Posted inInformation Technology / Thank You Sir May I Have Another

The 486SX

It’s not just COVID-19 vaccines receiving large quantities of disinformation. Even the 486SX has its own Holocaust Deniers. I couldn’t believe this popped up again months ago. Image by Michael Schwarzenberger from Pixabay The time honored (and correct) tale of the 486SX was that the original units were 486DX chips with a defective math co-processor. With every new chip design, especially back there and back then, there was always a bit of a yield problem … The 486SXRead more

Posted inExperience / Information Technology

The CUTE Journey

Every now and then you will find yourself needing to install a really old Ubuntu version. I stumbled into this with CUTE and Scintilla. You see, the RedDiamond project really needs to jump ship from QPlainTextEdit. The syntax highlighting available in that module is horribly inefficient. If you never have more than a couple thousand lines in your source file and you don’t have multiple source files of that size, you can probably continue on … The CUTE JourneyRead more

Posted inExperience / Information Technology

Some Mainframe Nostalgia

I only dabbled on the IBM mainframe over my 30+ year career. One thing that gives me great nostalgia now is SPF. SPFLite2 in particular. I don’t actually remember what we had on ROSCOE when I made the mistake of attending DeVry in Lombard. It kind of reminded me of the editor I had to use later at client sites. You see, I was either a PC consultant or a DEC/VAX consultant. Prior to the … Some Mainframe NostalgiaRead more

Posted inExperience / Information Technology

Long Hours Kill You

The WHO (World Health Organization) recently published a study claiming working long hours will kill you. I agree, though I routinely do it. Here’s the difference for me. I routinely work 80-90+ hour weeks when on a project. This is an on-site project far away from home. I don’t do touristy things. I don’t often, if ever, hang out with coworkers on weekends. I’m there to bank as much money as possible. At the end … Long Hours Kill YouRead more

Posted inInformation Technology

Was Getting Rid of Norton on Your Weekend To-Do List?

What started off as “fix Norton” became a “get rid of Norton” item on my to-do list this weekend. I am soooooo happy now. Let me be up front and state that professionals don’t use Microsoft products. Of the six to twelve machines in my office at any given time there is no more than one that has a Microsoft OS on it. Professionals simply don’t use Microsoft products for anything. Having said that, there … Was Getting Rid of Norton on Your Weekend To-Do List?Read more