Posts by David 132

Ukraine puts its Russian war trophies online for allies to pick apart

Re: A double loss

Tell that to the Ukrainian farmers, who at one point a couple of years ago in the 4-day Special Military Operation, owned a tank fleet that rivalled many nation-state militaries in size. Thanks to the generosity of Uncle Vlad.

Re: That's not fair

That raises the spectre of further MoD budget cuts. It'd be a heavy blow, indeed, a Blofeld across the whole of Whitehall.

Researchers drop checkm8-style BootROM exploit for A12 and A13 iPhones

Re: Sounds like a good thing!

I was making the point that the difference between "this is a root exploit that will allow me to install what I want on my phone, yay!" and "This is a root exploit that will allow Cellebrite to gain access to everything on my phone, boo!" is entirely one of intent; a make-me-root exploit isn't inherently picky about whether the person using it is the device's owner, or a TLA/Big State goon.

But clearly you were both determined to be obtuse, or miss the point, or perhaps you just get your jollies from being gratuitously and offensively rude to complete strangers on the Internet. Hey, you do you.

Re: Sounds like a good thing!

Not if the boot ROM implements RFC3514 and checks for the presence/status of the Evil Bit.

Midjourney pivots from AI image generation to body scanning medical spa where patients bathe in 'golden light'

"Avoid"?

"...with enough early imaging in the future, the world could avoid 30% of all deaths..."

Not sure that "avoid" is the appropriate word here.

"Postpone", perhaps!

Microsoft once used its own brand of 'Lego' to optimize Windows

Re: The frameworks are deeper. The machines are faster, but the dependency graphs are absurd.

Not to mention that we're being asked to trust that not even one of those 20 other sites has been silently subverted by hackers to serve malware instead of clean JS.

Re: The simple answer was responsibility.

perhaps the rising cost of RAM might promote a return to efficient programming.

Good news! Windows 12 will only need a measly 32GB of memory to do all its functions - namely, display a graphical login to your Azure cloud-based Windows instance, which will be billed at a reasonable $5/hour.

Tesco is sprinting to quit VMware and Broadcom despite rapid migration risks

Re: no skin in this one but..

Whilst I agree 100% with your sentiments, you might as well add

4. A free unicorn that farts gold glitter.

...for all the realistic hope there is of getting any of those items :(

There's no such thing as an agentic CPU

Where as non binary systems might be able to process information in a markedly different way.

TLDR; I’m not surprised there is no such thing as an antigenic CPU.

How about a ternary one?

Re: WHAT a relief!

What, and violate Intel's FDIV patents?

Google found liable for bad AI Overview results. Let's play Truth Or Consequences

Re: It can no more compete on quality of results...

That nearly caused coffee to meet keyboard.

"An excellent suggestion, sir, with just two minor drawbacks. Firstly, I don't have any coffee, and secondly, I don't have any coffee. I realize that technically that is only one drawback, but it's such a biggie that I felt it was worth mentioning twice."

Flatpak-NG sounds like bad news for systemd refuseniks

Re: About Flatpak

But on the plus side,

...

Hmm. Never mind. I genuinely can't think of an upside to getting GIMP as a flatpak/snap versus a .deb/.rpm/etc.

"I think "feature creep" describes it better"

In the context of systemd, I have always preferred to use the term "metastasizing".

Fired IT worker jailed for 21 months after sabotaging old school district

Re: "immature Conduct from the Backseat of a Vehicle"

That sounds like very mature conduct, tbh.

"Immature conduct from the Backseat of a Vehicle" would, I think, be something like

*kick* "Are we nearly there yet?" *kick* "Are we nearly there yet?" *kick* "Are we nearly there yet?" *kick* "I need to go potty!" *poke, kick* "MY SISTER WON'T SHARE HER ICE-CREEEEEEAM..."

For the record, that totally, absolutely wasn't me on family road-trips decades ago.

But only because I don't have a sister.

Re: U wot?

OTOH, as judicial processes go, it's one with zero chance of recidivism & reoffending.

Re: U wot?

My pet (ahaha) theory is that a cat was resting on Connor Jones' keyboard as he wrote this. And as we all know, evicting a sleeping cat from its chosen location is impossible, inadvisable, and impertinent.

U wot?

Why all the rogue letter 'U's in the second and third paragraphs?

Ezekiel Dean Potter, 34, was fired from his IT support job at Iowa’s SaydelU Community School District (SCSD) in April 2023. He was found guilty of causing various technical damages to SCSD’s systems betwUeen May 2023 and January 2025.UU

At his sentencing hearing on June 11, the court heard thaUt the IT worker had gathered and stored more than 300 Saydel user accountU credentials before he was terminated from his position.

Yes, I know there's a Send Corrections link at the top of this page. I don't have an e-mail client installed on this machine. A web form would be much more convenient!

