Posts by eldel 139 posts • joined 11 Jun 2009
As I recall from those dim and distant days the argument was that TR was deterministic, i.e. you "knew" that the data packet would get to its destination whereas ethernet was merely statistically probable. In real life this just meant unnecessary overhead on TR but the banking, legal and health types seemed to think it was the killer argument.
Probably the technical knowledge free screening in HR. In a previous job I was amazed at the applicants that HR was trying to reject once a (very senior) VP decided to bypass them as we weren't seeing anyone vaguely suitable.
What was more interesting was the responses when they were challenged on the matter. It consisted basically of <shrug> and the HR director backed them up.
I resemble that remark.
Signed a boomer who is pig sick of the fuckwits that think screwing up a planet is a virtuous act and are now hell bent on screwing up the political system for their own short sighted advantage. That's without considering the theocrats that are turning the US into a radical christian theocracy - and they have a habit of exporting their crap.
24 I think since they perished. Loved working there. Not unlike the 60s if you remember the parties ( Xmas, launch etc) you weren't there.
When they went into liquidation everyone had to go get their personal stuff from the office and the receivers had a couple of heavies on the door making sure that nothing else was taken out. What they didn't seem to realize was that the 'machine room' was on the ground floor and had opening windows. Apparently by the time anyone twigged to this there wasn't a lot left. It would appear that the windows were large enough to get HP 'N' (?) Class servers out through. Allegedly.
I hadn't realised that we had a cross posting agreement with THE TRUTH. 4 posts in the last month - looks like we got all of it as well.
I do love watching the trumpettes whining about "globalists" when the USA has been exporting its inflation to China for decades to allow it to finance its military empire. Of course when their fuhrer employs dubiously documented peons to work in his money losing ventures that's somehow OK. Or the MAGA hats made in Pakistan. Note to trumpettes - Pakistan is not a town in Pennsylvania. It's an actual country out there in the grey mist called "not the lower 48".
I think the python example is a little disingenuous. Putting proper unicode support into P2 broke so many things that they just said "screw it - let's put all the breaking changes in at the same time". Which made the transition larger than anyone wanted (anyone who's had to port some badly implemented nested dictionaries that 2to3 can't handle can probably appreciate this) but hopefully a one time event.
Yes - this was caused by the poor initial design of P2 - but given where they were it was probably the correct decision.
And if you design and build sensitive enough detectors to actually measure that amount of ionized debris in the atmosphere (not just at the putative point of "impact" with said atmosphere) then I suspect you've got either a Nobel prize or a very lucrative DARPA contract coming your way.
Some years ago I was visiting friends and being a Sunday we decided to drink lunch at the local. This is in a small village in the middle of nowhere. The actual boozer fitted most of the preconceptions I had, including the elderly but still sprightly landlord and a barman of similar visage. Anyway, closing time is approaching and one of the locals we were chatting to goes to the bar and orders another round. The landlord demured, pointing out that he would need a magistrates order to extend opening times. The putative customer looked pointedly at the barman who simply shrugged, poured himself a double and said "granted".
The only 'coding interview' I ever had to suffer was a few years ago. It was in one of those all day multiple session interviews that the tech bros seem to love. By the time the coding part came around it was already pretty clear that I would be a poor fit - not least because I was probably 3 decades older than everyone else and apparently that meant I wouldn't be able to keep up.
Anyway - comes the coding section and tech bro hands me a problem statement and asks me to code a solution. I did it in Python the way I normally code - simplest suitable constructs and methods. TB looks at it and asks why I didn't use a lamda expression in one part. I just shrugged and said why? The answer was that it would be 'more pythonic'. At which point I'd decided this was a lost cause so I asked would it make it more efficient at run time? No, would it be easier to maintain? No, then why bother - I don't code for style points.
Unfortunately for my ego I can't claim that rejecting me was a calamitous mistake on their part, a mutual contact that knows the place tells me they are going gangbusters and I probably missed out on a very healthy stock distribution. Ah well.
Many eons ago, for my 40th birthday, my wife bought me a day at a 'tank driving experience'. Great fun. I even got congratulated by the ex Armoured Corps sergeant who said he'd never seen anyone get an SPG (Sexton?? Abbot?? memory fails me - big bastard anyway) sideways before and would I please not do it again.
>I can even navigate a map on my computer, and push it to the device !
You can do that on google maps as well. Along with rest stops, fuel stops etc. An interesting twist I found on this the other day is that if you 'export' the route as a link - you can just save that link. That way you can have a list of routes in a file which you just click to activate in gmaps and then push to the phone. Actually works quite well.
I don't know if they've pushed this capability to the civilized world yet - but combining that with the maps download means that you effectively have a standalone gps unit.
Took delivery of a new laptop yesterday. Booted it up and the Win10 install promptly upgraded itself to Win11. OK - let's try that.
