Posts by Sandtitz 2099 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2010
Is there supposed to be an image in the article or are we supposed to squint our eyes and look at the article thumbnail?
The site update has been an unmitigated disaster. After the initial update the Bork images were paired with Javaslop that didn't allow zooming and scrolling the image. And now this.
"If it's that a useful feature why on earth wouldn't it be added to KVM/QEMU sharpish? Who are you to dismiss something so out-of-hand?"
I don't see any talk about devs implementing this feature on KVM or QEMU. Implementing this isn't just adding an enable_nvme_tiering setting somewhere but will take a lot of development and testing resources.
If the KVM developers find this a useful feature, they might implement it. But talking about months is pure fantasy.
"Oh goody, more time for you to get thoroughly addicted/over-reliant on the technology so that Broadcom can REALLY make you squeal when it comes to renewals.
People have been reliant on VMware for couple of decades because it has been the best-in-class. And it still is. Moving from VMware to any other is a downgrade in features, ecosystem, maturity.
If you rely on Nutanix, HPE, IBM/RedHat or other paid virtualisation tech, they are equally looking to extract all loose money from their clients as well. Sorry to tell you this.
Moving to any other hypervisor environment is always a chore, why would it be harder in the future? Some of VMware competitions is making the move easier these days.
"Seriously what the hell are you actually doing that needs you to CapEx 1TB of RAM, yet you can't afford it?"
That was for a single server. Times 10 or 100 for some companies. Even the bigger companies balk at some point. If you can save thousands or millions with memory tiering - just like you can/could with storage tiering - with minor performance loss, why would you NOT do it?
"I've worked for plenty of clients and companies that have ended up with more than that amount of RAM in play, but it's always been through incremental expansion."
1TB is peanuts where I work. That was an example of how hardware refreshes these days are very expensive compared to year ago.
"Anything more "spiky" has been done in the cloud to prove the concept first before justifying massive CapEx."
Can't work with cloud because of latencies, regulation and other reasons.
"Even if there aren't any now, there will be within a matter of months..."
Nonsense.
"You buy VMware products in this day and age, you pay every year, more and more every year, at Broadcom's whim."
Now you are just lying and spreading FUD. You can pay for 3- and 5-year terms.
Look, I know everyone hates Broadcom, but there's no need to invent stuff.
"And it can't possibly perform as well as if you'd just bought the extra RAM in the first place."
No-one is claiming so.
Memory prices have gone up 10-fold during last year - 1TB server memory can cost $50k or more today. And that's a single server. With this memory tiering you could go for half the memory and top if with a 512GB NVMe drive which costs a fraction of the memory price.
If you don't have to worry about budgets, go for RAM only. Many others do not have that luxury.
"I have spent the last 3 years telling them that they need to move this into a proper Maintenance Management System e.g. Maximo before it all goes horribly wrong."
Maximo? The one that costs $3000 per year per user? And made by IBM? ...Is that why you are anon posting?
And they're still using it after 3 years and it hasn't gone horribly wrong? Why is that?
"After 3 years it's finally gotten through to them that their present Excel system with Macros and Vis Basic additions is not fit for purpose."
Why are macros bad?
"I find it baffling that people use Excel for fuctiionality better suited to Word or more specialist software."
Many companies already have Office so Excel does not cost anything extra. Many people know how to use it already.
Recommending Word in place of Excel for anything else but word processing is a baffling idea.
"It took quite a while for anyone outside the gaming enthusiasts to adopt it over 2000"
W2K was not in use at homes really, apart from enthusiasts - because of poor gaming support. Larger companies are always slow to adapt anything new, smaller companies just bought new computers with the latest Windows version, like they still do.
Later, when XP came out, video game companies were on board.
XP had native Wifi, Bluetooth and a firewall. W2K had all the ports open. Recycle bin on XP was private to each user, on W2K every user saw its contents.
I don't see the author complaining about the GPU or storage usage monitoring in Task Manager which were not in the old Task Manager. The NT era Task Manager was fast to launch due to its simplicity.
If you need to monitor the computer resource usage, having too much data instead of too little data is the better choice.
Mr. Speed is in some sort of crusade against Microsoft, lambasting it in every article. Did Microsoft drive over his dog?
'twas about 25 years ago and I was asked to go and replace a network card in a pharmacy PC.
Upon arriving I was met with a dusty old PC with OS/2 1.x in it with 10base5 connection.