Blockbuster new Raspberry Pi project turns any screen into old-school VCR

Re: "If you don’t happen to have an old CRT TV"

One problem with the demise of the large, bulky, deep CRT TV is that that one old joke no longer makes sense: "I object to all this sex on the television.

...I keep falling off."

I was in Granadaland but don't remember that one. Maybe I have defensively blocked it from my memory!

You can also use Mobile Media Converter to convert video files to a lower resolution but that's more of a pain and the thing has not been updates in ages.

The excellent Handbrake, on the other hand...

Re: Analysing old TV advertisements in *way* too much depth

I came across this earlier Scotch videotape advert also featuring the skeleton

I've just watched that at your recommendation - thanks, I don't think I had seen it before (mind you, 1984 memories for me are a confused jumble of Bonnie Tyler, I Want To Break Free, Romancing The Stone and Austin Metros...).

How interesting that the ad makers had a perfectly realistic-looking flat panel TV hanging on the wall in their vision of "2021"!

Replying to myself - here's the advert in question in case any of you young'uns think that powerful hallucinogenic drugs weren't around way back then.

Now I have the cheery skeleton in that 80s ad stuck in my head:

"I'm going to tell you how it's going to be / With Scotch's lifetime guarantee / Tape what you want both night and day / Then re-record not fade away / Then re-record not fade away..."

Linux Lite 8.0 sheds Chrome, slims down, and finds its name fits better than ever

Re: X11?

Join the club. We have T-shirts.

And onions on our belts.

Re: Hamburgers killed the WIMPy bar

…to be sang in the style of "Video Killed the Radio Star", of course. Apologies for the earworm.

It's truly mind-buggling.

Re: X11?

Thanks for the clarification. Oldish and curmudgeonly as I am, I file Wayland in the same "do not want" bin as Snap/Flatpak and Systemd.

Cue lots of other commentards telling me I should get with the program and learn to love all of those?

Logitech knows when to fold 'em

Re: Slightly strange...

The "baby enthusiastically eating meat off the bone" one last week was a particular low point for me and quite turned me off my breakfast.

Re: Logi Options+ app

It's larger than a lot of things; clearly Logitech have seen what HP/Canon/NVidia/etc have done with their respective humungous device drivers, and thought "we can outdo that. Hold my beer.".

A quick glance around the /installers tree on my NAS shows me various LibreOffice offline installation packages at ~350MB, VMWare Workstation (albeit old version) at 270MB, oh and the complete NetBSD 10.0 ISO at 640MB... still, a mouse/keyboard driver is obviously going to be far more complex and capable than an office suite, a hypervisor, or an OS, right? (/sarc)

Signal says UK plan to scan devices for nude images 'endangers us all'

I see you got a downvote, presumably from someone who feels that it's entirely appropriate for government to be controlling and limiting "hate speech".

I would say to that downvoter - so, as you feel that's a legitimate capability for government to have, you'd be happy with Prime Minister Badenoch having it, or Prime Minister Farage?

If you say "no, but they're different" then you're a fucking hypocrite.

Serious ISS air leak forces NASA astronauts to temporarily take shelter in Dragon capsule

Re: A bit like the radiators in some of my older cars

Stop-Leak? Look at Mr Moneybags here.

Crack an egg and/or grind some black pepper into the [radiator/ISS module]. Totally effective, according to lots of old wives and urban legends, and even if it doesn't work, you'll have a nice glycol-poached peppered egg to eat.

Council in UK's City of York outs hundreds of disabled residents with a single email blunder

Re: Not funny but

Was the staff member's name Gordon Brittas by chance?

"Marvellous."

Raspberry Pi's profits are up. So is its DRAM bill

I'd love to know who felt your comment needed to be downvoted, and what their reasoning was. A rival First Robotics team perhaps? Or just grouchy people who haven't had enough coffee?

Duo who sold car crash victims' data must repay £118k

Re: Offence

That would be the Traffic Police.

Motto: "There's A Hole In My Shoe, Don't Stand So Close To Me"?

Grep this: Microsoft grafts (most) Linux commands onto Windows

Re: Nice, but...

Ah, a downvoter who doesn't grok sarcasm, I see. Or is a fully paid-up member of the Cult of Rust. How sweet.

Re: Nice, but...

Yeah, I was a little puzzled by that, too. I think that as Rust is the language du jour the inference we're expected to draw is that anything written in it is automatically New and Hot and very very Now, whereas anything written in boring old Boomer C++ "might as well be written in QBASIC, grandad".

Re: Nice, but...

To be fair, the article makes that point:

"One could run Grep before on Windows through third-party packages such as Cygwin, though Coreutils has the speed of native functionality, thanks to its implementation in Rust."

