Category Archives: Observation

Nature’s Uncanny Beauty

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Alertado pelo meu amigo Martin, tirei estas fotos de um “pilar” solar ontem à noite. Embora aparentemente bem documentado, esta é a primeira vez que vejo este belo fenómeno.
Duas características distintas são a coluna vertebral em si e a cor vermelha. A coluna vertebral é provocada pelo reflexo de cristais de gelo em queda, e a tonalidade vermelha pela “dispersão de Rayleigh”, que se refere à luz que atravessa partículas muito mais pequenas que o comprimento de onda da luz, filtrando assim o azul e o violeta, deixando o vermelho.

Portanto, não é Deus a deixar a Terra enojado com o que Ele próprio criou, embora fosse útil se levasse Putin e Trump consigo ao partir. Boa viagem, para o mau lixo.

[English]
Alerted by my friend Martin, I took these photos of a sun ‘pillar’ yesterday evening.Although apparently well-documented, this is the very first time I have ever seen this beautiful phenomena.
Two distinct features are the column itself, and the red colour. The column is caused by the reflection of falling ice crystals, and the red hue by ‘Rayleigh scattering’, referring to the light passing through particles much smaller than the wavelength of light, thus filtering out the blue and violet leaving red.

So it’s not God leaving the Earth in disgust at what He himself has created, though it would be useful if he took Putin and Trump with him as he left. Good riddance, to bad rubbish.

AI, a latter day ‘Kings New Coat’ or God, Lord, Saviour et al.

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The current furore over chatGPT’s ‘sycophantic’ answers, is in itself, ridiculous. A game of ‘follow my leader’ by many companies, and apparently a large percentage of the population, that expects sensible and suitable results from them doing ‘naff all’, is not unlike praying to a God, for what they want, instead of simply doing it themselves.

True machine learning is a very useful tool. Using shit scraped from existing websites and hosted in an LLM, ends up as an aggregation, in other words, a bag of shit. My view is simple, users of these ‘bots’ get exactly what they deserve, nothing useful whatsoever.

So-called social-media, facebook, ‘X’ plus a long list of other garbage sites that deliberately post news of this, so folks can ‘have their say’, is a simple scam, to promote discord and argument to sell advertising space, so that the weak-minded that follow, are lead like lemmings, into parting with their hard-earned dosh.
Latterly, Google puts a so-called ‘summary’ from AI, at the top of a search page, adding to the crap I have to ignore in front of me.

I advertise nothing. I believe in no ‘god’, and no hype. Frankly, I care not if folks dislike what I post, the truth apparently, can ‘hurt’. The bywords on my ‘compliments slip’ for many years, has been ‘Belief In Divine Intervention Proved Worthless, So I Did This Stuff Myself.”

Turn Our World Into A Garbage Heap – Transformar o nosso mundo num monte de lixo

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The following link indicates the trajectory that is sadly followed by big business and useless politicians.
El siguiente enlace indica la trayectoria que tristemente siguen las grandes empresas y los políticos inútiles.
Right To Repair Europe
Direito de Reparar a Europa

The endless flow of ‘Designed To Fail’ shit from China is my concern. An example being the multi-outlet mains block. Complete with input mains lead, and fitted with a switch.
Generally the casings are made of cheap plastic, and in two parts top and bottom RIVETED TOGETHER.
Attempts to remove the rivets usually destroys the case. There is simply no excuse for this, self-tapping screws could be used. Of course, that would mean folks repairing faults would be possible, thus negating discard of the product and purchase of a new one.
The Certificate of conformity should confirm that the item is repairable using readily available tools.
Claptrap about protective measures ensuring customer safety are nonsense. Anyone messing about with mains power should understand the hazards involved.

Singling out each individual product for legislative action is simply ‘jobs for the boys’. Right to repair should include every item in use by the public.
Chancers that think they know everything, can carry on tinkering at their own risk. Idiots that employ such individuals deserve everything they get.
Sample offer of help. “I can do that, have you got a screwdriver, and a pair of side-cutters?”

