Author Topic: techGnosis  (Read 289 times)

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Nation of One

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techGnosis
« on: May 04, 2018, 09:36:50 am »
I know that whether something is considered "worth reading" depends mostly on what can be called subjective factors.   Taking subjective factors into consideration can help alleviate feelings of alienation or animosity when one feels one is some kind of freak for being interested in the kinds of things one is interested in.

For example, while I may find an article about a celebrity or political figure to be not worthy of my attention, I find the following essay explaining, in the most non-technical manner possible, the nature of UEFI (Universal Extensible Firmware interface):  happyassassin.net

I sure hope the NetNannyWordPolice allow me to type that URL address.  It uses the letters  A-S-S twice.

if I am unable to leave a link to this post, I will be so annyed with the idiotic limitations imposed on us by WordPolicing software used by freeboards.org that I will strongly consider we come up with an alternative free message board service, preferably one that does not contain advertz or word-censoring.

UPDATE:  It allowed me to type the word assassin in the URL address happyassassin.

Wunderbar!

I wonder what mood one must be in to be interested in reading through industrial strength documentation such as 2_4_Errata_A.   :-\

« Last Edit: May 04, 2018, 09:49:32 am by Non Serviam »
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

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raul

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Re: techGnosis
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2018, 03:37:07 pm »
Hentrich,

This topic is really for professionals like you. UEFI is like those Sumerian tablets I saw in pictures. Translatable by and for specialists.

The Net NannyWord Police will not leave anyone in peace. Big Brother is watching everybody and the question is who is watching Big Brother?

I heard what happened to Facebook and his frontman Mark Zuckerberg. I think he is only a tool for those who control this network.

Stay safe and take the vitamins.

Nation of One

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Re: techGnosis
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2018, 05:11:08 pm »
Senor Raul,

Me? A professional?  No, mi amigo, I am just a simple man who takes a keen interest in the technical details of the workings of these machines which have become such an intricate part of our lives.

When I boot two or more operating systems from from one hard drive in one machine, I like to have a feel for how I am goinf to access each system when I power up the machine.  The firmware interface is different for "BIOS" type or "UEFI" type, and after a few years of messing with the latter, and many years messing with the former, I can say I have become intimate with its mysteries.  I have been into multibooting operating systems since the early days when Slackware and Mandrake were the only Linux distros in town ... then came Red Hat (which has by know branched off into CentOS and Fedora).

So, these days I am leaning towards Arch Linux and Funtoo (a branch off Gentoo) ...

You might like Manjaro.  It's got a fairly intuitive interface.

You say you have a machine using XP.  This is no longer a secure OS to use when connecting to the internet.  I just installed Q4OS for my sister.  Someone gave her an old Dell with a Pentium M and only 40GB harddrive.   I replaced XP with Q4OS and it is handling the transition fine.  I think my sister might enjoy learning some basic commands at the command line.  She's only a year and a half older than I am, but her son and I both became interested in Linux around the same time (1992 or so, just when we began firing up modems and refurbishing clunky desktops).  back then one megabyte of RAM was $100 each!

As computers become less and less expensive, the price of water and rice is on the rise.   A relative of someone I know was arrested for stealing a few cans of tuna fish.

Many people live on peanut butter but may have access to wonderful technology that others discard as so-called "junk".

When you retire your machine and get someone's hand-me-down, please, do yourself a favor and install Q4OS (Linux based on Debian) on it so that you might explore it.

Even though life is generally a nightmare, we might as well embrace the technological phenomena that can be used as Mind Tools, mathematical and literary assistants.

Take care, raul.  Please don't refer to me as a professional.  I am a certified lunatic, and proud of it.   ;)
Things They Will Never Tell YouArthur Schopenhauer has been the most radical and defiant of all troublemakers.

Gorticide @ Nothing that is so, is so DOT edu

~ Tabak und Kaffee Süchtigen ~

raul

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Re: techGnosis
« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2018, 08:00:28 am »
Hentrich aka the Certified Lunatic,
In my view, someone with a keen interest a keen interest in the technical details of the workings of these machines, as you write, is a professional, meaning that you are able to understand the all the parts of the machine.

I suppose we, human beings, are biological operating systems. But our eyes, brains, noses, mouths, hands, arms,hearts, lungs, kidneys, intestines and genitals are not made of metal. And our genitals and aasseess do not spew oil but really smelly toxic waste. We have been built with imperfect bodies.

We are surrounded more and more by machines that do almost all kinds of work. I read somewhere destruction is the only thing left that one could do it with basic tools without needing  machines. But machines destroy more efficiently.

Yes, the XP system is no longer working. PCs are getting cheaper here.

About the price of water, here the mineral water companies are making lots of money because the state water company is not able to control the quality of the vital liquid. Every time the electricity goes out, the water pumping system fails and the liquid turns  brownish or with a lot of dirt.

Arresting someone for stealing few cans of tuna fish will not give the policeman or the owner of the store any kind of pride. It is  peanuts as Donald Duck said to the Saudis for buying U.S. military equipment for billions of dollars.

I don´t know the equivalent translation into English but this reminds me of some statements in Spanish:

Gold is the money of the kings.
Silver is the money of the lords,
Debt is the money of the slaves.

Yes, here many have these expensive smartphones that might cost their minimum wages, around USD 350 a month.

Take care and drive safely.