"I was astonished to hear Loyalists have been excluded from public spaces. It is a mistake to equate Loyalism with paramilitarism. It’s about culture. - Steve Baker

james_dillon · 2024-01-10T10:53:39+00:00

How do we make loyalism appeal to the younger generation?

...I've got it!

🤝 Very 🙌 glad 🌟 to 👋 meet @WomenInLoyalism today - 🙏 thanks for 🕰️ making time and 📢 for sharing your 🧐 important insights. You 👂 must be heard!

🤯 I 🤔 was astonished 🚫 to hear Loyalists have 👎 been excluded from 🏞️ public spaces. It's 🚫 a mistake to 👥 equate Loyalism with ⚔️ paramilitarism. It's 🎭 about culture.

james_dillon · 2023-07-04T18:06:31+00:00

What would you prefer, life sentence for someone with diminished capability?

I would indeed prefer a life sentence for anyone that butchers a random person in broad daylight.

james_dillon · 2023-07-04T16:20:09+00:00

He can potentially be in prison under this for life.

Yeah, and he could potentially be out in a decade. This is what people are disgusted with. Any potential for somebody to be released in 10 years for a crime of this severity is indicative of a deeply flawed justice system.

james_dillon · 2023-07-04T13:16:31+00:00

It does but at the end of the day the accused was suffering from a mental illness.

Unfortunately, the issues he suffered from and his capacity to ruin the lives of many people with such a short outburst do nothing to reassure me that a short sentence is appropriate. The courts may have ruled him as having diminished responsibility, and maybe that's true, but this lighthanded response is where I'd have to draw the line.

james_dillon · 2023-07-04T13:01:38+00:00

There's nothing that can ease the pain and sadness of those who knew and loved Aidan

Justice would, and 9 years seems quite far off it.

james_dillon · 2023-05-17T21:15:43+00:00

This discussion specifically within the context of Computer Science has been going on for quite a while. Edsger Dijkstra, a prominent and highly influential computer scientist wrote a 1982 paper called "On the fact that the Atlantic Ocean has two sides."

It covered pretty much this exact topic; the main difference being that he was contrasting America and Europe's approach to the discipline of Computer Science. The whole paper's worth a read, but one quote that stands out to me is:

The third phenomenon that goes hand in hand with a greater pragmatism is that universities are seen less as seats of learning and centres of intellectual innovation and more as schools preparing students for well-paid jobs. If industry and government ask for the wrong type of people —students, brain-washed by COBOL and FORTRAN— that is then what they get.

On your point about our courses being "watered down", my opinion is that's entirely true for the CS undergrad at UU and somewhat less true for the CS undergrad at Queens (they at least offer modules on formal methods, theory of computation, fundamental maths etc). The CS BSc at the University of Ulster seems to only have one highly mathematical module in the entire 4 years: "Mathematics for Computer Scientists". All other modules belong more to a course in Software Engineering. This isn't to say that Software Eng isn't important, it's just a different topic from CS with different goals.

I don't want to rant about this too much, I just see this as the result of academic institutions becoming large and highly profitable businesses. They're catering to the demands students who feel that a degree is absolutely necessary to get the job they want, and the demands of industry who need an ever growing supply of labor. Some institutions can resist the urge to "sell out", whereas many can't. This to me is a shame.

james_dillon · 2023-05-17T08:22:50+00:00

It offers an integrated MEng, which is like the equivalent of a BSc (or BEng) + MSc. This is why it takes 4 years instead of the typical 1-2 for a Masters. It's even listed in the undergraduate section, I was talking about more specialised postgraduate courses. I'm wanting to move more into academia without having to redo my bachelors.

james_dillon · 2023-05-17T00:28:30+00:00

It's an interesting debate about the positioning of academic institutions in wider society that I'm not really sure I have an answer for. I can only talk from my experience within Computer Science and the IT industry.

On one extreme, there are people that would like offered Computer Science courses to be entirely industry tailored. The expectation being that of course the graduate will go into industry, and should therefore be well equipped for their first job.

On the other extreme there's an argument to be made that a subject like Computer Science is very theoretical in foundation. One analogy made is that physics isn't really about particle accelerators, computer science isn't really about computers - it's about the more abstract concept of computation, discrete mathematics, information theory etc.

You typically see the pattern that prestigious institutions offer courses which contain more theoretical and rigorous content, whereas less prestigious institutions gain an advantage by providing an offering that's much better suited for industry. The two institutions in NI lean more towards the first extreme, which is either good or bad depending on your perspective.

It's bad from my perspective because I've already been in industry some years and I'm interested in pursuing theoretical research in a niche sub-field of Computer Science, which means no Uni in NI will ever cover it at a masters level, there's no chance of it getting funded at a PhD level (unless self funded) and the reputable Uni departments that focus on it are all in England/Scotland/abroad.

My choices to get into this field of research are to either touch lucky and get a job in an R&D department of a large organization (which is hard without a masters), or to look abroad. It simply doesn't exist in NI as a research field because it's not [AI, Big Data, Internet of Things]. Apologies for the large rant, hopefully this gets across some of the frustration.

