So this beast actually boots? That's impressive. The disc format was FAT, if I remember correctly, but you did reformat the discs for Xenix, so it certainly did something weird.
But if it boots, and the serial port works, that'll do fine. Mind you, what are you going to put at the other end - what reads serial, these days? I guess the port is still there on ATX motherboards, so it probably still works!
But yes, if you can dump to the serial port, that beats taking it apart - it'll probably stop working if you do that. If it ain't broke, you definitely don't want to fix it. 9600 baud, that's 960 bytes per sec, 60k per minute, 3600kb per hour, so it ought to take about 3 hours. But of course what you want is the message log, which is probably just a small part - really, it won't take long.
Sounds like fun. (I remember when I had time for hobbies like this. Must have been before I got married and had children).
When I went to university (thank you, University of Essex), in the opening speech from the student leader he advised us where to score drugs, I can't remember if he recommended constant unmarried sex though he probably would have if he'd thought such an obvious point required mentioning, and explained that the student bar was the cheapest way to get drunk. So I did my best. (And yes, I somehow squeezed in a decent honours degree in three years).
And here I am, 30 years later, still working in computing and seemingly doing ok. (Not dead, not in jail, solvent, not divorced, fit, not overweight, moderately happy - what's the average for Utah-ians?).
By the way, how much original research comes out of the university of Utah?
I bought a mono Palm pilot. Later they made colour one. I bought one of those, too.
But. Here we are years later - the mono one still works. It has amazing battery life. The colour one had horrible battery life and eventually got dumped somewhere.
One of the cheapest ways to improve programmer productivity is to get more screen area. Currently you can get 2 large LCD screens for less than $500. And there is your screen space. It works in Windows or Linux (Ubuntu certainly does a decent job), with Eclipse. And if you haven't already done this for yourself and all your developers you are wasting time and money. You do need a passable graphics card or two, but nothing too exotic - code development is not graphics intensive like gaming.
And next - four screens!! Your desk starts getting a bit crowded, though. How about three though? That split in the middle is mildly irritating.
And it certainly doesn't do much for your argument which is, um, what, exactly? Maybe you have Tourettes, or just plain swear a lot and are seeking support. Or maybe you are an idiot.
Not sure, really. But I am sure you really need to extend your vocabulary a lot. Try reading some books, talk to some real people. Learn a few new word every day.
Your words for today are: * discourse * argument * reasoned * balanced
Start with those, and see what you can come up with. Maybe in a few days you can move on to more subtle shades of meaning than random swearing.
No argument there. I have children. The mere idea indeed, horrifies me.
But I am dismayed to see such crimes being used as leverage to obtain ever more far-reaching powers.
There is no question that "all power corrupts". It's not a standard quote for nothing - it is, all too sadly, true. I believe that no special powers are needed here - just sensible application of the ones that the already specially privileged police forces already have, is sufficient. I see no realistic problem with getting a search warrant from a judge. Like for searching a house.
Suspicion indeed - I'd like to feel the police would need a little more than suspicion - suspicion with enough basisi to convince a judge, perhaps? Isn't that what they are for, as a counterbalance to "over zealous" police forces?
After all, anybody can suspect anybody of anything - with no basis whatsoever. And I don't think that's a good basis for a law. It's more like a license to harass, I'd say. And isn't there already enough of that?
Age discrimination and a truncated career - 55, still in IT. Can't be that bad. But there's some truth in it. Learning new ways of doing the same work - new tools, similar problems. Beats using the same tools for the same problems (like, say, a plumber). Substandard pay - nope. Compete with 3rd world labour - quality will out. Be good at what you do. Aren't you? Work nights... try delivering on time. Aren't you good at what you do? Hang on, didn't I just say that? 5am - see above. Or try being a plumber. Holidays... what is it with you and not getting things done on time? Vacation... oh, you are American. Anyway, see above. No respect - respect must be earned, whatever you do, be it a plumber, a janitor, a judge, a programmer. Try being nice to people. Implementing stupid solutions - can be a problem. Earn some respect, become involved in the process.
