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I Just Sent The Second Golden Master Release Candidate To QA

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday April 27 2018, @11:55PM (#3187)
1 Comment
Code

Second because I had a brain fart when I built then didn't test GM Candidate 1:

The Mac OS X Installer said "Mike had a brain fart when he built me" right at the end of installation.

After burning some sage, praying to the voices that speak to me in times of trouble then meditating for a solid hour while quietly chanting "Nam Yo Ho Rengye Kyo" I added a chown and a chmod to the script that executes pkgbuild.

Extra Credit: QA is getting Build 4 because in Build 3 that chown and chmod set the perms and owns of the wrong file.

This is the kind of thing that happens when one has organic brain damage. Perhaps I've been in a vehicle collision recently. I wouldn't rule such a collision out but don't really know because I have no memory of any recent injuries.

Did I ever tell you about the time I almost melted a Firewire Link-Layer chip because I set a CSR bit incorrectly in my driver?

America's Rapey Dad

Posted by takyon on Thursday April 26 2018, @10:46PM (#3185)
5 Comments
Career & Education

Bill Cosby Found Guilty of Sexual Assault in Retrial

Bill Cosby Was Found Guilty on 3 Counts of Indecent Assault. Here's How Much Time He Could Serve

Cosby, who is 80, faces a maximum of 30 years in state prison.

The verdict prompted an outburst from Cosby in the Montgomery County, Pa., court house on Thursday, as he called District Attorney Kevin Steele an “a—hole.”

The three counts each carry a sentence of up to 10 years in state prison, but it remains to be seen how much time Cosby, will actually be sentenced to serve, and whether he could serve those sentences at the same time.

The Latest: Cosby's Alma Mater to Reconsider Honorary Degree

Janice Dickinson at Cosby Trial: ‘Here Was America’s Dad on Top of Me’

Methaqualone (Redirected from Quaaludes)

I Can Only Choose One.

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday April 25 2018, @07:23PM (#3180)
46 Comments
Career & Education

I like to break up my morning commute by hanging out at a Starbucks on Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square. At one time I would have asked the Barista for a Grande Pike's Place Roast but 9 days ago I decided to avoid coffee for a little while because my very first cup in the morning made my stomach queasy.

The resulting withdrawal symptoms convinced me to swear off coffee for good. If a substance would have such a profound affect on my mind and body I don't want to consume it anymore

So now I have a cup of ice water and something to eat, usually an egg, sausage and cheddar English muffin sandwich. But concern for my health led me to try their very small, expensive bowl of oatmeal with fruit, nuts and agave nectar.

After I flunked a Hematocrit test agent I went to give blood they advised me to consume more iron in my diet.

Grains, meat and eggs all have lots of iron but the form that is in meat and eggs is more bioavailable than the form in plants.

So which wil it be?

- The overpriced oatmeal

Or:

- The cholesterol sandwich

Only time will tell

Peaceful Toronto Van Suspect Arrest "Stuns" U.S.

Posted by takyon on Wednesday April 25 2018, @05:22PM (#3179)
32 Comments
Career & Education

Toronto van attack: Calm actions of police stun US

The calm actions of a police officer who arrested the Toronto van suspect without firing a shot have prompted praise and, in some quarters, astonishment.

Video from the scene shows suspect Alek Minassian pointing an object at the officer and shouting: "Kill me!" The officer tells the man to "get down" and when the suspect says he has a gun, the officer repeats: "I don't care. Get down." Videos on social media show Mr Minassian lying down as the officer arrests him.

Many in North America are asking how the suspect did not end up dead in a hail of police gunfire. It contrasts with incidents in the US where police have shot and killed unarmed people.

"Research has shown that Canadian police are reluctant users of deadly force," says Rick Parent, a criminologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada's British Columbia. "An analysis of police shooting data over many years revealed, that in comparison to their American counterparts, Canadian police officers discharge their firearms far less, per capita than US police. However, like American police officers they take many risks in protecting the public."

One US-based academic told the BBC that the officer would have had a "duty" to kill the suspect, if the object he was pointing was a gun.

Google Is Going To Jizz Google Juice Like A Firehose

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday April 25 2018, @01:34AM (#3178)
9 Comments
Code

I just registered the most amazing dot-com.

I can't tell you what it is yet because I do not yet have the samoleons to register the dot-org, the dot-net, the dot-io or the dot-co. But I will when I get my next paycheck which I will devote primarily to Hookers And Blow but there's a lot of room in my budget for a few dozen small expenditures.

