Posts by Herbert Meyer

'Rock star' spewed guts after emitting vast pearl necklace

nice picture

A link to a higher res version ?

Supercomputer geek builds Cray-1 around home PC

more powerful than ,,,

And uses a damn sight less power. Seymour's patents were for the heat pipes on the circuit boards to prevent the beast from melting. And perhaps the robot that did the 60 miles of wirewrap on the backplane.

Now, can we argue about the quality of the Fortran compilers available for modern PC ? Never mind the old beast's pipelined vector architecture, what the new guys do not have, Just superscalar multiple execution.

IBM's new water-cooled supercomputer fires up

too much carbon

Geothermal, maybe in Iceland.

IBM sends sodden supercomputer to Zurich uni

does it have a 400 Hz motor-generator as well as water cooling ?

Then it would be like an old 370. If the front panel has the dial-in knobs to set IPL unit address, it is the old 370. Not a faster computer, they just re-defined the flop.

Jimbo Wales exiles 'porn' from Wikiland

Senator Rosewater sez

The difference between art and porn is pubic hair. Of course, that was a while ago, before shaving became fashionable.

Senator Rosewater was a character of Kurt Vonnegut, loosely based on one of Dan Quale's relatives, an uncle, perhaps.

Microsoft slams coffin lid on Vista

Properly disposed of ?

Buried at a crossroads with a stake thru its heart ?

Mouth filled with salt, sewed shut, face down ?

Encased in high density concrete, buried in a lined pit ?

Glassified, in a secure cave in a geologically quiet area ?

Dropped thru the event horizon of a black hole ?

Probably not, the Vista zombie robot will continue to clank across the landscape for decades. I can still find WindowsME systems. Stinky, stinky software.

Windows 8 possible July 2011 release?

service pack == new version ?

and bug == feature.

MS software engineering standards ?

US Navy electromagnetic mass-driver commences tests

launched aircraft will be pilotless

Already, the limiting factor on acceleration of steam catapults is pilot g's. The limit is about 6g, the pilots have to recover from greyout within a few seconds to fly the plane before it hits the sea. No pilot aboard, higher acceleration.

Sputnik, spaghetti and the IBM SPACE machine

@hugo

"Point is there is no commonly used IO device that lets you present ASCII to a human in under 100,000 instructions."

Ascii ? I doubt it - Ebcdic more likely. I will check my chronology, although IBM invented them both, I think Ebcdic came first. And the instruction set had several packed to zone conversions, at least in 360.

Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala

works for me

I had been running the karmic beta on a dell 5150 laptop for two months, since I could not install fedora on it without 3 days of grief - anaconda does not like any hardware I own, I have to build a system alacarte.

Karmic ran so well, Friday I decided to re-install the WinXP system that stinks up 1/3 of the disk on laptop. It was suffering from bitRot and maggoty performance. I need windows to run a few applications, like TI education software, and some other backwards vendor's stuff.

I had a built in problem with a hole in the disk partitioning, anaconda had shrunk a fat partition without a good reason or permission, I had put a filler in between this and the linux partition. I removed the filler by booting from the karmic CD, and prepared to deal with grub's confusion about re-numbered partitions, and found out karmic uses grub2. At 1am Saturday.

After a bit of research on another computer, I found how to boot from grub2 by hand (it's not hard, just different), got the karmic back up, and went to bed.

Saturday morning, for practice, I ran grub-install and update-grub to make the fix "permanent". I knew I would have to do this again after installing windows stomped on the master boot record.

After spending Sat. morning on it, I had a fresh non-maggoty WinXP system, and the karmic dual booted.

Two questions:

1) why bother ? I use windows so little, I have not installed many apps on it.

2) what is wrong with fedora's anaconda ? I have been having a horrible time with it since June. All of my attempts are on dell hardware. If I suffer thru the botched installs, fedora works as well as usual.

Rigid sky-train to fly through magnetic rings on sticks

the roads must roll !

"Apart from Tubular Rail, other bidders for the Vegas-LA link included America's Sunlight Bullet Expressway. This concept would apparently include solar panels mounted on a roof-like structure all along the route, with an unspecified transport system running underneath. There would also be power transmission lines to carry the solar power and feed the transporter tech."

Maybe I am not the only one who remembers Heinlein. Go back to June 1940, read "Astounding Stories". Unspecified transport system is a conveyer belt. Everything old is new again.

MS claims early success for freebie security scanner

another example of microsoft devouring...

Their "partners", like Norton, instead of the "competition". Don't look to me like being a "partner" is very safe.

Microsoft Security Essentials shakes up consumer antivirus

I remember...

That MS had an anti-virus program before, back in the early '90s. Lame program, couldn't catch a cold, or the early '90s dos viruses. I tossed it, used IBM anti-virus, what is now Norton anti-virus. These days, when I run widows (seldom), I use clam, run the scanner when I feel paranoid. Not hooking the file system improves performance a lot.

