Posts by keithpeter

Add some synthesis of themes in system development and trends among users as the generations turn over and you could have a nice ebook.

Re: Operator Purée

...eight sided cylinder...

I know exactly what you mean, but...

Re: Going BOFH on a spammer.

And here's me working for an organisation with a £60+ million annual budget and having to provide two referees and wait 3 months for a business account that will supply goods against a purchase order.

They were trusting times indeed...

Re: Advetising is grossly overestimated

More of a mokapot and supermarket ground coffee to start the day myself. Still much cheaper than the chain coffee shops. I always wonder about the badge folk I see on their way into the turnstiles each morning in the centre of the city clutching their £2.25 cups of coffee...

My gmail account acts as a contact address and spam trap for my modest vanity Web site. Friends and family have the real email address and mobile number.

Off topic, as a Brit, I am in need of enlightenment about the following cultural reference from the original article...

"...heading south to a state of madness like a New Jersey retiree"

Is there something special about retired people in New Jersey that I should know about?

Icon: retiree with a new jersey.

Re: Good... now keep going.

"The Toronto-based pension manager put $75 million into FTX's international and US divisions in October 2021 through its venture capital arm, known as Teachers' Venture Growth, and invested $20 million more in FTX.US in January."

https://www.pionline.com/pension-funds/ontario-teachers-marks-down-95-million-investment-ftx-zero

Embolding mine. The pension fund risked 0.05% of its investment capital on this new crypto thing (because BLOCKCHAIN!) via its venture capital arm (aka the ones who do the risky stuff). I'm betting they won't do that again.

Edit: Andy got there first with the s/b/m/illions. These big funds need a mix of risky high return, mediumish and safe low return investments. I suppose that is how startups can exist.

Merry Christmas all.

Re: Mr Broadus Jr.

@Mr McMurtrie

That didn't go badly and I don't know how

I got the impression from over here (UK) that Schwarzenegger listened to feedback, was able to see what worked and what didn't and changed his policies.

Could be wrong, happy to be enlightened.

Re: We all traipse into the office for that critical meeting that HAS to be face-to-face..

Icon: free virtual one to anyone who commutes in or near London.

I was thinking of the intercity trains of that era.

Re: Even at CERN "open" has to mean "gratis"...

The first time round, when Scientific Linux was born, the calculation was simple: RedHat's licence fees for the colossal number of cores in use >> cost of hiring some people to work exclusively on recompiling OS from RedHat's generously provided srpms. I recollect a hilarious powerpoint presentation that had some details of the licence negotiations with RedHat's sales people.

I would not be at all surprised if a similar calculation has been performed leading to the current situation. Fermilab/CERN are basically swapping one clone for another clone, but also purchasing some RHEL licences so RedHat may be getting more revenue than previously.

I understand and appreciate the point you are making: it all has to get paid for somehow.

Somewhere on that time line were Syquest removable hard drives. Mainly a Macintosh thing I believe. Designers toddled about with Photoshop and a pile of work on their Syquests and went from Mac to Mac.

Zipslack (a small Slackware that you copied to a Zip drive) was a learning experience (back on generic Pentium hardware)

Icon: ancient history

@Disgusted

UK perspective: examples of left wing media welcome.

Icon: The Next Step was always, er, consistent in its reporting.

Re: Don't forget mischief

UK schools and colleges use things like this...

https://www.fireprotectiononline.co.uk/fire-alarm-stopper

"The addition of a 96db integral alarm (13020FR) is even more effective"

The idea is that activating the fire alarm system also sets off a very loud local alarm and identifies the idiot or hero.

Not much use in a residence hall (idiot scarpers) but did work well in daytime buildings (lots of eyeballs).

Re: I, for one...

@Shades and all

"...I much more quickly realise the human race is utterly doomed"

Well yes, human life on this planet will eventually die out. And the planet will be consumed when the Sun becomes a red giant at some point in the future. As a species we are not well adjusted to deep time perspectives.

Most people are fairly normal really most of the time. I think we tend, as a species, to interface better in small groups with face to face communication. I imagine those coming up now will work this one out and soshial meeejia will fall out of favour to some extent or become more limited in its use.

The whole Cal Newport thing really.

Icon: I'm from before the Web times

Re: I'm sure a certain somebody

Other suggestions have included; the redistribution of mass caused by glaciers melting and the changes in polar ice coverage; the 2011 Japan earthquake shifting the polar axis (I suppose changing the moment of inertia); an unusually large excursion in the Chandler wobble.

I like your hypothesis: what happens when the dense mass gets really hot... sci fi story time.

Icon: Born in-between B1950.0 and J2000.0 but much nearer the former.

Re: This tweet hasn't aged well

Never a truer word &c

Seriously, if (and it is a big if, a huuuuge if) it is the case that Twitter was overstaffed by a large factor, then releasing the talent to find more directly productive work in other companies will increase the general productivity.

Icon: for those widening their experience and getting involved in companies that make things

Re: Waah

The brummie brief who does the constitutional law stuff?

