... and a fine time was had by all. Fsck, fsck, fsck!
mikea
to cause a panic:
reboot after panic: ffs_blkfree: freeing free block
This started today, I know not why, after continuous months of uptime.
Happiness, whatever it may be, is *NOT* running fsck and seeing an
INTERNAL ERROR message due to something hosed in softupdates.
I now understand single user mode rather better than I want to. I do
*NOT* understand why fsck would not clean up /home and /usr properly and
MARK THEM DAMNIT CLEAN. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
--
[...] the periodic and predictable system failures were a result of one part of
the system expecting the clock to count 1024 ticks per unit time, while the
other part thought the clock was counting 1000 ticks per unit time.
-- me in asr, on the Patriot missile system
Garrett Wollman
>Happiness, whatever it may be, is *NOT* running fsck and seeing an
>INTERNAL ERROR message due to something hosed in softupdates.
Interesting bugs in fsck still do crop up occasionally, even though
you would think it would have gotten its share of debugging over the
past 25 years. (Sometimes using different flags is helpful.) There
are, after all, O(2^{medium size}) ways in which a filesystem can be
screwed up, so it's not possible to exhaustively test.
I'd still rather have fsck, which can at least usually be depended
upon to find problems, even if it doesn't fix them, than one of these
new-fangled "we don't need fsck" filesystems in which software errors
cause undectable and irreparable corruption. (Sometimes dump may
succeed on a filesystem that is otherwise seriously b0rken -- a good
reason to use a filesystem-level backup utility as far as I'm
concerned.)
>I now understand single user mode rather better than I want to.
Really? I didn't realize there was that much to understand. Enter
password, run fsck, and wait. At least ^T works (and fsck does
something useful with SIGINFO) so you can find out what it's up to.
If it completes successfully, go on to do the next thing (probably
"mount").
>I do *NOT* understand why fsck would not clean up /home and /usr
>properly and MARK THEM DAMNIT
>CLEAN. AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
There are a few circumstances, albeit unlikely, in which fsck actually
needs to make at least two passes to fix everything. I think this is
just an artifact.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> mikea posted thus:
>>Somehow one of the filesystems in my FreeBSD box got hosed just enough
>>to cause a panic:
>>
>> reboot after panic: ffs_blkfree: freeing free block
>
*BLAM*.
--
TimC
>> Imagine what a tipped over tractor-trailer ... full of potatoes looks like.
> Not half as messy as a truckload of oranges.
Or a hovercraft full of eels. -- Tanuki on ASR
Lionel
> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> mikea posted thus:
>>> Somehow one of the filesystems in my FreeBSD box got hosed just enough
>>> to cause a panic:
>>>
>>> reboot after panic: ffs_blkfree: freeing free block
>> At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's sake".
>
> *BLAM*.
Holy shit! - Someone BLAMmed appropriately!
*mutter* Kids these days, don't when or where to BLAM. (And you, AdB, I
wouldn't expect that from you!)
--
W
. | ,. w , "Some people are alive only because
\|/ \|/ it is illegal to kill them." Perna condita delenda est
---^----^---------------------------------------------------------------
Lionel
> TimC wrote:
>> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
>> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> *BLAM*.
>
No, for inappropriate use of an apostrophe.
Brian Kantor
>In article <c1mps6-...@mikea.ath.cx>, mikea <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> wrote:
>>Happiness, whatever it may be, is *NOT* running fsck and seeing an
>>INTERNAL ERROR message due to something hosed in softupdates.
This is perilously close to UI, but after running fsck twice without
success, I usually opt for 'newfs'. Less work in the long run.
- Brian
mikea
It can't be UI: it's my _home_ box, not an _ork_ box.
--
"This is a Hollywood film. When it comes to the Laws of Physics, they're
lucky if they get gravity."
-- David Cameron Staples' wife to him as he sat yelling
obscenities at the idiot box
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>>On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
>> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>>*BLAM*.
>
Bad... it's not a pun, is it? Can it be a double entendre when it
doesn't involve sex?
--
TimC
My other car is a cdr
Graham Reed
> If it's any comfort, single-user got a good workout on my Yvahk desktop
I've spent way too much time at mine, as I boot from a legacy HDD
interface and Yvahk insists on enumerating it _after_ all the modern
HDD instances, of which there are a non-constant number. So every
kernel upgrade usually is followed by some single-user mode swearing.
Though I think I've got it sorted permanently now and won't have to do
that anymore. Now something else will go horribly wrong on the next
update.
Almost as much fun as moving a live OS to a new disk that isn't
visible to the boot environment.
--
"You are a winner. But that doesn't mean you aren't a loser."
-- [jealous] co-worker after I won two iPods
Shmuel Metz
at 06:55 AM, TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au>
said:
>Can it be a double entendre when it doesn't involve sex?