O fluxo interminável de merda do tipo “Desenhado para Fracassar” da China é a minha preocupação. Um exemplo é o bloco de alimentação com múltiplas tomadas. Completo com cabo de alimentação de entrada e equipado com um interruptor.
Geralmente, as carcaças são feitas de plástico barato e divididas em duas partes, superior e inferior, REBITADAS JUNTAS.
As tentativas de remover os rebites geralmente destroem a caixa. Simplesmente não há desculpa para isso, podem ser utilizados parafusos auto-atarraxantes. Claro que isto significaria que seria possível reparar as falhas, evitando assim o descarte do produto e a compra de um novo.
O Certificado de conformidade deve confirmar que o artigo pode ser reparado utilizando ferramentas facilmente disponíveis.
As conversas sobre medidas de proteção para garantir a segurança do cliente são um disparate. Qualquer pessoa que mexa com energia elétrica deve compreender os riscos envolvidos.

Selecionar cada produto individual para ação legislativa é simplesmente “trabalho para os rapazes”. O direito de reparação deve incluir todos os artigos em uso pelo público.
Os aventureiros que pensam que sabem tudo podem continuar a tentar por sua conta e risco. Os idiotas que empregam tais indivíduos merecem tudo o que recebem.
Exemplo de oferta de ajuda. “Eu consigo fazer isso. Tem uma chave de fendas e um alicate de corte lateral?”

From The Sublime To The Ridiculous – The Raspberry Pi OS

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Update 15th March 2025
It would seem that the ‘last straw’ for me was the dreadful ‘Bookworm 64-bit raspi OS’.
For existing projects, I’ve had to revert back to a so-called ‘legacy’ 32-bit version. At least there are ‘working’ versions of software I can actually use. I am NOT a ‘tinkerer’, I still develop software, and also write. I need something that ‘works’, not ‘might work when we fix it’.
Here’s a link that may interest, or even amuse, on the subject of Wayland. Wayland

Hi, Yes I’ve been here before, with comments regarding the ‘Pi-400’, the truly miserable quality of which was matched by Clive Sinclair’s BOS offerings some considerable time ago.
I have an early raspi board running ‘jessie’ which has given sterling service over many years hosting a local web server (wordpress) and a website interface to it.
Sad to say, every so-called ‘upgrade’ since, on other projects have reflected badly on the quality of the development. Upgrades fixed one problem and ‘broke’ code previously written.
Latterly. Raspberry Pi has become a ‘business’, with the typical mental mindset of ‘shove it out the door as fast as possible’, and ‘the users will find the bugs and fix them.’
The latest BAG OF SHIT ‘Bookworm 64-bit’ is nothing but that. Note I have not used my normal ‘polite’ abbreviation of ‘BOS’.
As the author of the very first language compiler for the BBC Micro, FORTH, and the same compiler on Acorn’s ARM 1, I’ve followed the ‘history’ very closely, and it has been a somewhat dreary ‘progress’ since.
Very recently, I did ‘burn’ a copy of ‘RISC OS’, a bad joke back then, and sat laughing at it. Almost nothing worked, as it had done on the old ‘Archie’.
Maybe Raspi Pi folks included it as a joke in their list of ‘alternatives’.
To be blunt the concept of ‘free’ software is blown out of the water, the cost in time (a very valuable commodity to me), frustration, et al, makes me give up.
I have two oldish Apple Macs, still giving fault-free performance, and will upgrade shortly. For now, Raspberry PI, it’s RIP.

What is Intelligence?

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Merriam-Webster Dictionary has the following:

‘a
(1)
: the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : REASON
also : the skilled use of reason
(2)
: the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as tests)
b
: mental acuteness : SHREWDNESS
‘
These are outlines only. the word ‘how’ apparently is missing in paragraph 1 between ‘or’ and ‘to’.
Interesting. I have a few questions:
1. Where does this ‘ability’ come from? How do you know how to confront a ‘new’ problem and solve it?
2. Can a ‘machine’, for example, a so-called ‘AI’ system react and resolve a new problem?

In us, as humans, there is a payback, or deficit, from making a decision, about a given scenario.
These ‘results’ positive, or negative are remembered, and become part of us.
No, not in your ‘gut’, but I do admit to having that sensation, which is common to all os, but the scenario, and it’s outcome, good, bad, or indifferent is held in the subconscious.

