I'm a ISP network engineer, and across all teams working on the same platform we have agreed on Read-Only Friday. //

Yep, never start/continue/work on a project on a Friday. Or Monday... //

We have a strict "no live deployments on a Friday".

And if a Friday happens to be a public holiday, the rule then applies to the preceding Thursday instead. //

The last day of the working week is virtual or logical Friday, even if it's not calendar Friday.

All Friday rules still apply!

Hemmi Bamboo Slide Rule Company Ltd. in Japan is the oldest and most well known Japanese manufacturing company making slide rules. Jirou Hemmi and Company was founded in 1895 and, in 1912, was granted by the Japanese Patent Office Patent No. 22129 for their laminated bamboo construction method for slide rules. As a young company wanting exposure to a larger market, They started by selling distribution licenses to three other companies: the Fredrick Post Company of Chicago, Illinois, the Hughes-Owen Company of Canada and Tamaya & Company of Tokyo, Japan.

Re: I saw similar a couple times in that timeframe ...
My recollection, because I started to make phone bill payments in those years, was that the local operating telcos (first the “Baby Bells” and then their ever-merging successors) had two types of residential service on offer: one at a nominally lower base cost plus a charge for every local call, and one at a supposedly higher base cost that allowed unlimited local calling. Both, of course, charged a king’s ransom for a domestic long-distance call. An overseas long-distance call required a cardiologist when your bill arrived.

Pro tip for DELETE queries
If you're ever running something like this

DELETE FROM bigtable WHERE secretfield = 1;

in production the way I always do this is to type out the query without the table name ("bigtable") or the condition ("1").

That means if you accidentally hit Enter at an inopportune moment e.g. after just DELETE FROM bigtable (which would delete all rows!) the query will fail because it's syntactically invalid.

I then go back and add in the table name with a sanity check of "is this the table I really mean?" followed by the same with the conditions. Pause. Then press Enter.

Takes about 5 seconds longer and I've never once deleted something inadvertently in production. Oh, and never copy/paste queries for exactly this reason - unless you modify them to remove the same params first. //

Re: Pro tip for DELETE queries
or you could just start with SELECT * , and see if the results correspond with what you wanted to delete

then bring the DELETE in once you're happy the filters/ table/ db are all correct

or at the minimum type the WHERE field = 1 first to avoid accidentally hitting enter and doing a wholesale delete with no filter. //

Pro tip for DELETE queries
Always always do the Select Count first, then run at least three queries - select count, delete, select count and select any other useful where to prove the delete or the surviving records - all wrapped in a transaction to give yourself chance to check that you’re getting what you expect. Then go for a coffee, come back and check it again before swapping rollback for commit. //

Pro tip for DELETE queries
I can appreciate your imagination, but there are just too many steps where things can completely go wrong.

The only solution that works is to wrap things in a transaction. That's what they are there for, after all.

Certainly, checking the number of rows delete is an important sanity check. But not the only thing that might be checked. //

Re: Pro tip for DELETE queries
First do the SELECT FROM bigtable WHERE <condition> bit, then when you have verified that, do a SELECT INTO bigtable_backup_todaysdate FROM bigtable (without the WHERE clause) before changing it to a DELETE statement. If the database has active transactions going on, you might also want to make sure that either everyone else is out of the database, or you might want to consider using a query locking hint, such as WITH READUNCOMMITTED.

You can always do a DROP TABLE bigtable_backup_todaysdate later, once you've established you didn't screw up.

This does, of course, assume you have enough space in your database for a copy of "bigtable", but to be honest, if you don't have that much headroom (or log space) in your database, you're likely to run into bigger problems. //

Re: Pro tip for DELETE queries
How's this for a pro tip: always Always ALWAYS surround your PROD statements with begin transaction / rollback transaction FIRST?

begin transaction

delete from bigtable where secretfield=1

rollback transaction

See how many records are impacted. If it's more than you think, carefully query the data and understand why.

Finally, when you are done, replace "rollback" with "commit":

begin transaction

delete from bigtable where secretfield=1

commit transaction

But even before you do this, do a SELECT with the same criteria as the DELETE and actually read some records.

