Posts by Glen 1

Microsoft's updated Windows battery indicator rollout runs out of juice

Re: Rollout stopped because...

Nah, not enough CAPITALS

Next-gen Wi-Fi to trade ludicrous speed for the boring art of actually working

Re: 40 fold speed increase since WIFI4...

If they could do cat 5 pantograph, I'd be an early adopter.

Python dethrones JavaScript as the most-used language on GitHub

Re: Bollox

The same way "Hey compiler, write me some machine code because I'm not educated enough or too lazy to do it myself." does. How many remember the days of compiler bugs?

'Hey garbage collector, handle my memory management for me because I'm not educated enough or too lazy to do it myself"

Snobs sneering at interpreted languages as not "real" or "toy" languages?

It's turtles all the way down. AI is just another turtle, which has admittedly a long way to go before we trust it the way we trust a compiler. As for actually checking the output - that's literally part of our job. No less than checking what we ourselves wrote.

We are getting paid to solve problems, not show everyone how clever we are.

Reaction Engines' hypersonic hopes stall as funding fizzles out

Reluctant to commit to more funding

Why would they when they can now by the whole thing (or at least the tech and the IP) for bargain basement prices?

iFixit to the rescue: McDonald's workers can rescue their own ice cream machines

Re: It's not "ice cream"

"what passed for chocolate in pre brexit UK."

Nce tasting chocolate? Or are you one of those who think chocolate has to taste bitter to count?

Compare Cadburys to Hersheys and I know which side I'd bet on all day. Even post Mondelez takeover.

Just don't mention the shrinkflation. The price of Freddos these days *mutters*

WordPress forces user conf organizers to share social media credentials, arousing suspicions

Re: That's the whole point of WordPress

I can't program operating systems, but I can install Linux in (well) under an hour. Should I not do that?

I can't write a compiler, but I have GCC installed. Should I not do that?

I can't implement my own python interpreter, but have python installed. Should I not do that?

I can't implement my own encryption, but use SSH. Should I not do that?

Facetious, I'll admit - but even with the most control-freak interpretation of open source, there comes a point where you are trusting someone else's code.

San Francisco billboards call out tech firms for not paying for open source

I think the problem lies in that xkcd.

The big companies are betting the farm on (say) openSSL (either knowingly or unknowingly) and seem to think it's someone else's problem when there's a zero day.

Given such libraries levels of importance to the underpinning of modern society, you've thought there would be a commensurate amount of investment in the the care and maintenance.

Sadly, in many cases this is not true. Not only is it turtles all the way down, they're someone else's turtles.

A year after taking on Intel's NUC mini-PCs, Asus says it's ready to improve them

Re: More is less

HTML doesn't like consecutive spaces.

It will collapse all whitespace down to one space unless you start using stuff like  

Which is not something directly accepted by the forum code.

Microsoft throws in the towel on HoloLens 2

Re: Still missing the big picture

There are already several devices that do what you describe.

The early versions are considered old hat because you couldn't "see through" them (think drone pov headsets)

As for being able to see around the screen:

Products by XREAL

Thinkreality by Lenovo

vIsor from immersed

Just the first few off the top of my head

Raspberry Pi 4 bugs throw wrench in the works for Fedora 41

Re: WTF ?

Or...

Run proxmox on an Intel NUC based device

(I use an older NUC7PJYH )

Then you can run up as many VMS as you have ram/storage.

Cheaper than buying multiple pis and associated accessories.

OS choice becomes a non-issue.

Potentially fewer headaches when migrating to better hardware.

Need more CPU? Assign more cores or migrate to a beefier host.

Actual SSD speeds without extra accessories, no worrying about write cycles on your SD card

Backups can be just snapshots.

There are things pis are good for, but if you are using multiple in the same place, you are probably better off with one + a load of VMS.

City council faces £216.5M loss over Oracle system debacle

Re: The simple solution

No more bills *getting* paid is not quite the same thing.

Re: An unrequested comma surplus eats, shoots, and leaves.

1 and 3 seem a bit weird, but #2 is perfectly reasonable.

We need a volunteer to literally crawl over broken glass to fix this network

Re: Meanwhile in Africa

Ah yes.

If you see some 'animal print' network cables, best leave them alone.