Start with - create admin user that isn't a microsoft account. Hmm - nope. Lots of web searches and trials. Still nope - all the helpful suggestions are no longer valid. OK - create a fake new account, complete the login process. Create local user, reboot and log in with that.
Install Brave browser, set DDG as search engine, set Brave as default browser (which, in itself, took 20 minutes and a lot of reading). Click on a link - get Edge. Reboot. Try again. Same thing.
Check pi-hole and see a *huge* amount of traffic going to microsoft sub domains that I've not seen before. Blacklist domains. Random stuff stops working - e.g. volume control. WTF?? And I thought Android was bad.
Put Mint 20.2 on flash drive, boot from that, install with complete wipe of disk. Fully working laptop with no stupidity 20 minutes later.
it needs to land 100s if not 1000s of times from orbital velocities before you put people anywhere near riding on top of it
Yeah - I don't think so. A dozen, maybe 20 tops. How many 100s of Dragon capsules do you think they landed before the crewed ones?
Well, yes - but how do you know where you are supposed to be? Collect someone from doctor's appointment - better be on the calendar. I'm going to be out at a match on Sunday this week, then at the sanctuary next Thursday, then I'm going to a concert with my daughter in a month. Whatever. How do I communicate that to everyone else? Can it be done - sure - I did it successfully for decades. Is it easier to do it with a shared electronic calendar that everyone can see? Yup. For us at least.
I'm talking family here of course. I've found over the years that a healthy dose of honesty and reality tend to get one disinvited to corporate meetings, Which suits me just fine. I don't call meetings - if I have information that I think someone needs I will impart that in a direct and succinct way and avoid wasting time on feeding some managerial ego. I will even take the time to write it up - thereby increasing the clarity of my own thinking - instead of blurting out whatever comes to mind.
Meh - I loved my Time Manager dead tree planner. Used it for many years - then Psion brought out the 3a. The planner lasted about 2 months after that. Whilst I agree that the current computer mediated calendars need serious improvement - there's no freaking way I'm going back to trying to synchronize different people's schedules on paper.
Especially at home - goodbye and good riddance to the schedule on the fridge door.
I noted the issue of 'turnaround time for ULA rockets'. You mean you don't just pull one off the shelf?
"If Sir would like a new booster please choose from the right hand side of the warehouse. Otherwise please feel free to select one of our flight proven models from the center and left aisles. Yes, of course we can have it ready for next week"
<mumble mumble>
"Ah, Sir would like a bigger booster. Of course Sir, which 3 of these would Sir like us to strap together?"
<mumble mumble mumble>
"Ah, no Sir, I'm afraid we don't stock that model. The recovery accuracy of that model is not quite adequate for our rather small barges. Apparently they can only specify which ocean they expect to hit"
The project I was working on (80 hr weeks - crappy management - all on-site) got 'rightsized' just as the COVID shit was hitting the fan. I scored a full WFH job with sensible management and decent planning. I actually went to my previous boss and thanking him for canning me. I don't think he was expecting that.
The problem (for some of us anyway) is what's the alternative. Some large US corps banned Jetbrains stuff because "reasons", Eclipse is a dinosaur and Pydev seems to be stuck in the neolithic (let's not get into it's Git workflow). Sublime is just Vi on steroids (not that there's anything wrong with that per-se) and Atom could be great if I want to spend a not insignificant amount of time getting the customization sorted out.
VSCode is free and does the job better than anything other than PyCharm. The Flask and Django support are also free - the last time I looked PyCharm was still charging for those.
All in my opinion of course - but as it's my time and effort spent using it - that's the only one I really care about :-)
There will of course be an 'opt-out' for citizens to use. Which will, in the normal run of things, be either impossible to access or will revert after an unknown and variable period of time. Or even both - just to make sure that you don't interrupt the money flow.
Unless you are an MP or otherwise 'excluded' person - after all they are far too important to be grouped with the masses.
It is, however, yet another reminder (as if any were needed by now) that relying on a free service, especially from Google*, is simply a way to fail at some point yet to be determined.
*Yes - I know gmail, chrome and maps aren't going away. Android either. I seriously wouldn't bet on anything else though.
And here is the list of the cross-site trackers on this page alone ..
https://static-42andpark-com.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/css/adtoniq-messenger-alert.css
https://securepubads.g.doubleclick.net/tag/js/gpt.js
https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js
https://d1hwfp4apoj7bu.cloudfront.net/js/adtoniq-www-theregister-co-uk.js
https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js
https://static.ads-twitter.com/uwt.js
https://sc.lfeeder.com/lftracker_v1_Xbp1oaENLjL8EdVj.js
https://go.theregister.com/k/abt_to
I'm from the government and I'm here to help you.
The FAA have an 'interesting' view of where their authority stretches to - probably because many (most??) airports in the states have been in receipt of grants for infrastructure improvements. The rider that comes with the grant is that it gives the FAA a huge amount of say in the ongoing activities at the airport. This is often a good thing when local governments try to sell off a local airport to generate money and find that they can't. For subjective values of 'good' of course.
