Posts by jake 26713 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007
Not only will you always be able to use older kernels, some of them are kept updated as needed. For example, LTS kernel 4.4 (released in very early 2016) will be maintained until at least 2026, and probably until 2036 ... and possibly beyond, if there is a need. There are other niche kernels that get backports for security issues and the like, and the folks who need them know where to look.
"American religious observance rates are still higher than the UK, but have declined severely in the last 40 years"
I dunno about that ... virtually everyone I know in the UK will claim to be CofE if asked (with a few scattered among the other major religions of the world). The numbers of self-declared xtians in the US has been dropping since the 1950s. Last time I checked, over 25% of Americans claim no religious affiliation at all.
Note that I know many people who would claim "christian affiliation" if asked, but who have no actual affiliation with any church, have never actually attended a service in adult-hood, and probably haven't had a thought on the subject in years, if not decades. If you take these people into account, I rather suspect the actual numbers here in the US are well above 50% not affiliated with any religion. And rising.
"I suspect you probably just had the misfortune of dealing with a hyper-religious pedant."
Exactly. Worse, said HRP was taking advantage of the fact that he had a captive Brit at his disposal to preach at, knowing that the Brit probably didn't know it was against most social rules in the US, and definitely against the rules in most workplaces, and thus wouldn't say anything to management.
In essence, the bible-thumper was bullying the defenseless Brit. Bless.
And like all bullies, he almost certainly didn't have the cajones to try the same with his Yank workmates, who would know how and when to stand up for themselves.
Perhaps the AC would change his tune a trifle if he knew that the British officially depreciated the long billion in 1974, and now officially use the short billion. Which they got from the French, not the Yanks.
You seem to have run out of apostrophes. Here's a double handful to see you through ''''''''''.
What insult? I see no insult.
I see something that might be perceived as an insult by someone not in on the joke ... but I assure you there was no insult. And I'm pretty sure the OP didn't take it as one. Unless he hit on an amazing coincidence of a handle ... Which is plausible, but highly unlikely.
Even Scientific American, back in the day, allowed spellings according to the Author's background. And even mixed & matched, in the case where one author was quoting another. (See Martin Gardner's columns on Conway's Game of Life, for example ... if you can find reprints that haven't been "helpfully" edited, that is).
Regardless of my somewhat irreverent amusement elsewhere in this thread, it may surprise some that I agree with the above post.
Well, most of the post ... Kate Fox's observation "The English are not usually given to patriotic boasting – indeed, both patriotism and boasting are regarded as unseemly, so the combination of these two sins is doubly distasteful. But there is one significant exception to this rule, and that is the patriotic pride we take in our sense of humour, particularly in our expert use of irony." is clearly bullshit.
Or perhaps she didn't notice the major kerfuffle caused by The Sex Pistols when they were top of the charts during the Queen's Silver Jubilee, as the entire nation lost its tiny collective mind in celebration ... There are other, somewhat less egregious examples.
... inherently plural , as it is short for "Mathematics". Presumably you say "Mathematicses"?
Kind of like RPM is the plural (the S is implied from "revolutions"). If you insist on saying "RPMs", I'll need to know how many minutes you are intending to measure those revolutions.
"ize" is the original, from the ancient Greek. You Brits partially changed over to the French "ise" awhile back. Kinda like you did when going metric.
So once again, you're speaking/spleling in French, not your vaunted English.
The Big Dic says that both -ise and -ize are correct in British English.
As a Left Coastian Yank, I have never heard of anybody having issues with any of those phrases.
However, willfully, intentionally and even stubbornly illiterate people exist in every society. Usually they are spread out among the general population, where they can't cause much trouble ... but I'm sure (nearly) all the readers of this august rag can name a few States where they seem to have concentrated for varying reasons. Were you, perchance, in one of those states?
And yes, "it was OK" tends to be a backhanded compliment around here.
As a Yank who spent many years in the British isles, I suspect your problem is that you just plain aren't as funny as you think you are. Cross-pond humo(u)r can be difficult to translate for the GreatUnwashed, but it's not impossible. And once explained (regardless of direction), it keeps its humo(u)r. Except many of the Brits refuse to have anything to do with the crossing from the West "because it's Yank".
There is a word for that ...
(AKA "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise")
I have a spelling checker,
It came with my PC.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.
Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.
A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when eye rime.
Each frays come posed up on my screen
Eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.
Bee fore a veiling checker's
Hour spelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.
Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flare,
Their are know fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a wear.
Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.
To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should bee proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.
Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting want too pleas.
-Mark Eckman and Jerrold H. Zar, early 1990s
"never existed."
Certainly existed.
I am looking at half a dozen 9V transistor radios, all from different manufacturers, vintage late '50s to mid '70s. All of them have just an on/off+volume knob and a tuner dial for the AM band. They also all have both a built-in speaker and an earphone jack. Plugging in the earphone turns off the speaker. They all still work quite nicely.
I listen to baseball games on a late '30s Philco tube (valve) radio when I'm up at my place in Fort Bragg. It's kinda nice, because it's the same radio that my grandfather introduced me to the SF Giants on when I were a nipper. Big, Art Deco "Cathedral" floor-standing bit of walnut furniture, 85 or 90 lbs worth. With two controls ... on/off-volume and AM tuning.
That jar is called a Mason Jar ... they are used for home canning. The two piece lid consists of the "lid" and the "ring". The jar and the ring are re-usable, the lid is replaced every time you re-use the jar to preserve food.
A company called Trash Amps used to sell the guts and speaker as kits, you supply the jar (will work with any standard wide-mouth canning jar). I got mine as a birthday gift from my Daughter about ten years ago. As you can imagine, the sound isn't exactly fit as a reference source, but it's more than adequate for practice. I swapped out the standard AAA batteries for rechargeables, and added a recharging jack in the lid.
A quick glance at DDG suggests that they no longer sell the one I have, they've downgraded it to use BlueTooth, and now it has a big, ugly switch sticking out the top. If you want one of these things, I suggest you find an original[0] (maybe on fleabay?). Easily worth $25 or so, just for the novelty value. Recommended.
[0] Or make your own ... it's just a simple high-gain amp, a two inch speaker, a jack, battery holder, and some wire.
The small community where my parents grew up has one of the last party line telephone systems in the United States. We decommissioned it "officially" in 1972. After disconnection, $TELCO left us the obsolete equipment to dispose of as we saw fit.
Unofficially, it still works between two dozenish homes, mostly family members. It is possible to call me there by dialing one of two numbers we maintain specifically for the purpose, and then having the operator (or a computer, on the second line) patch from $TELCO to our party line[0] and then ring the requested number.
In the other direction, four short rings automatically patches you to an outside line, normally used for emergencies only these days (thus the computer controlled line ... the human operator is an elderly cousin). Then you rattle the hook to tell the computer what number to dial. Yes, it's slow to dial out ... but it has saved lives on at least two occasions; cell phones don't work well or at all in this part of the Mendocino County back woods.
Mostly it's used for birthdays, anniversaries and other family stuff like that. My "number" (inherited from my Grandfather) is two shorts & two longs.
[0] Don't panic ... it's legal, I built a couple of optically isolated circuits specifically for the purpose.
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