Cold again, and still some snow on the ground. Warming later. Wicked Witch of the West inbound (help me I’m melting)… IDK what the final low was, but we didn’t see much below freezing. That’s enough to cause problems here, but really, even here household infrastructure SHOULD be able to take freezing temps. Kinda disgraceful that it can’t.
I didn’t do much of anything other than get caught up on auctions. I did go for a walk later in the day, and I spent almost an hour working with D1 on driving skills. Not super productive, but maybe it will save a life. That would be a pretty good payout.
Oh, and preps paid off when my wife asked is we had a space heater as her desk area was very cold and drafty. Why yes, I do…
Today I’ll do a bit more. I am caught up on auction stuff, and need to not spend the day sitting. I’m sure I’ll find something that needs to be done…
Or stacked.
nick
“I spent almost an hour working with D1 on driving skills. Not super productive, but maybe it will save a life. That would be a pretty good payout.
Oh, and preps paid off when my wife asked is we had a space heater as her desk area was very cold and drafty. Why yes, I do…”
sounds like a double win to me. Kid time at that age is priceless.
C/C++? That won’t happen, but Stroustrup has gone bonkers with regard to expanding the standard since TAMU grew tired of his sorry butt and got rid of him. Of course, that didn’t happen before he scarred a decade (?) of undergraduates with his lame attempt to produce a follow up text to accompany his AT&T copyrighted book.
To paraphrase Hank Scorpio – I can’t technically say it was a bum’s rush since College Station doesn’t have “bums”, but they did encourage him to depart at his own leisurely pace.
C++ is mission critical on Wall Street for the speed. None of the Hot Skillz languages come close.
Morgan Stanley hired Stroustrup IIRC.
Microsoft has to depend on Qualcomm eventually producing non-garbage ARM CPUs.
That’s not happening soon. Here in Austin, Apple poached all of Qualcomm’s best engineers and left the dregs to work on what is currently shipping.
You can order an ARM Windows laptop from my current employer today. No one buys them.
There is. The major difference seems to Bitlocker and Remote Desktop. I run PRO on my four systems. One is a Surface Laptop, another is my main work station, the wife’s system, and the ARM version on the MacBook. I don’t see ads on any of the systems. I did clean installs on all them and did not get the vendor version. The wife’s system came from Costco (never again) and is a Dell system so there is the Dell stuff which generally stays benign.
I think the ARM version running under Parallels on the MacBook is the “try it and see how it goes” on the part of Microsoft. I still had to have an activation key to make the version work. My W10 key worked without issue. Rebuilding the Mac system from scratch, reinstalling Parallels, I had to activate again. The digital license normally associated with a machine does not work under Parallels.
And speaking of Parallels, up yours Parallels. I had a working version of Parallels, version 19, running on my M2 MacBook Air. When I got the M4 Pro Macbook Parallels could not open my VMs. Even creating a VM, then trying to open, did not work. I had to spend money to upgrade to version 20. Seems there is something in the M4, or the Pro version of the M4, that causes issues with Parallels.
Very true. Even back in the ’60s that was an issue with COBOL. COBOL-67 would explicitly set numerical working storage areas to zero by default. COBOL-69 did not do that. It caused major problems with many programs when recompiled. I was working for Burroughs at the time and had several clients with issues that were unhappy. My solution was to write a program that would parse the source code files, find any numeric field definitions that did not have a VALUE clause and install a VALUE 0 clause after the PIC definition.
I eventually expanded the program to also do ALPHA fields and set those to a VALUE SPACES after the PIC clause. That handled the issues with the migration to the new compiler.
That program was given to all the clients that I supported in San Antonio, about half a dozen if I remember correctly. Eventually those clients spread my program to several of their banking acquaintances. The code finally made it’s way to Burroughs in Pasadena (home of the medium systems) and Burroughs changed a couple of things and gave the program to every Medium Systems user for free, as a feature of the migration process. I was not at all pleased. But since I worked for Burroughs when I developed the program it was considered their product and I got no credit.
The program itself was written in COBOL and was an interesting process to parse the source file and properly find the PIC clauses without a value statement.
