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Medicine Overload
Monday, 14 January 2019 12:13 pmLast night between tea and bed I took:
4 sorts of tablet - 5 1/2 tablets,
5 eye drops containing 6 different active ingredients,
eye ointment,
a power made up with water,
mouth wash
I take the half tablet because I have a history of diarrhoea and vomiting if I take the whole tablet.
The pills are a reasonable size and I can take them all with a single swig of water,
but I need to leave five, ten or even twenty minutes for my eye to absorb each drop before taking the next.
The mouth wash is after every meal and needs to be rinsed around my mouth for a minute before I spit it out.
Toothpaste kills the mouth wash, so there has to be a 20 minute gap between them.
The eye drops are once, twice, three and four times a day; I'm also trying use a lubricating eye drop every hour.
The pills are once, twice and three times a day; I also have to take a weekly pill, with a large glass of water or an empty stomach and then stand up (or sit up, but not sit or lie down) for half an hour before I can eat.
I had two surgeries last week, a dental implant and drainage work in my right eye, so some of this will stop after a week or so.
I say I took all of those drops, pills and potions, I may have missed something.
4 sorts of tablet - 5 1/2 tablets,
5 eye drops containing 6 different active ingredients,
eye ointment,
a power made up with water,
mouth wash
I take the half tablet because I have a history of diarrhoea and vomiting if I take the whole tablet.
The pills are a reasonable size and I can take them all with a single swig of water,
but I need to leave five, ten or even twenty minutes for my eye to absorb each drop before taking the next.
The mouth wash is after every meal and needs to be rinsed around my mouth for a minute before I spit it out.
Toothpaste kills the mouth wash, so there has to be a 20 minute gap between them.
The eye drops are once, twice, three and four times a day; I'm also trying use a lubricating eye drop every hour.
The pills are once, twice and three times a day; I also have to take a weekly pill, with a large glass of water or an empty stomach and then stand up (or sit up, but not sit or lie down) for half an hour before I can eat.
I had two surgeries last week, a dental implant and drainage work in my right eye, so some of this will stop after a week or so.
I say I took all of those drops, pills and potions, I may have missed something.
One of the world's largest palm oil traders, Wilmar International, has promised to step up efforts to combat deforestation and peatland destruction throughout its supply chain in a new supplier monitoring...
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/
https://twitter.com/GreenpeaceUK/
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/
https://twitter.com/GreenpeaceUK/
Internet rootDNSSEC key rollover 11 Oct0ber 2018
Monday, 1 October 2018 09:18 amhttps://www.icann.org/resources/press-
If all goes to plan no one will notice, but it has been agreed that the secure network
lookup service DNSSEC will have updated keys on 11 October 2018.
This is so that anyone trying to crack the old keys will not be able to break into the system and give you false answers when you look for the address of an internet connected device.
This was originally planned for October 2017, but was postponed because they realized that parts of the internet were not ready.
I trust that means that it will go smoothly this time...
At present much of the internet is not using DNSSEC, so not benefitting from this security,
but perhaps a successful key rollover will give operators the confidence to use it more widely.
If all goes to plan no one will notice, but it has been agreed that the secure network
lookup service DNSSEC will have updated keys on 11 October 2018.
This is so that anyone trying to crack the old keys will not be able to break into the system and give you false answers when you look for the address of an internet connected device.
This was originally planned for October 2017, but was postponed because they realized that parts of the internet were not ready.
I trust that means that it will go smoothly this time...
At present much of the internet is not using DNSSEC, so not benefitting from this security,
but perhaps a successful key rollover will give operators the confidence to use it more widely.
(no subject)
Monday, 27 August 2018 08:10 pmUK public borrowing is lower than you think and our balance sheet loses track of our assets:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/
https://www.opendemocracy.net/
Leaves on the line or buckled rails ?
Tuesday, 26 June 2018 01:32 pmAccording to a petition at
https://www.change.org/p/13162899/u/
the trees that Network rail have been removing to stop leaves on the line could have stopped summer delays by keeping the rails cool, so that they didn't buckle.
https://www.change.org/p/13162899/u/
the trees that Network rail have been removing to stop leaves on the line could have stopped summer delays by keeping the rails cool, so that they didn't buckle.
assigned a value that is never used
Saturday, 12 August 2017 11:01 amWhilst writing some (C++) code, to parse a file that I only roughly know the contents of, I have been printing variables at various points in the code.
I realised that this printing was masking the fact that some variables are not being used, so I inserted some conditional code
#ifdef CODE_ANALYSIS
// Printing variables with CPLDebug can hide
// the fact that they are not otherwise used ...
#define CPLDebug(...)
