history of "shoot yourself in the foot"
VERMEULENJ
>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
>"How to tell what language you're in" things, or because of Brian
>Kernigan's "Why Pascal isn't my favorite language", or for some other
>reason ?
>
>--
>Jeff Robertson <jrob...@ua1ix.ua.edu>, <jrob...@ua1vm.ua.edu>
>GCS/MU/O -d+ -p+ c++ u+ e+ m* s+/-- n--- h-- f@ g@ w+ t++ y-(*)
And why do they have to use an ambiguous expression?
In WW I, for instance, ``shooting yourself in the foot'' was a popular (and
relatively safe) way to get out of the war. The only times I have ever seen
it used for a _genuine_ accident were all in programming books etc.
Or are these people suggesting that programmers write bugs on purpose to
prolong the maintenance cycle, in some devious ploy to get more programmers
in good jobs? :-)
Jeroen.
Peter D. Hampe
>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
>"How to tell what language you're in" things, or because of Brian
>Kernigan's "Why Pascal isn't my favorite language", or for some other
>reason ?
Well, it all started when Sam Colt brought out the Peacemaker and
advertised it as the Equalizer. Some folks thought they'd be hot stuff
if they could pull the thing out real fast, Well one side effect of a
poorly executed draw was 'premature' discharge - premature from the
standpoint of the user, the peice usually responded within tolerances,
time wise - and the bullet would be propelled not far enough downrange
before it stuck the users foot. If this was at the practice range,
everybody laughed at you for the rest of your life and called you Gimpy.
If this was one of those Beloved Masculinity Reinforcing Shootouts as
romanticised by Hollyweird - you were called "The Dear Departed" and
people would cry or call you stupid, depending.
Shooting yourself in the foot is short for "Doing a Really Stupid and
Inflicting A Painful and Possibly Crippling Injury On YourSelf."
Hence "you shoot yourself in the foot by ..." in computers; buying the
Wrong Softwar/OS/Platform. In cars: you drve a [fill in the blank.]
In organizations: you fired the One Person Who Knew What They Were
Doing.
In some parts of the world it is also know as "Stepping on Ones Dick".
cheerios
pyotr
it is a moral imperative - if people insist on shooting themselves in
the foot, to at least help improve their aim.
--
py...@halcyon.com Pyotr Filipivich, sometimes Owl.
The church is near, but the way is icy,
The tavern is far, but I will walk carefully.
Ukranian Proverb.
Jeff Robertson
in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
"How to tell what language you're in" things, or because of Brian
Kernigan's "Why Pascal isn't my favorite language", or for some other
reason ?
--
Thomas Koenig
>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ?
I believe that this goes as far back as World War I, when some soldiers
wounded themselves to escape frontline duty, where they expected to be
killed.
--
Thomas Koenig, ig...@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de, ig...@dkauni2.bitnet,
The joy of engineering is to find a straight line on a double
logarithmic diagram.
Rich Greenberg
>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
>"How to tell what language you're in" things, or because of Brian
>Kernigan's "Why Pascal isn't my favorite language", or for some other
>reason ?
No, it has nothing to do with any of those.
Like the moth taped in the logbook, the phrase about shooting onesself
in the foot goes back before computers. It goes back at least as far as
the cowboy days of the American west, and likely much farther.
--
Rich Greenberg Work: ETi Solutions, Oceanside & L.A. CA 310-348-7677
N6LRT TinselTown, USA Play: ric...@netcom.com 310-649-0238
Pacific time. I speak for myself and my dogs only. Canines: Chinook & Husky
David K. Bryant
>>reason ?
>No, it has nothing to do with any of those.
>Like the moth taped in the logbook, the phrase about shooting onesself
>in the foot goes back before computers. It goes back at least as far as
>the cowboy days of the American west, and likely much farther.
Enough of this! Shooting oneself in the foot comes from soldiers
in the front lines inflicting wounds on themselves so that they
could avoid battle. It implies self-induced failure. Cowboys don't
have a damn thing to do with it.
DoN. Nichols
>Jeff Robertson (jrob...@ua1ix.ua.edu) wrote in article <1994Apr25.0...@ua1ix.ua.edu>:
>>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ?
>
>I believe that this goes as far back as World War I, when some soldiers
>wounded themselves to escape frontline duty, where they expected to be
>killed.
That shooting was intentional.
