* Posts by dlc.usa

159 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Apr 2010

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White House attempts to 'explain' mystery drone sightings: The FAA authorized 'em

dlc.usa
Holmes

What About This?

https://www.meritalk.com/articles/house-lawmakers-want-to-extend-expiring-counter-drone-authorities/ Is it coincidence the sightings stopped after the 20th?

AI poetry 'out-humans' humans as readers prefer bots to bards

dlc.usa

Re: Well, I Don't Know Much About Poetry

That was a quotation from the popular song "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_World_(Sam_Cooke_song)], not a statement regarding my educational achievements nor was it intended as a question seeking an answer. Oh, and the SR-71 design employed heavy slipstick support back in the day, so I guess it was faster than referencing log tables.

dlc.usa
Unhappy

Well, I Don't Know Much About Poetry

...but I know what I like.

P.S. "Don't know what a slide rule is for," either.

Verizon wobbles on the East Coast, outage cuts off night owls

dlc.usa
WTF?

A User Report

It was odd for me at home via FiOS in the DC Metro area. My Ethernet-connected subnet of GNU/Linux boxes was solid but the FiOS router's WiFi connections all complained the AP was not connected to the Internet. ???

X to allow third parties to train their AI models with social media users' data

dlc.usa

Perhaps XAI or AIX as a suffix or prefix pronounced "mad" would fill the bill; e.g., AIXthink (yes, I am aware to the connection to IBM).

dlc.usa

That needs to include a strangely capitalized "AI", I suggest. Perhaps just "XAI" would suffice, but then there's the pronunciation standard to consider, unless those letters are deemed silent.

dlc.usa
Headmaster

Methinks we will need new words to connote the new levels of irrationality and hallucination that will ensue.

US government reportedly ponders crimping China's use of RISC-V

dlc.usa

Re: Next week's news

...as a "munition" (word choices really matter with such usage)...

BOFH: Looks like you're writing an email. Fancy telling your colleague to #$%^ off?

dlc.usa

Re: Life imitating art

As expected, state-of-the-art cannot compete with the real Simon.

It's been two decades since Spirit landed on the red sands of Mars

dlc.usa
Headmaster

Proof Reading?

Second paragraph: change "Spirit and Opportunity" to "Curiosity and Opportunity", I think.

Soft-reboot in systemd 254 sounds a lot like Windows' Fast Startup

dlc.usa
Linux

Re: SysVinit Scripts Deprecated

A new thread has sprung up on DNG due to an update to powerdns:

https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/thread/20231011.112423.04ef68ef.en.html#20231011.112423.04ef68ef

dlc.usa
Boffin

SysVinit Scripts Deprecated

Nobody seems to have noticed this:

> * Support for System V service scripts is now deprecated and will be

> removed in a future release. Please make sure to update your software

> *now* to include a native systemd unit file instead of a legacy

> System V script to retain compatibility with future systemd releases.

There's a thread on the DNG mailing list discussing the ramifications at https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/thread/20230730.180432.a707194b.en.html#20230730.180432.a707194b

GNU turns 40: Stallman's baby still not ready for prime time, but hey, there's cake

dlc.usa
Boffin

Don't Forget gcc

Without gcc, the Linux kernel would not have developed and ported as widely and quickly as it did (and other kernels, too, of course).

BOFH: What a beautiful tinfoil hat, Boss!

dlc.usa
IT Angle

Re: ECO DECT

"In that context I am an indirect vegetarian. I only eat animals that eat plants."

To the waitress: "There's been some mistake. You've confused my food with my food's food." --Ron Swanson

Moscow makes a mess on the Moon as Luna 25 probe misses orbit, lands with a thud

dlc.usa

Attribution and Text Correction

https://www.newsweek.com/top-20-quotes-chuck-yeager-first-man-break-sound-barrier-1553038

Number 5: "If you can walk away from a landing, it's a good landing. If you use the airplane the next day, it's an outstanding landing."

He would know, as a WWII ace shooting down Nazi aircraft over the Channel at the beginning of his stellar career. Sometimes maintenance had a lot to do overnight to make the aircraft reusable.

Gen Z and Millennials don't know what their colleagues are talking about half the time

dlc.usa
Boffin

Re: Thanks El Reg...

Surely there is an inverse correlation between quantities of waffle-speak and tangible value-add to the enterprise. Has this not been documented somewhere?

How prompt injection attacks hijack today's top-end AI – and it's tough to fix

dlc.usa
Coffee/keyboard

Re: Meh

Your last line almost cost me a keyboard--well done, sir!

NASA wants a telescope on the far side of the Moon

dlc.usa
Boffin

Re: Telescope on the Moon?

"The flat earthers seem to be the least harmful of our resident nut-jobs"

Especially since they're not seen in positions responsible for nautical and aeronautical navigation.

To build a better quantum computer, look into a black hole, says professor Brian Cox

dlc.usa

s/Narian/Narnian/ -- I was a far better proof-reader in my youth.

dlc.usa
IT Angle

Nerdy Musicians

I'd love to listen in on any discussions between him and Dr. May. I wonder what they think of C.S. Lewis' idea that the Narian 'verse was sung into existence by Aslan?

