Posts by jake

Re: Maybe

It's not really relevant. It's just drawn that way.

Re: But I don't have a so-called "smart" phone.

Sorry, I have no bunker. I see no need for one of those, either.

Re: Bread

Agree on the bread machine. I especially agree on just using it for the mix/proof/kneed/rise portion of the cycle, then form the loaf by hand and bake in a conventional oven. I use mine for pizza dough, other flat breads, crackers, and small runs of things like bread sticks and rolls. They make excellent bread for toast and sandwiches.

One thing nobody mentions: If you have one with a "delayed start', it makes for a wonderful olfactory alarm clock ... Not as good as an automatic bacon fryer, perhaps, but a close second.

You can often find them in thrift stores for a couple quid ... the original owner tries the "sample" packet that comes with the machine, which makes 'orrible bread because it's been sitting on a shelf for a couple years and is well past it's sell-by date. They assume the machine itself is useless, and it winds up in the thrift shop. Look for a model that makes a two pound loaf ... and always use fresh ingredients! Throw away the free packet if you buy a new machine. GIGO applies to baking just as much as it does to databases.

One other thing ... I bought a machine missing it's mixing paddle once. I figured I'd just machine one, guessing on it's size/shape based on the several machines I've worn out in the past. But first, I decided to call the manufacturer (toll-free number found online). The gal I spoke with shipped me not one paddle, but two ("just in case") ... and didn't charge me for them, not even postage. I've since repeated this a couple times, with different manufacturers. Remembering the person at the other end is human, and using PleaseAndThankYou as Grandpa always told me, seems to work wonders even in this modern era.

Re: Bread

There is no inter-species transmission (as far as I know), so no, you can not get this version of the virus from your dog, cat, bird, lizard, etc.

HOWEVER, if someone with the virus sneezes on their dog, and that dog rubs their snot/spit on your dog, you can transmit active virus to yourself after petting your dog. I have no idea how long the virus stays viable in this chain. I rather suspect nobody else does, either. Probably best to not allow your dogs to play with other dogs for the duration.

Re: Actually ...

I addressed your concerns (and my typo) a little later. Read on, McWojcik ...

Re: It all starts with dedicated workspace.

But you have compartmentalized, i.e. separated an enclosed space into divisions. Walls are unnecessary for this, but are useful to some.

Re: Even if you are not mandated to stay at home, think twice before getting out

"it's lambing time"

Little late, isn't it? Easter is on the 12th of April this year. My lambs have been on the ground for around two months already ...

Re: Director's cut

May I add:

---------------

* If you insist on watching porn while working, don't do it on a second monitor in plain view of your camera.

* Learn what the mute button does. Use it.

---------------

cf. https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/all/2020/03/16/zoom_teams_outage/#c_3996875.

Thus the phrase "if you can".

Re: email containing the string "virus" or "viri"

What on earth does your comment have to do with what either I or Mr(s) Surprise wrote? Seems that we're not the ones who need to try harder ... although I admit I typoed. I meant to write "virii", the string "viri" might send some potentially useful stuff to the bit-bucket. Maybe.

Actually ...

Unless you specifically asked for it, any email containing the string "virus" or "viri" anywhere in the headers or body can be safely deleted, as it will contain absolutely zero useful content. This observation is based on about 25 years of tuning the spam filters.

Re: No advice on "solo happy time"?

It's never stopped you before, so why should it be any different today?

Looks to be a distro from around the year 2000, so yes, that'll probably be ext2 ... Linux was a trifle late to the world of journaling file systems. ext3 didn't start to become common in Linux until late 2001 or early 2002, when the various distros started using a kernel with it built in.

Re: Interpretation

A bone-stock Slackware inittab says:

# These are the default runlevels in Slackware:

# 6 = reboot

If you want Slack to boot into a GUI, edit /etc/inittab and change the "3" to a "4" at the appropriate line (inittab is pretty much self-documenting). Your distro's variation on the theme may vary. If you use the systemd cancer, I feel very, very sorry for you.

Re: This can't be Linux

To be fair, Ubuntu has a lot of the same problems that Redmond and Cupertino have, and for all the same reasons. That's what happens when corporations decide that an OS can be all things to all people ... you get kitchen-sink-ware, and a myriad of problems as code that the user doesn't need or want react among themselves in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways.

Re: This can't be Linux

"Because Linux never breaks."

Well, maybe not never ... but perhaps it can keep going for a couple decades with no intelligent support anywhere in sight. And actually, it's not really b0rken, it's just a trifle constipated.

Re: The phrase "artificial intelligence" is the real problem.

We thought it was pretty stupid in the 1960s at SAIL, too. But it got research grants. The more things change ...

Re: Such honesty

We have not advanced much, if at all, since the 1960s AI investigations lead into the so-called "AI Winter" in the 1970s.

Re: It seems almost the entire world ignores warnings

I'd rather be an obnoxious prick than a coward who thinks ad hominem is Latin for "I win this argument".