Fight back against Redmond's productivity sinks. //

To disable widgets, right-click on your taskbar, select Taskbar Settings, and then toggle Widgets to off. //

To make the lock screen ads go away, first navigate to Settings->Personalization->Lock screen. Then select Picture instead of Windows Spotlight under "Personalize your lock screen." Finally, select None under "Lock screen status.". //

To disable Search highlights, open the Search menu, select Search settings from the … menu and then toggle Show Search Highlights to off.

The Heritage Foundation's Defense Budget Tool provides a user-friendly method to aid in both the analysis and transparency of the U.S. defense budget and facilitate more informed debate about how the Department of Defense ought to be directing spending.

Until now, individual line items of the defense budgets have only been published on the website of Undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller) each year. This data is published in disparate PDFs and spreadsheets, with no mechanism for viewing all the data at once.
This tool:

• Provides an itemized accounting of the U.S. defense budget for analysis by national security experts.
• Allows a user to create customizable defense budgets that can be saved and shared for future reference.
• Makes defense budget data more accessible to Americans interested in the composition of the U.S. national security budget.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the actor perhaps best known for starring in the TV sitcom "The Cosby Show" as son Theodore "Theo" Huxtable, has died at 54.

Warner drowned off the coast of Costa Rica on Sunday, Costa Rican National Police told ABC News. Warner's official cause of death was asphyxia, police said. //

In 2023, Warner spoke to media personality Bevy Smith on her podcast "Bevelations" about the legacy of "The Cosby Show." Because of the allegations and subsequent conviction of sexual assault (aggravated indecent assault) by comedian, actor, and producer Bill Cosby, Smith asked Warner whether he felt the legacy of the show was irreversibly tainted. Warner was insightful in his response.

"There's a generation of us who went to college, they sought out higher education because of that show. There's a generation of us that went and got married and had loving relationships with each other and their children because of that show. That impact is irreversible."

Malcolm-Jamal Warner was born August 18, 1970, and trained early in life to be an actor. Warner attended and graduated from The Professional Children's School in New York.

Here is another reverse lookups done using dig command:

$ dig -x ip-address-here
$ dig -x 75.126.153.206

FreeBSD uses try the drill command:

 drill -Qx 54.184.50.208

Any number of unwanted or troublesome behaviours may ensue.

mark_j said:
… possibly is a bug. Even if the file system is junk, the driver should time out and allow the process to be killed. …

Depending on the context of an error, it's not unusual for an operating system halt to fail in response to shutdown -p now.

shutdown(8)

Ideally: things should be more graceful.

Realistically: it's sometimes necessary to force off the power.

Back in the Bad Old Days when the wealthy started to enjoy the fruits and freedoms of the Industrial Revolution with steam trains and coal-fired ocean-going liners, the damage to Britain was all too apparent in the coal mines, open-cast mines, the filthy air and disgusting rivers.

Today the solution is simply to relocate the devastation somewhere else. The Chelsea Tractor EV comes with its own consequences. The problem is lithium for batteries and the skyrocketing demand for it, which requires the use of vast evaporation pools in Chile, the world’s second-largest source after Australia: //

There is a common argument from people who support lithium mining: that even if it damages the environment, it brings huge benefits via jobs and cash.

This is a story about John Two Guns White Calf, the last chief of the Blackfeet. His proud visage was immortalized on the Washington Redskins’ logo, designed by Blackie Wetzel to honor Native American strength. For decades, from 1972 to 2019, that emblem blazed across NFL fields, a tribute to “Indian Country” that stirred pride in fans and Native communities alike. //

The 2020 name change, driven by corporate pressure and a summer of racial hysteria, wasn’t progress—it was, as Daines put it, “woke gone wrong.” It stripped away a tribute to Native heritage under the guise of sensitivity, leaving fans and players like Scott Turner, a former Redskins defensive back, feeling betrayed. Turner took to X to declare, “I played in the NFL and was drafted by the Washington Redskins. Not the ‘Washington Football Team’ or the ‘Commanders.’" //

Bringing back the Redskins name would honor John Two Guns White Calf, unite a fractured fanbase, and remind us that America’s strength lies in its traditions. Trump’s leading the charge, backed by Native voices and everyday folks who refuse to let Indians and also American history be erased. The ball’s in Harris’s court. Let’s see if he’s got the guts to do what’s right.