Re: Best of British

No, both are employed as members of Parliament. Along with Matthew Hancock.

Re: Zero-sum competitive editing

"[...] and see that someone is wrong, they respond in much more detail"

Works with teenagers as well IRL and online. Never fails.

Icon: Mostly retired teacher

PS: For actual notes I use nano and rsync myself but there we are.

Re: Tonight's Headline

"pretty much all the newspapers also reported the same thing"

In my (very limited) experience with journalists those reports can probably be traced back to a statement by a single 'spokesperson'.

Taking a wider view I like to keep in mind the reason there are missiles and anti-missile missiles flying around at one or two mach in Europe. Namely the invasion of a small country by a much larger one despite existing agreements and treaties.

Re: Failed as a manager

"He deserved to lose that contract."

Agreed.

But isn't 350 laptops a rather small order in the grand scheme of things?

(Quality of response should not depend on size of customer really should it either)

Icon: I became grey before my time after involvement with IT purchasing for a smallish organisation.

Re: 8-{ Wot, no migration planning?

On one occasion in a four decade career my then employer had a problem with payroll. They warned us that wages would be a week late, and offered to pay interest on emergency overdrafts to cover mortgage payments and all.

Best of luck

Edit: just seen the clarification about postgrads being paid through procurement and not through payroll. Must have misread the original article.

Re: Math problems

I think the education market is seen as valuable to Google/Alphabet.

Icon: I'm fine with Slackware on an old thinkpad at present but I could imagine wanting a nice bright HD screen and a useable keyboard when fully retired.

Re: Features

"Add a few packages and it's a complete workstation."

Depending on what software you want as part of a graphical workstation, the 'few packages' will pull in a significant number of dependencies. So expect a few gigs of stuff if installing a Web browser, a DE such as xfce and LibreOffice / Lyx / Audacity / GIMP / the usual suspects.

And *always* read the pkg-readmes after installing big applications

/usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/

Having said this, I've found OpenBSD to be a viable alternative should my preferred Slackware become unmaintained in the future (probably unlikely)

Icon: for all *BSD teams

Re: The National Health Service

Well, put that idea in an election manifesto and see what happens.

Icon: I can remember fund-holding GP practices (shudder)

"Make sure the outcome of that role can be measured and quantified."

I think that might be the tricky bit for some kinds of job.

Re: And thus the free software ecosystem is revealed.

Works out to $4.46 per month (ignoring present value of earlier donations, inflation &c). So basically a fancy coffee every two weeks.

I've not been doing this for 14 years, but a couple of years ago I set up a patreon subscription payment to the Slackware project for an amount in roughly the same ball park. Set and forget. I don't notice it.

Sort of like BT used to rent you a phone handset. You realised the thing had cost you thousands over the years but it didn't seem like it at the time.

Icon: virtual pint for all who donate or buy tat to support something they value.

Re: I feel sorry for

I appreciate the nostalgia but then I reflect on the increased quality of life of security van drivers, bank tellers and night watchmen.

Icon: Z cars. First time I heard the local accent on telly.

Re: Real breadboard builds

He'll save them up and build a Beverage aerial (US: antenna)

Icon: old enough to remember trawler band

Re: Prime numbered circuits?

So each 'circuit' is a specific territory within which a group of appeals judges preside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Court_of_Appeals_for_the_Fifth_Circuit

And as another post mentions, it is possible to some extent to 'shop around' for appeal decisions from lower courts. I get the idea. With 17 judges available in various combinations it sounds like a bit of a dice roll though.

Thanks for trouble taken.

Re: Yes

Thanks for replying with something more specific than the original post. To summarise...

a) Importing csv files into the database component is complex

b) The version of Java required by the database component is not well documented

c) You don't like the user interface

A quick search on import csv gave me this...

https://dominoc925.blogspot.com/2013/05/import-csv-file-into-libreoffice-base.html

which does not seem to involve authoring macros. I'm guessing that your files were far more complex than the example in the blog post above.

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/HowTo/Install_the_correct_JRE_-_LibreOffice_on_Windows_10#Examples_under_Windows

The java version wiki page does look a bit vague, no clear listing of a JRE minimum version for each version of LO which is what I was expecting.

I had a a look at the release notes for the Base component of LO from 7.4 back to 6.0. I think the Base component is not getting a lot of attention compared to the other applications, so if desktop style database functionality is really important, you are probably better off with MS Office.

Response to the UI depends on the kind of work people do so generalising is hard. I personally don't get on with the ribbon style interface that recent versions of MS Office use so I prefer the LO interface.

I don't use desktop application style databases myself, so I have learned a bit, thanks.

Re: Clueless users

"(They never did.)"

They never do.

I have never (5 decades) owned a television set. I have only recently (last decade) paid a licence fee because I discovered that, without any parliamentary debate whatsoever, there had been an order in council to regard a 'broadband connected computer' as television receiving apparatus.

Icon: waves palsied fist at heavens