Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@qoto.org
Retired software engineer & woodworker.
Anglo-francophone.
Detest tories. Subscribe to green, leftish radical politics but not to any particular political party!.
Love the EU and all it stands for, moreover, I spent the last 10 years of my career working at an EU agency.
Enthusiastic photographer, especially wildlife and most especially butterflies.
Slightly knowledgeable gardener.
Atheist; loathe almost all religions and pity the people deluded enough to follow them. I make exceptions for Buddhism as it isn't really a religion in the strictest sense of the word as it doesn't postulate the existence of any god, and Jainism which is the epitome of peace.
For anyone who is interested, my header photo is of the most stupendous sunset I have ever seen. On the right is the waterfront of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on the left is Thailand and in the middle, acting as the border between the two countries is the mighty Mekong river.
Joined Nov 2022
Having wondered for some years whether it was in fact an old wives tale, the other day I proved to my own satisfaction that it wasn't!
I'm talking about eggs. I was told years ago, I cannot remember by whom, that if you put eggs in water, they should sink and, that if they float, they are either bad or extremely stale. The other day I grabbed a carton of six eggs with five eggs left in it and put the five eggs in a saucepan of water to hard boil them. All five of the eggs floated and I was slightly surprised at this as I was sure that the carton of eggs with one missing was fresh as I'd only bought it the day before; For that reason, I dismissed it as a problem. Then one of the eggs actually burst and the smell that came out was not pleasant, so I fished the carton they came in out of the wastepaper bin and checked the use-by date on it. Sure enough, the use by date had been and gone several months previously, somehow the carton of eggs had got hidden under other things and overlooked when I threw out all the eggs that were past their use-by date. As you might guess, I took them out of the saucepan and threw them straight on the compost heap where no doubt the local Pine Martens will deal with a few lightly boiled stale eggs without further ado.
I thought the business of eggs floating or not was an old wives tale but it seems that that is not the case at all!
Once the prostate starts to expand due to age related BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) or prostate cancer, it is, indeed, much easier to induce the bladder to empty completely in the seated position rather than standing up.
I wouldn't, ordinarily, have thought that that constituted an attack on 'manliness' but north American men do seem to have the most fantastically fragile male egos!
The proof, as if proof were needed, what a worthless, lying scumbag Theresa May was!!
https://www.richardcorbett.org.uk/falsehoods-failures-fibs-fabrications/
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
The polish train hacking saga is truly the gift that keeps on giving, now with full receipts PLUS an actual incident of a train compressor failing on the exact date that security researchers found hardcoded into the train's software, as a condition for triggering a compressor failure.
https://www.404media.co/polish-hackers-explain-exactly-how-they-fixed-trains-that-the-manufacturer-bricked/
#trains
#infosec
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
No woman should trust Donald Trump - who is a proven sex attacker. He's also an enemy of democracy
The Supreme Curt should uphold the ban on him standing for office
I learned when exposed to a case of 'open' TB on a long haul flight, that the BCG vaccine that my generation of kids were given at around age 11, is pretty nearly completely ineffective against pulmonary TB - the type that we all know and love - consumption - the scourge of Victorian life in the big cities. In fact , the BCG vaccine targeted meningitis caused by the same bacterium that causes tuberculosis of the lungs, mycobacterium tuberculosis.
In most patients, the immune reaction to the vaccine subsides 20 or so years after vaccination, however when they gave me the standard test for TB, the Mantoux tuberculin skin test, it was massively positive, suggesting either an active or recent TB infection. The local health authorities where I live then ran a Quantiferon Gold test; a test that is much more accurate, sensitive and can discriminate between people vaccinated with BCG and actual cases of TB. The Quantiferon Gold test came back reassuringly negative as did a second round of Quantiferon Gold testing six months later.
In summary, if the inexorable spread of TB in India and other developing nations is to be halted, the world needs an effective vaccine against pulmonary TB!
However, it is as well to remember that most people who are well fed are not susceptible to TB and that India, at least is no longer a poor country so perhaps they should be doing something themselves to ameliorate the nutrition status of its people!
Don't be silly - that would have deprived Netanyawho of the excuse to level Gaza then steal the land from the Palestinians
that will be because the vast majority of owners/directors of limited liability companies vote tory every time!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
I have the weirdest problem with my laptop, and I have no idea how to even debug it. So, I'm posting it here in case anyone has an idea:
I'm using Ubuntu 22.04; all updates installed.
Almost all the time, I'm connected to my home wireless network (router + APs).
Last week, the connection to the wireless was working fine. I went on vacation for one week; I took the laptop with me so it was not connected to my home network. Today I tried to connect to my WiFi, but it is not working.
The laptop can connect to the wireless network,
and it gets the IP, DNS and routes assigned via DHCP. But pinging to the router does not get any response.
I tried the wired connection (same router), and it works.
I tried the WiFi hotspot from my phone, and it works.
All other devices connected to the wireless network work.
There are no firewall rules in the AP or router blocking my laptop (again, it connects to the wireless network and DHCP works).
iptables is clean.
If it is a problem between the laptop and the AP, how can it get all the DHCP info?
If the problem is between the AP and the router, how do the other devices work fine?
If the problem is the wireless driver in Ubuntu, how does connection to the hotspot in the phone work?
I removed and recreated the WiFi configuration to my home network; it does not fix it. I also tested using a static IP.
I have no idea what this could be.
Any ideas?
Reposts appreciated. :-)
I wonder if he will get invited to his old public school, Eastbourne College, as a VIP for Speech Day (the VIP on Speech Day gets to present the prizes and gives a speech). Do you know what, I do somehow doubt it!
I have been saying this for some years now and have elicited much bile, insults and aggression for daring to suggest that this could be the truth!