In so-called AI, ‘LLM’ ‘Large Language Models’ are used to compare patterns, whether they be of text, or images. No ‘meta’ information regarding how the machine feels about either the images or text is held, unless ‘feeling’ is coded alongside it regarding the HUMAN reaction to it – this is added as ‘slop’ from reports, if any, regarding the informational content.
So the AI system is a huge library of mostly dross, scraped from the web, adorned with the aggregated comments of those ‘good’ folks that reacted to it in the first place.

IOW A Bag of Shit.

What is a ‘comment’?

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Well, I found one complete answer that coincides exactly with my understanding of the word What is a comment?

Now it is rare that I make comments on any of my Blog posts, but yes there are ‘odd’ cases. Recently on this Blog I attempted to make a ‘comment’. What I was confronted with when I first clicked on the ‘comment’ box at the bottom of the post was indeed a surprise, some mindless waffle regarding typing ‘/’ to choose a ‘block’.
This is what you get when you attempt to ‘leave a reply’..

So wordpress apparently expect readers of my posts to understand this rubbish?
The so-called ‘Gutenburg’ block editor is defaulted throughout the editing interface of wordpress.
There have been suggestions online regarding the ‘editor’, none fulfil the task required – removal of this all-pervading nonsense from a ‘normal’ editing environment.
My intention is to ‘use up’ my current subscription, and then cancel wordpress.
Get this LOUD and CLEAR wordpress. I’ve written in HTML for many years, I’m NOT REMOTELY INTERESTED IN USING THE ABOMINATION ‘Gutenbug’ editor. NOR, foist this on commenters to my posts.

My little stick of Blackpool Rock

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Admission. It was after reading the ineffable rubbish regarding Fatima, that I was reminded of other samples of the boundless crap touted by so-called ‘charities’, particularly those of a religious bent. Some considerable time ago, I read of the Church of America ‘curing’ gay men of their ‘pernicious behaviour’ and apparently making them straight. I presented my problem by email, and was a little surprised at the very negative response, I can’t think why.
So from back in 2009, first published on ‘Serial Failures’ is my account:

I’ve just come back after a visit to Blackpool and my partner was very angry with me when I presented her with a stick of Whitley Bay Rock. Let me explain, I promised her I’d bring her back a stick of Blackpool Rock and I forgot. Rather than ‘fess up, I called in to ‘The Candyman’ sweet shop on the way home and bought a stick of local rock (which has ‘Whitley Bay’ written all the way through it) thinking she wouldn’t notice, but of course she did. She stormed off in one of her tempers and her last words were – ‘keep your promise, and get me a stick of Blackpool Rock, or I’ll never speak to you again!’

I hunted around on the Internet and came across a Church in America that says that anything is possible if you try hard enough, so I emailed them regarding changing the lettering in the middle of my rock.

I was surprised and a little hurt when the Pastor replied to my email reprimanding me for my frivolous and disrespectful request.

Now I would have thought that if this Church can convert Gay men into Heterosexuals, it should be a cinch to sort out my Rock problem.

Whaddya Fink?

Fatima, Wherefore Art Thou?

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Fátima, porque estás?

Tradução para Português
Proudly announced on the website of ‘The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Manila’ on Nov. 10th 2024.

‘As the worldwide Catholic Church prepares for the 100th anniversary celebration of the apparition to Our Lady of Fatima to The Venerable Sr. Lucia dos Santos in Pontevedra, Spain next year, the World Apostolate of Fatima (WAF) Philippines invites the faithful to take part on the National Fatima Convention on the Centenary of the Five First Saturday Devotion of December 10th 2024.’

Hmmm! Now I always thought, and was taught, that ‘Our Lady of Fatima’ referred to the ‘manifestation’ of the Virgin Mary to three girls in Fatima, Portugal. There is not one mention of that in this article.
‘Smacks’ to me like another copycat ‘apparition’ used to boost tourist income.

Wickipaedia has this: ‘Fátima is a Portuguese city located in Serra de Aire , headquarters of the Parish of Fátima of the Municipality of Ourém , in the former province of Beira Litoral , and in the current region Oeste e Vale do Tejo and NUT3 of Médio Tejo , a parish with 71.29 km² of area [ 1 ] and 13,212 inhabitants ( 2021 census ) [ 2 ] , therefore having a population density of 185.3 inhab./km².

