Ump

"Ump" strikes me as having an unusual, short and distinctive sound and so I thought I'd look at some words that end in "ump". Here is what I came up with, helped a little by Google's Gemini: 

• bump as in "he has a bump on his head" --> "dia mempunyai benjolan di kepalanya" where "benjol" means a lump or a bump. However, "he bumped his head" --> "dia membenturkan kepalanya" where "bentur" means "collide" and "benturan" means "collision".
  
  
• chump best translates as "orang bodoh" although one always has to be careful when translating a phrase like "chump change", an informal expression used to describe a very small amount of money that is considered insignificant. It implies that the sum is so small it's hardly worth mentioning. The best translation might be "uang receh" meaning small change.
  
  
• clump as in "The radiotherapy caused his hair to fall out in clumps" translates as "radioterapi menyebabkan rambutnya rontok" where "rontok" means to fall out but the translation fails to describe how it is falling out viz. "in clumps". Another sample sentence might be "the bacteria clumped together under the microscope" translates as "bakteri berkumpul di bawah mikroskop" where "kumpul" means "to gather.
  
  
• dump as in "he dumped the garbage in the bin" translates as "dia membuang sampah ke tempat sampah" but saying "this place is a dump" best translates "tempat ini adalah sangat jorok" or "tempat ini adalah sangat rusak" depending on the context.
  
  
• frump is a derogatory term used to describe "an unattractive woman who wears dowdy old-fashioned clothes" and so Google's translation of "orang jorok" is not accurate. The translation of the previous phrase is "seorang wanita tidak menarik yang memakai pakaian kuno yang lusuh" but there's probably an Indonesian word that does the job. I just know what it is. According to Google's Gemini, such a word does not exist.
  
  
  
  
  
• grump describes a person who is grumpy (bad-tempered and irritable) but the Indonesian translation is "pemarah" which is simply an angry person and this is clearly not accurate. While a grump may be habitually angry, the anger is often not openly displayed and appears more as constant irritability.
  
  
• gump describes "a foolish or dull-witted person", personified perfectly by the character of Forrest Gump. It's hard to find an equivalent word in Indonesian but "orang bodoh" will have to suffice. This word was used earlier to describe a chump.
  
  
• hump as in "the camel had two humps" translates as "unta itu mempunyai dua punuk" although the word can be used in less literal senses of course.
  
  
• jump translates as "melompat" if you jump over a puddle but not if you "jump the queue", "jump start a car" or "jump to conclusions".
  
  
• lump translates as "gumpalan" in the sense of a small, raised area on the body but not if you lump things together.
  
  
• mump is an obsolete word that used to mean "grimace" but is now used in the plural as mumps to describe a viral infection that affects the salivary glands" and is translated in Indonesian as "penyakit gondok".
  
  
• pump is simply translated as "pompa".
  
  
• plump translates as "orang montok"
  
  
• rump translates as "pantat".
  
  
  
  
  
• sump can mean "a pit or hollow in which liquid collects, especially one in the floor of a mine or basement" or "the base of an internal combustion engine, which serves as a reservoir of oil for the lubrication system". The translation might be "bak penampungan" meaning "collection tank" (a more general term) or "sumur resapan" meaning "infiltration well" and is more specific to water collection.
  
  
• slump translates as "merosot" meaning "decline, degenerate, sink, slip, dwindle". One might say "don't slump, sit up straight in your chair" and this would translate as "jangan merosot, duduklah tegak di kursimu".
  
  
• stump is translated one way as "tunggul" as in "the stump of the tree was difficult to remove from the garden" which translates as "tunggul pohon itu sulit dicabut dari kebun".
  
  
• thump translates as "bentur". For example, "dia membenturkan dadanya seperti gorila dan terlihat cukup menakutkan" which translates as "he thumped his chest like a gorilla and looked quite scary".
  
  
• trump in the sense of the card suit translates as "truf" which is of Dutch origin. The sentence "the player announced that hearts were trumps in this game" translates as "pemain mengumumkan bahwa hati adalah kartu truf dalam game ini".
  
  
• whump is a "dull or muffled thudding sound" that translates, perhaps not all that accurately, as "pukulan".
  
  

  

  
  MG 6R4 flies over the "yump" on a rally stage 

  
  
• yump means "to leave the ground when driving at high speed over a ridge". I'd never heard of this word. 

Ouch!

"Ouch" is an oft used word that stands on its own but by adding leading consonants to it, we can make some interesting words. Here are the most common of them.

• Couch: A piece of furniture for sitting or lying on.
• Pouch: A small bag.
• Touch: To come into contact with.
• Grouch: A bad-tempered person.
• Slouch: To sit or stand with a drooping posture.
• Crouch: To lower one's body close to the ground.
• Vouch: To guarantee or affirm.