BOFH: Would I lie to you, Boss?

dlc.usa

Incomplete

Do not forget to ensure all traces of this function are also eliminated at the same time (backups?).

SpaceX Starship booster in flames after unexpected ignition

dlc.usa

Oops

The first FAA acronym expansion is incorrect. The second is correct but aviation is misspelled.

Microsoft accidentally turned off hardware requirements for Windows 11

dlc.usa
Boffin

Meaning of "great"

The scope of great in this context is Windows and only Windows. No Windows release can ever be great within the context of all operating systems.

Waterfox: A Firefox fork that could teach Mozilla a lesson

dlc.usa

The Browsers Are The Symptom, not The Problem

It is the ever-extending HTTP(S) protocol that has produced all these warts on warts we have to deal with, combined with anti-free-software and ethics-challenged profiteering agendas associated with the development of these "improvements". May the straight-forwardness of Gemini increase in adoption. Does anyone remember Gopher?

If your apps or gadgets break down on Sunday, this may be why: Gpsd bug to roll back clocks to 2002

dlc.usa

76 Upvotes

Made me think of 76 trombones in Iowa (River City to be precise)--more coffee, stat! Anyway, applause, whistles, cheers, and marching bands for Mr. Miller!

Sysadmins: Why not simply verify there's no backdoor in every program you install, and thus avoid any cyber-drama?

dlc.usa
Boffin

Re: Linux proves that doesn’t work

While gcc may be the elephant in the room, under the room lurk the true leviathans, as Thompson mentioned: in the microcode, ME technologies, etc. Some years back I read an account of installing GNU/Linux in an HDD drive's controller--gave a whole new meaning to installing something on your hard drive.

After staff revolt, Freenode management takes over hundreds of IRC channels for 'policy violations'

dlc.usa
Mushroom

The Suicide

So are yesterday's actions discussed here or has a new article, like https://www.devever.net/~hl/freenode_suicide been published for commentary? This is so bizarre.

dlc.usa

Re: Sinking

Which leads to musings about who might want that outcome and why...

BOFH: But we think the UK tax authorities would be VERY interested in how we used COVID support packages

dlc.usa

Re: IT Education (Funny thing...)

And I always strongly recommend reading the Reader Comments when I cite any El Reg article.

dlc.usa

IT Education (Re: Funny thing...)

I like to point newbies to "https://www.theregister.com/2014/08/01/bofh_2014_episode_7/" when the subject of backup SOPs comes up.

NASA pops old-school worm logo onto Orion spacecraft

dlc.usa

Re: Watching at the time?

I do, but what I really remember is 13. I suspect there were orders of magnitude more followers of that mission all over the planet, and it was riveting even if you weren't normally a fan of manned space flight. That's what comes from relatively open and public missions. Well has it been called NASA's finest hour.

University duo thought it would be cool to sneak bad code into Linux as an experiment. Of course, it absolutely backfired

dlc.usa
Coat

Re: Place your bets...

Maybe it's okay if they make up for the resources wasted by the kernel.org folks by providing far more resources to the project, sort of like "carbon offsets" in the climate change community. Money is likely to be more welcome than labor, though.

No JavaScript, no trackers, no SSL security: Retro computing boffin gives Google News a Netscape 1.1 makeover

dlc.usa
Thumb Up

Nobody Mentioned Gemini

The TechRights website is pushing the Gemini facility/protocol (much like Gopher) and I think this is an alternative technology to pay attention to as it's attracting mindshare. Most browsers don't speak gemini so you need one that does, with bollux (a bash script) preeminent. It's like using lynx or links2 to a large extent. To get it:

cd ~/my_git_tree

git clone https://tildegit.org/acdw/bollux

cd bollux

cp -p bollux bollux.sh

chmod a+x bollux.sh

man -l bollux # to read the man page

man -l bollux.conf # to read about configuration

./bollux.sh gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2021/02/28/gemini-ddos-protection/index.gmi

To open a link, type a lowercase o and type the note's number.

Bell Labs transfers copyright of influential ‘Plan 9’ OS to new foundation

dlc.usa
Happy

Re: Given that there's been no development on Plan9 since 2015...

If you search "9front", you'll learn where Plan9 has been going...

Forget Snow Day: Baltimore's 115,000+ public school kids get Ransomware Day, must check Win PCs for infection

dlc.usa
Boffin

Baltimore County != Baltimore City--the intersection set is null. Baltimore City is effectively the State of Maryland's 24th county.

Arecibo Observatory brings forward 'controlled demolition' plans by collapsing all by itself

dlc.usa

Re: Very sad, but...

At first I wondered if you were referring to the USA's Union Arch bridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Arch_Bridge). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains that as part of the Washington, DC water works system.

Mysterious metal monolith found in 'very remote' part of Utah

dlc.usa
Boffin

Dimensions

According to the book, the dimensions continued with 16, 25, 36, etc.

