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.
466 publicly visible posts • joined 20 May 2010
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.
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/
Or even the BBC Micro's Advanced User Guide. This is what system manuals should be like.
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.
He did a similar one on networking back in '96: https://dilbert.com/strip/1996-05-02
Didn't we hear the same arguments when automation and robotics became commonplace in the Automobile/Manufacturing industries, or in the business world when computers first started appearing in the office?
The reality is that some jobs will invariably go. However, it is far more likely than not that a whole raft of new jobs and industries will spring up around those industries that have automated. After all, someone needs to program the computers and service the robots.
Analysts simply attempting to scaremonger as usual.
Ahhh ... the 'fun button'. Always a good prank when group riding and pulled up at the lights. Get someone to the left of the rider to distract them whilst someone on the right of the rider flicks the kill switch to the off setting just as the lights change to green.
Frankly, autonomous vehicles need to be built with lifetime updates in mind. Not necessarily for new features, but certainly for updates to core function.
Anything less, and the autonomous functions will degrade to the point of uselessness and/or danger, and I would strongly foresee lawsuits being bought against the manufacturers that let their vehicles get into that state.
I'm currently crying like a baby here. This has hit me a lot harder than I thought it would. This marks the end of the line for the largest chuink of my formative years, and possibly the greatest influence in my entering the career I have.
RIP to a massively flawed genius. A man with ideas often far ahead of their time. I'll be setting a glass of decent malt aside for you tonight.