(soggy.jobs sets me back $159 per year. I expect that's because in my studies of Google Trends as best as I am able to determine "jobs" is the single most searched for word there is.)

That's really sad.

I've been contemplating a certain product for several years. My older and vastly wiser friend Stefan Youngs feels that it wouldn't be a commercial success but I have always disagreed.

But what to call my proposed product? The best of all possible domains is already in use by a tangentially similar product.

I've been puzzling over my product's name for quite a long time, more seriously just in the last month or so.

That tangentially similar product's name really would have been better but my new dot-com is plenty copacetic.

I have learned the hard way - numerous times - that it's a bad idea to preannounce a new product. I will tell you what I'm doing when I release the public beta.

I'm not going to sell the product; it will have either the GPL or the MIT license.

As someone suggested for another product - which is complete enough for my own personal use but not yet for widespread public use - I'll create a bounty campaign in IndieGoGo.

I will tell you that it requires the use of an Internet server. I'm going to operate one that uses the product to provide a free public service to the community.

Safari Rapidly Opens A Great Many Untitled Tabs

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday April 24 2018, @06:55AM (#3177)
6 Comments
Code

I'll post a radar link as well as an Open Radar link after I get some ZZZs.

Summary:

I clicked a link to a website of ill repute. I have visited that URL before with no problems, but this time the page caused Safari to open a vast quantity of Untitled, blank tabs with blinding speed.

I shot a couple videos with my iPhone that I will attach tomorrow (it's late). Safari had slowed down quite a lot by the time I was able to start shooting.

I will also attach a sysdiagnose report.

Steps to Reproduce:

I will have to post the steps in a reply tomorrow. I'm just going to let Safari keep doing this until it either stops, it crashes, or it panics my Mac.

Expected Results:

Clicking that link should have taken me a file sharing site where I could download a video.

Actual Results:

Thousands of Untitled tabs opened.

      $ ls -s /var/vm
      total 6291456
      4194304 sleepimage 1048576 swapfile0 1048576 swapfile1

I'm puzzled that there are only two swapfiles after all this.

Version/Build:

I'll post the Safari version in a reply tomorrow. I'm going to leave Safari running all night to see what eventually happens.

macOS Sierra 0.12.5 (16F73)

Configuration:

Macmini7,1

2.6 GHz Intel Core i5

8 GB memory

I Don't Have The First Clue About Android App Coding

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday April 23 2018, @10:48PM (#3176)
6 Comments
Code

But I've done Android OS development.

Just now Ranjit solicited me for a six month contract doing "Android Development". Here's my reply:

Ranjit,

Think you for your inquiry.

Is this Android App Development or Android Platform Development? I only do Android Platform Development.

Android Apps are commonly written in Java. One usually downloads them from Google Play and provide Graphical User Interfaces to end-users.

The Android Platform is written in C, C++ and with small amounts of Assembly Code. The platform developer works on the Linux kernel, the operating system libraries such at the C standard library and user space daemons - faceless background processes.

If this works for you then please have a look at my consultancy's website:

Please note that I don't work on-site other than for brief visits to interview with potential clients, as well as at the end of my consultancy's contracts to integrate my code with the other parts of the client's codebase.

Warmest Regards,

Mike Crawford

Just now I realized that my site says nothing about Android at all. I'll add the platform development when I get home tonight.

Mitt Rmoney Forced to Participate in Utah Primary

Posted by takyon on Sunday April 22 2018, @09:38PM (#3175)
7 Comments
Career & Education

Mitt Romney Fails to Bypass Utah Primary for U.S. Senate

Mitt Romney was forced on Saturday into a Republican primary for a United States Senate seat in Utah as he looks to restart his political career by replacing Orrin G. Hatch, a longtime senator who is retiring.

Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and the Republican candidate for president in 2012, remains the heavy favorite to win the Senate seat in November. But he could have bypassed a primary altogether by earning a majority of votes on Saturday at the state’s G.O.P. convention.

Instead, the far-right party delegates preferred State Representative Mike Kennedy, who got 51 percent of the vote to Mr. Romney’s 49 percent.

Voters will decide between the candidates in a June 26 primary. Mr. Romney had previously secured his spot on the ballot by collecting 28,000 voter signatures, but he said on Saturday that the choice was partly to blame for his loss.

