Posts by CrazyOldCatMan

Re: Congratulations

I don't think the [insert name of navy] got that memo

And even that bastion of tradition known as the Royal Navy does it - quite a few ships captured from the French during the Napoleonic wars got renamed when brought into service. I don't think the tradition counts when applied to a vessel bought/stolen from another navy..

Re: Updates

carnal desire

I'm not sure how the desire for sex ties in with Java version numbering..

Re: Are any of them any good?

Zen was decent when I was living in the UK.

And still are - I'm with them and about to get regraded to G.Fast. Each time I've talked to them the person appears to have a clue.

Re: Wales

Independence Of The Kingdom Of Northumbria

Or, when Scotland devolves, you could always petition to rejoin them on the basis that Scotland ruled large parts of Northumbria at one point.

Re: Wales

United Kingdom of Norf and Sarf England

Followed by the breakaway of the Danelaw[1] on the basis that they are distinct from "those soft Southern jessies".

(The problem with indywales is that Wales has very little status in law - unlike Scotland[2] and NI. It would take some interesting legal gymnastics to redefine it as a country and not as a series of council areas to the west of England.. But if they can do it, I'm sure that the Cornish[3] wouldn't be far behind)

[1] Yes, I'm aware that, at one point, it nearly extended down to London on an oblique from north-west to south-east.

[2] A formerly-independent country with several walls between them and us.

[3] Kernow bys vikken!

Re: Can't help but be reminded the Soviet Science sucess of increase wheat yields.

But Lysenko himself wasn't being stupid

Especially as epigenetics has revealed that not all of Lysenkos ideas about genetics are false..

Re: Umm..

hopeless, dishonest and lacks any sort of interpersonal skills

I'm not convinced that the latter is necessarily a problem - plenty of people have succeeded in high office with that flaw (eg: Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, Maggie T.). And I'm not sure she's consciously a liar either.

What I do think is that she's far, far out of her depth (it could be argued that Home Secretay was beyond her capability, let alone PM). She became PM because she was the one that the Tory MPs disliked the least and because the clever candidates realised what a crapshoot being PM would be in a Brexit world.

Sort of like a real-life Jim Hacker.

Re: We have surely reached peak beard.

As the skin produces the relevant oils to protect itself

I wish I could upvote you more than once.

Of course, a similar arguement can be applied to the various lotions and potions that people slather on themselves to 'moisturise'[1] but t'wife and I have agreed not to discuss that any more..

[1] Normal skin produces sufficient oils to keep itself moisturised but people insist on washing it off at every available opportunity. And then slather on artificial oils[2] which leads to the oil producing less oils.. it's a vicous circle.

[2] Why the hell do they think plant oils benefit the skin? Most of them are pretty toxic..

Re: We have surely reached peak beard.

I use my beard to hide my collection of chins.

Have a heart attack - it's an effective method of weight loss.. (down from 87kg 6 months ago to 77kg now. Which *might* be attributed to no longer drinking 5+ bottles of red wine a week..)

Re: Wow

Had mine now for 9 years, wife reckons I'd look odd without it

I think I've only had a clean-shaven look for about 6 months of my > 30 years of marriage. I suspect my wife wouldn't recognise me without a beard..

Maintenance is simple - hair clippers with a 5mm guard, do hair a beard at the same time. Simple, easy, effective and cheap.

Re: We have surely reached peak beard.

I run Linux: I think that probably scuppers your argument

Likewise. Cool kid I ain't and never have been..

(Linux since the mid-90's. Most of my server VMs are Linux or FreeBSD. End-user devices are Macs..)

Re: We have surely reached peak beard.

hun

Prefer Vandal or Visigoth..

Re: We have surely reached peak beard.

Some of us had beards *before* they were trendy. Not so much the desire to have a beard, more the desire to not have to shave.

Beard oil? That's what happens if you don't wash your beard!

Re: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

because it'd all be Harleys

Real motorbikes are also available other than those semi-evolved agricultural machines..

Re: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

I've recalled 'Fergal Sharkey'

He was pretty good with The Undertones. Not so good on his own (although he made *lots* more money - which wasn't difficult since the Undertones didn't make any..)

Re: Why anti-conformists always end up looking the same

And for similar reasons my phone ringtone is an abscure[1] prog song - on the basis that I *know* it's my phone[2] ringing since no-one else would use that song..

