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So there's a new semester starting, Java 11 (the next LTS version) has been released, so - for the sake of my students - I wanted to update all of my Java installations and examples to Java 11. They were previously at Java 8, or in some cases 9 (to show the new module system).

Java 11 - what a fricking mess.

First, let's talk about the API documentation. For as long as I can remember, the Java documentation has offered a hierarchical frame-view that shows packages in the top-left, classes in the bottom left, and details on a particular class on the right. This provides a convenient overview, and allows you to move around within the hierarchy. With the advent of the module system, the top-left was adapted to show modules - same idea, works just as well. This has been eliminated in Java 11. Instead of a hierarchy of views, you have a search field. While it is a very intelligent search field, it hardly replaces the overview one had with the three hierarchical frames. Why remove something that has worked so well, for so long, and is so ingrained in the way people work?

Second, JavaFX has been removed. As someone who spent too many years fighting with Swing bugs in desktop GUIs, JavaFX has been nothing but a huge relief. Simple concepts like focus-change work in JavaFX, whereas they never did in Swing. I won't pretend it doesn't have problems, but it is massively better than Swing ever was - and deserves to be part of standard Java. According to Oracle, removing JavaFX from Java "makes JavaFX easier to adopt". Um...because people now have to hunt down and install external libraries?

Third - I'm working on behalf of my students here - so I'm updating various kinds of installations, to create a walkthrough. It turns out that, as of Java 11, Oracle says that non-commercial users should use OpenJDK. But OpenJDK on Windows does not come with an installer - you are supposed to unpack the files in the right place, and set environment variables and (if you need them) registry entries manually. Seriously?

Meanwhile, Ubuntu has seen fit to lie about what version of OpenJDK they have in their repositories. In a post from February 2018, they document the fact that they have an SRU called "OpenJDK-11" that actually delivers Java 10. As of today (9 Jan 2019, four months after Java 11 was released), installing OpenJDK-11 still gives you Java 10.

Then we have tooling. Because JavaFX is no longer part of Java, you have to do a lot more fiddling with module-paths and command line parameters. This is not fun - and for students just learning, it is frankly a catastrophy. In Eclipse, of course, there is e(fx)clipse, which is supposed to handle all this for you. Sadly, Eclipse 2018-12 (the current version as of this writing) is delivered with e(fx)clipse 3.3.0. Which - this has been known since September - borks your Eclipse installation to the point that it no longer starts. To fix this, you have to re-install Eclipse and specifically fetch a patched version (4.3.1) of e(fx)clipse.

And this patched version? It does nice things like define JavaFX as an external library, but as far as I can tell, selecting this library does absolutely nothing. You still have tie JavaFX via a self-defined user library, you still have to pass module parameters to the VM - the plug-in seems to actually do nothing at all.

All in all, is seems that many different parties have conspired to make Java 11 a total disaster. I'm just trying to imagine how I am supposed to walk fresh, never-programmed-before students through an installation process with the kinds of problems described above. What an utter mess!

Just a small update, but it pisses me off.

Her double-her-age "boyfriend" is putting her up in a condo in a trendy area of the city. His company is paying for it. It's clearly a business expense. What a fucking joke.

I'm probably going to have to meet this guy some day...

On Thursday, the first day of the 116th Congress, Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL), Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA), Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Congressman John Katko (R-NY) introduced a bipartisan constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics and restore democratic power to the American people.

The Democracy for All Amendment affirms the right of states and the federal government to pass laws that regulate spending in elections, reversing the concentration of political influence held by the wealthiest Americans and large corporations capable of spending millions of dollars in our elections. This legislation comes days before the ninth anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s disastrous ruling in the Citizens United case.

For more information on the amendment, click here for a background summary and click here for a section-by-section and answered FAQs.

Is dyke PC?

Anyways, I read this story yesterday and I loved it. It was about a 6 foot lesbian cable repair(wo)man and was a great entertaining read.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cable-tech-dick-cheney-sex-dungeon_us_5c0ea571e4b06484c9fd4c21

Thought I'd pass it along.

