Posts by IvyKing

Manager showed off his DOS prowess – with a command that wiped data

Re: This had to be DOS 1.0 or 1.1

The 86-DOS command for erasing files was "ERA" and most of the early versions of DOS would accept ERA as a valid command. I got a lot of strange looks when using ERA instead of DEL.

FOSS smashed one Microsoft monopoly. After 20 years of failure, it's time to smash another

Re: Patents

I liked the way stylesheets worked on Word for DOS much better than the templates now used. The feature I really miss was being able to attach a different stylesheet to document (assumes one was consistent in naming and using the various styles).

Year-long Russian attacks infect users as soon as they look at an email

Pine.

Photovoltaics are still running after a year under Swiss trains

Re: 300 an hour?

My first thought on seeing the article was "dragging equipment" which could tear up tens of panels per minute. Interfering with ballast tamping is another issue, rail lines with a lot of freight traffic may need tamping several times a year.

Dev says Google warned him about account hijack – then charged him $11,000 anyway

Re: My recommendation for usage of Google's AI products via Google API remains:

Nice to see references to CDC software - my intro to computing involved dealing a version of Scope.

FOSS dev builds a BASIC compiler using LLVM

Wondering if the world would have been a better place had the standard PC being a 68000 running OS-9. I've heard a lot of good things about OS-9 but never had any experience with it. Multitasking on an 8 bit Micro with 64K of RAM was quite an accomplishment.

GM gets datacenter fever, decides to build grid-scale sodium-ion batteries

The GM folks are right in that energy density is not the top concern for a stationary battery. Lower cost per MWH, less need for cooling and possible lower risk of fires are more important than energy density for this application.

California passes bill declaring death-by-algorithm to 3D-printed ghost guns

Re: ridiculous

As someone who has handloaded ammunition, my impression is that you don't understand the distinction between a bullet (AKA projectile) and a cartridge (AKA round of ammunition).

The trick to making smokeless powder is controlling the burning rate - think what would happen if a .50 BMG round was loaded with Bullseye as opposed to a slow burning rifle propellant.

That an app 'Fits on a Floppy' is still a useful measure in 2026

Re: Obviously too old

"I still remember 8" floppies!"

My first computer had 8" floppies - DSDD formatted meant 1.25MB. The DSDD 8" floppies also had a data transfer rate considerably better than the 5.25" floppies and not a heck of a lot slower than the hard drives on the IBM XT.

FCC warns US broadcasters their licenses are a privilege, not a right

Re: Okay, as long as we're clear that...

The act establishing the FCC required that use of the airwaves be in the "public interest, convenience or necessity". The abuse of the public interest started with the FDR administration in the form of the "Fairness Doctrine".

Vi clone written in BASIC proves old habits :wq hard

Edlin anyone?

It should be easy to do, but does bring up the questions as to why anyone would want to.

FWIW, I do have some fond memories of Vedit.

Usage-based pricing killing your vibe - here's how to roll your own local AI coding agents

Hmmm, sounds like my M4 Pro Mini with 64G of RAM should work nicely. Also explains the run on Studio's with the 512G memory.

User found the perfect formula to make Excel misbehave

Re: Maths

IIRC, the benchmark started as an article in a 1981 issue of Byte written by a member of the San Diego Computer Society about their work on making a portable benchmark for microcomputers. The intent was to evaluate software (interpreters vs compilers and different languages) as much as to evaluate hardware. Source code for implementations in several languages were included in the article. A second article in a 1982 issue of Byte "Once More Through the Sieve", had results for more hardware and software combinations along with implementations in more languages. The upshot was compiled code ran much faster (typ 10X) than interpreted code, with interpreted COBOL being the loser. I remember writing Fortran code to run on an 8 MHz 8086 and finding out it ran twice as fast as compiled BASIC on the same hardware.

Early (1975 to ~1984) issues of Byte magazine, or other microcomputer magazines, are a trip to read as the future with micros seemed limitless.

Would you like fries with that terminal?

Not horsemeat

The scandal was some of the meat Jack in the Box got from Australia contained Kangaroo meat. A few years later an episode of Married with Children had Al Bundy working at a burger joint (Burger Trek) and muttering about a customer really liking Kangaroo meat.

NASA gets the ball rolling on its part in Europe's jinxed Mars rover mission

Why not indeed!

QUIC will soon be as important as TCP – but it's vastly different

Which a point that the article doesn't emphasize - QUIC is implemented as a protocol on top of UDP. A totally new protocol on top of IP would require changes to NAT router software, and that would take a decade to being anywhere near universal.

Here's how to watch the Artemis II splashdown

Re: What I didn't get was ...

I suspect the talker was in Houston where the local time at splashdown was 7:05PM. I was hoping for clear skies for the splashdown, but the usual SD area late afternoon clouds showed up blocking the view.

