ncphil

11 ms·

91.
by ncphil 4y ago
With ThinkPads, just buy a few generations behind refurbished, preferably from a nonprofit recycler. They've always been great for Linux. The T series gives you more upgrade options, but the X models run longer on a charge and are smal
92.
by ncphil 4y ago
It was the transition of commercial printing technology from "hot lead" typesetting machines (big brothers of the Linotype beasts I helped maintain while in college) to photo-offset, during which the fonts Knuth loved got "le
93.
by ncphil 4y ago
In the US, at least, all members of a law partnership (or professional corporation) must be licensed attorneys. That's baked into both state law and rules of professional conduct, and is a serious limitation on organization that tech p
94.
by ncphil 4y ago
Specifically, _1994_, another banner year for undermining civil liberties and privacy, what with the passage of the new sentencing provisions of the federal crime bill and continuing effort to prevent wider use of encryption by individuals
95.
by ncphil 4y ago
No."You people" need to start forming worker co-ops, but as the previous post states, you first have to accept that you're a worker.
96.
by ncphil 4y ago
... exactly what I was thinking. Discovering rclone mount finally let me abandon the file sync paradigm and return to my workflows of yesteryear when NFS was still the dominant file sharing system on Unix.
97.
by ncphil 4y ago
No. Congress is not "part of the government". Sure, they get government paychecks, but they're the legislature not the executive. They don't "do" anything, just direct that it be done. All but a few are million
98.
by ncphil 4y ago
The OAuth support won me over to FairEmail ( https://email.faircode.eu/ ) as well. Was a long time K9 user over several Android releases, but I guess I'm getting impatient in my old age. This last time had no end of trou
99.
by ncphil 4y ago
It used to be that if you were going to run BSD that meant either compiling from ports or source. Packages were only available for the most common components, but the default was ports and most admins went along with that because you got gr
100.
by ncphil 4y ago
Hopefully this piece gets a lot more views, because this is an issue that pretty much any rational technoligist should get involved with. Here in NC, our state legislature also caved to cableco and telecom pressure to make it nearly impossi
101.
by ncphil 4y ago
It's mostly because the most economical way to get it is with an enterprise M365 sub, which many companies with under 1,000 users don't have. Even at that level, the unforseen need for additional premium licensing can dampen enthu
102.
by ncphil 4y ago
Google started shutting down its GSA (Google Search Appliance) business in 2016, with the latest customers getting shut off by the end of 2018/2019. The promised cloud replacement never materialized, at least for anyone who wasn't
103.
by ncphil 5y ago
In 1999, after installing Linux on a mainframe for the first time, I needed to edit a few files. Being in the Linux console, ISPF wasn't an option. But the copy of Linux we were working with (Marist College's release) didn't
104.
by ncphil 5y ago
My first experience with the korn shell was 20 years ago while trying to prove myself worthy of root on the Solaris boxes that hosted the LDAP servers (iPlanet, of course) I was responsible for. I'd done a lot of Windows shell scriptin
105.
by ncphil 5y ago
Which 90% of the time makes sense because if you want anything more than the barebones default config (which you usually do), that's best done before everything gets spun up. But I've worked with Ubuntu (and Debian) long enough th
106.
by ncphil 5y ago
There really weren't any practical differences between Roman and American slavery, at least from the slaves point of view. The owner had the absolute power of life or death over their slaves, and exercised it brutally (corporal punishm
107.
by ncphil 5y ago
Not so sure older content (like the stuff I wrote in the late 90s to mid 00s) would be negatively impacted, so long as search providers pay careful attention to the <!DOCTYPE> tag (or lack thereof). I wouldn't characterize holdin
108.
by ncphil 5y ago
Enjoy it while you can. In no time at all, she'll be in her 20s asking for advice on what car insurance to buy.
109.
by ncphil 5y ago
"People" who were "Greatest generation" and "Silent generation" adults who lied to us, lied to my face, when they knew it wasn't the truth. Civilian nuclear power (at least terrestrial nuclear power) is, a
110.
by ncphil 5y ago
Web 3.0 is either snakeoil, or a Ponzi scheme. Or both. We'll all know soon enough. After all, it's not like any actual engineers are going to have a say in this: just the donors and their retainers.
111.
by ncphil 5y ago
Web 3.0 is either snakeoil, or a ponzi scheme. Or both. We'll all know soon enough. After all, it's not like any actual engineers are going to have a say in this: just the donors and their retainers.
112.
by ncphil 5y ago
For landlines we had a Do Not Call Registry, but nothing like that was ever implemented for mobile as far as I know. For me, false or misleading CallerIDs are the most immediate problem. If we required commercial entities to clearly identif
113.
by ncphil 5y ago
Can't help but think that if marijuana decriminalization/legalization finally happens, law enforcement will be rooting around for other low hanging fruit. Seems like this just might fit the bill. Imagining heavily armed SWAT teams
114.
by ncphil 5y ago
A valiant effort: one that has me thinking the New Years' weekend may be the time for me to refresh my own WebSockets knowledge. Thanks much for the inspiration!
115.
by ncphil 5y ago
Wait. Did you really mean to tag anyone simply _employed_ by Facebook as hypocritical? As if being employed by an entity immediately connotes acquiescence to whatever unethical or immoral behavior that entity engages in? Isn't that &qu
116.
by ncphil 5y ago
Fascinating article, although I would quibble with the statement that Curiosity's is the "most important RTG in the solar system". While technically now beyond the heliopause, surely the cluster of 44 year-old RTGs powering t
117.
by ncphil 5y ago
PACER should have been free from the beginning. Gatekeeping legal information for profit (even if only used to supplement appropriations) isn't only a problem at the federal level. In many states you need a commercial subscription to e
118.
by ncphil 5y ago
Like others have already written: Firefox is the most effective at suppressing ads, _with the uBlock Origin extension_. Ironic that most of Mozilla's funding comes from ad king Google. M's corporate leadership has really driven th
119.
by ncphil 5y ago
Anyone heard about Corsi-Rosenthal boxes? https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/ . A box fan and 4 x 2 inch MERV 13 filters. Around $100, including the duct tape. This design is very effective, surpassing commercial
120.
by ncphil 5y ago
I think you're onto something there. As a practical matter, the cynical "IP is only for big corporations" is probably right. But that's just an extension of, "the courts are only for the rich". At least here in

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