Posts by Dagg

Beijing needs the ability to 'destroy' Starlink, say Chinese researchers

Re: On a more serious note....

most civilian deaths

Actually I thing that the American civilians are responsible for the most civilian deaths - their own civilians...

Re: @Pete 2 - wolf in sheeps clothing

Effectively, the zone around the islands was now a free fire/live fire zone

You mean like schools in America...

Cars in driver-assist mode hit a third of cyclists, all oncoming cars in tests

Re: Tricky technology

Don't you mean peasants...

Re: Tricky technology

Yep, just like cats

The wild world of non-C operating systems

Assembler. And before that, nightmare territory of having to program directly at the per-bit level, by "literally" throwing the switches.

I loved those switches. Hand translating your code, loading it into the console via the switches and run.

Later once you had a tape you would manually enter the boot loader and run. Happy, Happy Joy, Joy. Real hacking.

C: Everyone's favourite programming language isn't a programming language

Re: Nothing new...

Even worse is the realization that hardware has bent to the whims of almighty C.

Wrong, C was based on the machine code and hardware for a PDP/11.

Could be worse, could be based on the machine code and hardware from on old (stackless) IBM mainframe like COBOL.

Hackers weigh in on programming languages of choice

Re: 93 percent have five or more years of programming experience

Try ALGOL 58, coding sheets, punched cards..

Microsoft: Russia invasion of Ukraine ‘unlawful, unjustified’

Re: Microsoft could best help ...

Actually that remark was sarcastic you just didn't realise.

Re: Microsoft could best help ...

Jake you forgot to add the sarcasm tags so the septics could get it.

Russia is the advanced persistent threat that just triggered. Ready?

Actually one way to lose a war is to open another front. Just as the Nazis.

Japan solves 5G airliner conundrum: Keep mobe masts 200m from airport approach paths. That's it

Also the problem may be environmental. A nice piece of rust where two parts of the antenna mast are joined can act as a diode and mix several different xmitter signals together and radiate spurious signals across a wide frequency range.

Depending on the physical distance it could even be a bit of rusty fence!

Re: Protectionism ?

I haven't looked at the allowable 5G C band emissions or the input specs of radar altimiters, so I can't say if the concerns are valid or not.

One issue that hasn't been brought up is where the 5G service has a xmitter or antenna fault and is splatting spurious emissions that may appear in the radar altimeter receiver passband.

Something like a dry joint or corrosion in a connector can make a nice little diode mixer.

Revealed: Remember the Sony rootkit rumpus? It was almost oh so much worse

Re: You have to wonder

Actually "do not eat me" would work better!

Can Rust save the planet? Why, and why not

Re: Dumping the cloud

The Cloud centralises computing and allows greater use of greener energy

And also a single point of failure! I remember being in my local pub and the accountant crying into his beer because the cloud had gone down / offline what ever and he couldn't get the payroll done.

Yep ALGOL was the start a language that wasn't controlled by a card column location.

I remember using ALGOL-60 on a B6700 so much better than FORTRAN.

ALGOL is the ancestor of languages like PASCAL, C, Ada etc

Beijing wants to level up China's software industry, with an emphasis on FOSS

Re: Too much anti-China rhetoric

rein in the sino-phobic rants

Maybe after china stops trying to destroy the Australian economy...

My personal experience, once a bully always a bully!

On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... a coding puzzle and it's a doozy

pdp-11 the 1st true love of my life.

014747

Australia will force social networks to identify trolls, so they can be sued for defamation

Re: Scott Morrison, Australia’s leading political troll

Totally agree, I don't trust him or his government.

Here in australia the politicians can troll as much as they want they are covered under what they call "Parliamentary privilege".

This ability "to unmask anonymous online trolls" means they can go after the whistle blowers etc that show just how corrupt and incompetent the government is.

Scotty from marketing is trying to use this so he can ignore his promise to create an integrity commission as the last thing he wants is anyone looking too closely at many of things that he and his government have done.

From the studio that brought you 'Mortal Wombat' comes 'Pernicious Possum'

They are not small, cute or can make good pets

These are the australian brush tail possum and may be small and cute in austalia but in NZ particularly in the south island and around Dunedin they have grown big. In aus they are 2-5kg but in the south island they can be up to 14kg with extremely nasty sharp teeth and sharp claws that carry some very nasty bacteria.

