Subj : Re: Learned something new To : Barry Martin From : Ky Moffet Date : Sat Aug 10 2024 15:06:00 BARRY MARTIN wrote: > KM> Firefox leaks RAM, and always has (sometimes spectacularly). > KM> Explorer usually doesn't, at least not in Win2k/XP or later. > KM> Using up the heaps is a different problem. > KM> Memory leaks and sloppy use slow you down, but it just goes out > KM> to the swapfile. Running out of fixed-size resources brings you > KM> to a halt, because there ain't no more. > > That's why I build a fast computer with lots of RAM: to compensate for > those! YES! in fact before the holidays I was looking at a used setup with 256GB RAM... need to get back to that guy, since right now I can be more flexible, get a faster CPU. Nice pre-configured combos from server-class parts. What CPU does yours have again? I keep forgetting. The next "new" one will probably have a Xeon, tho. > > ..I try not to leave too much in default like Documents. > KM> I never use My Documents except for stupid programs like VLC's > KM> screenshot function that don't know no different and I can't be > KM> arsed to see if it can be changed in its excessively long and > KM> cranky options menu. > > Yes, I've used some programmes where the options aren't too optional, Yeah, or ... worst: Wordstar. The config program was actually a linear hex editor. Miss an option and you had to go back through all 30 pages again. > and have to dig down seven levels to get to the one I want. Suppose it > made sense to the developer..... Also remember from my Windows days > some utilities forced themselves to only use the C: drive. D:? No! > But... I don't care! Some of those could be assaulted with a hex editor and made to behave. I did that with some DOS utils that insisted on inserting an ad screen (like old BBS utils loved to do)... found what it was calling, blanked it out in the binary, no more nuisance, worked fine. > > > KM> or wherever your user-data is found; I'm Administrator. > > > Hm: I'd figure 'CMMO': Chief Mucky Muck Officer! > > KM> LOL. Should rename myself. > > Would be a hare harder to hack! > KM> And might hack you back! Never mess with the Chief Pett-- er, > KM> Mucky Much Officer! > > That's "Muck" and not "Much". ...At least not 'Mush'! Too Much Officer is better than Not Enough Officer. > > > KM> An exchange between two of my characters... > KM> "How'd you get the three scars on the back of your leg?" > KM> "That was the green young lieutenant learning how not to go > KM> through razor wire. Always listen to your sergeant. He's smarter > KM> than you." > > Only three? Quick learner! Far as Bran got before getting hung up entirely. And the experience saved his life, fifteen years later... right after the mission that won the war, he got hit by stray flak and damnear blown in half, and he thinks he's already dead: === _Oh, that’s bad. Better wait for evac._ That was his sergeant. He’d screwed up, didn’t listen to his sergeant. Got hung up in the razor wire. They’d called him Razor-ass for months after. Still did, when he was being dense. Heard a cutter running, banging against his armor. Maybe they were going to cut off his head. Wasn’t attached to the rest of him anyway. _Captain! Stay with us. Evac’s coming. Listen to me, Razor. Stay with us._ Always listen to your sergeant. === He listened, and lived to tell of it. > > I must admit it makes one feel good when the people at corporate trained > > in this stuff can't figure it out either. > KM> They don't listen to the enlisted either! > > We're at the top of the ladder so we know better! (If you insist!) Don't jump!! > KM> I need it to be NOT GLAREY, and NOT HIGH CONTRAST either. > > Yes: too much or too little and two sore eyes! YES! GRRRR! > KM> This is > KM> not possible to achieve with Win8, and is only a little better > KM> with Win10/11 and KDE. It's not that I care so much what the > KM> colors are (for some reason I think Trinity should be green and > KM> lavender, a combo I use nowhere else, while XP is all shades of > KM> grey with a little dark blue trim) but they have to be restful on > KM> the eyes. Grey workspace with black print is best, but in > KM> "modern" desktops is really difficult to achieve. > KM> http://doomgold.com/images/linux/trinity-snapshot3.jpg > > Not bad! I tend to go with semi-plain backgrounds just so not > distracting or accidentally think a desktop pattern is a live minimized > window, Or an initially 'busy' pattern/picture: on the Raspberry Pi I > use as an isolation router has a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge. The > bridge is in the center and desktop icons at the top where not much > going on in the picture. I like landscapes for backgrounds. Sometimes I make the icons climb hills. http://twilightasylum.com/pc/gremlin.jpg Note that the DOS apps are draining from the poison cup, and the icons in the clouds are waving in the wind, while the browsers have circled the wagons. :D > > As for the 'why broke', could probably list a bunch and all be guessing: > > wrong