* Posts by Denarius

2178 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Jun 2009

Rancher faces prison for trying to breed absolute unit of a sheep

Denarius
Joke

dunno, may be he had an idea

but went about it wrongly. Cross with the most vicious mountain big horn sheep. Hunters have to rock climb (no safety gear) to hunt said sheep. With swords and spears only. Cull both species at same time and a great challenge worth bragging about. Especially if they have to eat it all except horns and guts to be let out of hunting reserve ?

Denarius

fluffy docile things !!!

WT? Clearly you have not handled commercial sheep. A stroppy ram or worse, b* Dorpers in a bad mood. I have to consistently remove individuals that show escape artist abilities to keep the flock mostly controllable so they dont contaminate next properties stud business of some sheep breed the Romans brought to Britain. Said removals taste delicious. My fear is that the rules may create even more docile voters who fail to rebel against the fake alternatives offered at every election in the ruins of the West.

Boeing paper trail goes cold over door plug blowout

Denarius

Very Sus

even we mere amateur recreational pilots/maintenance crew must have a paper trail. Anything done is on the planes log book. Issues found by whom and when. Issues examined, repaired by whom and when. If FAA were serious, all aircraft in last year that passed thru the maintenance site would be grounded and all work re-certified where no correct documentation exists. With deep full auditing for compliance. Perhaps the costs could come from Boing manglement bonuses and salaries of last ten years. If one is responsible for average performance then one is responsible for incompetent performance, not the shareholders.

Elon and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad legal week

Denarius

Re: What is it with these hard-right muppets?

@Winky*. what is this right you speak of ? Looks like the usual stiff the peasants by the wealthy to me. Terms right and left have become meaningless IMHO. Choices are between self appointed, usually at taxpayers expense, bureaucracies who dress differently but both want to micromanage everyones lives, both want a populace infested by Maos "self criticism " to keep dissent uncertain and weak. All want unaccountable power because the high priesthood leaders know best.

It's that most wonderful time of the year when tech cannot handle the date

Denarius

Re: Oh, come on - this is elementary

how old is Zellers Conguence ? 19th century. FFS

On-disk format change beckons for brave early adopters of Bcachefs

Denarius

Re: I don't trust btrfs either...

same here. Lost /. Not able to recover it using forensic tools enough to find a log entry explaining why. Fortunately I keep /home and data partitions on XFS or if I must, ext4 as well as backed up. Looking at you AntiX.

FAA gives Boeing 90 days to fix serious safety shortcomings found in report

Denarius

so why not just shut Boing (sic) down ?

Rot is too deep. Shut it down except for maintenance only component/CA authority to keep existing working planes safe until end of life. Chinas QA cant be much worse and CAC would like some customers. No doubt Airbus would like that and there may be room for a newer business to step up.

New solvent might end winter charging blues for EV owners

Denarius
Trollface

Re: Fluoroacetonitrile

perfect ! just like all other save the planet solutions

Palantir boss says outfit's software the only reason the 'goose step' has not returned to Europe

Denarius

Re: Only the Americans

Language expert found in 1970s facsism had about 52 meanings then. Now a meaningless perjoritive IMHO. As for the goosestep, one dance step is like another these days. All jerky movements "Steady Eddy" would envy. As for reality of state and private sector organisations acting together to manage the proles, too late. As anyone following Twatter/AntiSocial media news releases would know.

Google Maps leads German tourists to week-long survival saga in Australian swamp

Denarius

Re: Unless I'm mistaken...

Given how Google "Maps" stuffs up even simple trips on Newel Highway Canberra to Cairns, one is mad to trust it. Stay on main roads unless side road is destination. Other manufacturers GPS have some unbelievably incorrect route guidance around Narromine. ie shortest route can be 100 kms longer down farm tracks than just staying on major roads. In Oz there are many disused tracks and roads, especially in North. Just in 40 years dirt roads between communities can be moved tens of Km due to severe Wet damage or surveyors whim.

From the air while flying I see roads that have been there for decades and still not on any maps. Interestingly, the Rural Fire Brigade maps do have these plus obscure tracks so the data is known.

China breakthrough promises optical discs that store hundreds of terabytes

Denarius

buzzword bingo

Sounds too much like. Another wonder technology announced then blackholed with no accretion disk emission

Juniper sued over HPE buyout after allegedly ginning up execs' wallets

Denarius
Unhappy

isnt this normal for HP ?

Buy a company, find they overpaid again then go after senior manglement who have stiffed the shareholders, staff while stuffing their wallets. ie normal modern business. It is not capitalism but typical of aristocratic run oligopolies.

A visa to fill Australia's empty tech jobs is getting more expensive, but maybe better value

Denarius

Re: Left the country.

