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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Ping

By
Shirley Oney
, February 10, 2013

I had this book as a child, and I got it for my grandson. I think it is such a cute story. It was hard to find cuz I thought the duck’s name was Ming. OK, was wrong.

11,089 of 11,510 people found the following review helpful

Ping! I love that duck!

By
John E. Fracisco
, January 25, 2000

PING! The magic duck! Using deft allegory, the authors have provided an insightful and intuitive explanation of one of Unix’s most venerable networking utilities. Even more stunning is that they were clearly working with a very early beta of the program, as their book first appeared in 1933, years (decades!) before the operating system and network infrastructure were finalized. The book describes networking in terms even a child could understand, choosing to anthropomorphize the underlying packet structure. The ping packet is described as a duck, who, with other packets (more ducks), spends a certain period of time on the host machine (the wise-eyed boat). At the same time each day (I suspect this is scheduled under cron), the little packets (ducks) exit the host (boat) by way of a bridge (a bridge). From the bridge, the packets travel onto the Internet (here embodied by the Yangtze River). The title character—er, packet, is called Ping. Ping meanders around the river before being received by another host (another boat). He spends a brief time on the other boat but eventually returns to his original host machine (the wise-eyed boat) somewhat the worse for wear. If you need a good, high-level overview of the ping utility, this is the book. I can’t recommend it for most managers, as the technical aspects may be too overwhelming and the basic concepts too daunting.

Problems With This Book: As good as it is,
The Story About Ping
is not without its faults. There is no index, and though the ping (8) man pages cover the command line options well enough, some review of them seems to be in order. Likewise, in a book solely about ping, I would have expected a more detailed overview of the ICMP packet structure. But even with these problems,
The Story About Ping
has earned a place on my bookshelf, right between Stevens’s
Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment
, and my dog-eared copy of Dante’s seminal work on MS Windows,
Inferno
. Who can read that passage on the Windows API (“Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous, So that by fixing on its depths my sight—Nothing whatever I discerned therein.”), without shaking their head with deep understanding? But I digress.

4.7 out of 5 stars

Name:
     
simplehuman Rectangular Step Trash Can, Brushed Stainless Steel

ASIN:
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Price:
     
$99.99

The simplehuman
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Rectangular Step Can is designed for superior durability and strength with patented lid shox
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

339 of 356 people found the following review helpful

A MAN’s review—smart engineering is better than others, plus a great cleaning tip!

By
G. Conner
, October 7, 2011

This is better than the other trash cans we’ve owned. Here’s why:

• The closing mechanism is VERY sturdy, especially compared to others, which failed in less than one year. This one uses a folded-steel ridge or “column” that greatly increases rigidity. That supports the lifting mechanism and makes it work better. It’s smooth and quiet!
  
• Another smart engineering decision was to make the top of lightweight plastic.
  
• Other cans had metal lids, which were heavy and required more force to open. That put stress on the opening mechanism. Naturally, they failed too soon.
  
• This can requires very little force to lift the lid. So, in conjunction with the rigid reinforced column, the mechanism is far more robust.
  

Other features:

• It has a handle at the back-top, which makes it easy to move around the kitchen. That’s handy when cleaning, mopping, or doing special tasks like corn-shucking, preparing food, or temporarily storing the cat.
  
• The handle is recessed, not protruding like others. That means it fits neatly against the wall without jutting into traffic, causing me to stub my toe and loudly swear, thereby waking the missus, who adds that to her long list of my offenses.
  
• There also is a small, red locking tab, which holds the lid open. THAT is VERY useful for BIG projects like filing your wife’s seven hundred shoe catalogs. This trash can is expensive, but if you get to the mail box before your wife and dispose of the evidence, you will save at least a hundred dollars the first week!
  
• The interior has two recessed hand-holds.
  
• Special bags…it costs a little more, but the special “J” bags do fit perfectly.
  

That makes replacing the bag so easy, even a live-at-home, worthless 25-year-old son has actually done it! It is amazing that a 25-year-old male can operate an Android cell phone, a computer, and our impossible home entertainment system and install sophisticated subwoofers in his Jeep…but he just can’t change the trash can bag. Well, this trash can made that job so easy, even he has done it…twice! And he got it right! Now THAT is idiot-proof engineering!…I know, this is getting to be TOO unbelievable. Where’s my video camera?

A KEY feature we all love: the quiet-close lid! The lightweight lid closes slowly and silently via its gas dampening system. It works like the shocks on your car or the assisted lifts on the minivan hatch. Now I can indulge in midnight snacks without waking the girls, which makes them even grumpier than normal. The other cans we had made loud noises when the lid closed. That noise revealed nocturnal kitchen raids and was the catalyst of controversy, curtailing clandestine comestible consumption.

So, when the old trash can broke, I spent the money and got this thing. Couldn’t be happier! My wife likes the design, the kids will now (occasionally) take out the trash, and I can use the trash can late at night without disturbing domestic tranquility. Honestly, this thing makes less noise than opening a can of beer. (Sshhh! I think I’ll have another.)