Posts by Reverend Jim

When I ran into problems with linux I found the online help was less than helpful. The help, when offered, consisted of experts explaining things to other experts, even though I mentioned that I was anything but. All help assumed I had much more knowledge than I did. The explanations sounded like Trek techno-babble.

Don't.

I've tried loinux several times over the years on spare computers, virtual machines, and a Raspberry Pi. I gave up on all of them because it was too difficult to maintain. Now all I use it for is Live USB recovery tools.

Had a similar experience with Bell. They wanted me to pay for them to fix a problem with major static on my phone line. Instead I switched to Shaw for internet, TV and phone and have had great service with them ever since. I've had Bell come to my door a few times to get me to switch back and I told them every time no because their customer service is shit.

If that is a demand then don't expect much in the way of positive feedback. If it is a request for help then a polite tone and much more information will likely lead to a better response.

The most challenging bug was one I introduced myself. While making a miniscule code change I decided to improve the readability of the following line by inserting a space. In today's code that would not be a problem, however, most of our code (AGC/SCADA) was written in FORTRAN. Those of you who made your bones in the punch card era, or know a little of the history of computing will know where I am going. In the age of 80 column punch cards, columns 73-80 were reserved for sequence numbers. Supposedly there existed somewhere a resequencing machine. I've never seen one.

Unfortunately this convention was continued into our system where all editing was done on VT100 CRT terminals and sequence numbers no longer made sense. The offending line was of the form:

CALL MYFUNC(parm, parm, ... ,,,,,,,

where the rightmost comma was in column 72. The next line continued the previous statement. By pushing the comma into the sequence area it was ignored by the compiler. The code still compiled, but now all the parameters following that were off by one position. Apparently the function was not frequently used so it took a while for the problem to show up and much longer to track it down.

As far as I know my university likewise lacked a resequencer. For that matter I don't think they had a machine to add the sequence numbers either.

For the record, the wailing of someone who has just dropped their five hundred card program …

Don't try to access past the end of the array.

Comments are mostly meant to be short things like "I agree with that!" or that type of thing.

A reminder to all - use the comment tool to give kudos instead of reviving a multi-year old thread by adding a new post. Using the comment tool not only saves us from wading through old threads, it also gives points the the person who posted the thread you are commenting on.

I don't trust any online service to store my information, sensitive or otherwise, other than whatever password I use to access a particular site. And I assume (mistake, probably) that they keep only the encrypted copy of the password. I saw an ad a while back (I think it was on Ask Woody) for a service that offered to keep all your financial information securely (yeah, right) so that your loved ones would have access in the event of your death.

"Extended warranty. How can I lose?" (Rob - you may have to dig a little for this one).

Hello and welcome to Daniweb.

Likewise retired as of 2008. I spent two years in medical resarch followed by 29 years as an AGC/SCADA systems programmer and Windows sysadmin/dbadmin and digital plumber.

If your name name is Donald Trump, nothing apparently.

In that case I can't suggest anything. I've never had to update multiple databases for any of the systems I set up.

As far as I know you can connect to more than one database at a time but you require a separate connection object for each one. Since queries go through the connection object you can't run a query on more than one db at a time. It seems to me that transactions are also connection based so you would have to manually roll back a transaction on A if the commit on B fails.

How about posting some code?

<edit> Sorry. I didn't scroll back far enough to see the link.

I'd suggest you start by typing that question into Google.

We'll need more info. The simplest way would be to go to another computer and create a boot USB such as a linux LiveUSB, or a Macrium Reflect or EaseUS recovery USB. The last two boot into a WindowsPE OS. Howeever, if you are running Windows and have enabled BitLocker you will need your recovery key.

Another way (may also need the BitLocker key) would be to remove your SSD/HDD and mount it in an external case, then plug it in to another computer.

Of course, the easiest way would be to just get the files from your backup media. You do backups, don't you?

Still waiting for a question.

A bad design leads to a bad experience. A good design can lead to a good experience. Is that a question that seriously needs to be answered?

Hello and welcome to Daniweb.

I hadn't considered that you could host Daniweb from your home. That would certainly make it more convenient. Would the savings from not having to pay a company to host Daniweb be the same or more than the upgrade and additional power costs for the home servers?

Awaiting suggestions.

Sounds like you want it because you want it and can't think of a reason to justify it. Can you think of any ways in which it would make your life easier? How much time would it actually save you and how often would it make a noticeable difference? Advertised speed is often much greater than actual speed. As you are well aware you are often limited to the speed at which the server you are connecting to can send the data, and that also depends on the current load on the server.