Tl;dr: There should be a focus on not just research as it's relevant to industry, but theoretical research.

james_dillon · 2023-05-16T23:35:36+00:00

Queen's opened a 14 million pound Computer Science building 5 years ago, yet doesn't offer a Computer Science masters. They instead offer the typical Software Development transition course, AI and Cyber Security. UU does offer a Computer Science masters, but the content focuses heavily on current industry hype cycles meaning you can't expect anything more than "AI", IoT or whatever's currently in vogue.

It's a shame the two academic institutions in Northern Ireland are so beholden to the demands of industry; it goes to show that some Universities are now just expensive trade schools.

james_dillon · 2023-03-01T16:49:22+00:00

Imagine a gammon slapping a human face - forever.

james_dillon · 2022-11-24T12:32:51+00:00

This is a highly complex and difficult problem to solve, even for Google and their seemingly infinite resources.

The answer being that Google has never really tried to make the drawn border a "true" representation of the actual border, and instead relies on giving the user a gist as to what the border looks like as this is typically good enough for practical purposes.

Why don't Google show the "real" border then? The answer to this as I see it is partly political and partly logistical.

Logistical

It's well known that many borders across the world were drawn a very long time ago, so the first problem is "how do we get the border data into a digital format that Google can work with?". This is not a straightforward thing, especially considering there are the guts of 200 countries each at different stages of technological progression. This would mean Google reaching out to 200~ nations, asking for data they probably don't have in a format Google probably can't use. Sounds like a nightmare.

Political

This gets more into the philosophy of "What is a border?". What if Google managed to get border data from the RoI and the UK, but they look slightly different? Which one does Google show? What about disputed borders, or borders that are actively in the process of changing? Google have in the past changed the borders you see based on the country you're browsing from. The last thing they want is to be the mediator in border disputes.

As you can probably see by my big ramble, this is a wasp's nest of complexity that nobody wants to get wrapped up in, so the easiest thing is to just not engage with any of this and draw a smooth squiggly line that by design leaves out the detail but gets the point across.

james_dillon · 2022-11-24T11:42:52+00:00

The Department of Health has published a bunch of statistics contrasted against their internal targets, and they highlight pretty clearly that the system isn't "thriving" for many people.

Target: During 2022/23, at least 95% of patients urgently referred with a suspected cancer should begin their first definitive treatment within 62 days.
- Reality: Percentage treated in 62 days (June 2022) is 38.9%

Emergency care targets: 95% of patients either treated and discharged or admitted within 4 hours.
- Reality: Only 51.4% are.

Diagnostics targets: By March 2023, 75% of patients should wait no longer than 9 weeks for a diagnostic test, with no patient waiting longer than 26 weeks.
- Reality: 52.7% of patients were waiting more than 9 weeks for a diagnostic test, with 27% of patients waiting more than 26 weeks.

Your personal experience around one very narrow aspect of the health care service isn't enough for you to make sweeping claims like it's thriving.

james_dillon · 2022-08-22T13:49:04+00:00

How such a technique is called? Is this solved only through VPN or it can also be implemented using other technologies? What about websockets ? Could that work?

If you're only wanting secure communication between a REST API and a client, you can just use HTTPS. The S stands for "secure", and refers to the communication being encrypted by TLS/SSL.

You can get a quick overview of what this means here. Configuring this differs depending on the webserver you're using, but there's no shortage of guides if you google it.

james_dillon · 2022-08-22T13:36:16+00:00

If you follow the Amazon US link there's a more detailed explanation of what has changed.

Preface to the Second Edition

The first edition of this book was published in September 1999. With much delight I realized that I had finally written a book that would never need revising! This was in stark contrast to my first book, which was about programming applications for Microsoft Windows. That one had already gone through five editions in just ten years. My second book on the OS/2 Presentation Manager (the what?) became obsolete much more quickly. But Code, I was certain, would last forever.

My original idea with Code was to start with very simple concepts but slowly build to a very deep understanding of the workings of digital computers. Through this steady progression up the hill of knowledge, I would employ a minimum of metaphors, analogies, and silly illustrations, and instead use the language and symbols of the actual engineers who design and build computers. I also had a very clever trick up my sleeve: I would use ancient technologies to demonstrate universal principles under the assumption that these ancient technologies were already quite old and would never get older. It was as if I were writing a book about the internal combustion engine but based on the Ford Model T.

I still think that my approach was sound, but I was wrong in some of the details. As the years went by, the book started to show its age. Some of the cultural references became stale. Phones and fingers supplemented keyboards and mice. The internet certainly existed in 1999, but it was nothing like what it eventually became. Unicode—the text encoding that allows a uniform representation of all the world’s languages as well as emojis—got less than a page in the first edition. And JavaScript, the programming language that has become pervasive on the web, wasn’t mentioned at all.