Of course the odd man out here is "touch" that doesn't rhyme with the other "ouch" words. That's what makes English so difficult to pronounce. Let's look at works associated with this "odd man out".

An old favourite TV series of mine

Single-Word Terms

• Touchy: Sensitive or easily offended.
• Untouched: Not touched or altered; remaining in its original state.
• Retouched: Improved or corrected by making small changes, often referring to images.
• Intouch: In communication or contact with someone.

Phrases

• Touch up: To make small improvements or corrections to something.
• Touch down: To land, especially an aircraft or spacecraft.
• Untouchable: Someone or something that cannot be touched or harmed, often implying great power or importance.

Let's not forget our Indonesian. Here are the same words tranlated into Indonesian:

Single Words

• Touchy: Mudah tersinggung (mudah = easily, tersinggung = offended)
• Untouched: Tidak tersentuh (tidak = not, tersentuh = touched)
• Retouched: Diperbaiki (diperbaiki = improved)
• Intouch: Berhubungan (berhubungan = connected)

Phrases

• Touch up: Memperbaiki sedikit (memperbaiki = improve, sedikit = little)
• Touch down: Mendarat (mendarat = land)
• Untouchable: Tak tersentuh (tak = not, tersentuh = touched)

Consonant Pairing with the Letter L

It struck me just now how many words starting with the letter "l" can be made into new words by prefixing the letter "b". I've also added other words formed by adding other consonants such as "c", "s", "f", "g" and "p". Let's look at some examples (in some cases the spelling will change slightly):

• lame --> blame --> claim --> flame
• limp --> blimp --> climp --> glimp
• light --> blight --> slight --> flight --> plight
• last --> blast
• lend --> blend
• lob --> blob --> slob --> glob
• lock --> block --> clock --> flock --> glock
• loop --> bloop --> sloop
• lush --> blush --> slush --> flush --> plush
• loom --> bloom --> gloom --> plume
• leak --> bleak --> sleek
• lank --> blank --> clank --> flank --> plank
• link --> blink --> clink --> plink
• lack --> black --> slack --> clack --> flack
• leach --> bleach
• low --> blow --> slow --> glow --> plow
• limey --> blimey --> slimy
• laze --> blaze --> glaze
• lithe --> blithe
• land --> bland --> gland
• lot --> blot --> slot --> plot
• leap --> bleep --> sleep
• lake --> Blake --> flake
• leery --> bleary
• log --> blog --> slog --> flog

Chrome Browser, Mac OS and LaTeX

Oh dear, something's awry with the interaction of LaTeX with the Chrome browser. The latter is not rendering variables in italics as it should. Figure 1 shows a screenshot of part of a post I made to my Mathematics blog. It was taken using the Safari browser and everthing looks fine.

Figure 1

Here's the same screenshot but this time taken within the Chrome browser.

Figure 2

It's not a major issue and everything else still works fine but it's a little annoying as I much prefer the italicised rendering of variables. It only has to do with Chrome on a device running the Mac operating system. The variables display properly on Chrome running on my Raspberry Pi 400 and even on Chrome running on iOS. Hopefully future updates will address this issue.

Science Fiction Nonsense

Never let it be said that Hollywood has any reservations about ignoring scientific facts at the expense of the storyline. In Netflix's "Atlas", a rogue AI humanoid robot flees Earth for ... wait for it ... a planet in the Andromeda galaxy. Now this galaxy is the closest major one to Earth but it is still about 2.5 million light years away. If the AI terrorist, as he's described, had fled to a moon of Jupiter or Saturn then there might be a degree of plausibility.

Instead a mission is launched from Earth to capture the robot and it reaches its faraway destination seemingly instantaneously. From then on it's a case of good AI versus bad AI. Interestingly the rogue AI envisages a future where most of humanity is wiped out and the few humans that remain will live in harmony with the natural world while their AI overlords look on benevolently.

This is precisely the plan of the global elite who aim to use AI, humanoid robots, killer drones and whatever to cull the human race and then rule benevolently over the humans that are left. The slaughterbots and killer drones will first replace the human police and military who might have qualms about culling their fellow humans. After that the cull will begin. 

The cull might be gradual and take the form of mandatory sterilisation or it might be quick and achieved via a bioengineered pathogen. Sooner or later however, the population of the planet will be reduced to around 500 million people, a manageable number especially with an enforced digital ID, smart city surveillance, social credit scores and non-human police to quash any malcontents.

