* Posts by jake

26585 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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Linus Torvalds banishes masters, slaves and blacklists from the Linux kernel, starting now

jake Silver badge

Re: It's not about you

"a simple change that potentially makes our industry more inclusive"

As you say, "potentially". Which isn't a certainty, not even if you squint.

"then why wouldn't you?"

Because this change is obviously divisive and causing strife, and you don't even have to squint to see it?

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Logic is still not one of your strong suits, is it Sabroni?

Apologies, Sabroni. Have one on me.

jake Silver badge

Re: is this just round 1?

I know a guy who is sixth generation Haitian. His surname is Blackmon. He is white; his multiple-greats grandfather was from Scotland. The name has generated much mirth in the community for well over a hundred years. He says it's better to laugh because of our differences than at them ...

jake Silver badge

Scott Adams is off his chum.

jake Silver badge

Re: who cares

I care!

"Nobody ever really looks at the kernel."

Speak for yourself.

jake Silver badge

Re: Lovely.

"Why would Jake be obsessed with IR35?"

I've tried asking it that very question. It doesn't seem to have an answer, which pretty much says it all.

jake Silver badge

Re: Reply to Linus Torvalds

"Changing some terminology is trivial."

Oh! So you're the one who has volunteered to do that in the kernel. Make absolutely certain you don't introduce any new bugs as you go, mkay? When can we expect you to be done? Inquiring minds & all that.

Funny how many ACs have all the answers, isn't it.

jake Silver badge

Re: So Linus is just a SJW then?

Ever notice that people who think "OK boomer" is a meaningful reply to anything at all are whiners?

jake Silver badge

Re: ""Block-list" / "allow-list" is more explicit of its function"

"Which is why 'blacklist' is a terrible term: it doesn't tell you what the list means."

That's terrible spin. The words flavo(u)r and colo(u)r don't tell you what they mean, either. But as a physicist you know what I mean when I type them, and can get to the bottom of my meaning.

Top o' t' mornin' to ye.

jake Silver badge

Re: Proudly ignorant

"That will have to be denylist, not blocklist."

Can't use "Deny", sorry. The implications are shameful in Indonesia.

See new poster Muhwyndham's rather excellent comment here.

jake Silver badge

Re: Argh

"Actually there is a racist connotation to the expression of calling a spade a spade."

Correction. There is a racist connotation to calling a black man a spade.

There is not any racist connotation in calling a spade a spade, unless the speaker makes it obviously racist due to context ,,, which is kind of the point of this whole kerfuffle.

jake Silver badge

Re: So sad

I rather suspect that what you view as "the real world" is the thing that is out of touch with reality.

Consider that there are a LOT of people here on ElReg who completely disagree with each other about lots of things, and are willing to argue the meaning of meaning at the drop of a hat ... and yet we seem to agree far more than not that banning words will not do any good, and in fact may well do harm.

jake Silver badge

Re: Hackers, Schmackers

But I'm a MAN, not a number!

jake Silver badge

Re: Reply to Linus Torvalds

So destroying statues is OK? How about books? Shall we start burning them, too?

jake Silver badge

Re: Wishy washy

More to the point, we'll have to ban all languages that utilize syntactical whitespace. Sorry, Pythonistas, all y'all are outlaws now.

And we'll also have to completely fill all allocated radio frequencies.

IBM will no longer be able to publish pages marked "This Page Intentionally Left Blank". This last one makes me cry.

jake Silver badge

Re: Wishy washy

"*Irrespective of melanin levels."

The British have melanin? When did that happen?

jake Silver badge

Re: Lovely.

"I bet the Linux kernel has code to talk to IDE, so I wonder what will happen there!"

To quote this ElReg article: "The proposal has allowed for exceptions when maintaining a userspace API or when updating a code for a specification that mandates those terms."

In other words, this has all just been meaningless handwaving. The so-called offensive words will still be in there, despite all the kerfuffle claiming otherwise. It's all smoke and mirrors, don't pay any attention to that man behind the curtain ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Wishy washy

ALL Lives Matter!

And for the fucking clueless, that is about as inclusive as you can get, as it incorporates every set of humans. If you argue against it you are, by definition, a racist.

Besides, BLM stands for Bureau of Land Management, the agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for mismanaging public lands these last 70+ years. Yes, folks, the BLM are the much hated government department who are responsible for the tinder-like underbrush which has directly lead to the United States wildfire problems these last several years. Most of Rural America hates those three letters on sight, out of reflex. Way to pick a devisive acronym, guys. One would almost think it was on purpose.

jake Silver badge

Re: So Linus is just a SJW then?

"You yourself said Linus is in the "tantrum generation""

No, I did not. I said the Temper Tantrum Generation has won this battle. That is not bile, that is an observation. Likewise, I did not say that Linus was a part of that generation.

