Posts by Aleph0

To patch this server, we need to get someone drunk

Re: Prison

> it is possible to do some computer fettling on a couple of pints, it doesn't suddenly remove all your facilities.

As always there's a relevant XKCD: Ballmer Peak .

There is no honor among RAM thieves – but sometimes there is karma

Especially if you know what ZIF stood for. I too would proceed only after having thoroughly verified that nothing is blocking anything, if something is named Zero Insertion Force and nonetheless requires more than minimal effort.

For the record: You just ordered me to cause a very expensive outage

"Norman" who is an electrical engineer by trade and during one phase of his career

I see what you did there, --> for the one who came up with it

BOFH: Why's the network so slow?

Re: The first part of the conversation rings a bell...

I think it was when Simon introduced the stack model of bosses' brain, namely that they could only keep max two technical terms in mind at the same time. After the third one their brain stack overflowed, and the bosses entered "dummy mode".

Enterprise browser maker Island says it's now worth $3B

Re: Browser...

To me the crazy thing is that they've managed to spend nearly half a bllion dollars, and unless I'm mistaken what they've accomplished is adding logging to Chromium and clearing the clipboard on focus lost.

I suppose that they must be renting some seriously fancy company headquarters because that kind of money sure as hell didn't go into development...

Alibaba signs to explore one-hour rocket deliveries

Re: NORAD is going to love this - not

Also because they have a valid prior art claim...

Reddit link (sorry)

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 with Eye-of-Sauron camera

Re: Hmm

Well this new SOC also features "party mode" audio, so there's plenty of appeal for inconsiderate people that like to inflict their taste in music on all the other poor sods in the same public space... Bet Qualcomm will sell wagonloads as usual.

You got legal trouble? Better call SauLM-7B

What lawyers enjoy

"tools to help lawyers focus on what they enjoy most and do best, which is to exercise legal judgment and help their clients with advice."

That's odd, I've always had the distinct impression that the thing lawyers liked the most about their job was billing their clients...

The S in IoT stands for security. You'll never secure all the Things

As for me I've solved by never giving my smart TV the Wi-Fi password. Since it was demanding to be connected to the Internet for initial configuration, plugging in an Ethernet cable for the ten minutes it took made short order of that, and it has been a satisfyingly dumb TV set ever since.

The Who’s Who of AI just chipped in to fund humanoid robot startup Figure

Robots are coming for the dirty jobs

Yeah, dirty environments are notoriously the ideal place to put expensive delicate automatons in. /s

Call me when they can go into city sewers to dislodge fatbergs...

If we plug this in without telling anyone, nobody will know we caused the outage

Re: Let's Check the Server Room Access Log

Or the access logs were themselves saved on the downed storage device ;)

This story reminds me of the old saying "SCSI isn't magic. There are fundamental technical reasons why it's necessary to sacrifice a young goat to your array every new moon"

Lenovo debuts AI PCs that have specs a lot like vanilla PCs with this year's accelerated CPUs

Transparent display on laptops

So not just the ones sitting beside me on the train can snoop on what's on my screen, but now also those in front? Yeah no, count me out on this...

Self-taught-techie slept on the datacenter floor, survived communism, ended a marriage

Re: Daily!?! RFC begs to differ

Well to be fair @wolfetone didn't specify whose death...

Europe's deepest mine to become Europe's deepest battery

Pedant alert: if your uranium is sufficiently enriched as to sustain a chain reaction, it doesn't stay in a big pile for much more than microseconds. If it isn't enriched yet, then it isn't much use as a store of energy.

What you want is a number of smaller piles, depending on the level of enrichment. Citing Wikipedia: "The critical mass for lower-grade uranium depends strongly on the grade: with 20% U-235 it is over 400 kg; with 15% U-235, it is well over 600 kg."

Windows 11 24H2 is coming so we can all shut up about Windows 12 for another year

Re: Lifetime

The Windows app works under Wine in that it can find the files, but thereafter it breaks because it expects to talk to Explorer. Same problem as the Linux equivalent really, there are any number of different file managers so it can only cater to the lowest common denominator.

