.com):

> What I think some of you very knowledgeable people forget is just how very
> knowledgeable you are.

Gosh, I wish I were.

Some questions I can of course answer off the top of my head.  Most I
end up answering by throwing a couple of well-aimed search terms at a
Web search engine, and then spending a couple of minutes reading.


> But the next time you perform a 2 to 3 minute search, stop and look at
> the terms you submit to the search engine.

Yes, quite.  Part of what gives one the edge is a couple of basic
search-engine tricks like using quotation marks to mean 'these words
together', and adding the word 'Linux' as an extra term.  Like:

    Linux 'SATA chipset' fakeraid

    or

    powerdns 'subdomain delegation'

There's also the really basic exclusion trick with the minus sign, like 

   Moen -plumbing -faucet

> Also look at all the hits you don't click on because they don't have
> the right terms/phrases in the proper relation to reach other.

Or more commonly because it's on some Internet domain that isn't
credible for that subject.

> The learning curve to this stuff is huge. Never forget that.

It also has nothing to do with Linux, but is merely _the_ key,
blindingly obviously needed skill for effective use of the World-Wide
Web, period, for the past couple of decades.  Which fact has an obvious
further implication, given that Web search engines became ubiquitous and
essential by the late 1990s.  (AltaVista search came online in 1995.
Google Search took off starting 1996.)  The implication?  That anyone
who's been using the Web for any significant fraction of that timespan
and hasn't figured out basic search strategies had better check his or
her pulse, as you might have died when you weren't looking.

One of these days, I'll also share a few thoughts on the ongoing
syndrome of CABAL members sending me technical Linux questions via
private e-mail as if I were a free-of-charge consulting firm, when they
are fully aware of this mailing list.