On 29th March we remove ourselves from our local, and very successful, trading bloc, the EU.

I have been preoccupied making plans and making my objections known in a peaceful and democratic manner. I'm afraid that politics and worrying about the future has taken over.

I figured I should brush up on my French and I've made a stash of supplies so that we can eat after the borders close on 29th March. We import most of our food. And that food which we do grow is often picked by migrant workers who will no longer be welcome after Brexit.

We have oil and gas pipelines that cross continental Europe and we buy gas from that nice Mr Putin who only wants the best for his patriotic friends. We also import electricity directly from France via a 2GW cable under the English Channel. Obviously this gets more and more expensive as Sterling continues to lose its value.

Several prominent Brexit supporters, including Jacob Rees-Mogg decided it would be better to move their business to Ireland (in the EU) and the great patriot John Redwood advised his customers to pull their money out of the UK and invest in places like the EU in the light of Brexit.

There's still the unsolvable problem of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Dinosaur-deniers the DUP are propping up a minority Tory government and staunchly preventing any progress because they don't want a "border" between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, despite the fact there's already a physical one in the form of the Irish Sea.

The Scottish Government brought a case to the European Court of Justice asking for a ruling on whether a country (eg the U) could unilaterally revoke Article 50 (the statement of intention to leave the EU). The UK Westminster government opposed the Scottish governments action, but was unsuccessful. The ECJ ruled that the UK can unilaterally revoke Article 50 without the agreement of the other 27 EU member states. All we need is a vote in the Westminster Parliament (which is sovereign). So it's not over yet!

The banks in the City of London have been making further preparations. About £700M of assets have moved to Frankfurt.

We also have to consider the extra delays at the borders for goods and raw materials coming in and out of the country. Much of our trade goes through Dover, in Kent. In Kent, they're preparing by creating another motorway-lorry-park, this time the M26. Industry will perhaps find it difficult to produce and to sell when things are held up in Kent.

Believe it or not, we have a Kipper in the family. He's also a Baptist. Goodness knows where he got that from. He was shown Father Ted when young but hey ho. I was treated to an entertaining conspiracy theory about Silicon Valley and the EU deliberately suppressing "right wing free speech." A long, convoluted "explanation" followed.

This conversation also confirmed a conclusion that I'd reached over the years regarding Kippers (UKIP members). They have a very naive and simplistic view of countries, nationalism, the modern world, "free speech," "hate speech," conservatism, economics, science, international relations, history (the World Wars and the Cold War, the rise of Nazism) and have precious little clue about "their own country" i.e. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. They get it confused with England and are pretty ignorant about Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

When mentioning that I was now in favour of Scottish Independence and that I didn't want to lose my right of Freedom of Movement, and that I hoped Scotland would join the EU, the classic Kipper ill-informed and patronising reply came back, "I can't understand why you'd want to regain your sovereignty only to give it away again to the EU." It's a trading bloc and it is democratic. It's more democratic that British First Past the Post Westminster Centralised "democracy."

My sister had the right idea. She settled in Germany years ago. The mayor of her town wrote to all British citizens inviting them to apply for German citizenship which she has done and will be sitting her citizenship exam in a couple of months time.

Finally, I asked why UKIP had appointed Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as its advisor for being mean to brown people. That didn't go down well. I got chapter and verse on what a nice man he really is and has brown friends etc.

And don't mention Trump. It'll just get blamed on Obama. And Mr Putin is a very nice man.

Game over UK. We have fallen to the fascists. Run while you can.

Where is Subsentient? I don't normally nose into another Soylentil's business but his last comment sounded ominous and worrying and he hasn't posted anything since. I tried an e-mail days ago but got no response. If anyone here knows him better, I suggest you make contact. Here's hoping he shows up back from a vacation tomorrow and proves me utterly wrong and paranoid.

UPDATE: Yep, he's proven me utterly wrong and paranoid.

