Well at least I'm secure
No mention of anything amiss in CTAN
Posts by Paul Johnston
363 posts • joined 13 Apr 2007
About half of Python libraries in PyPI may have security issues, boffins say
The coming of Wi-Fi 6 does not mean it's time to ditch your cabled LAN. Here's why
Thursday 15th July 2021 18:53 GMT 
WiFi it's the future honest!
New plan at work, wired out, wireless in.
So see which wired sockets have not been used for a year and then disable them.
Then reduce the switch capacity to cope with the reduced demand.
Oh yes we have been on lockdown, and peoples sockets will not have been on for a year if they turned their kit off before they evacuated the buildings, but it will save us money honest.
This one could be fun when people return to work.
Western Approaches Museum: WRENs, wargames, and victory in the Atlantic
Tuesday 13th July 2021 08:07 GMT 
Well worth a visit
Interested people may want to read "A Game of Birds and Wolves" by Simon Parkin to get a fuller picture.
As an aside I playfully complained whilst there that they were offering discount to present and ex members of the armed forces but not present and ex merchant navy people.
They said they would look into it, so if you are serving or former MN suggest you bring your discharge book. (let the jokes commence)
How hot is it right now? 'Water park catching fire and burning down' hot
Up to £80m on the table in University of Nottingham's search for service provider to lace together IT support
We don't know why it's there, we don't know what it does – all we know is that the button makes everything OK again
Computer security world in mourning over death of Dan Kaminsky, aged 42
Canonical releases Ubuntu on Windows Preview with early builds, new tools for the brave
Staff and students at Victoria University of Wellington learn the most important lesson of all: Keep your files backed up
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's just a very unhappy Windows installation
Tata Consultancy Services wins £4m deal to carry out Oracle 'reimplementation' for University of Manchester
Lay down your souls to the gods of rock 'n' roll: Conspiracy theorists' 5G 'vaccine' chip schematic is actually for a guitar pedal
Tuesday 5th January 2021 19:47 GMT
Re: Ha ha ha.... but it's not funny
Please correct me if I am wrong but unless the vaccine gives sterilizing immunity people will still be able to be infected by the virus if they have been vaccinated. They themselves may not go on to develop serious health issues but will be able to pass it on. I was under the impression that the testing of the vaccine only shows people who get it are less liable to fall seriously ill but does not show they cannot pass it on.
CentOS project changes focus, no more rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux – you'll have to flow with the Stream
FOSS developer survey: Mostly male, employed... and many don't care about 'soul-withering chore' of security
All it took was a global pandemic confining millions to their homes to remind businesses how much they appreciate the IT crowd
'I'm telling you, I haven't got an iPad!' – Sent from my iPad
Friday 31st July 2020 08:55 GMT
How to spot a lie
A couple of decades ago I had just started a job at Uni, running all the Unix stuff, workstations DNS server, NIS NFS, Mail,the whole shebang!
I was invited to go to the pub on Friday night early on and one night late on the tales of who did what to whom and who got caught started! As the newbie I just sat and listened.
First thing Monday morning I got a mail from the head of school, who wasn't one of the drinkers to the effect I shouldn't spread rumours and that doing so might end up bad for me at this time I was still under probation. Never one to sit and consider the options I went straight to his office and pointed out I wasn't the one saying anything as I had only been there a few weeks and all this stuff predated me so he should look to others as the issue.
Typical senior prof, ummed and ahed and said he wasn't picking on me and had actually sent it to all staff involved.
Nipping back to the office looking at the mail server I saw (without looking at anyone's mail I hasten to add) the modification stamp on my mailbox file was when the prof had sent the mail to me and no one else in the pub gang had been modified at the same time. (I always got in early Monday just to check before start of play).
Later spoke to people and they said no they hadn't received a mail about conduct off premises outside work hours about stuff which it was nothing to do with the boss!
Welcome to academia!
Venerable text editor GNU Nano reaches version 5.0 and adds the modern frippery that is scrollbars
UK's Co-operative Group to centralise IT teams across various divisions, warns redundancies 'inevitable'
Drupal drops first big upgrade in five years and looks forward by looking backwards
When one open-source package riddled with vulns pulls in dozens of others, what's a dev to do?
Monday 29th June 2020 08:51 GMT 
What can you expect?
"The second step, however, isn't to triage across the org, but rather to start fixing issues. Teams who overspend energy triaging at the expense of fixing end up incurring greater risk.
When a very large proportion of the team are "managers" whose sole job it to push bits of paper around and try to look busy where is the incentive to actually fix something?
Here's a headline we never thought we'd write 20 years ago: Microsoft readies antivirus for Linux, Android
Microsoft emits a colourful Windows Terminal preview
UK spending watchdog blasts £792m STEM school scheme over low student numbers, deficits, education quality
Wednesday 10th June 2020 12:20 GMT
It's later than that
Not sure how typical Hull was but on leaving Junior School in 1975 there were three options excluding the fee paying "College". The comprehensives, the nautical school, (okay niche I know but it was Hull) and the technical school. I've tried to google it, sure it was called Reilly. Thought the whole point of having specialist academies was to allow this sort of focus. The school my daughter went to was supposed to be specialised in Business and the Performing Arts but was just a factory to get kids out with grades that kept OFSTED off their backs.
Briny liquid may be more common on Mars than once thought, unlikely to support life as we know it
Monday 11th May 2020 20:20 GMT 
Life is more tenacious than you would expect
There are very few places on earth where life hasn't arrived.
Selection happens when there is pressure to survive so there is no reason why anything on earth would evolve to live in an environment which doesn't exist on earth.
Without looking into Scientific papers you can get an idea at
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2013/08/02/5-extreme-life-forms-that-live-on-the-edge/
We will give them 212° Fahrenheit (1000° Celsius) is an unfortunate typo
Icon in homage to D. radiodurans
As coronavirus catches tech CEOs with their pants down, IBM's Ginni Rometty warns of IT's new role post-pandemic
Thursday 7th May 2020 19:27 GMT
Here is my guess
>>I'm going to modernise applications that my IT [department] perhaps weren't modern enough to change fast enough for me'.
So they will ask all the IT senior managers who will say "Oh not our fault look at our ancient staff, they are not agile enough".
Redundancies hit at the lower technical levels as we don't need them, only people who can manage a "Digital Transformation" will remain.
It all goes pear shaped. Senior IT management move on to their next positions and organisations are left with partially working systems (if they are lucky) and no one who can sort it.
As I say just a guess.
Move fast and break stuff, Windows Terminal style: Final update before release will nix your carefully crafted settings
Python 2 bows out after epic transition. And there was much applause because you've all moved to version 3, right? Uh, right?
In case you need more proof the world's gone mad: Behold, Apple's $699 Mac Pro wheels
Linux fans thrown a bone in one Windows 10 build while Peppa Pig may fly if another is ready in time for this year
Friday 10th April 2020 18:41 GMT 
WSL1 versus WSL2
Anyone seriously had a look at WSL 2 recently.
I've been looking to see if it can replace having dual boot machines with Ubuntu 18_04 LTS and Win 10.
We have to run OpenFoam and it requires the sort of grunt Virtual Box is going to have issues with.
Also supporting Linux for people who have never heard of it but who need to use it for their PhDs is to say the least not fun.
So I have it installed and some simple benchmarks for simple file operations suggest WSL 2 is noticeably slower than WSL 1.