Yes. My mind is in the gutter, and some of my double entendres involve
computers instead of sex. Some, of course, involve both.
"105, breakfast of champions." Translated from an old tee shirt.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <http://patriot.net/~shmuel> ISO position
Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+bspfh to contact me.
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
Shmuel Metz
at 02:43 AM, Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> said:
>No, for inappropriate use of an apostrophe.
The apostrophe is "for fsck's sake" is appropriate.
Lionel
> On 2009-11-11, Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Roger Burton West wrote:
>>
>>> TimC wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce) was almost, but not quite, entirely
>>>> unlike tea:
>>>>
>>>>> At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's
>>>>> sake".
>>>> *BLAM*.
>>> For UI?
>> No, for inappropriate use of an apostrophe.
>
> the quoted section, unless you've decided to buck the normal usage and
> declare the possessive apostrophe obsolete.
So, how can fsck own something?
David Cameron Staples
> Paul Arthur wrote:
>> On 2009-11-11, Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Roger Burton West wrote:
>>>
>>>> TimC wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce) was almost, but not quite, entirely
>>>>> unlike tea:
>>>>>
>>>>>> At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's
>>>>>> sake".
>>>>> *BLAM*.
>>>> For UI?
>>> No, for inappropriate use of an apostrophe.
>>
>> Where, pray tell, is this inappropriate use found? Certainly not in the
>> quoted section, unless you've decided to buck the normal usage and
>> declare the possessive apostrophe obsolete.
>
> So, how can fsck own something?
"The hat's brim"
How can a hat own something?
--
David Cameron Staples | staples AT unimelb DOT edu DOT au
Melbourne University | School of Engineering | IT Support
i'm going to become rich and famous after i invent a device that allows
you to stab people in the face over the internet -- bash.org/?4281
Garrett Wollman
>>>>> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce) was almost, but not quite, entirely
>>>>> unlike tea:
>>>>>
>>>>>> At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's
>>>>>> sake".
>So, how can fsck own something?
The genitive case is not, and has never been, equivalent in semantics
to ownership, as any reliable English grammar will tell you.
Alexander Schreiber
> ab...@leftmind.net (AdB) writes:
>> If it's any comfort, single-user got a good workout on my Yvahk desktop
>
> I've spent way too much time at mine, as I boot from a legacy HDD
> interface and Yvahk insists on enumerating it _after_ all the modern
> HDD instances, of which there are a non-constant number. So every
> kernel upgrade usually is followed by some single-user mode swearing.
Well, you could try to <potential UI censored>, the way Hohagh deals with
this by default. Of course, it has its own ... issues.
> Though I think I've got it sorted permanently now and won't have to do
> that anymore. Now something else will go horribly wrong on the next
> update.
Of course.
> Almost as much fun as moving a live OS to a new disk that isn't
> visible to the boot environment.
And then there is the fun I had when I found out that my root disk pair
takes more than 30 seconds to actually appear to the kernel ... but
fortunately, that one is rather easily dealt with.
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> If it's any comfort, single-user got a good workout on my Yvahk desktop
>
> I've spent way too much time at mine, as I boot from a legacy HDD
> interface and Yvahk insists on enumerating it _after_ all the modern
> HDD instances, of which there are a non-constant number. So every
> kernel upgrade usually is followed by some single-user mode swearing.
Dude, why don't you UI?
> Though I think I've got it sorted permanently now and won't have to do
> that anymore. Now something else will go horribly wrong on the next
> update.
Ah, yes, that.
In today's fun, I was desperately trying to upgrade an instrument
controller running Yvakh, since we've been pushing for 2 years now to
get it upgraded and we were finally given a 2 day window (we were
promised 4 weeks a few months ago, but then someone used their 2 weeks
and then took another 4 weeks from the schedule themselves).
Tomorrow morning is our artificial deadline of choice (that instrument
controller is not going to be used for another 2 weeks during the next
full moon period, but the powers that be have no idea about risk
management and how hard it is to swap disks if something was to go
wrong). Very very simple task, almost completed, $BOSS had just asked
me when I expected to be able to hand over, and I replied "within a
couple of hours, but you know something always crops up", and then some
bastard got their backhoe out.
So I went to another task. Which eventually stalled requiring
something from the net. So I moved to another task, which stalled in a
similar fashion. So then I just resorted to physical cleanup of our
areas so the borgers will be happy when they come to borg in a couple
of weeks. At least I'll satisfy their "clean desk policy". What else
can a guy do when the photons aren't flowing?
They'd usually have it repaired by now. I can see photons flowing
through the same fibre a tantalising 5km away as the crow flies.
