Posts by kventin

I stumbled upon LLM Kryptonite – and no one wants to fix this model-breaking bug

Re: Trifecta of ignorance demonstrated

if you file a report but there is noone to open a ticket – is it still a bug?

RIP: Software design pioneer and Pascal creator Niklaus Wirth

fwiw oracle's pl/sql is based on ada

(if you ever see a mention of diana in your error, flee. you're in the black magic realm)

Re: Long shadows

re "Oberon had just-in-time compilation quite some time before java": they called it slim binaries. beuatiful concept. iirc they realised cpu is so much faster than disk they can compile from pseudocode while loading program from disk?

https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/265563.265576

One door opens, another one closes, and this one kills a mainframe

Re: Tech support call

been there, done that. the coffee was mercifully unsweetened, but there was a lot of it (4dl pitcherful).

table cloth ruined, carpet ruined, everything around soggy with coffee, the thinkpad merily continued with whatever it was doing, plus streaming coffee when picked up.

Europe completes first phase of silicon independence project

Re: "efforts to create made-in-Europe chips"

is that a scion of Elbrus The Merced killer?

i thought the lineage dead.

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

and who isn't?

(in alphabetical order, please. ask bowerick when he'll do you)

NASA told to get act together on commercial crew vendors as chance of US-free ISS rises

Re: Modest proposal time

my point exactly.

colonies = not cool

colonials = revolting* all the time

one blink of eye and you're legal alien all of sudden.

luckily there's not much up there in the Moon, it's a real wasteland, so they would not be dangerous

(ha! they could maybe throw rocks ;-) nothing else's up there)

and btw, that bypass was a real dick move, Jeltz

*) as in "making revolutions". although seeing their slumped stumped pissed-upon-straw-haired wannabe leader stepping all over his tongue, the other meaning of revolting surely tends to come to mind

Re: Modest proposal time

let me get this clear:

you want to establish a colony on the Moon (colonialism is so 1800s. not cool)

effectively making the astronauts _immigrants_

let them breed

their offspring would be both E.T. (having matured in different planet) and arguably different species

and then you let them take over the ISS???

that ain't gonna fly.

(oh! NASA! i see what you did there)

ReactOS 'a ripoff of the Windows Research Kernel', claims Microsoft kernel engineer

Re: ReactOS is in Alpha

there was even a joke (of sorts) about it:

take 'V', 'M', 'S' and increment every letter

Israeli Moon probe crashes at the last minute but SpaceX scores with Falcon Heavy launch

Re: Stunning -- for both

Add to that the possibility of China getting there first, raise some claims, settle them with a little bit of aggressive negotiations... i fashion the future on films in space.

and you know what kind.

Take my advice and stop using Rubik's Cubes to prove your intelligence

Re: What's the Russion connection?

well, look at the coloured squares a bit and let your mind wander -- you might start thinking of tetris, which is a russian game which took the world by storm via hungary, so, if you squint really hard, the connection game / russia / hungary is there, although it connects as a usb the other way but what the hell, it was friday and eastern europe is confusing for westerners (there's also 3d clone of tetris called blockout, equally addictive, written by Poles. now i'm just trying to confuse you even more, as if there was any need. oh and poland and hungary aren't eastern but central europe. or are they?)

My hoard of obsolete hardware might be useful… one day

combined rj45/bnc pcmcia card with thinkpad 570 to match (including ultrabay to dock it in _and_ a dock to dock the ultrabay in)

however, one can also specialize. hence, a box of RAM chips, some of which i don't remember the name anymore. about 20 of them, with median capacity in megabytes. as i don't have anything to plug them into anymore, they'll probably end in some school art project.

Chinese biz baron wants to shove his artificial moon where the sun doesn't shine – literally

Re: The silver lining

because the planet is not getting warmer fast enough -- let's heat it at night, too

nice microclimate it will create locally.

also -- what about micrometeoroids?

last but not least -- how many hours of beauty sleep would chengdu Misses Hiltons miss?

Why are sat-nav walking directions always so hopeless?

's exactly like nordic walking, but without the walking poles.

yeah, i know.

you can imagine it like this (sounds improbable, but bear with me): your car breaks down and your phone battery goes flat _at the same time_, *and* you forget your power bank.

then you might use this "walking".

Grad sends warning to manager: Be nice to our kit and it'll be nice to you

Re: Sometimes violence is the only answer

as seen on bloom county:

http://www-i5.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/mbp/bloom/bloom9.gif

Microsoft devises new way of making you feel old: Windows NT is 25

Re: "So what about microkernel environments"

"""microkernels like MINIX [...] went nowhere"""

Intel Management Engine runs MINIX 3

what about L4 and QNX -- are they unsuccessful, too?

re your glyph example: if TeX can use precomputed images, why can't font displays?