I think that the real origin goes farther back, to the "wild west"
days, where it was beneficial (for certain types) to be proficient at "fast
draw". The smarter ones started out with unloaded guns for practice in
synchronizing the draw, cock, and fire sequence to minimize the total
elapsed time (especially with some chance of hitting the target.) At some
point, they had to go to live ammo, which would really tell them whether
they were on target when the gun went off. Some went for the chancy
practice of leaving the gun fully cocked, so only pressure on the trigger
was needed to fire it. The more inept of the crowd would manage to pull the
trigger before getting the gun clear of the holster. This meant that the
gun was pointing in the general direction of the foot, so shooting oneself
in the foot was a real hazard then.
The metaphor today is that one attempts something which one is not
capable of pulling off, with spectacular failure as a result.
And - here we are - back on guns in afc again. :-)
--
Email: <dnic...@d-and-d.com> | ...!uunet!ceilidh!dnichols
<dnic...@ceilidh.beartrack.com>
Donald Nichols (DoN.) | Voice (Days): (703) 704-2280 (Eves): (703) 938-4564
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---
David Thomas Richard Given
Jeff Robertson <jrob...@ua1ix.ua.edu> wrote:
>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
>"How to tell what language you're in" things, or because of Brian
>Kernigan's "Why Pascal isn't my favorite language", or for some other
>reason ?
Slightly off-topic, I know, but does anyone know if there's an
electronic version of this floating around anywhere, or is it limited
to non-emailable paper?
--
__ _ _ _ _ | GCS -d+(?)(++) p(-+)(---) c++++ !l+(+)
| \ /_\ || | | \ / | || |_ |\ | | u++ e*(++) m*(++) s !n h+(++) f+ g+
|_/ | | \/ | |_/ \_| | \/ |_ | \| | w+(+++) t--(+) r y? (Archimedes owner)
dt...@st-andrews.ac.uk | ***In search of better V's***
Lon Stowell
>
>Enough of this! Shooting oneself in the foot comes from soldiers
>in the front lines inflicting wounds on themselves so that they
>could avoid battle. It implies self-induced failure. Cowboys don't
>have a damn thing to do with it.
Perhaps. Lotsa cowboys also shot themselves in the foot attempting
fast draws--which work MUCH better in the movies than in real life.
John William Chambless
VERMEULENJ <VERME...@stpc.wi.LeidenUniv.nl> wrote:
>In WW I, for instance, ``shooting yourself in the foot'' was a popular (and
>relatively safe) way to get out of the war. The only times I have ever seen
>it used for a _genuine_ accident were all in programming books etc.
I've seen it used often to refer to a major blunder, especially in
management and politics.
Thge phrase just seems to express the idea of using great power
carelessly, and reaping the consequences.
--
* Billy Chambless University of Southern Mississippi
* "We will not allow yourselves to be pummeled." -- Mark Line
* "People who quote .signatures are idiots." -- James Parry
Gavin
>In WW I, for instance, ``shooting yourself in the foot'' was a popular (and
>relatively safe) way to get out of the war. The only times I have ever seen
>it used for a _genuine_ accident were all in programming books etc.
I think it may stem from occurences of people shooting themselves in the
foot when inserting/extracting a gun from a holster (military style) or while
cleaning it. I had never heard of the above usage before.
Gavin.
--
Gavin Doherty, \ "Got me a knife and a 44 gun,
Department of Computer Science, \ Cut you if you stand
Trinity College, Dublin. \ And shoot you if you run"
-----------------------------------\ --- 'Jealous Hearted, See'
Dave Brown
VERMEULENJ <VERME...@stpc.wi.LeidenUniv.nl> wrote:
>In WW I, for instance, ``shooting yourself in the foot'' was a popular (and
>relatively safe) way to get out of the war. The only times I have ever seen
>it used for a _genuine_ accident were all in programming books etc.
_Relatively_ safe--I suppose you feel safer being shot for treason
than possibly being maimed in battle....
--
Dave Brown -- dagbrown@{iia.org,uwaterloo.ca} -- (905) 660-1723
"I am I, myself, alone/Realize I never need to use no-one/
Money, power, holy roads/Freedom puts my faith in none of the above."
Duran Duran
Richard M. Alderson III
Which reminds me of a story which appeared in _Time_ magazine sometime in the
60s regarding a fast-draw craze which swept the country (probably due in part
to the popularity of Westerns on US television at the time).
They were urging the use of wax bullets with low powder loads, citing the large
number of injuries suffered by those using real bullets. Their most horrific
example was a US soldier stationed in West Germany who was practicing with his
Army-issue Colt .45 automatic: The surgeons removed from his leg not only the
bullet itself but pocket change including a half dollar.
