# Awards?



## fullauto2012 (Dec 20, 2017)

I sat down last night, after a full day of nailing up crown molding on a ladder with a knee that's 3 weeks away from replacement, and read the entire FreeBSD handbook.  Start to finish. I figured it was a good idea considering how many times I've asked questions here only to find out a bit later that the path to the answer, if not the answer itself, was found in said handbook.  

I was just wondering if there is any prize for doing so? 
I mean, how many people ACTUALLY read it? The whole thing?

Perhaps a new moniker on the boards.
Like a banner under our picture with the words "Actually RTFM'd"
A boy can dream, can't he?


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## ralphbsz (Dec 20, 2017)

And you weren't even on painkillers after the surgery!


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## linux->bsd (Dec 20, 2017)

fullauto2012 said:


> I sat down last night, after a full day of nailing up crown molding on a ladder with a knee that's 3 weeks away from replacement, and read the entire FreeBSD handbook.  Start to finish.



Even the section about creating your own ports? That's the only part I couldn't get through during my read-through of the handbook.

Nevermind. Turns out that's the porter's handbook, which is separate.


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 20, 2017)

Surgery is in 3 weeks... that's why I'm getting that molding done now.
And I can't take painkillers... I used to chew them like pez.
I use getting WAY too deep into IPv4 networking as a drug now.
I will be the Yoda of FreeBSD some day.


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 20, 2017)

And yes, even the section about creating ports...
Not sure why; I'll never do it.
But, I guess the more I know the easier everything else will be some day!


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## linux->bsd (Dec 20, 2017)

fullauto2012 said:


> And yes, even the section about creating ports...
> Not sure why; I'll never do it.
> But, I guess the more I know the easier everything else will be some day!



As you read through the handbooks, and using your preexisting knowledge of FreeBSD, how many errors did you find, and how many did you report?  (Not grammatical errors.) I remember finding a handful.


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 20, 2017)

I'm not fluent enough to find errors in the handbook yet.
The handbook could say, "You can telnet into port -12 of your toaster oven.", and I would break open putty.
<----- Total Newbie


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## linux->bsd (Dec 21, 2017)

fullauto2012 said:


> I'm not fluent enough to find errors in the handbook yet.
> The handbook could say, "You can telnet into port -12 of your toaster oven.", and I would break open putty.
> <----- Total Newbie



Ah, see one of the first things I learned was to block all negative port numbers on my toaster oven's firewall.


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## sidetone (Dec 21, 2017)

I use the FreeBSD Handbook like a dictionary, not reading the whole thing, but sections I want to learn at a time. Then I combine that with what's in manpages, and what's in the forums. Every once in a while, there'll be good but limited documentation on another site. The Handbook is ok, but it could be better. Some parts have slightly less information than needed. Manpages are really good. Published books are one of the easiest way to learn (in my opinion).

Sometimes it takes comparing incomplete documentation from a variety of sources to figure out about more specific topics or less mentioned topics.

From reading the whole handbook, you'll immediately know where to reference it as a guide, to start solving problems when you need to.


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 21, 2017)

I was a controller on AWACS back in my Air Force days.  I learned the value of reading an entire manual cover to cover there.  We used to have these HUGE test on everything from radar theory to refueling procedures.  Even though they were open book people would still fail not knowing where to find certain information or even if it did indeed exist inside the manual.  I found that RTFM'ing the book the first time through is crucial, even if you don't understand what you are reading. It gives you a great ground work on which to reference in the future.


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 21, 2017)

linux->bsd said:


> Ah, see one of the first things I learned was to block all negative port numbers on my toaster oven's firewall.


LOL.


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## SirDice (Dec 21, 2017)

fullauto2012 said:


> Even though they were open book people would still fail not knowing where to find certain information or even if it did indeed exist inside the manual.


Even after 15+ years I still need to look stuff up. It's simply impossible to know everything, knowing where or how to find the information you need is much more important.


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## PacketMan (Dec 21, 2017)

fullauto2012 said:


> I use getting WAY too deep into IPv4 networking as a drug now.



Feel free to ask me general questions, and even questions about Cisco. Also Juniper to a lesser extent.


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 21, 2017)

SirDice said:


> Even after 15+ years I still need to look stuff up. It's simply impossible to know everything, knowing where or how to find the information you need is much more important.



That was the Air Force theory. Been stuck on it since.


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## ShelLuser (Dec 21, 2017)

The key trick to modern computing, Unix in specific, is not so much knowing what something does but knowing where to find the relevant information. This is especially key when you're working on environments which can often change (or get updated).

And well, no offense intended, but everyone can claim to have done something


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## fullauto2012 (Dec 21, 2017)

I invented the question mark.


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## ralphbsz (Dec 23, 2017)

SirDice said:


> Even after 15+ years I still need to look stuff up.


In particular after 15+ years!!!

What is this "Alzheimer" thing everyone keeps talking about?


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## SirDice (Dec 24, 2017)

ralphbsz said:


> What is this "Alzheimer" thing everyone keeps talking about?


I'm not _that_ old. Who are you anyway? What am I doing here? 

In all seriousness though, it's not a problem if you don't know something. Heck, I much rather have one of the juniors admit he doesn't know how to do A or B than claiming he knows everything and then screw things up. I also tell them I don't know, if I don't know (sounds obvious but it isn't for some people). Most of time I can guess how things _should_ work, or have some basic understanding of what application A is supposed to do (without knowing how application A actually works). But that's mostly down to experience.


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## hitest (Dec 25, 2017)

fullauto2012 said:


> I'm not fluent enough to find errors in the handbook yet.



On rare occasions there will be errors in the handbook.  I discovered a typo in the handbook only because I like to install packages, not ports.  I found that the command to install the package set for xfce didn't work, I submitted the correct command, and the handbook was updated.  The correct command is as follows.  I only discovered the error by reading the handbook and following the commands.

```
# pkg install xfce
```


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