I have the same feeling about all "modern" languages that are essentially C derivatives--whether it's C++, Java, Javascript, Rust, etc. It's the same old approaches with the same old problems and the same old restrictions and the same gotcha's...just called something different. Quite frankly, I don't like any of those languages because they miss one essential element: Understandability. I want to be able to look at a piece of code and "grok" it within a few seconds without having to be an 50 year veteran guru in the language. But...that's just my opinion.

As the sign in a print shop says: You can have price, quality and speed--pick two.

Most modern vehicles are online all the time. My F150 does software updates about every two weeks. It logs and reports locations, speeds, engine performance, etc.

My 2021 Ford F150 doesn't come with a user's manual for some odd reason. It has all these stupid nags and I haven't found a way to turn them off. Worst part is the EPAS -- Electronic Power Assisted Steering. On my 2016 F150, I dropped a wheel into a rut on a country road. EPAS "thought" the truck was rolling and took over steering. And actually rolled the truck. Air bags went off which caused the truck to be totalled. Three weeks after I settled with the insurance company, I got a recall notice to come in and have a software update installed to correct a steering problem. I do not trust software even though I have been a developer for over 55 years.

I use 3 computers/3 28" monitors--Left-Middle-Right All three run Startdock's Multiplicity which allows me to use one keyboard/mouse for all three computers. Left and Right are Multiplicity clients, Middle is Multiplicity master. Left (4 core CPU/16 GB) serves as a mail and file server (NAS type server) plus run either Xming or Cygwin X windows connection. Left is also used for Firefox/Chrome internet connection for information lookup. Middle (12 core cpu/32 GB) run one RDC connection plus an optional XMing/Cygwin X windows connection. Middle is also used for word processing. Middle also can run Oracle Virtual box for testing new Linux configurations/distros. Right (8 core/16 GB) runs Virtualbox for main Linux development. All 3 use 256 GB SSD's plus one 1 TB HDD for system backups. Right (the main VB development system) also runs a 512 GB SSD for Linux VB systems. I also have one standby system for emergency of specialized testing. System SSD's (Windows 10) are cloned about every 2-3 weeks onto a rotational SSD.

Good point--changed it. Thanks

I tripped across this image on FB and thought it was appropriate to everyone here. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10230065043402543&set=gm.3568388713472144&idorvanity=2209648502679512[^]

It will largely depend on your application and requirements. For currency type applications, consider using a BCD (Binary Code Decimal, used in COBOL) package. See below for references. For integer type applications, there are a few "large" int packages. For scientific applications, there are a number of packages for large number processing. ************ BCD references ******************** https://web.archive.org/web/20081102170717/http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/AoA/Windows/HTML/AdvancedArithmetica6.html#1000255 https://handwiki.org/wiki/Binary-coded\_decimal#EBCDIC\_zoned\_decimal\_conversion\_table Notes: 1) BCD numbers can be packed (2 digits/byte) or unpacked (1 digit per byte) 2) The low order byte (right most) of packed is nnnnssss where nnnn is the low order digit and ssss is the sign (0x0D for negative, 0x0F for positive) 3) The spec is (www,ddd) where www is the total bytes and ddd is the digits to right of decimal point. E.g.: 5,2 is a 5 digit number with 2 digits to the right of the decimal point--"123.45" This field would require 3 bytes packed, 6 bytes unpacked. 4) From IBM: For a field or array element of length N, if the PACKEVEN keyword is not specified, the number of digits is 2N - 1; if the PACKEVEN keyword is specified, the number of digits is 2(N-1). 5) Some documentation refers to BCD as DECIMAL but others use DECIMAL to refer to floating point. ********************* For large int ******************** Microsoft SafeInt package SafeInt Class | Microsoft Learn[^] The decNumber package can handle decimal integer number of user defined precision GitHub - dnotq/decNumber: Decimal Floating Point decNumber C Library by IBM Fellow Mike Cowlishaw[^] (I have not yet used or investigate the cran project.) CRAN - Package VeryLargeIntegers[^] ******************** For Floating Point ******************** Floating point gets very complex and confusing because there has never been a really good, consistent standard

Ford F150 pickups have a "feature" that, if you're backing up and there's something behind you, it will stop the truck. Sounds reasonable, doesn't it? However, the other day, I had road salt build up on the backup camera and it wouldn't let me back up because it couldn't "see". No matter how smart AI becomes, it will never be as adaptable situationally as the human brain.

There were science fiction stories written about this technology 50-60 years ago. They did not end well for the human race! The more technology advances, the more I feel like a Luddite!

1. I teach horsemanship and retrain problem horses. I ride my own horses(10) 4-5 days/week. 2) I farm 200 acres, growing primarily hay for cattle...and horses of course. 3) Playing with Linux development --- currently writing (more like re-writing over and over) a programming language. 4) Sometimes I sleep.

You are so on the money. There was an old saying: "Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM computer."