One password is believed to have been all it took for a ransomware gang to destroy a 158-year-old company and put 700 people out of work.

KNP - a Northamptonshire transport company - is just one of tens of thousands of UK businesses that have been hit by such attacks.

In KNP's case, it's thought the hackers managed to gain entry to the computer system by guessing an employee's password, after which they encrypted the company's data and locked its internal systems.

KNP director Paul Abbott says he hasn't told the employee that their compromised password most likely led to the destruction of the company.

"Would you want to know if it was you?" he asks.

It’s important to clean and sanitize your backcountry water filter or purifier before storing it away during the winter months. There’s a simple three-stage process for this that involves cleaning the filter to improve its flow rate, sanitizing the filter to kill any microorganisms inside it, and drying it before storing it until you’re ready to use it again. //

odd man out
Filters with a small pore size are susceptible to clogging due to hard water deposits. Most drinking water will have some divalent cations (Ca+2, Mg+2) that forms insoluble carbonate salts (from dissolved CO2) when it dries. The reason to rinse with vinegar is that the acid in vinegar (acetic acid) will dissolve the carbonates salts because carbonate is a base. It reacts with the acid to form soluble acetate salts and carbonic acid that decomposes to form CO2 again (mix baking soda and vinegar if you want to see the reaction). However the salts take some time to dissolve. So what I do is to run some vinegar through the filter, seal it, and let it set for a while (an hour or so), then flush that out and repeat until you get a good flow rate. Then run a large volume of tap water through it to get rid of all the vinegar.

Every member of the military has sworn an oath to the nation since the Continental Army’s creation in 1775. Wording to specify allegiance to the U.S. Constitution was added in 1789, and has remained in all versions of military oaths of enlistment and commissioning since. This tradition sets our military apart from many others around the world, where loyalty is often tied to a ruler or regime. The American oath binds service members to a set of ideals and structures greater than any one administration.

Unfortunately, this noble intent is being misinterpreted. Ill-informed pundits, academics, military officers, lawmakers, and even ordinary American citizens frequently describe the military as “apolitical.” But that isn’t quite right. The military exists to enforce the political will of the United States—by force if necessary. It’s not above politics; it’s an instrument of it. A correct reading of the military oath clarifies this: troops swear to uphold the enduring framework of the nation, not the transient preferences of elected officials.

So, what does loyalty to the Constitution actually mean? How is a service member to judge whether their actions align with that oath? Most don’t know. Those who do have learned through personal initiative—not institutional instruction. //

This problem can be solved. I propose three key reforms:

1. Mandatory Annual Constitutional Training

The White House recently mandated an 80-hour Constitution and rule-of-law course for executive branch employees, capped by a two-day in-person session. The military can follow suit by requiring holistic annual constitution training for every military member. Numerous free, reputable programs already exist to support this effort:

National Constitution Center’s Constitution 101 Course
American Bar Association’s Civics Education Series for Military Members
Hillsdale College’s Constitution 101: The Meaning and History of the Constitution. //

2. Required Pocket Constitutions

Every service member should be issued a laminated pocket Constitution, worn as part of the uniform. If troops are still required to wear dog tags in this day of DNA identification, there’s no reason that carrying the document to which they swear is a bridge too far.

3. Memorization of Founding Principles

In the Army, we are required to know the Soldier’s Creed and Army Song by heart, ready to recite from memory on command. Promotion boards evaluate enlisted soldiers on their ability to recite these and other military codes. Why not include selections from the Constitution—or Declaration of Independence? //

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) provides the fastest route for implementation. With Republican majorities in Congress, there is an opportunity to require annual, rigorous, non-partisan instruction in the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law for all military personnel. This training must reject “living document” ideology in favor of fidelity to textualism.