However, it's no good saying this to the fascist scum currently running GB plc nor indeed to their lackeys the right wing press nor finally to the average British bar-prop or pub bore that that is the case as they simply wouldn't believe you!
I am constantly astonished that so many in the USA support Trump. Why do americans identify with a compulsive liar, a serial sexual abuser, and rapist, whose business acumen is so stunted that his companies have had to declare bankruptcy multiple times? Is it because that's what they'd like to be - that is the limited vision of the great American dream?
What make his supporters think that someone who inherited around half a
$ billion and has now contrived to lose all of and is in debt to the tune of about the same amount, is a 'self-made man'. Don't the stupid dick-wits realise that if he had invested the vast fortune he inherited in a decent fund (like Warren Buffet's fund), he would be a multi-billionaire by now whereas in reality he has loans coming due for repayment shortly that total $250,000,000 and no means of repaying them (the loans are to his companies BUT he gave personal guarantees for the loans so if his companies can't pay, he is personally liable!)
Well at least measles gives you immunity for life - at the price of completely wiping your immune system's memory! Vaccination against measles is probably a better option!
When I moved to Thailand in 2015, for the 1st time in my life, I came into contact with lots of Americans and the subject of America's notorious healthcare system often came up.
Even suggesting that there was anything wrong with America's profoundly PROFIT orientated heath-care system was often akin to suggesting barbecuing human babies alive for supper!
Americans it seems don't want it to change however utterly dreadful it may be!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
@fkamiah17 the USA can go to hell. The trigger happy meddlers should be chased from every country. The USA has a long history of rigging polls, supporting military coups, channeling funds and spreading political propaganda in other countries for their own gain and it’s about time the world treated them no differently than Russia. This U.S. obsession with meddling in other countries seriously jeopardises world peace.
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
I feel like this hits the crux of the matter. Techbros don't want LLMs/AI because they're “new and exciting", they want it because it's a profitable grift that hasn't yet been regulated—and the thrill of stealing from artists who achieve more than techbros can ever dream of adds a fillip, I'm sure.
From Laura K of Normal Island News!
"Israel has achieved a world record by killing 105 journalists in just 83 days, continuing their kill streak of more than one journalist per day. This has disproven the conspiracy theory that Israel is using unguided "dumb bombs" in its genocide. Unguided rockets are not this reliable.
An IDF spokesperson told me they are keeping score and that while a civilian target is only worth one point, a doctor is worth five points, a UN aid worker is worth ten points, and a problematic journalist is worth a whopping 25 points. I’m no good at maths, but I suspect the IDF has shattered its high score.
At this point, the IDF’s biggest problem is they might run out of journalists to kill and then they'll have to turn their attention to troublemakers with large Twitter followings, but I’m not sure how many points they will be worth.
While the IDF was celebrating its record-breaking performance, US state propagandist Anthony Blinken, who is basically the American version of me, almost caused a diplomatic incident when he clumsily tweeted:
"This has been an extraordinarily dangerous year for press around the world. Many killed, many more wounded, hundreds detained, attacked, threatened, injured – simply for doing their jobs. I am profoundly grateful to the press for getting accurate, timely information to people."
When Netanyahu saw the tweet, Mossad threatened to release the tapes they've secretly recorded, but thankfully, Anthony clarified he wasn’t referring to the journalists in Gaza who totally had it coming, especially the Al-Jazeera ones. Fucking truth tellers.
The thing about journalists is they’re brilliant when they’re telling the truth about leaders we don’t like (or even just repeating our lies about leaders we don’t like), but the moment they tell the truth about leaders we like, that is completely unacceptable.
The problem with the journalists in Gaza is they weaponise the truth against war criminals, increasing the risk that people might feel sympathy for their victims, and this cannot be tolerated. The only available response is to destroy their homes (which Israel has sensibly registered) to ensure that not only can journalists not continue to tell the truth, but their children can’t grow up to be truth tellers.
As a journalist, the most courageous thing I can do is fall silent as any journalist Netanyahu disapproves of is assassinated. Only a handful of western journalists have been cowardly enough to speak out against our favourite war criminals and I’m at a loss to explain why we have not levelled their entire neighbourhoods. I thought that is what we are doing now x"
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
We can't keep transferring attention and wealth to billionaires while blindly hoping they will selectively choose to focus their attention and resources on the world’s actual problems. It's like giving a room full of 5-year-olds a tub of ice cream and an iPad and hoping they retile the kitchen.
This is more serious than people think. Aircraft design is a meticulous business and any nut or bolt that is designed to stay tightened should be designed and specified with a system to prevent it from loosening under the influence of vibration (the sworn enemy of all threaded fixings!). There are half a dozen or more ways of stopping nuts and bolts from loosening, ranging from the use of castellated nuts with a split pin through them to the use of locking compounds like Locktite. One of the primary concerns in aircraft design is the elimination of anything that could go wrong including the loosening of any sort of fixing due to vibration. This fault appears to indicate yet again that Boeing are cutting corners that shouldn't be cut!
Retired software engineer & woodworker.
Anglo-francophone.
Detest tories. Subscribe to green, leftish radical politics but not to any particular political party!.
Love the EU and all it stands for, moreover, I spent the last 10 years of my career working at an EU agency.
Enthusiastic photographer, especially wildlife and most especially butterflies.
Slightly knowledgeable gardener.
Atheist; loathe almost all religions and pity the people deluded enough to follow them. I make exceptions for Buddhism as it isn't really a religion in the strictest sense of the word as it doesn't postulate the existence of any god, and Jainism which is the epitome of peace.
For anyone who is interested, my header photo is of the most stupendous sunset I have ever seen. On the right is the waterfront of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on the left is Thailand and in the middle, acting as the border between the two countries is the mighty Mekong river.
Joined Nov 2022