#endif // CODE_ANALYSIS
so that compilers and other code analysers would not see the printing function, so correctly give warnings like:
[VRC.cpp:976]: (style) Variable 'nNotTIS' is assigned a value that is never used.
That was fine. Until I hit this block of code:
if ( this->nMapID == 8 ) {
int nNotTIS = VRReadInt(fp);
CPLDebug("Viewranger",
"Pay as you go; skipping value %d=x%08x before Tile Index",
nNotTIS, nNotTIS); // See * below
nTileIndexStart+=4;
}
The variable nNotTIS *is* only used in the print, but = VRReadInt(fp) has a side effect (moving the file pointer) that is intended. In a strong sense, I do never use value read from the file and the warning is correct.
I think I will add a comment like
// Expect a warning like
// Variable 'nNotTIS' is assigned a value that is never used.
but is there a better option ?
* Unfortunately CPLDebug() does not support %m$ in the format string, eg "... %1$d=x%1$08x ...", so I have to pass nNotTIS twice if I want to see the decimal and hex values.
I realised that this printing was masking the fact that some variables are not being used, so I inserted some conditional code
#ifdef CODE_ANALYSIS
// Printing variables with CPLDebug can hide
// the fact that they are not otherwise used ...
#define CPLDebug(...)
#endif // CODE_ANALYSIS
so that compilers and other code analysers would not see the printing function, so correctly give warnings like:
[VRC.cpp:976]: (style) Variable 'nNotTIS' is assigned a value that is never used.
That was fine. Until I hit this block of code:
if ( this->nMapID == 8 ) {
int nNotTIS = VRReadInt(fp);
CPLDebug("Viewranger",
"Pay as you go; skipping value %d=x%08x before Tile Index",
nNotTIS, nNotTIS); // See * below
nTileIndexStart+=4;
}
The variable nNotTIS *is* only used in the print, but = VRReadInt(fp) has a side effect (moving the file pointer) that is intended. In a strong sense, I do never use value read from the file and the warning is correct.
I think I will add a comment like
// Expect a warning like
// Variable 'nNotTIS' is assigned a value that is never used.
but is there a better option ?
* Unfortunately CPLDebug() does not support %m$ in the format string, eg "... %1$d=x%1$08x ...", so I have to pass nNotTIS twice if I want to see the decimal and hex values.
Live Journal terms of service are changing
Tuesday, 4 April 2017 08:09 amThose of you with LiveJournal accounts may wish to read
LiveJournal: Important Updates at http://news.livejournal.com/
which includes the statement:
Control of LiveJournal as a blogging platform has been transferred to SUP Media LLC, a legal entity based in the Russian Federation. This decision stems from the urge to become closer to our users, most of whom live in Europe and Russia. Every LiveJournal user will be offered to sign the new User Agreement with SUP Media. Paid services, however, will still be provided by Live Journal Inc.
The new terms of service are at http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-
ATTENTION: this translation of the User Agreement is not a legally binding document.
The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address:
http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-
Unless you read Russian, you may wish to be careful when using LiveJournal.
According to the English translation, that includes viewing any part of the website:
This Agreement constitutes a public offer in accordance with Article 437 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. By using the Service, including every access to the Website pages by any means, User unconditionally accepts this Agreement in its entirety.
LiveJournal: Important Updates at http://news.livejournal.com/
which includes the statement:
Control of LiveJournal as a blogging platform has been transferred to SUP Media LLC, a legal entity based in the Russian Federation. This decision stems from the urge to become closer to our users, most of whom live in Europe and Russia. Every LiveJournal user will be offered to sign the new User Agreement with SUP Media. Paid services, however, will still be provided by Live Journal Inc.
The new terms of service are at http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-
ATTENTION: this translation of the User Agreement is not a legally binding document.
The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address:
http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-
Unless you read Russian, you may wish to be careful when using LiveJournal.
According to the English translation, that includes viewing any part of the website:
This Agreement constitutes a public offer in accordance with Article 437 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. By using the Service, including every access to the Website pages by any means, User unconditionally accepts this Agreement in its entirety.
In less than two months
Saturday, 8 October 2016 10:20 amIn less than two months it will be
20 centuries
16 years
12 months
8 days
4 hours and
0 minutes
since the nominal start of our time system.
(If you are that way inclined, four seconds earlier you could write the time as
2016/12/08 04:00:-4
)
1815/12/09 06:03:00 is a better arithmetic progression date;
A quick search fails to find any memorable happenings that day, although Lady Ada Lovelace (Byron's daughter and the first computer programmer) was born the following day.
20 centuries
16 years
12 months
8 days
4 hours and
0 minutes
since the nominal start of our time system.