Aka the 'nope ropes', 'danger noodles' etc

Meta reckons China's troll farms could learn proper OpSec from Russia's fake news crews

Re: Blind spot

That's my point.

When the rich are paying politicians to do you what *you* want. That's democracy in action.

Trying to have more checks and balances to keep such corruption in check? Lets stack the judiciary to remove the checks. Why, those checks are removing the power from duly elected officials! Muh FREEEDDUUUUMMM!!!

NRA, Big Pharma, Military industrial complex lobbying, the Church? Fine. Lobbying is part of politics -- Unions, BLM, LGBQT+ groups? Evil groomers, apparently

Elon Buying Twitter and turning it into a dumpster fire? That's capitalism Baby! -- Bill Gates spending billions on vaccinations? Evil! He must have an agenda!

Its the double standard that's funny.

--

In the UK we have conservatives complaining about Union donations to the Labour party. Without a scrap of self awareness.

*Their* donors are literally the people who "use their money to train a cohort of puppet politicians" - just look at the recent honours lists - or the Covid contracts. Where as the Union members are just regular voters who have to pool their funds to compete with the rich people. I am not naïve enough to think there won't be shenanigans when Labour are back in - but Unions are literally the people.

When finally, the UKs rich neo-cons manipulated the gov into producing the low-tax (and not quite yet) low-spend nirvana.... there were consequences. The people who *actually* own everything decided we were a bad investment. The resulting knock on effects wiped £300 Billion off the value of our stock and bond markets Source

Apparently, a cloud cukoo land policy meeting reality and failing to meet expectations must mean there is a conspiracy. I believe there is a warning about the dangers of capitalism in there somewhere

Re: Blind spot

The WEF conspiracy theory angle always made me laugh.

You have people who genuinely believe the free market is king - but rich(er) people moving their money to do what *they* want rather than what *you* want is apparently unfair.

While *simultaneously* believing that the notion of world govs trying to *protect* the little guy from such moves is automatically evil - or worse, socialism.

Top laughs.

CISA boss says US alliance with Ukraine over past year is closer than Five Eyes

Re: We're gonna fight to the last Ukrainian /s

...but that is literally the name of the company.

Wiki Link

Producers allegedly sought rights to replicate extras using AI, forever, for just $200

Re: "address concerns of being replaced by AI"

It was obviously faked for the documentary.

I reckon he's sitting on a beach, earning 20%

Let's take a look at those US Supreme Court decisions and how they will affect tech

Re: No such scenario occurred - really ?

"ideal plans for loving, caring, mutually beneficial relationships"

That's what a lot of gay couples already have.

Trying to claim they "don't count" or "it's not real" because its not for you... then trying to rationalise it by referring to several thousand year old fairy tails.

How's that "not mixing of mixing of fabrics" coming along?

Basically trying to deny other people "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness"

Spiteful

Re: No such scenario occurred - really ?

The difference between marriage being handed down by God, and it being a matter of Law, is largely a difference of record keeping.

Before said record keeping, many a young lady had been duped into thinking they were married, until the grooms *other* family was revealed a few villages over.

Still happens today, except we tend to have better records.

If you believe marriage is holy mumbo jumbo handed down by God, then its between the newlyweds (whatever their gender) and their maker, and none of *your* business (or the churches).

If you believe its 'not real' unless it happens in accordance with the church (whichever church) - then that *is* a matter of church law, by definition, and as such changeable under the mechanisms those churches provide. See also: the rules around divorce. Do second marriages count as marriages? The Pope "annulling" a marriage is somehow different?

Abusive spouse? Tough! Marriage is permanent in the eyes of god. (according to some sects)

Divorced after a year? Why not get married again? (according to other sects)

Make it make sense

When you have folks taking someone's umpteenth marriage (after umpteen divorces) more seriously than a gay couple who have been together most of their lives... It really makes it difficult to take certain religious types seriously.

History is littered with 'marriages' where the people involved were unable to give consent - or were only doing it for the legal status.

Children being married off?

Political marriages?

Green card marriages?

Shotgun weddings?

All of those taken more seriously than two consenting adults freely committing to spend the rest of their lives together.

Tell me you can at least see the disparity?