One rule we used was if you are opening the shed or outside dunny and you hear something inside is get the hell out of the way as if it is an adult possum it is going to go through or over you to get to the outside. And it is highly likely you will come off badly!

Rolls-Royce set for funding fillip to build nuclear power stations based on small modular reactor technology

Re: Off-grid is a tale told by an idiot

Think about how many batteries that would take.

Bugger all, In Aus as a rough guide (as at January 2021) a 5kWh battery system fully installed would likely cost around $5000 – $9000, a 10kWh battery system could cost $7500 – $12,000 the 5kWh battery pack is about the size of a large suitcase and mounts on the outside wall.

Most roof top solar is between 3 and 6 kWh so matches the batteries nicely. I have a small inner city house UK terrace style and I can fit 3-6 kWh of solar panels no problem.

Re: Survivor

Nuclear is the only viable near-term solution.

How? When it takes 10 plus years to implement. Here in Australia roof top solar is booming and with a house battery you can go off grid.

When ever I hear about a nuclear solution my immediate thought is cost benefit

Say what you see: Four-letter fun on a late-night support call

Re: Not really concealing anything, more like technically accurate shorthand.

FCIP

Fecal Cerebral Interchange Problem

Boeing's Starliner capsule corroded due to high humidity levels, NASA explains, and the spaceship won't fly this year

Re: Antici... pation

Probably some pointy haired project manager determined that it added no value and so could removed to same time and money.

Re: an issue with the spacecraft’s valves

The big problem with KT88's is not the valves its the bloody transformers you need to use.

I used to build and maintain AF and RF gear using valves. Used some KT88's to make a uni student radio station in NZ in the 70s.

Put my back out moving it around.

IBM US staff must be fully vaccinated by December – or go back to bed without pay

All anti-vaxxers should register

Then when they catch COVID they are refused medical treatment or they have to pay full price for it.

I can see medical insurance companies refusing to cover you for COVID if you have refused the vaccine.

Two shots of vaccine are a lot cheaper than two weeks in an ICU on a ventilator. Why should those who are doing the right thing have to pay for those who won't.

Re: Hmmm

And if you catch COVID please do not go to the hospital.

Microsoft .NET updates include C and C++ code in Blazor WebAssembly, release date for Visual Studio 2022

Re: Another week...

cool piece of technology

I've been in this industry a looong time and when I see or hear that phrase I run, I don't walk I run... as far away as I can.

I see this new cool technology being used to solve problems that don't actually exist it becomes like a hammer and every problem is a nail.

A couple of years pass and we still have this technology in production. It is no longer mainstream and the person who thought it was coool has left and this stuff is still being maintained and no one has any idea how the hell it works and the original developer name becomes a swear word especially for bad or stupid coding.

Meatballs, Abba, and bork: 3 things Sweden is famous for

Re: All you need is ...

That's like using a Claymore mine to get rid of moles...

Yep, blowing things up is fun. Just like in myth busters...

US nuclear submarine bumps into unidentified underwater object in South China Sea

Possible whale strike

There may be a poor whale with one hell of a headache...

Don't know exactly where they were or how deep in the south china sea but something like a male sperm whale can mass about 40 metric tons and dive to over 2000 m.

They do range in the southern part of the south china sea and on the way down they would be silent as they only start echolocation when they start hunting.

Re: Just asking...

Whoa, that brings back memories.

Worked for Marconi in early 80's they had a specialised radiation hardened processor called a LOCUS that was designed for this sort of thing.

Sod of a thing to work on, everyone just called it locust.

Maker of ATM bombing tutorials blew himself up – Euro cops

Re: You can just ORDER ATMs???

In aus they have them in pubs and pokie (slot machines) venues

Computer shuts down when foreman leaves the room: Ghost in the machine? Or an all-too-human bit of silliness?

Re: Tea goes in the harbor

Sorry, the US has the worst coffee in the world! Even in NY if you want a proper cup you need to go to an Australian coffee house.

At one stage they tried to introduce starbucks into Aus, it totally crashed and burnt.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and we should feel fine

Re: Some rotten foundations and missing bits

The one problem with all of this are humans. Humans are stupid, most of the time they don't even know what they want!