So, I should be really happy and excited: tomorrow I start as a pharmacy technician at a fairly prestigious institute in Madison, Wi. No, not going to tell you where. I've wanted to do this for so, so long, and really--considering I can look at a molecule and give you at least a decent approximation of what effects it will have, this is an excellent fit. But I'm still nervous, if only because so many horrible things have happened to me and the idea of stability and a long-term career seems alien, like something I'm not "allowed" to have if that makes sense. So I'm afraid it'll be taken away from me like so many other things have been.

Wish me luck. I want to get PTCB certified as soon as possible and make a lifelong career out of this, slowly working my way up the ladder and making a positive contribution to the lives of many people. Maybe, though I don't dare to dream, this could even include going back to school and getting involved in the drug-discovery process, especially for new antibiotics or non-addictive painkillers. Other interests include changing hospital spaces to reduce infection and increase patient well-being--think "copper alloy railings, enclosed UVC-light air pumps, and lots and lots of sunlight" and so on--and nutrition, though I fear my low-carb lifestyle is sufficiently against current medical orthodoxy to make this a non-starter and even politically dangerous.

But whatever happens, for the first time in ages, it feels like time has begun to flow for me again. That feeling of being a sort of solid ghost is disappearing. And that can only be a good thing, right? I just hope it doesn't all go to hell...

President Trump has agreed to shut down his embattled personal charity and give away its remaining funds amid allegations that he used it for his personal and political benefit, the New York attorney general announced Tuesday.

New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood announced that the Donald J. Trump Foundation is dissolving as her office pursues its lawsuit against the charity, Trump and his three eldest children.

The attorney general’s suit, filed in June, alleged “persistently illegal conduct” at the charity and sought to have the foundation shut down. Underwood is continuing to seek more than $2.8 million in restitution and has asked a judge to ban the Trumps temporarily from serving on the boards of other New York nonprofits.

Underwood said Tuesday that her investigation found “a shocking pattern of illegality involving the Trump Foundation — including unlawful coordination with the Trump presidential campaign, repeated and willful self-dealing, and much more.”

“This is an important victory for the rule of law, making clear that there is one set of rules for everyone,” she added in a statement.

Trump agrees to shut down his charity amid allegations he used it for personal and political benefit

So, you all know I post my relationship stuff here. I this space as a place to collect my thoughts and share things that I normally can't share in my day to day life. Ready? Here we go.

My sister texts me Friday night. She's pretty upset about something and wants to meet with me and my brother ASAP. We arrange to meet for breakfast the following morning. I have no idea what she wants to meet about, but I'm assuming it's something about my Mom (who I think has started drinking again occasionally...). She made a slightly odd request about meeting somewhere other than her house, so I was kinda suspicious that maybe something is up with her relationship... But probably it's just something about Mom.

So we meet up, we start eating breakfast and she tells us that she's been having an affair for the last 6 months and her husband caught her with the guy the previous day. She's apparently been dating her boss (the CEO). This guy is fucking 60 years old! (She's 30) Oh, and they are in love.

Meanwhile... this guy is also married and has 5 kids (some that are the same age as my sister). My sister has a 9 month old infant, meaning this whole thing started when the baby was ~3 months old. Apparently this guy was going to tell his wife about the affair yesterday, but I have my doubts. I am skeptical that he'll give up 1/2 of everything -- including his company I'm assuming -- to his wife. We'll see I guess.

So my sisters marriage is over. She can't go back to her job that she loved. She's basically a single mom now. Stupid fucking choices.

My sister's (future ex) husband has been working really hard lately. He had a full time job, while simultaneously working toward an MBA, while also having a newborn. That's a full workload. My sister said that she felt that he wasn't spending enough time with her and felt lonely, so she went to find affection elsewhere. I get that, but there is a right way and a wrong way.

I'm pretty pissed off for a couple reasons. 1) This guy is twice her age. 2)Her husband got royally fucked over. 3) Her baby will never know her parents together and will have to perform the 'divorced parent shuffle' for the rest of her life.

Are you having problems in your relationship? TALK TO THE PERSON YOU LOVE! Tell them how you feel. Feel lonely? TELL THEM. Want more touch? TELL THEM! A relationship runs on trust, and that includes telling your partner when you are unhappy about something. How can your partner make you happy if they don't know what you need?