Posts by jake

Have you always wanted an algorithm that can search like Bing? Well, if you change your mind, one's on GitHub now

A problem where the answer is ...

... code from Microsoft?

Colo(u)r me skeptical.

Microsoft goes to great lengths to polish Azure Active Directory's password policies

Am I the only one who parsed that as ...

... "with an eye on the current folklore surrounding security and authentication"?

Quit worrying about killer robots, they are coming whether you like it or not – and they absolutely will not stop

Whatever.

A machine, and the running threreof, is info-rich and entropy poor. It cannot, and will not, "take over" until it is capable of running it's entire supply chain.

If you're ever lost on the Moon, Ordnance Survey now has you covered for Apollo 11 anniversary

For those interested ...

... in this kind of thing, National Geographic has a very nice gift for the kid(s) in your life who might be inspired by this kind of thing. I've had a copy for decades, and usually have a couple extra copies in shipping tubes, just in case.

They also have a Mars map, a star map ("map of the heavens"), and a map of the Milky Way. Recommended.

Given that ...

... the tires are steel mesh, with titanium treads, I'd recommend fence pliars. I have several pair of these, all over 25 years old. Spendy, but you get what you pay for ... and I'll bet a plugged nickle that NASA's procurement process could up that by a couple orders of magnitude.

You are but a child.

Remember, 50 is the new 30.

AI has automated everything including this headline curly bracket semicolon

Re: Dabbs has been told right

London? That's nearly in Acton!

Re: Sorry, this weeks installment is weak

"adjectives(stupid fecking name for a word)"

It's from the Latin adjectivum, "that is added to". Not so fucking stupid now?

Re: Beware Electric Monks on ACID*

Address Belfast? That would be BT, no?

Re: Beware Electric Monks on ACID*

Cliff, salting a bot works much better if you type in plain English. Right, amfM?

Re: Most people do just speak in a mixture of idioms and clichés.

Herding the cats back into the worm can thru' the newly locked stable door is cost prohibitive, true.

Re: Dabbs has been told right

A true geniu's probably wouldnt care about extra or missing apostrophe's, as long as the point being communicated was obviou's.

Re: Are you sure real stupidity get us there

Just to be sure nobody gets the wrong idea, ELIZA did not "pass the Turing test" (whatever that means). Rather, ELIZA was one of the first programs supposedly capable of taking the Turing test.

If you have a copy of EMACS handy and would like to see ELIZA in action (in her DOCTOR persona), fire up EMACS and type M-x doctor ...

Hi! It looks like you're working on a marketing strategy for a product nowhere near release! Would you like help?

Re: Vapourware

Back in my day, the conversation went something like this:

Management: MARKETING SEZ WE GOTTA SHIP IT!!!!

Engineer: Sorry, it's not ready to ship. I'm not signing off on it.

Marketing: BUT YOU HAVE TO! WE HAVE ADVERTISING READY!!!

Engineer: Ok, Marketing, YOU sign off on it.

Marketing: BUT WE'RE NOT QUALIFIED TO DO THAT!!!

Management: Now, now, Engineer. Be nice to Marketing. They have ADVERTISING!!!

Engineer: Then you sign off on it, Management. I'm not going to.

Management: We could FIRE you for this insurrection!!!

Engineer: Go ahead. Then you'll never have a working product.

Management: ::sputter::

Management: OK, WE'LL HIRE NEWLY MINTED ENGINEERS TO SIGN OFF!

Marketing: Yeah! That's EXACTLY what we'll do! (BTW, what does "sign off" mean?).

Management: (It's a technical term. I don't really get it either. Don't worry about it.)

Marketing: (Thank heavens for that. Ignoring technical stuff is easy for me.)

Engineer: Good luck with that, guys. I'm taking early retirement. Have fun.

RIP, DEC

""in the toilet" or "on the toilet"???? There's a difference you know."

Depends on your local vernacular.

I use fishing.

Try it.

[Edit: Note that I said fishing, not catching. I can go fishing without a rod, reel or line. Think about it.]

"or was it the marketing dept being lied to?"

What goes around comes around.

::shrugs::

ElReg already has that icon.

What, you mean the pub down on the corner isn't what you meant by the corner office? Say it ain't so!

Regardless, BTDT. Have one on me.

Indeed, Dr.S ... The credo is "there is no such thing as bad publicity".

In answer to your question, Marketing blames it on anybody but Marketing. I've only been pushed under the proverbial bus a few times (6? 7?) by colleagues, and every time it has been somebody in Marketing doing the pushing. Thankfully, I'm pretty good at Judo ... and always have documentation for everything I do. The pushers[0] have always landed on their arse instead of me.

[0] Apropos name for marketards, n'est-ce pas?

Re: 2 types of MBA's?

Concur on the third type. That's when and why I got mine.

If you get your MBA after your more technical degree your mind won't get completely fucked up, but you'll be able to talk to manglement in their own language. Handy.

