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Advent Calendar For Geeks 65

Posted by samzenpus from the geek-christmas dept.
bLanark writes "Well, as children and adults all over the world begin their day with chocolate, with the traditional Advent calendar, I'd like to remind you that there's an alternative for geeks. The Perl Advent calendar will give you a new Perl tip every day right up to Christmas."

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Advent Calendar For Geeks More

Advent Calendar For Geeks

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  • Yeah do we really need this extra in our life without everything else we have on?

  • Happy Channukah (Score:4, Informative)

    by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2010 @12:11PM (#34405814) Journal

    :-D

    • Our kids get a calendar full of secular Lego bits for the upcoming solstice, Saturnalia, Sol invictus, Yule, or other midwinter festival. We made them ourselves, with 24 numbered pouches (each with a velcro flap).
      Yeah, I know that starting on 1 December there should generally be only 21 pouches to reach the solstice, 23 for Saturnalia, and 25 for Yule and Sol invictus, but kids here expect to get prezzies on 24 December, so that's when the calendar ends.

      • That's beautiful. Are the pouches mounted on a backboard? Have you posted pics anywhere?

        My lady stax & I are also crafters and currently doing hand felted items. We're going to have to riff on your idea for next season.

        • Wow!!! Even for sarcasm this is just too involved...

          I can now die in peace.
        • This is why I read Slashdot. Every now and again a post like this comes along. A thrust so skillful and a blade so keen that your opponent doesn't even realize he's been cut. He feels an odd tugging sensation, looks down, and sees his liver lying on the floor. Bravo!

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Tolaris ( 31078 )

        My child gets the actual Lego advent calendar, which is totally secular. So far she's gotten a snowman and a child minifig with sword (!).

  • I don't get any presents, here's why. (Score:3)

    by pieisgood ( 841871 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2010 @12:14PM (#34405848) Journal

    Allow me to be somewhat cynical without angering the mods too much.

    There's a reason people turn off the "hints" in IDE's, 3D modeling software, Word, Open office... ect. It's because if there is a problem, we'll go out and search for the solution. Now they want to put the daily hints behind the advent calender? oy vey!

    You may now proceed to mod me down.

  • gifts and chocolate for perl tips?

    Gee. I'll jump right on that~

  • Animated paper clips, or be gone.

  • No Thanks (Score:3)

    by camperdave ( 969942 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2010 @12:29PM (#34406062) Journal

    "Well, as children and adults all over the world begin their day with chocolate, with the traditional Advent calendar, I'd like to remind you that there's an alternative...

    No thanks. I'd rather have the chocolate.

    • Me too, but I’d be willing to tolerate Perl tips stamped into the chocolate or printed on the wrapper. Call it a fair compromise.

    • Where's my AVR assembler advent calendar, my Forth advent calendar, my Common Lisp advent calendar, my VHDL advent calendar, or even a Linux kernel patch of the day advent calendar? Please, something geeky at least, not Perl...
  • What about those who aren't looking forward to christmas? I guess this is another grievance to air in front of the festivus pole.

  • Perl 6 calendar (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Also don't forget about the Perl 6 advent calendar [wordpress.com] that's just posted its first entry this year!

  • Did you know that Advent Calendars are not about consumerist chocolate, but graphic reminders of some tribal seasonal story? I don't believe it either, but it's as pretty a story as Father Christmas, and deserves to be left alone.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by horza ( 87255 )

      How about a geek advent calendar that features non-fictional historical events?

      Eg:
      Ala Lovelace, the first programmer, born 10 December 1815
      Charles Babbage, inventor of the computer, born 26 December 1791
      Linus Torvalds, creator of Linux, born December 28, 1969
      (ok I know advent calendars normally stop at xmas, but most people celebrate New Year more these days anyway)

      I'm sure others can fill in the gaps...

      Phillip.

      • "(ok I know advent calendars normally stop at xmas, but most people celebrate New Year more these days anyway)"

        I hadn't noticed that. How did I miss all the New Year TV specials, the radio stations playing New Year music 24/7, the throngs of New Year shoppers, etc?