Girlfriends/spouses - you really do have problems, don't you? Try earning and giving some respect, change your t-shirt occasionally, maybe to one with sarcastic, bitter remarks on it. Maybe the world will love you more.
If you don't like this field, please leave. If you do not enjoy the challenge of one of the fastest paced, most technical areas around, just quit. Go work in a shop (mindless tedium), be a plumber (on call 24 hours, fixing broken toilets), a lawyer (everyone hates you), a factory worker (you hate yourself), a garbage collect (damn they die a lot. And girlfriends?)
Ah, what a great thread. And as I turn 55 tomorrow, I guess it's pertinent.
I currently "manage" a team of young programmers (nearly all from India, based in Australia). They are happy to slog away, coding until they are blue in the face. Lines of code - they'll give you lines of code.
But do they think much - er, no, not as far as I can see.
I am rubbish at managing. My main function is staying out of the way, and going to meetings. Oh, and doing estimates (guess at what you think the work might take. Round up to days, multiply it by about ten, double it to allow for testing... then think if there might be any other problems and add a bit. This is a bank, we have a FIXED release schedule. So our aspirations are way, way low. No rewards for wonderful work, only punishment for not delivering on time... we aim low, so, so low).
But I still reckon I could out program pretty much my whole team. (Yes, arrogance is a requirement for a decent programmer). And I would so, so much rather do that. So I write code to entertain myself, spending about 10% of my time on management.
I weep when I see the miserable approach they take - why write a general solution when you could write more code? Why use a library when you could just - write more code. And so on.
It hasn't helped your spelling, though. You need to be standards compliant there too.
That's well-paid.... and by comparison, my well-paid day job is in a large corporation where they use IE6 on XP. And they seem a bit stunned anybody would use anything else.
But I have managed to get the testers to use other browsers, so progress is being made.
>> Forcing users to use a government monitored service doesn't sound like something that would build trust. It sounds like a move to crush dissent.
Hmm - you do know why the Royal Mail was introduced, don't you? (The Royal Mail traces its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts", a post which eventually evolved into the office of the Postmaster General. The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I on 31 July, 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient, and the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II in 1660. [Thank you Wikipedia]) Yup - but why? Well, the Royal Mail was granted a monopoly on mail delivery (which it held until 2006 - 350 years, not bad)... and so the King could open everybody's mail with impunity.
Iran's approach sounds pretty much the same to me. Same methodology, same reasons.
Actually no, it's simpler than that - in what's left of the Australian education system you just need to proffer money. Our education system, notably university level, has prostituted itself to the mighty dollar.
This means they are oddly full of foreign students. Surprisingly, they have considerable problems with students completely incapable of writing English.
Actually, grammar-wise, I despair for the apostrophe. Its misuse in nearly every appearance of "it's" and "its" is source of pain and suffering to me.
Personally, I find using "proper" English in texting (we call it "SMS-ing) with a spell assist is quicker than the abbreviations.
In statistics, Moran's I is a measure of spatial autocorrelation. Also, Moran is a city in Shackelford County, Texas, United States. The population was 233 at the 2000 census.
Um, maybe you meant something else?
Ah well, at least you didn't criticize my spelling...
Damn. And I actually read the article and everything. I really should have had my morning caffeine first. Ah well, no-one's perfect. Certainly not any of the participants in this debacle, whoever they were.
According to the article, 'HP today defended its position. It added: "While we accept that the contract was problematic, HP strongly maintains EDS did nothing to deceive BSkyB." '
Sounds like scope creep to me. So what really happened was this:
EDS wanted some sort of CRM. They had no idea what. They hired some random consultant to write a spec. HP read the spec and thought "we can do that - in fact our system already does pretty much that" The sales duly sold it as "our s/w does that now, and we can deliver it tomorrow" EDS management, after some heavy golf sessions, and possibly the odd new BMW, decided it was a good deal The HP s/w folks said "you sold what?!" to the sales guys, and started trying to make it do what the spec said EDS started to get bits of the s/w, probably very late, then - finally - noticed they really ought to figure out what they actually wanted So they change the spec totally HP s/w folk get annoyed, but try to deliver to the new, completely different spec It goes badly
You know it amazes me. I've been writing code since (oh boy...) 1970. I am staggered we are still writing text files for programming. Staggered. No colour, no bolding, no structure.