Fred, nailed it. The dichotomy in Oz is astonishing in its longevity and falsity. The manglement classes continue generations old cultural cringe and dislike of local innovation, choosing inferior foreign solutions. Whereas the doers are confident and largely competent to be innovative and creative.

Denarius

Re: Left the country.

my work experience suggests the same. There were a few good IT managers, but I suspect many of them are failed wannbe techies who are out for revenge on those who made it.

Denarius

yes, thats why many of them move here. Felt sorry for them on recent trip to NZ. Oz prices, NZ wages.

Denarius

Re: Mandatory BS Bingo

see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwCD6DZCg7U

Denarius

Re: Twas ever thus

IMHO, ACS are a good example of Bernard Shaws aphorism that all professions are conspiracies against the laity. Fundamentally seems to box tick university courses done, not qualifications. But perhaps I am overly cynical as no-one I worked with regarded ACS as relevant. OTOH, the pollies seemed to think the reverse. Who am I to question Dear Leaders competence

Denarius

given the some of the scruff I see arriving when I travel, Oz needs to deport more at the border faster, especially the Italian suit wearing mob with Pm and Merkin passports

Denarius
Flame

Mandatory BS Bingo

IMNSHO, as Oz firms often want 5 years experience in 2 year old technologies, I assume that misrepresentation skills are required. Required skills sets include concurrent ZoS, Unix, M$ servers, Office, half a dozen odd Java based middlewares and that for the junior positions. Actual needs for the positions are usually off the shelf skills and basic BS to get past the HR gatekeepers. Above based on feedback from IT Pimps.

As for firms, one may be fortunate. A few Oz managed companies do consider staff welfare. For everyone of them there are a dozen local companies run by psychopaths in training from Merkinland or Oz wannabes. Both committed to lower pay, worsening conditions and overcharging clients. Enjoy! Hoofie is right, slash, burn and exploit are running rampant in Oz. Then the PHB class wonder why there is no loyalty and no-one training to do IT. And I wont get started on the appalling low quality of the IT university graduate, despite some of them being smart and hardworking. I encourage my grandchildren to avoid IT and do a trade instead. Better money, shorter hours and highly portable skills.

Drowning in code: The ever-growing problem of ever-growing codebases

Denarius
Flame

UI standardised ?

I really have to take issue with that. Usable interface on Office up to Office 2003. Now all M$ produce is software with a thousand ways to meddle with fonts and not much else, requiring 20/40 vision. As for Android. spit, spit. Android devices or old Nokia would intuitive. My phones in last 10 years have become a source of intense irritation as standard activities like deleting logs of calls and SMS get harder to find. If there are UI standards, the old saw applies. Many standards to choose from. Most of them wrong. I can see why Apple devices are popular.

As for main intent of article, spot on. I have an early Pentium with Win3.1 that boots faster than lightweight Linices on multicore machines, early Office where documents and spreadsheets get produced very quickly. Cant relay on such old kit, but it is not frustrating while it works. Even grandkids Win98 box with DOS 16 bit games runs well with a fraction of the resources that i7 main PC uses to do similar basic office activities. In a past life I noted that applications developed in house in some Federal government departments hung around for decades because they "just worked". Their modern shiny shiny attempted replacements built by contractors never "just worked" and were incomplete after millions were spent. I wonder if some big organisation took on 6 COBOL programmers of the old school who did the full life cycle design and wrote code to do same as say, SAP payroll. I suspect COBOL code would be a fraction of size, resources and cost to run. Other languages may do also so long as it enforced strong data typing.

As for Oberon, maybe adapt it to a Pi or similar and see where that leads as young learners develop and move into workforce. Be a 40 year project

The spyware business is booming despite government crackdowns

Denarius

Re: $860K per target?

they dont have to. Your telco, ISP, antiSocial media and financial records do most of it at your expense in fees and charges. All automatically slurped.

Alaska Airlines' door-dropping flight was missing bolts

Denarius

Re: Major major cock-up

doesnt matter who or where work was done. Even we recreational pilots and maintainers know that all fasteners and components come out into clean containers for each kind. Replaced components are placed into tray away from new components. On reassembly at least one other person confirms each component has gone back into correct location. Never been around when bits were "left over". Maybe only decade of experience explains that. OTOH, watching a diesel mechanic rebuild a 330 KW turbo diesel engine for gen set decades ago I noted the same practices. Culture of doing it right first time seems to be necessary in training maintenance staff, unlike, I regret to say, IT.

