Posts by jake

Parent discovers the cost of ignoring Roblox: £2,500 and heart palpitations

Re: Dystopian

"Meanwhile the bastards are allowed to keep extorting as much money from kids with impunity as they ever did."

There is no extortion, the kids are voluntarily paying the money.

HOWEVER, and the elephant in the room, is that kids in most countries are not legally allowed to enter into a contract without parental (guardian) consent. No matter how you look at it, these so-called "microtransactions" are just as much of a contract as purchasing a car or a house. At some point, some hot-shot lawfirm is going to file a class action asking that all these transactions entered into by children should be nullified and the monies returned to the parent/guardian (less the lawyer's fees, of course!) ...

Re: Dystopian

"The parents thought (and why should they not, they are not experts) that the ipad was locked."

What ever happened to the concept of due diligence?

Re: Dystopian

"Yeah, the parents can't really be blamed."

Of course not! Why on Earth should parents be required to actually parent? That's what the nanny-state is for!

Shirley ElReg's backend programmers are aware of perl's arbitrary precision floating point maths modules?

Rigorous dev courageously lied about exec's NSFW printouts – and survived long enough to quit with dignity

Re: Shared printers

What boggles my mind is why anybody would print it out in the first place. Makes no sense.

_{Not being a pr0n aficionado, I'm probably missing something ...}

Well, yes. Of course.

Where do you think the magazine got the name?

Perhaps I should have added "and without risk of going to jail here in the real world"?

"That sort of boss doesn't squirm, and such an act could have been literally suicidal"

Oh, I don't know ... Back in my 9-5 career, I very much enjoyed thwacking manglement over the head (individually or collectively) with large piles of wet-ink paper-trail.

Until I discovered that I could make a lot more money doing the exact same thing as a consultant, with absolutely no danger of getting fired.

_{It's amazing how heavy even a signed post-it can feel when wielded appropriately.}

Cheapest, oldest, slowest part fixed very modern Mac

Re: DB9-to-SCART

"DB9 was used on the original IBM CGA graphics adaptor for the monitor interface."

That was actually a DE-9 ... the "B" or "E" is the size of the connector. The early PC crowd got the nomenclature wrong.

With that said, I've actually seen a D-sub, B-sized connector with only 9 pins, in a single line down the center ... a true DB-9. They were in some old test equipment that we were re-purposing. I have absolutely no idea why they built it with such a non-standard part ... In about 1990 I called Amphenol for spares, they told me that they made them for a limited time in the early 1970s for a government contract, and they sent me a box full of old stock, gratis (individually wrapped, complete with pins, hoods & hardware). I probably still have a couple dozen or so of each (male and female) in my junk collection. I've never seen 'em anywhere else.

A pedant of the genre might point out that the D-sub connectors are all supposed to have two rows of pins, but what else would you call the things?

Re: Its always the simple things

There was always the Honeywell H316 "Kitchen Computer", from 1969.

Perhaps of interest to ElReg commentards, this same basic computer was used for the first Interface Message Processors (IMPs) in the early ARPANET.

https://www.vintag.es/2018/11/honeywell-kitchen-computer.html

Re: Re:Lights on the same circuit as power

Standard practice the world over, except in places (mostly third-world nations) where they think "ring mains" is a good idea.

Re: Its always the simple things

Again, asking a question about the origin of a phrase is not making a racist comment no matter how much you wish it were.

Re: Its always the simple things

"I plan to redo the siding on the house"

No need, it'll take care of itself any day now.

In a stand against authoritarianism, Montana bans TikTok downloads

Re: Shoe, meet other foot....

And now we're having a completely different conversation about a completely different subject.

You point, exactly?

Re: Typical of the anti-American extreme right-wing Republicans.

I have absolutely zero confidence in the current SCotUS. In fact, if push comes to shove you might say I am in complete and utter contempt of that Court.

HOWEVER, I really don't think even those hand-picked fuckwits would have the damn gall to proclaim Montana's latest tomfoolery Constitutional.

Re: Typical of the anti-American extreme right-wing Republicans.

Voter rolls are filled by physical place of abode, not where you are remoting into.

Unless you are a politician, of course.

Re: Anti-alcohol laws

"This is America, THC gummies are legal and available everywhere"

And because it's legal, the scofflaw side have stopped getting stoned. Now they are killing themselves off with fentanyl.

"but they don't light up very well"

Just exactly how stoned would you have to be to even try that? Remember, kiddies, don't smoke dope when you're already stoned. You don't get any higher, you just get lower on dope. (Apologies to Gallagher.)

Re: Seems strange

This is nonsensical. There is a reason the two concepts are called out in different line-items in The Constitution. It would seem the authors and signatories understood the difference, and why they shouldn't be conflated into a single whole, and indeed require their own completely separate conversations.

Re: Shoe, meet other foot....

Nobody ever backed over their little sister in a driveway with Tik Tok.

Fuck your cars.

