Posts by Version 1.0

GCC 13 to support Modula-2: Follow-up to Pascal lives on in FOSS form

Re: Uni

The major advantages of Pascal back in the days when it was created were that it could be used in different environments and that when you gave the end-users the Pascal code that was all you need to do to document the functionality in most cases. I started by teaching myself assembler, went to college and learned FORTRAN and then got some jobs needing both methods - watching the end-users coding was a mess in both environments but when Pascal appeared then coding appeared everywhere in the academic world, everyone worked together to make technical calculations like gait analysis work and then shared their code to document what was done and how it was done. Modula-2 was an easy way forward that I enjoyed, but the academic world was addicted to Pascal so I ended up using that all the time.

I have never cared what languages people use, I'm just spending all my time helping people get their things working - and when they are happy then I am too.

Twitter staffer turned Saudi spy jailed for 3.5 years

Re: My 2 cents

Another upvote for this post, I remember being pissed when the voting was announced for a winning Trump, I was driving home and saw a cat run over on the other side of the road ... I was very sad but the next morning I thought that Trump might actually destroy the Republican party by just doing all the crap he'd been doing for years before ... we'll see how that goes in a few years now.

I have always appreciated Brendan Behan's Irish view of the world; "What the hell difference does it make, left or right? There were good men lost on both sides." ... certainly that's true, and idiots on both sides too.

"Ahmad Abouammo ...convicted by a jury of acting as an unlawful foreign agent" - but the Saudi's would have probably convicted him for being an nonfunctional foreign agent if he hadn't done this. Is this conviction an attempt to make everyone think that all their comments on Twitter in future will be anonymous?

If you are posting an "anonymous" comment anywhere and believe that you can't possibly be tracked then you are a snivelling, miserable, idiot.

What did Unix fans learn from the end of Unix workstations?

Re: Pinch points

I'd be happy to get all my old systems home when I return.

Re: Pinch points

I'm in the USA, I'd love to get home to the UK ... I want to - and that means getting 50 years of computers to new homes.

Re: Pinch points

I've got a few PDP-11's, one with RL02's and a few of the original RL02 installation disks for RSX11M - I've kept them for years now but it's time to retire and let them move on so I need to find people who'd like to have them... I'd like them to go to good homes too.

New research aims to analyze how widespread COBOL is

Re: Completely Obsolete Boring Old Language

If COBOL had not been created back in those days and it was created today, then everyone would be running around saying that it's such an easy to use language ... so much easier to use than Rust in the banking world.

Created these days it would be our Cloud Organized Business Oriented Language.

Boffins hear Martian dust devils' rumbles for first time

The history of Mars could be so interesting

When you study the results of evolution on Earth ... originally cells formed, then life created in the water all over the planet and resulting in fish eventually, and a fish then starting to crawl around the surface to eat a few plants, evolving further to eventually crawl up the plants and evolving some more over the next few millions of years ... it would be so fascinating to see if anything like this happened on Mars even if it didn't evolve quite as much as we have. To see nothing would be sad, but just to see a few fish bones on (or under) the surface of Mars would be amazing.

China bans deepfakes created without permission or for evil

Re: "socialist values"

Back in the old days when a paper broke the conception of "acceptable online published content." the pages were just moved into the bathroom and placed next to the toilet, torn into six inch squares ... let's quit everything and just delete crap now.

World's governments to keep spending to erase technical debt

"upgrades" means making more profits and...

Currently I'm being told by Google that I need to update computers because Chrome etc is going to stop supporting Windows7 - an "upgrade" that will require throwing away all the computers and buying new ones ... so "upgrades" are actually an upgrade to the corporate profits.

Certainly I get a decent upgrade at work moving to Windows 11, when I start work in the morning I can turn the computer on and go and drink a few cups of coffee while it starts up and installs an update. That will require a few more cups of coffee (aka a reboot) I never used to get this much coffee everyday when I was using Windows XP ... once Windows 12 appears I should be able to go out and get breakfast every day while the upgraded computer starts up.

