This would be funny if it weren’t quite so tragic. A friend of mine has just pointed me to the Computer Weekly “second annual UKtech50” poll of “the definitive list of the real movers and shakers in UK IT – the CIOs, industry executives, public servants and business leaders driving the creation of a high-tech …
Category: trivial musing
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/23/the-most-influential-people-in-uk-it/
Nov 23 2011
google buys advertising
In an interesting reverse of the norm, google paid for three full page adverts in the guardian a couple of days ago. Today there is yet another full page ad in the same paper. I assume they have run similar campaigns in other UK newspapers over the past few days, The ads are quite intriguing …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/23/google-buys-advertising/
Nov 16 2011
do not buy one of these
Standalone IP cameras have come down in price quite remarkably over the past few years. It is now perfectly possible to get a camera for between £50.00 and £75.00, and this makes them attractive for anyone wanting to set up simple “home surveillance” systems. I bought one recently just to see what I could …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/16/do-not-buy-one-of-these/
Nov 09 2011
ubuntu de-throned
For the first time since early 2005, Ubuntu has fallen off the top spot on distrowatch. The new number one, by page hit ranking, is Linux Mint. I’m not at all surprised.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/09/ubuntu-de-throned/
Nov 09 2011
do I trust this site?
Following a visit to EFF to read an article on e-book privacy, I met this: So. EFF uses a wildcard SSL cert issued by a company which was breached earlier this year.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/09/do-i-trust-this-site/
Nov 09 2011
dis-unity
The reaction to Ubuntu’s move to Unity seems to be getting wider coverage. Over at LWN, Bruce Byfield blogged recently about the rift between the Ubuntu developers and its users. In particular he highlights Tal Liron’s entry to the Ubuntu launchpad bug wiki under bug number 882274. In that entry, entitled “Community engagement is broken” …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/09/dis-unity/
Nov 08 2011
I prefer the chip wrapper version
My newspaper of choice is the Guardian. Recently they were forced to increase the cover price and ever since have been running a series of advertisements for various forms of subscription which will lower the cost from some £35.00 pcm (if you include its sister paper the Observer on sundays) to as little as £9.99 …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/08/i-prefer-the-chip-wrapper-version/
Nov 06 2011
fully minted
After exploring the alternatives to Ubuntu, I finally settled on Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) running Xfce as the desktop. I am now Ubuntu free and have a desktop that looks the way /I/ want it to look rather than the way some design nut wants it to look. I am also hopeful that the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/06/fully-minted/
Nov 04 2011
there is no version 7
This week’s BOFH in El Reg rings horribly true: “I JUST WANT MY MENU BACK!” “You mean you don’t like the ribbon? It’s new!” “I don’t care if it’s new – I can’t find anything!” Back when I was a sysadmin we used to call users a “test load”.
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/11/04/there-is-no-version-7/
Oct 19 2011
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 …
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/
Sep 27 2011
webcam mark II
Upgrading the slugs to squeeze killed the webcam. At first I thought that squeeze was missing the necessary gspca drivers, but no, a quick look in /dev revealed an entry for video0 and “lsmod” reported “gspca_zc3xx” loaded correctly. This is a different driver to that which my camera loaded in lenny (spca5xx) but a quick …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/09/27/webcam-mark-ii/
Sep 26 2011
squeezing the slugs
Debian 6 (squeeze) has been the current stable version since February 2011. The latest version (6.02) was released in late June. I have put off updating my slugs from lenny (old stable) for a while because I wanted to see how others faired before committing myself. Indeed, initial reports on the debian arm list indicated …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/09/26/squeezing-the-slugs/
Aug 14 2011
my wife bought me a kindle
I feel it only right to add to the post below by noting that my wife bought me a Kindle for my birthday. I have since found one useful aspect to electronic publishing. A Kindle can reduce the weight of your luggage when going on holiday. But I still prefer the “real thing”. “Speedbump” cartoon …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/08/14/my-wife-bought-me-a-kindle/
Aug 14 2011
in praise of dead trees
As an unashamed gadget freak I suppose I should applaud the rise of the e-book in all its wondrous forms. But actually I much prefer the “real thing” (TM). Some while back I became involved in a series of email exchanges about e-books in general and the Amazon Kindle in particular. That exchange made me …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/08/14/in-praise-of-dead-trees/
Aug 14 2011
what time does the pub open
I wanted to check the opening time for a local shop and petrol station this morning so I plugged in a query about opening times to my favourite search engine and hence came across a rather useful little wiki called, not unnaturally, opening times. That sort of single purpose site is exactly what makes the …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/08/14/what-time-does-the-pub-open/
Jul 18 2011
who are you going to call
Like most email users I get my fair share of spam and other internet crud. Mostly I ignore it, but I received an intriguing email a couple of days ago which purported to be a mailer daemon “Delivery Status Notification” informing me of a failed delivery to some address I had not even heard of. …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2011/07/18/who-are-you-going-to-call/