I rather suspect that attitude is being shown here despite this not being an FAA funded operation.
Email (and it's associated audit trail) are a lifesaver and the reason that I refuse to do anything on a verbal/zoom/chat instruction without an email confirmation that "yes, as per your instruction/request/recommendation, I will be doing x". I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer but even I learn eventually.
Whilst you are correct I think you are somewhat misrepresenting the situation. SLS is a throwaway - in the best pork barrel traditions of the US Gov. The Artemis 1 mission could fly on Falcon Heavy and you'd still have the boosters.
Starship (both the 'capsule' and the booster) are early representatives of the next generation - SLS is just another iteration of the same tired old system. So for the record it's Starship 1 out of 10 'successful' landings vs Boeing 0 out of 0. Hey - at least they are consistent, Also - SpaceX do seem to already have a 7 seater human rated capsule that has flown 2 more missions than Orion - so if you are comparing like with like that would be a closer one.
For the record - while I think Boeing/ULA are little more than a highly efficient leach on the public purse and long ago stopped innovating - I really really want the Artemis program to work and be a spectacular success. It's a popular conception that NASA were once a freewheeling outfit that degenerated into a bureaucracy - but if you read the accounts of the early days it was always thus. They were just given political ego generated unlimited budgets. They still managed some of the most stupendous achievements in history despite the paper pushers and I sincerely hope they continue to do so.
From whose perspective?
Boeing? Hardly - they're (re)using those propellant barges to move their massive cost plus payments so they don't care. It's also the closest to booster reuse they'll ever get.
NASA? Well they care - but they are at the mercy of congress critters who are using public money to fund re-election campaigns in the districts that make the bits.
SpaceX? The company doesn't really GaS although they're largely staffed with space geeks who want all rockets to succeed. They've got boosters almost as powerful that you can order more or less off the shelf (and re-use them) which would easily cope with the early Artemis loads (note - I think they would have issues with the capsule width though) and by the time Boeing et-al get Artemis II payloads ready I strongly suspect the Starship booster will be firing.
Blue Origin? Boeing/ULA MK2 - just funded by Bezos rather than the taxpayer. They'll probably have something in orbit around Earth by the time NASA are around the Moon and SpaceX around Mars.
Anyone living within 20 miles of the test? I suspect that they have ear plugs and strong windows.
I'm fairly sure I read that (one of the points of) SN8 was to test the pressurised header tank. This one talked about the landing tanks. I would have assumed that they would also be pressurised given that they have to supply fuel from a 90 degree (ish) angle to allow it to align for landing.
Whatever the reason I suspect that we'll find out about it in a few days. Muskies girls and boys seem to be very open about what went wrong. Of course - when you aren't having to justify another $XB from congress that sort of thing is probably easier.
HP as well. My work laptop is sitting next to me - a single USB-C cable from the dock. Drives a pair of 24" monitors, USB ports for headset, keyboard and mouse and an RJ45 to hook up to the office switch.
I think that's a fairly standard arrangement for modern high(er) spec setups. Certainly seems to be reliable once you have the correct drivers in place.
I'm not so sure - and that may be the reason that Space X and Blue Origin to a lessor extent are moving much faster than Boeing. They leave it to fail and gather more information.
In this test Boeing stopped it at the first sign of trouble - no doubt to try and protect a politically imposed launch date - but now have no idea if the problem would stabilize or get worse and cause a catastrophic failure and when. Space X would just let the bastard blow up and thus characterize the whole thing.Yeah it ain't cheap - but when you have stuff rolling off an assembly line instead of hand crafted by a cost plus band of artisans then it's a quick turnaround and another learning experience.
SLS has effectively been in development since 2005 (if you include the Constellation program) - only 3 years less than Space X has been in existence. Not only that they even had the engines 'gifted' to them so they didn't have to develop them. Since 2011 the development costs for the first stage booster alone are running at somewhere north of $20B and all they have to show for it are some politicians getting fat bribes. For reference Space X developed the Falcon 1 and 9 for around $400M.
I had a couple of basic kits then around the mid 60s 'inherited' a huge amount, like 3 large holdalls full, from one of my father's colleagues who had a large collection of nieces but no nephews. Note the date - gender equality was a far future concept back then.
Twas wonderful - building 'motorised' models with the clockwork motor sets. 10 years later, within a couple of months of me leaving home, my mother had 'donated' it because she thought it was a waste of space and I was 'too old' to care about such things. The sudden change in the earth's magnetic field is a result of her spinning in her grave at being reminded about it. Again.
Heard an interesting (well, I thought so) take on Apple getting into cars the other day. Before the world's biggest cash cow of consumers paying $1000 every other year to replace their pocket computer at huge mark up - the previous biggest cash cow was people paying $000s every 5 years to replace their car.
Remember the "what's good for GM is good for America" meme?
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