Posts by werdsmith

Toyota servers ran out of storage, crashed production at 14 plants in Japan

Re: Out of space

Yes, in fact transaction logs grow large and the process to truncate them and keep them in trim is the backup. The backup writes the data off to another location. But the larger than usual transaction logs use up more of the space in the backup target volume which eventually fails. So the transaction log backups don't have enough space to write to, so they start failing. So now nothing is truncating the transaction logs so they grow and use up their volume (or file size quota). When the transaction logs can't grow anymore the DBMS stops doing stuff.

Or the transaction logs are set to a fixed max size and they hit that before the next periodic log backup.

You need to alert not only on remaining available space, but also on the rate that space is being consumed.

Re: Lost in Translation?

How does one "organize" data which has been "deleted" from a database? (I'm presuming "organized" in this case means, "re-organized".)

Some of the data was deleted.

Some of the data was organised (possibly moving datafiles or logs to different volumes).

Two separate actions allows sense to be made of the sentence.

Largest local government body in Europe goes under amid Oracle disaster

Re: Need

Because Larry needs a faster sailing boat and all those future audit threats to keep it crewed.

Re: Great job!

We don’t have a competent government. Neither the incumbent or the party waiting to step in to have a go.

Never at any time I’m my life have I witnessed a decent term of government in the UK.

So when I hear these discussions where the two ideologies are pointing the finger at each other

I just think “shut the fuck up you bunch of gullible wankers”. Neither side has a leg to stand on.

Grant Shapps named UK defense supremo in latest 'tech-savvy' Tory tale

Re: Question

@Throatwarbler Mangrove: nobody of any capability, competence or class would ever enter politics and therefore the only people who can achieve office of any kind are these narcissists and sociopaths.

It's a choice of vote for a moron or don't vote. As I understand it, this is not an unknown situation either here or on your side of the pond.

The world seems so loopy. But at least someone's written a memory-safe sudo in Rust

Re: Mandate

Rust uses a runtime for somethings, like async functions.

Re: Mandate

I am really enjoying getting into rust, now but the one thing that annoys me is the need to be online, the method to have all crates that you might need (all of them) available offline is ropey.

Concorde? Pffft. NASA wants a Mach 4 passenger jet

Re: Civilian spend on, uh...

Turns out it has uses beyond aero propulsion.

Re: The internal expansion joints were quite wide

Somebody ripped that capped out of its eternal resting place (leaving some of the material still in the gap), a thief in Seattle.

The torn piece was returned anonymously but couldn't be put back in place very easily.

Re: Is a Mach 4 Airliner Possible?

Virgin Galactic say hold my beer.

I guess the risk is mitigated by how little time is spent in the danger zone.

Re: This project must not be allowed to happen

Now, for transatlantic, you are looking at 3 hours checkin to takeoff. So that’s 10hrs 45 down to 6hrs 45. Only 30% quicker.

VIP passengers and indeed first class passengers don't suffer the queues and waits that cattle class passengers do.

India lands Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft on Moon, is the first to lunar south pole

Re: Chandrayaan 3 did NOT land "at the South Pole"

It's still better than an article I saw on the BBC news web site last weekend that stated that any water near the Lunar South Pole hadn't been subjected to solar radiation, then told us later that the area would be great for a base as it can get up to 200 days constant illumination.

The article also seems to say that the lander is in a place which contains many craters pernamemtly shadowed from he sun. I'm not sure that's right either

The bottom of some of the craters at the south pole are indeed sheltered from the solar wind by their oblique situation - and are in permanent darkness and very low temperature. Shackleton would be a good example and would hold its water as ice. I don't think the BBC article suggested "any" water. And it is indeed correct about the long period of illumination. So as a simplified description of what might be found, it's accurate enough for general consumption.

So both are correct.

I am so very impressed with how well executed a mission it is so far. India has a government committed to science and they understand the value of space missions, this will drive the nation forward.

Shame about the nations who don't have that vision.

Microsoft teases Python scripting in Excel

My "pocket" calculators from both Casio and TI have Python capability and a sort of spreadsheet function.