Logic is still not one of your strong suits, is it Sabroni?

jake Silver badge

Re: Hackers, Schmackers

Just telling it like I see it. I'm a hacker, plain and simple. There is no black, white or grey, just stuff that I feel a need to figure out what makes it tick ... or how to make it work better .... or how to make it work here, instead of there. Etc.

jake Silver badge

Re: So Linus is just a SJW then?

Nobody has said anything about how this is unjust, Sabroni. What people are saying is that it is a totally pointless, feel-good bit of nonsense that will cause lots of problems while fixing none.

And frankly, I see very little bile. What I see is people voicing well thought-out opinions.

And no, I don't think Linus us a SJW. I think he's taking the easy way out just to stop the unnecessary noise surrounding the issue. In other words, he's rewarded a temper tantrum ... which anyone who knows anything about training kids (or animals) is never a good idea.

jake Silver badge

Re: Hackers, Schmackers

Real hackers are just hackers. Black hat, white hat and grey hat are journalistic attempts to pigeonhole the unpigeonholeable.

jake Silver badge

Lovely.

The Temper Tantrum Generation have won this particular battle.

Hopefully sanity will win the overall war.

It ain't the words, people. It's the intent behind them. Period.

During the meanwhile, now with this utterly meaningless feel-good change, people for whom English is a second language are now at a competitive disadvantage for the duration of time that it takes to stabilize out the new meaning of meaning within the kernel. But that's OK, eh Linus? None of them are American. Or was that FinnishSwedish?

IBM job ad calls for 12 years’ experience with Kubernetes – which is six years old

jake Silver badge

Re: Windows 2000

The first "official" beta of what would become Win2K was released in '97 ... Some of us had even earlier access to Redmond's initial musings, so 5 years "Win2K experience" was in fact possible in 2001.

jake Silver badge

I had 5 years experience with Win95 in 1998. Well, to be precise, I had access to the thing that became Win95 way back in '93 ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Why wouldn't Tim Berners-Lee have 17 years experience designing websites?

TUCOWS? That johnny-come-lately? You mean simtel20, Shirley! Or maybe sunsite ...

I suppose there may have been people working with WWW related stuff back then who were not aware of Tim, but it's hardly likely. His name was on all three pieces of documentation!

We didn't use hotdog or notepad or geocities. Most of us used vi, as gawd/ess intended ... although I'll admit there were a few masochists trying to use EMACS to automate the boring bits ...

jake Silver badge

Re: It is in base 3 for obvious reasons

An HR droid who knows what base 3 is?

Pull the other one. It's got bells on.

jake Silver badge

Re: Why wouldn't Tim Berners-Lee have 17 years experience designing websites?

I think the point wasn't a matter of timing, rather it was that the kid who claimed to have been in it practically since the year dot had no clue who Tim was.

jake Silver badge

And so it ever was.

Since when did HR generated job adverts make any sense from a technical perspective in the first place?

HR generated "job postings" and actual "jobs available" aren't synonymous.

The former exists to keep HR running, thus helping keep the HR droids in a paycheck.

The later may or may not really exist outside of an HR droid's imagination.

Soft press keys for locked-down devs: Three new models of old school 60-key Happy Hacking 'board out next month

jake Silver badge

My LK201 is attached to the Rainbow in the corner, which is attached to the small cluster of vaxen down in the machineroom/museum/mausoleum/morgue via thicknet. Nice keybr0ad, but I prefer the Model M.

jake Silver badge

Re: Model M

Don't tell anyone, but I've recently seen original IBM model M keyboards attached to so-called "dumb terminals" going for under $10. That's unused, and in the original box & wrapping. Lightly used versions are in the $5 range. Seems nobody thinks such terminals are worth anything these days ... You might have to adapt the cable to the more modern USB on your system, but that's hardly beyond the capability of anyone reading ElReg.

And with all due respect to the late Mr. Jobs, the Universal Serial Bus is, after all, a serial bus ... so no, serial ports are not dead in today's world.

If you get two, and use Linux, you can send a nice friendly login prompt to one of 'em for those rare occasions when your GUI goes TITSUP[0], but the OS is otherwise in a sane state. No need for a reboot when you can fix it from the command line. It's also a handy place to send stderr occasionally. Or to send a quick email. Or ... I use mine many times per day.

[0] Total Inability To Show the Usual Pr0n^H^H^Hictures.

Smile? Not bloody likely: Day 6 of wobbly services and still no hint to UK online bank's customers about what's actually wrong

jake Silver badge

Re: one egg in one basket

And people call me a luddite when they hear I have and use a Rolodex. Two, actually, one for friends and family, and one for business and government.

jake Silver badge

Re: "for we like sheep ..."

My Great Grandfather had a standing appointment at his bank, at 10AM on the first Wednesday of the month. That was the day he took the horse & trap into town. While there, he did his banking, got a haircut, settled various outstanding bills, picked up dry goods, the mail, and that kind of thing. Was a major, day long production as he lived about 10 miles from downtown.

