Posts by Doctor Syntax 42414 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
"luxuries that would have been prohibitively expensive in the 1970s, like color and sound."
Of course it had colour: green! I can't remember whether it had a beep but it probably did.
I once saw a number of the later models on sale at Henry's in Edgeware Road. Maybe I should have bought one but getting it home might have been a bit of a problem.
The real mistake of the early PET was the keyboard. Why - just why?
As a member of a local history group we have the other side of this problem. We are occasionally given collections of documents but have no premises in which to store them. What to do? I'm gradually moving them towards a hosted NextCloud instance to make them accessible to members but that only lasts as long as there are funds to pay for hosting and it still doesn't help house the originals. Archives are not necessarily interested in them.
"unfortunately they didn't have any clear loan agreements with conditions for returning the items."
This is critical. Loaning an item is safer than donating it in the event that the museum may close - and even publicly-owned museums, or those set up as trusts can run into hard times and be closed. But it needs firm documentation.
The better response would be along the lines of "He has reported $Cases. We originally stated that he had committed these offences. That statement was a mistake on our part and is hereby retracted."
The harm lies in the original statement. Setting that right is important. Issuing a correct version on its own does no do that, neither does ducking the subject entirely.
Given that it seems likely to have been a generic error fixing it one case at a time isn't going to help.
I think it's now digested the story that it was telling porkies. According to one version I heard of it was reporting him as being the victim of incorrect reporting. That doesn't, of course, signify that it in any way understands what reporting means, let alone incorrect. Understanding is not a function of the system.
The Unix shell was conceived as a means of separating the low-level OS user interface from the kernel. As the only option at the time was a character-based interface using teletypes it was implemented as commands issued as lines of text, hence a command line.
Because os the layered nature of Unix it was possible to replace one shell with another so although you might be thinking of the Bourne shell or, possibly more likely, bash there were many others, ksh and csh being a couple I've used. Although, as you say, they have become programmable (and also implement some commands as built-ins) the essence has always been invoking other programs and providing parameters to them. If one wanted to be unkind (which I wouldn't) it would even be possible to describe that programmability as bloat.
With the arrival of GUIs we new have GUI-based shells. But if it's a text based shell interpreting lines of text as commands, then it's a command-line shell. What else could it be?
For the average Windows user who wants to stick with Windows the bast thing that could happen would be for Linux market share to start increasing exponentially with a doubling period of about a year.* At some point it might scare Microsoft into listening to its customer.
* Yes, I know it would really be sigmoidal growth but the marketroids who react to such things don't grok that.
A very long thread illustrating, largely, the harm a monopoly does. Microsoft doesn't care. It doesn't have to It has the lot of you by the short and curlies.
The best thing that could happen for Windows users would be for Microsoft to see Linux uptake increasing at a rate that would imply doubling market share every year. It's about the only thing that would scare the shit out of them and start making them listen to you.
"What is the risk to the ISS of actually uncoupling the thing at all?"
I think one is the possibility that if the thrusters don't do their job it could end up in an orbit that brings it into collision with the ISS. Alternatively they may bring the thing down where it wasn't planned to land a bit harder than a 737 body panel.
Most languages can provide productive employment for those with degrees in them. Latin is the exception. The only Latin-related employment is teaching or being Prime Minister irrespective of whether the graduate has any talent for it. That's why we have so many dreadful Latin teachers and Latin-oriented PMs.
"And the police issue take-down requests"
A more positive action would be, on being presented with evidence of crime, including conspiracy, to investigate, arrest and charge those committing it. Issuing a takedown notice, even if it's acted on, does not bring those responsible to book; it doesn't even deter them.
Maybe "engineering" like an S-100 box we had. Humongous electrolytics in the power supply had screw-on terminals. I'm pretty sure they were designed to be securely fastened with clips round the body with either leads or light circuit boards mounted on the terminals. Instead they were screwed directly onto the motherboard balanced on and solely supported by the terminals.
"SCSI drives built like brick shithouses"
I always thought the drives in the HP 9000 kit that replaced the Zilogs (see above) were like that. They were enormously heavy ant the engineers had a sort of crane that clamped onto the top of the cabinet to move them. Maybe things were different to what they seemd because the engineers seemed very relieved when a move went successfully.
"My (17" CRT) screen image is wobbling, come fix it!"
In addition to the processing chips Zilog also made some complete systems. We had two different models of them, all lined up in the machine room with the consoles sitting on top of them. On one model the consoles were stable, on the other they had a continual shimmy. I think those may have had their disk drive at the top of the case instead of the bottom.
"reduce dependency on external expertise"
In order to do that they need internal expertise. Back in my day in the Civil Service the general service grades were paid more - i.e. if you didn't need specialist qualifications to do your do you got paid more. This "worked" because, back then, HMG was the largest employer of the scientific specialists - combine that with a bit of over-production of scientists at the universities and they could set the rates. There was a bit of a panic when they found they had to pay more to recruit for engineering posts. Needless to say it was the general service grades who ran this system.
I doubt very much that things have changed. Now, instead of rasing pay rates where skills are in short supply they can engage consultants. It's not going to come out of the salary budget to the general service grades can still reward themselves for irrelevant arts degrees.
The information sharing is done in the server and NextCloud will do some of that but I'm not sure how it would handle booked resources. What's really needed is for the two - or three if LO is included - to get together to produce a cohesive whole. For the consumer, however, it would be useful for a CALDAV server to be available as an add-on to TB so a user could sync PC & mobile.
Agreed. I've opened a PDF which was originally produced by some graphics design co for a print run. PDF looked quite normal. Open in Draw and the intended were partly obscured by a huge black streak. Removed that, edited the text, saved & it was ready to go online. PDF can house some strange things.
A quick search online indicates GPIO errors are to do with the GPIO connector on the Pi. General I/O errors are mentioned in relation to LibreOffice with a suggestion they're to do with network access - either Dropbox backup or Samba shares. Maybe a timing issue? Is it associated with your network being particularly busy?
I use it with files synced with Nextcloud with no problems but the files are local with only copies made remotely.
