The Daily Populous

Wednesday August 24th, 2022 morning edition

image for Unix legend, who owes us nothing, keeps fixing foundational AWK code

A Princeton professor, finding a little time for himself in the summer academic lull, emailed an old friend a couple months ago.

I wish I understood git better, but in spite of your help, I still don't have a proper understanding, so this may take a while.".

Kernighan is the "K" in AWK, a special-purpose language for extracting and manipulating language that was key to Unix's pipeline features and interoperability between systems.

A working awk function (AWK is the language, awk the command to invoke it) is critical to both Standard UNIX Specification and IEEE POSIX certification for interoperability.

Kernighan had been teaching C to workers at Bell Labs and convinced its creator, Ritchie, to collaborate on a book to spread the knowledge.

He spoke with Ars Technica's Richard Jensen for a 50th anniversary history of Unix.

Kernighan, now 80, offhandedly mentions in the interview that he has also patched something "quick and dirty" to let AWK handle CSV files. »

Nancy Pelosi's husband pleads guilty to DUI charge and is sentenced to 5 days in jail

Authored by nbcnews.com

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband pleaded guilty to a DUI charge in California on Tuesday and was sentenced to five days in jail — although he's unlikely to serve any further time behind bars, authorities said.

He was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation stemming from a May 28 crash in Napa County, north of San Francisco.

Pelosi has already served two days and received two more days of credit, Assistant DA Paul Gero told NBC News in a statement. »

Pa. voter registrations: Women outnumber men since abortion decision from Supreme Court

Authored by inquirer.com
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Thousands of women across Pennsylvania and the country have registered to vote since the June 24 Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned the federal right to an abortion in the United States.

In Pennsylvania, 62% of women registering since Dobbs registered as Democrats, 15% as Republicans; 54% were younger than 25.

They also hold Women to Women Wednesdays in which volunteers have phone and online conversations with women around the state. »

Biden administration forecasts $1.03 trillion deficit, down by nearly $400 billion

Authored by pbs.org
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In full, this year’s deficit will decline by $1.7 trillion, representing the single largest decline in the federal deficit in American history, the Office of Management and Budget says.

Despite the gains, the administration said Tuesday that it is forecasting a deficit of $1.03 trillion for the budget year that ends Sept. 30.

That number signifies a movement away from the record deficit in 2020, which reached $3.13 trillion. »

2 men convicted in plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Whitmer

Authored by apnews.com

Jury selection started Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, in the second trial of the two men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 over their disgust with restrictions early in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whitmer was not physically harmed; six men were arrested hours away from her home in October 2020. »