Raspberry Pi production rate rising to a million a month

Re: A Bit Late Now

They could have easily 'chased the money' by floating the price. They didn't do that.

Brexit Britain looks to French company to save crumbling borders and immigration tech

Re: Alternative explanation for contract award

No doubt flown from RAF Luton and photographed from a Canberra

Sure, just as soon we all stop calling the USA 'America'. Canadians are Americans too you know...

Microsoft pushes for more women in cybersecurity

Re: "despite better education, experience, and performance compared to our male peers"

"At some point, you're arguing that businesses in this ruthless capitalist system we live in are deliberately forgoing profits and risking being out maneuvered by more inclusive competitors."

Yes, pretty much.

How many articles/comment threads have been full of stories of "Higher ups" not understanding the details of things they were making decisions on? How many "We told you so"s?

The competent little people often only get listened to if we're telling the boss something they want to hear. Look at Twitter...

Gender is an *extra* degree of separation away from those in the proverbial golf club.

China's 7nm chip surprise reveals more than Beijing might like

Re: Work share

Well, some places are more left wing, others are more right wing.

Before the invasion of Ukraine (err... the bigger one), there was a case to be made that Germany buying Russian gas would make Putin hesitate to do anything too stupid.

Sadly, this has turned out to not be true.

Part of Germany's problem is that it decided to needlessly shut down its nuclear reactor fleet after Fukushima.

They have turned what should have been a carrot for Putin to play nice, into a stick that the whole of Europe (world?) is being whipped with.

Re: Work share

Similar to the US senate making sure their States get some of those sweet government contracts.

e.g. The senate launch system and the space shuttle

Germany is not only a net contributor, but contributes almost *Twice as much* as the UK did (Source)

Its as if the benefits are more than just financial or something...

Funnelling wealth to 'one' country by helping bankroll the others?

Why didn't *we* (UK) get a piece of that action?

Oh wait... /s

Re: Ours

Ahhh, classic Brexiter.

Never letting facts get in the way of a display of foaming bile.

This can’t be a real bomb threat: You've called a modem, not a phone

Re: Bomb scare

Reminds me of how in the arcades, my older brother liked playing on the fruit machines.

I, understanding basic probability, enjoyed playing on the change machine.

Guess which of us broke even?

Trick question. Time Crisis didn't let me play for free.

Years late and 36 cores short of AMD, who are Intel’s 4th-gen Xeons even for?

The trouble is, if Intel doesn't get a handle on this sharpish, there comes a point at which you're throwing good money after bad.

Then other institutions outcompete you.

LastPass admits attackers have a copy of customers’ password vaults

Re: Someone Else's Password

"kids that are 7 to 8 years old"

So... an age where you *definitely* wouldn't let them go on the internet unsupervised, and who has the time to *properly* supervise? -- Or *properly* set up parental controls?

Well, us, but we are not the norm.

Instead people use walled-garden devices that are easier to lock down. oh look - Chromebooks and IPads. A mouse? is that like a separate trackpad? /s

For many of us, we nostalgically romanticise about our first taste of computing. BBC Basic, tape decks, doom/quake mods -- our whole careers and perhaps path of our lives were formed by playing with these systems as kids. When we hand our kids tablets to keep them entertained, it means Baby's-First-Operating-System is Android or IOS. Their first user interface is a touch screen. The first place they are likely to see technical information are in the settings pages of those devices. (What *is* your phone's IP address?)

As the current batch of kids grow up, they will have the same feelings of nostalgia about the current set of games and devices. We might be better off teaching them the underpinnings of what they are *actually* using, rather than sitting them in front of the 'Mom/Dad's Laptop' (that they rarely get to use) and trying to do it formally.

Want them to learn something else? 'Proper' Linux? Then give them *those* devices to play with. After all, that was literally the point of the Raspberry Pi.

How many of us come across grown adults who cant navigate a directory structure? People who are using a computer every day, but couldn't tell you where the Downloads folder actually is, or where to start looking for that document they just saved. You don't need a desktop operating system for that. That is something that can be taught to kids with phones/tablets - maybe a MicroSD card or two to introduce the concept of different drives.

