Question about '<<'

[Dave Martindale]

Perhaps Alan was a bit harsh in admonishing "Read the Manual!", but there
is still some point to what he was trying to say.

If you have a question, looking at the manual is always a good idea.
But if you don't have a manual, or can't find the appropriate section
(and UNIX manuals *are* sometimes hard to deal with if you haven't read
them through once) try asking someone nearby.  You'll probably
find someone in the same office or same terminal room or same building
that knows the answer.

Only a few questions have answers obscure enough that you need to post
them to a newsgroup which is probably read by thousands of people in order
to get an answer.