Military officers have become accustomed to obeying and implementing unlawful directives because they know that the oath is presently meaningless and that all power—in practice—is held by individuals in the chain of command, rather than the nation’s founding documents, U.S. law, and military regulations. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must purge ideologues who corrupted the institution—but that alone won’t fix the culture.

Mars, 140 million miles away.

Neck and Upper Shoulder Pain Relief Stretches

You'll need to do these with some consistency to break the cycle of pain

Let's teach kids a thing or two!

Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she feels “cheated” after she won a concession in the recently passed tax and spending law to protect wind and solar projects, only to see the president and his administration issue recent orders that she said seem designed to quickly quash such projects.

“I feel cheated,” she said in an interview Friday. “I feel like we made a deal and then hours later, a deal was made to somebody else.” //

bk
5 hours ago
“I feel cheated.” --Sounds like what Alaskans say about having elected a purported Republican.

Reagan warned about unchecked government spending.

On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to “Make Federal Buildings Beautiful Again,” calling for a return to neoclassical architecture in federal construction. To some, this may seem like mere aesthetic preference. But a look back at the history of American architecture reveals that there is a lot more to modern art than meets the eye.

Trump’s order is a rebuke of the architectural mediocrity that has overtaken our nation’s capital. It draws a line in the sand: Neoclassical architecture, meant to reflect the ancient ideals of symmetry and proportion, should be the default for our civic spaces—as opposed to the soulless glass and concrete blocks of “brutalism” that permeate Washington today.

Neoclassical architecture is not outdated; it is timeless, rooted in the principles of harmony, proportion, and human scale. It endures because it reflects the things we inherently long for: order, dignity, meaning. In our increasingly fragmented age, it reconnects us with something permanent. Beauty is not a luxury, but a civic necessity. //

The Industrial Revolution, beginning in 18th-century Britain and arriving in the U.S. by the 19th century, brought new materials—iron, steel, and, eventually, reinforced concrete—that allowed buildings to rise higher and span wider.

Even as late as the mid-19th century, these innovations were dressed in traditional forms: Gothic facades, neoclassical orders, familiar silhouettes. Function had not yet eclipsed form.

Then came London’s Crystal Palace in 1851, a revelation in cast iron and glass. Its vast transparency and towering scale stunned the world. Traditional columns and ornamentation were gone. Instead, it inverted the rules of classicism, appearing top-heavy and weightless, a cathedral of industry.

In the following decades, engineers and architects, specifically in America, embraced steel-frame construction. The 1880s post-Chicago fire building boom made clear that the future belonged to those who could build fast, tall, and efficiently. Aesthetic considerations became secondary.

Then, the ideology arrived. In 1896, American architect Louis Sullivan famously declared that “form follows function,” a maxim that reverberated across continents. Walter Gropius took it to heart when he founded the Bauhaus School in 1919. Le Corbusier followed by founding L’Esprit Nouveau, a magazine declaring ornament a “crime” and tradition a “shackle.”

Architecture, once the art of a building, became a theory of abstraction.

At its core, modernism rejects inherited wisdom, seeking to sever architecture from the past—and from the people. //

Many of our cities today, especially Washington, are speckled with boxy, concrete buildings of brutalism. The architectural degradation can be seen on a short walk around Capitol Hill.

At the top of the Hill, just past the Capitol building, sits the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. Finished at the height of the Gilded Era in 1897, that building provides a magnificent example of the Beaux-Arts style, adorned with reminders of our history and leading literary and philosophical figures.

As you descend the Hill, you’ll see the three U.S. House office buildings in order of construction, which visually represent the shift from neoclassical to modernist architecture.

Then, finally, you’ll be confronted with the brutalist Department of Health and Human Services building.

These two bookend buildings—the Jefferson Building and the HHS building—were opened and dedicated only 80 years apart.

Standing there, on the south corner of the Capitol, I find myself afraid we have taken for granted the beauty of the ancient, time-tested styles of old. //

Take Winston Churchill’s word for it: “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”