[1] Rumble Fish Twist by the Flower Kings. Seems almost expressly designed to be a ringtone.. It only gets confusing when the car playlist hits that song and I think it's my phone ringing.

[2] Or my wifes' phone - she's asked me to set her ringtone for similar reasons.

Re: Isn't it reassuring to know

why the hell we didn't export a battalion of Sir Humphreys to Brussels 30 years ago?

Because the French and German Civil Servants have their own ways of making sure that Stuff Doesn't Happen.

Chacun a son gout and all that.

Re: "No need for you to get involved in any specifics, chaps"

No, it's very long term SOP

Ever since the Civil Service took over running the Government - in about 1850..

Re: Hold on a minute!

word with the minister concerned about his staff's attitude

And said minister would be able to do the square root of naff all about it - unless said UnCivil Serpent actually broke the rules.

Re: Bring back the crossbow...

*Comical cat gag noises*

Not so comical at 3am and coming from under the bed..

(yes, yes, my own fault for rescuing so many cats! But we only have 7!)

Re: Don't pity us

..and was reportedly Maggie Thatchers' favourite programme..

(Unlike Spitting Image)

Yes Minister is (apart from the sometimes loose plots) a masterpiece of British comedy and should be required watching for anyone in the Civil Service.

Actually, on second thoughts I'd change that to "banned from watching by the Civil Service" on the grounds that it would give advanced training..

Re: Errare humanum est

make those same errors thousands of times faster

And blame something else. Win/Win, trebles and knighthoods all round!

Cynicism?

It's what inexperienced people call what we would call realism..

Re: Because skiing or snowboarding aren't dangerous enough already?

totally agree for riding a bike etc

Depends on the type of motorbike (and whether it has a fairing or not). I guarentee you that, on an unfaired bike and doing more than 50mph, you won't hear other vehicles around you anyway because of the wind noise round your helmet. And a lot of bikers tend to wear earplugs anyway - especially if on long rides (to stop long-term hearing loss from the wind noise).

And it beats hearing the sound of your own voice singing to you in order to stave off boredom..

Re: It's interesting...

Even for embedded systems, there are microcode and drivers

As in all things, added complexity == added risks.And it's not always a 1:1 ratio either.

Re: It's interesting...

as long as you understand its limitations

My wife now has a default setting - to ask me if something is OK whenever she sees something she doesn't expect on the computer/smartphone..

(and before anyone says it - I'm not dissing her skills - she was a systems programmer in the mainframe days and is now a web monkey. It's just that her skills are different from mine and she lacks my carefully-honed paranoia. So I let her borrow mine :-) She's happy, I'm happy and the computer doesn't get infected. And, when I buy us new smartphones [on the basis that the old ones won't get any more updates or custom ROMS] I got get a minimum amount of whinging and she *hates* spending money..)

Re: I am always disappointed in modern computing

fitted child proof lids to plastic tubs of washing powder

My arthritis medication has child-proof lids - the end result is that I can't remove the lids and my wife has to do it..

Law of Unintended Consequences #23.

Re: Let's extend this a bit further..

things are rushed to market with the bare minimum of CYA testing

AKA "Agile"..

Re: At a former company

heaved a pavement tile through a ground floor window and had made off with half a dozen lappies that hadn't been locked down

One place I worked we got ram-raided - the thieves got away with about 50 computers. The joke on them was that they were all PS/2 50z machines (286 running at 12Mhz?) that were in that room as a waystation to going for disposal..

This was in the late 90's and they had all been swapped out for spiffy 386 and 486 machines. None of which got stolen.

Re: VHS Tape Case as a Measurement Unit?

starting handles

One of our cars still has one of those.

Mind you, it's at the back of the garage somewhere so, if we actually needed to use it, it would be quicker and easier to buy another one but it still possesses the potential..

(And when we actually needed to use it for a couple of days until we could get the electrics repaired I developed the technique of using it without breaking my wrists of destroying my lower leg - basically using the same technique as a motorbike kickstart[1]. That was more than 22 years ago though..)

[1] Another thing the yoof of today[2] don't have experience of unless they are into old bikes or specialist bikes..

[2] Anyone under about 35.

Re: I've destroyed millions!

I'd be there protecting the kit from any possible harm

We used to have a guy working here that was pretty good except for one major flaw - if something was breakable (in either hardware or software) he *would* break it. He never did it deliberately and his usage pattern was similar to mine but his stuff would always break and mine never would..