Posts by jake

Re: Stuff that, I want one of these!

Careful ... it's probably classified as an illegal offensive weapon in Blighty.

Full fledged consumer desktop environment?

Shit, that thing probably has a full developer environment on it. Why bother with a targeted sub-set of the DVD when "install all" is a mouse-click away?

As we all know, having the full GCC system on a parking kiosk somewhere in the wilds of Scotland might come in handy someday. Might be fun to switch the language to Tagalog ... and the calendar to Julian. They left in the options, so we might as well use 'em, right?

Re: Thanks for the tips

Strangely, autotune filtered vocals always give me a splitting headache. No idea why. Thankfully all such so-called "music" is crap, so I'm not exactly missing anything by avoiding it.

Re: Thanks for the laugh.

Following up to myself ...

That was the group Manfred Mann, pre-Earth Band, in '68. Brain fart. And wonder of wonders, I found the John Peel version, which to the best of my knowledge has never been officially released. You can hear it for yourself, if you like. Might want to borrow a copy have a listen before Auntie Beeb nukes it.

Re: Thanks for the laugh.

I think you meant Lead Belly. You can skip ahead to 1:05 for the familiar refrain if you don't like real music.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band released a version in '68, nearly 10 years before Ram Jam. I have a version of them (MMEB) doing the song live for John Peel on the BBC ... it is a bad[0] recording to cassette off the radio dated '72, digitized many moons ago.

For an up-to-date nod to the old classic, see Mason Rack Band's cover ...

[0][ Bad is relative. It's better than some of the remaining examples of Robert Johnson's tunage, all of which is quite worth listening to ...

Has anyone ever proven ...

that water is wet and the sky is blue outside the lab?

Doesn't the act of proof imply a lab, of one description or another?

And most of it slides down and winds up rotting on the floor.

I don't believe they are inevitable.

In fact, quite the opposite.

My personal email/FTP/Usenet/Shell account system has been online, and available to whoever has an account, since Flag Day. That was January 1st, 1983, when we changed from NCP to TCP/IP. It had already been running for a number of years, and probably would have survived the change, but I chose to reboot everything at midnight, just to come up from scratch.

Note I said "system" ... it's multi-homed, multi-OS, multi-hardware, multi MTA (and etc). ... redundancy is fitted in everywhere I can fit it. It started as a Thesis platform when I was at Uni (three locations: at SAIL, under Bryant Street in Palo Alto, and at MAEWest), and now is spread out on six continents.

Over-kill for a home system? Absolutely. But as a research platform, she's mostly tax deductible. It scales well, and parts of the concept are in place at several Fortune 500s. They should see similar uptimes for the bits they use, barring the almost inevitable catastrophic human maliciousness ... and even then, systems are in place to minimize that kind of damage. Maintenance at this stage of the game is on the order of minutes per month, and that's mostly just scanning the logs for anomalies.

Re: good riddance

You don't need a browser to download a browser. Instead, use FTP:

ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Kids these days ...

One answer that works well.

Instead of purchasing a new car, restore an old one. A frame-up restoration, with yourself doing most of the grunt work (so-called "sweat equity"), can run half the cost of a modern similar vehicle.

Along the way, for very little more money, you can give it modern brakes, drive train, seating/carpet/interior, air conditioning, and electrical system (including lights). Full roll cages and other safety related equipment optional.

The end result can be you driving the car of your teenage or early/mid 20s dreams, which is not to be sneered at ... only your new version can be better looking, better mechanically, and better ergonomically than the original.

Not as easy as you might think.

"older cars can easily be outlawed"

Here in the United States it would be political suicide for a politician to suggest even thinking about such a thing. Virtually every family has at least one old car that is considered a family heirloom ... be it Granpa's old pickup, granma's old Caddy or Lincoln, mom or dad's first pony car, an aging British import, or some other much-loved antique. Attempting to outlaw these vehicles would be akin to forced euthanization of all family pets. It is not going to happen.