My Grandfather handled his banking the same way (albeit driving a new-fangled automobile instead of the trap), as did my Father (who chose to bicycle). As do I (I'm back to the trap ... buckboard, actually ... at least when I can). There is absolutely no need at all for most people to have access to their banking info while sitting on the Number 9 bus. Shirley setting aside half an hour once per month isn't that much of a hardship?

Granted, in this age of Covid19 life's a trifle more difficult ... but I still don't do any of my banking online. I see no real positive reason to do so, and a whole lot of potential negatives.

By the way, you can telephone and ask if that payment went through, should you feel the need to do so. On the very rare occasion that I feel the need, it works for me. If your bank doesn't offer real-time telephone access to a human being, find another bank.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: one egg in one basket

I'm an old UNIX hacker. I like many single purpose tools, each of which does one thing perfectly. Especially if I can maintain and/or repair them for myself, instead of adding to the local landfill when they go awry. Even more especially if I can still use everything else when one of them is waiting on parts.

You do your thing your way, I'll do my thing my way. Have a homebrew?

(Yes, I use my scanner, copier and FAX machine regularly ... near daily, in fact.)

jake Silver badge

Re: I absolutely insist and demand...

A check/cheque for the full amount (plus all accrued interest) will be in your voicemail by close of business today. Don't let the door hit you in the ass/arse on the way out.

jake Silver badge

Re: Ethical or not the service is dreadful

Whose "ethics", Kemosabe?

jake Silver badge

Re: one egg in one basket

Remember back when people spent money on all-in-one printer/copier/FAX/scanners? If one head died, they all died ... Oh, wait, people still buy those things, don't they? Go figure ...

jake Silver badge

Re: one egg in one basket

So take your business elsewhere. Shirley you have access to more than two banks?

jake Silver badge

Re: one egg in one basket

"I'd still feel pretty pissed off if one of those banks suddenly became unavailable for days on end"

So go into the brick and mortar storefront and demand[0] answers. What's that? Your bank doesn't have a brick and mortar storefront? More fool you.

[0] Hint: Go easy on the "demand" bit ... Going in with a smile, a PleaseAndThankYou[tm], and the attitude of "I don't know if you can help me, let's find out!" when you discover an error helps keep folks on your side ... if you come storming in, looking for blood, you'll only piss 'em off. This is true when dealing with customer service in almost all walks of life. It's basic social engineering, innit.

jake Silver badge

Re: No technical information

"what exactly are the penalties for fitting counters sloppily?"

From the horror stories I've heard from friends, fly-by-night remodeling companies can get away with almost anything without penalty. Choose your contractor carefully.

The reluctant log trawler: The buck stops with the back-end

jake Silver badge

Re: Bah!

Aye ... But if you tell that to the young people today, they won't believe you.

jake Silver badge

Re: From the "if you have to ask" files ...

I like to thwack 'em over the heads with large piles of paper-trail.

jake Silver badge

Re: From the "if you have to ask" files ...

I wasn't complaining about my job, AC. In fact, I love it. Positively thrive on it, in fact. And it's even quite lucrative. Sorry to burst your bubble, bubbie.

Remind me again, where exactly have I said anything about IR35 (except asking you where I've said anything about it)?

The obsessive stalker/fanboi won't answer, of course, because it can't. I'm fairly close to declaring Formosa's Law on this one and ::plink::ing it.

jake Silver badge

Re: From the "if you have to ask" files ...

"I guess he's got his plate full with the IRS."

Nah, My CPA has his hands full with the IRS.

I'm good at some things, other things not so much, and dealing with taxes not at all. Major changes happen every year, and who has time to keep up? So I delegate. it's cheap insurance ... Especially when your holding company owns 18 different businesses, and all of them sell goods & services to each other.

jake Silver badge

Re: Re:Order of operations

Sounds to me like that employer was quite savvy indeed .... they hated the HR droids just as much as the rest of you, and carefully selected the few to remain for maximum amusement/torture.

Heir-to-Concorde demo model to debut in October

jake Silver badge

Re: Great timing

She's an A152, and fits me like a glove. Comfort is subjective :-)

jake Silver badge

Re: This has been going on since before the 1970s

::shrugs:: Use your handle. Thumbs here on ElReg don't mean anything ... all they can do is scare people into submission if those people allow it. Don't be one of those people.

I gave you a thumbs up ... You talk sense instead of parroting others.

jake Silver badge

"Consumption inequality is ( approximately ) the lowest it's ever been."

Except among the common people, of course.

Captain, the computer has identified 250 alien stars that infiltrated our galaxy – actual science, not science-fiction

jake Silver badge

Re: Upvote for E.E. 'Doc' Smith

Pretty dreadful space opera junk that definitely shows it's age, but readable escapism nonetheless ... if you can find your way past the misogyny, implied racism, etc. etc. I've often thought that the core stories could make fairly decent movies, especially with today's special effects capabilities.

jake Silver badge

Re: Klemperer Rosette

The Puppeteer's pentagon shaped Fleet of Worlds was called a "Kemplerer rosette" in the books. Note that a Klemperer rosette must have an even number of objects, the Puppeteer's system had five.

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