--
TimC
Never before have I been so entertained by an essay with no apparant
point, structure, or notion of continuity. - Jeremy D. Impson
mikea
> On 2009-11-11, Graham Reed (aka Bruce)
> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> ab...@leftmind.net (AdB) writes:
>>> If it's any comfort, single-user got a good workout on my Yvahk desktop
>>
>> I've spent way too much time at mine, as I boot from a legacy HDD
>> interface and Yvahk insists on enumerating it _after_ all the modern
>> HDD instances, of which there are a non-constant number. So every
>> kernel upgrade usually is followed by some single-user mode swearing.
>
> Dude, why don't you UI?
>
>> Though I think I've got it sorted permanently now and won't have to do
>> that anymore. Now something else will go horribly wrong on the next
>> update.
>
> Ah, yes, that.
>
>
>
> In today's fun, I was desperately trying to upgrade an instrument
> controller running Yvakh, since we've been pushing for 2 years now to
> get it upgraded and we were finally given a 2 day window (we were
> promised 4 weeks a few months ago, but then someone used their 2 weeks
> and then took another 4 weeks from the schedule themselves).
How very ... _Thoughtful_ of them.
> Tomorrow morning is our artificial deadline of choice (that instrument
> controller is not going to be used for another 2 weeks during the next
> full moon period, but the powers that be have no idea about risk
> management and how hard it is to swap disks if something was to go
> wrong). Very very simple task, almost completed, $BOSS had just asked
> me when I expected to be able to hand over, and I replied "within a
> couple of hours, but you know something always crops up", and then some
> bastard got their backhoe out.
Yes. Something cropped up. It always damnit does. You can't do just one
thing.
for i in `ls fallback_plans`
do
echo "about to try fallback plan $i" >> boss && $i
done
> So I went to another task. Which eventually stalled requiring
> something from the net. So I moved to another task, which stalled in a
> similar fashion. So then I just resorted to physical cleanup of our
> areas so the borgers will be happy when they come to borg in a couple
> of weeks. At least I'll satisfy their "clean desk policy". What else
> can a guy do when the photons aren't flowing?
Good thing you don't live in Borger.TX.US, innit?
What's this about borgers, again? I appear to have missed the news.
> They'd usually have it repaired by now. I can see photons flowing
> through the same fibre a tantalising 5km away as the crow flies.
Wow! Are you using instruments, or is it naked-eye visible, as in
"WARNING! Do Not Look At Laser Beam With Remaining Eye?" Reminds me of
Dave Platt's observation on someone's post about receiving a radio
signal at a power level of S-30[1]:
> >> .... from S-30 to ...
> >Now _there's_ a signal report you don't often enter in your log...
> True... most of us are too busy running away from the electric arcs
> and dodging the ball lightning :-) -- Dave Platt, in r.r.a.h
[1] S-9 is a power level putting something like 50 microvolts across 50
Ohms IIRC. One S-unit increase is a 6 dB power increase, or 4 times
the power of the previous S-level. I think. But if that's true, then
S-30 = 219.9023255552 Watts = 104.8576 Volts into 50 ohms, which
isn't all that bad. At the transmitter, anyway, though it might be a
bit rough on the receiver. S-40, now, is a whole different level of
hurt: 230584300.921369 Watts = 107374.1824 Volts into 50 ohms. If I
did the arithmetic right and understood the concepts correctly.
--
The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could
never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma.
--Abraham Lincoln, tyrant
Seth
>> On 2009-11-11, Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Roger Burton West wrote:
>>>> TimC wrote:
>>>>> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce) was almost, but not quite, entirely
>>>>> unlike tea:
>>>>>
>>>>>> At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's
>>>>>> sake".
>>>>> *BLAM*.
>>>> For UI?
>>> No, for inappropriate use of an apostrophe.
>>
>> Where, pray tell, is this inappropriate use found? Certainly not in
>> the quoted section, unless you've decided to buck the normal usage and
>> declare the possessive apostrophe obsolete.
>
>So, how can fsck own something?
In English, the grammatical possessive is used for ownership,
sub-part, and relationship/association. Confusion among those leads
to all sorts of political issues. (E.g. "my job" refers to the job
associated with me in the obvious way, not something that is my
property.)
Slavery is illegal. I spoke with my mother yesterday.
I'm at work, sitting in my chair at my desk, typing on my computer,
none of which I own.
Seth
Peter H. Coffin
> TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au> wrote in <125802217...@hexane.ssi.swin.edu.au>:
>> through the same fibre a tantalising 5km away as the crow flies.
>
> Wow! Are you using instruments, or is it naked-eye visible, as in
> "WARNING! Do Not Look At Laser Beam With Remaining Eye?"
Supposition based on being able to point an instrument at "nearby"
building and see someone checking their gmail on a convenient terminal?
