Swordgeek

Not Linux, but Solaris, back in the day.

We had a system with a mirrored boot disk. One of the disks failed. And we were unable to boot from the other, because the boot device in OBP (~BIOS) pointed to a device-specific partitIon. When we manually booted from the live device, it was lacking the boot sector code, and wouldn’t boot. When we booted from CDROM, the partitions wouldn’t mount because the virtual device mapping pointed to the dead drive.

This was a gas futures trading system, and rebuild wasn’t an option. Restoring from backup woyld have lost four hours of trades, which would be an extreme last resort.

A coworker and I spent all night on the box. We had a whiteboard covered with every stage of the boot sequence broken down, and every redirection we needed to (a) boot and (b) repair the system. The issue started mid-afternoon, and we finally got it back up by around 6:30 am.

Excuse my sorry Texan ass, but the idea of denying someone gun ownership just because they had a bad breakup or don’t have a social circle is wonk to me.

In signing, the references are saying that “I have known this person for three years and don’t believe them to be a high risk for violence.” One might argue that if you don’t know two people who don’t consider you a risk, you may actually be a risk!

Similarly, the sign-off from partners (current or recent) is in place to protect partners and exes from ending up shot dead. A bad breakup because someone was scared of their partner is probably a good indication that the partner shouldn’t have firearms.

The best part about this is that the licensing and all the other fees probably make it profitable to run, meaning they’re bottle-necking both on purpose and at their own expense.

Nah, the RCMP has its problems but it’s a federal government division, and not in place to make a profit.

I think the difference in both legislation and acceptance thereof is that guns aren’t a right in Canada - they’re a privilege that carries a lot of responsibility.

At the end of the day, firearm offences in Canada have been rising, partly because of our proximity to the USA. The vast majority of intentional gun injuries and fatalities are carried out with guns illegally smuggled across the border. Even with the recent increases though, the rate of firearms-related deaths per 100k in Canada is 2.24, and in the USA it is 10.84. (In Texas, it was 15 and rising as of 2021.)

So the process is arduous, it’s restrictive, ownership is NOT a right, and carrying weapons in public is (mostly) illegal; and consequently, we have 15% of the per-capita fatality rate.

Edit: Just found some accurate stats which shows Texas at 15.60 in 2021, and it’s not even in the top half of the states. Conversely, Massachusetts at 3.40, is the lowest rate in the country and the only state that isn’t more than twice as high as Canada’s rate.

In Canada…

For (most) long guns and shotguns, you need to take a day-long safety course, followed by both a written and practical exam. If you pass that, then you need to submit your application which includes signatures from two references, your partner, and any former partners from the last three years. Then there’s a background check and a 28 day waiting period before they process it. (Also, I understand that the background check is far stricter here.)

If you want to be licensed for restricted firearms (handguns and some long guns), there’s a separate 6-hour course and exams. Most people do the courses and exams back-to-back, so they can apply for restricted weapons at the same time.

Purchase, storage, transport, and use rules are vastly different as well. Restricted firearms can only be used at a licensed range, and to buy one you need to be a member at a range in your province.

Generally speaking, firearms have to be stored empty and locked. Restricted firearms also have to be registered to a specific address, and if you move, you need to fill out the change of location ahead of time and are given a window in which you can move them between houses.

I also didn’t mention that the RCMP licensing division is backed up like crazy, and the courses are usually booked months in advance. You can count on about six months from the time you decide to get your license to the time you legally own your first gun.

I just got my restricted possession and acquisition license in Canada (RPAL), which gives me the ability to own firearms and ammo.

It was fascinating to see just how different Canada and US laws are in this regard; and how much less likely a widespread ‘unrestricted gun rights’ movement is here.

Hah! That made my day. I’d high five you, but I hurt all over from fencing last night. :-)

You missed the point where I said “…and move on.”

The fact that I dislike it doesn’t change the fact that it’s prevalent, and so I use systemd every day.

It’s the same with any technology I need. Ansible is a mostly awful language, but I need it to do my job, so I buckle down and use it. Git is…well actually git is pretty awesome.

A decade (or two?) ago, perl was the language of choice for complex admin tasks, despite being a nightmare to maintain. Now we have mostly moved to python and ruby, which are generally much better.

My point is that just because a standard (process, tool, etc.) is flawed, we don’t refuse to use it; and conversely, just because we use a tool doesn’t make it immune to valid criticism.

Aw gee, thanks!

I never said init scripts (and more importantly, the init process) were the right answer. It doesn’t change the fact that systemd has some bad fundamental design and implementation decisions; and that any attempt to address them was met by Poettering saying essentially “this is the way I designed it, and therefore it’s right. You’re wrong.” He has no regards for standards, compatibility, or consistency.

It wasn’t even the first replacement for process management out there. Sun had SMF which was effective but flawed; and systemd duplicated almost every one of its flaws.

In other words, saying that init had to be replaced didn’t necessarily mean systemd; but that’s the world we have now.

I’ve been a Unix admin for almost 30 years.

Systemd really is shitty, and Poettering is a serious asshole; but that ship has sailed. It’s time to accept that computers only get worse, and move on.