Posts by Doctor Syntax

Re: For private individuals, 1 TB USB Drives

Or just store USB drives in each others houses.

Re: In other news...

Just to clarify - it's the first wide public release of Knoppix to abandon systemd.

Re: I must be an edge case

"I know you didn't write it"

He sees that as a problem. The rest of us...

Re: Devuan?

"OpenBSD, MacOS - there are lots of perfectly fine distros"

Those are not Linux. They're Unix variants. Linux used to be a Unix-like OS.

Re: Linux is dead

Jake, did you read that link I posted to the Debian mailing list. The gist was that it was getting difficult to maintain sysvinit because of all the systemd dependencies creeping into upstream userland stuff. That makes me worry about the maintainability of Slackware as well because surely they must be either keeping to old versions of userland or chasing the same issues.

"I've long wondered why this metric is a big deal for people."

It's a big metric if you're trying to push something that allegedly reduces it.

"And besides, your Great Aunt Martha has never installed an OS of any description"

How do you know, you've never met my great aunt Martha?

Re: Good encapsulation, Dr S

As more and more of userland gets pottered about with upstream in order to make it work with the vampire squid it might be more difficult to maintain such distros without forking more and more of them.

Re: Linux is dead

"not fully understood by anyone except him"

I think you're being too generous.

"Oh FFS seriously, the risk of snarfing decrypt key from memory from a suspended laptop, really?"

If it's a risk just shut down instead of suspending. Not even possible to insult it as a first world problem.

I do. So does SWMBO. What do you expect us to use? Windows?

"the issue is that this really gives no real comprehension of process state"

Exactly. Because it's all hidden in the great morass of systemd.

Anyone with the basic shell skills needed to administer a Unix-like system can develop the script st the terminal before deploying it.

And your belief about searching the log database or logging to a remote server doesn't get you very far in trying to sort out a non-booting box without being able to make sense of whatever logs it managed to write. Even the remote logging depends on the box being able to get itself as far as being onlne.

"suited certain other peoples political and financial agendas."

Once it got shoe-horned into Debian we were left with the situation that the only major systemd-free server distro was Red Hat 6. Hmmm.

"replace the very much legacy sysvinit."

Presumably to allow sysadmins with no shell skills to administer systems. That's called "solving the wrong problem".

I use Linux on a laptop and I still don't want systemd.

Re: If you really want that this system can come up on its own, don't use this stuff.

"I use devuan for a reason."

Me too but I'm getting worried as to how long it will be able to survive as this garbage gets further and further into the upstream. I came across this https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2019/09/msg00001.html from the current Debian project leader. Scroll down to "Init System Diversity". It's not very cheering.

Re: re: Once desktop processing power became sufficient to crack the encryption

"a paltry 20mb"

Back when.... No, that way we get to the four Yorkshiremen sketch.

Let's just say that punched cards are limited only by the amount you can carry.

Re: re: Once desktop processing power became sufficient to crack the encryption

If lecturers couldn't be arsed to remember their own passwords I shudder to think what their security courses might have been like.

Perhaps you need to pay attention. It's likely to be shoehorned in within the next couple of years or so. Maybe sooner than that, who cares if it's too buggy for release? It's probably intended to introduce enough dependencies into regular prorams to make the likes of Devuan and Slackware finally impossible. It's going to be BSD or nothing.

Re: The problem is there's no defined standard, so it's roll-your-own (again)

I do that as a matter of course. Emails are received by an email client, stored and deleted from the server. Old school.

Re: Amazing technology

"Worried about spam? Then sign up using an email address that you only use for receipts."

And watch it collect more and more spam. The real way to do this is to set up a number of addresses before you go shopping. Hand the next one out to each shop. Get the receipt. Kill the address. In practical terms I already have more addresses than I'd like to have just for the firms I regularly do business with.

"everything held online and accessed via a secure website"

Is that externally accessible? If so how secure?

Will you have access to it after you leave and HMRC/IRS/whoever challenge you about something?

"I'm trying to remember the last time I actually needed a receipt and I'm coming up blank."

Look on it as a backup. You want to never have to use it but if you do have to you're in trouble if you don't have it.

Re: Emailed receipts build up the same plethora of personal data that loyalty store cards collect.

Quite possible to deliver e-receipts anonymously if you the issuer wanted to.

FTFY

But otherwise, agreed.

Re: The problem is there's no defined standard, so it's roll-your-own (again)

In order to not be challenged it would need to be digitally signed otherwise you could be accused of editing it. You would also need to be able to verify the signature. You would need all that before you leave the counter. It's hardly a speedy way to achieve throughput at the store.

Or there's just no signal.

Re: cheapo wired phone

"except on days like today"

Does anyone know of micro-hydroelectic generators to fit onto downpipes?

"everyone has a cheap wired phone handy at home in case of a power cut..."

Of course. It was the one that was there before we get the DECT. Not the DECT we have now, the long deceased one before that. It still works. In fact it rings before the DECT.

Re: Solved problem

All the way back in 2003...

"There is a danger in this that once this precedent has been set, that it will be cited for some other prorogation in future"

The judgement said it was a one-off. I think this translates as "nobody's been daft enough to try on this before and we don't think anyone will be daft enough in the future". I hope they're right.

Re: Surprising?

"Hopefully the EU will see sense and either give a deal that actually works (I dont see how)"

I don't see how a deal can actually work either. Not unless HMG actually intends to repudiate the Good Friday Agreement and that in turn would be a peculiar interpretation of "work".

Re: As the saying goes you get the government you deserve

If so the government's been repatriating them so they should all be able to turn up tomorrow.

Re: Regardless of which side of the fence you are on.

Anyone remember why Privy Council members are to be addressed as "Right Honourable"?

That was covered right at the start of Yes Minister. It's called getting rid of the difficult bit in the title.

Re: Regardless of which side of the fence you are on.

"Is this wrong ?"

Arguably yes, given that the referendum was by statute advisory.

Stupid certainly, rooted in the belief that the result would be Remain.

Re: Regardless of which side of the fence you are on.

Sadly I'm not sure that they are so aware. That's the problem.

Re: Regardless of which side of the fence you are on.

Upvoted for the "Not really"

But the Supreme Court is just the original Law Lords under a new name and with new premises. It's just a consequence of Blair thinking we should have something called a "Supreme Court". The whole HoL didn't hear cases, just the Law Lords and the members of the Supreme Court are just the latest holders of those posts.

It's rulings may be "unprecedented" unless they find an existing precedent to follow but that's the norm for courts dealing with appeals.