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drummojg

210 karma · joined January 8, 2021

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drummojg··on NetBSD adds a new text editor called atto
I would never drag pico. I wrote software that's been packaged in Linux distros in pico. And I lost the urge to be The Smartest Guy In The [Room/Mailing List/Forum] a long, long time ago.
drummojg··on CNC Stone Carving
For example, Rodin had it figured out. He just hired more sculptors!
drummojg··on Hackers activate automatic defrosting in supermarket fridges across Europe
I can see advantages to collating data for both organizations, but to it just raises the question, once again, of why simple appliances are connected to the Internet.
drummojg··on Fingerprints are the new cookies
I like that! "We value your privacy. At about $.0003 per data point."
drummojg··on Anton Chekhov played at love most of his life
Now I'm just wondering if wustl is still running any excellent FTP servers.
drummojg··on Fasttracker II clone in C using SDL 2
I might have 1 or 2 compositions in backup that I could load up...amazing! I love it too.
drummojg··on .self: A new top-level domain designed to support self-hosting
My initial thought as well, so you're no outlier, unless we are.
drummojg··on Claude Desktop spins up a VM without no way of stopping it
"WHO'S 'THEY?????'"
drummojg··on Siri AI
Right? I've been waiting a lot of years for an upgrade to my voice-activated timer setter/music player launcher.
drummojg··on Project Gutenberg – keeps getting better
The best thing I ever did for my father was to buy him a kindle and an access point and show him how to use Project Gutenberg to get books. He loved the old writings (he being a GED holder who was in the Navy during Korea yet had read the entire Harvard Classics). He had a special rolled up towel he used to prop it on his lap in his favorite chair and he read and read and read. When he passed he was reading "Legends of the Jews" from 1931.

I had some small e-correspondence with Michael S. Hart back in the 90's as well, and made a few modest contributions to the project, which made my English major undergraduate heart swell with pride and joy.

I guess this is only to say that PG is special to me for these reasons, and I am glad to see it still thriving. <3

drummojg··on We can’t send mail farther than 500 miles (2002)
I also enjoy the one about testing bird strike tolerances with store-bought chicken.
drummojg··on Thunderbird adds native Microsoft Exchange email support
I loved Pegasus. Specifically because to move it to another machine you just had to copy the PMAIL folder and make a shortcut. No registry awareness, no dependencies.
drummojg··on That Secret Service SIM farm story is bogus
I stopped reading once the author claimed it was a lie because the SecSrv knew technical terms, then claimed it was a lie because they didn't know the technical terms. It's too early in the morning to be purposely confused.
drummojg··on Training language models to be warm and empathetic makes them less reliable
I would be perfectly satisfied with the ST:TNG Computer. Knows all, knows how to do lots of things, feels nothing.
drummojg··on Hacker News Hug of Deaf
TIL '\a' is bell on POSIX. That's neat to me all by itself.
drummojg··on Public Access OpenVMS System
I have a MicroVAX in my living room that I use as an end table.
drummojg··on The impact of AI on the technical interview process
I helped interview a guy recently who was (a) ESL, and (b) Typing in our questions and reading the answers at a breakneck pace to the point where it was almost pathological; we could not get a word in. In unspoken horror and synchronization, we got through the formal part of the interview as quickly as we possibly could.
drummojg··on Public Access OpenVMS System
I still miss bitnet.
drummojg··on I live my life a quarter century at a time
I feel this in my soul. I work in higher education, and every major contribution I've made has been ripped from my hands and either dashed like the first copy of the ten commandments or handed over to someone shinier. I'm still proud of all I've done.
drummojg··on Phishers Love New TLDs Like .shop, .top and .xyz
I have always thought the infinite proliferation of TLDs was a stupid idea. I'd be enlightened if I could think of one scenario that benefits from it outside of the registrars.
drummojg··on Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of children's literature
I still remember looking at these with my mother when I was small. We loved to hunt for Gold Bug. She told me later in life that her favorite was, "Lowly worm washes his face and foot." (He always wore a sock and shoe on the end of his tail.)
drummojg··on Pointer Pointer
Not sure if the photoset is biased, or if drunk people really like pointing.
drummojg··on Cloud Appreciation Society
I second this.
drummojg··on Louis Rossmann calls community to leave Reddit
> All HTTP forums are pretty much just centralized recreations of various components of Usenet

The VAXbb clone I wrote in 1999 would beg to differ. :)

drummojg··on Turn ideas into music with MusicLM
I used "rollicking" in one description and it was exactly what it sounds like to your unconscious when you are far too drunk at a country bar
drummojg··on Internet in a Box
This comment is bang on.
drummojg··on New NASA Director Swears Oath on Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ Instead of Bible
Plenty guitarists are far better than Hendrix, but they didn't get there in a vacuum.
drummojg··on New NASA Director Swears Oath on Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ Instead of Bible
I have an old sampler religious text and inside the cover is The Golden Rule in every major religion--I want to say there are ten or a dozen of them, from Zoroaster to the Bhagavad Gita.
drummojg··on New NASA Director Swears Oath on Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ Instead of Bible
It's, for lack of a better term, "High English." It is meant to sound grand, and thus the grander old style was used. Which is entirely appropriate; IIRC the original Hebrew uses grander language for poetic passages & the words of the LORD.
drummojg··on New NASA Director Swears Oath on Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’ Instead of Bible
What I keep thinking of following this is from Matthew 5:

> Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ 34But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King...

Implying that even in a religious context, one might swear on "one's mother's grave"in the metaphorical sense. So then I think there must be a natural and historical reverence to oaths in general, which sends my mind down more Neil Gaiman-ish paths. I would bet that the significance of an Oath is older than every extant religion.

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