Posts by wayne 8

If we can't fix this printer tonight, the bank's core app will stop working

Re: Yawn

I had a situation where the year end print of the general ledger involved multiple boxes of fanfold and a cranky chain printer.

I would get the print job going and would sleep on the carpet (thank Arioch it was not in a real data center) until awoken whenever the printer would go quiet.

I coded the software and ran the jobs, thus I was a DevOp prior to 1980. And a bit of a BOFH.

A benefit to the job was a location not far from Times Square (pre-Disney) and a pub that served litres of German beer.

Stop lights, sunsets, junctions are tough work for Google's robo-cars

Re: Four Way Stop...

First to stop, first to go.

In case of a tie yield to the driver on the your right.

In case of oncoming vehicle with left turn signal on, make eye contact, and allow the opposing vehicle turn before proceeding or not.

It is a collision avoidance multiple access network.

Some drivers sit at the stop sign and wait until another vehicle comes to a complete stop before proceeding, no matter how slow the approach. They are not optimized for throughput.

Air gap breached by disk drive noise

Re: Network interface?

You forget Mossad, the source.

Power cut crashes Delta's worldwide flight update systems

Re: Single point of failure

Delta management is not the sharpest corporate tool.

Render crashing PCs back to their component silicon: They deserve it

Re: Dune

Or do a search with "private idaho and dune novel"

Did the Russians really hack the DNC or is this another Sony Pictures moment? You decide

Tu use Hillary's own words...

"What difference, at this point, does it make?"

The REAL issue is the content of the emails, which the DNC has not denied and avoids discussing.

The DNC took a crap on the primary process. Someone leaked emails that detail the shenanigans and the discussions at high levels concerning the tactics.

Finger pointing. How childish.

Bomb-disposal robot violently disposes of Dallas cop-killer gunman

RotM?

Whatever happened to RotM?

The Tesla decap?

This robotic Judge Dredd?

Is El Reg now absorbed into the Collective?

You can’t sit there, my IoT desk tells me

Re: I know that feeling well...

The young'uns like having their smartphones encouraging them and rewarding them. Even an app for brushing the teeth connected to an IoT toothbrush, in your mouth.

Philando Castile death-by-cop vid mysteriously vanishes from Facebook

Procedure for a CCW holder

There is a customary procedure to follow when pulled over.

The officer rarely jumps out and runs up to the vehicle. There is a period of time while he calls the stop in and reports the plate, etc. and waits for any wants or warrants. That is the time when the driver should get their ID ready. Especially for a CCW holder. Have open hands on the wheel.

Then there is no reaching for something when the officer is vulnerable at the window.

Everybody goes home.

Martha Lane Fox: Brexit is all about MEEEEeeee!

Re: Reduced to a TLA

Why do you think ElReg used "MLF" every chance they could in the article?

I read it the same as you.

Microsoft's Windows 10 nagware goes FULL SCREEN in final push

Re: HULU business model. M$$$$$

Hulu.

Three tiers.

Lowest - Free. Restricted content. Frequent commercial breaks.

Middle - $. Access to more content, Still has ads.

Highest - $$. Same content as Middle without ads.

Windows is devolving to the packaged cable TV business model.

Already there is a monthly subscription for Office.

They may have more product engineers, than code developers working on code, trying to determine how best to slice up the Windows Experience TM into monetized packages.

PS: Does the "Most Secure Windows Ever" really mean that much?

PPS:

Q: What is a large resource on planet Earth, that self buys the extraction equipment, self operates the extraction equipment, and queues up to be monetized?

A: Humans.

Re: A final throw of the M$ dice before?

Is this your first ever visit to El Reg?

Man killed in gruesome Tesla autopilot crash was saved by his car's software weeks earlier

Imagine this crash with, instead of a Tesla car, an 18 wheeler tractor/trailer combo loaded up and moving out. How about a convoy, Rubber Duck?

http://m.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/06/robot_lorries_on_a_roll_in_vegas/

"The Freightliner Inspiration Truck operates on a system called Highway Pilot, an automated cruise control setting which is intended to allow the driver to relax and, for instance, read The Register while avoiding Decepticons road hazards."

Note the date of the article, 2015/05/06, the day before the Tesla fatal incident.

Wonder if that truck is still on the road here in Nevada. There is no news since the 2016/05/06 PR.

Tin foil hats ON. The day after the PR, a trucker whose livelihood could be threatened by automation, crosses the road the road in front of a speeding Tesla.

"Why did the truck cross the road?"

BOFH: Follow the paper trail

Re: Ah, the myth of the rational person

Marketing Tool, Mark 1.

