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Sunday, 15 June 2025 Dereel Images for 15 June 2025
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25 years SMPng
Topic: history, technology, opinion Link here

Twenty-five years ago today a number of us gathered at Yahoo!'s main facility in Sunnyvale to discuss the future of the FreeBSD kernel. The background was a benchmark from Mindcraft that showed that Microsoft “Windows” NT greatly outperformed Linux.

The reason was the multiprocessor support in each system. And far from getting up on our hind legs and saying “couldn't happen to FreeBSD”, we acknowledged that it could, in fact, happen. In fact, over 3 years later, on the only occasion when Linus Torvalds visited us, I demonstrated a FreeBSD system which had such problems where Linux didn't.

So on today's anniversary we came together to discuss how to improve the situation. I went into more detail at the time in a Daemon News article.

How time flies! I wonder how we compare now. I have the feeling that if it doesn't worry Netflix, it's not a problem.


Lens comparisons: a year after
Topic: photography, history, opinion Link here

By coincidence, discovered that I had spent considerable time a year ago today. There I was more interested in my “Leica” lenses, the Hektor 13.5 cm f/4.5 and the 50 mm f/3.5 FED 1. There, too, I came to the conclusion that the Hektor was not as bad as I feared, though the FED seems to have performed worse than on Friday.

I really must find a better way to compare them.


Spaghetti alla puttanesca
Topic: food and drink, opinion Link here

Spaghetti alla puttanesca is a well-known Neapolitan dish, and I have probably made it before. But it's a lot of work for a pasta course. Recently I saw this recipe in the New York Times. It turns it into a main course by adding “shrimp” (prawns).

OK, how hard can it be? Horrible! These bizarre old units completely confuse me, and I had already put it off once, and I spent some time today to come up with these quantities, which still aren't good enough:

Ingredients

For 1.5 servings.

quantity       ingredient       step
215 g       (cooked) spaghetti       1
12 g       olive oil       2
15 g       garlic       2
12 g       anchovy fillets       2
30 g       black olives       3
20 g       capers       3
3 g       paprika, „edelsüß“       3
55 g       tomatoes       4
20 g       tomato paste       4
82 g       water       5
120 g       prawns, 10 g       5
      parsley       7
0 g       oregano       8

Preparation

  1. Cook the spaghetti.

  2. Cut the anchovies into small pieces and fry in the oil with the garlic. The base recipes claim that the anchovies will “dissolve”, but mine are made of sterner stuff.

  3. Cut the olives into 3 or 4 pieces. Add olives, capers and paprika and mix well.

  4. Add tomato and tomato paste and heat until about to dry out.

  5. Add prawns and water. Heat until prawns are barely cooked.


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  6. Add the spaghetti and transfer to a serving dish.

     
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  7. Garnish with much parsley.

     
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  8. Add oregano. Oops, forgot the oregano.

And the result? Not bad, but not well balanced.

 
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There were enough noodles and prawn, but the flavour ingredients were a little underrepresented. Next time I'll use more.

And it wasn't until I wrote this up that I discovered that I already had a recipe for puttanesca. It confirms my quantities. Why didn't I check first?


Monday, 16 June 2025 Dereel Images for 16 June 2025
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Changing horses again
Topic: animals Link here

This morning before dawn a transporter came and picked up Carlotta and Dana. Carlotta is going back to Jane Ashhurst again, and Dana is going to Shelly Cooper. To make up for that, Chris Bahlo picked up her mare Pinta, leaving only Samba and Morena here. Samba was not amused: Pinta had become her friend, and Morena was the intruder. She spent all day complaining and avoiding Morena.


disdain again
Topic: technology, opinion Link here

It has been several months since I bought disdain.lemis.com, my first Microsoft “Windows” machine. I did some basic configuration, and then left it.

Why? I hate Microsoft at the best of times, and they have gone and changed the appearance Yet Again. And I was terrified of the pain I would have to go through to set up “file sharing”. But it has to happen, and today I finally got round to it, in the process updating my living with Microsoft page.

On the whole things weren't that bad. I've found that it's easier to search for specific terms than try to guess where in the menu tree Microsoft might have hidden specific configuration functions. But they don't want to know about “map network drive”:


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Never mind, there's a second search. But that took me to an external web page that starts by telling me

First, open File Explorer from your taskbar.

This is the same tool you use to browse your files and folders. Look for the folder icon, usually pinned to your taskbar. If it’s not there, you can find it by searching “File Explorer” in the Start menu.

On disdain the two paragraphs are separated by a whole screen's worth of advertisements. I don't “browse” my files and folders. But yes, it's the tab symbol that I know from other versions of Microsoft. For some reason they haven't changed it (yet). That takes me to something that I recall:

 
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And then it goes on:

In the top toolbar, click on the ‘Map network drive’ option.

But there's no ‘Map network drive’ option in that half-full “top toolbar”.


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Fool! You need to click on the ... in the middle of the toolbar (the last item) and select:

 
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Still, modulo obfuscatory menus, it just worked. I was quite surprised.


This page contains (roughly) yesterday's and today's entries. I have a horror of reverse chronological documents, so all my diary entries are chronological. This page normally contains the last two days, but if I fall behind it may contain more. You can find older entries in the archive. Note that I often update a diary entry a day or two after I write it.     Do you have a comment about something I have written? This is a diary, not a “blog”, and there is deliberately no provision for directly adding comments. It's also not a vehicle for third-party content. But I welcome feedback and try to reply to all messages I receive. See the diary overview for more details. If you do send me a message relating to something I have written, please indicate whether you'd prefer me not to mention your name. Otherwise I'll assume that it's OK to do so.


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