Why Does Tilde (~) Mean Home In Linux?

 Computing, History  No Responses »
Nov 112018
 

If you use the Unix or Linux command-line, you may very well wonder about the origins of some of the “special” characters. One of those is tilde (~) which is expanded by the shell into “home” :-

✓ mike@Michelin» echo $HOME                        
/home/mike
✓ mike@Michelin» echo ~
/home/mike
✓ mike@Michelin» echo ~root
/root

This doesn’t of course work in general; just in the shell.

But where did this usage originate?

As it turns out, it was the markings on the keyboard of the ADM3A terminal :-

If you used Unix in the late 1970s/1980s, you may very well have used the ADM3A terminal and it seems that those who added the tilde feature to the Unix shell were amongst the users.

They Died For Our Freedom …

 General, History, Politics  No Responses »
Nov 112018
 

Horseshit.

Normally on Remembrance Sunday, we remember the dead of all wars, but this one is a bit special – it’s exactly 100 years since the armistice that brought the killing phase of World War 1 to an end.

Around this time of year, there are often those who make grand pronouncements about the sacrifices those who fought made for some sort of noble goal – our freedom, the freedom of others, to defeat a really nasty enemy.

None of that applies to those who died in WW1; some of them may have felt they were fighting for their freedom (and our freedom). But they really fought because of the 19th century equivalent of mutually assured destruction.

Austria-Hungary and Serbia fought because of the assassination of a single man. Russia fought to support Serbia; France fought to support Russia; Britain fought to support France. And Germany fought because Austria-Hungary fought. This gross over-simplification happened remarkably quickly – all of the declarations of war occurred within about 1½ weeks.

So no great debate on the aims and goals of what the war was for then.

So whilst those who fought (and in some cases died) in wars are not to blame, not all wars were fought for good reasons – certainly you’ll find it hard to find a good reason for WWI. 

Light’s Shadow

Terrorism: The Alt-Right’s Hypocrisy

 Politics  No Responses »
Nov 062018
 

There are plenty of arguments to be had with the alt-right, beginning and ending with their repulsive policies. But this post isn’t about that …

I’ve encountered the alt-right’s asinine attitude to political violence before, but I was reminded about it again this morning (obviously some time ago now) with the news that someone had sent George Soros, Hilary Clinton, John Brennan, and Barack Obama a letter bomb.

Yet the alt-right would have us believe that it is the left who are more violent than the right. And both less violent than the Islamic extremists. Turns out that is not the case.

It is not even close. The overwhelming majority of terrorist attacks in the US are perpetrated by the right-wing.

The bête noire of the far right – Antifa? Never murdered anyone; in fact if you add together all of the political murders of the far left in the US over the last 10 years it adds up to 7-8 people (2-3%) whereas the far right are responsible for over 70% of the murders.

Antifa may well be more violent than you are happy with; their purpose after all is to tackle the fascists, which isn’t done without breaking heads. But they don’t intentionally go out to murder people – so don’t be taken in by the main stream media’s portrayal of them when they are busy denying that the far right (and “alt right”) are far more violent.

Even more than those evil islamic terrorists (who are pretty much the same as the far right).

Denying your own side’s violent actions and pretending it is the other side who are really the violent ones is classic gaslighting.

Ruins

The Khashoggi Killing

 Politics  No Responses »
Oct 202018
 

So an important journalist for the Washington Post is dead; he goes into a Saudi consulate and is never seen again alive.

So how was he killed?

Rogue Killers.

So we are expected to believe that a bunch of “rogue killers” happened to be wandering around a Saudi consulate? And decided to kill Khashoggi?

I don’t think so.

It is possible that the “rogue killers” were Saudi intelligence operatives who killed Khashoggi. But that doesn’t qualify as “rogue killers” in the conventional sense of the term – if Saudi intelligence operatives killed Khashoggi then the Saudi government is responsible for his killing even if they specifically prohibited the killing. 

Interrogation Accident

Really?

That’s one rough interrogation; or did they mean torture? My instinctive first thought is “lie”; it smacks of an after the fact excuse.

Of course you could have an accidental death during an interrogation, but it is a very low probability and ultimately it is still the same Saudi Arabia killed Khashoggi.

Fight during a rendition

The latest “excuse” is that Khashoggi was killed during a fight; possibly during a botched attempt at rendition (what a government calls kidnapping). Which would seem to be balderdash.

If there was a room full of Saudi intelligence operatives waiting for Khashdoggi when he arrived at the embassy, then his death is what they intended. There may well have been a fight – who wouldn’t fight if they suspected they were about to be killed? But with overwhelming force available, if death occurred, that is what was originally intended.

So, we know that Saudi Arabia murdered a prominent journalist presumably because he was an embarrassment. After all not only was Khashdoggi an important journalist but also a member of the Saudi establishment. And it is one thing for an outsider to criticise Saudi policy, but an insider to do so is far more embarrassing,

Of course Trump is going to believe anything the Saudis say because to believe that Khashdoggi was murdered by the Saudis would require the sort of action that would put some very big business contracts at risk. To be fair to the funky-haired orange goblin, this doesn’t make him any different to most of the world’s leaders. 

Winter Seafront
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