I was reasonably versed with OS/2 2.1 and Warps but that obsolete thing was just a mystery. I made my excuses and left the premises.
Not worth the potential trouble of fucking up the whole computer.
"Wildberries might clam compensation against those UK drone companies."
Claiming anything is easy.
I'm sure Wildberries can collect the compensations right after Russia pays for the Salisbury nerve poison victims - i.e. never.
Using Nvidia chips suggest Russia is incapable of manufacturing their own chips the missiles require. The mechanical parts of missiles they have perfected long ago.
Really?
Yes, really. Russia is incapable of manufacturing their own chips for these missiles. And I don't see you disputing this in any way in your rambling text.
"Why do you think Russia would trust or rely on a system that they don't control"
Russia was using Starlink until it was shut down for them. Probably the reason was stupidity, ignorance and of course the prevalent corruption in Russian forces.
"I'd suggest that indicates Russia's tech manufacturing is perhaps capable of moving faster than ours.."
Using Nvidia chips suggest Russia is incapable of manufacturing their own chips the missiles require. The mechanical parts of missiles they have perfected long ago.
Russia relying on foreign products on warfare is pretty foolish, be it this chip or e.g. using Starlink for comms.
I can click the image to enlarge it but I cannot scroll the image.
The problem has been since the site was redesigned and the web designers seem to not care or not know how to fix this Javascript mess.
I've reported this and other problems via email - no answers, no fixes.
"Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked."
"What does need to happen is an effective deterrent against companies cheaping-out on security. Such as jailing every C-level (past and present) who ever voted against security improvements."
Pretty black and white thinking there. There are practically infinite number of security improvement which would count for very little. If the IT guy in a small company comes up with a wish list worth millions of dollars and the company cannot even afford it -> jail time for C-level? Get real, pal.
According to the article, this was a voice phishing attack, possibly with a simulated voice of someone working there. The weak point here was whoever person fell for this, maybe helpdesk person resetting a password or MFA and divulging the secret on the phone call or doing some other stupid thing. At my workplace the users are given training on IT security as well, but people act differently in situations like this and there is no technology that stops a determined idiot.
I don't see the data theft happening due to "cheaping-out on security". If you have more knowledge why the data theft was due to cheaping out on security, please enlighten us.
"But we do know how insecure free software is - a previous study inspected the error rate per line of GNU software"
Study on GNU software is study on GNU software. It does not reflect the whole OSS domain.
GnuTLS didn't suffer from Heartbleed, whereas OpenSSL caused a major patching scramble and LibreSSL fork.
I'm afraid these 432 CVEs in Linux kernel are not an isolated case, but the new status quo for all software, open or not.
Are IBM/RedHat - and other major companies making profit out of OSS - responsible for these CVE reports or are they letting enthusiastic end users pay the AI bills?
"Maybe further studies, now that there has been another 20 years of bug fixes, should take place."
Yes, that would be welcome.
"microsoft first and foremost reports any exploitable bugs to the NSA before doing anything; https://web.archive.org/web/20130622044225/http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2013/06/how-can-any-company-ever-trust-microsoft-again/index.htm"
It's a blog - an opinion piece - and based on Bloomberg reporting about some rumours.
Troll harder.
"[Google]...has for a long time had clear (if a bit weird) coding practices, including testing and dedicated security team that actually looks for bugs.
The article contains this tidbit:
"...including 428 non-Microsoft Chromium CVEs affecting Edge that aren’t included in that 622 count."
I'm sure the security team can pat their backs for finding 428 vulnerabilities, but this also means their testing team is bit of shite, along with their Chromium coders if these 428 vulnerabilities are found monthly on a shipping product.
Granted, Chrome is a complex software project but those 622 MS vulns cater for all their software, including Office, Exchange and other things.
"Could you get a team to perform that port in 11 days? Probably not."
If the code is documented line by line, in several small modules and is in great shape, and everyone knows exactly what to do - in theory. Considering this is 500k LOC and descibed as being already sloppy code - IMPOSSIBLE.
Depending on the coding project, there is a sweet spot in the number of people in the team. "You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant"
"If you elect to use a country with lower wages, and there are a number where you can pay 1/3 or less, then you buy more time. Could the task be accomplished in 495 staff-days? That seems more likely."
This really depends on your business case. Do you produce software that makes money? If you can produce working software in 11 days for 165K and it brings $1000 per day, in 495 days you have lost the $165k in wages AND $495k in lost profits. With this AI you would have lost only $165k + $11k.