What amusing and/or alarming is that the USN had some practice with the medical evacuation of ISS a few months ago, where that team was taken directly to Scripps Memorial La Jolla in the wee hours of the morning.

RAF eyes cheap drone-killer as Typhoon jet tests laser-guided rockets

V-1's were defeated by radar controlled cannon

The combination of radar controlling guns via analog computers and shells equipped with proximity fuses downed enough of the incoming V-1's to allow fighter planes to mop up a good fraction of the rest. OTOH, rockets don't have the problems of extreme acceleration inherent with cannons and could allow for a larger explosive charge. With a proximity fuse, the guided rocket just has to get close.

Apple's last tower topples… and the others will follow

Re: Expansion cards

FWIW, the first implementation of the IDE interface was on the 1984 Compaq Deskpro. This allowed Compaq to make a card that would handle the disk, parallel port and serial port.

DR-DOS rises again – rebuilt from scratch, not open source

Re: Not vibe coding in asm86

1987 not 1980 per the linked article.

The Wendin logo looks familiar, probably running across it in computer mags from the 1986-87. For even more trivia on multi-user/multi-tasking DOS, the literature for 86-DOS specifically mentioned a multi-user version and when DOS 2.0 came around, comments about the new device driver interface suggested some features were put in to support multi-tasking.

As for ASM coding, one of the big helps in understanding what's going was Stephen Morse's book on the 8086, specifically how some instructions were intended to be used.

Re: DR DOS 3.41 was from 1989, not 1981

I was about to make a similar correction. In 1981, 86-DOS was in the process of being converted to PC/MS-DOS and DRI was still busy trying to get CP/M-86 out the door.

Those who 'circle back' and 'synergize' also tend to be crap at their jobs

Re: I'll pass this on to management

Then there was the Dilbert comic from about 20 years ago where Dilbert and the PHB were engaging in corporate speak. The final panel was the text "Dear reader, if you or any of your loved understood the preceding dialog, you have our deepest sympathy."

Apple’s MacBook Neo turns out to be its most repairable lappy in 14 years

Re: Based on pricing of M1 Macbooks

I'd be willing to bet that the Walmart M1 MBA's were a marketing test by Apple to see if a laptop designed for the education market would be attractive to normal consumers.

Chromebook replacement

Apple designed the Neo to make it attractive to school districts to replace Chromebooks. This meant that the Neo had to meet a strict cost to manufacture target and it also had to be reparable by district technicians.

Nanny state discovers Linux, demands it check kids' IDs before booting

Re: Playboy - the science fiction magazine

FWIW, "Wind From The Sun" was first published as "Sunjammers" in Boy's Life.

US state laws push age checks into the operating system

The Cal state Assembly has 80 members, so the 58-0 is actually 58 yes, 0 no, 22 abstain.

Chardet dispute shows how AI will kill software licensing, argues Bruce Perens

Re: Software patents as well?

The billionaires in California DO pay taxes, the top 100 or so taxpayers pay around 10% of the state tax haul. California does not have a lower tax rate for long term capital gains, so a not inconsequential amount of that tax comes from inflation.

Apple's budget-friendly MacBook Neo is bursting with color and compromise

You can do other things with the port that's used for charging

I had a 2017 model MacBook Pro that just had 2 USB-C ports, though both were USB 3.0. One of the dongles purchased for that MBP was a multi port AV adapter that had an HDMI socket, a USB-A port and a USB-C port for the power cable. Seems to me that this should work just fine with the Neo. The 2017 MBP was replaced with an M3 MBP that came with Magsafe, 3 USB-C/Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI socket and an SD card reader meaning the only dongles needed were USB-A to USB-C and an Ethernet adapter.

Microsoft boffins cook up archival storage using Pyrex glass they say can last over 10,000 years

Re: Do they make their own Pyrex?

One easy to tell difference between real Pyrex and ersatz "pyrex" is the color. If the glass has a greenish tinge, that's a dead giveaway the cookware is made from soda-lime glass and not borosilicate glass.

Final step to put new website into production deleted it instead

In SoCal the Albertsons stores use the Vons name and the Kroger stores use the Ralphs name. I'm not sure how Lucky we are to have only a few grocery store chains still around.

FWIW, Lucky was the name of a grocery store chain common in SoCal a30 to 40 years ago.

US is moving ahead with colocated nukes and datacenters

Re: 50% efficiency

Large LWR plants are typically 33% efficient, with the limit imposed by the 1000psi saturated steam. The HTGR's were supposed to be 38% efficient and early LMFBR plant designs were calling for 40+ efficiency before issues with swelling of fuel cladding became known.

The ultra-critical coal plants are supposed to be 45% efficient and the latest combined cycle combustion turbine plants are reaching 61% efficiency. The high efficiency of the combined cycle plant really pays off in areas short of cooling water.

Reviving a CIDCO MailStation – the last Z80 computer

Ah - Kaypro... I remember seeing the "factory" in Solana Beach, and 2.5 decades later my kids were going to middle school just north of the site.

