@weaselx86@mastodon.social
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

weaselx86

@weaselx86@mastodon.social

California, Ireland, Colorado.
MS Math/CompSci UCLA.
Locus, Sun Microsystems; PDP-11, x86, C, Go.
Programming since 1973.
I wrote the program that calculated the GPA that appears on my high-school transcript.

Starting in 1984 I led the project at Locus to create the first x86 virtual machine, to run MS-DOS under Unix, on the AT&T 6300 Plus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6300_Plus).

The lines in the avatar are horizontal.
née Twitter https://mastodon.social/@weaselx86
There should be no profit in human misery.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

pluralistic, to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

It's the start of a long weekend and I've found myself with a backlog of links, so it's time for another linkdump - the eighteenth in the (occasional) series. Here's the previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

--

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/#lol-no

1/

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic

“[t]he LAPD is not expected to like the existence of ‘Fck the LAPD’ merchandise. But their sole remedy is to not do things that result in people wanting to buy and wear ‘Fck the LAPD’ merchandise.” That may be difficult, he conceded, “[b]ut I promise you it would still be easier than trying to get a court to rule” that these shirts are infringing.

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/05/lol-no-explained.html

zakalwe, to random
@zakalwe@plasmatrap.com avatar

"I paid off MY myself! Why should these kids get theirs ?"

Dude. You had $3,000 in student loans. Some of "these kids" graduated from college $70,000 in debt for the same degree you got, now they're earning half as much as you did for a comparable job and they have no expectation of any retirement benefits, and they've been paying on that loan for fifteen years and owe more on it now than they did when they started paying it. They are being ruthlessly exploited by student loan management companies whose entire business model is based upon gouging people who are struggling to pay off their student loans.

Would it fucking KILL YOU to show a little compassion and understanding?

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@zakalwe @arisummerland

markmetz, to Ukraine
@markmetz@sfba.social avatar

“The notion that the war is unwinnable because of Russia’s dominance is a Russian information operation, which gives us a glimpse of the Kremlin’s real strategy and only real hope of success. The Kremlin must get the United States to the sidelines, allowing Russia to fight Ukraine in isolation and then proceed to Moscow’s next targets, which Russia will also seek to isolate. The Kremlin needs the United States to choose inaction and embrace the false inevitability that Russia will prevail in Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s center of gravity is his ability to shape the will and decisions of the West, Ukraine, and Russia itself.“



Denying Russia’s Only Strategy for Success | Institute for the Study of War

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/denying-russia%E2%80%99s-only-strategy-success

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@markmetz

"The Russian strategy that matters most, therefore, is not Moscow’s warfighting strategy, but rather the Kremlin’s strategy to cause us to see the world as it wishes us to see it and make decisions in that Kremlin-generated alternative reality that will allow Russia to win in the real world."

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/denying-russia%E2%80%99s-only-strategy-success

StillIRise1963, to random
@StillIRise1963@mastodon.world avatar

I think people are too kind to the purveyors of misinformation. Stop letting the facilitators of fascism off the hook.

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@lin11c @StillIRise1963

A society that permits "freedom of lies" is guaranteed to poison itself.

DemocracyMattersALot, to Florida
@DemocracyMattersALot@mstdn.social avatar

Why did Marco Rubio—who sits on the senate intelligence committee—take at least $1.5 MILLION from Len Blavatnik, an oligarch who has burrowed into America?

https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/how-putin-s-oligarchs-funneled-millions-into-gop-campaigns/

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@DemocracyMattersALot @tomwwolf

In addition to the $1.5 million Rubio received from Blavatnik, he also got $3.3 million from Torshin, via Butina and the NRA.

Follow the rubles (green arrows) from Russia to Rubio and other senators (shown in yellow oval):

tofugolem, to random
@tofugolem@mastodon.social avatar

Too much of the mainstream media is glossing over the fascism of conservatives and is using “but both sides” reporting to normalize their growing extremism.

This should not be regarded as normal by anyone but fascists.

1-minute video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSCNSMDHb28

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@tofugolem @FrankFrank @ProjectLincoln

This is a rather chilling mashup of audio and video of a protester being thrown out of a 2016 Trump rally, and a protester being thrown out of a 1939 Nazi Bund rally at Madison Square Garden.

In this video, Fritz Kuhn watches from the podium as Isador Greenbaum is thrown out of the 1939 rally.

Trump also had a protester thrown out of one of his 2016 rallies: "I'd like to punch him in the face, I'll tell ya!"

https://youtu.be/Qc0m3GivQe8

mekkaokereke, (edited ) to random
@mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io avatar

Rapper Meek Mill is wondering out loud if Africans have access to streaming music apps like Spotify, and if so, if they listen to his music.

There aren't enough stories about the Africans working at big tech companies, but there are a lot of us. There are many Ghanaians, South Africans, Kenyans, and Nigerians 🙋🏿‍♂️, working in tech.

