Posts by Simon Harris

CISA mutes own website, shifts routine cyber alerts to Musk’s X, RSS, email

Re: How long before...

At least that will make them even easier to ignore.

Re: It amazed me when many US gov't agencies used twitter...

With it becoming the de facto mouthpiece/toilet for the US Government, it surprises me that other governments still use it.

You think ransomware is bad now? Wait until it infects CPUs

“Let some neighbor raise the livestock.”

If you insist on raising livestock, let some neighbour raise the male livestock - those are the troublesome ones.

My first boss lived in a village and kept animals. One day as he was leaving he said “Got to leave early today, the goat’s on heat!”

Various people in the village had nanny goats, but only one person kept a billy goat as they are more grumpy and smelly. That day was the day when it was my boss’s goat’s turn to be ‘serviced’ by the one Billy goat.

Unless you're buying up old stock you'll have to start up a new Z80 production line as it's officially discontinued now.

A reproduction Z80 system might well have the CPU implemented as an FPGA, so an ideal target for such a microcode take-over!

It doesn't need to be obscure. It can be well documented in your computer's instruction manual, but it just needs to be something you can't leave switched on casually (e.g. lock it away behind a panel, and interlock it with the panel cover so it can't be left on afterwards - it could even be set not to allow a reboot into the O/S until the panel is locked).

For most people, updating boot firmware will be a occasional event, and a process that involves physically unlocking an enable switch is probably going to make people think more than just clicking the 'fill my computer with viruses' OK button on a dialogue box.

LegoGPT is here to make your blocky dreams come true

I asked it to make a model of my computer.

Now it won’t start up - I think it’s been bricked.

So your [expletive] test failed. So [obscene participle] what?

Re: No Comment!

While 'fuck' is indeed a very useful word, it is a bit of a cheat to say that adding '-ing' to make it an adverb or adjective helps to make it almost uniquely versatile, as adding a suffix to a word is a common method of converting a word into some other part of speech, and applies equally well to many other words in the English language.

Microsoft wants us to believe AI will crack practical fusion power, driving future AI

Re: AI will crack practical fusion power...

(Fast B)Readers' Wives*

* Yes, that's more of a fission joke, but I couldn't think of one for fusion.

The 12 KB that Windows just can't seem to quit

I remember doing embedded code for a 6502, and having to ensure it would fit in an 8K EPROM.

It wrote bit-mapped characters to a graphic display, but I had to choose the words for on-screen labels carefully as, by the time I'd finished the code, I didn't have enough memory spare to store a whole alphabet.

Must have been a perfectly innocent application, but I wouldn't even dare to Google Kid Pix these days!

Re: Memory Lane

Was there ever a better RS232 terminal emulator than Procomm Plus?

I used to use it a lot!

Apple exec sends Google shares plunging as he calls AI the new search

Re: You have to be very careful what you ask for

"So why not put it in there in the first place?"

It's being a stroppy requirements pedant...

"Well, you specified you wanted a web server, you didn't specify you wanted one without buffer overflow problems"

"Ok, well, can I have one without buffer overflow?"

"Sure, but it's a change to the specs, going to cost you more"

Linux kernel to drop 486 and early 586 support

Re: Hubble Telescope.......

... On the other hand, I just remembered one of the cancelled Shuttle missions (STS-144) was slated to bring Hubble back to Earth to put it in a museum, so maybe it wouldn't have been deemed worthy of more upgrades after all. Glad it's still up there doing science, even if it is running on vintage microprocessors!

Re: Hubble Telescope.......

I think the point of the original post wasn’t that Hubble’s 486 used Linux (it doesn’t), but ‘hey, look, some people like NASA still use 486s. Ergo, why can’t we still have an active 486 Linux development process?’

Hubble is a special case though - the last service mission was 16 years ago, next week. If we still had Shuttles doing satellite servicing missions I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Hubble’s computers might have been upgraded again to something more modern (the 486s were, after all, an upgrade from something more primitive). But we don’t have the Shuttle now, so Hubble is stuck with what was space qualified in the first few years of the millennium.

Apart from nostalgia and ‘because I can’, I suspect the majority of 486s still running are special cases because they can’t be upgraded for some reason, and are probably running an OS tuned to that application.

That must have been an early 80486 machine. Even my 286 machine from 1987 had a 40MB hard drive. My 486 home machine had a 250MB drive, about 1993-ish, can't remember now if it had 8MB or 32MB RAM.

I think the pin change is a myth.

However it does appear that the i487sx does have 1 extra pin for positional registration with the socket but electrically not connected, while there is another pin that indicates that the coprocessor is inserted, and when active, this turns off the i486sx, and the i487sx, which actually is a complete 486 does all the work.