Its worldwide fame is due to the phenomenon of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary reported by three shepherd children from May 13 to October 13 , 1917.‘

I also have another issue with the article, I quote ‘worldwide Catholic Church prepares for the 100th anniversary celebration of the apparition to Our Lady of Fatima to The Venerable Sr. Lucia dos Santos in Pontevedra, Spain’

Who wrote this rubbish?

For more ‘icing on the cake’, and slapping it on thick, read this: Apparitions at Pontevedra

Português
Orgulhosamente anunciado no site da ‘Arquidiocese Católica Romana de Manila’ a 10 de novembro de 2024

‘Enquanto a Igreja Católica mundial se prepara para a celebração do 100º aniversário da aparição de Nossa Senhora de Fátima à Venerável Irmã Lúcia dos Santos em Pontevedra, Espanha, no próximo ano, o Apostolado Mundial de Fátima (WAF) Filipinas convida os fiéis a participar sobre a Convenção Nacional de Fátima no Centenário dos Cinco Primeiros Sábados Devocionais de 10 de Dezembro de 2024.’

Hmmm! Ora sempre pensei, e ensinaram-me, que “Nossa Senhora de Fátima” se referia à “manifestação” da Virgem Maria a três meninas em Fátima, Portugal. Não há uma menção a isso neste artigo.
‘Parece-me’ como outra ‘aparição’ imitadora usada para aumentar o rendimento turístico.

A Wickipedia tem isto: ‘Fátima é uma cidade portuguesa situada na Serra de Aire, sede da Freguesia de Fátima do Concelho de Ourém, na antiga província da Beira Litoral, e na actual região Oeste e Vale do Tejo e NUT3 do Médio Tejo, freguesia com 71,29 km² de área[1] e 13.212 habitantes (censos 2021)[2], tendo portanto uma densidade populacional de 185,3 hab./km².

A sua fama mundial deve-se ao fenómeno das aparições da Virgem Maria relatadas por três pastorinhos de 13 de Maio a 13 de Outubro de 1917. ‘

Tenho também outro problema com o artigo, cito ‘A Igreja Católica mundial prepara-se para a celebração do 100º aniversário da aparição de Nossa Senhora de Fátima à Venerável Irmã Lúcia dos Santos em Pontevedra, Espanha’

Quem escreveu este lixo?

Para mais ‘cereja no topo do bolo’, e para dar um tapa na espessura, leia isto:Aparições em Pontevedra

National Fatima Convention to be held in Quezon City

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Python: ‘Batteries included’ – but watch out for the ‘sell-by’ date.

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There are at least two types of ‘patzer’ in the ‘Software Development’ domain, these two have caused me more hassle and annoyance than any other part of the mangled shit we have to deal with frequently:-

  • The complete innocent who ‘contributes’ an article and/or code project, without specifying the version and/or revision of the software environment on which his/her project depends.
  • The developer/maintainer who deletes/alters previously published library code, with nary a thought for whatever has been written for the previous version.

By far, the worst offenders are ‘contributors’ in the Python Development Community. Yes, things have changed, certainly for me.If anyone used to develop software on Microsoft’s ‘environment’, they will remember, probably with horror, the ‘DLL Hell’ everyone had to experience.
‘Things’ should have changed, but they haven’t, well not much.

In the above, just a few simple rules are required. The ‘developer’ does NOT delete/alter previously released functions. These should be supported but marked as ‘deprecated’. All too often the developer is making use of an ‘exposed’ interface him/herself. This is simply sloppy and lazy.
The ‘contributor’ simply provides the version and revision of his Python interpreter, and similar for the libraries he is using.

As is usual when there is ‘misunderstanding’ between folks speaking different languages, we could blame the interpreter.
Mostly, this is the root cause of the problem, with Python, and similar interpreters.

Several times I see ‘solutions’ involving downloading and building libraries from scratch on my own machine. So apparently I have to ‘manufacture’ my ‘batteries’? On such occasions I’m tempted to comment by suggesting that the ‘contributor’ finds a quiet corner, and stands with his face in it,
Well, no I’m not tempted to say that, but something quite different, but have no wish to offend.