State of the art in shoulder-surfing...
Or perhaps just "I just phoned up Inacomp up the road, and they say
their tubes are still flowing, so it must be between here and there."
--
10. I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel
well outside my borders will work just as well.
--Peter Anspach's list of things to do as an Evil Overlord
mikea
> mikea wrote:
>
>>Wow! Are you using instruments, or is it naked-eye visible, as in
>>"WARNING! Do Not Look At Laser Beam With Remaining Eye?"
>
> happen". He didn't see anything else out of that eye for several hours.
He's _very_ lucky he regained any sight at all. Those power levels are
*not* friendly to retinal tissue. Depleted rhodopsin is the least of the
problems that come from that sort of thing.
--
Bring me my etherkiller; Oh clouds unfold! / Bring me the magic smoke of desire
I shall not cease from mental fight / Nor shall my LART rest in my hand
Till we have buried the bodies / Of all the lusers in all this land
-- rpg, ASR~
Paul
news:hdfscs$hcq$2...@xen1.xcski.com:
> So, how can fsck own something?
It can own your @$$ if you do not know what you are doing.
That should NOT be UI.
--
Paul the Legacy Server
Full Recovery reached May 30, 2008
"People can be educated beyond their intelligence"
-- Marilyn vos Savant
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> TimC <tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au> wrote in <125802217...@hexane.ssi.swin.edu.au>:
>>> They'd usually have it repaired by now. I can see photons flowing
>>> through the same fibre a tantalising 5km away as the crow flies.
>>
>> Wow! Are you using instruments, or is it naked-eye visible, as in
>> "WARNING! Do Not Look At Laser Beam With Remaining Eye?"
>
> Supposition based on being able to point an instrument at "nearby"
> building and see someone checking their gmail on a convenient terminal?
> State of the art in shoulder-surfing...
>
> Or perhaps just "I just phoned up Inacomp up the road, and they say
> their tubes are still flowing, so it must be between here and there."
I checked the lightning detector at the radio telescope at the bottom
of the mountain (we're on the same Gbps link), which conveniently
responded, telling me that indeed the sky really was flashing. It
also said "Consider_Generator", which was amusing because the power
had already glitched once.
--
TimC
Ride by the freeway
Bumper to bumper traffic
A Schadenfreude -- Duncan Farrow in aus.bicycle
John F. Eldredge
> Roger Burton West <roger+a...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote in
> <20091112144525....@firedrake.org>:
>> mikea wrote:
>>
>>>Wow! Are you using instruments, or is it naked-eye visible, as in
>>>"WARNING! Do Not Look At Laser Beam With Remaining Eye?"
>>
>> I knew a network-admin who looked down a live STM-1 "to see what would
>> happen". He didn't see anything else out of that eye for several hours.
>
> He's _very_ lucky he regained any sight at all. Those power levels are
> *not* friendly to retinal tissue. Depleted rhodopsin is the least of the
> problems that come from that sort of thing.
Around 30 party-goers at a outdoor rave outside Moscow, Russia in 2008
ended up partially blind due to a mishandled laser. The original plan
had been to shine the powerful laser up into the sky. However, the
weather turned rainy, so the rave was held under a tent. Some reports
blamed the problem on laser light reflecting off of the underside of the
tent; other reports said that the laser was swept horizontally across the
crowd at head-height.
--
John F. Eldredge -- jo...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> something from the net. So I moved to another task, which stalled in a
>> similar fashion. So then I just resorted to physical cleanup of our
>> areas so the borgers will be happy when they come to borg in a couple
>> of weeks. At least I'll satisfy their "clean desk policy". What else
>> can a guy do when the photons aren't flowing?
>
> Good thing you don't live in Borger.TX.US, innit?
>
> What's this about borgers, again? I appear to have missed the news.
The NNB is getting renamed to the NNB[0], since the "Natyb" are
pulling out after they er... faced some financial difficulties and
their national science budget essentially went bankrupt.
So we're going to be fully funded[1] under a different government
department where they are all about IT centralisation even though
they're clearly incompetant and have never heard of Yvahk before and
are distrustful of things like firefox (I'd love to be a fly on the
wall when someone tells them what gcc is and what security breaches it
can cause).
[0] "Natyb Nhfgenyvna" becomes "Nhfgenyvna Nfgebabzvpny" (saves money
on reprinting letterheads).
[1] We're actually going to be richer than we ever were in real terms
over the next 10 years, so clearly we have had to lay off workers and
employ extra project managers and project manager managers.
--
TimC
Soylent Strips by Ralston-Purina. Dogs don't know it's not people!