A co-worker had a high voltage probe my by Non-Linear Systems, which became KayPro.

Study confirms experience beats youthful enthusiasm

Re: No s**t

Reminds of a saying: "Good judgement comes from experience, experience comes from exercising bad judgement." Getting burned by some undocumented or poorly documented "feature" leaves a lasting impression on one's mind - and someone fresh out of school is unlikely to have come across these "features".

Challenger at 40: The disaster that changed NASA

Re: It's all down to politics

The SRB's were made by Thiokol, not Rockwell. Hercules was the other Utah based SRB manufacturer at that time, but both facilities are now part of Northrop Grumman.

How CP/M-86's delay handed Microsoft the keys to the kingdom

IBM did make an 8086 based system about the same time as the 5150 was released. One reason given for the 8088 was that a 16 bit data bus would be more expensive than an 8 bit data bus.

One other reason given for MS getting the nod for the OS was that Bill Gates' mom had connections at IBM.

Everybody has a theory about why Nvidia dropped $20B on Groq - they're mostly wrong

Re: Dataflow architectures

I remember the BYTE article on dataflow architectures being the "new big thing". ISTR this was a mid 1980's issue, with BYTE's publication ending with the July 1998 issue.

Seems to me that the most common use is for signal processing as shown by the number of MAC blocks in most large FPGAs.

You don't need Linux to run free and open source software

Re: Amazingly title happens to be correct;

>The OG MIT License came in to being most likely in 1987, the OG BSD License definetly came to being in 1988, while the OG GPL came into being in 1989... AND RMS was working at MIT when he wrothe the OG GPL. So, if anything, MIT and BSD influenced the GPL not the other way around.

>Without MIT and BSD we would probably not have the GPL...

It could be said that the BSD license was influenced by the license SPICE was released with and SPICE was developed in the 1970's. SPICE being Simulation Package for Integrated Circuit Electronics.

Re: Nice to see Pegasus Mail is still around

FWIW, the IT guy did pay for the company's use of Pegasus Mail.

Nice to see Pegasus Mail is still around

I used Pegasus Mail from 1993 to 1997 as it was the preferred corporate email client in that time period. I found it easier to use than Outlook.

Re: And...

I was able to move my Thunderbird data from Solaris to MacOS with no major problems. A number of years ago, I was able to move Eudora data from my wife's first laptop to T-bird on a newer laptop.

Memory is running out, and so are excuses for software bloat

Re: Gonna get expensive!

The monitor debugger that was used by many of the early 6800 powered micro's was hard coded to start at 32K. The thinking at the time was that no one would have anything close to 32K of memory. The original MS-BASIC had a version that would run in 4K.

Re: Lovely idea - no chance of it ever happening

The "rendir.com" (rename directory) that shipped with SCP's version of MS-DOS 2.0 took up all of 47 bytes on the disk.

Starlink satellite fails, polluting orbit with debris and falling toward Earth

Re: Not content

The satellite and debris are in a low orbit, which means the drag from the atmosphere will quickly remove the objects from orbit. IIRC, SpaceX deploys the satellites at a lower orbit and then has the satellites boost themselves to the operational orbit. That way, a DOA bird will de-orbit in a relatively short time.

In case of a real Kessler Syndrome event, the lowest orbits will be cleared out in a relatively short time, but the more useful orbits will need some sort of active clearing to become usable.

UNIX V4 tape successfully recovered: First ever version of UNIX written in C is running again

IOW, UNIX is to Linux the way that CP/M is to QDOS/86-DOS/MS-DOS with both Linux and DOS written from scratch to emulate an earlier OS. The earliest fork of UNIX was BSD, which was released with license terms similar to the license that used with the release of SPICE.

Purdue makes 'AI working competency' a graduation requirement

Re: And that means...what?!?

One would hope that "thinking critically about AI" means taking AI output with a very large grain of salt.

Re: “his BS degree”

The troll icon was appropriate for your post.

There was intent in my post to suggest anything negative about his degree, the comment about CAD was based his experience learning SolidWorks in high school compared with freshmen who apparently had no significant exposure to CAD prior to their start at Purdue. A related note, we went computer shopping with him, popped into a Best Buy and was pleasantly surprised that the sales droids had a decent clue. Turns out the younger one was an EE major at Purdue.

President Chiang was rather dismissive about AI in his speech at the 2023 graduation ceremony where my son was getting his BS degree. To be fair, he was commenting on the quality of AI generated text as opposed to applications where AI may be of real benefit. From what my son has said about his working with freshmen, it sounds like more emphasis is needed on CAD, although AI may be of help with dealing with CAD.

WatchGuard sounds alarm as critical Firebox flaw comes under active attack

Glad to see I wasn't the only one confusing "b" and "f"!

Ford shifts gears to build batteries for datacenters

A home sized battery system would be of interest to me, especially if it could do a whole house back-up.