Two of India's most prominent startup tech giants are in deep trouble

Denarius

Dunno about you lot

but when a company starts to "buy" sponsorship of footbrawl or other big commercial sports teams I start looking for other firms to buy from if possible. Without fail the board and CEO will be getting bonuses and salary packaging utterly unconnected to their competence or lack thereof. Decades ago the equivalent was buying a corporate jet was a sign of company deathwish. Now its branding exercises

Aircraft rivet hole issues cause delays to Boeing 737 Max deliveries

Denarius

Re: And then there's the engine inlet problem...

Curtis Wright went bust decades ago. Probably after the failure of the CW X19 VTOL project

Developer's default setting created turbulence in the flight simulator

Denarius

Re: Fuses?

back when I were a lad, learning software coding, the instructors stated often that all variables should be per-initialised. It saved me a few times from cockups when the default value showed a logic error, usually after multiple successful runs. Is initialising variables not done anymore ?

Space exploitation vs space exploration: Humanity has much to learn from the Voyager probes

Denarius

Re: no society has lasted anything like a thousand years so far.

China ? unified inbetween savage civil wars every 300 years or so. See China a Dark History

Leaked email: Unit4 ERP system leaves some school staff with 'nil pay'

Denarius

root cause

Is it possible that modern "hiring processes" have a strong bias employ to skilled BS artists as they pass the buzzword bingo AI and string search systems use to select candidates ? This implies actual competency is irrelevant

It's true, LLMs are better than people – at creating convincing misinformation

Denarius

history as BS detector

So reading history, psychiatry or social studies done before 1975 might give one a feel for reality, unlike the manufactured BS on antisocial media and most of the internet ? Perhaps Russian fiction like Crime and Punishment helps also

Top Linux distros drop fresh beats

Denarius

will retry MX linux

On my test PCs, previous releases of Antix and MX linux worked very well on initial install. Any upgrade and either lost sound (MX Linux) or desktop froze. Could not find a fix or workaround. Back to vanilla Devuan and LXDE. AntiX appeal is its very low memory use. Doesnt seem to cache everything so smaller laptops stand a chance of using it for basic requirements.

Boeing goes boing: 757 loses a wheel while taxiing down the runway

Denarius
Joke

you lot missed it

Wheels finally coming off Boeing

Drivers: We'll take that plain dumb car over a flashy data-spilling internet one, thanks

Denarius

@werdsmith

Instead of an automatic choke that chokes, all the B* time if my 1970s cars (in the 1970s) were any example. Installing a manual choke on a 4WD replacing the autochoke made it easier to start, halved the fuel consumption, you get my drift.

Denarius

@JB

Nein kamerad. I remember sitting in cars with manual wipers. Driving tractors with no sync so double declutching and Citroens with manual spark advance. When cars got user friendly items like auto windscreen wipers, automatic gear boxes and electronic ignitions it was seen as progress. Even engine management systems were a great step forward. Howls of complaint only started when uncommanded actions started, like having to fight steering to avoid potholes, craters and idiots. Even worse are the constant distractions of beeps, hoots etc. Since 2010 INMHO, vehicles have got user unfriendly. Interestingly, the complaints come from all age groups in my rural paradise, not just we matures.

Denarius

Re: will it work unconnected?

@Spencer. You mean vast areas of Oz will become new car free ? An upside to Oz crap comms. Wait, did someone say StarLink ?

Still the EVs will be few so scrub fires after sociallising with goats, pigs and kangaroos will stay few and seriously far between

Infosys co-founder doubles down on call for 70-hour work weeks

Denarius
Flame

Re: "fewer than one in five women work formally"

@Pascal. Ageist twaddle. 70 plus year olds can change their minds if (a), persuaded by demonstrable information, (b) not emoted at as if deaf, ignorant or stupid for disagreeing with 18 year old first year uni student who has never had responsibility. However, regardless of age, a truism holds as follows. It is very hard to change someones mind if their job/wealth/position depends on not knowing something.

Also to be considered. Some people have ideas. Some ideas have people. Lastly a quotation about a Roman soldier comes to mind about having suffered, he saw no need to reduce the suffering of others. That may be appropriate in this not uncommon case. Most of us have managed to attend meetings in body, but not mind.

Adios, dead zones: Starlink relays SMS in space for unmodified phones on Earth

Denarius

thats Oz out of contention

Pity, we could use coverage outside major cities. In remote areas even SMS would be appreciated. But partnering with the telco that handed all customers details to intruders and bills customers for billing fees means not a snowflakes chance in a MAGA rally I will risk it.

Silicon Valley weirdo's quest to dodge death – yours for $333 a month

Denarius

Re: Must be a fan of Lady Cassandra

Too late for him. Someones been there, done that. I think Dr Mosely interviewed some USA bloke who lived on a starvation diet for most of his life, based on the longevity of starved mice findings. The diet didnt work for longevity, with bloke dying in his 60s. The dieter was reportedly healthier than other USAians in earlier ages. Which, IMHO, isnt saying much.

