Posts by Old Used Programmer

After 30 years of searching, astroboffins finally detect the universe's 'missing matter' – using fast radio bursts

Re: ...but does it really "matter" given the state of Humanity?

You've been reading "Digging the Weans", haven't you?

Raspberry Pi Foundation serves up an 8GB slice of mini-computing goodness

Re: Pi a great project

That BBC Micro naming is *why* there are A and B series Pis...dating back the the Model B and Model A. They've just gotten a whole lot better in the last 8 years.

Re: I just wish they'd unlock the PCIe pins.

What you want is the upcoming CM4.

Re: Further back than that....

I think you missed the point. The Pi2Bv1.2 uses the *same* SoC as the Pi3B/Pi3B+ (just a stepping difference, and last I heard, the older boards now use the newer stepping, anyway). So if RPiOS64 will run on a Pi3B or Pi3B+, then it will run on a Pi2Bv1.2. Just slower due to reduced clock speed.

And bear in mind that the Pi2Bv1.2 boards are still being made.

Note that this expectation does *not* include the Pi2Bv1.1--which aren't made any more--as they used the 32-bit only BCM2836 rather that the BCM2837.

The BCM2711 (SoC on the Pi4) can address 16GB of RAM. So, for those applications that can use that, without needing a faster processor, it would make sense. The question becomes: Will the marketplace support a 16GB Pi4B? Collectors alone *might* be enough to do that, especially with people that simply want bragging rights. See adage about fools, money and the parting thereof.

It does beg another question, though...How many PCs are out there with processors running at or about 2GHz and having 16GB installed?

Further back than that....

RPiOS64 *should* run on a Pi2Bv1.2, since it uses the same SoC as the Pi3B/Pi3B+.

Linux desktop org GNOME Foundation settles lawsuit with patent troll

Re: I hope it's a good result

During the whole "SCO" vs IBM suit, it was mentioned that the general IBM policy is to just pay any claim of less than $10K and fight anything over that amount. To keep people from exploiting the policy, sometimes they *will* fight over amounts of less than $10K. It's kind of a case of, how lucky are you feeling today? Further, their lawyers were nicknamed the Nazgul.

Behold: The ghastly, preening, lesser-spotted Incredible Bullsh*tting Customer

Re: Yes the users are bad

Hmmm... Yes... Like the time I was in a meeting that was almost all management, between the project I was on and the data center where it was going to be run.

After describing what we intended to do (ASCII async to an IBM mainframe DB2 system), one of the data center people said flatly, "It can't be done." So I innocently said, "Oh... In that case, why was I doing just that 5 years ago at another company?" The data center person grumped and said, "Well...*we've* never done it." Management on my side of the table actually noticed the goal post move and the data center management said they'd look into it. Couple of months later...that data center announced a new service, ASCII async to EBCDIC data transfers.

A paper clip, a spool of phone wire and a recalcitrant RS-232 line: Going MacGyver in the wonderful world of hotel IT

Re: Remember serial breakout boxes?

Grrrr... There is no such thing as a "DB-9". There is a DE-9 connector.

Re: Luxury

Also known as "diagonal cutters" or "dikes", for short.

Re: Danger - building works

That sounds suspiciously like what happened between UC Berkeley and a site they were connected to on the East Coast. In spite of paying a lot to have two, independently routed, circuits, *both* went through the same cable under a farmers field in New Jersey. Said farmer managed to nail the cable and both circuits went down. I believe that (AT&T, probably?) got asked for a serious amount of money for not having provided the independent routing that Berkeley had been paying for.

Re: Proper lash up

I did once make a comment telling anyone in the future not to muck about with that section of code unless they actually understood what it was doing and how it was doing it.

Need to check....

I think I've still got a box full of RS-232 cables ranging up to at least 50' long.

Cloudflare goes retro with COBOL delivery service. Older coders: Who's laughing now? Turns out we're still vital

Been there, done that...

As someone who spent far too many years writing and maintaining COBOL programs, I will attest that it is exceedingly verbose. Or, as I used to quip, it's the only programming language I know that is guaranteed to give you writers cramp.

COBOL-coding volunteers sought as slammed mainframes slow New Jersey's coronavirus response

Re: No so much COBOL as the tools

Anybody who thinks a 3270 is a mainframe falls in the idiot category.

Cops charge prankster who 'corona-coughed' on aged officer and had it filmed

Re: Idiot

Until 71 would be a good age. Same age as the cop he pranked.

He’s a pain in the ASCII to everybody. Now please acquit my sysadmin client over these CIA Vault 7 leaking charges

Re: Focus On The Clowns

There is the story from the end of WW2. A German intelligence official was being interogated. He was asked what he knew about the OSS (the predecessor to the CIA). He replied, "Oh, we know all about the OSS. That's your cover for your real intelligence operation."

Re: They're never going to get a jury who understands any of this

I did it by questioning the integrity of the prosecutors, citing examples of dirty tricks by same in various places. Followed by being leery of the integrity of the defense attorney.