Should we teach our kids how to program humanity out of existence?

Interfacing the duplo with a lego system.

Re: Programming or coding?

Use the 80/20 rule.

80% of coding could be done visually with predefined code blocks and objects. Challenging, but ho hum. Code monkeys.

Leaving 20% of coding that needs a dev who can visualize the solution to solve a new situation.

I would rather work on the 20% issues, coming up with new solutions.

I learned to code, then I was able to understand calculus by coding the formulas into a computer and printing (ascii art) the integral, etc. The finer the granularity of the iterations gets a closer approximation of the answer. I could see what was going on. I was math phobic up until that moment.

Later I taught remedial math for a summer to sixth grade boys. One issue was multiplying a four digit number by a three digit number, they were all sure they could not do it. I broke the problem into the smaller steps they could grasp. The ahh moments followed. They had learned basic, general problem solving.

The point being the ability to visualize lower level details matters sometimes.

Re: Programming or coding?

For reality show add various team members, including a raj, interrupting every five to seven minutes.

The raj will ask "how long will it take to complete the code?" To which I responded, "It will now take the amount of time I have spent talking to you plus whatever time it takes."

I never got promoted there, but the raj never bothered me again.

Get ready for Google's proprietary Android. It's coming – analyst

Re: If it's true or false

Windsor could be "controlled opposition", a Google asset to release the worst possible predictions to the public. Google can say "No, no, we are not going to do anything that. What we are going to do is...[something not as bad, but still in our interests and not yours]."

Verizon! to! bid! $3bn! for! Yahoo!'s assets!

Adding Yahoo! to their AOL acquisition.

A while ago VZ, for some strange reason, acquired AOL. Ad revenue? A currency collection from no longer existing nations? Confederate dollars. Zimbabwe trillion notes.

angelfire? excite?

Seriously, I took the AOL deal as a sign that VZ no longer had a viable business model for future growth.

Selling phones on the installment plan, then announcing they were securitizing those loans ata discount for operating cash, was when I knew my decision to retire was correct.

'UnaPhone' promises Android privacy by binning Google Play

Re: "scrubs out and falsifies information that [..] would allow carriers to identify the handset"

I think what they should be doing is hiding the phone's identity and calling information from Android/Google. Should be like FF in Privacy mode. Do not track, etc. No cookies, etc.

I do not care about Verizon. They need to know me, I am their customer.

It is the third party apps and Google (and NSA by extension) that bother me.

One time I got bothered by unremovable Verizon bloatware and I rooted a Droid. Installed the bare bones Android flavor of the month. I installed google apks. Boom, phone was stuffed with Google's bloatware. The Verizon stuff was minimal compared to all of the services Google requires.

Battery life is a lot longer, when Google Sync is disabled and location services disabled.

One black hole, three galaxies, four BEELION solar masses – found by accident

Re: Uni-*

And yet uni-versities have proliferated and the term is applied to small scale education venues.

What is called the universe, may not be the only one.

No time and space before the big bang. Infinite energy. Our Big Bang. Still infinite energy. Why not another big bang.

Google, Facebook's CAPTCHAs vanquished by security researchers

Re: Subheadline

I was reading the article to find out about the middle class jobs solving CAPTCHA's. Sounds like a good gig.

Not up to El Reg's pithy subheadline standards.

How the FBI will lose its iPhone fight, thanks to 'West Coast Law'

Re: Hyperbole

You must have forgotten about RIM's selling spy equipment to the Gulf states to spy on their citizens using Blackberrys.

How one of the poorest districts in the US pipes Wi-Fi to families – using school buses

Wow, politicos actually use common sense and use what they have available.

Wow. And in California of all places.

Layoffs! Lawsuits! Losses! ... Yahoo! is! in! an! L! of! a! mess!

Re: Excite, still going.

Excite is still out there. My son made a comment "excite.com still exists?" when I mentioned excite.com the other day.

The Excite email continues to work with no added hassles.

If I had a TV the TV listings would still be useful.

Yahoo! not so much. Though I will look up a stock quote on Finance occassionally.

Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016

Re: Five technologies you shouldn't bother looking out for in 2016

"find drivers" "configure OS" - Have you any personal experience with Linux Mint in the last five years?

Put your private parts on display if you want to keep earning a living

HR is not for Humans.

HR is doing their job correctly as designed.

HR is not there FOR Humans, HR exists to protect the CORP FROM Humans.

They are not an emoployee's advocate in any way.

Microsoft’s Get Windows 10 nagware shows signs of sentience

If you like your current Windows..

"If you like your current Windows, you can keep your current Windows."