Windows 7 OEM prices revealed

no shovelware !

This linux user will skip the snark, and say that, unlike the pre-installs on all hardware manufacturer's retail boxes, the OEM version is strictly windows OS, no "trial" versions of applications, with a 30 or 90 day balloon payment, no crippleware, replaceable by "full" version at an additional cost, etc., etc. that burns up 300 gByte of disk, and nags you forever.

So install OEM windows, start with a clean disk, and download nice, well behaved open source apps like openOffice, and save $ and disk. If you're not tech enough to just use linux (well, maybe a little snark).

Wireless power gets lovely shiny logo

waldo anyone ?

No, not the freak in the pictures, the old Heinlein story. Wireless power was used to power flying cars, well, broomsticks actually. You think Harry Potter invented them ? Find it, dust it off, read it again.

Google reinvents network computing

minor point from announcement

This seems to be the only technically literate article so far on ChromeOS.

My reading of the announcement saw very short boot times - a few seconds. That says to me the OS is in ROM, more like a linuxBIOS or coreboot (new name), than a linux booted from mag or SS disk. Since the BIOS roms on recent systems are flash, shouldn't be too hard to do.

NASA takes stick over feet and inches

more amnesia

NASA has forgotten the reason for a Mars lander failure a few years ago - most of the software was written for SI units, and a subcontractor used traditional units for landing rocket software. Result was a very expensive small crater near the Martian South pole. If they can't afford to use consistent units, there are going to be more expensive craters.

IBM lands 25 teraflop iDataplex cluster in Bluegrass State

UK in Lexington got one a couple of years ago

It is the second super in the Bluegrass Commonwealth (not a state, a commonwealth), IBM gave the one to UK in Lexington two years ago. The engineering dept, never explained exactly what it was being used for, there were vague statements about "special" projects.

This one will be used for Bioinformatics, and State Supported Online Gambling, just as soon as KY completes seizing the domain names.

Chrome: A new force for web applications?

the plague

I hope chrome will fight the plague of web 2.0 - BAD javascript. Nothing wrong with .js, but can you web pushers hire some programmers who can take their fingers out of their noses and type with both hands ?

Every damn web page now contains at least one clot of .js, the page source looks like a ransom note. Of course, since the .js experts are perfect, they don't need to debug their masterpieces, and I get a page that takes 40 sec to load, lights up error indicators in my browser, and produces an "unresponsive script" warning. Every firefox fanboy should be introduced to venkman (it's a debugger stupid, you do know what a debugger is ?).

So if the ,js complier in chrome is as good as advertised, I should be able to open another tab while the page plays with itself, and read something else. I just want to read the paper, I do not want to criticise and correct bad programming.

Red Hat hack prompts critical OpenSSH update

read another reg article about phalanx root kit

link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/08/27/ssh_key_attacks_warning/

and then connect the dots.

the rest of the story

OK John, you told us What. There are a few W's left:

WHO ? Were the systems compromised by a bent RH employee, or from the outside by Ukranian hackers / the NSA / the Martians ? (pick one, or supply a new THEM).

HOW ? If it was an inside job, with a keyboard and a flash drive; from outside, by a known or unknown security hole. Either way, it should have been logged, and the trace should allow finger pointing.

WHY ? Are "THEY" (see above) trying to hack eCommerce to collect credit card numbers, to hack mail servers to further tap our mail and phone calls, or turn the entire googleplex into a bot ?

If it was an inside job, I can understand the lack of information. RH does not background check their employees very well. Very embarrassing.

If their logging and audit are not up to the task, more embarrassing. Remember GrandPa IBM - RASS: reliability, availability, serviceability and security. They have blown at least one.

thank you, reg

This is the article I have been waiting for for a week (two fors in a row ?). Thank you.

gOS - a Google good OS for your Mum

perhaps

Is there a gcc package for it ? Perhaps I will trade in my fedora for it, while I wait for RH to come clean.

Give me gcc, I can build whatever hackish bits I need to feel at home.

Mystery Fedora disruption prompts security fears

@dennis

Back in the basement ? Sorry, I have classes to teach. I will be back in the basement later, that's where the laptop is.

Excuse if I sounded like an Ausbergerian Troglodyte. I want to know what happened, RH hasn't explained yet.

If elReg can find out for me, reading it is worthwhile. If I want press releases, I would read CNet.

not covered ?

Not covered because if you needed to know, you knew. When updates stopped on Fri, you searched around to find Paul's message.

Now, we should take elReg to task for not uncovering the cause of the outage. Rather than repeating public information, tell us what we do not know, like WHAT THE F IS GOING ON AT REDHAT ? excuse me for shouting.

Was redHat rooted ? Or did they merely have dodgy keygen code like debian ? Or maybe the keygen problems with deb have a secondary effect on rh, rh has asked all their contributors to regen SSH keys, partially (allegedly) to allow pruning of the weak debian keys.