Seems to be taking over as the de facto scripting language usurping the ECMA/TYPE JavaScript variants.

Last rites for the UK's Online Safety Bill, an idea too stupid to notice it's dead

Re: Computer MOT

I had no fault but some engineers were working on a green street cabinet outside, knocked on the door demanding access to run a test, no appointment or even pre-warning. I refused, they said they might have to cut off our broadband and phone if we were the source of the problem so I suggested they to fuck off and do it.

They were openreach and I am on VirginMedia cable.

Space junk targeted for cleanup mission was hit by different space junk, making more space junk

I would say that the words "main object" suggest that it's mostly intact and some bits have broken off it.

Budget satellite drag sail shows space junk how to gracefully exit orbit

Re: It works only if the satellite electronics still work at the end of its mission time.

"compared to small extra amount of fuel reserved for a de-orbit burn?"

Assumes that the spacecraft has any powered impulsion engine. They don't all use thrusters/boosters - especially cubesats. Their deorbit process is to put them at an altitude where the orbit decays over a roughly predicable time. By increasing drag profile you can use higher orbits where otherwise the things would keep on flying for the foreseaable. Like ProsperoX3.

Re: Retrofit?

Many a dissertation has been written on such systems as a spacecraft that could change orbits to rendezvous with defunct objects and give them a tug to expedite their descent. It usually comes out quite costly, but a decent academic exercise nonetheless.

Controversial Chinese drone maker DJI debuts a cargo carrier

Re: Given its operational ceiling of 6000 meters

That would be disappointing, as I would enjoy seeing busy little drones going about their business.

Like the Starship delivery robots, that have deliberately been given a cute personality so people like to see them.

Re: Controverisal?

DJI are not only one of the first movers, they also make exceptionally good products.

Version 5 of systemd-free Debian remix Devuan is here

Re: Being based off ...

English used to be written almost from phonetics and people could choose how they spelled words as long as the meaning communicated.

Standardisation happened with the need to communicate across nations, to make it easier to adopt as a foreign language.

Tesla knew Autopilot weakness killed a driver – and didn't fix it, engineers claim

Re: A rude question

USA is currently working on a stop side underrides law which should be passed eventually. They already have rear underride bars law, but no major Hollywood movie stars have died because of side underrides, so it is taking longer.

Moscow makes a mess on the Moon as Luna 25 probe misses orbit, lands with a thud

I have my fingers cross for a flawless Chandrayaan landing in just a couple of days time.

Hold the Moon – NASA's buildings are crumbling amid 200-year upgrade cycles

Re: NASA is responsible for it's budgets

A common fallacy. Business people's primary role is to make money, to maximize RoI. They on the whole don't plan for the long term and there are countless stories, including many on this site, that underscore this.

You are talking about Entrepreneurs, but the suggestion was about somebody who can organise and plan. Either way, a politician seem an even worse fit for the role, as they are people who will simply present what they think people want to hear.

30 years on, Debian is at the heart of the world's most successful Linux distros

After trying and being frustrated with Fedora weirdness and awkward for the sake of it nature, I adopted Debian derivatives when Raspberry Pi appeared in 2012 and found it to be a huge improvement. It just made things more sensible. Though for me, OSes are generally just something that supports the application and I don't actually care about that layer, when something needs fettling I'll take the Debian stuff every time.

Cost of gallium goes up after Chinese export restrictions land

I have some Gallium, a clear tube of it. I keep it on my desk as a curio because it turns to liquid on warm days. What a waste!

80% of execs regret calling employees back to the office

I remember the lift, the sweaty stinking cyclist approaching, nobody would hold the door open for him.

If he actually managed to get into the lift, some people would step out and take the stairs.

Re: Idiocracy

Use Izal and never look back.

Amazon's latest directive: Report to the office 'cos we're watching you

Re: They're not helping their case...

It's a decent opportunity for some more enlightened employers to pick up the best people.

Re: PTSD

I really must stop being so lazy and start using other retailers.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Pi? Asus's 'NUC-sized' SBC aims to out-Pi the Raspberry

Yes, this yet another SBC is the ten thousandth Raspberry Pi beater to have come to market and will most likely go the same way as the rest of them.