Source:

https://www.os2museum.com/wp/lies-damn-lies-and-wikipedia/

Re: Hubble Telescope.......

Damn you, Jake!

I could have saved myself a fair amount of research into satellite operating systems (although I have to admit, it was quite enjoyable) if I'd read your post before I started writing mine!

Re: Hubble Telescope.......

Dropping 486 Linux support shouldn't affect Hubble, as that runs VRTX for its operating system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versatile_Real-Time_Executive

Intel stopped shipping the 486 18 years ago, so if you still absolutely need to run a 386 or 486 instead of something more modern, you're probably either running some piece of bespoke hardware, in which case you probably have very specific O/S requirements, or doing it for old-time's sake. I'm not sure Linux's aim is to be in the nostalgia business.

90-second Newark blackout exposes parlous state of US air traffic control

Re: Bare wire

Indeed, the Clapham Junction Accident report comments that while the wire that caused the accident should have been disconnected at both ends, it was only disconnected at one end because access to the other end would have required disturbing the embrittled coverings on all the other wires.

It also points out that the work leading up to the accident was part of the Waterloo Area Resignalling Scheme, modernising equipment that had been installed in 1936 (over 50 years before).

https://www.jesip.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Clapham-Rail-Crash.pdf

Painfully similar...

"The outage was apparently down to a single unsheathed copper wire shorting out equipment at the ATC facility located to the southwest in Philadelphia."

"With the bare end of the old wire lying near to the terminal which had once been its home and with the other end still being connected to the fuse, there existed a potential for disaster... That potential was tragically realised when other work came to be done in the same relay room two Sundays later on the eve of the accident"

That second quote is from Anthony Hidden QC's Investigation into the Clapham Junction Railway Accident, which occurred on 12 December 1988 killing 35 people, and injuring 484, 69 seriously.

Have people not learned in the intervening 37 years that bare wires and safety critical systems are not a good combination?

Commodore OS 3 is the loudest Linux yet

Re: 37.85G ISO

I remember when we used to punch an extra hole in the jacket so we could flip our 80k floppies over to use the other side.

Microsoft to preload Word minutes after boot

Bring back the BBC B.

All your major applications ready to go in no time as they were pre-loaded... into EPROM.

Your graphics card's so fat, it's got its own gravity alert

ZX81

Didn't Clive Sinclair solve the problem of expansion cards falling out yonks ago...

With Blu Tack!

808 lines of BBC BASIC and a dream: Arm architecture turns 40

Re: alive and well in the 1980s under Maggie Thatcher

I remember in the early 90s programming the T800 in assembly code for image processing. It sat on an ISA bus card in a 486-33 PC and ran rings around the host processor. It took a while to get used to programming a CPU with an evaluation stack rather than traditional registers though - a bit like working with an HP calculator.

No, not that T800 ----->

Re: I would like an ARM 1

Thanks for that link.

I feel all warm and fuzzy now!

Re: "RISC architecture is going to change everything"

You can do a lot with 55 instructions - as millions of 6502 programmers can testify!

Re: I would like an ARM 1

I keep promising myself that one day I'll get my Atom working again.

Apparently they go for silly money these days, but mine's so hacked about from sticking various bits of electronics in it in the 1980s, or hanging out of the back (just like Acorn encouraged you to do!) that I doubt I can get it back to 'original' condition now, so when I do get it going it will probably be some Frankenstein's monster version of an Atom.

the whole Arm description in 808 lines of [BBC BASIC] tells you how simple it was

I remember the Archimedes had a BBC Micro emulator to run 6502 code.

The icing on the cake would have been using the Arm emulator on the BBC Micro to then run the BBC emulator!

From a general public point of view, it really wouldn't have the same attraction as the Sinclair/Acorn battles of the original film. Clive Sinclair was (somewhat cruelly) portrayed as the pantomime villain in that one, I'm not sure there would be the same scope for amusing conflict in the ARM story.

Re: alive and well in the 1980s under Maggie Thatcher

I think the 68000 architecture is closer to the PDP-11 than anything else.

Chinese carmaker Chery using DeepSeek-driven humanoid robots as showroom sales staff

Cultural reference.

I'm surprised they didn't take the opportunity to name their salesperson fembot the Chery 2000.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_2000

AIMOGA...

When you repurpose RoboCop to sell cars.

"Now agree to the Terms and Conditions...

You have 10 seconds to comply."

Well, there wasn't a RoboCop icon ----->

Google goes cold on Europe: Stops making smart thermostats for continental conditions

Re: Smart stuff worries me

When we replaced our washing machine, drier and dishwasher over the last decade, each time it was finding the best non-smart version.