Let's keep in mind that Bun is owner by Anthropic - it's there in the article - and Anthropic likes to peddle Claude into coding projects. This is more of an advertisement puff piece since the business case here is weak anyway.
"but you can proxy HTTP3/QUIC. Most people don't bother today - they just let the browser fall back to HTTP2/TLS.
Sure it works, but ...I tried my Android TV behind proxy at home. There's a proxy URL setting but the applications may or may not honour the setting - the official Youtube app for example fails to work with a proxy. Gee, thanks Google for setting an example!
"As for Access... for those who really haven't used it... it's like a form builder on top of a sqlite-style thing (in terms of the Access 'database' just being a single file that it read and wrote to directly) but Microsoft Jet had none of the speed, stability, robustness, error recovery, or crash recovery of sqlite."
SQLite is from 2000 and Access from 1992. One would expect nothing less from SQLite.
Access has the GUI and GUI editor built-in. With SQLite you still need a separate application to use it as a back-end, so these are not really comparable products.
"But by the late 1980s, it was completely routine for these UNIX workstations to have 21" CRT running at 1280x1024 or even 1600x1200. They figured if you were already spaffing out 5-10K for a system, of course you'd spend like $500-1000 for a large high-resolution monitor."
In the late 1980s a 19" 1280x1024 monitor would easily cost $2000 - $3000. Plain 14" VGA was something like 300-400 dollars.
Depending on the age of this XP installation, you would have to update the innards anyway. XP minimum requirements was 64MB RAM - even with way more there's no practical replacement, and in a 24/7 available terminal you'd need to schedule updates anyway - tricky.
Old, unsupported OS version is fine as long as you also keep a dev environment that target it.
Like all computers, this public terminal should be segmented into its own VLAN and firewalled to absolute minimum possible access. Judging from the old looking (hard to see) VNC icon - likely zero encryption - I wouldn't bet on best practices.
"not actually damaging or deleting internal systems."
Continuously releasing 0-days immediately after the patch window tells that he wants to cause maximum damage. Microsoft's reputation is only taking a hit, but actual users are taking the hit.
(S)he is another psycho like the fella in this article.
"I'm genuinely honestly surprised people haven't been leaving this platform as if it were a burning building at this point, because, well, it is."
I also advocate voting with your feet if the service suck, but the burning question is: Move to which platform?
The article says that number of commits are up >16x from last year. Shame on MS for not giving GitHub the resources it needs, but many other platforms would be facing problems with that kind of growth. Imagine buying 1 server for your company last year to handle your load and then going back to your boss and asking for 16 more - the price more than double now per server - because you didn't anticipate such growth.
"I had to look up the error codes for an almost-new Dell just last week, although they blink the power LED different colours instead of using a beep.
Same with HP laptops when there's a hardware problem during POST before video.
Lenovo Thinkpads have a somewhat more user friendly 'smartbeep' system - their diag app on a smartphone can decipher the melody and then tells what hw subsystem is having problems.
"Such as 2016 server cant have a 15 character hostname and be able to find DC's"
Fixed.
"Also the boot loop due to UEFI partition not being big enough?"
There was no boot loop problem.
If the EFI partition is too full, the boot loader residing there cannot be replaced. Windows itself uses maybe 30-40 megabytes for the boot loader and other necessities of the (by default) 100MB partition.
On non-server hardware the OEMs place BIOS updates (and rollback version(s)) along with their own diagnostics packages, which can easily fill up the EFI. MS recommends configuring EspPaddingPercent to remove the free space limit.
"Would you live in a building designed by an engineer that didn't look up the structural standards or the material strength but relied on remembering a value he (or she, but realistically he) crammed for an exam where they were 21, 40 years ago?
61-year-old engineer who likely has a good understanding of basic tenets of his profession vs someone who never had to take an exam to gain the title of Engineer? ...Is this a trick question?
Engineering - and many other professions - require constant upkeep, be it courses, learning of new materials or computer software, and other ways of keeping up with the times. Many people have to re-certify in their professions, some of them even requiring a passing score in a supervised exam.
The OP claimed that people should be taught to learn success, entrepreneurship and financial skills - and to forget exams. This may work for a small subset of people who dabble with financials and have a mindset for running a business. Not everyone is inclined.
Obviously most of us have use for some understanding of financials, critical thinking and 'success', but I disagree with his post otherwise and I fail to see how a society filled purely with people with CEO mindset would work. Maybe I have to read more Ayn Rand.