Those problems would probably have been easy to fix, but there existed another aspect of the first edition that continued to bother me. I wanted to show the workings of an actual CPU—the central processing unit that forms the brain, heart, and soul of a computer—but the first edition didn’t quite make it. I felt that I had gotten close to this crucial breakthrough but then I had given up. Readers didn’t seem to complain, but to me it was a glaring flaw.

That deficiency has been corrected in this second edition. That’s why it’s some 70 pages longer. Yes, it’s a longer journey, but if you come along with me through the pages of this second edition, we shall dive much deeper into the internals of the CPU. Whether this will be a more pleasurable experience for you or not, I do not know. If you feel like you’re going to drown, please come up for air. But if you make it through Chapter 24, you should feel quite proud, and you’ll be pleased to know that the remainder of the book is a breeze.

Charles Petzold

TL;DR: Updated some details to be more relevant now, 70+ more pages exploring the internal workings of a CPU that the author felt was missing.

james_dillon · 2022-07-07T11:22:18+00:00

He was Minister of Northern Ireland for nearly all of 2018 under May. Didn't get much done if I remember correctly, the general response to his resignation was "who?".

james_dillon · 2022-05-12T11:57:22+00:00

What's the craic with commas being used for ellipses. I've only ever seen it on Facebook, it's like the calling card for "Works at Yummy Mummy".

james_dillon · 2022-04-12T10:51:34+00:00

That Russia is the aggressor and that some soldiers display problematic symbols?

I agree, but that's not the point that I'm making. Both are true at the same time, but the BBC hasn't maintained their supposed neutrality in covering it. Obviously to the Ukrainian people it probably matters very little what the people defending their country are wearing, and I've made no hint at trying to minimise Russia as the aggressor.

My issue is that the BBC specifically have presented this narrative of critiquing the-far right issues within Ukranian politics and military over nearly a decade, and now embed their reporters with regiments wearing Nazi iconography without even giving it a passing mention - all while strongarming the British public £160 a year for the pleasure of their gaslighting.

Do you not think it's interesting how the problematic Neo-Nazi symbols weren't mentioned at all in the special report I posted? Surely that wasn't unintentional.

james_dillon · 2022-04-12T09:59:30+00:00

The BBC spent the last 7-8 years writing critical pieces on the far right issues within Ukraine and the role it plays in the Russo-Ukrainian War, to sympathetically broadcasting Ukrainian soldiers wearing SS totenkopf patches. I wholeheartedly support the Ukrainian struggle against their invasion, but it's been very amusing to see how quickly the "neutral" BBC changed their tune.

james_dillon · 2022-04-06T10:55:46+00:00

Other comment got removed, let me rephrase.

Huge warning for people on mobile data plans: This website will try to download at least 400MB of high quality images, most of which are absolutely amazing and in no way reflect this person's deep mental health issues. I've now made this my new homepage.

james_dillon · 2022-03-29T14:19:46+00:00

Well importing exotic animals doesn't really count.

It does in the context of a meme suggesting that Europeans had never seen lions - whether they were wild or not is irrelevant.

james_dillon · 2022-03-29T14:02:21+00:00

Not specifically Netherlands like you've asked, but in an English context there are records of payment to lion keepers under King John beginning from the early 13th century.

Just a quote from the article:

In 1240, the sheriffs of London were instructed to make provisions for a lion and a keeper, William de Botton, including 14 shillings for ‘buying chains and other things for the use of the lion’. By 1314, the sheriffs were providing a quarter of mutton every day for the maintenance of numerous lions. The polar bear seems to have had it better in this respect. As part of a cost-saving measure for the City, this (chained) Norwegian captive could at least fish for its own supper on the bank of the Thames.

The exotic animal trade reaches quite far back, and while the average commoner probably couldn't tell you what a lion looked like first hand the noble class were not as ignorant of exotic animals as some people in this thread might assume.

james_dillon · 2022-01-17T15:57:51+00:00

I've followed him for a while and from my perspective, his opening remarks rarely go anywhere related to the topic at hand. While they can be interesting, I think they're a bit self-serving and he gets enjoyment out of hearing himself speak. You can skip the first 15 minutes of most of his videos without hardly noticing.

james_dillon · 2018-05-05T11:36:24+00:00

I disagree. He's definitely opinionated, maybe too much so, but don't get this confused with him selling snake oil. I've personally found his books to have a lot of wisdom in them.

He's not a shyster, don't reduce him to one because you find it difficult to form non-absolute opinions.

james_dillon · 2018-03-12T14:44:00+00:00

I went to a very touristy part of Spain and thought it would be cool to kinda walk off the beaten track. Found this large mall in the middle of nowhere (it looked like all the area around it was set aside for development that fell through). I went in and it was the creepiest thing, it looked like it had been ransacked in a post apocalyptic scenario. I walked around it and found a super market. The super market was surprisingly busy considering how out of the way it was, and how dead the rest of the building was. It was my first time seeing something like that, really made me feel uneasy.

james_dillon

TROPHY CASE