All that dust on Mars is coming from one weird giant alien structure

Just makes sure she's set to suck and not blow!

so the maid does a great suck job instead of a great...

nevermind

ReactOS 0.4.9 release metes out stability and self-hosting, still looks like a '90s fever dream

Depends whether you're looking from above or below.

's like saying left depends on whether you're looking from or into the mirror.

(Ms. Hilton, because confusion and mirrors and possibly also smoke?)

That's no moon... er, that's an asteroid. And it'll be your next and final home, spacefarer

http://www.nealstephenson.com/seveneves.html

Amalthea and Greg’s Skeleton, of course (that's Grigg–Skjellerup, and the nickname is too cute)

Boffins pull off quantum leap in true random number generation

Re: Pah! Nothing is random.

"""The results just depend on which universe you happen to be in, that's all."""

so -- can you _switch_ universes by tweaking the results?

(mine is the one with a copy of neal stephenson's anathem in the pocket)

Re: But everyone knows...

or maybe he's got really funny gait

(Paris, because, well, if his _feet_ are this big...)

I say, I say, I say: What's the difference between a king penguin and liquid?

Re: What's average airspeed velocity

is this the way how to save polar bears from brink of extinction?

Scientists change their minds, think water may be all over the Moon

Re: "The results point towards OH and H2O......."

radicals. always the loudest.

Astro-boffinry world rocked to its very core: Shock as Andromeda found to be not much bigger than Milky Way

Re: Films / TV-shows ever dramatize the collision of galaxies?

two questions:

1/ even though all stars will _miss_ each other, they will still _feel_ each other. in fact there's gonna be so much feeling, both galaxies will emerge profoundly changed. two stars don't have to hit it off, a close encounter is enough. also, massive black hole(s) in the centre? how close will they get?

2/ what about all the dark enigmatic stuff we're told is holding the galaxies together?

What did we say about Tesla's self-driving tech? SpaceX Roadster skips Mars, steers to asteroids

Re: I can see the accident report now...

"""Oh, about 1.6 trillion miles."""

long scale or short scale?

seriously?

never heard of sentinels? (plural, because British but also Škoda)

or try this: http://ttte.wikia.com/wiki/Elizabeth

Stick to the script, kiddies: Some dos and don'ts for the workplace

Re: I'm technically under a NDA

beauty is in the eye of the beerholder

FTFY

IBM's next turnaround tool is ... a new open-source font?

_different shade_?

isn't that a bit harsh?

(also: Big Aqua? Big Turquoise? Big Ultramarine at least sounds... grand?

OTOH don't even mention Big Azure...)

Linux 4.14 'getting very core new functionality' says Linus Torvalds

an AC asks only marginally relevant quetion and the only thing he gets back are civil, even helpful, honest-to-deity answers. five of them. is this what the register has come to?

must be the monday.

Q. What's today's top language? A. Python... no, wait, Java... no, C

Re: In over 40 years of programming ...

which reminds me: is it still true that you can identify Igor-level uber-minions by their lisp and comic reliefs by their oopsy-daisies?

(and yes, may the forth be with me, for making such bad puns)

Russia is struggling to keep its cybercrime groups on a tight leash

why THE state? is there only one?

if recent (70 years') history taught us anything, if you have awkward criminal charges in, say, Germany, certain south american countries wouldn't give a damn (forgive my klatchian).

another option is joining the other team -- it worked for legion etranger, why shouldn't it work for hackers?

Robots are killing jobs after all, apparently: One droid equals 5.6 workers

Vonnegut, Kurt: Player Piano. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952. ISBN 0385333781.

it might be one of Vonnegut's weaker books, but boy did he see far...

Happy birthday: Jimbo Wales' sweet 16 Wikipedia fails

"""

As Wikimedia Foundation employee Amir E Aharoni says below: "Don't trust Wikipedia! Never trust Wikipedia! I work for Wikipedia, and I'm telling you, don't trust Wikipedia."

"""

and below... is a video from rt

the irony...

Windows Server ported to Qualcomm's ARM server chip. Repeat, Windows Server ported to ARM server chip

Re: u-boot

"""

You also must worry, can you trust the compiler you are using (i.e. Ken Thompson's Reflections on Trusting Trust)

"""

does not address exactly this point, nevertheless

TCCBOOT: TinyCC Boot Loader

(http://www.bellard.org/tcc/tccboot.html)

"TCCBOOT is a boot loader able to compile and boot a Linux kernel directly from its source code."