-- Joe Bay
Lawns 'R' Us
> So we're going to be fully funded[1] under a different government
> department where they are all about IT centralisation even though
> they're clearly incompetant and have never heard of Yvahk before and
> are distrustful of things like firefox (I'd love to be a fly on the
> wall when someone tells them what gcc is and what security breaches it
> can cause).
Heh.
I had an interview today at a company whose (current) name bears a
remarkable resemblance to a manufacturer of refrigerators (but who do
not, in fact, manufacture whitegoods of any description, and have
absolutely no connection, beyond historical coincidences regarding
their founder, to any such company). I asked about their desktops,
based upon comments in their position description: "Jvaqbjf, jvgu n
ovg bs Hohagh, evtug?" The response? "Npghnyyl, n *ybg* bs Hohagh." I
commented on the apparent note of resignation in the interviewer's
tone of voice, and he wryly agreed.
Still, it looks like being an interesting place to be - IT systems in
the usual disarray, with a desire to turn the ship around a bit, and
lots of opportunities to learn. Touch wood.
Lionel
> Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> wrote in
> news:hdfscs$hcq$2...@xen1.xcski.com:
>
>> So, how can fsck own something?
>
> It can own your @$$ if you do not know what you are doing.
>
> That should NOT be UI.
Fortunately, fsck & I have an excellent working relationship.
Lionel
> In article <hdfl0k$tg5$1...@sheepdip.leftmind.net>,
> AdB wrote:
>
>> And don't go telling me that anthropomorphizing the filesystem-check
>> utility annoys it, either.
>
> It doesn't need anthropomorphizing to act annoyed. It's true that the
> essential work you're in the middle of will be that which is most
> likely to be trashed, as those will be the blocks (and directories)
> that have most recently changed. The long-forgotten midi file that you
> listened to once only but still lurks in /var/tmp or similar will be
> preserved unscathed.
In a morally perfect world, you'd lose anything you deposit in /var/tmp,
but in /this/ world, I fear that you're correct.
(And don't get me started on Outlook lusers who treat the trash basket
as a filing cabinet, then whine when everything in it gets nuked...)
Lionel
> mikea wrote:
>
>> Wow! Are you using instruments, or is it naked-eye visible, as in
>> "WARNING! Do Not Look At Laser Beam With Remaining Eye?"
>
> happen". He didn't see anything else out of that eye for several hours.
The moron is damn lucky his blindness only lasted a few hours.
Lionel
> So we're going to be fully funded[1] under a different government
> department where they are all about IT centralisation even though
> they're clearly incompetant and have never heard of Yvahk before and
> are distrustful of things like firefox (I'd love to be a fly on the
> wall when someone tells them what gcc is and what security breaches it
> can cause).
Are you planning on sending the a copy of Reflections On Trusting Trust[0]?
[0] Sic, probably.
Lionel
> I had an interview today at a company whose (current) name bears a
> remarkable resemblance to a manufacturer of refrigerators (but who do
> not, in fact, manufacture whitegoods of any description, and have
> absolutely no connection, beyond historical coincidences regarding
> their founder, to any such company).
Hmm. Jrfgvatubhfr?
> I asked about their desktops,
> based upon comments in their position description: "Jvaqbjf, jvgu n
> ovg bs Hohagh, evtug?" The response? "Npghnyyl, n *ybg* bs Hohagh." I
> commented on the apparent note of resignation in the interviewer's
> tone of voice, and he wryly agreed.
>
> Still, it looks like being an interesting place to be - IT systems in
> the usual disarray, with a desire to turn the ship around a bit, and
> lots of opportunities to learn.
Well, that's one way of putting it.
mikea
> Lawns 'R' Us wrote:
>> I had an interview today at a company whose (current) name bears a
>> remarkable resemblance to a manufacturer of refrigerators (but who do
>> not, in fact, manufacture whitegoods of any description, and have
>> absolutely no connection, beyond historical coincidences regarding
>> their founder, to any such company).
>
> Hmm. Jrfgvatubhfr?
>
>> I asked about their desktops,
>> based upon comments in their position description: "Jvaqbjf, jvgu n
>> ovg bs Hohagh, evtug?" The response? "Npghnyyl, n *ybg* bs Hohagh." I
>> commented on the apparent note of resignation in the interviewer's
>> tone of voice, and he wryly agreed.
>>
>> Still, it looks like being an interesting place to be - IT systems in
>> the usual disarray, with a desire to turn the ship around a bit, and
>> lots of opportunities to learn.
>
> Well, that's one way of putting it.
Yeah; the fighter jocks talk about "a target-rich environment".
Some places, the ship first needs to be turned so that the keel is in
the water. After that, one can take the time to decide which way the bow
points. BTDT.