Listen up, England. The Health Secretary is going to be data controller for everyone's Single Patient Record

ITYM "civil service hubris". Notice how every government, of whatever colour, suddenly starts prattling on about causes dear to the hearts of the civil service - ID cards, PFI, etc - using whatever justification will appeal to the Daily Mail readers that week. "It's FOR THE CHILDREN", "it's TO STOP TERRORISTS", "it's TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS", etc etc.

Well, yes. That used to be the case. And then the usual suspects (media, self-interested lobby groups, etc) screamed "conflict of interest!" because Jim Bugglesworth the businessman would obviously, once installed as Minister for Business, give juicy favouritism treatment to all his industry mates.

And so now we have bland identikit drones who've ridden the conveyor belt from student union protest-organiser, to PPE graduate, to local government, to quango membership, to union convenor, to SpAd, to MP, to Minister, all achieved by mouthing the currently fashionable platitudes and nostrums and never daring to show an iota of independent thought. And we're supposed to believe that they will be completely free of the taint of corruption or incompetence.

Which is equally obviously A Good Thing and a vast improvement, no?

Be careful what you wish for.

Angry devs vow to flee GitHub Copilot as metered billing takes hold

Re: Roosting chickens return home

Really? I always think that tastes like complete ass.

Re: Roosting chickens return home

...and if you do have to put horse in, and need to cover up the flavour, add soft cheese.

Specifically, Mascarpone.

(Mask-a-pony... geddit?)

Oh, tough crowd. Swing and a miss. I'll take my coat and go.

Re: Roosting chickens return home

I hate Mondays.

Re: The well-known name ranking

Super Ultra Max Pro: Special Limited Edition

You forgot to append "Turbo Classic Enterprise". That's the sku that the real enthusiasts want.

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

Their response to printing muzzles is to muzzle printers.

Software that detects a gun component will have to issue a trigger warning.

Netflix wiz creates app to slash AI bills, then open sources it

Re: Project Headroom

- Armaments, Ch.II, v.9-21

Rocket exhibit at National Space Centre pulls off unintentional NASA SLS impression

Re: Royal Gunpowder Mills, Waltham Abbey

Not having heard of the place before, I followed your Wikipedia link. And was amused far more than I should have been by the opening paragraph's discussion of the 3 Royal Gunpowder Mill sites in the country and how "Waltham Abbey is the only site to have survived virtually intact.".

Well, yes, quite. Expecting a gunpowder mill to remain intact for longer than a morning is a bit like expecting Lady Sybil Ramkin's dragon pen to retain its roof when one of the dragons hiccups, or expecting the Alchemists' Guild to not explosively relocate itself at least three times a week.

Ah, bottle rockets. (/goes into old man reminiscing mode...)

I had a bottle rocket as a birthday present many, many years ago when I was a wee lad. Full of excitement, I took it into school the next day to show my friends (defined as: "those few kids who didn't beat me up").

My physics teacher promptly confiscated it, and spent the entire afternoon playing with it out on the school football pitch. Whilst we were subjected to French/Latin/Chemistry etc., I and my chums had to watch through the classroom windows as the physics master frolicked around with the rocket, refilling it from a bucket and scampering with glee to retrieve it after each launch.

If you're out there, Mr Fisher, I hope your enjoyment was worth it, but know that it still rankles with me even 35+ years later...

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

I was dismayed when Delphi 5 produced 500kb executables for even a trivial program.

Ha, that's adorable :)

As I have related previously in these parts, I experimented fairly recently with developing stuff in Microsoft's WinUI3 framework. Normally my C# stuff uses Win32/Winforms, because I am a dinosaur and cling stubbornly to the credo that software should be easily redistributable by copying its file (ok, 2 or 3 files grudgingly allowed if it has unavoidable dependencies) to portable media. I've done stuff in WPF too, mainly to show that I'm not totally fossilized.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Thought I'd try WinUI3 one day so that I could develop native-looking Win11 applications (hey, don't judge).

The first problem is that Microsoft really, really wants those WinUI3 apps to be distributed via the Microsoft Store. Quite apart from the complexities of getting a developer certificate etc, the Store model just rubs me the wrong way.

Anyhoo, and sorry that this has become a shaggy dog story (I had an onion on my belt, as was the style...) there is a way to compile a WinUI3 app to discrete files, but it insists (according to the info I found at the time) on including a lot of dependencies.

Which meant that the simple "Hello World Dialog" program I wrote came out as... 130MB of files in the output directory.

I gave up on WinUI3 at that point.

UCLA seeks pre-litigation resolution with Oracle

Re: Simple answer...

I'm not sure what sort of university governing body would look at Birmingham City Council's salutary example of a large-scale Oracle deployment, and think, "yes, we want some of that!"

Windows 11 update preview promises faster launches, puts Task Manager on NPU patrol

I need a "# of Graphs In Task Manager" graph in my Task Manager.