Monday, December 27, 2010

What about Chuck?


The BSD Logo.

One another occasion a very christian individual was noticing the devil logo, I tried to explain it was a daemon, not demon or devil and didn't have any satanic meaning, again they freaked.

You have to admit, that's sort of a Satanic symbol if you ever saw one, right?


From: FreeBSD.com
"Many people equate the word ``daemon'' with the word ``demon,'' implying some kind of Satanic connection between UNIX and the underworld. This is an egregious misunderstanding. ``Daemon'' is actually a much older form of ``demon''; daemons have no particular bias towards good or evil, but rather serve to help define a person's character or personality. The ancient Greeks' concept of a ``personal daemon'' was similar to the modern concept of a ``guardian angel'' --- ``eudaemonia'' is the state of being helped or protected by a kindly spirit. As a rule, UNIX systems seem to be infested with both daemons and demons." (p403) The earliest (and most popular) renditions of the BSD Daemon were created by John Lasseter.

That cute little red guy with the pitch fork is named Chuck


First Drawing with the Daemon Logo

Dictionary.com defines Daemon as A program or process that sits idly in the background until it is invoked to perform its task.

Historicaly though I always though of Chuck as more of a Gremlin really very much like the one portrayed in a Bugs Bunny cartoon "Falling Hare (1943)" before it was restored.



Officially Gremlins started in the 1920 at a RAF term for a low-ranking man saddled with oppressive assignments.

Gus the Airplane Military Insignia
Although this terms really take on color in World War II as a "an imaginary gnomelike creature who causes difficulties in aircraft."

Military Airplane Insignias

Also the Irish Gaelic word gruaimin, "ill-humored little fellow."

Drawing from Roald Dahl's book, "The Gremlins" Front Cover


This very much conjures up visions of these little gremlins running about secretly doing things.


From Roald Dahl's book, "The Gremlins"
"I've just found a nest of widgets," he said, and looked around in triumph. "Widgets?" said Stuffy. "Widgets? Never heard of them!"
But Jamface went on. "As I said, I've just found a nest of widgets located in the rear turret of my plane. There were twelve of them . very young ones."
"What are widgets?" asked Gus.
"It's very simple," said Jamface. "Widgets are the young of gremlins and fifinellas. No one knows until they grow up whether they are going to turn into males or females, but it's usually males; in each nest of twelve widgets only one will eventually turn into a fifinella."

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