Linux Kernel of the Beast 6.6.6 exorcised by angelic 6.6.7 update

The kernel 6.6.6 version number delighted many a black-clad open source fan, but not for long. It's already been replaced with a more neighborly 6.6.7. At the end of October, Linux version 6.6 came out, and just over a couple of weeks later, it became the latest long-term supported release. It's not always the case, but in …

[Uncle Slacky]

Ubuntu Satanic's themes were great

I wish someone would create modern versions of the themes. There were versions for early Gnome/GTK3 if you hunted around a bit, but nothing since. I haven't found any good red/grey (and non-flat!) themes to replace them.

[cornetman]

> neighborly

Looks weird. I'm sure there are some letters missing.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

It certainly doesn't look right (to right-pondians). Alas, El Reg editorial guidlines are these days left-pondian...

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/neighborly

[jake]

Are you suggesting the author made an error? What a horror!

With that said, dropping the u was an allowed transgression on both sides of the pond until Webster tried to make it mandatory here in the US ... at which point, you Brits set back firmly on your heels and collectively said "what was good enough for Daddy ... ". This lead the the great British lexicographer Henry Watson Fowler to remark "The American abolition of -our in such words as honour and favour has probably retarded rather than quickened English progress in the same direction."

[Fruit and Nutcase]

No, the author, I think is right pondian, but his pay cheque[check] is probably contingent upon his articles complyig wih the house style. So, a mistake would have been if he'd used "neighbourly"

[David 132]

Or as I've heard it rather more pithily expressed to me by American friends - "in 1776 we declared Independence and got rid of U"!

[cornetman]

Honestly, for the most part, the dropping of the u on -our doesn't really affect me greatly.

However, this particular instance seems to stand out more profoundly because most other instances don't intuitively cause me to want to pronounce it differently.

It feels like rather than "nay-burr-lee" it would be pronounced "nay-bore-lee" since that it what is implied phonetically.

From my UK perspective, I have obviously seen a lot of American English spelling but this example feels rather odder and out of place than others.

[LionelB]

Borly borly borly

We could knock this silliness on the head overnight by introducing the schwa symbol officially into the written language.

Neighbərly. No, wait, still a bit silly. Naybərly. (Or naybəly if you're of the non-rhotic perswayʒən.)

[Liam Proven]

[Author here]

> El Reg editorial guidlines are these days left-pondian

This is the correct answer.

However, it's the new normal. This is my 3rd role in the last decade to require me to write in US English.

Which, for this now-Irishman, means I just change the spelling a bit in places.

[jake]

Orly?

[LionelB]

Sure, once every hor.

[Dostoevsky]

Ahh, yes... Two nations divided by a common language!

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

I think the word neighborly (sic) was meant in the Ned Flanders sense, perhaps?

[gerryg]

It's all about class

As Nancy Mitford put it "u and non-u"

[C R Mudgeon]

Off-by-one error

6.6.6 should have been the version *with* the bug.

[Anonymous Coward]

WiFi - what ?

I have just persuaded my firm to switch to Ubuntu on some low spec machines that never once had a problem with WiFi under windows. Other issues, yes. But WiFi was rock solid.

4 hours later on Ubuntu 22.04 and it's like 2006 all over again. The WiFi just is not stable.

I don't need a lecture on network manager, or any other internecine linux discussions. I just want it working.

[Joe W]

Re: WiFi - what ?

Ah, yeah, that sucks. A lot.

I usually blame systemd (but that's more like a reflex). The main problem are drivers for the stupid versioned slightly differently than what the kernel expects cheap chip sets, at least that is my take away (anecdotal evidence). And, to be perfectly honest, if it does not run under Ubuntu I'm usually pretty much f'd, as they seem to have the most complete driver selection. My laptops all run Devuan, so... I got lucky (two are so ancient that the drivers are just there).

Oh, what can work is getting a slightly less stable version of the OS (or the most recent kernel), and run that. I also had to compile the WiFi card drivers by hand for a few machines running Ubuntu when they were new, so that might be an option. It was not difficult, just annoying.

Have a pint of mulled wine, enjoy the quiet season, And good luck!

[Paddy B]

667

Fax number of the beast!

[Anonymous Coward]

Fax number of the beast!

@Paddy B: “667 Fax number of the beast!”

--

666 + (1/2)³ - 50 = 217

Octal 50 = decimal 62

6 + 2 = number of bits in a byte

--

Room 217 = that room in The Shining

[Liam Proven]

Re: Fax number of the beast!

[Author here]

Numerology always reminds me of Carol Vorderman on early Countdown doing some arithmetical gymnastics to arrive at the desired answer from a few provided values.

In other words, whatever numbers you want, you can make from any raw digits. There's no significance to it because you can get *from* anything *to* anything in a few steps. The only clever bit is choosing the steps.

Which is of course the way that very senior accountants win corporate gigs. The interview question is "what is 2 + 2?" and the winning answer is "what number did Sir have in mind?"

