Posts by Old Used Programmer

IT team forced to camp in the office for days after Y2K bug found in boss's side project

Re: Y2K - Learning to be Paranoid

For part of the 1990s, I worked at a company that had an in-house set of date handling subroutines that we were all supposed to use. At one point, a new version of them was released, so I tested a couple of critical dates. On the first pass I discovered that it showed 1900 as a leap year, so I set the programmer who'd done the work a note about the century year rule. One the second pass, 1900 wasn't a leap year and neither was 2000. Another note was sent. On the third pass he got it right.

Memory is running out, and so are excuses for software bloat

Re: Lovely idea - no chance of it ever happening

Wildest piece of compact code I ever wrote was a two card boot loader for an IBM S360/30 that would IPL load, bring an object deck into memory at the target programs preferred location, and run it. Took two cards because when you hit the IPL button, after selecting the card readed as to boot device, it would read one record and start the IO command chain on it.

I even managed to keep columns 73 to 80 clear (for sequence numbers) by having the code on the second card use the second IO command word from the first card (no seek needed, so getting the second card into memory only needed one IO command).

52-year-old data tape could contain only known copy of UNIX V4

Re: The work of giants

My wife wrote a novel and several short stories with the formatting done with nroff. Granted, she had vi to do the editing (what with working on the UC Berkeley campus at the time), but had gotten to the point that she put the formatting commands in on the fly.

Microsoft's lack of quality control is out of control

Re: Program / Programme

Another version is to call it "autocorrupt."

Librephone battles the proprietary binary blob

Re: They have absolutely ZERO chance

Part of the setup in RPiOS (and, since it's a Debian derivative, one would presume other distros as well) is to set the WiFi country code...selecting it from a very long list.

Client defended engineer after oil baron-turned tech support entrepreneur lied about dodgy dealings

Re: As per the OP's story

For writers, there are three kinds of markets (magazines in this case)...

1. Those that pay on acceptance.

2. Those that pay on publication.

3. Those that pay on threat of lawsuit.

Techie ended vendor/client blame game by treating managers like toddlers

The old (US) quip about that is... Trouble leaving here fine.

Tom Lehrer: Satirist, mathematician, inventor of the Jello shot

Re: Set the standard

His PBS children's songs were for Sesame Street, they were for The Electric Company.

‘I nearly died after flying thousands of miles to install a power cord for the NSA’

Re: five eyes"

Plus points for the Keith Laumer _Retief_ reference.

Trump tariffs turn techies topsy-turvy as US braces for PC tax

Re: Idiotic tariff nonsense

You jest, but I have some concerns if Trump ever figures out that Raspberry Pis are made in the UK.

Re: Idiotic tariff nonsense

Worse...That Felon in the White House drinks *diet* Coke.

Double-detonation supernova could explain why the universe is full of candles

Re: Type ia supernova,

It's type 1 (the numeral) A.

'Trained monkey' from tech support saved know-it-all manager's mistake with a single keypress

Two way street...

I was once asked at an annual review about my "loyalty to the company." I replied that I had as much loyalty to the company as the company had to me. My boss didn't particularly like that answer. During an RIF a few months later, the root of my statement came true.

LibreOffice adds voice to 'ditch Windows for Linux' campaign

Re: As I've said before

I find that RPiOS on a Pi is very easy to install. One can even buy inexpensive media with it already installed.

User demanded a 'wireless' computer and was outraged when its battery died

Re: It took mine a *month*...

...vacuuming the cat...

Danish department determined to dump Microsoft

Re: Replacing Office is the easy part

I switched my wife over to OpenOffice (and then LibreOffice) when she got a PC new enough that it wouldn't run Word for Windows 2.0. She intensely disliked later versions of Word,as all she wanted it for was writing SF. Her earlier transition was from vi/nroff/-ms macros. Until she died, she still had an e-mail account on a unix system and used mail. For news, she stuck with trn.

Techie fixed a ‘brown monitor’ by closing a door for a doctor

Re: Does not sound like any kind of fix to me

The ones who are only wearing black until they find something darker?

Oracle's $40B Nvidia hardware haul may be too hot for OpenAI's Abilene, Texas DC to handle

What?

Of all the places in the world, Abilene, TX? When I lived there (granted, it was the mid-1950s) it's main claim to fame was 3 Bible Colleges in town. Real Bible Belt place.

User unboxed a PC so badly it 'broke' and only a nail file could fix it

Re: Pc fixing tool

Hmm... My choices would have been either bodkin points (for those in protective gear) or broadheads for those not so equipped.

Apartment living to get worse in 5 years as 6 GHz Wi-Fi nears ‘exhaustion’

Re: Ethernet when you can, Wi-Fi when you have to

Not only do I use wired Ethernet whenever I can, but when I travel I take a couple of Cat-6 cables with me because every once in a while you still run into a hotel that has an RJ-45 jack.

Linus Torvalds goes back to a mechanical keyboard after making too many typos

Re: Nostalgia?

