Posts by Stumpy

We don't serve pies, but we do like a Pi

I just refuse any and all emails/messages that come through asking for any feedback. If your service was bad enough then I'll complain directly. Otherwise, F.Off.

Cassette simulator rewinds digital audio to a more analog time in hiss-tory

I'm not sure which is more heartbreaking - the fact that this exists, or the fact that the author thought it necessary to explain to the readership what an audio cassette actually is, and how they operate.

Microsoft flips Windows Backup to on by default unless you're in the EU

Re: Every week...

I did it around three months back ... don't regret it one iota.

Boffins bet on quantum computers, AI supers to solve fusion fuel dilemma

The word "Boom" in relation to anything to do with nuclear power, is never a good sign...

No more Java refills for Intel Macs after JDK 27, says Oracle

Damn. Does that mean I'll finally need to retire my 2015 MacBook Pro? Say it ain't so Tim. Say it ain't so.

End of era as the BBC switches off Radio 4 Long Wave service

Re: Run silent

True, but if he happened to be there at the time? Win-Win!!!

Digital ID brain trust will meet behind closed doors as minister ducks cost questions

Drowning them at birth would also be an acceptable solution...

AWS debuts Lambda MicroVMs with up to 8 hours runtime

Isn't that what we call Production?

'Resistance is futile,' says Qualcomm CEO. AI agents will be become invisible, inescapable, follow you across devices

Re: Say whaaat?

I think you misspelled "clueless"

UK MPs slam digital ID rollout as a 'fiasco' after botched launch

A UK Government botched project?

Who'd a thunk it?

macOS 27 threatens to bury Time Capsule, FOSS brings a shovel

Re: NetBSD

You 'ad an 'ard drive? We 'ad ta make do wi' an old 8-track reader pull from my uncle's Ford Capri. And we'd be grateful ferrit.

Amazon rewards loyal Kindle devotees by closing the book on old e-readers

Re: Not a problem with my paper books

Snoring like one I'd guess

Brits are falling out of love with posting every thought online

But HateBook wouldn't have a 'follow' function. It'd probably have a 'Stalk' one instead ...

Shots fired – literally – over proposal to build datacenter in Indianapolis

Nuclear plants, in general, use a shitton of water. For cooling. That's why they tend to be built close to large bodies of water.

Artemis II countdown begins as NASA prepares for crewed Moon flyby

Re: Send Trump to the moon instead

Just send him up on the next Starship test flight ... after all, they do have a tendency to re-enter the atmosphere over a fairly wide area (assuming they get that far up in the first place)

Work experience kids messed with manager's PC to send him to Ctrl-Alt-Del hell

When we used to repair kit on-site...

A favourite prank would be to take the back off the monitor and rotate the deflection coils on the CRT through 180 degrees, then put it all back together again, but leave the screen upside down on the user's desk.

Then watch as they'd come in, tut, turn the screen the right way up and then boot up, looking incredibly puzzled when the screen would be upside down ...

AI chatbots waffle on GOV.UK queries, then get facts wrong when told to zip it

For all their faults, I'd happily take an LLM over the shower of crap we have in government at the moment ...

And the winner of the Microsoft Christmas sweater is...

Re: Second prize…

... personally hand-delivered by Steve Ballmer...

Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever

Re: Start it up

Bloody hell. That actually hurts to watch now that I'm old and crumbling myself...

UK tech minister booted out in weekend cabinet reshuffle

Re: Meh

I'm getting more pleasure from imagining Rayner at the bottom of a canal, rather than barrel...

Commodore OS 3 is the loudest Linux yet

Re: I wish them well...

Yup. Apart from providing services to applications, and a means to run them, the first - and only - other job of an OS should be to just simply get. out. of. the. way.

NASA's inbox goes orbital after email mishap spams entire space industry

Re: Who, me?

Twoflower would agree...

So … Russia no longer a cyber threat to America?

Re: A step above a “useful idiot”

Does that make him a "useless idiot" then?

UK unveils plans to mainline AI into the veins of the nation

Yet more proof (if any were needed) that the set of lackwits we have in Government at present are on the ropes, panicking and throwing any old shit at the wall to see if it'll stick and help them out of the hole.

New Outlook marches onto Windows 10 for what little time it has left

Re: Why?

When you say fresh, you really mean shit, don't you?

How a good business deal made us underestimate BASIC

Re: GOTO

And with the correct timing, you could even get the ZX81 to play tunes by switching between FAST and SLOW modes ... purely from the whining of the monitor's LOPT as it switched.

Parker Solar Probe set for blisteringly hot date with the Sun on Christmas Eve

... and anyway, shouldn't the correct value be 98 Hiltons ?

Windows 11 market share falls despite Microsoft ad blitz

I recently had to rebuild my main home rig. It was on W11 previously, but with the rebuild I took the opportunity to take it back down to W10. How much more of a pleasant environment it is to be in.

Unbreakable Voyager space probes close in on a 50 year mission

Re: They don't make 'em like they used to

I take it you've never seen Stargate?