_{Non-sequitur is as non-sequitur does ...}

Re: "BOTH groups of wingnuts are trying to dictate what I can and cannot do and say"

"The left-sided wingnuts (twist on / twist off!) have never passed legislation to ban books"

The left wing nuts are trying to ban specific WORDS, regardless of the context in which they are used.

What's worse, burning books or brainwashing the population with newspeak? Burning books inevitably leads to burning humans (read your history), but the idea of massive, wide-spread thought control by intentional language modification scares the ever loving shit out of me.

Re: more unsafe

"Instead you will have to download it from third party sites"

Nope. All you'll have to do is cross the state line and you'll be able download it to your heart's content without fear of the Montana Thought Police kicking in your door. Nothing in the law says anything about using the spyware, it just says you can't download it while in the state of Montana ... and in fact, it puts the onus on the "mobile application marketplaces" (whatever that is) to ensure it's not possible in Montana.

Similar to some anti-alcohol laws, and just as effective I'm sure.

Also, it doesn't take effect until January 1st next year. It'll be struck down long before then.

"there are some really good ones"

From what I've seen, only if you have the attention-span of a cocaine addicted weasel.

Re: Typical of the anti-American extreme right-wing Republicans.

"And no this is not a both-sides problem."

Yes, it absofuckinglutely is!

BOTH groups of wingnuts are trying to dictate what I can and cannot do and say.

Typical of the anti-American extreme right-wing Republicans.

Who are they to tell me how I communicate, and with whom? Have they never heard of freedom of speech? Does the Constitution mean nothing to them?

With that said, I do not use Pooh-bear's spy tool, and nothing will coerce me to change my mind ... but it's MY decision, not the decision of some wing-nut fuckheads on Capitol Hill.

On the bright side, the Trump-stacked SCotUS will have no choice but to strike this new law down, thus demonstrating that the Republicans in charge of Montana are really, really good at wasting the state's time and money. Perhaps the electorate will take note of this and do something about it.

The answer, as always, is education of the general public ... but the wing-nut politicians of all stripes can't have that, now can they?

Elizabeth Holmes is going to prison – with a $500m bill

Re: End of an error

Walmart?

Shit, I knew it was fraud, just from the description. So did many of the other commentards here on ElReg, and elsewhere online. We commented on it at fairly great length. The technology just isn't there yet.

It WILL be. Maybe in 10-20 years or so.

The cynic in me wonders ...

... how long before she "suddenly" finds herself pregnant again, and uses that to beg house arrest instead.

Asahi Linux developer warns the one true way is Wayland

Re: Nope

Obvious post is obvious. Wish I'd thought of making the point.

During the meanwhile, until that better replacement comes along, I'll happily(ish) stick with X11.

Have a beer, Mr. Dawson.

Re: Nope

"Microsoft has done really well with RDP."

Sure, if you're a crook. See this ElReg article, posted this afternoon (Wed 17 May 2023 // 20:32 UTC).

"My MacBook air has no display output whatsoever just 2 USB-C."

Presumably you send a login prompt to one of those serial ports ... Man should not live on GUI alone, it's bad for the soul.

"An industry standard in Linux? Really?"

Linux[0] is an industry standard.

_{[0] If you are talking about a specific piece of a specific distro, it helps to specify. Hint: Be specific.}

Re: Nope

"it's not a use case for Wayland"

There are many reasons why Wayland hasn't taken over from X11 after 15 years of trying. This is just one of them.

Wayland might be an OK option for the "Oh, SHINY!" set, but for professionals not so much.

In other news ...

... The largest brewery in Dublin reports that Guinness is the only way forward.

OpenAI's Sam Altman rattles tin for crypto startup that will support bot-replaced workers

Re: Dystopian Future

If you use a smoker, low and slow, there is no need for a sauce. (Apple wood works nicely for both suggested options.)

However, that's for an energy source for wetware. Software needs something a trifle more shocking.

Re: Dystopian Future

Roughly 96.2% of a typical filthy meatbag's body weight is oxygen (65%), carbon (18.5), hydrogen (9.5) and nitrogen (3.2). The next 3.4% consists of calcium (1.5), phosphorus (1.0), potassium (0.4), sodium (0.2), chlorine (0.2) and magnesium (0.1). The final 0.4% consists of trace elements ("contaminants", if you will), all under 0.04% of total body weight.

As a mine for raw materials, a human is pretty low-grade ore.

Re: Dystopian Future

"to be turned into biomass to power the AIs."

This will never happen. We contain too much water, and thus would be an energy sink. If it made sense thermodynamically, we'd be using rabbits or hogs as an energy source right now, today.

No thank you.

Do not want.

Top AI execs tell US Senate: Please, please pour that regulation down on us

Re: Pulling up the ladder

""a model that can persuade, manipulate, or influence a person's behavior, or a person's beliefs" - would that include basic chatbots, such as we've been seeing for a decade or so now?"