WiFi authentication in some environments can be a problem with Home. When in doubt, if you travel with a Windows laptop, either run Pro or dual boot a Linux distribution you’re comfortable using for light duty in a pinch.
It was 15F overnight in the high desert. Odd, since the night’s high thin clouds usually keep it warmer. It was 55F in the MBR at 6am though.
Alaska cold. South Texas cold! No snowmen tho.
Aside from my sleeping until 3am before lighting it the pellet stove seems fine. 63F in the great room.
Compatibility between competing office suites isn’t the issue. People will use the suite that has the feature they want, or they will leave off that embellishment. Even when I was still doing corporate events and training, we used apples version of PPT for the big shows because it looked more like broadcast tv. Most people will use the tool they need, the way they did for 20+ years, and for most people, free or low cost suites more than meet their needs.
————
don’t they have “Home” and “Pro” versions?
— they differ in what they bundle with the OS, not underlying kernel or GUI. Forcing everyone to use the stupid GUI that was designed for PHONES on their desktop is crazy.
Do they even have server versions any more?
BTW, it’s not just the ads, it’s the data collection that goes along with it, and now the AI integration and the “recall” thing that will mine your personal docs and corporate email…
————–
Unrelated, mostly, I set up a Galaxy smart watch yesterday and it explicitly asked for permission to use the speakers and mic to communicate with nearby devices using “high frequency sound”. That was a conspiracy and a white hat discovery in the news not that long ago…
—————–
coffee. Then more.
n
OS stuff.
Slashdot is reporting that Apple Intelligence will be turned on by default in future versions of MacOS and iOS.
https://apple.slashdot.org/story/25/01/21/2258241/macos-sequoia-153-and-ios-183-enable-apple-intelligence-automatically
It is present in current versions, but turned off.
What I don’t see is what is in it for Apple? It is one of the most mercenary companies around, but aside from scraping user interactions (which they almost certainly already do), where do they profit?
Yes. Windows Server 2025 is the latest, with Server 2022 and Server2019 still in support.
32F, sunny, and clear. Some old snow still on the ground, mostly in shaded areas. I’m getting email from local businesses announcing that they will be open this afternoon.
———
The setup process for win10 explicitly asks you more than once about ads. They warn you that they won’t be ‘personalized’ if you turn off some choices, but there isn’t any choice to NOT get any ads. IDK where they get inserted, probably in those widgets in the taskbar, or in sidebars. I know my wife’s old work lappy puked at the BOL and wouldn’t finish starting up until I managed to turn off the taskbar “toolbars” for weather and news. We’re all pretty good at ignoring ads on a page, so it could be you just don’t notice them, or assume they came from somewhere else. Or the pi-hole gets them.
—————–
#coffeesogood
—————–
Shut down DIE? Kill the WFH slacking? Maybe get a Supreme? Off to a good start, with bright prospects ahead.
n
Yes. Windows Server 2025 is the latest, with Server 2022 and Server2019 still in support.
– what do they use as a GUI? and aren’t the desktops that connect still win10/ win11 machines with a full OS, all the vulnerabilities, and essentially the same as a gaming machine or a Best Buy ripoff desktop? (except for hardware)
n
So “Emilia Perez” is apparently a movie, although DM doesn’t properly format that as the title of a work of art.
This is the summary, from an article about the star.
Four remarkable women. Live “authentically”.
This is the crap that contributes to all the entitled women on ticktack.
Fake your death and start over…
n
Desktop and Server share kernels, but the server desktop is nothing like a win10/11 desktop. It’s much more classic feeling. You can run server without the GUI, though you must choose that option during setup.
Yes, lots of patching, though it’s generally now down to once a month update rollups provided automatically through windows update.
I wouldn’t say the work is “art” as much as engineering with the goal of collecting as many Oscar statues as possible.
As a film, it is terrible.
Find a way to watch “Anora” if you want to see art deserving of recognition.
Be forewarned — “Anora” isn’t for kids.
Why I don’t trust “financial professionals” reason 726…
From a major money firm, their Outlook for 2025
emph added
– elevated wage gains. WTAF? and “Excess” savings. I’m sure there is a technical definition, or “excess savings” is a term of art, but WTF? And did anyone really SAVE the pandemic money? It was printed to be spent to stimulate the economy. I remember the whining that people were using it to pay down debt, and not spending it, but it’s been a couple of years now and NO ONE has anything left of the couple of thousand dollars they got from Uncle.