AI flips the script on fingerprint lore – maybe they're not so unique after all

Denarius

Re: No Evidence for Uniqueness

somewhere, probably on ElReg, 3? years ago was an article on genetic drivers of fingerprint differences which suggested IIRC, that everyone had about 3 fingerprint clones.

India to launch with SpaceX's Falcon 9 for the first time

Denarius

so thats China done, dusted and dead

Flying cars, a sign of engineering death wish

Open source's new mission: To boldly go where no software has gone before

Denarius
Trollface

Re: Only for a specific type of open source, and only from a certain viewpoint

>> Commercial software in general absolutely attempts to provide for the users' needs

Have you tried to use SAP ????

Swarms of laser-flown bots visiting a planet light years away – and more NASA-funded projects revealed

Denarius

Mars flight at mach 0.25 ?

So why is Airbus and ESA funding Perlan Project to get to 100,000 feet on Earth at which point the glider will have parts of wing airflow supersonic? Lower gravity will help but indicates to generate any useful lift Mach 0.5 will be required. Also avoiding Mons Olympus which sticks out of Mars atmosphere.

Road to Removal: A blueprint for yanking billions of tons of CO2 out of our atmosphere

Denarius

Re: Natural CO2

{S} and the coming population crash isn't a problem ? Ask Singapore, South Korea, Japan and China how their population projections are for 2050, 2100. I note author fails to address the increase in coal burning in China and Africa which swamps CO2 emissions reductions elsewhere.

Code archaeologist digs up oldest known ancestor of MS-DOS

Denarius

rats, memories

somewhere in my shed, among old stuff going out is a QDOS 5.25 disk. About 3 appropriate drives under dust in there too. I wonder if anything can be made to work so disk image can be made ?

Scientists mull Solar Radiation Management – a potential climate-change stop-gap

Denarius

Re: Its pretty easy to

too late, already have. See Demographic collapse on a search engine that works. Why else is uncontrolled immigration allowed or ignored by assorted overlords ?

Is it time for 6G already? Traffic analysis says yep

Denarius

Re: it would be great

nope. Blaming the beeping lot, telcos, technology, Tom Cobbly and all because all promises of pie in the sky (or spectrum) are BS. Remember when a 56k dialup modem on a 486 was faster on a web page than the bloated 20 second loading of a dozen tracking scripts plus intrusive adds make a near current PC slow ? As for filling in gaps, my point is in Oz it does exact opposite unless one is under the widely spaced telco towers. My last long distance drive, a mere 1600 km each way north had the same coverage as it did 10 years ago despite lots of BS from assorted telcos about improved coverage.

Denarius
Flame

it would be great

if only the crap 4G was as good as 3G for basic comms. In rural Oz, as well as most cities, none of these digital crap standards had the coverage of the old analogue. In Oz every G upgrade means having to find a higher hill to climb to get an SMS thru, despite newer phones being more sensitive. So just once, get coverage and performance back to where it was with 3G before rolling out yet another crapware standard that only delivers faster scammer calls. Most of us just dont care that some idiot video feed is faster when one stands under a telco tower.

Here's who thinks AI chatbots will eventually be smart enough to be your coworker

Denarius

Re: wasting an enormeous amount of time with meetings-that-should-really-be-emails.

Coming soon. AI driven Email storms as users AIs consult with manglement AIs who need to schedule meetings about scheduling meetings while HR AIs are inventing new courses to use all the "empty" time slots their AIs see. Makes the old email storms look mild. If any of the AIs are as useless as smart anythings I suspect the best communication process will be watercooler conferences or coffee club gatherings, leaving the IT devices to waste energy moving electrons

Postgres pioneer Michael Stonebraker promises to upend the database once more

Denarius

BEOS

Didnt BEOS developers try something like this and fail like WinFS ? Does sound like Pick and similar to an unreleased version of Unix used only inside AT&T with native DB calls in kernel. SNOBOL springs to mind also back on 8086 chips but may well be faulty recollection. With his track record, the results should be interesting.

Infosys loses ten-year, $1.5 billion contract announced just three months ago

Denarius

Are Fujitsu clearing the decks

to buy the ruins of IBM and take over the mainframe monopoly ?

Microsoft prescribes command-line surgery for HP Smart app malady

Denarius

buyout coming ?

does this mean M$ and HP are in merger or buyout talks on the quiet ? Suggest M$ buying printer ink producer because of the commonalities in manglement attitude to "customers"