Ray McCarthy

I usually won't follow accounts that mostly just boost posts.
A writer living in the Mid West of Ireland.
Formerly an Electronics Engineer with expertise in RF, programming and IT.

Publisher: https://www.corvidspress.com
Previously: Historians.socal – Joined Jan 21, 2023

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Last Notes

2026-03-04 13:09:55 UTC

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A compiler implements it. The LLM/Gen is a rubbish search engine, database and statistical engine. It regurgitates based on prompts, not formal specifications.

2026-03-04 12:59:29 UTC

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I've a bridge over the river Shannon you can buy.
"make wonderful, creative, unique software using AI."
No. An LLM can't create at all and if it actually works and meets the spec it's likely copied.

2026-02-20 13:06:36 UTC

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But Google Docs anything is rubbish.

2026-02-20 13:05:32 UTC

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At best 40% junk, but unless you are so expert you don't need it, you can't know which is plausible rubbish.
Would you play Russian Roulette every day for hours?

2026-02-14 19:44:36 UTC

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This is a worthless scenario and false conclusion.
Arrogant idiots. What sort of peer review was there?

2026-02-14 19:36:21 UTC

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Did it have much speed up for 16 bit integer maths, or just Floating point (80 bit or 64 bit?)?

2026-02-06 21:48:56 UTC

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NO, the article isn't about powering up SSDs, but they fade in a drawer.
It's proven that HDDs generally don't wear out when powered off. The bearings etc only degrade when they are spinning.
The big plus on SSDs is random access speed, not reliability, for a home user. They are not a backup medium. An SSD in an external USB box is useful for file transfer, not backups.

2026-02-06 21:37:39 UTC

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There are no ideal options for SSD. That's why I have backups and the user data on my workstations and main laptop is on HDD (conventional, not shingled or helium etc). The OS is easily installed and restored from backup on a new SSD.
The point is that an unused conventional HDD will last for decades. That's unlikely for SSDs or any high capacity SD card, USB stick etc.

2026-02-06 20:46:37 UTC

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Not powered off they don't.
An HDD can wear out with use but 25 years is easy for storage in a drawer or box in the attic. Floppy storage is far trickier.
Tape needs carefully stored.
Pressed DVDs* and especially pressed CDs are OK, but "written" ones can fade in daylight.
[* Assuming no manufacturing defects]

2026-02-04 22:18:06 UTC

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Brexit or Covid?

2026-01-22 10:56:18 UTC

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It's tax payer subsidy of air travel, indirectly. Jet fuel isn't taxed, but in most of Europe the train fuel is taxes. Electric trains are a more complicated issue.
UK tried privatising the rail systems and that made everything worse.
Aircraft fuel needs to be taxed equally, everywhere.

2026-01-11 21:13:57 UTC

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The PCs come with Windows.
It's not about Linux. People will only switch if MS makes Windows totally unuseable.
But businesses are being hostage by about a dozen companies that only write Windows Software, and often in the last 30 years have done it badly.

2026-01-05 19:41:03 UTC

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I think Chaucer is old, but maybe Middle English.
I suspect it's 18th C. Scots' Dialect. Not many people can read Robbie Burns either.
Oh!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burns_supper
Some hae meat an canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.
18th C. Address to a Haggis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_to_a_Haggis
Chaucer was 14th C.
Old English, in the strict technical sense is 5th C. to 12th C.
I had difficulty finding examples of 16th C.

2026-01-05 19:22:43 UTC

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Umm, should I have put content warning?
It's well known and popular as a folk song.
I'm not familiar with the English version, "Three Ravens".

2026-01-05 19:00:37 UTC

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‘Ye’ll sit on his white hause-bane,
And I’ll pike out his bonny blue een;
Wi ae lock o his gowden hair,
We’ll theek our nest when it grows bare.
‘Mony an ane for him makes mane,
But nane sall ken whare he is gane;
Oer his white banes, when they are bare,
The wind sall blaw for evermair.’
[A corbie is a crow, which might be Carrion Crow, Hoodie crow (almost same species), Raven or Rook.]
See Avatar, cropped from Arthur Rackham's illustration for this. The English ver. is Three Ravens.
https://cdn.masto.host/mastodonie/media_attachments/files/115/844/024/021/467/703/original/e82a027736f74918.png

2026-01-05 18:54:12 UTC

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As I was walking all alane,
I heard twa corbies making a mane;
The tane unto the t’other say,
‘Where sall we gang and dine the day?’
‘In behind yon auld fail dyke,
I wot there lies a new slain knight;
And naebody kens that he lies there,
But his hawk, his hound, and his lady fair.
‘His hound is to the hunting gane,
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame,
His lady’s ta’en another mate,
So we may make our dinner sweet.

2025-12-29 14:48:34 UTC

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Visa & Mastercard can't sue.
There is already IBAN (free online transfer in EU), which even works in USA, and other funds transfers apart from PayPal and Western Union.
"13 of the 20 countries in the euro, including Ireland, have no domestic card scheme. You use an international operator, or you pay in cash."
It's alternative to Revolut (can be cardless), PayPal, Apple, Google, Amazon or clunky IBAN (which is only online), not Visa/Mastercard USA Credit or debit cards.

2025-11-25 09:33:48 UTC

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The problem with aviation fuel tax is partly everyone needs to do it.
Remove / refund fuel tax (and road tax?) on all public transport and since competition on that is senseless have only one rail operator and one bus operator, that may or may not be state owned.
See also the waste of mobile radio spectrum by not having one wholesale operator.
Abolish tolls (Ireland) and road tax but put up tax on fuel. Local congestion / pollution taxes need to stay.

2025-11-22 13:54:06 UTC

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No need to post a Deluxe Gamer Mouse to the Finance Director then?
USB and especially USB HID is so wonderfully insecure.

2025-11-02 11:25:19 UTC

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Libertarian (nothing to do with Liberal) and Right Wing since Regan / Thatcher is about freedom, and a level playing field for own national, for large Corporations. About making the top 1% richer. Not personal freedom.
Trickle down economics is the lie that justifies it.
So it's the philosophy to outsource everything. Not to have a single State ownership for strategic resources that really there is only one of. Not to have capital expenditure on housing, schools, hospitals etc.

2025-10-29 17:52:07 UTC

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actually shouldn't be on Cloud at all.
A National railway can afford its own servers.

2025-10-06 10:12:55 UTC

"To many observers, both in the US and abroad, Donald Trump has been behaving strangely recently. Especially online." —The Guardian.
Do they mean more than usual?
See
Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father's Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success