UK arrests five for selling 'dodgy' point of sale software

Re: designed and sold electronic sales suppression systems internationally

Maybe the politicians negotiating the new post-brexit Australian deal were having the discussion at a restaurant and one of the negotiators had the "app" ... "Wow, what a great deal, it's lowered our costs!"

This ransomware gang is a right Royal pain in the AES for healthcare orgs

We need a malware vaccine environment.

Normally when healthcare services see infections then we take precautions, so would limiting all users access to websites be like making users wear a face-mask? And making everyone's PC run a full anti-virus check on the disks, every time they open an email while slowing network access down to 1200baud until they are seen as clean, be like getting a vaccine?

Malware is just like a pandemic. It seems that we're a hell of a lot better handling pandemics than malware these days. Sure, all these suggestions would slow things down but we've already see that happen currently.

Boss installed software from behind the Iron Curtain, techies ended up Putin things back together

Re: Ding!

We do not install Russian software, I just deleted DHL Invoice Details _pdf.rar after the email was quarantined.

Theranos' Sunny Balwani gets longer sentence than Elizabeth Holmes

Re: Another lesson

Let face it, the majority of "male and brown" people in the world get into the shower at night and sleep white. They are washing their colour off and watching the "u" go down the drain before they tell their wives that, "U need to wash my socks".

Two million year old DNA samples discovered, lodged in ancient sediment

Your Inner Fish has evolved

If you find this interesting and want to read and learn a lot more about the complex history of everything then read "Some Assembly Required" by Neil Shubin which is a fascinating documentation of the research and effects of our creation.

Woman fakes pregnancy to smuggle hundreds of CPUs, iPhones into China

It was always easier to ship items to Hong Kong and let the locals to their normal daily work driving over the border, I saw that work with no issues at all for years. And as a student I had friends who would fly to Holland and then come back home, walking through customs with a pussy full of decent drugs.

I've never done this sort of thing myself but it's always been educational and fun looking at these events.

Windows 11 still not winning the OS popularity contest

Re: Awwwww, poor Microsoft

The updates are not useless, they are actually highly profitable for Microsoft and the PC manufacturers - I need to upgrade my Windows 7 PC by throwing it in the trash can and buying a new PC ... but the new PC will need to be thrown away when Windows 11 upgrades to Windows 12 won't it? I'd better get my boss's credit cards out of his jacket.

Blockchain needs a reason to exist, Boris Johnson tells roomful of blockchain pros

Maybe Boris is reckoning that if he boosts the Btc promotion then the price will fall since everyone (even the Tories) are saying that he's an idiot. So if the price falls and he buys a bunch under the table and shuts up, maybe the Btc price will jump again in a few months, resulting in Boris making a few million again.

Yes, I can say that he's an idiot, but clearly he's not totally stupid, he's just a politician that keeps getting richer, let's just watch this go on.

Facebook approved 75% of ads threatening US election workers

Re: Ads?

It sounds like the same source as the emails that everyone is getting, telling them that their password has expired and can be renewed by following a link, or they get an email with the InvoiceDetailsDec.ace, Specifications_pdf.exe, etc., attachments that must be opened. These are all criminal activities that are common daily these days but we are acting like it's not a crime to do everything that this story documents because it's only "political"?

Almost 300 predatory loan apps found in Google and Apple stores

Re: I'd like to know...

When I get a call offering a loan, I tell them that it's welcome and can be shipped in a cardboard box, I tell them that Rick can give them the address details - and then click on "Never Gonna Give You Up" to get them to think that they are "on hold" ... eventually they will hang up and not call me again.

You can click on "down-vote" if I have pissed you off when you called me ...

FTFY

Only 300 predatory loan apps found in Google and Apple stores.

Just 22% of techies in UK aged 50 or older, says Chartered Institute for IT

Re: Is that net, after taxes?

Let's skip this story and document the entire thing with the BOFH talking to the PHB later this week.