--
"A map with a bullet hole in it is still a map. A $GADGET with a bullet
hole in it is a door stop." (Attribution unknown)
(from a post by Matt Roberds in the Monastery)
Erwan David
> Lawns 'R' Us wrote:
>> I had an interview today at a company whose (current) name bears a
>> remarkable resemblance to a manufacturer of refrigerators (but who do
>> not, in fact, manufacture whitegoods of any description, and have
>> absolutely no connection, beyond historical coincidences regarding
>> their founder, to any such company).
>
> Hmm. Jrfgvatubhfr?
This make me things more of nuclear power plants or train braking
systems...
--
Le travail n'est pas une bonne chose. Si �a l'�tait,
les riches l'auraient accapar�
mikea
> mikea wrote:
>
>>Some places, the ship first needs to be turned so that the keel is in
>>the water.
>
>
> What, you wanted the superstructure out of the water too?
>
>>After that, one can take the time to decide which way the bow
>>points. BTDT.
>
> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys?currentPage=all
_Serious_ props to those guys! Crying shame indeed about Johnson, but
_WAY SERIOUS_ props to them all.
--
Fairy Tails start "Once upon a time."
Army/Sea stories start "This is no shit."
Software proposals start "1.0."
-- Joe Zeff, in a.s.r.
Lionel
> Roger Burton West <roger+a...@nospam.firedrake.org> wrote in <20091113142448....@firedrake.org>:
>> mikea wrote:
>>
>>> Some places, the ship first needs to be turned so that the keel is in
>>> the water.
>> Oh, that's easy.
>>
>> What, you wanted the superstructure out of the water too?
>>
>>> After that, one can take the time to decide which way the bow
>>> points. BTDT.
>> I imagine not this way, though:
>> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys?currentPage=all
>
> _Serious_ props to those guys! Crying shame indeed about Johnson, but
> _WAY SERIOUS_ props to them all.
Indeed. That is one seriously cool job.
Joe Zeff
> Yeah; the fighter jocks talk about "a target-rich environment".
One of the computer games we play at LASFS on gaming nights is Wbvag Bcf.
[1] Every now and then when I've been in "sniper mode" for a while, I'll
comment about how the objective is becoming a target-poor environment.
[1]Roted to avoid gigglemancy.
--
Joe Zeff -- The Guy With The Sideburns:
http://www.zeff.us http://www.lasfs.info
Sounds a bit like Apple's iPrint Shuffle: you press a button and it
prints something somewhere at random.
Steve VanDevender
> I asked about their desktops,
> based upon comments in their position description: "Jvaqbjf, jvgu n
> ovg bs Hohagh, evtug?" The response? "Npghnyyl, n *ybg* bs Hohagh."
A place that conducts job interviews in Klingon must be really BOFH.
"bs Hohagh", indeed.
--
Steve VanDevender "I ride the big iron" http://hexadecimal.uoregon.edu/
ste...@hexadecimal.uoregon.edu PGP keyprint 4AD7AF61F0B9DE87 522902969C0A7EE8
"bash awk grep perl sed df du, du-du du-du,
vi troff su fsck rm * halt LART LART LART!" -- the Swedish BOFH
Lawns 'R' Us
> Lawns 'R' Us wrote:
>> I had an interview today at a company whose (current) name bears a
>> remarkable resemblance to a manufacturer of refrigerators (but who do
>> not, in fact, manufacture whitegoods of any description, and have
>> absolutely no connection, beyond historical coincidences regarding
>> their founder, to any such company).
>
> Hmm. Jrfgvatubhfr?
Add "envy flfgrzf" to the end of that, and you have it in one.
(Hmm. Interesting rotism there for envy.)
>> Still, it looks like being an interesting place to be - IT systems in
>> the usual disarray, with a desire to turn the ship around a bit, and
>> lots of opportunities to learn.
>
> Well, that's one way of putting it.
Quite. Well, I did say that I want a job that'll challenge me... this
may be the universe's way of saying "be careful what you ask for".
David Cameron Staples
> In article <hdfl0k$tg5$1...@sheepdip.leftmind.net>,
> AdB wrote:
>
>> And don't go telling me that anthropomorphizing the filesystem-check
>> utility annoys it, either.
>
> It doesn't need anthropomorphizing to act annoyed. It's true that the
> essential work you're in the middle of will be that which is most likely
> to be trashed, as those will be the blocks (and directories) that have
> most recently changed. The long-forgotten midi file that you listened to
> once only but still lurks in /var/tmp or similar will be preserved
> unscathed.
This is, of course, because when the head has a glitch (or the laptop is
bumped, or whatever), it is much more likely to be doing something in the
vicinity of what you are currently working on, than near the lost depths
of /var/temp/asihpo51h3a1g.oip239q3h/neverwannagiveyouup.midi. This is
not by accident, by an inescapable consequence of other factors.
