Re: I have a simpler and lower cost solution
"The bin lorries"
One of the worst roads in our neck of the woods is the one that leads to the local dump recycling centre.
AI? I think our roads would crash the system.
32991 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Jun 2014
No, you let only those entitled to log in as root do so. Part of the problem is that although early Unix had multiple user IDs for different tasks these all got handed back to root eventually. Why, for instance, couldn't a specific non-root user have rights over installing S/W in /usr/local?
"They gave up an on-premise solution with a 10GB network fiber backbone, 1GB to the desktop with full blown QoS and an exceptional up-time rating."
Perhaps this is the time to turn up with a purchase order to reinstate that. Even better if you can come up with an innocent sounding project title which is a backronym for something along the lines of I TOLD YOU SO or YOU WERE TOLD.
"I suppose it comes from the earliest days of Unix?"
Not quite, at least not in its present form.
You need to remember that Linux, like Unix, is fundamentally a multi-user system. If an application can be used by all users then its binaries, logs and configs can't be in user home directories. If the data - say a database - is shared then the data can't be either but your office files should then be in your home directory. If you have personal configs that override the defaults then they do go in your home directory.
One area which has changed a good bit is the overall file system layout. Unix had /lib for libraries and /bin for binaries. There might well have been something like /sbin for binaries needed at start-up/single user mode because devices were small and these would be programs needed before the system was ready to mount the others.
Home directories went in /usr - the name was a bit of a clue. Then for some reason we had some stuff going into /usr/bin and /usr/lib so eventually home directories ended up being shunted out of /usr into /u or /u2 and eventually /home. There does seem to be some inconsistency between distros as to whether some or all stuff goes into /bin, /lib or the /usr equivalents and, indeed, as to whether the /bin and /lib exist at all or as symlinks.
Mostly there are reasons why things are as they are, some, admittedly, based on distro maintainer's choices and some into 3rd party packager's choices (does this go into /usr/local or /usr?).
"trying to solve issues for people with laptops"
These days I use laptops almost entirely and I still don't have a problem it solves. With a hybrid drive boot time isn't a problem and time to get online is dominated by negotiating access with wireless. If I want to sync something between machines I have a specific directory for it on both machines which is separately synced with NextCloud (on a Pi running Devuan), not an entire $HOME and certainly not on flash drive.
100 upvotes for mention of Kermit.
it was an extremely useful essential cross-platform file transfer protocol
FTFY
Not just file transfer but terminal emulation as well. When all you had was a serial interface Kermit was the equivalent of FTP, Telnet, rcp, ssh or whatever your favourite weapon might be these days.
"Including proposals on the Irish border that they've since agreed with Johnson, having said they were literally impossible to May."
The Irish border "solution" involves effectively moving the difficult bits of it to the middle of the Irish Sea. At the end of the transition period we'll have an interal customs border in the UK!
He can do that because, unlike May, he doesn't have to rely on the DUP for his majority. How well that works out remains to be seen. But it'll be OK because he's reassured us his a Unionist; we have his word on that.
"Getting a second term is probably in that strategy."
Maybe. He could simply say he's delivered what he promised and it's up to the rest to make the best of it.
Brexit keeps reminding me of the Bilko episode "The Empty Store". You got what you wanted, what are you going to do with it?
"Whereas designing solutions that fit into common use-cases - replacing tungsten bulbs with increasingly energy efficient bulbs - is working."
There's even a further lesson in that - replacing tungsten by compact fluorescents wasn't the greatest idea - they were crap: they didn't last long, the claimed equivalences to incandescent wattages were against the most inefficient incandescents they could find and unless properly disposed of were apt to leak mercury into the environment. Your replacement not only has to fit the use-case, it has to do it at least as well as the original for all the parameters, not just those you're trying to improve on.
"cell tower triangulation"
Ah, the luxury of being able to triangulate. Daughter was puzzled about grandson's lost phone being shown as at home and several hundred yards away. Had to explain you need coverage from more than two base stations to resolve the correct location.
Opening an EU subsidiary in the UK would have beenfeasible. Nissan, etc. did that for cars. Unless the subsequent trade negotiations result in Brexit meaning nothing more than being out of the rule-making process and nothing else that sort of thing isn't going to happen for the foreseeable future.
"Boris could be on the Iron Throne for some considerable time"
You don't think he'll do a Blair and step down just before consequences happen? In Blair's case it was an economic policy that powered a housing bubble that in turn powered huge indebtedness. In Boris's case it's going to be the economic reality of the British business's home market being just the UK and maybe a whole new Irish problem when the Irish Sea border becomes a reality.
I was never a fan of British Snail, especially back in the days when I used to commute on the Chiltern Line but right back when privatisation happened it was obvious that separating the infra-structure from the service provider was a bad mistake. Not having control of the rails it runs on has certainly been one of Northern Rail's problems. None of its underlying problems are going to go away in March and the new operator is going to inherit them although eventually the new rolling stock is going to get delivered.