Remember the Clipper chip? NSA's botched backdoor-for-Feds from 1993 still influences today's encryption debates

Same old, same old...

Require the government--internally, including FBI, NSA, etc. and military--to use the same encryption they want to foist on everyone else.

Brit brainiacs say they've cracked non-volatile RAM that uses 100 times less power

How long....

Nothing in the article about effective working lifetime. Does this share the problem with flash that it can only be written a limited (sometimes *very* limited) number of times?

Alan Turing’s OBE medal, PhD cert, other missing items found in super-fan’s Colorado home by agents, says US govt

Re: A world of her own

I rather suspect that she'll wind up somewhere with full time guards...of one sort or another.

IBM, Microsoft, a medley of others sing support for Google against Oracle in Supremes' Java API copyright case

Re: Why not let idiotic orgs let their APIs slide into obscurity via failing to license freely?

Actually... No. Nothing copyrighted before 1928 is still covered. Current law is life plus 70 years for individuals, 95 years for corporations. Blame the Mouse Kingdom for the extensions that have been pushing those out. 1928 is critical date for "Steamboat Willy".

We’ve had enough of your beach-blocking shenanigans, California tells stubborn Sun co-founder: Kiss our lawsuit

Eminent domain

Give him the $380K that the land the access is on is supposed to be worth and seize it to be state property.

British bloke accused of extorting victims for 'Dark Overlord' hacker crew finally gets his free trip* to America

Re: Where is Anne Sacoolas?

Since--so far as I know--the basic facts of that case are known, Dunn's family could probably win a wrongful death civil case fairly easily. Probably not as satisfying a putting her in the slammer, but far better than nothing. (Note that this is how O. J. Simpson was taken down after his criminal acquittal.)

HP to hike upfront price of printer hardware as ink biz growth runs dry

Re: At the risk of topic drift, can I ask for a recommendation for a mono laser...

I have an HP2015 that I had a network card added to a couple of years ago, and an HP2055dn. Because I can set the IP address in the HP2055dn I'm seriously thinking of getting a second one (they go for less than $200 on the used/reconditioned market). Both of those are real workhorses.

Re: Deskjet - sold for $1,000, and not subsidised.

Heh... Ever stand near an IBM 1403N1 running at the full 1100lpm?

Holy smokes! Ex-IT admin gets two years prison for trashing Army chaplains' servers

Where is god when you need him?

Shouldn't the chaplains have just appealed for divine help to fix everything? Can't the omnipotent creator of the universe do something simple lijke that?

HP printer small print says kit phones home data on whatever you print – and then some

Re: Not me!

HP2015 (with an after-market Ethernet card) and an HP2055DN, here. Last I looked, one can get refurbished HP2055dn printers for about $175 (as opposed to about $700 new).

Re: polluting the well.

Some years ago (and for several years) I had a local supermarket "loyalty card" with the name "B. Munchausen" and the address of the store I usually shopped at. Since I always paid in cash at that store, there would never have been any sort of cross-check. Once--in perhaps ten years--a clerk asked if I was related to Baron Munchausen. I just smiled. Never seemed to occur to anyone that the name was a complete giveaway that it was all a fabrication...

My MacBook Woe: I got up close and personal with city's snatch'n'dash crooks (aka some bastard stole my laptop)

A note of CA license plates...

Given the license "plate" number and what it looked like... Recently, California started requiring dealers to put paper plates on all cars sold, rather that advertising for the dealership, to be replaced by the buyer when they get the real plates. The number given is typical of those temporary plates. The state should have a record of which car it goes with. In theory, the owner of the correct car should have reported the plate being stolen. If he didn't, there should be a presumption that it's his car that was used. If the theives were dumb enough to use the car that plate goes with (perhaps they stole the car), the chance of finding them probably goes up a bit.

Darkest Dungeon: Lovecraftian PTSD simulator will cause your own mask to slip

Re: I.T. Angle?

People have made Miskatonic U. "diplomas". Some fans gave one to Marion Zimmer Bradley. MZB had it framed and hung it on a wall. When she hired an editor for her fantasy magazine for her English Lit. background and skills (but, unfortunately, totally lacking in any fantasy or SF knowledge), said editor spotted the diploma and remarked to Marion, "Oh! Is that where you got your degree?" She was serious.

Backdoors won't weaken your encryption, wails FBI boss. And he's right. They won't – they'll fscking torpedo it

Re: Ok... they can have their damned backdoors if...

My version is slightly different...by law, require *all* Federal agencies to use whatever encryption scheme they foist on everyone else.

Low Barr: Don't give me that crap about security, just put the backdoors in the encryption, roars US Attorney General

Big Business vs. Individuals

So... Barr is okay with big businesses using strong encryption, but not anybody else? Has he noticed that organized crime *is* big business? Does he think that criminals or terrorists that are sophisticated enough to use encryption at all will stop at using weak encryption with back doors, rather than using the best they can obtain?

In short, is Barr that stupid, or what?