The next three points all mention tariffs, and the third seems to get it. First coverage I’ve seen that acknowledges Trump’s ‘go to’ tactic.
“Tariff” appears 10 times on the page.
– so now NOT spending is a good thing?
The whole thing is generally positive, but very broad, and equivocal. Lot of weasel words.
n
@greg, art only in the technical sense. Motion pictures/cinema is an art form, and titles of works of art should be formatted to whatever standard a publication chooses.
It’s especially negligent when the title is a person’s proper name.
But then I’m picking nits, and the fawning intern that wrote the article probably thinks a style manual is too constraining or a construct of the patriarchy.
I’ve got no intention of seeing anything about women living their “authentic lives” .
n
I saw 19 F at my house last night at 3am. The dew point was 15 F so it may have gotten colder than 19 F.
The saga of Pepper the Cow getting to live her “authentic self” on “Clarkson’s Farm” has more emotional weight than any of the storylines in “Emilia Perez”.
School shooting in Nashville.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14314175/Tennessee-Antioch-High-School-shooting.html
The pictures are not what one would expect from a school in Nashville.
n
I am slowly converting my Fortran to C++ but there is no guarantee that C++ will undergo the same transition from professional languages to hobbyist languages.
Sigh. Please replace the “will” with “will not”.
I am slowly converting my Fortran to C++ but there is no guarantee that C++ will not undergo the same transition from a professional language to a hobbyist language.
Microsoft has to depend on Qualcomm eventually producing non-garbage ARM CPUs.
That’s not happening soon. Here in Austin, Apple poached all of Qualcomm’s best engineers and left the dregs to work on what is currently shipping.
You can order an ARM Windows laptop from my current employer today. No one buys them.
I would not be surprised to see Microsoft using Apple ARM chips with all of their speedups and customization.
don’t they have “Home” and “Pro” versions?
— they differ in what they bundle with the OS, not underlying kernel or GUI. Forcing everyone to use the stupid GUI that was designed for PHONES on their desktop is crazy.
Do they even have server versions any more?
There are many differences between the Home, Pro, and Server versions of Windows. For one, the Home version allows 10 inbound drive connections and the Pro version allows 20 inbound drive connections. I have no idea how many inbound drive connections the Server version allows but I suspect hundreds or thousands.
Unrelated, mostly, I set up a Galaxy smart watch yesterday and it explicitly asked for permission to use the speakers and mic to communicate with nearby devices using “high frequency sound”. That was a conspiracy and a white hat discovery in the news not that long ago…
Isn’t high frequency sound just wifi ?
Ugh.
I can see smoke from the Hughs fire from my porch, maybe 30 miles away as the
crowSuper Scooper flies.I am slowly converting my Fortran to C++ but there is no guarantee that C++ will not undergo the same transition from a professional language to a hobbyist language.
Waaaaay too steep a learning curve for the casual programmer!
The pictures are not what one would expect from a school in Nashville.
Nary a Caucasian in sight.
I am slowly converting my Fortran to C++ but there is no guarantee that C++ will not undergo the same transition from a professional language to a hobbyist language.
Waaaaay too steep a learning curve for the casual programmer!
Hey, I am way casual today. Jeans, my old work boots with the waffle soles, a white long sleeve tshirt, and a red plaid shirt over it.
“Netflix stock reaches all-time high as Wall Street cheers ‘near flawless’ earnings”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/netflix-stock-reaches-all-time-high-as-wall-street-cheers-near-flawless-earnings-214816664.html
“The streaming giant reported a whopping 18.9 million users in the fourth quarter, while revenue and earnings also handily beat expectations. It was the biggest quarterly subscriber gain in the company’s history.”
“Including Wednesday’s price action, Netflix stock has surged about 100% year over year. Shares hit several all-time highs in 2024 as many analysts called Netflix the winner of the hard-fought streaming wars. ”
I have a huge position in Netflix from over a decade ago. I wish it was HUGE.