To my way of thinking, if your main interaction with a device includes putting stuff in or taking stuff out of it, having it connected to the web is superfluous. Sometimes I wander over to the washing machine to see how long it has to go, albeit in the knowledge that the number on the front panel is a lie anyway, and the last few minutes are somewhat elastic.

I can see some point if you're running a commercial enterprise and have to monitor multiple devices, or for quality assurance/food safety you need to keep a log of your fridge temperature or suchlike, but for home use much of it is just unnecessary bells and whistles.

New Intel boss is all about ‘deleveraging’ the x86 giant

Re: Lip-Bu Tan is swinging the ax again

Exceptional punning!

Lip-Bu Tan is swinging the ax again

So, not just al or ah, but all 16 bits of ax.

Mine's the one with the 8086 assembly language guide in the pocket. --->

Booby-trapped Alpine Quest Android app geolocates Russian soldiers

Re: re: concern

Even though I believe the comment referred to giving Trump an excuse for taking Canada, your point is still pertinent.

Naturally a peace deal with Russia staying in control of its current seized land, which stretches as far as Kherson, is a terrible idea.

It gives them time to regroup and in future push on to Odesa which would give Russia total control of Ukraine's Black Sea coast, give it easy access to start more shenanigans in Moldova, and bring NATO countries much closer to the front line.

Still, when their army contains a large number of conscripts who may not be particularly tech savvy, or particularly military savvy, probably the less prominence given to 'don't load random apps or update them from random sources, they might be compromised' stories, the better.

On the other hand, if they're not tech savvy, they're probably not reading El Reg anyway!

Apple: Since you care about yOuR pRiVaCy, we'll train our AI on made-up emails

Re: How do you do, fellow kids?

"Would you like to play tennis tomorrow at 11:30AM?"

Me neither, but I have plenty from Eastern European women who allegedly want to marry me.

Tech tariff turmoil continues as Trump admin exempts some electronics, then promises to bring taxes back

Re: US companies did this to us

"Additionally, out-and-out jokes will be preceded by the following graphic warning: [JOKE ALERT]"

24 years ago, this was a joke, in 2025, real life Twitter has now decreed:

"From 10 April, accounts which impersonate another user or person must use key words such as "fake" or "parody" at the start of their account names." as Twitterati are no longer capable of recognising parody when they see it unless handed it on a plate.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4g37elkrxdo

Re: US companies did this to us

I get the feeling that might have been said with a hint of irony.

Gosh - is it really over 24 years since https://www.theregister.com/2001/02/01/the_color_of_irony/ ?

Mapping legend Ordnance Survey releases blocky Britain in Minecraft – again

Slated...

I did the slate mine tour at Blaenau Ffestiniog a few years ago.

Now, that was proper Mine Craft.

The sound of Windows 95 about to disappoint you added to Library of Congress significant sound archive

Re: About to disappoint you

For the ultimate in disappointment, there's the hard drive click of death sound.

Sounds of the 90s...

Surely the most culturally significant sounds of the era are those of V.34 and V.90 modems connecting. They definitely deserve a place in the archive.

Self-driving car maker Musk's DOGE rocks up at self-driving car watchdog, cuts staff

Re: Musketeers?

How about Muskitos?

Apparently it's a 17th century spelling of Mosquitos. Bitey, blood sucking, disease spreading insects may be a more appropriate image to use around the Doge of destruction.

Samsung trumps USA's tariffs by making displays in Mexico, and elsewhere if needed

Smart TV

My AI-infused smart TV is smart enough to remind me that a new season of Black Mirror is about to appear.

It's not smart enough to realise that Black Mirror may be a warning about AI-infused everything.

Re: Make the tea?

Can it detect news reports of Trump tariffs and the resulting market crashes, and replace them with soothing videos of kittens?

AI-infused televisions

The icon says it all --->

Microsoft to mark five decades of Ctrl-Alt-Deleting the competition

Age is just a number - I wish!

I am over half a century old.

Can CoPilot make me 30 again?

Speech now streaming from brains in real-time

Re: An unfiltered insight into the brain?

Really it's looking at the part of the motor cortex that controls speech (vocal chord muscles, etc.), i.e. the mechanics of speech. I suspect it is a somewhat easier (although still hard!) job to model the intended activity of the vocal tract from that, and hence the phonemes that would have been produced, than the far harder task of deciphering arbitrary thought patterns into a rich vocabulary higher up the chain.

Re: An unfiltered insight into the brain?

"these thoughts could be vocalised unimpeded by this technology and cause much mayhem."

I think the processing here is on the output side of that filter rather than the input, so you can fortunately still think stuff without it getting picked up and synthesised.