--
Rich Alderson You know the sort of thing that you can find in any dictionary
of a strange language, and which so excites the amateur philo-
logists, itching to derive one tongue from another that they
know better: a word that is nearly the same in form and meaning
as the corresponding word in English, or Latin, or Hebrew, or
what not.
--J. R. R. Tolkien,
alde...@netcom.com _The Notion Club Papers_
Tommy Usher
dt...@st-andrews.ac.uk (David Thomas Richard Given) writes:
>In article <1994Apr25.0...@ua1ix.ua.edu>,
>Jeff Robertson <jrob...@ua1ix.ua.edu> wrote:
>>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
>>"How to tell what language you're in" things, or because of Brian
>>Kernigan's "Why Pascal isn't my favorite language", or for some other
>>reason ?
>Slightly off-topic, I know, but does anyone know if there's an
>electronic version of this floating around anywhere, or is it limited
>to non-emailable paper?
Probably doesn't help much, but it is available in that form. Someone
posted it here a few months back, but at the time I did not have access
to a system which didn't mangle long posts. Now, I have access to a
second system that, while long distance, does allow me to get the full
post. You might try using gopher, archie, or some other such tool.
---
. QMPro 1.52 . Aliens have invaded Earth?? That explains Windows!!
Peter da Silva
John William Chambless <cham...@whale.st.usm.edu> wrote:
> Thge phrase just seems to express the idea of using great power
> carelessly, and reaping the consequences.
Nah. The idea is that someone has done something stupid deliberately.
Like trying to get a news feed on a MINIX system on an original XT is
just shooting yourself in the foot.
--
Peter da Silva. <pe...@sugar.neosoft.com>.
`-_-' Ja' abracas-te o teu lobo, hoje?
'U`
Looks like UNIX, Feels like UNIX, works like MVS -- IBM advertisement.
Will Rose
: In article <2pogmc$2b...@whale.st.usm.edu>,
: John William Chambless <cham...@whale.st.usm.edu> wrote:
: > Thge phrase just seems to express the idea of using great power
: > carelessly, and reaping the consequences.
: Nah. The idea is that someone has done something stupid deliberately.
: Like trying to get a news feed on a MINIX system on an original XT is
: just shooting yourself in the foot.
What on earth? My XT runs at a whole 10MHz, and has all of 20MB of
HD, not too far from the original specs. It's been running my news
feed for three years or more using standard Minix - only three or
four groups, but that's all I need. Why do you think it doesn't
work?
Michael Hinz
the last original IBM XTs (with the "flat" floppy drive), and it still
ran only at 4.77MHz. So your's is more than twice as fast. Regarding
the harddisk -- I seem to remember that the original XT came with a 10MB
HD, not 20MB like the later models. But that was only for the first year
or so... knowing IBM this isn't much...
But anyway, as your experience shows it _is_ possible to have a (tiny)
news feed under minix. Shooting yourself in the foot would be to try and
run GNU emacs ;-) With an executable of over 900k on my Linux box it
wouldn't even fit into XT's memory (640k max., 256k for the first models).
Or running XFree86. But alright... these things are just _too_ impossible.
I think the 'shoot yourself in the foot'-jokes just describe what is perfectly
legal (syntactically speaking), but leads to minor desasters. It's the
ultimate proof that nothing's foolproof -- by self trying to be as foolish
as you can be ;-)
>
>Will
>c...@crash.cts.com
>
Michael
--
--
(in real life?!?) Michael Hinz mich...@autotelia.isv.uit.no
mich...@stud.cs.uit.no st...@autotelia.isv.uit.no
DoN. Nichols
>In article <1994Apr25.0...@ua1ix.ua.edu> jrob...@ua1ix.ua.edu (Jeff Robertson) writes:
>
>>Why is "shooting yourself in the foot" such a common figure of speech
>>in Usenet/Programming/Hacker culture ? Is it because of the
[ ... ]
>In WW I, for instance, ``shooting yourself in the foot'' was a popular (and
>relatively safe) way to get out of the war. The only times I have ever seen
>it used for a _genuine_ accident were all in programming books etc.
Well, where my wife worked at the time, they considered themselves
to be a high security facility. Someone came in (one of the regulars), and
didn't want to take time to dig out his badge to show the guard. The guard
started to draw on him, and did actually shoot himself in the foot. It can
happen to the clumsy who are trying to do a fast draw.
The next time that guard was on duty, and the same person came in in
a hurry, the guard again drew on him, but the person took the gun away from
him, because it was by then generally known that this guard was no longer
allowed to wear his gun loaded. :-)