Kinda amusing how this thread has evolved like the old ones on Slashdot, complete with the reply "if you're having this problem you're free to write your own program to solve it"... Snark aside good suggestion @yetanotheracc, I'll look into it if I ever decide to try a third time with Linux.

Re: Lifetime

"You right click on it, same as in Windows".

That only works if you're using a file manager and you're already in the folder containing the file you're searching for. There's no graphical application like Search Everything in Windows that looks up in multiple folders and then allows the same context options like in a regular file manager. The nearest thing to it is AngrySearch, but once it's found the files you're looking for the only supported actions are simple verbs, like "rename", "delete" and "open" but crucially not "open with" that presents you with a choice of suitable applications.

That's why I wrote "file searching tools" and not simply "file search". Also at the risk of attracting further downvotes, I don't think it's fair being downvoted for stating that an OS doesn't fit my use case...

Re: Lifetime

For sure, for my next desktop PC rebuild I'm currently planning to obtain (most likely on the high seas -hence icon- since MICROS~1 doesn't sell it to end users) a copy of Windows 10 IOT LTSC 2021 that is supported until 2027 (mainstream, 2032 extended), since I cannot stand the modifications they've done to the taskbar in Windows 11.

Sadly I doubt I will be switching to Linux soon, I have tried twice already but each time I've come back to Windows because file searching tools in the land of the penguin have no concept of opening a file with anything but its associated application. Whereas there are times I need to edit a picture, but most times I just want it to open in a much-quicker-to-start image viewer for example...

We put salt in our tea so you don't have to

Re: Ramble, blither

> Tibetans traditionally prefer China style tea but with all the twiggy bits left in, to which they add a dob of butter.

When I went there five years ago, the "yak butter tea" we were served was invariably just hot water with a crushed very hard white substance (totally different from the yellow stuff we saw burning candle-like in the temples), with no trace of anything vegetal in it. It tasted quite salty, and just a sip was enough for me; it took all I had to not spit it out...

I thought the locals were playing a prank on us tourists, but some in our group that had previously traveled in the Little Tibet region on the Indian side of the Himalayas were very much appreciating that drink and kept on assuring us it was the real deal.

Methinks I've had enough salty tea for a lifetime, thank you very much. Icon is my reaction at the first sip.

Standards-obsessed boss ignored one, and suffered all night for his sin

Re: I guess this is data storage!

Odd, if the floor was giving in I would have expected the gap among the cabinets to be near the bottom instead of the top...

Boeing goes boing: 757 loses a wheel while taxiing down the runway

"the aircraft was towed off the runway eventually"

So, are you telling me it was removed from the environment?

Bank boss hated IT, loved the beach, was clueless about ports and politeness

Anarchy - definition (from Wikipedia)

Etymologically, anarchy is derived from the Greek: αναρχία, romanized: anarkhia; where "αν" ("an") means "without" and "αρχία" ("arkhia") means "ruler".Therefore, anarchy is fundamentally defined by the absence of rulers.

Calling for getting rid of leadership altogether is basically the textbook definition IMO. If you actually meant middle management that's totally another thing from what you wrote...

When it comes to personal data, we're on a highway to hell

Re: Woe Be The Professional That Loses Control of Confedential Patient/Client Data In A Rental

A doctor receiving a message from one of his patients about some embarrassing disease while he's streaming music from his phone to his car via Bluetooth? AFAIK cars can read aloud incoming messages from connetted devices, so they must necessarily have access to the text thereof.

Perhaps the car syncing the address book / calendar? Plenty of sensitive data can be stored there...

Software is listening for the options you want it to offer, and it's about time

Re: Not just Apple

On the other hand, on the 3-year old LG TV that I gifted to my elderly parents it's altogether too easy to switch sources. Every few months I receive a call from them telling me "the TV has broken down" because my father inadvertently sat on the remote and it takes only a single butt-press to switch source from the TV aerial to the AV1 input, and now the TV only displays a "no input signal" message and they have no clue what it means...

Perhaps LG has made it more involved to switch sources because it was too easy to do inadvertently and with faded legends on the remote keys it wasn't obvious how to revert the change?