I am going through the same crap right now myself. This toolchain does it this way; that one does it that way; this one has this feature; that one doesn't; this one's feature doesn't work; that one feature is obtuse; ..... Waaay back when, I had a simple makefile, simple library linkages, simple programming structures....Now, it takes two weeks just to set up a project build with all the options working correctly, all the libraries referencing the correct version, etc., etc., etc. Just yesterday, I wanted to use kdbg on a Linux MX distribution (I have it working on a Linux Mint distro)---could not compile it because of missing modules...and I could find sources/libraries for the modules. FRUSTRATION!

You are much too kind in your language. My language with Windows has gotten to the profanity point! Yesterday morning, I sat down at my desk already to try out a new thought. BUT....Windows 10 had decided to to an upgrade overnight, which I didn't know about, and I had a black screen. Diagnosis steps: 1) Was the monitor plugged in? Yes. 2) Was the monitor turned on? Yes. 3) Was the computer plugged in? Yes 4) Was the computer turned on? Yes 5) Was the monitor cable solidly attached on both ends? Yes. 6) Did the monitor work on another computer? Yes. 7) Could this computer drive another monitor? No. 8) Could I get another cup of coffee? Yes. 9) Could the keyboard effect any changes? No. 10) Power down the computer? Yes. 11) Power up the computer? No. 12) Unplug computer, wait 15 seconds, power up? Yes. 13) Was monitor working during POST? Yes. 14) Did Windows 10 boot? Not for a while????? 15) Magic wait appears--"Updating, do not power off or disconnect your computer"--PROFANITY 16) Rebooting...Do not....Rebooting. Good! 17) Can I log in remotely? No. 18) Can I log in locally? Yes. 19) Why can't I log in remotely? Is Windows Firewall on? YES, turned on for public. More PROFANITY!!! 20) What FW setting changed? Application software blocked! Now I need to go to Confession! 21) Unblocking application software fix problem. Yes. 22) Forgot what I set out to do in the first place. 23) Had a cup of coffee, went home! Almost 3 hours, one very good idea, and lots of motivation lost to Windows 10 installing upgrades overnight AND changing settings. Bill Gates OWES me $5000 for lost time.

Corporate incompetence affects all levels of corporations, not just web sites. And I will put the responsibility for it squarely on the Harvard MBA attitude---"What's this quarter's profits?" Long term thinking/planning is an anathema to immediate profitability. If I was God/King/Absolute Benevolent Dictator, no corporation would be allowed to have more than 5% market share and no engineer would be permitted to design a product until they have spent at least 5 years in the field using the company products, 5 years in product maintenance and 5 years apprenticing a senior engineer. But I'm not God/King/Absolute Benevolent Dictator (at least not yet), so, for now, I will only refuse to hire crappy Harvard MBA educated management. So....would you like to hear how I really feel about Harvard MBA's?

Laziness is laziness. Lazy people will try anything to put out minimal effort. And, having said that, I work very hard at being lazy--but I call it being efficient. (Thinking is the hardest work a person can do.)

Keep in mind that web bloat is happening just on the Internet---It's happening on other things, like commercial TV. TV now has a standard of 5 minutes of commercials every 10 minutes. Not only do I now have time to go to the bathroom during commercial breaks, I have time to get another beer, drink it and go to the bathroom a second time. I'm limiting my TV time to 4 hours a day---any more and I'd be an alcoholic.

Earlier this week, I started having problems with the local electricity supplier. My UPS'es kept triggering alarms and it turned out to be the power company lines were delivering over 130V. Called the electric company and they determined that a line voltage regulator had failed. They bypassed the regulator and got my supply voltage down to about 125+- but then it would drop under the 105 volt low limit and cause my UPS'es to go into battery backup mode for a few seconds. So here's the fun part: One of the Windows 10 systems would failed to boot after a shutdown from the UPS---giving me a 0xc000021a stop code. Tried Windows startup recovery, replacing the C drive, restoring backups, etc.---all the standard crap. System would not boot. Tried disconnecting all four external disk drives that were attached via a USB 7 port hub. Still failed. Finally disconnected everything, including internal drives and USB hubs (two attached) --- SYSTEM BOOTED! Went through an isolation procedure to determine what was causing the boot failure. Got it down to one of the USB hubs, which was not plugged into the UPS, had gotten smoked somehow. It still looked like it was working but it caused Windows 10 to fail during the boot process. Who would've thunk a USB hub could cause a boot failure on Windows 10? Microsoft owes me for four days labor and several bottles of antacids.

Several coding secrets: 1) Being consistent -- Use the same naming convention, indentation, structuring, etc., throughout all code. 2) Small modules -- Typically 40-60 lines or so. 2a) Module on a page -- Look at a complete module without having to scroll/page through it. 3) But not too small -- Avoiding 1-3 lines of actual code as a function (nothing more ineffecient than looking at 10 lines to see something like "int GetAsValue() { return A; }" 4) Nothing fancy -- Avoid complex templates, macros, etc. 5) Adding some comments for relatively complex code, but avoiding unnecessary comments. 6) And, finally, frequent trips to the coffee pot, with associated trips to the men's room, to get the body moving and the blood circulating.

If you're old enough to do flowcharting, then you probably remember IBM's top down programming methodology: HIPO--Hierarchy plus Input-Process-Output. Still use it, still like it.