Posts by jake

Re: Can it reduce the time spent at airports

In Blighty, even trees in the so-called "forests" queue up ... it's the British Way.

Re: Can it reduce the time spent at airports

If Greta's parents want the world to use less air travel, perhaps they should ask Al Gore and others why they continue to take private $LargeJets to over-seas "save the planet" conferences. Once they have that answer, they can coach their daughter to babble their opinion.

Re: Lost Opportunities

Arguably, for what it was and what it was intended for, the original Mini didn't need much improvement. That's what makes it such an icon of automotive design. My 1962 Mini is one of the few cars that I've ever owned that I haven't changed anything on.

Re: Great timing

Not a great idea to increase the fuel efficiency, power/weight ratio, longevity and etc. of a system that is going to be with us for at least another century? How do you figure?

Besides, most such engines can be made to run on ethanol (or methanol), which (last time I checked) will be with us for a long, long time.

Re: Great timing

I was a global network troubleshooter from the early '80s thru' the late '90s ... at any given hour I could expect to be flying off to anywhere on the planet. 0.25mg melatonin 45 minutes before "local bedtime" on the first night out, and I was fine for the duration of the trip ... until the next timezone. Lather, rinse, repeat ... I experienced no ill effects, could wake up immediately if required, and apparently it's not addictive (all unlike alcohol, sleeping pills, etc.).

Yes, I know, "studies indicate", yadda yadda yadda. I am not a doctor, this is not a prescription, might be illegal in your jurisdiction, etc.

Re: Great timing

"assuming the travel experience is better than being on concorde, which apparently wasn't so good."

Frankly, my little Cessna is more comfy and a hell of a lot quieter, leading to a much nicer flight, than Concorde. Still, I'm pretty happy that a company I worked for saw fit to spring for me to take a Concorde a couple of times ... even if I did need a nap after we landed. Fun experience, but I wouldn't want to commute in one.

Re: Starship?

No, New York, North Yorkshire.

Sadly, according to the rarely mentioned Ilkley Moor rules, as published in "The Dalesman" in 1978 (October issue, I think ... naturally, it was raining), that puts us both firmly in Nidd.

Re: I remember the days...

I still use UUCP to route stuff internally, including in my (smallish) news farm. Makes a lot of sense, for a lot of reasons.

My eldest Niece reports that comp-sci students at her Uni implemented a "students only" UUCP network over the existing school network a couple years ago. It's mostly used for email, small file transfer, and a private Usenet hierarchy. Seems the thirty-somethings who are supposedly the administrators never learned UUCP and have no idea that what they are doing even exists. No, I'm not naming the Uni ... but apparently they are connected to other schools, world-wide, and the PTB are none the wiser. To get around draconian filters, they even have a couple links that are dial-up, over POTS, if you can believe it. Good for them! :-)

Re: Don't be silly.

I use my Grandfather's black 1928 Parker Duofold when I need/want that kind of thing. It's not the flashiest/best pen ever made, but it makes me feel good using a tool that still does exactly what it was designed to do, after almost a century.

ObITrelated: I jot down notes on paper when troubleshooting computers/networks. Don't you?

I absolutely adore my late '50s Smith Corona portable, with Engineering enhancements ... and it even works when there is no electricity. :-)

(If you are old enough, and from the area, I was the guy at Palo Alto's Foothill Park, sometimes up on Vista Hill, but usually down in Oak Grove, typing away on the aforementioned Smith Corona.)

Re: Fond memory

I can create documents and spreadsheets and databases to run a business using Wordstar and Lotus and dBase on DOS 3.3 easier (and quite a bit faster!) than on more modern Office 355.

Re: We are not alone

For (probably) better security than the stock unit, look into replacing the firmware with something like OpenWRT. Most Linux/GNU/FOSS usergroups will be happy to help you with this if you are unsure of your technical ability. Ask at your local Uni to find such a group in your area.

Re: At a loss

Look into OpenWRT to transform many older home routers into something more usable in today's world.

Re: amanfromMars 1

"How on Earth was she not headline news?"

Dr. ELIZA said no ... to much publicity would overwhelm it.

Re: Show me the money

Massive golden parachute/handshake would be my guess.

Come in, sit around twiddling her thumbs for a year or so while the owners figure out the actual direction they want to take the company, and then bail with a large lump sum in the low to mid eight figure range ... Note that I am in no way disparaging her, if in fact that is what she has been offered! Who wouldn't accept a deal like that‽

Re: Just to muddy the waters a trifle ...

So please tell me, AC, am I supposedly pro-IR35 or anti-IR35? Because quite frankly, I don't know myself. I've never bothered reading up on the subject because it doesn't affect my world in any way, shape, or form. You see, I'm not in the UK, I'm in California. IR35 doesn't apply here.