Really, is this the best we can do?
There ARE languages - Python - that at least do something sensible with formatting, but most do - well - nothing.
We are richer. We die less. We have less children. We value our children much more highly. There are (vastly) more cars on the streets. We fear our children will be hurt if they play there. We keep our children indoors.
So they play with indoor toys. They get more shortsighted. They become inward looking and less social. So do we - the parents.
We see our neighbours less. We know less of them. Perhaps we don't even notice if one of them has been enslaving children (yes, I am thinking of a recent case in the US).
So the solution is obvious - ban cars in residential areas.
Our children will once again be free to run the streets - even ride their bikes there. We will get to know our neightbours better. The children will look after each other. It'll be fine. (It was before - why not now?) Oh, and we will have to walk from our homes to the car park (or train station). We will be fitter. And thinner.
It'll be a better place.
What has this to do with paedophilia? Not much. But it has a lot to do with children.
Slashdot Mirror
Gosh. You mustn't sleep much.
So this beast actually boots? That's impressive.
The disc format was FAT, if I remember correctly, but you did reformat the discs for Xenix, so it certainly did something weird.
But if it boots, and the serial port works, that'll do fine.
Mind you, what are you going to put at the other end - what reads serial, these days? I guess the port is still there on ATX motherboards, so it probably still works!
But yes, if you can dump to the serial port, that beats taking it apart - it'll probably stop working if you do that. If it ain't broke, you definitely don't want to fix it. 9600 baud, that's 960 bytes per sec, 60k per minute, 3600kb per hour, so it ought to take about 3 hours. But of course what you want is the message log, which is probably just a small part - really, it won't take long.
Sounds like fun. (I remember when I had time for hobbies like this. Must have been before I got married and had children).
Wow. Utah universities don't sound much fun.
When I went to university (thank you, University of Essex), in the opening speech from the student leader he advised us where to score drugs, I can't remember if he recommended constant unmarried sex though he probably would have if he'd thought such an obvious point required mentioning, and explained that the student bar was the cheapest way to get drunk.
So I did my best. (And yes, I somehow squeezed in a decent honours degree in three years).
And here I am, 30 years later, still working in computing and seemingly doing ok. (Not dead, not in jail, solvent, not divorced, fit, not overweight, moderately happy - what's the average for Utah-ians?).
By the way, how much original research comes out of the university of Utah?
I bought a mono Palm pilot. Later they made colour one. I bought one of those, too.
But.
Here we are years later - the mono one still works. It has amazing battery life.
The colour one had horrible battery life and eventually got dumped somewhere.
One of the cheapest ways to improve programmer productivity is to get more screen area. Currently you can get 2 large LCD screens for less than $500. And there is your screen space. It works in Windows or Linux (Ubuntu certainly does a decent job), with Eclipse.
And if you haven't already done this for yourself and all your developers you are wasting time and money. You do need a passable graphics card or two, but nothing too exotic - code development is not graphics intensive like gaming.
And next - four screens!! Your desk starts getting a bit crowded, though.
How about three though? That split in the middle is mildly irritating.
I always agree to putting the seat down - but only on condition that they leave the seat UP.
Funnily enough, nobody has ever agreed to this.
But It's wonderful watching the light dawn ... "You mean it's just as annoying to have to put the seat UP? I'd never thought of that" ...
Swearing is horrible.
The mere idea, indeed horrifies me.
And it certainly doesn't do much for your argument which is, um, what, exactly? Maybe you have Tourettes, or just plain swear a lot and are seeking support. Or maybe you are an idiot.
Not sure, really. But I am sure you really need to extend your vocabulary a lot. Try reading some books, talk to some real people. Learn a few new word every day.
Your words for today are:
* discourse
* argument
* reasoned
* balanced
Start with those, and see what you can come up with. Maybe in a few days you can move on to more subtle shades of meaning than random swearing.
Good luck.