Just look at how many times humans can stuff themselves up with no help from anything else.

Your comment about the "ace minds of yesteryear" doesn't cut it. I started in this game in the 70's and even then we had "jokes" about the miracle developer that do anything and get it all working. And the punchline was "You gave me what I asked for, but not what I wanted"

Your comment How about a calculator that spots errors by 'understanding' the compute? well we have something similar with text auto correct for spelling mistakes. And how many times does the auto correct still stuff up.

If you really want to see what you are up against work on a help desk...

This is AUKUS for China – US, UK, Australia reveal defence tech-sharing pact

Re: A hint at the UK's future

Not correct on that one. At least as a mouse you have control over your own destiny. But as a tail all you are is a mindless follower.

That's a sad news for France

Yea right! Given the chance the french would screw Australia. You need to remember the bloody french nuclear tests in the pacific and the bombing of the rainbow warrior to really see what the french are like.

Report details how Airbus pilots saved the day when all three flight computers failed on landing

Re: Automation Issue

Bottom line: don't override the human that knows what they are doing.

The problem with that is is the majority of humans think they know what they are doing...

The reality is that the vast majority of humans don't!

Remember the universe if finite while human stupidity is infinite.

The unit of measure for fatbergs is not hippopotami, even if the operator of an Australian sewer says so

Re: Gifting

Bit like drop bears then.

Need to work out the African equivalent of vegimite...

Start or Please Stop? Power users mourn features lost in Windows 11 'simplification'

Re: There's a reason...

Windows XP pried from their cold, dead hands

Yep it just worked! Form fits function!

W12

I stayed with W7 and skipped 8 and 8.1(9) until W10 was able to provide something close to W7. Looks like I'll be doing the same with W11. Bring on W12.

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

Re: Mars Bar

Born in the southern part of NZ to Scottish mother. She deep fried everything. The chip pan was permanently on the stove top.

She couldn't get a mars bar but used moro which is similar. Now on blood pressure and heart meds. Bugger.

The web was done right the first time. An ancient 3D banana shows Microsoft does a lot right, too

Re: Maybe not.

The actual concept is

"Fit for purpose"

It is nothing to do with being obsolete or succeeded or what ever...

8 years ago another billionaire ploughed millions into space to harvest solar power and beam it back down to Earth

Re: Cool idea, but...

So where are you going to put the very large antenna arrays needed to collect the beamed power? Farm land would not be a good idea with the crop and flock damage. Cooked cow anyone...

Re: Bzzzzzzz - phut!

Zap satellites! what about things like aircraft, birds animals etc.

In the '80s, satellite comms showed promise – soon it'll be a viable means to punt internet services at anyone anywhere

North Norfolk is populated, it is just that they are all closely related...

Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far

the UI is a visible and malleable software component so its an obvious target for programmers to tinker with

Er.. no the biggest issue I had was the bloody BAs wanting to make it look "better", "nicer" etc. Little things like we want these colours, And I had to reply ok want about the poor buggers who are colour blind.

Imagine a world where Apple shacked up with Xerox in the '80s: How might it look today?

Re: Lots of fun!

And everybody in the world uses Lotus Notes...

The interesting thing is I now use Slack, Jira, Confluence and outlook just to get the same level of functionality that I used to get with Lotus Notes.

3 disparate packages just to get the same sh*t I had in the 90's

Re: Big credit

Doh! way, way before the mouse was the trackball invented in the UK and patented in 1947 and before the trackball was the joystick.

BOFH: When the Sun rises in the West and sets in the East, only then will the UPS cease to supply uninterrupted voltage

Re: Reminds me...

Noooo, Hardware engineer with a software patch.

Lotus Notes refuses to die, again, as HCL debuts Domino 12

It worked and did what was needed

When I first used Notes in the 90s it was a one stop shop. Email, database and project workflow etc.

I'm now using outlook, slack, Atlassian JIRA and Confluence to provide the same level of functionality.

The once other feature that notes had that was extremely useful in the days of dialup and Slooow links was it could replicate.

Pics or it didn't happen: First images from China's Mars rover suggest nothing has gone Zhurong just yet

Re: They lied about COVID

Irony, sarcasm anyone..