I've always wondered about this.

Also: I pronounce "daemon" as "DAY-mun," as opposed to "demon", which I pronounce "DEE-mun." Do the rest of you make this distinction?

So Unix daemons are descendants of Maxwell's daemon. But we need not forget that Maxwell's demon is part of a long series of philosophical thought experiments, including Laplace's demon and Descartes's malin génie. In Ancient Greek "daimōn" just means God or Deity without the connotation of evil.

That the term originates with Maxwell's Daemon, which is fundamentally an entropy-reducing agent, is rather apropos - would that all our daemons performed so well.

For some time I though that the word deamon was used because it has to fork processes, and in western imagery forks are associated to demons.

Funny coincidence. I've just started reading "Daemon", the technotriller by Daniel Suarez.

Great book so far (currently around page 130). I usually only read while commuting (2 hours / day), but this book is so exciting, I found myself reading it at home too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daemon_%28technothriller_series...

Sometimes daemons can turn into zombies too. The magical world of Unix. :)

If you want to take things further, there are arguments that "demon" comes from the area that is now more or less India, and that the negativity associated now associated with the term "in the west" was created as part of the struggle of one religion to dominate over another (likely corresponding to the desire of one polity to dominate over the other(s)... but my memory gets even fuzzier at this point).

Anyway, I, too, pronounce it "daemon". I find this makes a useful distinction; also, I figure why insult the processes from which I'm hoping to receive good things. ;-)

http://admin.com/samples/Daemons.pdf has the term originating at CTSS at MIT in the early 60's.

Has no one mentioned the absolutely horrid brown on green color scheme? I need to use developer tools to change the page so I can actually read it!

daemon goes back well before Socrates; one finds it in Homer, sometimes with a negative implication, sometimes neutrally.

The irony is anyone could be at the cutting edge of physics pretty easily.

Take a microsecond stopwatch and use it for random numbers, one num per press. Then pick from words, phrases, pages... it's a no-cheat ouija board. If you prefer, crack-open a book randomly, by hand or flip a coin for random numbers.

The Cain and Abel story is probably the most important in the Bible. Jesus said loving God was the most important commandment -- you should experment to see what He likes. Give good praise, like "the smell of rain". Or "sing a new song to the Lord" as the Bible says 7 times. God said there is justice -- better offering, better response. Experminat.

Tongues: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/1corinthians/1corinthians14.h... or http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/acts/acts2.htm

Knowing God: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/numbers/numbers11.htm

Precident for riddles--it's gift-wrapping: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/daniel/daniel5.htm

Precedent for offerings. (This is my favorite) http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/malachi/malachi1.htm

Don't do animals -- use your head: Read verse 14: http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/psalms/psalm50.htm

More spiritual advice: http://www.losethos.com/doc/AENotes.html

God says, "remittest enlightening apprehend reproves brides fable requital Juno ."

I just noticed my alma mater hosted this article. Let's go Hokies!!