God DRAM you! Prices to slide more than 40% in 2019 because chip makers can't forecast

A silver lining...

That's probably good news for the Raspberry Pi folks. Perhaps now the Pi3A+ will get a "mid-life kicker" to 1GB. High DRAM prices have been a concern for them.

You'll never guess what US mad lads Throwflame have strapped to a drone (clue: it does exactly what it says on the tin)

The numbers don't add up...

They're saying that the drone needs to be able to handle a 5lb. payload, while the flamethrower has a 1 gal. tank. Um...guys...1 gal. of gasoline or diesel fuel weighs *7*lb. And that doesn't count the wight of the tank or the rest of the assembly.

Take the bus... to get some new cables: Raspberry Pi 4s are a bit picky about USB-Cs

Oh, the irony...

It's been noted that there is something odd about trying to use a $60 Apple charger to power a $35 computer. (For those unfamiliar with them, the RPF PSU lists for $8.)

Re: "the Pi is not a toy but increasing used for serious jobs"

They may not *sell* them for serious purposes, but companies certainly *buy* them for serious purposes. It's been stated that about half of all Pis are purchased by companies. Then there was the time a few years ago when the A+ Pis all disappeared from the sales channels. Turned out that one or two big commercial display companies decided the A+ was just the thing they needed to make "smart" displays and bought up every A+ they could get their hands on.

14 sailors die aboard Russian cable spy, er, ocean research nuke sub after fire breaks out

Re: Nightmarish stuff

U-505 at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. It's on land on concrete supports. Definitely worth the tour if you ever have the chance.

One teeensy little 13-minute power cut, and WD you look at the size of that chip supply cut!

Re: Ultimately this is why "effciency savings" are risky ...

Some bean counter got his cost/benefit analysis wrong. Perhaps they'll now listen to their engineers a little more closely.

Hate your IT job? Sick of computers? Good news: An electronics-frying Sun superflare may hit 'in next 100 years'

We'll all go togheter when we go...

Tom Lehrer fan?

Wow, talk about a Maine-wave: US state says ISPs need permission to flog netizens' personal data

Coming soon...

How long before the terms and conditions for ISPs doing business in Maine specify that they have a free hand with your data. Want the service, sign on the line "giving" the ISP permission...

Wanted: Big iron geeks to help restore IBM 360 mainframe rescued from defunct German factory by other big iron geeks

The good old days...

The article reminds me of when--in 1969--a lumber company in Ft. Bragg, CA gave the College of Engineering Computer Club at UC Berkeley their old computer. I think they shipped the CPU to us, but I drove a 6-ton stake bed truck up there and back to pick up the card read/punch and printer. I gave my passenger near heart failure by driving the loaded truck from Ft. Bragg (on the coast) to Willits, a distance of 35 miles, in an hour.

The machine in question was a Univac SS/90. The "SS" being for "solid state" and "90" because it used the original Hollerith design 90 column cards (45 columns in the top half, the other 45 columns in the bottom half). The club members were more than a little non-plussed when when we opened the back of the printer and found ourselves staring at an array of 132 thyratrons. They were the drivers for the print hammers. Main memory for the CPU was 5000 10 digit words of drum memory.

There were two versions of JCL. One for "small" systems--like S/360-30 and S/360-40--running TOS or DOS and another version for bigger system running OS/360.

Well before. The 1401 came out in the late 1950s. The s/360 line was launched in 1964.

Re: Just bunged them a tenner

That would be an acoustic coupler modem. How soon we forget...

Re: Just bunged them a tenner

I learned on an IBM 1620 Mod. I and moved on to work on S/360 DOS systems. Looks like I started about 10 years before you did.

Do Not Track is back in the US Senate. And this time it means business. As in, fining businesses that stalk you online

Re: Bad comparison

That was my thought as well. If it works as well as the the Do Not Call list, they might as well not bother.

User secures floppies to a filing cabinet with a magnet, but at least they backed up daily... right?

Re: Two true stories

My niece worked for a steel fabrication company. They replaced a bunch of office PCs and wanted to clean the old disks of any company data. The laid the drives (about 50 of them) out in the "yard" and brought over a crane with a 50 ton capacity magnetic "hook". Lowered the hook over the drives and turned it on. According to those that saw it...the drives all stood up on end and waived back and for as the field varied.

Checking a sample of drives afterwards, they couldn't get anything off them.

Telly production biz films maternity clinic, doesn't tell patients, gets fined £120,000

No way to shut off the camera?

I can think of a few--besides the hammer suggestion already posted. Is it mains powered? Unplug it. Is it battery powered? Remove the battery. Is it on a standard camera mount? Unmount the camera and remove it.

Fake Google robocallers hit with $3.4m fine – but it turns out that the joke's on you

Re: Appropriate punishment

Lock them up in a cell with a phone. Tell them that--at some random time in future--they will receive a call telling them that the sentence is over. They will need to tell the guards the "release number" given at the end of the call in order to get out. (I'm an old "Mikado" fan...)