Related link: http://steve-parker.org/articles/others/stephenson/holehawg.shtml
The other day a buddy of mine asked if I heard of a “whole hog”. My response, “I always wanted to host a pig roast.” Of course, he is not talking about a pig, but a Milwaukee Tool drill named the “Hole-Hawg”. Here is a classic article comparing the Hole-Hawg to Unix in terms of natural selection.
Please note that I do not intend on starting an OS war. This is purely for entertainment.
Here is a Hole-Hawg.
What other power tools can you relate to software?
It's about Natural Selection
I rented a Hole Hawg for a weekend when I built my new home. I used it to cut 3/4 inch and 1 inch holes through wall studs. My brother-in-law showed up with his Black & Decker 3/8inch drill and a spade bit. His drill bit got stuck in the wood on the first hole. The Hole Hawg went through a stud like a hot knife through butter. The one time the bit got stuck the tool started to turn me around! This tool is very simple, powerful, and dangerous.
Unix is the same way. Give yourself root access and accidently type "rm * .o" sometime. I ran a script once on an SGI Indy box which was supposed to rebuild the mount device list. It was a system admin script. It wiped out the box. I went to another machine and saw "rm /" on the first line. No wonder.. At the same time, as a developer, there is no greater happiness then a well configured Unix box.
Hole Hawgs
I actually own one of these drills, acquired from a pawn shop. Use it to drill post holes with a garden auger bit. It is NOT a variable-speed drill. It is a two-speed drill, either ON or OFF in high or low gear. There is considerable spin-down torque - it continues to turn even after the trigger is released.
After drilling planting holes or post holes, it is only slightly warm.
It is so efficient at what it does, unless you are a plumber or electrician, it's going to spend substantial time resting.
For a single job, it is preferable to rent one for about $15/day.
Neal Stephenson
I'm the Steve Parker of steve-parker.org, and feel that it's worth making clear that the page referred to is just part of a larger work, written not by myself but by Neal Stephenson - http://steve-parker.org/articles/others/stephenson/
Just so that people don't get the wrong impression that I write quality articles - that's Neal's forte!