(If you are that way inclined, four seconds earlier you could write the time as
2016/12/08 04:00:-4
)
1815/12/09 06:03:00 is a better arithmetic progression date;
A quick search fails to find any memorable happenings that day, although Lady Ada Lovelace (Byron's daughter and the first computer programmer) was born the following day.
Electoral (il)logic
Tuesday, 28 June 2016 04:46 pmIn May, Muirfield Golf Club voted 64% - 36% to allow women as members.
Apparently this is not enough to change the rules, so a second vote is being held
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/
So nearly two-thirds want something to happen but it can't.
Last week the UK voted 51.9% - 48.1% to leave the UK, but it seems that although a very close result, that is definitive enough that we are committed to head in a novel direction, with substantial consequences for a significant part of the world's population, but without a plan or anyone prepared to actually lead us there.
The Brexit referendum was "advisory" - why can't the government do what it usually does with advice: ignore it and do what it wants anyway ?
Apparently this is not enough to change the rules, so a second vote is being held
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/
So nearly two-thirds want something to happen but it can't.
Last week the UK voted 51.9% - 48.1% to leave the UK, but it seems that although a very close result, that is definitive enough that we are committed to head in a novel direction, with substantial consequences for a significant part of the world's population, but without a plan or anyone prepared to actually lead us there.
The Brexit referendum was "advisory" - why can't the government do what it usually does with advice: ignore it and do what it wants anyway ?
You can now text my home landline
Wednesday, 4 May 2016 04:56 pmWe have a new telephone answering machine with DECT handsets.
Not only do the handsets have screens (the old ones did too) but you can send and receive text (SMS) messages.
We did have to register for the service, but it is a great improvement on the voice-mails we had been getting each time someone texted us.
Extra points to someone since this appears to use a BT service and we are on Virgin :-)
Not only do the handsets have screens (the old ones did too) but you can send and receive text (SMS) messages.
We did have to register for the service, but it is a great improvement on the voice-mails we had been getting each time someone texted us.
Extra points to someone since this appears to use a BT service and we are on Virgin :-)
Nice to see some cooperation between manufacturers
Sunday, 3 January 2016 03:36 pmWe have a Sony Blu-Ray player and a new Samsung telly.
By pressing the correct key combination on the Blu-Ray remote we have got it to control the telly sufficiently that we don't need the TV remote when we watch a disk.
This also worked with our previous, Panasonic, telly.
According to the manual the Blu-Ray remote can be configured to control nine brands of television.
It is nice to see that at least one manufacturer has put user convenience above forcing us to have the same brand of telly and disk player.
By pressing the correct key combination on the Blu-Ray remote we have got it to control the telly sufficiently that we don't need the TV remote when we watch a disk.
This also worked with our previous, Panasonic, telly.
According to the manual the Blu-Ray remote can be configured to control nine brands of television.
It is nice to see that at least one manufacturer has put user convenience above forcing us to have the same brand of telly and disk player.
The size and shape of your screen influences the style of your code.
Tuesday, 29 April 2014 07:07 amI've been developing some code for a new (to me) open source project (GDAL).
One of the requirements of the developer guidelines is
Try to keep lines to 79 characters or less.
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890
That is an old idea; 80 column teletypes (glass and paper) go back a long way
(though my first experiences of computing, forty years ago, were 132-column
printouts and IIRC 13-column punched cards, perhaps show the demand for wider
lines even then) and Knuth is said to have recommended 72 column text,
as that was about as much as an eye could see at once.
Programmers like to have as much code visible as possible; I've heard monitors
with a large (c1200) vertical resolution described as "programmers' monitors",
and such monitors were highly prized in the software house I once worked.
My attempts at learning Python were blocked for several years because although
I knew that indentation and line breaks were part of the syntax, I hadn't heard
of the rules that allowed a code statement to continue onto the next line.
Thus I was unable to write anything that required a statement wider than a
comfortable editor window. With meaningful variable and function names that
became a significant limit on an 80 column screen.
I had been developing much of my the GDAL code on a wide-screen laptop with more
than enough room for two 80 column windows side by side but not a lot of height,
so when I discovered this rule I went back and found that my code had got much
wider. The sample code I was working from was also heavily commented;
so much so that on an 80x24 window (the default terminal size on many systems)
a single idea could not always be coded on a single page. By making my screen
wider I had got my ideas to fit the page, but the 79 character rule meant
rewriting much of it and it became to long for comfort on the wide-screen laptop
with its restricted vertical resolution (once I would have fixed that by making
the characters smaller, but my eyesight is no longer sharp enough for that).
This post has a hard line break at least every 80 characters.
One of the requirements of the developer guidelines is
Try to keep lines to 79 characters or less.
