Tag Archives: computers

Networking with the Windows Subsystem for Linux

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Networking was built in on the Ubuntu WSL install. WSL Ubuntu under Windows has an IP of 172.17.xxx.xxx, but it can see my local 192.168 network, and the entire internet. WSL Ubuntu says it uses a DNS Server on the 172.17 network. Since WSL uses NAT, I expect that translates to my router on the 192.168 network, which in turn accesses the DNS servers of my ISP. IP addresses in the range 172.16.0.0 to 172.31.255.255 are private, so apparently WSL creates its own network.

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A Note on Computer BIOS Settings

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Enabling VM features on a computer is a BIOS feature, so do to it you have to interrupt the startup with the Escape or some other key, depending on the machine. My HP EliteDesk uses the Escape key, but the boot started so fast that my 70 year old fingers could not hit that key fast enough to prevent Windows from starting. A web search suggest that I use the Windows power settings to disable the “quick boot” and actually do a full shutdown and restart rather than a simple reboot. This worked and I could click Escape in time and get to the BIOS settings. After a little searching I found the VM setting (Every BIOS is different) and turned it on. I also added a 5-second delay to the boot settings to make the next time easier.

Another Undead Computer Language

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From Competitive Programming to APL, with Conor Hoekstra.

The first half or so of this article was like reading an anthropological report of a strange culture far away: There were no programming contests when I was getting started out in the field (1967-1976). I rarely had the kind of technical interviews that Hoekstra went through, and did not get any of the five programming jobs I held from 1977 to 1998 through such an interview.

I started reading more closely with

Conor: So, I heard about APL five different times between the year 2010 and 2019.
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The Lifetimes of Programming Languages

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I started programming computers in February of 1967, when I was a junior in high school. After dropping out of grad school I began a 41 year career in information technology in January of 1977. I have seen a lot of computer languages come and go. So I read 5 Programming Languages You Won’t Likely Be Using by 2030 with some interest. The only one on the list I had ever used was Perl. It was kind of fun, but I did not get very attached to it 🙂

Meanwhile, some much older languages live on. Last year COVID-19 demonstrated how much the financial world still depends on COBOL:

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Blinking Astronomical Photographs

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Low-Cost Approach to Scanning Historic Glass Plates Yields an Astronomical Surprise. Technical details at Precise Photometric Measurements from a 1903 Photographic Plate Using a Commercial Scanner.

Professional astrophotography used to be done on emulsion-coasted glass places. That was how astromical discoveries were made for nearly a century.

More than an estimated 2.4 million glass plates are out there in collections in North America alone. These were taken starting in the 1890s right up until the 1970s, when CCD (Charged Couple Device) detectors started to come online for astronomy. Of these, only an estimated 400,000 plates have been digitized to research quality

The team in this article has found a much cheaper way to proceed with this process, using off-the-shelf hardware.

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Monday Night Irish Class, February 1, 2016

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Irish Class, February 1, 2016

Rang Gaeilge, 1ú lá mí Feabhra 2016

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Fadas: áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚ

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Seanfhocal

Cuireann duine snaidhm lena theanga nach bhfuasclóidh a fhiacla. A person ties a knot with his tongue that his teeth cannot loosen. He gets married.
Beidh lá eile ag an bPaorach. Better luck next time. “Power will have another day” [“Power” is not anyone in particular]
an rud nach binn le duine ní chluineann sé é. The thing that is not sweet [to the ear] is not heard.

Adjectives

Léigh tuilleadh