Re: Inappropriate garb

One potential answer:

I can't wear PJs? OK, I'll just take them off, then ...

Re: Appearance et al...

IMO, playing the "Do you know who I am?" card is always inappropriate.

I've had it directed at me a couple times over the years. My response is always the same, whether I know who they are or not. I look 'em up & down with a quizzical expression, and say with complete sincerity "No. I'm sorry, I haven't the foggiest." ... it instantly deflates even the most inflated ego.

Re: Dress Code

There's a reason that ties were fair game for anyone with a pair of scissors at most early Silly Con Valley companies ... hand-built one-off prototypes often had voracious cooling fans. The theory was that if we starved 'em of ties they'd be too weak to do much other damage. Not even IBM Field Circus folks were safe from the shears ... HP, somewhat wisely, decided ties were pretty useless fairly early on, as did DEC's Palo Alto contingent. Most of the other big names followed. Some of the Military Brass working out of Ford Aerospace, Varian & etc. had special dispensation to do without neck-ware "so they'd fit in with the locals" ... We had high hopes that it'd become a world-wide movement and we'd be done with the useless things for good.

Re: Monkey on my back

So let me get this straight ... You dressed your technical writer in a teddie, and then gave the secretaries a jolly good Roger?

Tell that to kids today and they'd never believe you ...

Re: Monkey on my back

With me it's not the ball, it's the heel ... see above.

Re: Monkey on my back

I see your three-pin plugs (literally, they are HUGE) and raise you an eight-pin DIP ... The venerable 555 has a habit of landing pins-up just exactly where my heel is going to come down. I've stepped on 6 of the damn things over the years ... all drew blood, two of them left bits behind in the bone, requiring removal by a surgeon. No other IC has ever assaulted me, just the 555. Is it paranoia when they really are out to get you?

Re: Inappropriate garb? Me? Probably daily ...

Yes, rather sadly that makes you an 'alpha-male' in the eyes of idiots, which is of course a firing offense these days ... but I wonder what that makes my Wife?

Nearly two decades ago she found a Yamaha DT-1 for me to restore for her ... I had no idea, but she had wanted one in the early '70's, when her brothers were racing Hodakas and Bultacos. Hers showed up at a garage sale here in Sonoma ... A (nearly) complete roller with non-seized motor & trans, and not one but two parts bikes, all of which had been stored out of the weather since the late 1980s.

I say above that I was going to restore it for her (in her mind), but I managed to convince her to do most of the work herself. Was fun, if occasionally frustrating for both of us ... but today she can troubleshoot fuel or wiring problems, replace the clutch or rebuild the carb, do the brakes or repair a puncture, etc. with no help.

Re: Inappropriate garb? Me? Probably daily ...

Once in the rain I stopped and helped a lady with a flat tire. After waving her on her way, I put my jack & lug wrench away, and carried on to my destination somewhat dirtier & soggier than I wanted to be. When I arrived I apologized for my appearance, told the gal at the front desk that I was there to talk to the Boss about bidding on a network upgrade. The secretary spoke into the phone, and the Boss came out to meet me. He allowed as to how most folks bidding on lucrative contracts at least took a little care with their grooming, and told me to fuck off. In those words. As I was leaving, his wife walked out of the office. It was the lady I had helped. Later that afternoon, I got an apologetic call from the guy, offering me the job. I told him to fuck off and hung up the phone.

Re: Inappropriate garb

Round about 1986, right after lunch on a Monday, HR deposited a freshly-scrubbed college graduate into my lap. It came complete with suit and tie, and the cleanest, shiniest shoes I've ever seen. Immaculately turned out. Not a hair out of place, and perfect fingernails. Looked like an advert for the suit manufacturer. The body was expected, the "shiny" wasn't. I was hoping for someone with experience.