Don't repeat the same crap. Tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Look hard for us.

Nut launches death threats at Debian women

we really need a wide eyed axe wielding penguin icon...

How about this one ?

http://plf.zarb.org/

The missing five-minute Linux manual for morons

new question

Linux suffers from a multiple personality disorder, is it a command line hulk for suspendered unix geeks, a flashy hacker toy for web 2.0 geeks, or a cheap workhorse for IT geeks ? All of these questions contain the word "geek".

The new question does not have geek in it. Is Linux the best OS for the hot boxes, the subnotebook flash boxes, Eee, CloudBook, classMate, OLPC, or whatever the HP is called. These boxen are the future. The users are not geeks. They want a cheap, simple appliance. A sawed off Linux fits very well.

Windows, MacOX, and full strength Linux are too big, complex, and not worth the bother for most humans. And not reliable enough. And WAY too expensive, a $300 computer does not allow a $250 license fee. Or a $600 office suite.

Asus CEO: Eee PC to get HDD options, Intel Atom CPU

DIY

Logic Supply in the US sells an adapter to use a CF card as a 2.5 in laptop drive:

http://www.logicsupply.com/products/cfdisk_2g

as well as a line of flash ide replacement modules.

Anyone got an old laptop to experiment with ? 4G would cost less than $100, and get a bigger screen. Battery life unknown, and I would put a lot of ram in it, to minimize swapping.

Vote now for your fave sci-fi movie quote

not John Glenn, but Bill Dana

Some sources reckon that the "lowest bidder" quote was originally thought up by someone interviewing Glenn.

Wrong, young person. It was Bill Dana, in character as Jose Jimenez the Astronaut on the Ed Sullivan show in '61 or '62. Watch "The Right Stuff" again. Scott Glenn does it.

My vote was for Dave "It's full of stars...". It is repeated many times in the 2010 film and establishes the required hallucinatory mood for Dave's appearance as a 400 year old something.

Shuttle XPC Glamour SN68PTG6

show us the guts

Open the box, show us pics of the drive bays, memory slots, ribbon cables, pci slots, etc. And try to install an OS fit for humans to use.

Bunker-nobbling US megabomb test delayed

last weeks article about hypersonic rocket sled tests ?

Connect the dots ? Unspecified projectile type ?

They better hurry, get this completed by Jan, 21, 2009. Pres. Obama may not like this. Or Pres. McClain may prefer real nukes.

CIA claims crackers took out power grids

Captain Chaos and SNMP

A few years ago, the Chicago Police and FBI grabbed a freak named Captain Chaos. He had been hiding in steam tunnels under the University of Illinois Chicago campus, and had stored 10 kg of cyanide in a utility closet in one of the subway stations. According to press (mainstream and tech) reports, he had previously used SNMP to shut down an automated power substation in Wisconsin. At the time, most SNMP implementations were copies of HP and Berkley code that was very insecure. The SNMP code has been replaced, and the Captain is now a guest of the government.

Spam spewing printer attack pulps security

wifi printers ?

Do the new wifi attached printers for home networks use this port ? War spamming ? Drive by spamming ?

UK nuke-power plans leak early

they will be outsourced

Just like programmers or other tech slaves. Pakistan is a good source of physicists who aren't too fussy about who they work for, or what they do.

Laptop power cranks up a gear

from instructables

Instructions for the Soylent Green charger:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Bicyle-Power-for-Your-Television%2c-Laptop%2c-or-Cell-/

About $300 in cost (not including bike), 300 watt output (healthy young pwer source, 1/2 horsePower).

Windows update brings down TV newscast

floor buffers can do it too

Several years ago in Chicago, the 10pm newscast got blown off the air by a circuit breaker tripped by a floor buffer. After several minutes of dead air, the weatherman resumed the broadcast from the emergency office used to broadcast tornado alerts, with an independant power system.

Texas Instruments stands out with 3D TV

there is no classic movies i know of in 3d

Ah, you young people. The master, Hitchcock, made one, "Dial M for Murder". I have actually seen it in 3D. There is a spectacular shot looking up Grace Kelly's robe from the floor across the room. Nice Legs ! Of course, he also put in a shot of a bobby standing in front of a rear projection screen, the bobby is in 3D, the background scenery is in 2D. Very jarring.

Also "House of Wax", a different kind of classic, with Vinnie Price and Charles Bronson. Maybe not so classic.

Also Warhol's "Frankenstein" was in 3D. "F*** life in the gall bladder", in 3D. Definitely classic something.

UK boffins: extraterrestrial life will be discovered soon

...never have invented television at all

Ah, come on. A dense atmosphere does not mean they could not develop advanced electronics, just without vacuum tubes (valves, ye brits). Fermi electronics (semiconductors) instead of DeForest.

Palm reveals 'secret' smartphone buddy

OLPC for the prep school set

a $100 laptop that costs $1000. at least it ain't green, it's BMW grey.