Re: I Love You

The funny thing about "I Love You" is that the first time around, it was a HOAX, and flooded the mail system with massive quantities of people passing along a phony message.

The message was "don't open or pass along anything with "I Love You" in the Subject line, it's a virus that will send your CPU into an n-dimensional loop that'll burn out your computer" or some such bullshit. The subject line invariably contained the string "I Love You".

It was the first non-threat email that I wrote nuke-on-sight filters for built into Sendmail in what we would now call a milter. In the first weekend that I went live with it, it was rejecting almost 60% of all email with no false positives.

The real virus came along around a year later. The name came about because the authors were mocking the people who passed along the hoax.

Re: It seems almost the entire world ignores warnings

Where did I sleep through that? Was it where I said "the public are tired of the government lying, and therefore ignore them most/all of the time"?

Re: It seems almost the entire world ignores warnings

It's a generic, tongue in cheek, shorthand method of referring to "subsidizing the advertising industry at the expense of telling the truth". But you knew that from the context, didn't you.

Interesting that you consider brewers "bum wad manufacturers" ...

Re: It seems almost the entire world ignores warnings

Presumably my downvoters believe that most people are quite happy with the WHO crying wolf year after year, the government continuously lying to get re-elected and the news over-sensationalizing everything to sell advertising.

Fascinating.

For people who have trouble reading for comprehension, note that I was discussing WHY people are ignoring the warnings, not whether or not ignoring them in this particular case is a good idea or not.

Re: It seems almost the entire world ignores warnings

The corona virus warnings are ignored because the general public are tired of listening to the WHO crying wolf year after year, coupled with the fact that everybody knows that the government always lies about everything to get re-elected, and the News over-sensationalizes everything to sell bog-roll, tampons and beer. It's as simple as that.

Re: Warnings ignored?

Yes, in the story it was IT who ignored the warning. However, ElReg posed the question to us commentards, many of whom are in IT (or so rumo(u)r has it).

Re: Key workers

I'll bet he's his only employee, too. Should be easy to keep a one-person shop functional, even without drop-ins. People will need locks worked on, regardless of what we're being told to be paranoid about today. And of course the little old lady locking her keys in the car, or her house, is a valid reason for him to move about. Sounds like a good career to be in, all in all :-)

Nah. Cats.

Here at Chez jake, if you turn your back for a second or two with an unfinished post in view, one of the cats invariably manages to post it. It happens so often that it seems to be a law ...

Re: Yes, it can kill people, it's true.

I'm in the Bay Area. It's not exactly what I would call "coordinated isolation". The authorities are calling it "shelter in place". For rather small values of place. Read it for yourself here: https://coronavirus.marinhhs.org/sites/default/files/Files/Shelter%20in%20Place/Shelter%20in%20Place%20Order%2016%20March%202020.pdf.

Yes, the streets are quiet. But that won't last a week. Why not? Because if you read the above, people are allowed to pretty much do everything they have always done in their day to day lives, So they will. They are people, that's what people do.

The exception is activities where one is in close proximity to multiple people who are not members of their immediate household. And "multiple" seems to be fairly arbitrary. So there is no real isolation at all, despite what the news may be trying to sell you.

Yes, bars are closed. Gyms are closed. Tasting rooms are closed. Restaurant dining rooms are closed. Tourist attractions are closed. Schools are closed. Places of worship are closed ("voluntarily", of course, to stop the fundie howlers from howling).

But pretty much everything else? Have at it. You can still get restaurant food to go. Shops are mostly open for food and sundries. Hardware stores are open. Feed stores are open. Most automotive mechanics and parts stores are open. You can call or visit a plumber, electrician, HVAC, small appliance, pool etc. specialist & get service. Gas stations are open. You can visit parks. Joggers are out jogging. Dog walkers are walking dogs. Surfers are surfing. Skiers are skiing. Subaru owners are driving badly. Bicyclistotards are doing everything they possibly can to piss off drivers. etc. etc.

The police are not even going to enforce what little "the rules" have to say on the subject. Rather, they are going to take an advisory roll. This has been repeated ad nauseam on the news for the last couple days.

So for the entire Bay Area, speaking as an eyewitness, this entire isolation thing is lip-service at best, and complete fabrication/misdirection at worst. Somebody's playing games, and I'm not sure who ... but I suspect it has something to do with the coming November 3rd.

May you live in interesting times ...

Yes, it can kill people, it's true.

But it's hardly worth the panic that the media has managed to whip up.

Re: Ffs...

Or is that "when manufacturing and product becomes religion"?

cf. Apple.

"causing morons to buy hundreds of loo rolls"

My idiot neighbor has half of a two car garage stacked head-high with bog roll. I just drove by, and he's unloading a 14" Penski rental truck full of more (in the rain). Gawd/ess only knows where he is finding the stuff ... or when he'll finally figure he has enough. No, it's not for sale. I asked to buy a package. He claims he needs it all "just in case".

The same neighbor has no food in the house. The mind absolutely boggles.

Re: Who knew...

Shear brilliance.