Gathering signatures is unpopular among many conservative delegates in the state who say it dilutes their ability to choose a candidate. The issue prompted hours of debate, shouting and booing at the convention.

[...] At the convention, Mr. Romney faced 11 other candidates, mostly political newcomers who questioned his criticism of President Trump and the depth of his ties to Utah. He had spent two months on the campaign trail visiting dairy farms, taking photos with college students and making stump speeches in small towns.

Utah Republican delegates force Mitt Romney into a primary election with state lawmaker Mike Kennedy in the race for the U.S. Senate

Romney's woes: No fun for mainstream GOP in Trump era

Which Business Expenses Should I Blow My Whole Paycheck On?

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday April 22 2018, @11:36AM (#3166)
17 Comments
Business

My budget already has separate line items for each of Hookers and Blow.

But seriously folks... I really do want to hear your kind suggestions as to what my business should purchase.

I was even contemplating a USB Protocol Analyzer. Used LeCroy's go for $3k to $6k. I'm going to get a USB 3.0 sniffer. USB 3.1 is very similar to 3.0; I could still use the sniffer for USB 3.1 work just for debugging by temporarily entering different values in certain variables, then restoring the variables' original values after I've fixed a bug.

In the end I decided that it would serve my business better to buy a used car. This so I don't have to take a taxi to interview with potential clients who are located in places that public transit does not serve.

There's a substantial chance that I'll have to buy some plane tickets to attend the interviews that are in far-away lands.

Here's what's in my business budget to far:

- 4K monitor
- Bitmain Antminer L3++ LiteCoin Mining Rig (1,000 Watts, 504 MH/s)
- Bitmain APW++ PCIe power supply
- Shipping the above two via DHL from China ($$$)
- Quarter 1 2018 IRS Estimated Tax payment
- Used MacBook Pro
- Technical books
- Transit Passes - yes I can deduct the bus and light rail!

- What else do you suggest?

It has never worked for me to save money; it always finds a way to slip through my fingers. What works far better is to buy quality products that I can really use and are of lasting value such as my Mac mini.

I'm specifically seeking business equipment and software that would enable me either to earn more money, or to earn money faster. Were I to actually buy that USB sniffer I could complete on USB contracts easily twice as fast as I presently do.

I've still got more than four grand unallocated out of just my next paycheck - and I've already signed my next client! W00T!

I spend quite a lot of ducats on technical books. I don't want to be driven out from the pack because I - really do - know FORTRAN. The main reason my consultancy is focussed on embedded and drivers is that my being olde and greyye is regarded by potential clients as a good reason to hire me.

Among my reasons for so many years of homelessness and unemployment is that I spent six years trying to get a job writing mobile apps. I got lots of interviews but the very instant they saw my grey hair they started coming up with plausible-sounding reasons not to hire me.

I'm using a LibreOffice spreadsheet to work out a detailed budget. Bonita and I worked together to develop a 707411y K3w1 budget template. (I will eventually lift a finger to post an article about it somewhere around here.)

My spreadsheet enables me to budget both personal and business expenses on the same sheet. I use one sheet per calendar quarter.

A fifth sheet uses my previous year's IRS Form 1040, 1040 Schedule C Profit And Loss From Business Income and 1040 Schedule SE Self-Employment Tax to estimate my income tax and self-employment tax rates.

Each paycheck's budget predicts my Quarterly Estimated Tax by referencing the above two tax rates.

For 2017 I just took a wild guess. Having been unemployed for five solid years deprived me of a 2016 return to estimate my quarterlies with.

I was so accustomed to earning nothing more than a few dollars of singing on the street tips that it was difficult to wrap my brain around quite suddenly and completely out of nowhere these huge wire transfers hit my business checking account, thereby burning holes in my pockets, through my shoes, through my feet and through the Earth all the way to the People's Republic Of China.

I'll be far more careful this year, I Swear On A Stack Of Bibles.

Really I am: there's an entry in my personal budget for "Walking Around Money" that mostly goes for coffee at Peet's and Starbucks.

I place a very high priority on hanging out in trendy cafes: after being in my tax-subsidized apartment for a few months, I realized that just being in the presence of other people was quite effective in relieving the symptoms of my mental illness.

Here's why we sometimes post in the wrong stories

Posted by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:51PM (#3165)
11 Comments
Code

Soylent news has no support for smart phones. That often leads me to tap the wrong link because all the links default to very small

A one line fix could make quite a lot of difference:

Set the viewport