Later, you discover Windows 10 is the only Windows in the new plan.

US Marines kill noisy BigDog robo-mule for blowing their cover

Re: "Warfighter"?

As opposed to "peacekeeper".

Sysadmin's £100,000 revenge after sudden sacking

Management Error

Who was tracking the project and making sure milestones and deliverables were being met? Thus knowing what was outstanding and needed to be handled if at anytime James was hit by a train, bus, or lorry.

Who decided James was redundant without knowing details of James' responsibilies?

I bet they also have an extensive Disaster Recovery Plan. Not.

Verizon, the final Frontier: Landlines, TV, ISP biz to explore strange new worlds

Verizon Business Plan?

Left with the Wireless and Government business units?

Wireless is going full *tard into consumer loan origination with device installment plans, then packaging those loans and selling for immediate cash to fund operations. Banking on the IoT to create a billion wireless subscriptions for new business.

Government. Contracts. NSA access. Secure government wireless against non-NSA types.

VZ retirees banking on dividend income might not count on that in 2016.

'Dear Daddy...' Max Zuckerberg’s Letter back to her Father

Re: Perhaps, just perhaps...

Factor in increases in health technology which enables more viable pregnancies; enables more infants to reach childhood; enables more children to attain sexual maturity; than in the past.

This technology is delivered to cultures where the rutting behavior of males to create more conceptions gives better survival odds for the culture.

With no change in sexually aggressive behavior of the males, the population grows beyond sustainability.

So yes, increasing economic opportunity for females is the obvious solution.

Ex-GCHQ chief: Bulk access to internet comms not same as mass surveillance

It shall come to pass

Despite massive objections from the regular people, they will implement it in some form and do what they want anyway.

It is about wealth passing to the privileged few from the national treasury and taxes on regular peoples activities.

Us Yanks call it the Military Industrial Complex.

Pre-WW2 Germans called it "National Socialism."

Sun of a b... Solar winds blamed for ripping away Mars' atmosphere

Re: Mars Dome

I have Total Recall about domes on Mars. I was a secret agent...

Hey, Facebook – these are the new Like buttons you should have used

UMMM

Great buttons. Can we haz for El Reg forum posts? Can we? Please?

VW’s case of NOxious emissions: a tale of SMOKE and MIRRORS?

Re: 'Greater Good', or emissions trading

"Then it displays in front of me a figure declaring how much CO2 is has saved using this trick."

And you trust that figure is correct, becuase it makes you feel good?

Straight from the horse's mouth: It's October 7 for Pure's IPO

Party like it's 1999

1. Not profitable, yet.

2. Burning cash.

3. IPO for more cash.

4. Profit? Somebody will, most likely is the underwriter gnomes.

For just $400 you can have this Raspberry Pi – and mine bitcoin

and former US treasury secretary Larry Summers

That is all I need to know to stay away.

Russian regulator bans PornHub for its ‘illegal pornography’

Re: But would Russia ...

Blind Faith 1969.

Re: There is prob a gay video

Obama's closet door is wide open.

Dutch efforts to decapitate Pirate Bay could end up before ECJ

Google "The Pirate Bay"; click link to TPB

I used Google to get to TPB. Now go after Google.

Indian music streaming service Ganaa hacked, site yanked offline

inappropriate thumbnail?

Questionable taste in using a thumbnail of violence in India's recent past. I am not usually PC, but I do have to point this one out.

Sex disease surge in US state partly blamed on hook-up apps

extremely dumb dudes

extremely dumb dudes looking for extremely dumb chicks.

Recipe for undesirable consequences.

Google's Cardboard 2.0 virtual reality device is a triumph for humanity, said no one sane, ever

Article from April 1?

Wait. What?

Right Dabbsy my old son, you can cram this job right up your BLEEEARRGH

Everybody knows my name, if only I knew who they were.

"Who are you and why do you know my name?" is left unsaid.

Jeb Bush: Repeal Obamacare and replace it with APPLE WATCHES

All of may doctors lately have refered me to the Internet for follow up.

So a smart watch may as well replace the doctor and get me straight to the web search results.

So tablets, if you want to get anything done travelling get a ... yes, a laptop

hotel desktop

This cracked me up. "which took my credit card details and promptly switched itself off"

Possibilities:

It is there only to collect card numbers.

It sent your card number to the NSA/GCHQ, et al. You were identified as a UNAS and the machine was instructed to shut your access down.

From Manchester to Microsoft – missing mum :-(

anime (ick)

In my opinion someone older than 13 and uses the word "ick" should not complain about anime.

Re: Yeehah! We're expecting some tumbleweed next week.

The car park was /sarc.