Slightly off topic: I realise you were talking about *other people's* kids, but plug a mouse into that chrome book and set them loose on some (browser based?) games that take advantage... watch how fast their mouse skills improve. Quake 3 on the pi zero? Living room Lan party?

Re: Someone Else's Password

and a Greek question mark (";")

US Air Force signs $344m deal for hypersonic Mayhem aircraft

Any pilot would have to wear a M.A.S.K...

EU takes another step towards US data-sharing agreement

Re: Impotence

I was under the impression that the EU as an organisation doesn't get any tax money directly.

Its funded by the member states, who use their citizens' tax money - which is a point of negotiation.

As to your other point, perhaps the fines should be bigger.

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

Re: Worst code I ever saw...

Related:

You start to run into similar issues with modern (but low specced) microcontrollers.

Not with variable names, but with strings.

If you declare a string literal to be written out over serial, (e.g. "Program got to here"™), the whole thing is written into ram before passing it on. When your dealing with 2k of RAM and no GC, a program that has lots of nice feedback soon fills up the available RAM. A trap for younger players, as it were.

The solution is to copy the string from flash/rom/progmem (which is usually in much greater supply). In the Arduino ecosystem, you have an F macro - so the above becomes:

serial.println(F("Program got to here"));

US Air Force reveals B-21 Raider stealth bomber that'll fly the unfriendly skies

Re: Eye-watering

Indeed, a previous Lib-Dem policy regarding UK nuclear weapons was to have a "minimum viable deterrent".

It meant retiring the current systems in favour of what some saw as a token gesture response, which wouldn't have saved that much money.

Re: Cloud-Based Diagnostic

Ah yes, the cloud infrastructure...

#dontexplainthejoke (sorry)

InSight Mars lander has only 'few weeks' of power left

Re: Brushes?

"Will we see France today?"

"Any day now Chuggy, any day now."

"Is Calais as beautiful as they say?"

"Oh the supermarkets go on for miles Chuggy, you'll love it"

Youtube clip

OpenPrinting keeps old printers working – even on Windows

Re: Never have any problems printing ever again!

...until the film for your model of camera becomes progressively more expensive due to lack of supply...

Re: My God break down and buy a new printer...

There is a cost-benefit analysis to do.

The time it takes for your tech to get an ancient printer working with a new machine vs the cost of a new printer + consumables (+ time)

Bog standard old mono laser? If it doesn't work after pugging it in, and it takes you longer than 10 mins to find drivers, buy a new (different) printer.

Fancier printer with colour profiles, but standard sizes? *Maybe* buy the new printer - might be worth a few hours/days of fettling.

Specialist monster bulk/large format printer that would cost > 2 month's salary to replace (probably a *lot* more)? You spend the time.

If its your own time, and you view that time as free, then go ahead and knock yourself out.

The thresholds I used above are ones I just made up, so they may be different for your circumstances.

This development moves the thresholds for such decisions -- arguably not by much if you already do Linux printing.

UK government set to extract hospital data to Palantir system without patient consent

Re: Hidden backlog

That's fair...

The ASC that Cameron/Clegg made the responsibility of the local authorities then eviscerate their budget.

Then put into law that councils couldn't put their taxes up to compensate.

https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2016/07/13/cuts-reform-cameron-legacy-adult-social-care/

I mean, you are correct, but the manner of your correction makes it looks like you're looking for someone other than the conservatives to blame...

Re: Hidden backlog

To be fair, I remember things being much better before conservatives got their grubby paws on our Health Service.

Yes, we've had a pandemic, but we had contingency plans for that. We were maintaining stock of required equipment... Until the conservatives decided to stop maintaining it and sold it off. We had 'nightingale hospitals' - conference venues converted to hospitals at great expense. However, 10 years of conservative policies meant we didn't have the staff to use them.

When British journalists asked Singapore leaders how they managed the pandemic better than most, the reply was (paraphrased) "Why are you asking us? We just copied your country's contingency plans"

We also have "urgent care" drop-in centres where we can see a doctor just by showing up. The waiting times however are less than optimal. A&E triage is still a thing, so if you if your appendix is about to burst, you will be sorted out fairly rapidly.

