spodlife

We may be over the (first?) hump of novel corona virus, but new cases and continuing deaths in the UK means England's vague clampdown shouldn't be lifting. So to see large crowds gathering in various cities across Britain, and the US, is alarming, but their reason is long over due.

Black lives matter.

The video of George Floyd last month being chocked to death for nine minutes by an uncaring US policeman is shocking. Also bad were three other policemen nearby doing nothing to either speed up the arrest nor censure the "unapproved" restraint technique. And even worse this sort of thing goes on every day in America where institutional racism seems to have gotten worse since the Orange One gained office.

Nearer to home, the people of the city of Bristol have been campaigning to have a statue of Edward Colston (who generously spent some of his considerable slave trading profits on improving parts the city in the early 1700s) removed. Two years ago even a change to the wording on the statue's non-slave mentioning plaque was delayed for over 12 months as various obvious right-wing people wanted to dilute the new language. Today the people took matters into their own hands and pulled the statue down, and chucked it into the river.

What happens if you mash up George RR Martin's Game of Thrones with Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's Good Omens:

https://thefantasyinn.wordpress.com/2018/04/01/ai-mash-ups-a-game-of-omens-grrm-vs-gaiman-pratchett/

bellanna's former colleague Paul Butcher has written a book all about debugging software. While some of the tips may seem obvious to those with even a few years experience (you do use some form of source control, don't you?), Paul not only helps find bugs after they have occurred but also before with tips about automated testing, the use of asserts, logging, etc. Reading all the obvious tips written down in one place helped me remember that all is not lost when trying to debug the thorniest of issues. While many of the of the code examples are Java, other languages are not forgotten. There is some Python, Ruby, and C and C++.

In the section on Anti-Patterns, Paul gives advice and tips on office politics, for example dealing with Prima Donnas and issues of code ownership. The tools section covers a wide variety, not just focused on digging out bugs, bug tracking them and, just in case you don't, source control.

The book is written in a very easy going style and I can imagine a talk by him being very well received at conferences like ACCU.

Are you having trouble passing the new USB-IF Test Certification ID Check introduced in Windows Logo Kit (WLK) v1.5? Hopefully I can point you in the right direction.

First, you need to read http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/connect/usb/WLK_USB-IF_CertReq.mspx which will explain why you need to get USB-IF Test Certification and what it might cost. Part of the "why" is WHQL requirement CONNECT 0093 - USB devices must be certified by the USB Implementers Forum (USB IF) to receive a Windows logo. This requirement also applies to the unclassified Windows Logo Program for devices.

Once you have your USB-IF Test Certification ID you need to go to your submission in the device console, right-click on the test, edit the test parameters, replace the Test ID zero with your Test ID, and then schedule the test.

Or, as the Radio Times says, "What David Tennant Did Next", though that's not strictly true as he's still filming Doctor Who and found time for Hamlet, this (Saturday evening, BBC2), and other projects.

New Scientist has a great review, including this alternate visioning of Einstein as Sméagol/Gollum (played by Andy Serkis):

Einstein is more tricksy, quirky, scruffy [and] in split-personality Sméagol/Gollum mode [...] "Ordered clockwork it is, precious." "No, no, time is relative, gravity bends us it does." "Light doesn't bend, light is our friend." "Nasty wicked light! Light tricks us it does, gravity bends us." "Absolute." "Relative." "Absolute." "Relative!"