Ayup. First went to Shebandowan summer of 1981 (wife's family cottage) and sold in 2021. At that point it had been in the family for almost 100 years. It was getting too hard to maintain at our age and the drive (close to eight hours) was just getting to be too much (I did the round trip three times that summer to bring stuff home). Also with summers getting warmer the lake was getting soupy and not refreshing, and the neighbours were getting more numerous and noisier. Even with 450 feet of lakefront we were noticing the drop in privacy.

I got married in 1982 and we live on the absolute very edge of the north east corner of Winnipeg. The Perimeter Highway is on the other side of a berm east of our back yard. We can be out of the city in five minutes and at Birds Hill Park to go cross country skiing in fifteen. If we walk across the highway we can walk or bike along a country path along the Floodway all the way to Lockport without traffic and city noise.

One of the great things about growing up on a former market garden was the abundance of fresh vegetables. You haven't tasted real food until you've had pesticide free yellow & green beans, peas, beets, and corn on the cob cooked five minutes after being picked. A raw carrot freshly pulled and wiped on a pant leg doesn't compare to store bought. Also …

The speed of light is approximately 1,798,884,751,104 furlongs per fortnight.

I decided to calculate this after having to calculate the current gas price for my son's Prius. It tells you after each trip how much you saved by going hybrid, but it has to know the currrent gas price. First of all, the rather extensive manual does not tell you how to enter the price (thanks youtube). But because the car was made in the US I had to enter the price per US gallon whereas our gas is sold by the litre.

Thanks US for being one of only three countries still not on the metric system (along with Libyia and Myanmar). And to add insult to injury you don't even use an imperial gallon. At least you aren't using buttloads (475 litres) or hogsheads (238 litres for wine and liquor, 164 for beer).

Using wxPython for your GUI elements will make it more portable to other platforms. wxPython also renders the elements in the target platform's native style. Usimg wxGlade (also free) to design the layout will make things much easier than doing it all by hand.

Welcome to Daniweb

Something similar. The family house was built in 1910 (the year my dad was born) on 30 acres of prime vegetable growing land. The acre and a half we lived on was beautifully treed and grassed. Because of healtb issues my dad sold the land to developers under the condition that when they decided to build we would move out. That was more than 10 years later (1978). My one regret is that I didn't take many many more pictures when it was in prime shape. The buildings are long gone but the acre and a half is now a park.

Three years ago we sold our cottage at Shebandowan Lake but this time my son brought out a VR camera and a drone. We did several 360-VR movies and overhead drone videos so on top of the memories we can pop on the headset whenever we feel nostalgic.

So my recommendation is that you take more pictures and movies than you think you will ever want.

That was my third edit of a response. The first two were basically "old man yelling at clouds".

This makes me think that we need WAAAY more apps that generate junk data

Right. That's what we need. Still more junk. We'll just push Sturgeon's law from 90% to 99.99%. That will make things better.

Vatican City has a density of 5.88 popes per square mile.

Our office started with PC DOS and WordStar

If you want to get really picky, I spent a year (1978) doing medical research on a Cromemco running CP/M and whatever horrid OS (if you can even call it that) ran on a small Data General beast.

As someone who actually programmed the computers that controlled our provincial generation, transmisssion, and distribution grid for 29 years I disagree with the classification of that software as automation in the sense of this discussion. While we did have some packages that were advisory (water flow optimization and generation efficiency for two), the actual operating decisions were always in the hands of human operators. This is no more automation than is output from a spreadsheet.

i'm not sure where I stand yet on self-driving cars. Asking your car to drive you from point A to point B and giving control to the car is automation. Asking for an optimal route where the system is aware of construction zones, current traffic flow, etc., then using that as a starting point where you can manually override the route is advisory. A strictly shortest/fastest route may end up taking you through a dangerous part of town.

A little trivia here - was anyone else aware that the voice of the Johnny-Cab in the original Total Recall movie was provided by the actor (Robert Picardo) who portrayed the AI doctor in Star Trek Voyager? The driver even physically resembles the actor.

I like movies that don't insult my intelligence. Aside from the frequent spoilers I find that the Pitch Meeting videos do a great job of pointing out the ways in which modern action movies prioritize action and spectacle over anything resembling good writing.

10 Ways Star Trek Just Isn’t Star Trek Anymore is an excellent summary of what JJ Abrahms has done to Star Trek. For a much more detailed examination see the excellent posts beginning here. You'll see many examples of how even basic physics goes completely out the window. Assuming that the viewers are idiots seems to be the default these days.

