I have been hearing so many friends and relatives who are Trump supporters complain “If Trump doesn’t get in this time ammo prices are going to skyrocket!” Well, he’s not going to actually do anything to fix the problem. Yes, he will prove he is not a Republican by stopping the shipment of arms and ammo to Ukraine. No way he can stop sending it to Israel though. So, at best, it will mask the … The Real Reason Ammo Prices Are So HighRead more
OpenVMS
Posted inInformation Technology
New Emacs Book
Yes, I’ve finally written an Emacs book. I spent the first two decades of my career on DEC platforms using EDT and have always been offended by PC editors forcing me to use mice or memorize draconian keystroke combinations. Off and on I used Emacs over the years. Once I found it had an EDT emulation mode I used it a lot more. What has offended me, both morally and professionally is the relentless stream … New Emacs BookRead more
Posted inInformation Technology
std::optional Example and Explanation
std::optional is an attempt by the academics on the C++ standards committee to “fix” what they believe to be abhorrent behavior. As usual they created a committee quality result. To understand my disgust with what they created you have to understand that I’ve been programming on real computers since the early 1980s. Even then VAX BASIC had OPTIONAL and a much better implementation for OPTIONAL parameters. You can read more about it in this book. … std::optional Example and ExplanationRead more
Posted inExperience / Information Technology / Thank You Sir May I Have Another
A TCP/IP Software Appliance
In the very near future, every viable business class operating system will incorporate a TCP/IP Software Appliance. This is not a firewall. What we have today serving as firewalls may or may not server any purpose in the future, but one thing is for certain, we cannot solve our security problems via any hacks to our existing socket and IP libraries nor can security be improved by any future tweaks to SSL/TLS. I have been … A TCP/IP Software ApplianceRead more
Posted inInformation Technology / Thank You Sir May I Have Another
An Updated C_MEGA_MAIL Example
Things get dated. It is sad, but true. Time marches on and little snippets of code you squirreled away for future use start to not work as good, or not even compile because everything around them has changed. Such was the case recently with C_MEGA_MAIL.C. It stayed locked in time and VMS changed. Oh, it still compiled and seemed to work, but when you stuck it in something which sent hundreds of mail messages over … An Updated C_MEGA_MAIL ExampleRead more