1234567890123456789012345678901234567890
That is an old idea; 80 column teletypes (glass and paper) go back a long way
(though my first experiences of computing, forty years ago, were 132-column
printouts and IIRC 13-column punched cards, perhaps show the demand for wider
lines even then) and Knuth is said to have recommended 72 column text,
as that was about as much as an eye could see at once.
Programmers like to have as much code visible as possible; I've heard monitors
with a large (c1200) vertical resolution described as "programmers' monitors",
and such monitors were highly prized in the software house I once worked.
My attempts at learning Python were blocked for several years because although
I knew that indentation and line breaks were part of the syntax, I hadn't heard
of the rules that allowed a code statement to continue onto the next line.
Thus I was unable to write anything that required a statement wider than a
comfortable editor window. With meaningful variable and function names that
became a significant limit on an 80 column screen.
I had been developing much of my the GDAL code on a wide-screen laptop with more
than enough room for two 80 column windows side by side but not a lot of height,
so when I discovered this rule I went back and found that my code had got much
wider. The sample code I was working from was also heavily commented;
so much so that on an 80x24 window (the default terminal size on many systems)
a single idea could not always be coded on a single page. By making my screen
wider I had got my ideas to fit the page, but the 79 character rule meant
rewriting much of it and it became to long for comfort on the wide-screen laptop
with its restricted vertical resolution (once I would have fixed that by making
the characters smaller, but my eyesight is no longer sharp enough for that).
This post has a hard line break at least every 80 characters.
(no subject)
Friday, 5 April 2013 09:19 amThe elders of the Maasai are calling for our help:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
The Tanzanian government is about to evict the tribe from their traditional lands so that rich men can hunt lions and leopards.
I accept that lion hunting and the money it brings can, under some circumstances, be good for the local people, wildlife conservation and even the population of lions or leopards. However evicting the local people cannot help any of those causes.
Please consider signing the petition at http://www.avaaz.org/en/
http://www.avaaz.org/en/
The Tanzanian government is about to evict the tribe from their traditional lands so that rich men can hunt lions and leopards.
I accept that lion hunting and the money it brings can, under some circumstances, be good for the local people, wildlife conservation and even the population of lions or leopards. However evicting the local people cannot help any of those causes.
Please consider signing the petition at http://www.avaaz.org/en/
The Deficit Myth
Sunday, 2 December 2012 08:28 amI've just seen this post from the huffingtonpost from Oct 24
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ramesh-
Can anyone refute its claims that the Tory spin that Labour caused our massive deficit are wrong, or the author's claim that he is a conservative ?
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ramesh-
Can anyone refute its claims that the Tory spin that Labour caused our massive deficit are wrong, or the author's claim that he is a conservative ?
I'm pleased to hear that the UN General Assembly is expected to vote this afternoon to recognize Palestine as a nation
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-
This is not as good as the UN granting Palestine membership (which the UN Security Council failed to do last year) but it is a step in the right direction.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-
This is not as good as the UN granting Palestine membership (which the UN Security Council failed to do last year) but it is a step in the right direction.
Virgin charge to send me a paper bill.
Fair enough, an e-bill is fine for many people and printing and posting a piece of paper costs money and resources.
... Except that more often than I get a bill I get an advert from Virgin for one of their wonderful
services. Sometimes it is addressed and sometimes it is "Dear Householder" and they may be getting bulk delivery ("Newspaper" ?) rates from the Post Office.
But this morning's advert takes the biscuit.
Dear Householder,
Over 80% of your neighbourhood is connected to Virgin. Why don't you join us.
...
If 80% of the neighbourhood is connected then sending an advert to 100% of it, then
either 80% of the adverts are wasted on current customers (if "connected" means "signed up", or
20% of the adverts go to people who can't receive the service (if "connected" means "have a wire to the property").
Either way, the failure rate of these adverts must be enough that it would be worth targeting the mail shot rather than blanket coverage ? And if they can spend my service fees on this I don't see why they can't pay for me to get a paper bill.
Fair enough, an e-bill is fine for many people and printing and posting a piece of paper costs money and resources.
... Except that more often than I get a bill I get an advert from Virgin for one of their wonderful
services. Sometimes it is addressed and sometimes it is "Dear Householder" and they may be getting bulk delivery ("Newspaper" ?) rates from the Post Office.
But this morning's advert takes the biscuit.
Dear Householder,
Over 80% of your neighbourhood is connected to Virgin. Why don't you join us.
...
If 80% of the neighbourhood is connected then sending an advert to 100% of it, then
either 80% of the adverts are wasted on current customers (if "connected" means "signed up", or
20% of the adverts go to people who can't receive the service (if "connected" means "have a wire to the property").
Either way, the failure rate of these adverts must be enough that it would be worth targeting the mail shot rather than blanket coverage ? And if they can spend my service fees on this I don't see why they can't pay for me to get a paper bill.