So, a Spaceballs fan

Hated Spaceballs. Loved Galaxy Quest.

I find most Mel Brooks comedy to be too low brow, with the exception of Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles.

I’m all about sci-fi/fantasy that makes you think

Definitely give The Man From Earth a go. You can watch it for free on youtube.

I'm always up for discussions on movies, good or bad.

My completely uninformed guess is no. Their bubble has burst.

If it does everything for you then what do we need you for?

Plus anti-virus. It will also warn you if it suspects you may be installing potentially malicious software. It can occasionally be heavy-handed though. For example, I tried to install the latest version of Stickies (Zhorn Software) and it gave me a warning. I've been running Stickies for years and trust the software and the site. This should be resolved in a weeek or two as the Defender database is updated.

I have been running nothing but Defender on my laptops and the various machines I support for family/friends and have never had an infection.

Selected comics at gocomics. These days I need to start my day with a smile.

My son had the same problem so typically I'd plug in to the matrix and he would observe on my laptop using Air Receiver.

Quick plug: I bought Air Receiver through the Microsoft Store for around four dollars. Running this you can cast directly from the Oculus without having to go through the Meta servers. Naturally, casting point to point means less latency. It also means we could screen cap parts of the game so we could refer to the puzzle parts on the laptop without having to retrace our steps.

Finished Red Matter 2 on the Oculus Quest recently. It was very well done and enjoyable. The graphics were excellent.

Rex was a very stupid dog, except for one thing: he could play the kazoo. His owners, George and Mary Heel, exploited him shamelessly with several performances a day, but Rex just wagged his tail and kept tooting. Finally, the SPCA filed a complaint against his owners: “The Heels star a live witless hound of music.”

Welcome to Daniweb

Just checking back, and the first two threads I started on Dniweb relatet to wxPython. When they weren't answered I cam to the realization that noboy else here was using it. After becoming more proficient in wxPython I eventually started posating tutorials on same using the development of my own projects as a basis.

I stick with Windows because of long familiarity at the office. After years of networking/sysadmin and dbadmin I just had too much invested in MS. Too bad OS/2 died. When we got PC workstations for the control centre operators to interface to our AGTC/SCADA system we went for OS/2. We felt it was far superior to anything from Microsoft at the time. It was a fully multitasking OS with a DOS shell rather than an MSDOS base with Windows running on top (it wasn't until much later that Windows NT came out). It's biggest failing at that time was that all configuration had to be done with a text editor rather than a GUI. We stayed on OS/2 until shortly after Warp came out. AMIGA Intuition, however, blew them both out of the water.

As for networking, though, I'll give kudos for ease of management to Windows over Banyan Vines and Novell Netware, both of which I had to learn for work.

Way back in 2010. Probably a Google search. I landed here and stayed. Sort of like that one relative who drops in for a visit and never leaves. ;-)

he declared that we have an Apple-only household

Sounds more than a little heavy-handed but I can sympathize. Windows computers have to allow for "any hardware/anywhere", causing no end of quirks and compatibility problemd, whereas Apple is more of a closed ecosystem. Microsoft also pushes features that most users do not need or want (copilot, onedrive) and are damn near impossible to disable.

I should also mention (as I detailed in another thread), my previous ASUS had to be returned for refund because of a problem (second internal drive bay would not work) that ASUS claimed was fixed after being sent back for repairs, but was still broken when I got it back. Also, my wife's ASUS is flakey. I bought the two laptops after having a positive experience with two laptops that were purchased years ago for my brother and father-in-law. Their quality took a nosedive.

Part of the reason...

I, for one, am sick and tired of every Tom, Dick, and Harry requiring a separate app for everything. It has gotten to the point of having to scroll through pages of icons to locate whatever app you need for a particular occasion. Plus, every app stays open consuming limited memory. And then there are the constant reminders to update. And if you ever have to reset your phone (seems to be the default recommendation to fix any problem) you have to spend hours reinstalling everything. Far better to have one app (a browser). Of course you then have the problem of scrolling through all the links to get at the website you need. But at least a link takes up less space, and you don't have to manage updates for a website.

I currently have an ASUS Vivobook K350 that I bought in Dec 2022 but I would never buy another ASUS product. Too many stupid annoying problems that don't quite reach the level of justifying the expense of replacement. My older son (medical researcher) is currently looking at a new Lenovo Thinkpad P1 and based on how that turns out I will likely go that route next year when I reach pissed-off critical mass.