Again, are you sure you are not targeting the wrong person with your juvenile attempt at bile, AC?

_{Some fanboi/stalkers are mildly amusing and can be fun to play with. Most are boring. This one is just plain perplexing.}

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

So that's why Shakespeare is more entertaining and makes more sense than the bible ... Ol' Bill had a much larger vocabulary to work with.

Re: Thin end of the wedge?

No, I'm not suggesting anything. I am refuting (with examples) that black automatically means "bad" in English culture. It clearly does not. To suggest otherwise is to close one's eyes to reality.

Is a black pudding bad when even the white bits are black?

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

I didn't miss fark. I chose not to include it for two reasons: First, because it wan't included in the open source word list I used, and second because it's not included in the OED.

Re: This night be just me but...

The more I think about it, the more this reason alone is more than enough to put this whole bit of nonsense in our collective rear-view mirror.

The fact of the matter is that, like it or not, the American dialect of English is the defacto lingua franca of most of the collaborative coding projects in the online world. Deciding to capriciously change even a small percentage of the words already in the common vernacular will decidedly detriment coders for whom English is a second language. For this reason alone, the very concept should be filed in a drawer marked "thought about it, decided it was unworkable on a global scale".

Thanks for helping to clarify my thoughts on this aspect of the subject, Muhwyndham. Have a cold one of whatever you like on me ... and please stick around. The more non-North American/European views on various subjects we can get, the better off we'll all be.

Re: Completely missing the point

Yep. It's a meritocracy. All that matters is coding ability ... at least for the vast majority of us.

Unfortunately, a very small minority of people seem to think that that's unnatural, and are trying to throw a wrench into the works. Why, I am not sure. If I were paranoid, I'd suspect Big Business.

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

I suspect "drag" will be on the ol' listie soon, too ... and "crash" is entirely too dangerous sounding. We will no longer be allowed to boot anything, it's obviously too violent. As for burning PROMs, well don't even think about it!

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

Apropos of the meta conversation, I posted the following about two and a half weeks ago:

"Worse, how do they deal with the word f__k?"

Which word would that be? Near as I can tell (with a little shell script and an open-source word list), in English that could be fank, feck, fink, firk, fisk, flak, folk, fork, fuck or funk.

See how important using English unambiguously is?

More to the point, why do people think that using placeholders to mask letters somehow changes the word into something non-profane? We (TINW) know you meant fuck, so fucking type fuck. If some fucker can't handle it, they can fucking leave.

Or we can let the fuckheads who pretend to be easily shocked take over.

No. It's far simpler than that. We're going to ban software from ever being written in any language that mandates grammatical gender.

That'll show the sexist bastards!

Re: Do non African slaves not matter ?

"If you doubt me, jump on the LKML & ask why there is no mention of current slavery in Africa."

Whatever you do, don't ask who the Europeans bought the slaves from in the first place, how they had become slaves, and how long the evil practice had been happening before the Portuguese stumbled onto it and figured out how to make a quick buckreal.

The only reason those particular aspects of the vile Atlantic Slave Trade are conveniently glossed over is in order to make rich, fat, white Americans feel guilty over something they have never participated in, and in fact think is an abhorrent practice.

Re: Loaded words replaced by euphemisms

The English Language didn't exist a thousand or more years before anyone English encountered a black person. Come to think of it, neither did the English ...

Re: scaling

Dude, or dudette, you should have posted that bit of common under your actual handle, not as an AC.

Re: My ideas...

"Kernel - Systemd"

== a usable Linux system?

Re: Thin end of the wedge?

In other words, the proponents are whitewashing the issue, making the appearance of "doing something" while not actually doing anything at all?

(Note that "whitewashing" is a technical term involving the actual appearance of Ca(OH)₂ after reacting with CO₂, and in no way connotes the author is racist. Except I'm sure somebody will probably insist that I must be ...)

Re: Thin end of the wedge?

"because black is bad in English culture"

Are your books far enough into the black that you can afford that little black dress you've been drooling over?

Re: The term that had me boggling was "dummy value".

Or perhaps it's simply curtain-twitchers and namby-pambys, doing what they always have, in an attempt to ensure that we all evolve into nameless, faceless, lowest common denominator grey goo with absolutely zero distinguishing characteristics?

Re: Sexism too?

I have a friend from the Scottish Borders with the name Hartman. He says that his name derives from an ancestor who was in charge of the Royal Deer, including culling young bucks for the Royal Table.

The obvious allusion to Bambi killers might make the children cry.

Re: No problem with most of it, but...

It's a trifle archaic ... but is still in use to a degree. I have a friend who has several boats at a marina here in the Bay Area. He asked me to meet up with him "on his boat". When I got to the marina, I asked a mutual friend where John was ... The answer was "He's down in the bilge of his three-master."