From: david@edenroad.demon.co.uk   
      
   On Fri, 24 Dec 2004 00:59:43 -0600, personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk wrote:   
      
   > "Janice"  wrote in message   
   > news:MPG.1c336e0faa9d5cd598a22c@news.individual.net...   
   >> Getting back to the point, since the cloud reference came up when I   
   >> mentioned Matthew 24:30, were you suggesting that the Second Coming   
   >> will occur over the Internet, or just free associating? :-D   
   >   
   > Here it is:   
   > The # of the beast is 666.  Now, seriously, the one thing that has   
   > *changed* the world the *most* since the life of Christ is -- the   
   > Internet.   
      
   Not organic fertilisers, the discovery of America, non-networked computers,   
   atomic weapons, electricity, modern medicine, gunpowder (in the west)...   
      
   You can make the case for any of those "changing the world" more than the   
   internet.   
      
   > bear with me now... this gets really abstract... So:  we had the   
   > creation of the world, the flood in the time of Noah, the life, death,   
   > and resurrection of the Christ, and now... we have the Internet,   
   > bringing people from all over the entire world together in a common   
   > "cloud."   
   >   
   > How does this relate to 666?   
      
   By a process of selective attention and faulty reasoning.   
      
   > Simple:  Unix.   
   > An enormous percentage of servers on the Net run in Unix, mostly because   
   > it was the primary language before Windows.   
      
   The phrase you're after is "Operating System". And you _teach_ people?   
   Sheesh.   
      
   > All files (and directories, which are also "files") have a set of   
   > permissions assigned to them:  Read, Write, and Modify (or sometimes   
   > Execute).   
      
   Always execute (or directory access).  "Modify" _is_ write.  What else   
   could it be?  Nothing else modifies it.   
      
   From "man chmod" the bits represent:   
   read, write, execute (or access for directories)   
      
   > Confused yet?  Here's where it starts to make sense:   
   >   
   > Every file has THREE sets of permissions:  one for the self (primary   
   > author of the file) one for the group (people associated with the file's   
   > author) and one for the world (Joe Bag o' Doughnuts and his neighbors).   
   >   
   > Here is an example of how your CREDIT card permissions are represented   
   > via Unix:   
   > rw- rw- rw- , or 666.   
      
   Proving only, IMO, that Brian Kernigan has a really dark sense of humour.   
      
   > the bank (author of the card) has the right to read and write to your   
   > bank account.  They can add or subtract funds to your account, but they   
   > can't "just create" funds out of thin air (that would be "modify").   
      
   Unbelievable.   
      
   > Even a correction or payment or debit is still a read / write function.   
      
   You're talking nonsense again Dick.   
   What you are claiming is that every account is a separate file, each with   
   its own permission, and that's just tosh.   
      
   > Now, the funny thing is, the only people who can make *modifications* to   
   > *anything* financial are top-level government officials in the treasury   
   > department or some secret organizations who can create bank accounts out   
   > of thin air.  These folk have permissions on things that include read,   
   > write, AND modify:  or 777, which is the "perfect number" of the Christ,   
   > so it's said.   
      
   More nonsense.  You really don't have a clue do you?   
      
   --   
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   = David    --- If you use Microsoft products, you will, inevitably, get   
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