[QUOTE=Nick;445029]We prefer ferries to aeroplanes whenever possible: more room, and less security theatre![/QUOTE]Undoubtedly possible, but ferry from Cambridge to the Costa Blanca would take an age.

[QUOTE=xilman;445013]One of the things I like least about foreign travel is the seemingly inevitable cold which develops after sharing an aircraft with ~150 other people.[/QUOTE]
(somewhat off topic)

One unexpectedly life-changing experience I've had was flying on my own at an altitude of ~9500 ft (1.8 miles/2.9 km). It was one of my first solo flights. I can't quite describe the experience in words, but here's an idea of what to expect:

As you gain altitude, you glance out the side window and watch everything get smaller. All of those things that seemed so big and important - your home, your school, the neighborhood you grew up in, the places you frequently visit, all fade to a tiny speck that's indistinguishable from the rest of the ground below. Many people think that they're the center of the universe, but are your experiences, your skills, your possessions, really that much more interesting than anyone else's? And you find both despair and hope. Every time you look for a good job, a really attractive person to go out with, or even front-row tickets to a major concert, you'll have to compete against a significant fraction all of those uncountable, indistinguishable masses below you. But crowds offer hope too. Chances are, there'll be a few people who have the same interests and personalities as you, no matter how odd you think you are. It seems almost inconceivable that anyone who wants to would be unable to find at least a small group of people whom they'll fit in and feel comfortable with.

You keep flying, see the dots below, and think back to the times when you fought over a spot of the playground. The playground fights seem petty now, but aren't gangs fighting over turf and nations fighting for small pieces of land like the Gaza Strip pretty much the same thing? You sigh at all of the blood spilled just to become temporary masters of a tiny fraction of the Earth's habitable area that can barely be seen from space. You think about the last time you gazed up at the stars and now wonder how many other alien life forms, if they exist, are waging similar battles on their home planets.

After a while, it finally hits you that in life, you're really on your own. You're currently far above the ground and miles away from the nearest non-microscopic life form. If anything happens, like an engine failure or fire, nothing can save you besides your own training and knowledge. You can cry out to the radio, but no one on the other end can get into the plane and safely land it for you. When you're on the ground, is the situation that much different? If close family members die and dear friends move across the country, can anyone or anything really help you except your own physical strength, mental toughness, and financial resources? And even in the best of times, can anyone feel your hunger, your fatigue, or your pain? While others can help, it really is up to you to find solutions to your problems.

You finally head back to the airport to land. It's here that you learn the meaning of "it ain't over till it's over", as a strong wind gust momentarily lifts your plane right after it touches the ground. You've landed the plane when you've stopped the aircraft and shut down the engine, not when the wheels touch the ground. You recall the many premature sports victories you've watched and wonder how many times history changed due to one side's determination to fight down to the last man even when everything seemed hopeless.

And after all of this, you realize that you just did something that mankind has long dreamed of, but was not experienced by anyone born before the early 1800's. You develop a renewed appreciation of the vehicle that gets you home, your microwave, your computer, your TV, and all other modern inventions you have that you previously took for granted.

[QUOTE=MooMoo2;445550]You develop a renewed appreciation of the vehicle that gets you home, your microwave, your computer, your TV, and all other modern inventions you have that you previously took for granted.[/QUOTE]

At the end of the day you are alone, with your kit.

Never be afraid to die. Try to save others before yourself.

TLDR: Updating Gentoo is a matter of if it aint broke, fix it until it is.

For those who don't know, Gentoo is a Linux distribution which is installed and updated by compiling essentially everything from source code. It's a hackers playpen and superb for learning about how Linux actually works.

One of my boxes has an elderly Nvidia card and had, until this morning, a Tesla C1060, neither of which are supported by recent versions of CUDA. I'd been limping along with elderly drivers and elderly CUDA software and although the system worked, it was becoming tricky to keep the system up to date without a steadily lengthening list of kludged workarounds.

So I pulled the C1060 and started a total upgrade in the standard manner
[code]emerge --keep-going --newuse --deep --update --with-bdeps=y --color=n --verbose-conflicts --autounmask-write world[/code] followed by building and installing a new kernel (three versions newer than its predecessor!).

Standard problems: packages that had drifted apart over the last couple of years such that at most one could be upgraded. Standard solutions: rip out critical system components, install the latest, rebuild those which can use the latest, rinse & repeat. For instance, I had to delete Perl and then reinstall it and those packages which depend on it. Something about destroying a village in order to save it comes to mind.

First reboot on the new kernel couldn't find the root file system, as did the second, third and fourth. That fixed, X11 wouldn't start and everything is text only. Couldn't find the video drivers or something silly like that.

At the moment yet another round of compilation is on-going. Ho hum.

[QUOTE=xilman;445681]TLDR: Updating Gentoo is a matter of if it aint broke, fix it until it is.[/QUOTE]

I trust that you understand that using Gentoo is a leap of faith.

Trusting that the latest source code is /finally/ correct, while so many previous versions had bugs.

[QUOTE=chalsall;445699]I trust that you understand that using Gentoo is a leap of faith.[/QUOTE]Of course I do. I wouldn't have been using it for the last ten years or so otherwise.

[QUOTE=MooMoo2;445550](somewhat off topic)

I can't quite describe the experience in words, but ....[/QUOTE]

Agreed; indescribable. My flying was in sailplanes (gliders), and in addition to what you describe, or perhaps, in subtraction, it was all without that rattling, noisy engine up front. Just the wind on the canopy, gliding along. I was in a thermal once, spiraling slowly upward, and looked out to see a hawk, barely 20 feet off my wing, spiraling along with me. Since I wasn't making all that noise that power planes do, he seemed completely fine sharing a thermal with me. Gliding along, staying aloft with nothing but thermals and ridge lift was always my favorite way to spend an afternoon. Stayed airborne one afternoon for just a little over 5 hours, hopping from thermal to thermal, and watching for dust devils developing down below (a good indication of where the thermals are).

Yes, a little off-topic. Or maybe it qualifies because we're unhappy to be typing on a computer, instead of flying.

Norm

Went to the dentist 2 hours ago. Local anaesthetic is now wearing off.

[QUOTE=retina;445019]Well there is your problem. You shouldn't be sharing with 150 other people. Just a couple of your most trusted minions and you're good to go anywhere.[/QUOTE]You trust your minions at all? I'm disillusioned. I thought you were a more reliable judge of character than most.

FWIW, I'm almost over the sinusitis.

Added in edit: I'll be charitable and assume you meant your least distrusted minions.

[QUOTE=xilman;446069]Went to the dentist 2 hours ago. Local anaesthetic is now wearing off.[/QUOTE]
I hate local oral anaesthetic more than moderate pain. I always feel drained afterward. My suspicion is that the epinephrine which restricts blood flow at the site, also puts me in a tensed up state, in addition to the procedures themselves.

You have my sympathy, in any case. I am currently lined up to get a root canal [I]completed[/I] on Nov. 7. I am running on a rather fragile temporary covering right now, and loading up on antibiotics until the big day.

P.S.: I am also looking forward to a prostate biopsy in mid December. :ouch2: :max:

[QUOTE=kladner;446071]I hate local oral anaesthetic more than moderate pain. I always feel drained afterward.[/QUOTE]

I once had two wisdom teeth removed under hypnosis.

I still felt the pain, but it was contained within a box to be studied and examined.

It was an interesting experience.