comment character, four space indent instead of three, faulty > > statement closure.... And those are just a few on the ones I've made! > KM> It broke because the video servers (what the OS uses to speak to > KM> the display) were rebuilt from scratch and the way the new ones > KM> do things is more HULKSPLAT on the screen and less drawing of > KM> individual elements, so now colors for window decorations, > KM> workspace, and the like can only be bulk-controlled and not set > KM> for each element like it used to be. And why colors are all > KM> screwed up for programs too old to know about the "new" interface > KM> (so they just get generic white everywhere). That's the nutshell, > KM> as I understand it. > > Makes sense, though sounds like they're going backwards instead of > advancing colour rendition: this section is all instead of this > item is , this section ,,,, etc. (Probably > sloppy in the details, but the general idea.) Yeah, that's pretty much how it is, to my grok. Basically, there is no user-controlled color interface, only video-server controlled. KDE can at least make color themes, but it's not a default part of the desktop (unlike Trinity). > KM> I do most of my work in an editing program that is "too old" but > KM> also has no equivalent replacement. All the modern editors make a > KM> disaster of the RTF (no it does not need all the print placement > KM> crap bloating up the file and confusing ebook formatters!) and > KM> none of them have a really functional bulk search that can do a > KM> whole directory at once AND open/go-to-spot in the relevant files > KM> as needed. (WPDOS could, but it was ugly.) > > I have also found some of the old/antique programmes did a much better > job. Might have something to do with the old programmes had less > details' to work with and so the results were more precise. Not only that, but they had the unforgiving environments of DOS and pre-NT Windows, where every error crashed the system. Plus constraints on available CPU cycles, system resources (heaps etc), and RAM. So they had to get things right, and be efficient. Now, what with the excessive resources of the average modern system, they just slop-ass memory and CPU use any which way. You've got plenty more, no need to conserve, and the OS catches and kills program faults, so no need for innate stability. > Half-thinking as an exaample something simple like the single- and > double quotes: I'll import and/or create notes in a word processor. > Looks decent - not fancy. Copy and paste into a script utility, still > looks right except for one little detail which screws up the works: > those quote marks are wrong! The single quote is angled, the double > quotes are open quote and close quote options (both angled). The script > utility wants the straight up-and-down-plain-ASCII version! That's because ASCII (all script utils only know ASCII, or at best Unicode) doesn't have curly quotes at all, and the usual substitution is angled quotes. This will happen any time you go from formatted text to plain text. If you don't like it, you have to turn off curly quotes, or remove them from that document before copypasta into a text app. It could be worse; it used to be double apostrophes for quote marks! > KM> There is no dedicated RTF editor for linux at all. "You can use > KM> LibreOffice." No I can't, even ignoring the lack of bulk search > > As I understand it from my limited usage it will work but not fully and > with the nuances. Oh, fully substitutes so far as the document goes, BUT the document is internally such a mess I wish it didn't. > KM> and the crap performance on big files, and the weird bugs it > KM> likes to insert, the RTF is so ugly it has to be converted to > KM> HTML3.2 and back to strip out all the junk before it can be used > KM> for anything else, such as an ebook (unless you really enjoy > KM> fighting with the layout). Now, find me something that only knows > KM> HTML3.2 and can do this. Hint: it's my everyday editor. > > Hmmm: that sort of mimics some of the "it shouldn't be doing that" > quirks in some of the LibreOffice documents I create. My primary Likely so. There's also a bug that shows up with embedded images (which are base64 encoded) where control codes can get mis-nested, and then a chunk of the document (or everything after that point) becomes invisible. It's still there, just hidden by a misplaced bracket or the like. Never embed images until the final step, is my advice. Or for that step, use a proper layout editor, like Scribus. It's free and it works fine. > occasional quirks are with picture wrapping: why is the text going > through when I told it not to? - that sort of thing. (At this point not > worth for me to find a differnt word processor. Quite something > different fr your professional use.) That's because RTF and DOC and any of the XML formats (DOCX, ODT) don't actually have a way to put two different layout codes on the same line (WordPerfect does, but I have never seen it anywhere else). You can only do block