Holding the business degree along with your IT skill set will allow you get paid ten or fifteen times more than you'll ever make in IT alone. Might take a couple years of real work to get there, but the end result is worth it. Lest you think an MBA is difficult to get, think of all the brain-dead idiots you've worked with who hold one. If you already hold an IT related degree, you can get the MBA in a couple years of night school ... anybody who can program reasonably well in a couple languages should have no problems passing with flying colo(u)rs. Opens all kinds of closed doors.

Marketing doesn't sell anything. According to my MBA class, Marketing creates relationships with customers. It is Sales that sells stuff.

What's that? Uber isn't actually worth $82bn? Reverse-gear IPO shows the gig (economy) is up

Re: @Time Waster - I'm not sure I see how they get to profitability

So you're going to trust an automated car based on that stretch of road existing in California? I quite honestly fail to see your point.

As a side note, it's hardly the worst section of road in the US (or California, for that matter); it is actually quite easy to navigate in all weather (except when it is closed); and driving my big rig over it twice per month (at least) has never given me any problems.

Re: Efficient Market

"Cyclists aren't a separate species"

Can you show me where I said otherwise?

"Do you now see why your post is ludicrous?"

Your post has absolutely zero bearing on what I wrote. Quantities and percentages of riders/drivers have nothing to do with simple physics. Fact is, in a fight between an automobile and a bike, the bike loses. Every time. In my opinion, bicycalistotards forgetting this very, very simple fact is foolhardy at best. Suicidal at worst.

Couple the above with ASSUMING that the idiot in the cage can/has seen them is just plain daft. Bicycalistotards need to stop assuming they can ride offensively, and they should start driving defensively. Logic dictates it, if nothing else.

Note that I'm not calling for bikes to get off the road. Far from it, I ride a bike myself. What I'm calling for is bikes to SHARE the road, not assume that THEY own it. Which is the state of affairs we have in San Francisco at the moment.

Re: @Kevin McMurtrie - Doesn't work but it was free

Robo Moose ... Didn't Red Green invent that?

Re: Efficient Market

But Hollerithevo, all those trappings of so-called "civilization" produce massive quantities of waste, all concentrated in one little, tiny location for your perusal. Not just trash/garbage, but air pollution, noise pollution, mind pollution, and more. Even people pollution; Manhattan has 73,000 people sq/mi (just under 20x20 ft per person), SF "only" 18,000 people sq/mi (just under 40x40 ft per person). Why anyone would think that is good for human beings is beyond me. And before you ask, yes. I've lived in both places. Never again. 'orrible, 'orrible thing to do to yourself.

Re: Who bought this shiny new IPO?

The US market is going to collapse, obviously. It is vastly over valued. But then so is that of the rest of the planet. I don't know which major market is going to cave first, but there will be a domino effect. The rest will follow. It's inevitable.

The only question remaining (in my mind, anyway) is how long it'll take to recover. Twelve months to four years is my guess. Shorter if getting crops to market are OK, longer if producing and shipping food becomes more of an issue.

Re: Efficient Market

Struck a nerve, did I?

Might want to ask yourself why, and what you can do about it.

Re: @Time Waster - I'm not sure I see how they get to profitability

What about Donner Pass, Chuck? (I assume you mean Donner Summit, on Hwy 80, not the actual pass a couple thousand feet to it's South.) It's not like a single instance of an Interstate Highway pass is representative of winter driving conditions around Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, now is it?

Re: @Time Waster - I'm not sure I see how they get to profitability

"all of us are going to "trust" a driverless car, because we'll have no other choice."

Yeah, sure, right. Keep telling yourself that, Sunshine.

Hint: Any politician that decides to call for banning '65 Mustangs and '69 Cameros and etc. from both private ownership and public roads, is going to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on the rail. And they know it, too. There are far too many folks, of all political, religious, ethnic and etc. stripes who are into classic cars to run that kind of risk with a political career.

Re: Efficient Market

If the bicycle riders would learn a little basic physics they would probably stay out from under 1 ton+ motorized vehicles. The old equation f=ma doesn't change just because your are a holier than thou exercise freak with delusions of saving the planet.

Share the road, bicyclistotards ... you don't own it. Not even in San Francisco, the national home of terminally insane local government, where they deal with the homeless problem by throwing massive amounts of money at them, thus ensuring that they are attracted like moths to a flame. Build it, and they will come, SF.

(I live in Sonoma; most of us up here think of SF as an awful speed-bump that has to be traversed to get from Marin and points North to San Mateo and points South. It definitely isn't a place to stop, nor is it a destination. 'orrible, 'orrible, grotty hell-hole of a city. Not as sad and filthy as New York, London, Paris or Rome, but they are working on it.)

"semi self imployed drivers"

Imployee: n; An Implied, but not actual, employee.

Re: Holland, Tulips, early/mid 1600s ...