However, beggars can't be choosers, so I set him to work pulling out Token Ring and replacing it with Ethernet in the stockroom and shipping/receiving. Both cables and cards. Under floors, over ceilings, wherever necessary. (Many of y'all have been there, you know the drill ...).

He came in with the suit bright and early the next day, still an advert, but the shoes were a trifle worse for the wear. As were the fingernails. That afternoon he managed to get his tie caught in a power supply fan ...

Day three, he was in Levis, a T-shirt and sneakers like the rest of us. We didn't mention the change of costume, but he mentioned it during his first review ... He thought I had been hazing him with the cabling work. Never did convince him that no, really, that was the next thing on our agenda ... I also never told him he'd have been transferred (or let go, if HR couldn't find a place to shunt him to) if he didn't wise up in a hurry. My group was there to get things done, not to sit around and look pretty.

Re: Inappropriate garb

No, YOU wear a suit to interviews.

Re: Not actually an interview but....

Golf in a wetsuit must be a bit of a handicap.

Re: Was that said with a sarcastic tone?

I suspect it's a mild example of Poe's Law in action.

Re: Surely they're using G-Suite Enterprise for Education?

"Congratulations, you're white, racist, white supremacist, male, sexist, patriarchal, and probably a rapist."

The News has been telling me that each and every day for months, so it must be true. I'm not Caucasian, and I am a very minor minority .... but I'm white, so I must be all of those things. (Wait, isn't judging a person solely on the colo(u)r of their skin the very definition of racism? Colo(u)r me confused!)

Apparently, I'm also going to die from Covid-19 RealSoonNow (about the only other thing that's been on the news), and they have the statistics to prove it .... but they aren't releasing those statistics, because it's only available on a need to know basis and the general public has no need to know.

We are really living in a totally fucked up society, aren't we? Don't you think it's time to start speaking up? I do, and I am ... but I'm only one voice. Join me? Call your political representatives. Write then snail-mail (they ignore email and social media). Call and write your local hnews media (these folks do listen to email and social media). Get your opinion heard, before it's too late ... and above all, get off your ass and VOTE!

Re: Not possible?

"widows with embedded metal mesh"

Hell's Grannies? That'll see the little bastards walk the straight & narrow!

Re: Surely they're using G-Suite Enterprise for Education?

"racist maths"

I just read that. And then I read it again. And then I took a shower and read it again.

The woman is loopy. Not because she's female, but because she's loopy.

Re: Here comes the sun.

Pretty much everywhere I've ever worked there has been a long standing feud between two halves of the population that I can't mention without being accused of being sexist ... One side always says it's too hot, the other side always says it's too cold. Facilities says "set it all to 72F, that's what the HVAC is optimized for" ... and so we listen to pretty much everyone bitch about the temperature.

Until one place I worked at upgraded the AC, and all the controls that go along with it (had to do with a couple of new clean rooms). Naturally, the folks installing all the new gear left all the old thermostats in place. They were no longer connected, so why worry about them. A friend of mine noticed one of the secretaries would inevitably turn one of these controls up, and then keep an eye on it from her desk. Within an hour, one of the engineers would stroll by & turn it down again. Then she'd turn it back up, and so on ... This dance went on all day.

So we hatched up a Plan ... with the Boss's permission, we installed unconnected thermostats quite near both the secretary and the engineer ... and removed the one they were "fighting" over. Now both could happily set "their" temperature to whatever they wanted. It worked. Both were happy, and both commented how comfy the office was with the "new, improved" controls. People in their circle of friends made similar comments. The complaining about the temperature stopped, virtually overnight.

That would have been the end of it, except ever since then I've installed faux thermostats for 'special" people. It has never failed to shut them up about the office temperature. However, be warned ... that type can always find something else to bitch about. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Re: a GUI in the office was a dim and distant dream.

The Vacuum and the computer share something in common. They both suck. The vacuum because it is supposed to, and the computer because, well, because it's a computer.

When you say "Linux" do you mean the OS or the Swiss detergent?