Er ... did you read my post? I mean, not reading the article is one thing, but not reading the post you are responding to, that's just weird.
Child sex crime is horrible.
No argument there. I have children. The mere idea indeed, horrifies me.
But I am dismayed to see such crimes being used as leverage to obtain ever more far-reaching powers.
There is no question that "all power corrupts". It's not a standard quote for nothing - it is, all too sadly, true.
I believe that no special powers are needed here - just sensible application of the ones that the already specially privileged police forces already have, is sufficient. I see no realistic problem with getting a search warrant from a judge. Like for searching a house.
Suspicion indeed - I'd like to feel the police would need a little more than suspicion - suspicion with enough basisi to convince a judge, perhaps? Isn't that what they are for, as a counterbalance to "over zealous" police forces?
After all, anybody can suspect anybody of anything - with no basis whatsoever. And I don't think that's a good basis for a law. It's more like a license to harass, I'd say. And isn't there already enough of that?
Your sig is right - oh, so bitter.
Damn, where do I start?
Age discrimination and a truncated career - 55, still in IT. Can't be that bad. But there's some truth in it. ... try delivering on time. Aren't you good at what you do? Hang on, didn't I just say that? ... what is it with you and not getting things done on time? ... oh, you are American. Anyway, see above.
Learning new ways of doing the same work - new tools, similar problems. Beats using the same tools for the same problems (like, say, a plumber).
Substandard pay - nope.
Compete with 3rd world labour - quality will out. Be good at what you do. Aren't you?
Work nights
5am - see above. Or try being a plumber.
Holidays
Vacation
No respect - respect must be earned, whatever you do, be it a plumber, a janitor, a judge, a programmer. Try being nice to people.
Implementing stupid solutions - can be a problem. Earn some respect, become involved in the process.
Girlfriends/spouses - you really do have problems, don't you? Try earning and giving some respect, change your t-shirt occasionally, maybe to one with sarcastic, bitter remarks on it. Maybe the world will love you more.
If you don't like this field, please leave. If you do not enjoy the challenge of one of the fastest paced, most technical areas around, just quit. Go work in a shop (mindless tedium), be a plumber (on call 24 hours, fixing broken toilets), a lawyer (everyone hates you), a factory worker (you hate yourself), a garbage collect (damn they die a lot. And girlfriends?)
I think I'll stick with it.
Ah, what a great thread. And as I turn 55 tomorrow, I guess it's pertinent.
I currently "manage" a team of young programmers (nearly all from India, based in Australia). They are happy to slog away, coding until they are blue in the face.
Lines of code - they'll give you lines of code.
But do they think much - er, no, not as far as I can see.
I am rubbish at managing. My main function is staying out of the way, and going to meetings. Oh, and doing estimates (guess at what you think the work might take. Round up to days, multiply it by about ten, double it to allow for testing ... then think if there might be any other problems and add a bit. This is a bank, we have a FIXED release schedule. So our aspirations are way, way low. No rewards for wonderful work, only punishment for not delivering on time ... we aim low, so, so low).
But I still reckon I could out program pretty much my whole team. (Yes, arrogance is a requirement for a decent programmer). And I would so, so much rather do that. So I write code to entertain myself, spending about 10% of my time on management.
I weep when I see the miserable approach they take - why write a general solution when you could write more code? Why use a library when you could just - write more code. And so on.
And get off my lawn ...
It hasn't helped your spelling, though. You need to be standards compliant there too.
That's well-paid .... and by comparison, my well-paid day job is in a large corporation where they use IE6 on XP. And they seem a bit stunned anybody would use anything else.
But I have managed to get the testers to use other browsers, so progress is being made.
Your spelling, though, I despair of.
>> Forcing users to use a government monitored service doesn't sound like something that would build trust. It sounds like a move to crush dissent.
Hmm - you do know why the Royal Mail was introduced, don't you? (The Royal Mail traces its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts", a post which eventually evolved into the office of the Postmaster General. The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I on 31 July, 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient, and the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II in 1660. [Thank you Wikipedia]) ... and so the King could open everybody's mail with impunity.