Over 300 million global users. Very fickle users so they have to keep on adding new stuff.
No worries: At some point the AI’s will have their own programming languages, and human languages will be obsolete.
Future programmers will, like current Chess and Go masters, be reduced to trying to figure out just what the heck the AIs did, and pointing out that the AIs are giving the results asked for – not those wanted.
“Trump Ends 1965 Executive Order from Lyndon Johnson that Began Affirmative Action in U.S. Govt”
https://www.breitbart.com/2024-election/2025/01/22/trump-ends-affirmative-action-mandate-in-government-contracting/
About time to cancel that nonsense.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
“Senate Committee Delays Pam Bondi’s Attorney General Confirmation”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/01/22/senate-committee-delays-pam-bondis-attorney-general-confirmation/
“Attorney general nominee Pam Bondi’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing is delayed one week, according to a committee’s notice on Monday.”
This is nonsense and not right. It is not Constitutional. Why are the Republicans playing along ?
“Disturbing Details Emerge: Recently Released Hamas Hostages Were Being Held in U.N. Compounds”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/disturbing-details-emerge-recently-released-hamas-hostages-were/
“On Sunday, three Israeli hostages, Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, and Doron Steinbrecher, were released and handed over to the Red Cross.”
We, the USA, need to leave the UN and vacate its lease in NYC. The UN has been taking the sides of terrorists for far too long.
Pearls Before Swine: More Bad Dad Jokes
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2025/01/22
Groan.
The Locust Class has set their sights on draining Tennessee next.
Is that one from one of RichH’s books?
Apple isn’t Redmond. Some things are not available at any price.
Apple isn’t Redmond. Some things are not available at any price.
There is a long term relationship going on decades there. I would not be surprised at anything they cooperate on.
Of course, there is the other fact. Microsoft views itself as a custom software shop nowadays with Azure. Windows and Office are secondary to their current goals.
Is that one from one of RichH’s books?
Maybe: “A Compendium of Dad Jokes” by Richard Hellewell
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CNLX4FTD?tag=ttgnet-20
I have not heard from RickH in a long time. I am getting concerned.
“Disturbing Details Emerge: Recently Released Hamas Hostages Were Being Held in U.N. Compounds”
We, the USA, need to leave the UN and vacate its lease in NYC. The UN has been taking the sides of terrorists for far too long.
Rockefeller bought the land (17 acres) and donated it to the UN. The UN also owns the buildings.
The three should hire U.S. attorney’s and bring suit against the UN and the United States (as the biggest UN source of funding), and seek class status. Between UNRWA and this latest they have a slam-dunk $1+ billion case. When they win they should seek to attach all of the UN property in the U.S.
“Seagate Exos M 36TB HDDs Announced”
https://www.storagereview.com/news/seagate-exos-m-36tb-hdds-announced
“The Exos M hard drives are designed to address the growing needs of AI-driven applications, big data analytics, and enterprise-level data centers. One of the most significant breakthroughs is the 3TB per platter areal density, which allows the drive to achieve an impressive 36TB capacity within a 10-platter design. This innovation enables 300% more storage in the same physical footprint compared to previous-generation drives, making it an ideal solution for organizations facing space constraints.”
That is a monster sized hard drive.
Ha ha! /muntz voice
Harris’ marriage in turmoil as she blames husband for election defeat and focuses on future without the ‘dead weight’
n
So…. muzzie terror.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/german-immigration-hell-suspect-afghanistan-arrested-after-knife/
and now I can’t find the DM article with no mention of the attacker’s origin, and a plea to “not speculate on motives”.
n
Apple employs more than a few bitter people who possess long memories.
The top boss where I currently work is enemy #1.
H/T zendo deb
more on her page.
n
“Safety, My Ass”
https://areaocho.com/safety-my-ass/
“Florida does not require a concealed weapons permit. They also tell you that, if you comply with a police officer’s demands, you won’t get shot. The traffic stop that involved Jason Arrington proved that to be a lie. I tried to find a copy of the bodycam video that I could embed, but that was a no-go.”
https://www.tmz.com/watch/2025-01-21-012125-man-shot-in-leg-1961234-391/
The man was shot with his own gun by an incompetent police officer !
