mysql> create table bar(a tinyint, b tinyint);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> insert into bar(a) values(1), (2), (3), (4), (5);
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 5  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from bar;
+------+------+
| a    | b    |
+------+------+
|    1 | NULL | 
|    2 | NULL | 
|    3 | NULL | 
|    4 | NULL | 
|    5 | NULL | 
+------+------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> update bar set b = case a
    ->   when 1 then 42
    ->   when 2 then 43
    ->   when 3 then 44
    ->   else 45
    ->   end;
Query OK, 5 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Rows matched: 5  Changed: 5  Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from bar;
+------+------+
| a    | b    |
+------+------+
|    1 |   42 | 
|    2 |   43 | 
|    3 |   44 | 
|    4 |   45 | 
|    5 |   45 | 
+------+------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Tags for this post: mysql()

• The commonness of computers now. One of the short stories revolves around a secret batch of robots, and the need to debug them. The protagonists can't use a computer though, because that would draw too much attention. Why not use a laptop? Because Asimov failed to predict them.
• The use of wire recorders to record sound. No optical media (or whatever we'll have in the future) here.
• The assumption that robots contain vacuum tubes.
• The failure to account for inflation. This one should have been obvious! A batch of 63 robots for instance is valued at $2 million dollars in one of the stories, a sum so great that no one can conceive of deliberately destroying the batch.

Tags for this post: book() Isaac_Asimov()

A hundred bucks a month was good money, though, and Bill saved every bit of it. Easy, lazy months rolled by, and he regularly went to meetings and reported regularly to the G.B.I., and on the first of every month he would find his money baked into the egg roll he invariably had for lunch. He kept the greasy bills in a toy rubber cat he found on the rubbish heap, and bit by bit the kitty grew.

Bill, the Galactic Hero is a satirical science fiction novel by Harry Harrison, first published in 1965.

It is a response to Heinlein's controversially militaristic Starship Troopers. The overall plot is similar, the details rather less so; and Harrison makes the most of an opportunity to spoof the work of other authors including Isaac Asimov, "Doc" Smith, and Joseph Heller. Harrison reports having been approached by a Vietnam veteran who described Bill as "the only book that's true about the military".

Tags for this post: book() Harry_Harrison()

mysql> show processlist;
+-------+------+---------------+--------------+---------+-------+----------+------------------------------------------+
| Id    | User | Host          | db           | Command | Time  | State    | Info                                     |
+-------+------+---------------+--------------+---------+-------+----------+------------------------------------------|
| 18354 | root | maui:37403    | smtp_servers | Query   | 57234 | Updating | update ips_218 set reverse_lookup = null |
| 22286 | root | maui:37348    | smtp_servers | Query   | 38103 | Updating | update ips_80 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 22851 | root | maui:54982    | smtp_servers | Query   | 34091 | Updating | update ips_19 set reverse_lookup = null, | 
| 23351 | root | molokai:58232 | smtp_servers | Sleep   |    57 |          | NULL                                     |
| 23496 | root | maui:40923    | smtp_servers | Query   | 29973 | Updating | update ips_62 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 23906 | root | maui:38068    | smtp_servers | Query   | 26794 | Updating | update ips_83 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 25675 | root | maui:56438    | smtp_servers | Query   | 12505 | Updating | update ips_82 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 25846 | root | maui:41334    | smtp_servers | Query   | 10948 | Updating | update ips_90 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 26437 | root | maui:41139    | smtp_servers | Query   |  6211 | Updating | update ips_66 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 26773 | root | maui:32885    | smtp_servers | Query   |  3526 | Updating | update ips_76 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 27073 | root | maui:42607    | smtp_servers | Query   |  1148 | Updating | update ips_11 set reverse_lookup = null, |
| 27202 | root | molokai:50688 | smtp_servers | Query   |     0 | NULL     | show processlist                         |
| 27203 | root | molokai:50689 | smtp_servers | Sleep   |     2 |          | NULL                                     |
+-------+------+---------------+--------------+---------+-------+----------+------------------------------------------+
14 rows in set (0.20 sec)

mysql> show engine innodb status \G;
...
---TRANSACTION 0 40056, ACTIVE 39794 sec, process no 22984, OS thread id 3020733328 waiting in InnoDB queue
mysql tables in use 1, locked 1
6672 lock struct(s), heap size 748864, undo log entries 909825
MySQL thread id 22851, query id 351217 maui 192.168.1.93 root Updating
update ips_19 set reverse_lookup = null, reverse = null, reverse_extracted
...

Tags for this post: mysql()

$ cat /home/mikal/.ssh/config 
NoHostAuthenticationForLocalhost yes

Tags for this post: linux()

mikal@mikal-eee:~$ dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Installed-Size} ${Package}\n' | sort -n

Tags for this post: linux() ubuntu()