Jeff Bezos' thrusting cylinder makes Elon Musk's look minuscule

*and* it is demonstrably able to fly you to the moon

Kindle Paperwhites turn Windows 10 PCs into paperweights: Plugging one in 'triggers a BSOD'

"""Inserting a USB device should NOT require a reboot."""

ahhh, i see. SHOULD NOT as per rfc 2119 i presume? well, it wouldn't be the first rfc implemented by microsoft in a, let's say "creative" manner.

Pokémon Go tragedy strikes

Re: Windows Phone User

"""MS provides all."""

of course it does:

POKEMON is part of the infamous debug & diagnostic pack (D&D) _but_ can also be found in semi-official abridged d&d (AD&D) pack, which is free to use (if you only find one).

it is surprisingly low level monitoring tool, along with it's companion PEEKMON.

related are ms specific COMMON and perhaps least known CUMMON (chiefly used to visualise the mess created by imprudent use of POKE)

Parliament takes axe to 2nd EU referendum petition

antidemocratic etc

the man from the institute calling petitioners "anti-democratic" and "pathetic" and that "they prefer to have an elite in charge" has a valid point, even though he presents it as something bad.

it is just the european way (*). of course elite is in charge -- members of the commision are appointed, there's no place and no need for any funny election business (i especially like the name: commissioner. although commissar would be even better, there is some nice symmetry between commission and commissioner. it can always be changed when commission renames itself politburo).

or the notion that you have to respect a negative outcome of election. how would then the progress be achieved? no, either ignore the result, or you may indulge the voters and give them second chance. and it works: ireland, france, netherlands... they all saw the light. eventually.

i heard even the uk referendum isn't binding -- and there are already people calling for the repetition.

there is the light. you'll see. willingly, with a song on your lips. you will.

(*) you take the best from french and from german tradition. then you call it a "parliament" as a nod to british. don't sweat it, it really doesn't matter much.

England just not windy enough for wind farms, admits renewables boss

Re: Knuckling under

@Phil Lord

"""

Against this, we have the clear difficulty that gas is not renewable, will run out and is causing significant damage to the environment. In otherwords, gas would never be cost competitive with wind power if dumping the waste were not subsidised (i.e. free).

"""

re "gas is not renewable, will run out" in 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 or 500 years? i know! soon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bro-WwwroEA&feature=youtu.be&t=3)

re "is causing significant damage to the environment" as opposed to what? coal? diesel? hydro? nuclear? we change the environment with our sole existence, not to speak about numbers. we live, therefore we need energy. the real question should be how to provide, not how to stiffle it. if (more people) => (more energy needed) then conversely (less energy provided) => ??? (careful, borders on mass genocide)

"""

The world we operate in is changing. The correct response to these statistics is, "we have to use less energy" or "we have to make wind power more effective", not "burn, baby, burn".

"""

re """The correct response to these statistics is, "we have to use less energy" or "we have to make wind power more effective""""

WRONG. the only land that uses "less energy" is yesterdayland. throughout _all_ history we (genus homo, homo sapiens species) used progressively more energy. arguably that's what progress _means_. again, not to speak about numbers. ever heard of this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

in fact the _real_ correct reponse is "we have to stop wasting energy" and related "we have to stop polluting environment" -- and by pollution i don't mean by product heat or co2. had we not poisoned the oceans and felled down the forests we could have used them for changing heat and co2 to food.

"""

not "burn, baby, burn"

"""

agreed, burning is stupid when you have e.g. nuclear energy. correction: _if_ you have nuclear energy.

As US court bans smart meter blueprints from public, sysadmin tells of fight for security info

"""Why doese[sic] a smart meter need an electret microphone on the PCB?"""

A hotel. A room for four with four strangers. Three of them soon open a bottle of vodka and proceed to get acquainted, then drunk, then noisy, singing and telling political jokes. The fourth one desperately tries to get some sleep; finally, frustrated, he surreptitiously leaves the room, goes downstairs, and asks the lady concierge to bring tea to Room 67 in ten minutes. Then he returns and joins the party. Five minutes later, he bends over an ashtray and says with utter nonchalance: "Comrade Major, some tea to Room 67, please." In a few minutes, there's a knock at the door, and in comes the lady concierge with a tea tray. The room falls silent; the party dies a sudden death, and the conspirator finally gets to sleep. The next morning he wakes up alone in the room. Surprised, he runs downstairs and asks the concierge where his neighbors had gone. "Oh, the KGB has arrested them!" she answers. "B-but... but what about me?" asks the guy in terror. "Oh, well, they decided to let you go. Comrade Major liked your tea gag a lot."(*)

i know, i know. u.s.a. != u.s.s.r.

yet

(*) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes

The Windows Phone story: From hope to dusty abandonware

Re: Shame

i'm not sure wp was doing that much for competition -- in the end they mostly competed with themselves.

now they've turned into another mobile-os-that-might-have-been, they are in distinguished company: qnx, palm, epoc.

maybe betamax always loses to vhs? (or is this something completely different?)