However when the capacity of A&E is reduced thanks to conservative policies (including policies resulting in a lack of staff), it means non life-threatening injuries are dealt with on a "when we can" basis. If someone has a badly broken leg that's not life threating, it means that once they are stabilised, they are not a priority. - but if they can't be moved because of a lack of beds in the hospital, they are stuck in the ambulance - which is then unavailable for the next call.

Conservatives would love a for-profit model of the health are system. It means they wouldn't have their taxes going towards the healthcare of other people. They don't seem to understand - that's how insurance works. We are already paying for it.

A badly run insurer/hospital would have the same problems.

The problem is that in the UK, we are already paying for one inadequate healthcare provider whether or not we pay for a second (or a wild west of providers). The solution is not to move providers, but fix the one we have.

In the states, I imagine there is a liability issue if your provider is unable to provide a service they are contracted for. With conservatives running the show, I feel we have more than passed that point.

Bring on an General Election.

No, I will not pay the bill. Why? Because we pay you to fix things, not break them

"Not everyone is fucking woke, either."

So you think Sophie Wilson is a man?

Christmas is Christmas, and Hanukkah is Hanukkah.

They are both around the same time. You could stretch the dates to include other events, a 'season' if you will.

Happy Holidays is not about erasing Christmas, any more than its about erasing Hanukkah or Diwali, (Or Eid, but that moves about more)

Its about wishing good things upon everyone, not just the followers of one particular religion.

You can wish happy Christmas, or Diwali or whatever, but when you object to wishing folks from other religions well, that's Fucked Up.

YouTube loves recommending conservative vids regardless of your beliefs

Re: Left or right

Translator's note for those of us in Rightpondia:

Tylenol is a brand of paracetamol

The open internet repels its most insidious attackers. They’ll return

Re: They don't care...

Even Thatcher saw the point of the single market.

Germany orders Sept 1 shutdown of digital ad displays to save gas

Re: FRA airport is very nearly in compliance with this law....

"For centuries our ancestors lived in badly insulated, drafty houses, only heated by a small fire in the main room, and yet they survived and thrived"

A non-zero number of them died. That's called survivorship bias.

Don't get me wrong, complaining about the cold when its slightly below 20C is being a bit too precious.

Shivering in single digits because they can't afford to run the heating is something many will endure this winter. That's not a choice you would expect in a supposedly civilised 21st century country.

So much for progress.

Re: Exceptions for such dual-purpose signs have been arranged.

"All for a power source with a finite lifetime?"

Less finite than many of the pipes themselves.

Many existing houses have fireplaces as part of their original design that were meant for coal -- an equally finite resource.

Remember, electricity being in regular people's homes has only been common for about a hundred years.

Deepin prepares to leave Debian base and move to fully independent distro

Re: Disappointing news

"would commit upstream to a global distribution like Debian"

Perhaps they could contribute a different init system...

<ducks>

Bad news, older tech workers: Job advert language works against you

Re: So?

Use velcro or slip-ons for shoes

Use a clip on tie.

This is the point I'm making.

There are assistive technologies/substitutes for many/most things.

I get that this is likely a sore point, but did you ask for help before quitting? If not, why? Was it a matter of pride? Did you actually quit on your own terms, or were you pushed?

There are *some* things that might take you out of the game - eyesight is quite important for example, but eyeglasses, loupes, and microscopes have been things for literally hundreds of years.

Whacking an arbitrary "must be able to lift 50lb" when the actual requirement appears to be dexterity only serves to prove our point.

Re: So?

"lift it onto the work bench... turn it on its side...I picked it up and looked it over "

Which could be accomplished by someone with one arm if they had the necessary equipment. or perhaps someone who could only lift 25 pounds. The 50 pound requirement seems arbitrary. You talk as if power tools/assistance is/are some heathen ideology.

As for, the "knowing where to hit it" thing.

If your expertise has value, presumably its worth a few hundred dollars of lifting equipment it might take say, a older gentlemen with the same expertise to lift the thing.

If it isn't, then how valuable is your expertise?

Explaining to someone how to lift (or help you lift) something so you can apply your massive ego expertise should be doable in a few mins. Maybe it takes a little longer. You are not on a production line where items per minute are measured.

Once your body begins to fail you (as will eventually happen to us all), do you think your knowledge stops being useful? Will you quit the job? Do you think you would be sacked? or will you insist on being assisted?