Re: Blame the management

Young students have a lot of "skills" but will lack the long term "experience" of older people - but while that long term experience can be very helpful you can also see problems because our abilities (yes I'm old) don't have the skill of the successful students in the current environments that we never grew up in:

"Oh look here's the code in FORTRAN that works reasonably well, your Python sucks" ... leads to "No problem, I can make it work perfectly with Python and fix that error for you"

Twenty years on, command-line virus scanner ClamAV puts out version 1

Re: It's on VirusTotal

VirusTotal is very helpful - but I regularly see VirusTotal detect viruses with ClamAV and many other tools that my mail-server running ClamAV has not detected yet - clearly updates are taking a while locally to be fully applied.

Twitter gives up fight against COVID-19 misinformation

Re: @Potemkine! - What does your vital link tell about this

I like El Reg's clarification of anonymous sources as "Posted by a snivelling, miserable coward", I laughed hard when I first saw that icon change but now, reading the El Reg comments I strongly appreciate the El Reg view! An anonymous posting isn't necessarily bad but it's not defined as good or bad ... for example, it's like a politician - it's what they do or say that makes them clearly either form of idiot.

Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back

Re: And to think that 30 years ago...

Downvotes? Christopher Reeve was ready to walk away if he could have, he would never have down voted his horse after he fell down.

I see up votes and down votes as educational, a lot more for El Reg (icon) than the voters - this is not a complaint, up votes and down votes are just like social media snorting cocaine these days (fun, until you do it too much).

Guess the most common password. Hint: We just told you

Re: What!?

I've just updated my BadPassw0rd to G00dPassw0rd, adding more digits is an improvement? Testing it on security.org and it's rated as "It would take a computer about 2 thousand years to crack your password", are they still using the ENIAC computing system?

Both dumb passwords rate well and are more easier to use than a typical generated "cfmPAQtrfx986" password - plus you are going to be a hell of a lot more careful when you know you have a crappy password then if you think you have a safe one.

CT scanning tech could put an end to 100ml liquid limit on flights by 2024

And the effect has been ...

All these regulations and checks have resulted in nobody causing an explosion on a plane since they were imposed so you can say that they suck, but you can relax on a flight. Certainly there can be issues going through security but the TSA does a good job these days.

Years ago in the 80's I was in San Fransisco airport and walked through the metal detection entrance with no problems but they stopped the guy behind me ... I kept walking away but then I turned around to see what was going on and saw the TSA guy waving a metal detector down his sides and front. I was looking from behind them and could see a revolver in the back of his trousers and a few seconds later he walked past me to another plane. I doubt that they just took his gun away but there were no incidents on any planes that day ... in the US it's not uncommon for people to forget that they should have packed their gun in the luggage, not leave it in their pants.

A few years later I had flown from the US to China with a gin container and a week later they told me that I couldn't take it onboard when I was returning to the US, so I drank it in front of the Chinese TSA lady and she was OK with me having an empty gin container.

Bright light from black holes found to be caused by particle shock waves

Re: It's empty in space

"Dark star crashes, pouring its light into ashes. Reason tatters, the forces tear loose from the axis. Searchlight casting for faults in the clouds of delusion. Shall we go, you and I while we can through the transitive nightfall of diamonds?" - Dark Star, written by Robert Hunter.

Study suggests AI cruise control could kill traffic jams by cutting out the 'intuition' factor

You can't drive around compulsive lane bombers, let them drive past you and into the rear of the car in front of you. Is this AI (Adult Idiot) driving?

I think that Google sucks lots of ways but I open Google maps on my phone attached to the dashboard every time I drive and I never see any traffic problems that can't be easily driven around without even breaking the speed limits (LOL).

Someone has to say it: Voice assistants are not doing it for big tech

Re: The great turn off

Jenny could update her F.O.C.U.S. song to mention Alexa.

Locked out of Horizon Europe, UK commits half a billion to post-Brexit research

A Brexit divorce

Brexit was just like a divorce ... "Oh look, it's bad but things will get better" and the guy then going home and saying "I'll be happy when I have sex" but all he can find in the bedroom is his wife's dildo.