What's also laughable in the movie is that the protagonist, Atlas (played by Jennifer Lopez), is playing chess with an AI in her home at the start of the movie. As she walks out the door, she finishes the game by announcing checkmate. Anyone who know anything about chess knows that the current computer chess engines easily crush the strongest human players in the world. Subsequently, the black queen chess piece plays an important role in the movie. Is this some sort of homage to the recent, famous movie titled "The Queen's Gambit".

Anyway, Jennifer Lopez who will shortly be turning 55, looks amazingly youthful but that doesn't do much to help the movie. It's inevitable that science fiction movies will focus on the use and misuse of AI but it can be done in a way that offers some credibility in the science department. Apart from AI, the other theme at the moment in science fiction movies is the multiverse which is also being done to death. There seems to be a decided lack of imagination and creativity when it comes to science fiction.

Macbook M1 Accessories

The M1 Macbook has only an audio jack and two USB C ports, so a dongle was a necessary expenditure. I ended up buying the model shown in Figure 1. It only cost about Rp300,000 or A$30, so certainly not expensive. It was bought online of course. In a store, it would have cost twice as much.

Figure 1

After clipping it in securely, it is working fine. I tested it out by inserting a memory card. However, I left it connected overnight and noticed a significant drop in the battery percentage. The problem is that the dongle lights up in blue when inserted which is useful in a way but it also drains the battery. I don't think there's any way to disable the light, so it's only to be inserted as needed. I have a USB 3 card reader with USB C connector so I can use that where memory cards are involved and it doesn't draw any power. For HDMI output however, I'll need the dongle.

So far I've downloaded VLC for playing movies, Calibre for my ebook library, Chess X for playing and analysing chess moves and SageMath for mathematical investigation. Most of the work I do is done within the Chrome browser.

Macbook Air M1

Having acquired a Macbook Air M1 for my birthday, I set about getting Astrolog to run on it under Wine. I succeeded under Linux but it's proving frustrating using the Macintosh operating system running on the newer non-Intel chip. I've had Astrolog running quite happily on my 2013 Macbook Pro when the Mac OS was installed. The error message when trying to get WINE to run the astrolog.exe mentions "bad CPU type" so the newer CPU seems to be the problem.

There is a Macintosh version but it only seems to work in the terminal and produces output as shown in Figure 1. As the documentation says:

The main difference from the Windows version is that it does not offer a Graphical User Interface, and so you will not find a mouse-driven menu system or dialog interface. However, it offers just about everything else. You can even draw temporary squiggles/annotations with your mouse ona chart displayed in X11.

This is clearly of limited use and takes me back to the bad old days of the late 1980s using MS-DOS on a 286 PC.

Figure 1

Of course I could install Virtual Box and run astrolog.exe under Windows proper but it's a lot of trouble to go to for just one program so it's a problem that I'll have to keep working on. Here is what Google's Gemini had to say about the problem when I asked the question:

I have installed WINE on my Macbook Air but it will not run astrolog.exe. I keep getting an error message. Here is what it says. If you can understand it, you're a better man than me (I then copied the entire error message).

The error message you provided indicates an issue with running astrolog.exe using Wine on your Apple Macbook Air with M1 chip. Here's a breakdown of the error and potential solutions:

Understanding the Error: 

"Bad CPU type in executable": This is the core issue. Wine expects a program compiled for a specific CPU architecture (likely x86 for traditional computers). However, your Macbook Air uses an M1 chip with ARM architecture, which is different. Astrolog.exe is likely compiled for x86 and incompatible with your Mac's CPU.

Why Wine Doesn't Work with M1 Macs (for now):

Wine typically translates instructions from Windows programs to work on the underlying system's architecture. However, M1 chips are a significant departure from Intel x86 architecture, and full compatibility with Wine is still under development.

Possible Solutions (Limited)

There are unfortunately no guaranteed solutions to run astrolog.exe directly on your M1 Mac with Wine at this time. Here are some possibilities to consider, but keep in mind their limitations:

Alternative Software: Explore if there are alternative astrology software programs that are native to macOS or have web-based versions.

Crossover (Paid Software): Crossover is a commercial alternative to Wine that attempts to run Windows applications on macOS. It might have better compatibility with M1 Macs than the free Wine version, but there's no guarantee it will work with astrolog.exe specifically.

Virtualization with Windows on ARM (Experimental): There are ongoing efforts to run Windows on ARM processors through virtualization. While Microsoft does offer a limited preview of Windows 11 for ARM on compatible devices, it's still in development and might not be suitable for everyday use yet.

Recommendation:

Since Wine isn't a reliable option for astrolog.exe on your M1 Mac at this point, investigating alternative software or waiting for potential future compatibility improvements in Wine or virtualization solutions might be the best course of action.

Of course, there's paid astrology software for the Mac but I've gotten used to using Astrolog for free over many years and it does all I need it to do.