        • Re:Advent of what? (Score:5, Funny)

          by RobotRunAmok ( 595286 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2010 @04:01PM (#34409868)

          I hadn't noticed that. How did I miss all the New Year TV specials, the radio stations playing New Year music 24/7, the throngs of New Year shoppers, etc?

          Not any more, of course. When I was growing up, there were all these New Year celebrations. I remember the booze, the pointy hats, the grand public displays featuring dioramas of Father Time and Baby New Year. Good times...

          Then, some time during the 2020's I think, the protests began. The Chinese were first, of course, complaining that January 1 wasn't their new year, bitching about how offended they were whenever anybody wished them a "Happy New Year!" in the beginning of January. "America is a diverse country," they would say, "and we should respect and honor ALL new year's celebrations equally. And besides, we built your fuckin' railroads, it's the least you could do, right?" The ACLU got involved when the Pagans starting acting up, noting that "The New Year begins November 1. In fact, you wouldn't even have ANY new year if it wasn't for our sun god! Goddam Christians just co-opted our New Year like they did everything else of ours!" The floodgates were opened then. Muslims, Hindus, 7th Day Adventists -- who even *knew* their were enough census-registered Klingons to get tlhIngan Qummem declared a National Bank Holiday every tenth month?

          Yeah, "Happy New Year," those were the days. Egg nog and Guy Lombardo, and the ball dropping in Time Square. Back when you could drop balls in Times Square, without the cubes and rhomboids challenging it in the courts...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by horza ( 87255 )

          You must have been asleep on December 31st at 23:59 in the year 1999, when computer programmers averted a world-wide apocalypse. January 1st was henceforward declared a national holiday in their honour, as you will find it is this year if you check your diary.

          Whereas Christmas has slowly died along with its associated religion, apart from strong poultry sales, the New Year and the fresh start it symbolises is still celebrated strongly to this day.

          Phillip.

          • "You must have been asleep on December 31st at 23:59 in the year 1999..."

            I was awake in my local time zone. Due to early-onset middle age, I was not "partying like it was 1999", however.

            "the New Year and the fresh start it symbolises is still celebrated strongly to this day."

            Don't get me wrong: New Year's Day is pretty much the only annual holiday that I observe personally (i.e. in private, not public motion-goings-thru) in any way, as a fresh-start event. But I know that I'm atypical, and more-observed t

  • About as interesting as spinning top made of clay.

  • More Perl Advent Calendars (Score:5, Informative)

    by perl6geek ( 1867146 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2010 @01:04PM (#34406634)

    The Perl community has more advent calendars than the one linked in TFA:

    • Perl 6 advent calendar
    • Catalyst advent calendar
    • Perl Dancer advent calendar
    • Plack advent calendar
    • Uwe's CPAN advent calendar
    • Ricardo's Perl advent calendar

    (Catalyst, Plack and Dancer are web frameworks)

    Good thing that Perl is dead. Just imagine how it'd overflow the internet with advent calendars if it were alive!

  • has its Hubble Space Telescope advent calendar [boston.com] for the third year, with RSS feed [boston.com].
  • Doesn't anyone care about us Python coders?
  • Don't forget about the most excellent SysAdvent calendar: http://sysadvent.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
  • This is my personal favorite this month. You get a free iPhone app each day. These all normally cost money.

    http://appventcalendar.com/ [appventcalendar.com]
  • Wouldn't this be more appropriate for Lent, rather than Christmas? I'm not a Christian, but I was educated in their ways as a child in Scotland. It reminds me a lot of the Father Ted episode when they hire the nun for lent...
  • PHP advent 2010 [phpadvent.org] (Or on twitter [twitter.com])

    Angry Birds (Seasons) [androidandme.com] features an advent calendar with a new level released every day.

    More?
  • Insensitive clods pushing their Christian agenda! Just for that I'll go and make an AppleScript Hanukkah Menorah, that'll show em.

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