[jake]

It's all because ...

Friday the 13th fell on a Wednesday this month.

[swm]

Re: It's all because ...

I loved Pogo. No current comic approaches it in greatness.

[cjcox]

Incomplete

666, while co-opted by "the beast" is man's number.

Which in all fairness, makes for even a better reason for Ubuntu to have exploited this.

But I do realize we have a "TV/movie" reading style when it comes to the Bible.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Re: Incomplete

>we have a "TV/movie" reading style when it comes to the Bible.

Well the storyline is a bit children's cartoons

[Graham Dawson]

Re: Incomplete

If you're going to be picky, be correct:

Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man

rev 13:18

It wasn't coopted, but assigned. The beast of revelation is the man so numbered.

[Liam Proven]

Re: Incomplete

[Author here]

So... Greg KH is the great beast, destroyer of bugs?

I've met him. He *is* rather intimidating.

[Liam Proven]

Re: Incomplete

[Author here]

> a "TV/movie" reading style

I did say:

"The omens were there to be seen"

That was a reference...

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075005/

[Benegesserict Cumbersomberbatch]

Revelation needed checksumming

Many of the oldest manuscripts of the Revelation to St John the Shroomier give the number of the beast as 616, not 666. Might explain the wifi problems in 6.1.66 - it was an each-way bet.

[Neil Woolford]

Sulphurous Satan? Bombastic Beelzebub? Dancing Devil?

Continuations to the theme welcome...

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Re: Sulphurous Satan? Bombastic Beelzebub? Dancing Devil?

Bombastic Beelzebub...

Not related to Bombastic Bob

https://forums.theregister.com/user/74793/

Or is he?

[David 132]

Re: Sulphurous Satan? Bombastic Beelzebub? Dancing Devil?

Well that DEPENDS on his COMMUNICATION STYLE and whether he CAPITALIZES random WORDS, surely?

(Pint for BB 'cos I hold no grudge against him)

[AdamK]

Alltogether now...

Air guitars ready..

Six six seven...the neighbour (neighbor, neybur) of the beeeeeast!

Not that in many uk address schemes this will not be an immediate neighbour but two doors away. This is because odd and evens are on the opposite side of the road to assist with postal sorting, so kernel 6.6.8 is really the neighbour but for some reason people don't find that hysterically funny.

[42656e4d203239]

Re: Alltogether now...

>>This is because odd and evens are on the opposite side of the road to assist with postal sorting

Oh no they are not - at least not everywhere.

Ceratinly in the South Wales Valleys the numbers in some(?all I haven't looked at all of them!) streets run up one side and down the other. In East London likewise. In some places numbers seem to have been allocated randomly.... there is at least one new housing estate where, if you don't know which house is where, the numbers actually don't help at all if you apply the usual 'odd/evens' or 'consecutive up one side and down the other' rules.

[LionelB]

Re: Alltogether now...

Piece of cake - my street has three radial "spokes" (one of which is one-way), and also a circular close up a short drive off one of them. I've long given up trying to give directions to my house. "You'll find it... or not" is as good as it gets.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Alltogether now...

Numbers in my Yorkshire cul-de-sac (which is not anything like Bag End) run up one side and down the other. On the main road, they are alternating. I interpret this as uncertainty about how far down the main road development would be continued, compared to the smaller side roads developed in blocks.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Alltogether now...

On my Yorkshire lane 1 to 4 are all in one block on one side of the road and 1A and 1B are some way back on the other. None of the other houses have numbers, they just have names (as do 1A & 1B) except one whose owners have renamed their house to a number on no obvious arithmetic grounds. They could just about achieve it by making a few assumptions like pretending 1A & 1B had individual numbers. It's true that Street View shows that number opposite the house but street view seldom shows numbers that correspond to the door numbers. in this case it shows the same number opposite at least three others and most of the rest of the lane is shown as 1.

[cdrcat]

House numbering oddities

Or why a house in Owls Green, would be numbered 2820 (too-wit too-woo).

http://paulplowman.com/stuff/uk-address-oddities/

[Bebu]

Re: Alltogether now...

In the previous residence the numbers were assigned every 10 metres from the start of the road - evens on one side, odds the other. We had 30 numbers along our frontage but only one letter box :)

Probably one of the sanest approaches. You only get to 500 after 5km.

《The rapture of the black T-shirt brigade》

"Rapture" as the JWs would have it, must be the last thing the black T-shirt brigade could desire.

[Liam Proven]

Re: Alltogether now...

[Author here]

> "Rapture" as the JWs would have it, must be the last thing the black T-shirt brigade could desire.

Yep, that was the joke. ;-)

[nijam]

Re: Alltogether now...

As an archer, I would expect the neighbour to be either 664 or 665 (depending on whether you are using 5 or 10 zone scoring); scores are always written in descending order.

Either way, not a particularly good score.

Just saying.