Every major OS maker misread Intel's docs. Now their kernels can be hijacked or crashed

dlc.usa
Boffin

Linux Patch Was Developed in 2015

...according to Alan Cox who posted this link in support of the statement:

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2018-8897

so the question becomes why wasn't it picked up before a few weeks ago?

Well, the third internal link explains that:

On Linux, the issue is fixed by commit d8ba61ba58c8 ("x86/entry/64: Don't use IST entry for #BP stack"), which has been available in Linus' tree and -stable kernels for some time. (Yes, the patch really was written in 2015. I fixed the issue as part of related work by accident, but I wasn't aware that the issue was at all urgent at the time, so the patch was never pushed out.) Most other vendors should have their own advisories and fixes available now.

BOFH: Honourable misconduct

dlc.usa
Thumb Up

Re: who would play BOFH and PFY?

"Given the rate at which Bosses are introduced to rolls of carpet and quicklime this would need to be a series of guest appearances."

Indeed. They are the equivalent of original Star Trek Red Shirts...

Astro-boffinry world rocked to its very core: Shock as Andromeda found to be not much bigger than Milky Way

dlc.usa

Re: Nice photo!

"They use what's called a clock drive to rotate the telescope/camera so that it cancels out the Earth's rotation."

Which is useless unless the instrument uses an equatorial mount to provide a suitable rotational axis, one parallel to the rotational axis of the Earth itself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_mount)--portable telescopes can be tricky to set up with adequate alignment.

Wanna exorcise Intel's secretive hidden CPU from your hardware? Meet Purism's laptops

dlc.usa
Happy

Relevance of Link to https://haspoc.sics.se/material/HASPOC_platform_overview.pdf

This is not documenting the NSA HAP specification based upon Intel x86_64/ME motherboards. Rather, it provides an overview of an apparent parallel effort to design a High Assurance Platform by an organization named High Assurance Security Products On COTS platforms (HASPOC) using a Swedish domain and, most interestingly, their design is based upon ARM, not x86_64. I do not know why this was cited in the article, but I am quite happy you brought this group and their work to my attention.

Linus Torvalds may have damned systemd with faint praise

dlc.usa

"That's interesting..."

Where are all the fanbois?

Presto crypto: IBM releases gruntier, faster Z14 mainframe

dlc.usa
Boffin

Market It Better Than Usual

Prove to us that there are no backdoors, and that decrypted data cannot be exfiltrated by SEs and HMCs. Please!

First-day-on-the-job dev: I accidentally nuked production database, was instantly fired

dlc.usa
Devil

> "Do what you feel is right, Sir. However, I promise you that if you get legal involved, I'll make you famous."

I would never say that. You need to complete the live test of the madhouse by including legal. If they decide to go after you, the lawyers also have earned their share of the notoriety.

For now, GNU GPL is an enforceable contract, says US federal judge

dlc.usa

Re: The Shockwave Rider

Relevance: "Hippies were a thing when The Shockwave Rider was still science-fiction..."

TSR was published about ten years before the IBM PC was announced, and the hippy counter-culture was already past its heyday. One can argue when TSR ceased to be fictional but surely opening the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Science_Foundation_Network to commercial traffic had to be a prerequisite. I would argue the legitimization of working as a "rasher" is also a prerequisite.

'Crazy bad' bug in Microsoft's Windows malware scanner can be used to install malware

dlc.usa
Facepalm

Re: Too true

<cough>Intel AMT authentication</cough> (if you believe SemiAccurate)

Red alert! Intel patches remote execution hole that's been hidden in chips since 2010

dlc.usa

Re: PANIC!!!!!!!!!! :-)

"Neither of my Linux laptops seem to have it"

See http://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/INTEL_MEI_ME.html for a list of PCI IDs.

A switch with just 49 ns latency? What strange magic is this?

dlc.usa
Boffin

Re: The future...

"The trading systems should add up to 5 seconds of random delay to each trade to stop traders wasting money on technology and location trying to screw each other."

If the markets were truly free, yes, but that was the point regarding the broken financial system comment--markets are NOT free anymore, and no governments with the necessary jurisdiction are inclined to intervene. This is not a problem of technology, of course, but one of societal corruption.

Our Sun's been using facial scrub: No spots for two weeks

dlc.usa
FAIL

Not As Usual

The article is totally oblivious how remarkably minimal the past maximum was. It started late, didn't get very high, and abated earlier than has been typical. Scientists are still trying to understand it. The Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_maximum is rather helpful.

Arch Linux: In a world of polish, DIY never felt so good

dlc.usa

! systemd Arch

Exactly. But there's CRUX, from which Arch arose, which is even more Spartan and devoted to KISS principles, and will never, ever incorporate the systemd madness. These days documentation for build-from-source distros is more similar than not, so CRUX lets its community search Linux From Scratch, Arch, Gentoo, etc. for insights to issues rather then spend a lot of time developing package-specific prose. CRUX may be for an even more experienced GNU/Linux user, but it should be investigated if you are considering Arch, especially if you're a real purist.

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