It never ceases to amaze me how something stupid can proliferate. Take, for example, the following quote, which you'll find in people's signatures everywhere:

"There are two major products that came from Berkeley: LSD and Unix. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."

"Two things came out of Berkeley: BSD and LSD. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."

The quote is usually attributed to "J.S. Anderson" or "Jeremy S. Anderson".

The problem here is that both quotes are incorrect. First, LSD did not come from Berkeley. LSD was developed in Sandoz labs in Basel, Switzerland. Second, BSD did come from Berkeley, but it is not "Unix". "Unix" was until recently a trademark of AT&T. I believe the Santa Cruz Operation is the most recent holder of the trademark. BSD is a UNIX flavour but is not Unix.

This is probably a case of false authority syndrome. Did anyone think to question this "J.S. Anderson" or his credentials? Does anyone know who he is now? Do people question the validity of his statement before putting it in their signature files? Who is J.S. Anderson anyway? If you search for the name "Jeremy S. Anderson" on the web, all you will find are quote pages containing the aforementioned misinformed quote. For all we know, Jeremy S. Anderson might not even be a real person.

Knowing all of this, then, what would possess people to put a false statement from someone they don't know at the bottom of all their email or usenet posts without questioning it at all?

Wed Nov 19 15:15:01 PST 2008		rants/bsdlsd.src
Updated: Thu Aug 18 2005 9:32.01		Viewed: never