October 2011 archive

time to ditch ubuntu?

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/19/time-to-ditch-ubuntu/

I don’t have a start menu

XKCD cartoon number 806

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/

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/

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/14/mountain-streams/

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/

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, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/13/dennis-ritchie-dies/

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/11/i-have-a-policy/

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 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/10/10/that-looks-like-a-scam-to-me/

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/