zabzonk

28 ms·

631.
by zabzonk 2y ago
A password, and extra secret information on things like my bank account have always worked well for me. I simply cannot stand 2FA using a smartphone. Why? Because I don't have or want one. Luckily, my bank allows use of a landline for
632.
by zabzonk 2y ago
No, I don't think Linn, as I would have actually heard of them. But if you told me the actual name, I really would not recognise it - so long ago.
633.
by zabzonk 2y ago
yes, i did. i thought it was not much good. these days i really only post anecdotes here, as i don't do any dev work now. humour me!
634.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Can't remember, I'm afraid. Some obscure British company I guess. Probably one that made music synths back then, as it's the same sort of tech.
635.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Well, if you can do it, do it. But in my experience, using an analog computer is nothing at all like digital. I used to have to maintain one when I worked at the University of London, back in the very early 80s (basically making sure plug-b
636.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Ooh, I hadn't thought of these mags (sort of the size of a paperback) for years. I used to read Galaxy and Analog in the mid-70s. I wonder where people sell or will sell SF novels these days? They were published multi-part in the mags.
637.
by zabzonk 2y ago
A long while back I wrote an answer on Stack Overflow to a question that asked "How to read TAOCP?" my answer looked something like this: - don't read them - get all the books, put them in a bin bag and shake vigorously with
638.
by zabzonk 2y ago
> Complicated formats can't be meaningfully version controlled. Well, at the risk of simply saying "why not" - why not? Preferably with an example.
639.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Looks horrible to me. Why not a spreadsheet?
640.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Well, they are both series, but the Discworld books have a bunch of recurring characters, and are basically comedic, whereas the Culture books do not, though Special Circumstances agent Diziet Sma pops up a few times. And the Culture book
641.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Traps at least are not cruel - usually almost instant death by their neck being broken. Cats are natural predators. I don't much like using poison, but sometimes you have to. I have never claimed any high moral ground, just that the d
642.
by zabzonk 2y ago
"Lords & Ladies", and then expand out in both/all directions. Horrible elves, Granny at her best (and Nanny), Magrat the killer queen, Morris dancing, stupid wizzards and lots of other stuff - what's not to like? P
643.
by zabzonk 2y ago
No, I don't think it is cruel. For example, wolves were eradicated from what is now the UK in the Tudor ages. But it wasn't done with any particular cruelty (for the time), and just because they were eating sheep (wool was a huge
644.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I dunno - the right-hand mouse doesn't look so healthy around the face. Just to be clear, I've killed quite a few mice in my time (traps, poison, cat) when they become nuisances. I'm not sentimental about them at all, but I d
645.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I'm not happy with all this stuff - I think it's cruel. Back in the early 70s the lab I worked in had a colony of mice called "wobblers" that in some sense modelled Parkinson's Disease - but not usefully, as far as
646.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I made a comment here about this a couple of days ago. It seems that possibly better informed people than me are of the same opinion. Very worrying.
647.
US support to maintain UK's nuclear arsenal is in doubt(theguardian.com)
74 points by zabzonk 2y ago|119 comments
648.
by zabzonk 2y ago
My Dad flew a Vulcan from the UK to Woomera with a Blue Streak (never deployed UK missile) stage for testing in the capacious bomb bay. All sorts of adventures including illegally overflying Indonesian airspace - but the Indonesians coul
649.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I dunno, but maybe "real Lispers" don't like languages that have imperative features like "for" and "while"? OK, real Lispers, don't kill me!!!
650.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I suppose the cruelty aspect is somewhat arguable, but the people doing coursing are almost all criminal gangs who, at the same time as coursing, do a lot of theft and damage in the rural environment here in Lincolnshire.
651.
by zabzonk 2y ago
> didn't get anywhere at all I know, it was a bit soul destroying. In my experience, the thing to do was not to try too hard (a bit of Zen here, perhaps). I remember being dropped at a roundabout outside Doncaster UK where there wer
652.
by zabzonk 2y ago
A bit more complicated than that. There also issues about the spread of tuberculosis to cattle which encourages badger culls, but may or may not actually happen much. Baiting is obviously horrible though. And we in the UK also have vile &q
653.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I came across both on the same day back in the early 1970s. I was hitching up the A1 to Edinburgh and got stuck, then I came across a hog trying to cross the very busy road, so I grabbed it and ran across and dumped it in the verge. A littl
654.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Seems a bit silly, seeing as hedgehogs are somewhat endangered in the UK. If they were bred for pets, we'd surely have more of them!
655.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Yep, I've used these a long time back when I was a microbiologist, for categorising bacteria. Using two rods meant you could do an AND search in one operation. Also, if you clipped the wrong hole, you could fix it with Sellotape. I can
656.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Yeah, Blue Steel was the last. My Dad was a Vulcan captain flying them, and he was not impressed. Apart from anything else, they took about a whole day to be fuelled (liquids) and to be mated to the Vulcan. This was obviously not sensible.
657.
by zabzonk 2y ago
As my late Mum often said about hedgehogs - "I want one! Or two!". I've always planned to have back-garden pond, which might be nice for beavers, but I don't suppose I will now, due to age and not being able to look afte
658.
by zabzonk 2y ago
I will say that the 486 Altos system I got a bit later was much better than the 386. Still, it was impressive how these boxes could support multiple users.
659.
by zabzonk 2y ago
Well, perhaps not "mainstream", but I was programming on Xenix supporting half a dozen or so users at the BBC on a 386 towards the end of the 80s.
660.
by zabzonk 2y ago
The 8086 and 80286 were so difficult to program, both in assembler and higher level languages. Everyone was relieved when the 386 and 486 came around - at last you could program sensibly and use operating systems that didn't crash all

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