"In the world of work, when exactly are people deprived of access to reference materials or the ability to consult coworkers or others within the industry?"
Would you live in a building designed by "engineer" who just used Google and copilot to draw it? And built by "builders" who use Bing to check which way to hold the hammer? Or later on lie on operating table as the "doctor" constantly rewinds the Youtube video on how to operate ruptured spleen?
"Alternatively to teach them about success - let them experiment and don't punish failure by marking their card, teach them financial and critical thinking skills, teach them entrepreneurship and not to think"
Are your musings often featured at Reddit? Did you also graduate from "school of hard knocks" and laugh at those who didn't inherit score their first Million before age 20?
"But if a candidate suddenly on the day of the exam turns up with a new pair of specs, or sports glasses where normally they don't, surely someone on the invigilating staff should notice?"
Staff may notice new specs, but is the staff in any way ready to identify purposely hidden advanced electronics? No.
Taking away real reading glasses from a student who requires them would raise hell in the newspapers if this was during matriculation exams.
Also, some people are stupid, others are not. The stupid ones would start wearing their new smart glasses on the day of the exam and get caught. The clever ones would have already started cheating during school year. How do you account for that? Also, people are free to buy and wear glasses without prescriptions.
"Most ridiculous rule I've come across with my own exam-taking offspring is "no watches". Not even very clearly cheap analogue watches which make tick-tick noises.
I've seen some smart watches having very lifelike analog faces. I think it is just easier to ban them than to individually check every exam-takers' watches.
Technology is getting closer and closer to magic as Clarke put it. At some point the seemingly innocent watch may contain enough logic and data for cheating.
"One person I know really struggled in a particular exam due to this rule because they were sat in a position where they couldn't see the clock in the exam hall and thus found it near impossible to judge timing."
You are cherry picking. In that case the student should periodically ask for the time or complain of his/her unequal exam position compared to others.
Here in Finland, the matriculation exams are nowadays done with laptops so the time left is visible at all times.
"Smart glasses are immediately identifiable, they are so clunky."
Maybe they are now. In couple of years they could be indistinguishable even when inspecting the glasses visually.
Also, some people wear glasses with large rims for fashion reasons.
"The answer is to make it clear they are banned, if you are caught trying to use them you will need to retake the exam with a maximum of pass."
You are not providing any sort of solution here. Students already know that getting answers via smart glasses or other means is cheating - cheating still happens.
Today, it's either Faraday cage, or wide-band frequency monitoring a of the exam area with means to pinpoint the source.
Tomorrow, if LLM's or other computational logic is miniaturised enough to fit your person without requirement for external connections, other means would be needed. Perhaps subject all students without critical medical devices (pacemakers, insulin pumps etc.) to an EMP?
"Microsoft have realized no one actually uses SQL anymore"
Sigh... try commenting without inane hyperboles.
MSSQL is used by many companies. As mentioned by the article, the DB Engines website has MSSQL on the third place. Whether their methodology has any basis on reality is open to discussion of course.
Company I work for uses 4 of those Top-10 SQL products in various amounts, MSSQL being the most numerous. YMMV.
"BIOS updates have always been done after a reboot with warnings about having a power supply connected and NEVER interrupt it."
Uh, no. The current habit to update after reboot started only when UEFI started to be prevalent. Perhaps 10 years ago or so.
Before that BIOS updates were done either in Windows or DOS. Way before that (think 486 and earlier) you needed specific tools to reprogram the EPROM.
"I've seen Bios options to enable windows bios update, and it defaults to IN. Why??? Turn that off and choose to do an actual bios firmware update on purpose."
Probably because most people wouldn't ever patch for Spectre and the many other vulnerabilities in BIOSes. Most people are not aware of "BIOS" or "firmware" and would never update anything. Even the original IBM PC received BIOS updates - not that BIOS security was on anyone's radar until recent times.
"All gone to ***p now though with "secure boot" which depends on certificates.
Didn't it all go to crap long ago first with ACPI, then Winmodems, UEFI, TPM, etc?
"God help you if the machine looses (sic) the date and thinks it 1970 again."
==> OS boots up normally. Troll harder.
"I think I missed a decade. What has windows got to do with BIOS? What business does Windows have with BIOS?"
Computer manufacturers such as HP are submitting their BIOS updates to Windows Update, just like they submit driver updates. WU identifies the hardware on your computer and offers updated firmware and drivers when available.
Similarly Linux has LVFS, for which the manufacturers provide firmware packages.