Bad eIDAS: Europe ready to intercept, spy on your encrypted HTTPS connections

"The dark ages of 2011"

From the users' point of view maybe, but I'd wager that government snoops consider 2011 "the good old days"...

UK may demand tech world tell it about upcoming security features

"King's Speech – when the country's monarch reads out a speech that is written by the ruling political party"

Disclaimer, being from abroad I'm totally unfamiliar with the British political system, but after reading this fine article I'm kinda curious whether the monarch has the option of saying to whoever is handing the text "Nope, I won't read this shit"...

Android VPNs to get audit badges in Google Play Store if they aren't comically crap

Re: How about the classic switch?

Yes, and if you dare to turn off automatic updates in order to check whether an update is really a downgrade ("we're putting ads into the paid version of our app", my ass) the Play Store will pester you to no end, with a banner that takes up half of a phone's screen...

BOFH: Adventures in overenthusiastic automation

Not an infinite loop of hiding for two weeks? IMO the BOFH should have said "HIDE FOR TWO WEEKS THEN REPEAT LAST TWO INSTRUCTIONS – INDEFINITELY."

Classical off-by-one error if you ask me...

It is 2023 and Excel's reign of date terror might finally be at an end

Re: Behold the 2039 problem

There are people born in that 30's that are still alive, and I guess more users have to input birth dates than bond/mortgage maturities...

BTW I'm pretty sure Excel has a setting for the century when the user inputs two-digit years, you may want to look into it. I recall having to tweak it on each reinstall, back when I used to work with securities on version 4 some thirty years ago...

Google Chrome Privacy Sandbox open to all: Now websites can tap into your habits directly for ads

Some days I feel pretty smug about never having dropped Firefox as my personal browser...

I'd rather the apps on my devices work on my behalf and not for the sake of advertising companies, thankyouverymuch.

Sure, give the new kid and his MCSE power over the AS/400. What could possibly go wrong?

Only problem is, for some of those more recent stories the statute of limitations may not have elapsed yet...

Japan complains Fukushima water release created terrifying Chinese Spam monster

Re: "China has labelled [this] a selfish and highly irresponsible action,"

Just to stress China's hypocrisy, burning coal releases radioactivity (Wikipedia, Scientific American).

Icon: anti-gas mask

80% of execs regret calling employees back to the office

Re: We have expensive real estate.

Yes, and if we force our employees back into the office our real estate expenses will somehow be lower...

Virgin Galactic finally gets its first paying customers to edge of space

Re: Italian Air Force Salary

Kinda curious myself but don't think it's super-relevant, they sure aren't paying the trip out of pocket... And I must say, as an Italian taxpayer I sure am glad that my money went towards giving those three a joyride so they can brag about being "astronauts" with their peers. /s

Japan kind-of nationalizes key chipmaking material-maker JSR

141 percent premium?

Kinda overpaying, aren't they? Normal premium over market rates I've seen in past takeovers ranges from 15% to 40%.

Now wondering if there's some powerful politician's friend who's taking a bath at the current prices and needs bailing out...

School principal resigns after writing $100,000 check to Elon Musk impersonator

"I am very smart"

I don't know about others' experience, but speaking for myself the only people I've heard refer to themselves in those terms typically went on to say/do something remarkably stupid in short order...

Same as when you see someone's online handle containing words as "king", "lord", "master" or the like, you can safely ignore anything they write as chances are it will be utter drivel.

Fujitsu's A64FX successor will be an Arm-based datacenter chip

Re: MONAKA

Monaka is a jam-filled wafer cake (IMO quite appropriate for a processor), while the interconnect is named after a soy-based quasi-cheese.

Methinks someone was feeling peckish while drawing plans for this next supercomputer...

Of course U2 is one of Bill Gates' favorite bands

Re: If Americans are involved

Mmh, while also mentioning Big Country for that bonus conspiracy aftertaste...

SpaceX tells astronomers: Fine, we'll try to stop Starlink spoiling stargazing sessions

Not being a "natural born" US citizen Elon Musk has between zero and negative chances of ever becoming president, unless there's a change in their constitution.