Also at Project Gutenberg. I should have known :-)

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/24518-h.htm

Re: @Time Waster - I'm not sure I see how they get to profitability

Which brings up an interesting point ... how many of you lot in places that actually have winter and weather are going to trust a driverless car programmed in sunny California, and tested in the desert?

Re: @Kevin McMurtrie - Doesn't work but it was free

Most of us here in sunny California look on them as urban blight. Just so's ya know.

Re: Holland, Tulips, early/mid 1600s ...

Bookmarked. Ta.

Re: PT Barnum

Apparently he didn't say that. Turns out that it was said about him, by David Hannum in reference to Barnum's part in the Cardiff Giant hoax. Or so the story goes. My gut feeling is that the very same phrase was in widespread use before humans invented writing.

Holland, Tulips, early/mid 1600s ...

... oh, hell, why do I even try to bother.

Try to find a copy of the 1841 book "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds" by Charles Mackay ...

Aussies, Yanks may think they're big drinkers – but Brits easily booze them under the table

Re: Have you tasted American and Aussi beer?

Look into the difference between bittering and aroma hops, and how they are used when brewing beer. It's not as cut and dried as you seem to think it is.

Techie with outdated documentation gets his step count in searching for non-existent cabinet

Re: So it wasn't his job

The vernacular works for me, to wit "the web".

And then there is the tried & true "TehIntraWebTubes".

That kind of thing is quite lucrative.

I charge a couple thousand per meg of data retrieved from the old drive.

The credo here is "First, do no harm!" ... make CERTAIN you know what you are doing before plugging one of these things into hardware that it didn't come with! You won't get a second chance if you fuck it up ... well, DriveSavers might be able to help, but they charge more than I do.

My stock answer to "Can you do a five minute job?" ...

... is "Sure, but I have <thing> I have to take care of first."

Gives me time to eyeball said five minute job at my leisure ... and 9 times out of ten I let 'em know that it'll take much longer than 5 minutes, and I can't do that without a proper contract because it will piss off my accountant/Wife and my insurance company. The other 10%? It's a true five minute job, which I happily take care of gratis to keep the client happy.

My insurance company won't actually give a shit, but my clients don't know that ... It's a dodge that comes in handy in lots of places. Clients under foot when installing new equipment? Keep 'em away with "You must stay back at least 20 feet, it's an insurance thing." Client wants to borrow a tool "for just a second"? Sorry, no can do. Insurance. Buddy wants to borrow a work truck (and you, of course) for a dump/tip run or to move house? Can't. Company vehicle. Insurance says no. Etc. Use your imagination.

Veteran vulture Andrew Orlowski is offski after 19 years at The Register

I think it was SLC who wrote:

"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience."

But you already know that.

Thanks, man. It's been fun. I owe you a beer ... or three :-)

The Year Of Linux On The Desktop – at last! Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 brings the Linux kernel into Windows

Re: Hmm..

The Windows kernel is "fully modular"? Really? Last time I checked, it was a hybrid.

Tractors, not phones, will (maybe) get America a right-to-repair law at this rate: Bernie slams 'truly insane' situation

Re: Really good?

Chuck wrote the programming language you are calling to halt. (Given this forum is what it is, I ass-u-me'd you were talking about Charles Moore's Forth in your handle. If not, apologies.)

I wouldn't expect you to be welcome after lock-in quite yet, but not even in the public bar? How far North are you, anyway? Even me dad (a bloody Yank[0]) was part of the darts team after only 6 years in the Dales ...

[0] Apropos cartoon: https://www.xkcd.com/1015/

CryptoQueen on the run from Feds, lawsuit after her OneCoin slammed as 'an old-school pyramid scheme on a new-school platform'

Re: "folks like your DearOldMum and Gran defrauded"

So in your mind, stealing from people is OK as long as the people you are stealing from are stupid and greedy?

Your mum must be right proud of you.

Re: Remember, kiddies ...

Tusser actually said: "A foole & his money, be soone at debate; which after with sorow, repents him to late." in Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1573.

It was John Bridges that first said "If they pay a penie or two pence more for the reddinesse of them ... let them looke to that, a foole and his money is soone parted." in Defence of the Government of the Church of England, 1587

Doesn't alter your point, though.

Re: So what's the harm?

HildyJ, if you are trying to make a funny, you failed miserably.

Unless you actually want to see folks like your DearOldMum and Gran defrauded out of their retirement savings, that is.

Remember, kiddies ...

... if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Talk to a real broker or two (or three, or ...) before investing in anything ... unless you want to be the brokee.

Can I get a RHEL yeah? Version 8 arrives at last as IBM given go-ahead to wolf down Red Hat

Re: Gnome, wayland and systemd ...

Dhryflakes. Too many stone in whetflakes.

Re: Too much damned javascript ...

You created an ElReg account for that?

It would be easier to use DDG, Shirley.