Or, in other words, it really is a natural law that the Universe despises
data in direct proportion to its importance.
It's even more fun when you think that the part of the hard drive which
gets the most use is the swap. I now know the symptoms of bad blocks in
the swap partition, and how to work around them.
Lionel
> Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> disait le 11/13/09 que :
>
>> Lawns 'R' Us wrote:
>>> I had an interview today at a company whose (current) name bears a
>>> remarkable resemblance to a manufacturer of refrigerators (but who do
>>> not, in fact, manufacture whitegoods of any description, and have
>>> absolutely no connection, beyond historical coincidences regarding
>>> their founder, to any such company).
>> Hmm. Jrfgvatubhfr?
>
> This make me things more of nuclear power plants or train braking
> systems...
Fridges under that same brand name were very popular in Oz for many years.
Garrett Wollman
>Erwan David wrote:
>> Lionel <imag...@gmail.com> disait le 11/13/09 que :
>>
>> This make me things more of nuclear power plants or train braking
>> systems...
>
>Fridges under that same brand name were very popular in Oz for many years.
In the home country as well -- although it's worth noting that the
train brakes were Westinghouse Air Brake Company whereas the kitchen
appliances and nuke plants (and broadcasting) were Westinghouse
Electric Company. There are actually five railway-related businesses
under (some version of) the Westinghouse name, none of which have any
current connection to the others; it's one of the more fragmented
brand names in the industrial world. Westinghouse Electric was
originally a railway-related business as well, making electric
traction motors, although its primary business, of course, was
Alternating Current -- Tesla was one of the first employees.
Ironically, WEC's British business ended up in the same hands as GE's
British business, and that company, British Thomson-Houston,
eventually ended up in the hands of GEC (no relation). (And that
company, of course, eventually ended up in the hands of GE's former
French business, Thomson, which -- entirely independently -- also
ended up with GE's and RCA's former consumer-electronics businesses
after GE reswallowed RCA in 1986.)
Westinghouse Electric merged with CBS in 1995-6 and spun off all of
its non-broadcasting assets, renaming the parent company CBS Corp.,
then merging with Viacom a couple of years later (acquiring, among
sundary other assets, the few remaining natural resources assets of
the former Gulf+Western Industries, one of Viacom's ancestors by a
previous merger). A few years ago, Viacom split up, but with a
different asset mix. (GE, meanwhile, ended up with NBC as a result of
its purchase of RCA as mentioned above, and is now trying to get rid
of it while it still has value to someone.)
The Westinghouse nuclear business changed hands a few times and is now
owned by Toshiba.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wol...@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
TimC
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
>> was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>>
>> *BLAM*.
>
> Either you're good at this language and did that because he left the
> full-stop outside the closing quote... or you did it for some other
> reason and aren't good at this language. Or you're just insane. Maybe
> it's a tick-all-that-apply thing.
Or, as I said elsewhere, I was blamming him for punning.
--
TimC
"Always carry a flagon of whisky....in case of snake bite,
and furthermore always carry a small snake." - W.C. FIELDS
Iain Chalmers
Dan Birchall <feeping....@cow-tapult.example.com> wrote:
> tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au (TimC) wrote:
> > On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
> > was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> > >
> > > At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's sake".
> >
> > *BLAM*.
>
> Either you're good at this language and did that because he left the
> full-stop outside the closing quote...
Surely in that case he'd have written:
*BLAM.*
big
--
As your attorney, I advise you to rent a very fast car with no top. And
you'll need the cocaine. Tape recorder for special music. Acapulco shirts.
Get the hell out of L.A. for at least 48 hours. Blows my weekend.
Bernard Peek
Chalmers <big...@mightymedia.com.au> writes
>In article <slrnhg02tt.qjr....@my-286.myhome.westell.com>,
> Dan Birchall <feeping....@cow-tapult.example.com> wrote:
>
>> tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au (TimC) wrote:
>> > On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
>> > was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>> > >
>> > > At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's sake".
>> >
>> > *BLAM*.
>>
>> Either you're good at this language and did that because he left the
>> full-stop outside the closing quote...
>
>Surely in that case he'd have written:
>
>*BLAM.*
The trick would be to get that to appear only for readers in places
where putting a full-stop inside the quote would have been correct.
There aren't many such places. Leftpondian practise is to put the period
before the closing quote. Rightpondian practise (IMHO erroneously) is to
put a full-stop after the closing quote.
I'm unsure about upper leftpondia though.
--
Bernard Peek
mikea
> In article <wvB3pfE5$WAL...@shrdlu.com>,
> Bernard Peek wrote:
>> The trick would be to get that to appear only for readers in places
>> where putting a full-stop inside the quote would have been correct.