Were it not for that provision there likely would have been a President Kissinger in the 80s, or a President Schwarzenegger (icon) in the Noughties.

Edit: ah, ninja'd...

Native Americans urge Apache Software Foundation to ditch name

Re: MongoDB next?

Funnily enough MongoDB always reminded me of Flash Gordon, it never occurred to me that some could find it derogatory until it was explained to me why...

Too big to live, too loved to die: Big Tech's billion dollar curse of the free

Re: Serves Google right

My two rather old Google accounts (one for the Play Store, one for the discontinued Reader) are both of the form [e-mail]. It never occurred to me when making them that it was compulsory to also pick an @gmail.com address, I thought that like with every other service that required an email for verification you could use the address you were already using. Perhaps it is the case now? It sure wasn't back in the day...

Patch Tuesday update is causing some Windows 10 systems to blue screen

Re: Typo in the worst place?

Noticed that too, that typo is in the original Windows advisory however it should be harmless, cmd.exe doesn't escape backslashes the same way as a Unix shell.

That said, I'm much more surprised by the fact that some people at Microsoft are writing file paths with forward slashes instead of backslashes... Spend too much time in WSL (hence icon) these days?

North Korea using freelance techies to fund missiles and nukes

So, many DPRK coders work in DeFi

That explains a lot IMO, I wonder how many of the past blunders at crypto-bean exchanges were deliberate... "Sorry, there was a bug in a 'smart' contract of ours, all our customers' funds have been squirreled away" is an excuse I got tired of reading.

Web3: you might as well wire your money directly to Kim Jong Un.

Programming error created billion-dollar mistake that made the coder ... a hero?

Re: Worst code I ever saw...

"I know what's appearing on the screen even while I'm looking at the keyboard"

Lucky you, all too often I end up finding out that some poorly-written program (looking at you, SAS EG) has silently stolen focus from the one I was writing into, and when I look up from the keyboard a bunch of text that was supposed to be there is nowhere to be seen...

Icon is my reaction when I then think about how mumble-ty years ago I knew how to touch type...

Hardware makers criticized for eco double standards

Re: A matter

At 180 MB/s (average sequential speed of drives from 4-5 years back), writing 1 TB takes roughly 1.5 hours.

Now suppose you have to discard a 10 TB drive... That's why since a few years back most datacenter drives have been self-encrypting, and their secure erase functionality is implemented by simply resetting the encryption key, which is to all effect instant.

How I made a Chrome extension for converting Reg articles to UK spelling

"Biting the hand that feeds IT" dropped

Not entirely dropped but moved to the page bottom.

On that note I have another question, why does it say 1998-2022 when according to this article the site originated in 1994?

Google Japan goes rogue with 5.4ft long keyboard

Re: Checks date...

It took me a while to notice that in Japanese date style, 4/10 is 01/4 in reverse.

Also interesting that in the video for the cup-shaped keyboard, all the keys are kanjis for different kinds of fish...

Emissions-slashing hybrid trains to hit tracks in Europe

Blues train

> "Neither Hitachi nor Trenitalia has offered an explanation as to why they decided to call it the Blues train"

Trenitalia uses to name its regional train models after musical genres: in my corner of the woods I've spotted the Rock, Pop, Jazz and Minuetto ones.

As for why they've chosen "Blues" for this particular one your guess is as good as mine, although I suspect that it may reflect the feelings of the usual suppliers about losing an order of this size...

UK govt refuses to give up on scoring Arm dual-listing for London

Re: Get rid of that questionnaire

I have taken to uBlock and wrote a personal filter matching the CSS of its container <div>. Won't post the code here because I don't want to run afoul of moderation, but targeting its height of 500 pixels is working well so far.

Tesla employee: I was fired after sharing video of self-driving car crash

Re: Coincidence?

Destroy your AI models, and delete the data

Good. Now some authority with a spine should do the same to Clearview for its facial recognition model trained with dodgily-obtained data (photos scraped from social media). Though since they're pimping that service to law enforcement bodies around the world I won't hold my breath for it actually happening...