Yup - but why? Well, the Royal Mail was granted a monopoly on mail delivery (which it held until 2006 - 350 years, not bad)
Iran's approach sounds pretty much the same to me. Same methodology, same reasons.
Ah, ain't history wonderful?
This is so Microsoft. Their response to any problem is to want more control. (A bit like most governments, actually)
Interestingly, this is the exact opposite of Open Source, or perhaps Wikipedia.
They are absolutely committed to the cathedral, with no thought of the bazaar.
And, for a while, it works.
Actually no, it's simpler than that - in what's left of the Australian education system you just need to proffer money. Our education system, notably university level, has prostituted itself to the mighty dollar.
This means they are oddly full of foreign students. Surprisingly, they have considerable problems with students completely incapable of writing English.
Actually, grammar-wise, I despair for the apostrophe. Its misuse in nearly every appearance of "it's" and "its" is source of pain and suffering to me.
Personally, I find using "proper" English in texting (we call it "SMS-ing) with a spell assist is quicker than the abbreviations.
(Yes, I DID go to an English Grammar School)
In statistics, Moran's I is a measure of spatial autocorrelation. Also, Moran is a city in Shackelford County, Texas, United States. The population was 233 at the 2000 census.
Um, maybe you meant something else?
Ah well, at least you didn't criticize my spelling ...
Damn. And I actually read the article and everything. I really should have had my morning caffeine first.
Ah well, no-one's perfect. Certainly not any of the participants in this debacle, whoever they were.
According to the article, 'HP today defended its position. It added: "While we accept that the contract was problematic, HP strongly maintains EDS did nothing to deceive BSkyB." '
Sounds like scope creep to me.
So what really happened was this:
EDS wanted some sort of CRM. They had no idea what.
They hired some random consultant to write a spec.
HP read the spec and thought "we can do that - in fact our system already does pretty much that"
The sales duly sold it as "our s/w does that now, and we can deliver it tomorrow"
EDS management, after some heavy golf sessions, and possibly the odd new BMW, decided it was a good deal
The HP s/w folks said "you sold what?!" to the sales guys, and started trying to make it do what the spec said
EDS started to get bits of the s/w, probably very late, then - finally - noticed they really ought to figure out what they actually wanted
So they change the spec totally
HP s/w folk get annoyed, but try to deliver to the new, completely different spec
It goes badly
Everyone sues everyone.
The lawyers win big time.
Hmm - sound familiar?
You know it amazes me. I've been writing code since (oh boy ...) 1970.
I am staggered we are still writing text files for programming. Staggered. No colour, no bolding, no structure.
Really, is this the best we can do?
There ARE languages - Python - that at least do something sensible with formatting, but most do - well - nothing.
Is this really, really, the best we can do?
Arhhh, me lad, I've sailed the seven seas, 'tis time for another.
Can ye be drinking the sea, I is asking meself?
One thing we do know - newlywedsontjob ... that's Northern England, for sure. ("There's trouble at t'mill", etc). Cuts it down a bit.
Yeah well, I'm getting old too.
But not as bitter as you, apparently.
($3,500 for a computer indeed! Why back in my day you had to carve them out of pure silicon crystals and power them with steam ... and get off my lawn)
What has changed?
We are richer. We die less. We have less children. We value our children much more highly.
There are (vastly) more cars on the streets. We fear our children will be hurt if they play there.
We keep our children indoors.
So they play with indoor toys. They get more shortsighted. They become inward looking and less social. So do we - the parents.
We see our neighbours less. We know less of them. Perhaps we don't even notice if one of them has been enslaving children (yes, I am thinking of a recent case in the US).
So the solution is obvious - ban cars in residential areas.
Our children will once again be free to run the streets - even ride their bikes there. We will get to know our neightbours better. The children will look after each other. It'll be fine. (It was before - why not now?)
Oh, and we will have to walk from our homes to the car park (or train station). We will be fitter. And thinner.
It'll be a better place.
What has this to do with paedophilia? Not much. But it has a lot to do with children.
Shouldn't that be T (rather dense) FA ?
(Yes, I DID go to an English grammar school)
Ohmigod don't open the rift, captain ....