Raspberry Pi unfortunately (albeit predictably) priced themselves out of the market with v4.

Remained at $35 the whole time.

None of the scalper pricing was set by Raspberry Pi.

Virgin Galactic sends oldest-ever Brit and first mother-daughter duo into space-ish

Re: That's not space ...

Would it be snobbery and gatekeeping if I poo-pooed you for going to the hardware store, purchasing a hammer and triumphantly proclaiming yourself a carpenter?

If I used that hammer to help create a door frame would you deny that I was doing carpentry?

Deutsche Bahn stands to lose €400M if it has to do Huawei with Chinese kit

Does the kit have to be extensively investigated every time there is a firmware/software update, or do users just have to suck up no updates or patches?

Airbus to help with International Space Station replacement

Re: 2001

It's more like ramps and chambers and ducts and stuff, the crawler way transfer and all the water shock attenuation stuff. It is an important historical point in the world, and an important stop on the Visitor Center bus tour.

Official science: People do less, make more mistakes on Friday afternoons

Re: Actually...

But who is going to do it?

I'm already finishing up and winding down. It's noon on a Friday, nobody is going to be rude enough to give any task that will take time now.

I guarantee if I try and contact people I will get radio silence.

I worked with a sysadmin who disabled the passwords of any tech people who returned to work after lunch on a Friday afternoon.

Re: Hey, just a minute there !

eh, wat u saying,

Twitter sues Brit non-profit, claims hate-speech reports scared off advertisers

Re: It's not free speech.

He didn’t like Top Gear free speech. Tried taking BBC to court and got told to grow up by the judge.

I’m hoping that he tries to litigate against somebody documenting bad stuff on x, the only defence required is “was this stuff really on twitter?” …. “Yes”…. “Grow up Elon”.

MIT boffins build battery alternative out of cement, carbon black, water

Re: So what's stopping all that energy ...

Lightning doesn’t care if the coax is plugged into the tv or not.

Biden urged to completely cripple AI chips to China

Re: "Give them Z80s, Joe, and tell 'em to like it"

People forget that the worst keyboard ever was the only keyboard within reach for many people. It was affordable.

I actually did prefer the 6502 over the Z80 for assembler, I think because that's the one I learned first.

Re: Uh huh

ARM wasn't keeping stuff secret, it was refusing to let Unis have free licenses, so the Unis rolled their own.

This is exactly what the Chinese will do if US tries to withhold tech, they will make their own and it will eventually be better.

Now some older ARM cores are free.

Re: But I *Liked* the Z80! ...

Commodore developed the C900 to replace the PET in the business market, based on the Z8001, but after going to all the trouble of development, adapting a UNIX and setting up a production line in Germany, it was cancelled.

Re: But I *Liked* the Z80! ...

Yes, very cool. I absolutely love it. I'm on Ebay after an Amstrad now.

Re: If you can't compete then cheat.

You forgot about accusing the other competitors of cheating whilst cheating.

Satnav for the Moon could benefit from Fibonacci’s expertise

David Braben and Ian Bell already harnessed the fibonacci sequence in space to great effect.

Prices of gallium and germanium rise as China export controls loom

Re: Checkmate?

Churchill was the type of person required at one particular critical time but already an outdated imperialist even by then.

Re: Checkmate?

It always amazed me how much the UK likes Biden when he hates you so much.

Likes Biden? He's barely noticed.

But it does amaze people in Britain that the US of A keeps electing geriatrics into the White House.

A room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor? Take a closer look

Ahh, but a fusion iron.....

Thames Water to datacenters: Cut water use or we will

Re: Beware apologist Commentards

Our local school collects and stores rainwater which is used to flush the bogs.

But the fire sprinkler system uses drinking water in storage tank, which is not kept eternally waiting for it's time to shine, but it replaced periodically with the old stuff going into the bog flushing reservoir. When the bog flushing reservoir is full the drinking water that tops up the sprinkler reservoir goes down the drain.