What? Doug didn’t keep the juice boxes stocked in the fridge?
Or was it bottles of Bolli in a dispenser like “Absolutely Fabulous”. Kamala is the right age to be a fan of Edina and Patsy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBXvgv8hZiI
“Once-in-a-lifetime snow hits Gulf Coast, with record-breaking snowfall in Florida”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/once-in-a-lifetime-snow-hits-gulf-coast-with-record-breaking-snowfall-in-florida/ar-AA1xExmF
“Florida just saw the most snow on record, with a preliminary 8.8 inches observed in Milton, which is north of Pensacola.”
I have seen eight inches of snow here in South Texas.
I remember 13” in San Antonio in the middle ‘80s.
I was in Dallas for 14 or 15 inches overnight.
n
With M$ the bottom line rules. You’d be surprised (well, maybe not) what they’ll accede to for the right price. @Greg knows of what he speaks. I’ve seen behind the curtain and it’s not pretty.
>> … Dallas …
How is Debbie?
>> As well, we should be eliminating the dollar bill in favor of a coin – which we already have.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14314483/trump-elon-musk-doge-end-penny.html
>> I remember 13” in San Antonio in the middle ‘80s.
https://youtu.be/79S6bswOYLI
Hmm, guess I missed this … another DOGE savings …
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/vivek-ramaswamy-doge-launch-run-ohio-governor-rcna188397
Bills cost the same no matter what is printed on them. MAYBE there is some small difference in how often the different denominations need replacing, but it’s gotta be small.
The coins cost something different because of their different metal content, even after being debased as they are.
Messing with people’s money is a really risky business.
And I’ve always wondered how strippers get tipped in Canadia, without low value bills. I joke that it’s the “coin slot” but that wouldn’t actually work…
n
added– in the US it’s the vending machine industry that most wants to eliminate the $1 bill. They’ve been lobbying for years, if not decades.
also, I can tell who the immigrants are in the line at the store, they are carrying change purses, and counting coins. Americans really don’t USE change much.
No eggs at HEB tonight.
I recall 6 inches or so in 1973 when I was in Officer’s Training School at Lackland. OUr instructors could not get to school for a day or two.
I’ve been known to take exact change in coin to the burger place after scooping up the leftover change from the console in my truck.
“Air Force planes will fly deportation flights under Trump order”
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-military-deportation-flights/
“A total of four C-17s and C-130s will be used to fly migrants in detention out of the United States.”
Sounds like a good idea. Could be fairly complicated though. They may need fighter escort to some countries.
>> Bills cost the same no matter what is printed on them. MAYBE there is some small difference in how often the different denominations need replacing, but it’s gotta be small.
The coins cost something different because of their different metal content, even after being debased as they are.
Messing with people’s money is a really risky business.
And I’ve always wondered how strippers get tipped in Canadia, without low value bills. I joke that it’s the “coin slot” but that wouldn’t actually work…
added– in the US it’s the vending machine industry that most wants to eliminate the $1 bill. They’ve been lobbying for years, if not decades.
also, I can tell who the immigrants are in the line at the store, they are carrying change purses, and counting coins. Americans really don’t USE change much.
Yes, bills cost the same but the differentiator is the useful life. One dollar bills wear out much faster than dollar coins. I’ve been to our 51st state several times (pre-Covid) and while the added pocket weight was a minor issue, having only coins for $1 and $2 was okay. That said, since Covid I’ve handled “real money” probably less than ten times. Credit cards are much easier to deal with, especially now that the latest terminals work much better with ‘tap to pay.’
BTW, thousand dollar bills last longer than hundreds, but the feds will never okay bills that are useful primarily to criminals.
“Air Force planes will fly deportation flights under Trump order”
https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-military-deportation-flights/
“A total of four C-17s and C-130s will be used to fly migrants in detention out of the United States.”
Sounds like a good idea. Could be fairly complicated though. They may need fighter escort to some countries.
Ohh, you you thought they planned on landing the planes…
>> I have not heard from RickH in a long time. I am getting concerned.
FWIW his copyright notices are updated to 2025.
That could be automated. At my last job all the copyright years were built by the site code from the system date.