I’ve used Ubuntu on my desktops/laptops and netbook for some time now. I think my first installation was 6.06 (the version 6.04 which was late by two months) and my desktops currently all run 10.04 LTS. I got over the minor irritation of the move of the window control buttons from the top right to …
October 2011 archive
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/19/time-to-ditch-ubuntu/
Oct 19 2011
I don’t have a start menu
You know those irritating conversations you have with “support” staff at your ISP whenever you have a problem which is even slightly off their script? Well xkcd has a solution. Use the code word “shibboleet”. It might work. Nothing else ever does. With thanks as always to xkcd
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/19/i-dont-have-a-start-menu/
Oct 14 2011
clarity is not a virtue
Picking up my copy of the second edition I was reminded of the old obfuscated c contests. One of the earliest (anonymous) entries was this tribute to K&R’s famous printf(“hello world\n”); —————————————————————————- int i;main(){for(;i[“]<i;++i){–i;}”];read(‘-‘-‘-‘,i+++”hell\ o, world!\n”,’/’/’/’));}read(j,i,p){write(j/p+p,i—j,i/i);} —————————————————————————- c is not known as flexible for nothing.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/14/clarity-is-not-a-virtue/
Oct 14 2011
mountain streams
In response to the news of Dennis Ritchie’s death, Ted Harding, a long time member of the anglia linux users group posted an interesting comment to the list this morning. Ted has kindly given me permission to link to that comment. Like Ted, I too hope we shall be seeing proper tributes to both Dennis …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/14/mountain-streams/
Oct 13 2011
a double googol
It seems that google has lost a recent battle to wrest control of the goggle.com domain away from its owner. I wonder if they’ll want to have a go at me next.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/13/a-double-googol/
Oct 13 2011
Dennis Ritchie dies
Now this is getting depressing. It seems that Dennis Ritchie (the “R” in K&R, author and creator of the C programming language and genuine legend in computing history) died last weekend. Bell Labs reported yesterday, and confirmed today, that Ritchie had died after a long illness. He was 70 years old. As a unix fan, …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/13/dennis-ritchie-dies/
Oct 11 2011
I have a policy
As I have said in many posts in the past, I care about my privacy. I also care about yours. Ironically however, I have not until now codified exactly what I mean by that, nor have I identified what I will or will not do to protect your privacy. This seems to me a little …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/11/i-have-a-policy/
Oct 10 2011
that looks like a scam to me
The volume of spam backscatter I am receiving at the baldric.net domain currently runs at around 18-20,000 emails per month, nearly all of which is aimed at the info@ address I have mentioned before. My mail server is currently configured to reject mail to non-existent users at the SMTP level with a permanent failure message …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/10/that-looks-like-a-scam-to-me/
Oct 07 2011
rip steve jobs
Whilst I have never been an Apple fan, I was enormously saddened to learn of the death on wednesday of Steve Jobs. He was a visionary architect and was undeniably a charismatic, if idiosyncratic, leader in the world of computing and technology. Whilst his death was not unexpected, he will be missed.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/07/rip-steve-jobs/