(what do you mean, it wasn't a documentary?)

Sysadmin shock as Windows Server 2025 installs itself after update labeling error

I'm sorry. You had automatic updates switched on. On a server? Are you mad?

LinkedIn started harvesting people's posts for training AI without asking for opt-in

Yes, by letting GenAI scrape all your data...

Elon Musk's assassination 'joke' bombs, internet calls for his deportation

Re: Enquiring minds need to know.

Well, he's pretty bad at everything he turns his hand to from where I'm standing...

Re: Deport him…

... to the bottom of the Mariana Trench? I'm sure there's some form of sea-life that would welcome his arrival...

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch could be gone in ten years – for chump change

Re: Recurrence

I remember as a child making significant extra pocket money by collecting and returning the glass pop bottles we used to have.

Andrew Tanenbaum honored for pioneering MINIX, the OS hiding in a lot of computers

I have a copy of Tanenbaum's Computer Networks, 2nd ed. (from around 1990-ish) sat on my bookshelf, along with copies of Modern Operating Systems, 4th ed. and OS Design and Implementation, 3rd ed.

Cracking books, and the foundation of much of my systems knowledge. This recognition is, IMHO, well overdue and much deserved. Kudos Mr Tanenbaum.

SoftBank boss says 'artificial superintelligence' could be three years away

The real question being...

... which AI startup that Softbank has invested in are they looking to dump and make a respectable ROI on over the next three years?

BOFH: Smells like Teams spirit

Ugh ... I had a project manager who would do that every time she wanted to contact me. Then would get snotty when I didn't respond to her messages, despite me telling her that I'd only respond to genuine queries and 'Hello' or 'Good morning' does not constitute a query...

Rapid7 throws JetBrains under the bus for 'uncoordinated vulnerability disclosure'

As I understand, they no longer have ties to Russia - all the devs relocated elsewhere long ago, and their St Petersburg offices have also been closed. This Reddit thread from last year details some of this and contains a link to their blog post giving full disclosure: https://www.reddit.com/r/dotnet/comments/yt1bm2/jetbrains_and_russia/

We all scream for ice cream – so why are McDonald's machines always broken?

Or even the BBC Micro's Advanced User Guide. This is what system manuals should be like.

https://stardot.org.uk/mirrors/www.bbcdocs.com/filebase/essentials/BBC%20Microcomputer%20Advanced%20User%20Guide.pdf

Infosys launches 'sonic identity' – an aural logo to 'reinforce brand purpose'

Bollocks like this really really makes me want to vomit.

SSD missing from SAP datacenter turns up on eBay, sparking security investigation

Re: SAP takes data security very seriously.

... at least, not five times in two years.

UNIX co-creator Ken Thompson is a… what user now?

Re: Not a bad record. I'll give him some slack for being in the Apple camp for too long.

I'm reading this on my 2015 MacBook Pro (yes, bought new, and was the last laptop I bought). Still going strong and still a more than capable machine for general day to day usage and development work.

Psst … Want to buy a used IBM Selectric? No questions asked

Re: Hot stuff

Good on you for following through with plod. I suspect many people would simply have shrugged, wiped the disk and reinstalled.

Keeping your head as an entire database goes pear-shaped

Re: Backups

Back in my early days as a VMS operator, the IT director once came down into Ops central, marched onto the machine floor and boldly flipped the Big Red Switch that switched the power off to the entire data floor.

Cue clenched sphincters as we waited (and waited ... and waited) for the backup generators to kick in before the UPS died. Then they marched out and simply said, "We've had a power failure. Call DEC and put the disaster recovery plan into action."

This was, apparently their way of conducting a full resilience test - no, DEC had not been pre-informed of the test either - as far as they were aware, it was a genuine disaster - and the recovery plan involved them trucking in duplicate hardware for all our key machines on what was effectively a mobile data centre. Must have cost [i]someone[/i] a hell of a lot of cash to put that thing into mobilisation.

OpenVMS on x86-64 reaches production status with v9.2

Re: I wonder how many people still remember how to use it?

I started my career as a VMS operator. Can't remember a blasted thing about it these days though. I'd be totally lost without a comprehensive manual now.

Not to dis your diskette, but there are some unexpected sector holes

He did a similar one on networking back in '96: https://dilbert.com/strip/1996-05-02

Re: I bow before such experience

5.25" discs could quite easily be punched in the corner and filed in a ring binder. So long as you were careful as to where you put the hole... far easier to simply get some ring-bound slipcases instead.

Any fool can write a language: It takes compilers to save the world

Re: "Any fool can write a language"

In a similar vein, I once had to unpick a C program written by an ex-COBOL programmer.

Christ, that was a nightmare. Around 1500 lines of COBOL-like C ... all in a single main() function.

BOFH: Putting the gross in gross insubordination

Re: The Rule of Two

This is The Way.

Desperately seeking SaaS: English council to replace Oracle R12

Re: There needs to be an AAAAAAA icon

Only 40? I'm surprised that the number of integrations isn't higher to be honest.