$10bn Oracle v Google copyright jury verdict: Google wins, Java APIs in Android are Fair Use

Re: @tekHedd - I haven't downvoted a post in a long time...

"""The stack trace is actually really helpful as well, if you know what you're looking at. ;)"""

an unholy mess of spaghetti code represented in a myriad helper classes incestuously calling one another?

US nuke arsenal runs on 1970s IBM 'puter waving 8-inch floppies

Re: Degrees of Obsolescence

@Voyna i Mor

i daresay 'm' and 'M' SI prefixes can usually be discerned from context rather well; vide this fine example: "roughly $6m per hour (in early 90's money)".

should 'm' stand for milli-, the sum would have meant 6 tenth of a cent, which is implausible (especially as the context contains terms 'mainframe' and 'cost' in juxtaposition).

however, the very last sentence ("using m or M for 1000") suggests you might be a tad confused about the real meaning of said prefixes, not to say their usage.

don't worry, though. a simple perusal of any good introductory text on natural sciences will clarify any misconception about the subject.

at least no-one uttered 'billion'. or 'trillion'. it's always fun figuring how much money that should really mean (for a bonus filter it through a hapless translator. idk why, but they always end up working for news agencies)

Czech Republic to rebrand

Re: Ah.. Marketing buzzwords strike again...

"""Which to me, implies using a red-hot rod with a logo and leaving an imprint on someone's backside."""

Kinky.

Will sir wish a sidedish of sweaty cowboys with that?

Re: kidding aside

"""I can't find a proper way to transliterate that into English because there's just no way to put an H as in Hello inside a word. That "ch" is just the best approximation for the "H" (Hello) sound they use because they have to live with the "K" sound in English."""

were you to visit northern parts of UK someday, locals could give you some pointers about transliterating of that sound. they might even insist on using 'c' and 'h' characters.

Re: This is not rebranding

oh boy.

a Slovak here. your post is tad bit, how to say it, economical with facts.

"""Чехия or when using latin alphabet Czechia is how all Slavic nations refer to it anyway and have referred to it even when it used to be Czechoslovakia (to the extreme displeasure of the Slovaks).""""

first, about the displeasure. Czechoslovakia was quite a mouthful, so it was inevitable some shortening would happen. only, having been shortened out of the country does lead to some "displeasure". the feeling was similar to Ukrainians objecting to being called "Russian" (because "they come from ussr, i.e. russia, right?") or Welshmen objecting to being called English, only more so.

now, to that cute russia-centric view of slavic nations of yours (you _are_ Russian, aren't you?)

a short look to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Czechia gives us:

east slavic >>>

russian Че́хия

ukrainian Че́хія

belarussian Čechija (or when using cyrillic Чэхія)

rusyn Че́сько

south slavic >>>

bulgarian Чехия

macedonian Чешка

serb Чешка (or when using latin alphabet Češka)

croatian Češka

slovenian Češka

west slavic >>>

lower sorbian Česka

upper sorbian Čěska

kaszubian Czeskô

polish Czechy

czech Čechy, Česko

slovak Česko (but sometimes also Čechy)

silesian Czesko

(i left some slavic languages where i was unable to find a translation)

so, you see, not "all". not even "most".

however, there is a grain of truth in what you wrote about "restoration of a historic brand".

vide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lands_of_the_Bohemian_Crown

even today some people distinguish in Czech between "Čechy" (the Bohemia, or "land of Czech people" proper -- i.e. without Moravia and Silesia) and "Česko" (the whole country), the latter being derived from the adjective in "Země Koruny české" (Lands of the Czech Crown). others use the two terms interchangeably.

hence: Czech is grammatically adjective (for historical reason), the whole storm in a tea cup is about what should its appropriate noun be.

lastly, re

"""At least they are not restoring it to "Moravia" (as that would mean a war with the Slovaks and Southern Polish for the name)."""

I have honestly no idea what could you mean about Southern Polish (or even which Southern Polish).

As far as Slovaks go, we consider Czech to be our brother-nation: we may bicker and tease one another, but in a friendly way (an occasional ice hockey match being a notable exception).

We simply don't wage wars with our brothers over perceived historical grievances.

For God's sake, we're more civilised than that!

Watch six tiny robo-ants weighing 100g in total pull a 1,769-kg family car

Re: Imagine a spherical car...

"""...at standard temperature and pressure."""

OP required vacuum.

hence, the only temperature and pressure would be originated by something "quantum" (another bloody quantum)