The IBM 1620 Mod II used a Selectric for a console typewriter (as did the S/360 systems until they went with CRTs), so--yes--there has been a computer keyboard that good. When IBM brought out the PC, they tried to match the "touch" of the Selectric and came fairly close. Hence all the people here talking about IBM Model M and Unicomp keyboards.

Yeah... The Pi500 has a better keyboard, but not much better. For the market and price, it's the sort of keyboard one would expect. It's okay for occasional use, but I wouldn't want to use it full time.

What I really wish would happen is for a third party to make a good mechanical keyboard for the Pi400/Pi500. Have to be a third party because I really doubt there is enough demand and enough price flexibility for the RPL to do it themselves, but they might easily work with a third party so an aftermarket replacement would fit and work properly.

Re: Wish I knew what kind....

My late wife was VERY picky about keyboards, but she wasn't a programmer at all. She spent her working life...typing. Loved Selectrics. For computer keyboards, she decided that Unicomp were as close to a Selectric "feel" as she could find. (Which is not particularly surprising, as IBM was trying to match the Selectric feel with the Model M and came fairly close.)

Top sci-fi convention gets an earful from authors after using AI to screen panelists

Re: More Weasel-Words

Pretty good chance this will be a major topic of discussion at this years SmofCon.

Liz Warren, Trump admin agree on something: Army should have right to repair

Re: Politicians lack of grip with reality

In the early 1970s my father was a civilian employee of the US Navy, working on ground support equipment. At one point, a knob was lost from one unit. He said he could have gone across San Diego Bay (he was working at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado) and purchased a replacement for about $0.25, or if he went to an inexpensive source, probably $0.10 to $0.15. He could also have walked over (about 100 yards) to the supply depot and pointed to the shelf where the spares were. But that's not how the Navy did things, so he put in a supply requisition for a replacement knob.

Six months later... A box showed up on his desk. The box had been sent from Bremerton, WA. In the box was an invoice for one knob for $10.52. The knob was in the box...and 51 more exactly like it.

He used to comment that his one hope for the US was that Soviet Naval Supply system was worse than ours...

Techie diagnosed hardware fault by checking customer's coffee

Re: Please do not all power on at once

At one point in the mid-1930s my father was the staff electrician in NY residence hotel. One person there wouldn't pay his electric bill, so they'd pull the fuses. He replaced them with pennies. All my father would say about his solution was that the next time the guy pulled that he'd "get a handful of fire." After that...he paid his electric bill on time.

Need a Linux admin? Ask a hair stylist to introduce you to a worried mother

Re: What do you mean he is quiet?

I spent a couple of summers in the US Federal Summer Employment program working in the data center of the 11th Naval District in San Diego. This required a security clearance--Confidential, which is as low as it gets. I sometime wonder what the reaction of those doing the clearance was when they came across my father. He had a job for several years with a clearance high enough to crawl around inside nuclear armed Air Force B-52s on the flight line, and he had sockets welded to the bumper of his personal car to hold the flight line flags he kept in the trunk. (Yes...as a civilian, he was allowed to drive his *personal* car on the flight line of a SAC base.)

PIRG's 'Electronic Waste Graveyard' lists 100+ gadgets dumped after support vanished

Buile it yourself...

My "alarm clock" (sorry...no sleep tracker, but I suppose it could be added) consists of a Raspberry Pi 2v1, an RPL 7" screen and a set of speakers. It's been running for 10 years and still gets software updates.

Users hated a new app – maybe so much they filed a fake support call

Re: Fake interest in product

I get assorted spam calls for my late wife. I tell them that she is no longer at this number. NONE of them have ever asked for a new number to contact her. I'd be tempted to find--and provide--a number for the Vatican (as she was Catholic). One time I mentioned the problem someone suggested that I supply the number for Dial-a-Prayer.

How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?

Re: Ones Aurora

I refer to that as the "CE effect".

Re: Not magnetic field, more star field?

Hmmm.... An ancestor of mine was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1757. He happened to be in the UK when the US revolutionary war broke it. He was "detained", escaped, got to New England, signed on board a privateer (pirate...to the other side), went out on a cruise, when the ship returned to port, he signed off the privateer.

Then he made his way home to SC. Three days later, he a had a commission as a Lieutenant in the SC Navy (I'm guess that he used the proceeds of the privateer cruise to buy it), was assigned to a very small warship (16-gun Brig'o'war). The ship captured a British stores ship. My ancestor was appointed to command the prize crew and was able to get the prize back to a friendly port. When the warship returned to port, the captain retired and suggested that command be given to my ancestor...which was done. This was all before he was 20. He was in command for the following 3 years, during which they were involved in the capture, recapture or sinking of 63 vessels. What was that about the competence of Young Gentle(wo)men?

Re: Not really a fix, but magnetic fields were involved

The Lawrence Berkeley Lab (the one up the hill from the UC campus that does unclassified work, not the one in Livermore that works for DoD) had to tell PG&E (local utility provider) when they wer going to start or stop the Bevatron particle accelerator. Rather large inductive load. They also had to notify the Field Free Lab, about half a mile away.