layout, and the stylesheet has to agree to put it there. If you need that sort of thing, it may be easier to do the layout in Scribus or some WYSIWYG HTML editor, then import it. Usually it will stick in Word, dunno about LibreOffice. > > KM> Just slows things down for the disk read and write, doesn't clog > > KM> things up entirely. > > But what happens when the Swap file gets filled? Just drops off and the > > poor programme hangs because its looking for the missing part? > KM> Unless you've set it differently, the swapfile on Windows is > KM> dynamic. It doesn't have a problem unless you run out of disk > KM> space. > > I haven't used Windows in years save for the Virtual Machine running the > BBS stuff. I haven't noted any chnage in Linux's Swap file but also > haven't been keeping a close eye on it. I have no idea how linux manages its swapfile. I put more RAM in the system instead. > KM> Dunno how Everything On One Big Disk linux does it, but in sane > KM> distros it's on its own partition that you never see, and > KM> typically 4GB. > > This Ubuntu system has a 2 GB Swap and all is free; been over a week > since the last reboot (required by a system update). The MythTV Server > has been up for over a month (again because of a system update) and its > 2GB Swap has 1 GB used. No idea why because of the 32 GB RAM only 2.1 > GB is used. 2GB to 4GB linux swap partition seems to be about typical. Browsers will overflow into that and get real slow, but other prorgrams should be fine. (Linux caching STILL sucks, so you really want to do as little disk I/O as possible.) > KM> That's the idea! and yeah, I have a whole collection of those > KM> USB3 cards. And can't find where I put the new one intended for > KM> Paladin's upgrade. It has one, but old and 2 slots, the new one > KM> has 7 or 8. I put it on the shelf where all the USB-to-something cards are... *sigh* > I've got a couple of daughtercards with four external USB3 slots. I'll > usually have a motherboard with 1- 2- or 3 built-in USB3's and nice ot > have more. AFAIK can always use a USB3 for a USB2 device. Yes. The more USB3 the better, backward compatible is never a problem from USB3 (tho it can be between USB2 and USB1... printers don't mind but other stuff may not work). A patent or some other restriction apparently lately ran out on the USB3 chip, as it used to be THE major cost on motherboards at something like $40 for a pair of ports. That was why for a Long Time no one had more than 2 USB3 ports. > KM> It's just braindead. Who thought leaving body parts wherever it > KM> first found them was a good idea?? > > Other than the forensic examiners probably no body! If there's no body, no problem! > > I'd guess some of the problem is old programming: the utility was > > originally told to put it somewhere on the hard drive, the location > > based on some other installation parameters, and since hard-coded to > > update would require a major (read "PITB"!) rewrite. ...Modern hard > > drives are suitably fast, right?! > KM> No, it's done mostly to make it "transparent" (invisible) to the > KM> user. "You don't need to worry about this." Yes I do, because the > KM> way YOU did it MAKES me worry about it, because it puts > KM> tremendous wear and tear on my SSDs, which I have to pay to > KM> replace when your stupid browser wears them out. > > And my needs wantts and desires are not the same as theirs. I would > prefer some sort of hand-holding option if I don't know what I'm doing > (and I'll admit sometmes that's barely over the line!) but I may have a > reason for wanting something like a 10 GB ramdisk even though 90% of the > other users might be happy with 10 MB. I have suggested, over and over, that config things need to be dual paned so we can see what happens in the raw file as we mutilate, er, manipulate the GUI config util.... it can be done in HTML editors, which are really not very different -- in both cases it's an interface to a plaintext config editor. > KM> Finally > KM> managed to convince Supermium on that, tho I see it's got an > KM> extra letter tacked onto the function name. Oh well, so long as > KM> it works it can speak with a cheap Chinese accent. > > A lot of Linux's user configuration files seem to have 'rc' tacked to > the end: ansiweather --> ansiweatherrc Yeah, and they're supposed to be in... where, /etc ?? but are scattered all over hell. > > > KM> Shortcut properties: > KM> C:\Internet\Browsers\Supermium\chrome.exe > KM> --disk-cache-dir="S:\ChromeCachee" > > That's not Chinese, that's French: "cah-shee"! LOL. I think more like softly, softly, catchee monkey. :D > > KM> And it doesn't have the Chrome registry entry, far as I could > KM> find. But at least it's given up using the main OS SSD for its > KM> GIGO. > > Less wear and tear. EXACTLY!! > > At least not written using EDLIN and have to go back to make a > > correction! > KM> EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! > > I remember typing letters to my parents on the computer; correcting > spelling by adding