Microsoft's attempts to harden Kerberos authentication broke it on Windows Servers

Re: Another brilliant demonstration of Borkzilla testing procedures

The computing environment is extremely complex thee days, so many updates making changes to "fix" problems but in the environment, while they will normally "work" there's the potential for new issues - caused by the computing interactions between the "fixed" components and other interacting features. So this is normal, and just needs to be fixed by "engineers trying to resolve the problem". Resolving a problem may work, but can result in a different broplem (sic) sometimes.

Biden administration earmarks $13b to modernize electric grid

Re: Socialism

The grid would be much more reliable after five or ten years if is was completely controlled and organized by politicians (in the US and the UK) because when they screwed up and failed power for the voters then they would be replaced by politicians promising a complete effort to deliver power to all communities.

Organizations get wealthy by fiddling with the grid, not powering it. Politicians would get elected if they didn't screw up and everyone had a warm home in the winter and a cool one in the summer.

US offshore oil and gas installation at 'increasing' risk of cyberattack

The Cold war never ended

The US and other countries declared the winning of the Cold War in 1991 ... but in fact it's still running along. In fact most countries in the world are now at 'increasing' risk of cyberattack these days from a few other suspected but undocumented countries via the Internet.

Former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes sentenced to 11 years in prison

Re: A CEO being held accountable?

Will the pattern apply to the CEP in future? Chief Executive President/Primeminister.

iFixit stabs batteries – for science – so you don't have to

Re: Interesting video

I've had that happen while repairing my co-workers phone, I was able to pull the battery out and throw it through the door into the parking lot and then it was easy to put a new one into the phone, it's still working.

Fly on a plane and they will tell you not to readjust your seat if you had dropped your phone ... we've heard of that issues a few times on planes and occasionally we hear about the trash pickup vehicle catching fire when it "packs" the trash pickup contends, maybe someone left a phone in an old jacket pocket in the trash?

White dwarf study suggests planets are as old as their stars

Re: "The debate is essentially over ..."

The debate is over, we no longer believe since 1615 that our planet is the center of the universe and the orbit of all heavenly bodies, so Galileo is happy now.

Tesla reports two more fatal Autopilot accidents to the NHTSA

Re: ADAS failure - Johnny Cab from Total Recall

Excellent video illustrating the problems (LOL) - THANKS!

AI analysis of dinosaur tracks suggests 'predator' may have been a herbivore

Re: If you need to know ANYTHING about dinosaurs...

Kids grow up learning how to walk reliably so they have a better understanding of all the walking issues than the average person who's just watching movies. So a young kid might think, "Oh I can walk on my toes but I sway a little from side to side" while an adult might say, "Oh no, I can't do that, you're crazy."

Amazon founder Bezos to donate 'majority' of $126bn fortune

Re: A good choice version 1.1

Fair enough, as evolved monkeys we've been waiting half a million years to see "people" actually do smart things, mostly we're just happy if they are not Putin totally stupid.

A good choice

At least he's not buying Twitter - his actions suggest that he's actually a decently smart guy.

Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes's arguments for new trial deemed spurious – just like her tech

Re: Downvotes illustrate ...

"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Re: She better be careful

She was a student in college when she thought she had a potential solution to a reported problem, certainly she was wrong but the people managing her were dumber, initially thinking she was right and then running into the "let's make money" world, not the medical safety world.

NSA urges orgs to use memory-safe programming languages

Re: Well

These days Rust etc are seen as "safe" because the hackers find it easy to hack other languages, if we move ahead with the NSA plans then the hackers will start hacking Rust and all other "safe" languages.

Europe calls for joint cyber defense to ward off Russia

Re: "Cyber is the new domain in warfare"

The attacks are organized to run around all current defenses, we monitor all incoming emails, refusing anything that contains a virus and then quarantining all suspicious emails, this morning everyone (even sales@etc) in the company received emails that sailed through the AV checks and said they were from the government ...delivering a "clean" email with a PHP link in a document to "Enable you to boost your Social Security payment" ... opening the email in a secure environment and it looks real, so I think the current infection rates are normal - it will not be surprising if other people out there follow up on this and get infected.

Australia blames Russia for harboring health insurance hackers

Re: Victim Blaming?

Originally, until a year ago, I only saw a security attack on the corporate mail server every month or so, nowadays it's hourly all day long.