I often remind folks that Nigerian 7th grade math curriculum includes binary, octal, hexadecimal, statistics and data, algebra, and geometry.

https://youtu.be/2JTnr9XW-lk?si=D4ch-nw-zDkKNiAe

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@zenkat @mekkaokereke

I moved to the new district only a couple weeks before the start of the school year. Monday the first day I was the only freshman in a Geometry classroom full of sophomores; I was the first ever student in the district to take Geometry as a freshman. That Wednesday, a few minutes into the class, the door opened and in walked another five or six freshmen to join the class. When we became seniors they had to invent a new math class for, by then, about a dozen of us.

weaselx86,
@weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

@zenkat @mekkaokereke
Amazing there are still people who believe capable students should not take Algebra in 8th grade. I did that over 50 years ago, and would have been terribly bored otherwise. It kept my interest in Math enough that Math/Computer Science later became my major at UCLA.

After passing Algebra I with an "A" in Long Beach I moved to another district where the "counselor" wanted to make me take it again. Fortunately my mother was a teacher and insisted I be enrolled in Geometry.

DrALJONES, to random
@DrALJONES@mastodon.social avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    weaselx86,
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @DrALJONES
    The United States of America has the best politicians money can buy.

    Mrfunkedude, to random
    @Mrfunkedude@mastodon.social avatar

    So here's the question, do most politicians just happen to have punchable faces or are those with punchable faces just happen to be attracted to politics?

    weaselx86,
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @Mrfunkedude
    @Urban_Hermit

    San Antonio wax museum forced to remove Trump statue because people kept punching it

    https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wax-statue-removed-from-museum-visitors-keep-punching-it-2021-3

    RustyBertrand, to random
    @RustyBertrand@mastodon.social avatar
    weaselx86,
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @RustyBertrand @Edelruth

    w7voa, to random
    @w7voa@journa.host avatar

    A Hollywood Hills resident is campaigning to remove the frequently vandalized Donald Trump star on the nearby Walk of Fame, but it's unclear who could authorize such an unprecedented action. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-12-27/donald-trump-hollywood-walk-of-fame-star

    weaselx86,
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @w7voa

    San Antonio wax museum forced to remove Trump statue because people kept punching it

    https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-wax-statue-removed-from-museum-visitors-keep-punching-it-2021-3

    dgar, to random
    @dgar@aus.social avatar
    weaselx86,
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @dgar

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    I have returned home from Loma Linda hospital where for a while I was intubated in the ICU close to death with pneumonia encompassing entire right lung. Now on 2 liters of oxygen (down from 10). Lower 1/3 of right lung is still collapsed.

    After extubation, whenever a new shift of nurses would come on they'd ask me questions to see if I was oriented, like name, month and year, and who is the President. I didn't ask what they do with patients who think Trump is president.

    @danak6jq
    @lauren

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @GeorgeStyles
    @jwtraphagan

    In case you haven't seen this, Einstein expresses some opinions about education (among other subjects) in this collection of his letters and essays.

    Ideas and Opinions
    Albert Einstein

    https://namnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/29289146-ideas-and-opinions-by-albert-einstein.pdf

    E.g. page 64:
    "The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgment should always be placed foremost, not the acquisition of special knowledge."

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    Could someone please translate this from Japanese to English for me?

    It is the label on a small bottle of a fluid which I believe to be a light oil.

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @feditips
    The behavior on mastodon.social (using Firefox on Linux) changed yesterday and is still broken today. After drilling down into a post, when I return "Back" to my "Home" display it does not return me to where I was -- usually it goes to the very top (most recent posts) of the feed.

    This despite me being in "slow mode" (it does still show me the "n new items" prompt at the top).

    This is annoying because I have to then scroll down trying to find where I was.

    Why is this happening?

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @lauren
    I happened to see the ST-TOS Assignment Earth episode with Gary Seven last night, and noticed something: one of Seven's fake ID's was for the NSA, but IIRC the existence of the NSA was still classified until the mid-1970's, long after the episode first aired.

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @feditips
    On mastodon.social, after several hours away from my browser for sleep, I returned to see 51 new notifications pending. I clicked on that and a bunch of them appeared, but some were missing, replaced with "...".

    When I reached the first "..." I clicked there and got some message at the bottom-left of my screen saying "Rate Limited, try back in [5 minutes]".

    Why? Is that a bug? It seems pretty ridiculous to "rate limit" me for two clicks in eight hours...

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @feditips
    For verification, what field do I put the link with rel="me" into on my github profile page?

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    Putin's Org Chart, USA Division, around the 2016 election
    (Last updated April 2019)

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @feditips
    How do I search for all of my own posts (only) with some particular hashtag? E.g.

    @weaselx86 and

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    Our experiment in democracy is at a critical juncture, brought by a demographic shift unprecedented in our history: from white majority, to white plurality without majority.

    The next three years will determine the character of the United States for decades to come.

    Until recently the demographic majority of voters here has been white.

    Not coincidentally, under our system of elections by majority, most powers of office have historically been held in white hands.
    1/12

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    Insurrection Breath
    (Apologies @jethrotull)

    In the babbling madness
    Of Insurrection Breath
    Tweets the all time loser
    Fearing ego death

    Oh, his lawyers are going to prison
    And he's feelin' like he'll drown
    Old Donnie's lost his marbles
    And the train it won't stop going
    'Till the Beast's brought down

    weaselx86, to random
    @weaselx86@mastodon.social avatar

    @feditips
    After clicking down from my Home page into a post, when I'm done and click the "Back" button, how do I get it to take me back where I was, rather than resetting me to the top of the (now updated) Home page?

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