or subtracting a letter or two usually wasn't too > bad; add or subtract a word...... Oy... yeah, used edlin like ONCE. EDIT, thank all gods real or imaginary, had actual editing capacity. > When I was working and a few blocks from the store would go on a four- > lane one way -- correct direction, of course! About once every two > weeks I'd see someone going the wrong way, apparently "just because" was > easier for them to potentially get in an accident than go around the > block. Four lane one-way sounds hazardous. I'd guess more likely someone wound up in the wrong lane and had little choice about where to turn. > KM> Great Falls, where I grew up, has a two-way Central Avenue, then > KM> a pair of one-ways to either side (First N and S go one way, > KM> Second N or S go the other). It works great. You have good > KM> through traffic in both directions and you can avoid most of the > KM> downtown traffic, yet it doesn't cause problems for business > KM> because at worst you might have to go around the block. And it's > KM> been this way since the city was first laid out (it was a planned > KM> grid, so the one-ways only go ONE PLACE, not any damn where). > KM> Thre are a couple perpendicular pairs too, that function equally > KM> well. > > Nashua, NH, where I grew up, was established in the mid 1700's and had > an usually wide Main Street: residential portion where we lived was at > one time four lines (2 northbound, two southbound) but that got switched > semi-quickly to one wider lane each direction with a center turn lane > because people thought "4 lines - pedal to the metal!". The Downtown > portion had at least two lanes each direction -- seems like three in > some sections, plus diagonal parking on both sides. (Pedestrian got a > workout just crossing the street! ) Yeah, there was that craze for "walking downtowns" (in part because there was federal grant money to "take cars off the road" way way back) and all it does most places is make downtown undriveable. I'm sure everyone wants to walk around downtown Lancaster CA when it's 120F out, and no shade because they also took out the old sidewalk trees to put in the new "walking median", and didn't have enough room for lanes and parking so they ate some of the sidewalk. I hated it, and never went downtown again. Here we have some parking spaces you have to BACK INTO. No way, not with a truck. NO. Don't care what's on that street, I ain't driving or parking there. > > Some of the Downtown sidestreets were the 'tradional' East Coast skinny > lane and a few were made into the one-ways to help move traffic. Whether it helps or hurts depends on where the traffic really wants to go. > > KM> Billings, where I am now, grew randomly in all directions and has > KM> random one-ways in all directions to no apparent purpose, and > KM> they ARE much of the downtown traffic, and sometimes you can't > KM> get from one to the other (if the other even exists, which it may > KM> not) to go back the other direction, because there's some > KM> diagonal splat of streets between. I gave up trying to sort out > KM> the spaghetti and just avoid them. I suppose those who've had to > KM> put up with them for the past 30 years (when they were first > KM> instituted) are used to them, but for the newcomer... NO. Just > KM> AVOID. > > Haha: that sounds like some of the original sectinn of Davenport (IA). > Main Street is more or less a side street located between the main > streets: Brady northbound and Harrison southbound. ("Main Street" not > being the main street isn't uncommon. I'm not even sure if Bettendorf > has a "Main St.".) ...Back to Davenport, I've some across more than a > few streets which don't line up at an intersection. Also a few streets > which are somewhat of a main side street but they'll just stop and > then continue a few blocks later. Yeah, behind the hospital district (it's a huge complex, two hospitals plus the clinic) there's a lot of that. I got to explort (I like that word for it) some of it lately because they're destroying a couple of the cross-streets and the guy I bought the little truck from (YAY! Title came and it's FINALLY HOME!) lived four blocks away. > > ..Bettendorf isn't immune to quirky streets: Robeson is something like > the handle on a coffee cup: turn on to it, travel for about two blocks, > and now you're back on the same street you turned off of! Tellya, gridded streets are SOOOO nice. You could not get lost or make a wrong turn in old Great Falls. And any address location was instantly evident. New development over by the air force base were all pretzeled streets, and the fire department HATED it. (So did I, tho fortunately rarely needed to go there.) > > > KM> Yeah, there are other ways to achieve the same instant-access and > > > KM> NOT LOST without leaving everything open all the time. > > > I'll admit to doing it the "Microsoft Way": software is too slow so the > > > hardware gets faster, with faster hardware the software can function > > > faster so let's have it do more, which