HP Pavilion Dv7 with Debian GNU/Linux

I recently sent my HP Pavilion Dv7 laptop back to the HP repair service while it was still under warranty due to what I think was a loose connector or cable between the graphics chip and the LCD screen, causing flickering colors when the screen was moved. This would happen at the BIOS, in the bootloader, and in both Windows and GNU/Linux, so I'm confident it was a hardware problem. (This exact problem had happened before, and I had sent it back to be fixed; the problem started happening again several months later and had been getting steadily worse.) Ever helpful, HP again fixed the problem and this time additionally decided to wipe my hard drive to the factory state.

Luckily, I had backed up all my important files, so nothing was lost. It did, however, give me the opportunity to install Debian again, and try to work out some annoyances I had had before.

"C" what I did there?

void passing_argument(int *something) {
  *something = 200;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  BOOL just_visiting = FALSE;

  int dollars_collected = 0;

  int *go = NULL, *something_else = &dollars_collected;
  passing_argument(something_else);
  if (dollars_collected == 200)
    goto jail;

  jail:
    if (just_visiting)
      return 0;
    while (1);

  return 0;
}

This is no way to act on a development mailing list

For those of you reading this now, this is not the original post. The email I had posted here was replied to, the author acknowledged his mistake, and politely asked that I take down his email. He's a well-meaning person, and I can't bash well meaning people. I've removed all references to him.

I've just unsubscribed from the GNOME Shell mailing list. Now I know I've been saying I'd do for quite some time, but the mailing list has degraded into a location for petty insults and disrespectful behavior.

Have a look at the message he was replying to, and the entire thread. This is a development mailing list. Or rather, it is in name. But it has morphed into a hotbed for rants by users who dislike the Shell, who dislike design decisions, or even who don't appreciate how much work has gone into the software (regardless of whether you like it, show some respect for the people who have put in substantial amounts of time and effort to make it in the first place). There do still exist useful and informative threads. But they have been outnumbered by whining and hissy fits.

There are tons of cases of this behavior, and it's not limited to non-developers as well. Here's one such example.

The first person who does this on hummstrumm-dev is going to be plonked faster than they can type the phrase "completely unacceptable".