>> There aren't many such places. Leftpondian practise is to put the period
>> before the closing quote. Rightpondian practise (IMHO erroneously) is to
>> put a full-stop after the closing quote.
>
>
> "Bother!" said Pooh, "I've lost my door key."
>
> The title of the book was "The Locked House at Pooh Corner".
My practice, when I can be bothered to do it, is to put quotes around
the object being quoted. The hard-liners here in leftpondia seem to
insist that any terminal punctuation, whether it belongs to the quoted
object or not, *MUST* appear inside the quotes. In rightpondia, the
practice appears to be that the terminal punctuation must appear outside
the quotes.
I liken them to Big-Endians and Little-Endians, and (as I wrote above)
use quotes to enclose the quoted object, punctuation and all. I also
break my eggs where convenient to me.
YMPDV.
--
Just because I'm not doing anything, doesn't mean I have nothing to do!
-- Ellen Winnie (SCA: Ellen L. Fraser), in rec.org.sca
Richard Bos
> On 2009-11-15, Dan Birchall (aka Bruce)
> > tcon...@no.spam.accepted.here-astro.swin.edu.au (TimC) wrote:
> >> On 2009-11-11, AdB (aka Bruce)
> >> > At times like that, you just know that ffs stands for "for fsck's sake".
> >>
> >> *BLAM*.
> >
> > Either you're good at this language and did that because he left the
> > full-stop outside the closing quote... or you did it for some other
> > reason and aren't good at this language. Or you're just insane. Maybe
> > it's a tick-all-that-apply thing.
>
> Or, as I said elsewhere, I was blamming him for punning.
Feh. That pun wasn't worth a flying blam.
Richard
Shmuel Metz
at 10:07 AM, mikea <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> said:
>My practice, when I can be bothered to do it, is to put quotes around the
>object being quoted. The hard-liners here in leftpondia seem to insist
>that any terminal punctuation, whether it belongs to the quoted object or
>not, *MUST* appear inside the quotes.
That depends on which style guide you use.
--
Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz <http://patriot.net/~shmuel> ISO position
Reply to domain Patriot dot net user shmuel+bspfh to contact me.
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
(S877: The Shut up and Eat Your spam act of 2003)
David Cameron Staples
scripsit:
> In <tu98t6-...@mikea.ath.cx>, on 11/16/2009
> at 10:07 AM, mikea <mi...@mikea.ath.cx> said:
>
>>My practice, when I can be bothered to do it, is to put quotes around
>>the object being quoted. The hard-liners here in leftpondia seem to
>>insist that any terminal punctuation, whether it belongs to the quoted
>>object or not, *MUST* appear inside the quotes.
>
> That depends on which style guide you use.
:s/use/ignore/
--
David Cameron Staples | staples AT unimelb DOT edu DOT au
Melbourne University | School of Engineering | IT Support
I'd say Outlook Express is a newsreader in the same sense as cardboard
is edible: i.e. only to pedants, masochists and the mentally retarded.
-- Ilmari Karonen in a.h.b-o-u.d
Seth
>My practice, when I can be bothered to do it, is to put quotes around
>the object being quoted.
Agreed. It's the only logical way.
As a matter of style, if there's punctuation inside a terminal quote,
then a period following it is elided.
> The hard-liners here in leftpondia seem to
>insist that any terminal punctuation, whether it belongs to the quoted
>object or not, *MUST* appear inside the quotes.
That makes no sense; if someone asked a question, it looks like they
might have made a statement (and I'm asking the reader if they did).
> In rightpondia, the practice appears to be that the terminal
>punctuation must appear outside the quotes.
That's equally wrong, for a similar reason.
Seth
Graham Reed
> And don't go telling me that anthropomorphizing the filesystem-check
> utility annoys it, either.
It's YOUR fault, then. You annoyed my fsck so much it said:
Ehaavat nqqvgvbany cnffrf gb erfbyir @of pynvzrq ol zber guna bar
@v...
Cnff 1O: Erfpnaavat sbe @z @of
(Substitutions left in 'cause @bs is just so right. Rotted to prevent
giggles on the message text.)
At which point I whacked it with a QUIT and re-made the damn thing
(with default options this time), since it was nearly empty anyway.
--
^F^R^E^A^K
mrob...@worldnet.att.net
> Well, you could try to <potential UI censored>, the way Hohagh deals
> with this by default. Of course, it has its own ... issues.
Hohagh reminds me a bit of the TARDIS - stolen, but from the wrong end
of the queue at the repair shop.
Matt Roberds
Alexander Schreiber
Yes, but it is shiny and colorful and cudly and ... also broken in rather
interesting ways.
Regards,
Alex.
--
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and
looks like work." -- Thomas A. Edison