Try closer to five decades. We used ELIZA to influence which brand of soda sold out first in the coin machines at Tresidder Union, Stanford, mid 1970s.

"Would it include YouTube's recommendation algorithms?"

Of course.

"I am suspicious of an industry calling for itself to be regulated."

ABSOLUTELY!

"Yes, surely it should be."

Should it? As it is, the technology is pretty much junk. Regulating it will stifle innovation, and in fact bring it to a grinding halt entirely. Which is going to happen anyway, once the general public, the shareholders (and the technological incompetents on Capitol Hill) realize they've been hoodwinked[0] and pull funding. The whole AI thing is about to go back on the back burner for a decade or so, do we really want enduring legislation ensuring nobody will pick it back up again in the future?

"But equally surely, we shouldn't be asking its own CEOs how to go about it."

We can ask all we like, but they are going to ignore us anyway, because The Royal They know better than everybody else. History has shown that industry in general ignores petty things like laws and regulations, looking at fines as just a cost of doing business.

[0] Current so-called "AI" is just brute-force pattern matching on a grand scale.

Microsoft can't stop injecting Copilot AI into every corner of its app empire

Re: AI, AI, AI!

"I see you haven't ready any manuals from Micros~1 recently, have you?"

Has anybody?

IMO, Redmond hasn't produced anything resembling what I would consider to be a manual for approximately three and a half decades.

Re: AI, AI, AI!

You're deluded, you are.

Fortunately some of use actually know how the equipment works, and understand the manuals are not works of fiction.

Astronomers say they've seen the largest explosion yet – and we just had to talk to them

This isn't an explosion.

It's a fire in the hearth of a black hole, with gravity feeding in the fuel.

Re: We need our clear skies

"the Hawaii installation: it does what it days on the tin!"

So does the Zwicky Transient Facility.

GitHub code search redesign can't find many fans

Poll questions

What about those of us who don't use github, but tried it anyway?

Conclusion: This new variation is unusable shit, and I still don't use github.

_{Why did I bother trying it? Call me an eternal optimist.}

Cisco: Don't use 'blind spot' – and do use 'feed two birds with one scone'

Re: Our work is done

Well, the louder of the lot do seem to be quite single minded, and litmus tests abound.

::shrugs::

The left side was probably assembled with cheap chinesium diodes, the right used the more expensive Zeners, allowing some pressure relief.

Re: "hanging processes"

"another meaning"

I went out and tried to hang ten this morning ... recommended :-)

Re: "hanging processes"

"brought up in a strict Catholic environment"

I'm sorry. Have beers.

I quite honestly think that most of humanity's problems would go away if everybody were to read, parse, and understand their version of a holy book or books (warts and all) before the age of 10. But that'll never happen, because the shamans would be out of work before a generation had passed, and we can't have that, now can we?

Simple typo. Reclaiming an old BASIC program from brittle and torn punch tape for a friend.

I'm human. Mea culpa. Have a beer for your trouble.

Honestly, you couldn't tell the meaning from the context? ESL?

I dunno about hydroplaning, but there's sure a lot of screaming and a probable eventual crash.

The problem is that the Right Wing Nuts and the Left Wing Nuts are living on the opposite side of the same coin. They represent an extreme minority, and yet are extremely loud in their bellowing. Makes them seem far more important than they really are. The vast majority of us live quietly in the center and wish the loudmouths, who do NOT represent the majority, would just shut the fuck up. They are not fixing anything with their bullshit and bluster, all they are doing is creating strife and dissent for no good demonstrable reason ... and contrary to what their handlers seem to think, no matter how many times they repeat a lie, it remains a lie. (Note there are many kinds of lie before you clam to not be lying.)

And if you're one of those wing-nut loudmouthed liars, here's something to think about: Do you honestly think that anything you type here in the pages of ElReg means jack shit to anybody, anywhere? Do you really think you are making a difference somehow? Do you really think you are changing anybody's mind about anything? Now be honest with yourself before answering (if you are still capable).

And now ask yourself "Why am I wasting my time with this here on ElReg?".

/rant

I'm off for a pint. All y'all are welcome to join me. Leave your wingnutpolitics outside the pub. Ta.

Alien rock causes cosmic disturbance in New Jersey home

Re: It Came out of the Sky

The album you took your handle from just turned 50 last month. Many of ElReg's commentads were already adults when it was released.

A little over a year ago, I was looking at the album cover for The Stooges Funhouse (autographed by Iggy and framed, on a friend's wall behind UV resistant glass) and realized it had been well over half a century since I first heard it.

The tunage of my misspent youth is now considered art ... I nearly had to sit down.

^{Wait ... that space rock is HOW old? _{Never mind ...}}

Re: Funny how the expert...

Not surprising at all. Certain classes of meteorites (of which this was one) are known to have originated at specific times in the past. All you need is a photo, or a description supplied by an expert, to take more than a reasonable guess at the age.

If anything, I'd be very surprised if the expert was wrong.

No, not Russian. Civil War era American.