slows down because the hardware > > > can't keep up, so faster hardware...... > > KM> GRRRR! > > Updates keep the economy flowing! > KM> Let's break all their stuff so they have to buy new! > > Wasn't that Windows' secret business phrase?! Actually, not really. Microsoft went WAAAAY above and beyond trying to stay compatible with old software (Raymond Chen's blog details a lot of it) and most of the time when there was a problem, the program was dependent on a bug or an undocumented feature. Some bugs were left in place, triggered on demand, to avoid breaking compatibility. And XP (32bit) actually supports 8GB of RAM, but is limited to 4GB because the vast majority of business PCs have an Intel graphics chip, and the Intel driver crashes if the system has more than 4GB. There's a switch to make it handle 8GB, but it's undocumented, see above. > > Yes, I think I have at least two computers in use currently which are > > around that old. They don't get used all the time and I'll admit to > > glancing at the BIOS boot stuff but don 't recall the date. ...Off > > currently so can't remote into them. > KM> If they do the job, why not? I used Paladin for everyday for a > KM> long time... there is nothing so permanent as a temporary camp. Turned it on, it still works so nice. I think I'm going to keep it intact but kick it into a different case, as it doesn't really need the nice one. But first, find more cases. Wait, I could kick out the P3-800 that isn't doing anything... so it'll be a new machine instead of upgrading Paladin, per original plan... now it needs a name... How about Phoenix, since it was given to me as probably dead, but works fine (once one seats the HSF so it actually touches the CPU). Gamers.... geesh. I need a few more of these old-style RaidMax cases, with 10-11 internal drive bays. Just nice to work in, even tho it's a cheap case. > Yup! One little 'quirk' I'm running in to is many of the > computers around here need to also run MythTV (record and watch TV > shows). Right now I'm on version 31, which requires a certain minimum > version of Ubuntu (20.04? maybe 18.04). The various versions of Ubuntu > require certain hardware minimums, so the computer can effectively only > be so old. ...I did run into a problem with a specific computer having > problems running (20.04?) but was fine running (18.04?). Yeah, at a certain point it gets into needing a newer CPU instruction set. > So I think when I eventually update to the current MythTV, MythTV will > require a minimum level of Ubuntu and that little specification will > probably kill off this old computer. I have a hard time killing the ones that still work... > KM> Magic. "Honey, I shrunk the data!" > > It is interesting how the computing size has been made microscopic. I > remember in the early 70's going into one of the computer rooms and they > had rows and rows of stands with what looked like what my Mother put the > finished cake in. Hard drives, maybe a megabyte each. (Maybe more, I > know I never asked.) Now I've got a Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB plus a 1TB > NVMe, in a case in a box that's about the sixe of two or three decks of > playing cards stached together! Yeah, it's like a tardis, it all goes off into the aether through that little tiny gateway! https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.3040524,131.9533215,3a,81.1y,294.04h,82.48t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipP0lzPUoOC5wbuK0QoGisC8S42EegUPYo8FV0iL!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP0lzPUoOC5wbuK0QoGisC8S42EegUPYo8FV0iL%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-10-ya341.96277-ro-0-fo100!7i2508!8i1254?coh=205409&entry=ttu (the short Google URLs are going away in a couple months, so if you have any you need to save, redo them as long URLS.) > > > > .. Do 8 Hobbits = 1 Hobbyte? > > > KM> And rabbits, rabbytes?? > > > KM> This is a very good question. > > > KM> First, catch Hobbit. > > > Course instruction: Wyle E. Coyote. Teacher Assistant: Roadrunner. > > KM> Final Exam: *SPLAT* > > But back then they had resiliance! > rock/anvil/whatever shakes/quivers and finally opens to reveal our > > barely-scathed hero> > KM> LOL. My guys think this sounds like their lives. Except with more > KM> scathing. > Tell Bram 'hi!'. Bran is not at all amused with his present life. Writing Buddy says to me, you need more foundation for his yammering on in Book 3. And the upshot is, now there's a Book 0 working, wherein he gets to relive firsthand all the bad things, instead of just talking about them. > > > .. The reclusive French inventor of the sandal: Philippe Philoppe. > KM> Oh, I gotta find you the Sandal video... > > Jimmy Buffett?! No, some Arab bloke made a funny video about how to stand up to your mother when she's about to beat you with her sandal. Hint: It did not go well for him. þ RNET 2.10U: ILink: Techware BBS þ Hollywood, Ca þ www.techware2k.com --- QScan/PCB v1.20a / 01-0462 * Origin: ILink: CFBBS | cfbbs.no-ip.com | 856-933-7096 (454:1/1) .