US Army’s laser obsession continues with yet another drone-zapper deal

I would have thought that a MASER would work better and do it by frying any electronics present in/on the drone.

Weeks with a BBC Micro? Good enough to fix a mainframe, apparently

Re: Memories having a secretary

In a mainframe shop, add CEs and console operators to that list of people to be on the good side of.

Re: Memories

My wife tested at 100wpm on a Selectric. We figured she was self-limiting because a Selectric will fail its rollover limit at about 110wpm and she would occasionally get the symptom of that: hyphens. Later, when what she had a work was a Mac, she called Apple support to ask if there were keyboard shortcuts for *everything*. The rather puzzled support person said there weren't and why would she want them. Couldn't she just use the mouse? She somewhat testily pointed out at, if she took her hand off the keyboard to use the mouse, it slowed down her typing. (She also used to type up manuscripts on a unix--BSD 2.9--system inserting nroff -ms commands on the fly at full speed.)

User complained his mouse wasn’t working. But he wasn’t using a mouse

Re: The mouse doesn't work in the afternoon..

I have mixed feelings about Pournelle... I was once asked to be on a panel discussion at an SF con with him. It was during one of his...better lubricated...periods and he was at least two sheets to the wind. Any time he couldn't make his point rationally or logically, he tried making it louder. I got a lot of sympathy from the audience...

Please fasten your seatbelts. A third of US air traffic control systems are 'unsustainable'

Re: Hmm

Okay.... How do the workers, supplies, and construction materials get to an airport that isolated?

Re: Sure, what could go wrong?

You hope.

UC Berkeley had--by contract--two independently routed lines to an East Coast site as part of the internet backbone. A farmer in New Jersey with a backhoe took out a single fiber cable and both lines went down. What ensued was a lot of pointing at contracts and bills and a sizable payment made over the lack of *actual* independent routing.

Re: Nothing is ever new

Other way around. They lop off the low order digit. So a runway bearing 270 degree (that is, due west) is 27 and has a reciprocal of 9.

Re: Nothing is ever new

Numbering is in tens of degrees, counted clockwise from north. e.g. Due north is 0. Due east is 90. With parallel runways, you have Right and Left. And, just to make things interesting, if you come from the opposite direction, the number will be offset by 18 (180 degrees). So runway 9 becomes runway 27.

SpaceX has an explanation for the Falcon 9 bits that hit Poland

Re: Werner von Musk

Thank you, Tom Lehrer.

I was told to make backups, not test them. Why does that make you look so worried?

Re: Here are the copies

IBM 2311 drives used the 1311 disk pack...6 platters. 10 tracks per cylinder. Total capacity per pack, about 7.25MB. 2314 drives (11 platters, 20 tracks per cylinder, 29MB per pack) were a big improvement.

Early mornings, late evenings, weekends. Useless users always demand support

Not just phones...

Back in the day when the company issued pagers to those on call--and some who weren't. I was asked to keep my pager on while on vacation. I agreed to do so, but didn't mention that I'd be camping in a remote valley in the Sierra Nevada that was certain not to have pager coverage...and, sure enough, didn't. I did leave the pager on, since I was asked to.

I always made in plain that, if I were driving, I wouldn't respond to pages until I got to some convenient stopping place, such as my destination. I still hold to that principle with cell phones.

At one job, during the annual review, I was asked about my loyalty to the company. I replied that I was just as loyal to the company as the company was loyal to me. My boss really didn't like that answer, and--sure enough--during the next "reduction in force", I was one of the ones that was reduced, thus answering both questions.

Call of Duty studio co-founder pleads guilty to crashing drone into firefighting aircraft

Re: Canada tariffs....

The Canadians appear to be tailoring their counter-tariffs to go after goods from red states....of which California is not one.

Trump’s tariffs, cuts may well put tech in a chokehold, say analysts

Re: That's the point

What are you baiting your breath with, and what do you think that bait will catch?

Tariff uncertainty looms large over budget conscious CIOs

Re: In some ways it doesn't matter.

Same here. Planning to always refer to "That Felon in the White House" for the next four years. I rather doubt that very many people who read The Register voted for him.

The ultimate Pi 5 arrives carrying 16GB ... and a price to match

Re: At that price...

Things the Pi5 brings over the Pi4B... Built in RTC with a battery option. Fan header separate from the GPIO block. The ability to put real mass storage (NVMe SSD) within the footprint of a standard case, rather than a fat, very stiff, external cable and storage device. There is even at least one M.2 adapter that lets you use the official case and put the lid on for a very tidy package.

Eight things that should not have happened last year, but did

I will take exception to your claim that "happily married" is an oxymoron. It's why 2.5 years after her death, I still deeply miss my late wife.

After a long lunch, user thought a cursor meant their computer was cactus

Re: Cat warmer

While I had cats that would sleep in the tray of the laser printer, as soon as the printer started making noise getting ready to print, the cat would leave.