Posts by jake

It's that most wonderful time of the year when tech cannot handle the date

Re: Temporary temporal problem

Or just post. It's not like the badges mean anything ... We already know who you are.

_{Badges? We don' need no steenkeen badges!}

Re: the number of days in a year is not an integer

Oh, c'mon. That's hardly "civilization", now is it?

It never had any purpose at all for agrarian activities.

Re: International Earth Rotation Service

But remember that they still use the old initials.

Saves money on stationary and business cards.

Re: F-91W

"my 2024-vintage F-91W is no more clued up!"

To be fair, that watch doesn't track the year.

Re: time zones

See the tz database, sometimes called zoneinfo.

A quick look shows a pretty good rundown at the always suspect wiki:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tz_database

Re: Hey Sophos, how was it for you?

Sophos still exists?

Huh. Who knew.

Re: First they came for the leap seconds, then they came for the leap days...

"There are two reasonable time systems"

There is a difference between "time", the dimension, and "what time is it?", clock/calendar time.

I run on three major clocks, and one minor one.

The first is TheWife's monthly cycle. If you are married to a woman, you'll grok.

The second is the seasonal clock handily provided by the Solar Year & the Earth's axial tilt with respect to its orbit. It is totally out of my control, but I plant my fields & breed my critters by it, as humans have since time immemorial. Trying to change this is a fool's errand.

The third is the clock provided by the Master clock on my network, which syncs up to an atomic clock once per day (ntp.org works for most purposes ... I use something else), which all of my machines adhere to. This is for computer record keeping more than anything else.

Context is key. There is no "SingleTimeStandard[tm]", and never will be. With the exception of The Wife's, of course.

The minor fourth clock is my dive watch. I wear it when appropriate. It's kinda important ... but it could be completely out of sync with the three major clocks in my life and it wouldn't matter at all.

As a side-note, I don't wear a wristwatch day-to-day ... and haven't in nearly half a century (since my HP-01, back in 1977). In my mind, they are completely pointless. Everywhere you look these days you can see something giving you a pretty good approximation of "local time". Humans living life to the second or minute (or even ten minutes!) is counter productive. Even when baking bread ten minutes either way won't kill you, or the loaf ... Relax, be patient, learn to make cheese, cure meat and brew beer.

The planting calendar is one of the most important tools hung on the wall of the seed barn.

I have a stack of them going back to the late 1800s. When combined with the farm journals, I have a pretty good idea of what I need to plant, when, this Spring (which looks to be wetter than normal, but not outside historical data).

Re: Owners of Fastrack FS1 smartwatches have reported the clocks being stuck

Both the modern watch, and most modern telephones have precisely one function ... they are a bit of haberdashery designed to make the wearer/user feel important.

The cows don't get confused very easily ... but it would seem that Queensland politicians do.

Re: why we benefit from changing the clocks for summer time

Alarm? The cows queuing up outside the milking parlor let us know the day is starting. (Some people swear by roosters, personally I swear at them ... so there are none on the Ranch.)

The clock has no bearing on day-to-day life around here. It's all tied to the sun and weather. No amount of the Government dicking around with what the clock says will ever change that. Even the Vet, Farrier and various delivery folks use time no more precise than morning, noonish, afternoon or evening.

Re: 1999 cause I can't spell Millenium

"Don't know why I missed it."

In the 2 years leading up to 2000, I got paid an awful lot of money re-certifying stuff that I had already certified to be Y2K compliant some 10-20 years earlier. Same for the embedded guys & gals. By the time 2000 came around, most of the hard work was had been done a decade or more in the past ... the re-certification was pure management bullshit, so they could be seen as doing something ... anything! ... useful during the beginning of the dot-bomb bubble.

Look for similar bullshit/misdirection leading up to 2038 ... despite the fact that all of the important systems that would be affected either already have been, or can easily be modified, making to so-called"problem" non-existent. (Certain hardware that was stupidly hard-coded being the exception, but most of that will probably be landfill by then anyway.)

Re: Temporary temporal problem

You need to post 100 times in the past year to get Bronze.

On top of that, you'll need 2,000 upvotes to get Silver.

You already have the 2,000 upvotes, so I suspect that if you "test" post 100 times to a junk thread over in the user forums, you'll be silver again. Well, 99 times ... you've already posted once. The user forums are kind of hard to find these days, so here ya go:

https://forums.theregister.com/section/user/

Welcome back. Have a beer :-)

They call me 'Growler'. I don't like you. Let's discuss your pay cut

Re: Depends on your definition of growler I guess.

"How on earth did this recipe come to be 'developed'? I can't fathom the thought process of anyone thinking that a freshly run over cock would improve the taste of beer* !"

Kitchen accident. Someone boiled a bunch of chicken parts wrapped in cheesecloth (for ease of removal) to make a stock. Stick the bag into a handy bucket to be disposed of later, not knowing it was a freshly sanitized bucked for beer. The household brewer decants a freshly brewed ale out of the primary onto the top of the bag, and then stashes the secondary away in the cellar for aging. Naturally, the kid who dropped the bag wouldn't have said anything, so the bag of bird parts wouldn't have come to light until the ale was ready to be either bottled or imbibed. In our modern society, once discovered they would have tossed the lot ... but back then, nothing was wasted. It still smelled OK, so they drank it ... and probably marveled at the mouthfeel and the clarity of the stuff. The cloves & raisins etc. were added later, probably by charlatans selling it as "medicine".

"* Leaving out the obvious cheep shot about (internationally available) American 'beers'"

British beers, you mean. The recipe originated in England, and was a crowd favorite by the late 1500s. America didn't exist back then. William III is said to have preferred Cock Ale over the finest French wines, and wouldn't drink any other beer... which probably says a lot about the state of the British brewing industry in the late 1600s. (Of course the British and French were at loggerheads back then, so claiming not to like French wine may have been political.)

Re: Depends on your definition of growler I guess.

The cheap American Lagers are really a tribute to modern industrial manufacturing capability. When consumed young and unmolested, and properly stored, they have no off-flavo(u)rs, and taste the same all over the world, regardless of which plant they were made in. They also aren't exactly water, even Bud Light is 4.2% (Bud is 5%).

Trying to re-create such a thing at home is a serious test of a home-brewer's skill. Don't believe me? Try it. Water, barley, rice, yeast & hops ... how hard can it be?

With that said, give me a real ale any day of the week.

_{Why is ElReg's "beer" icon clearly a glass of Bud?}

Re: Depends on your definition of growler I guess.

Stories about one branch or another being able to drink the other branch under the table (or country vs. country, etc.) have been part of military lore since Sumer and Elam were at odds 4,700 years ago or thereabouts.

They have all been lies, regardless of origin. Pure, unadulterated bravado and nothing more.

_{And my dad can beat up your dad!}

Re: Depends on your definition of growler I guess.

The store-bought so-called "mini kegs" are a waste of money, IMO.

Cornelius kegs, on the other hand, are quite handy to keep around, especially for the home brewer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_keg

Re: Depends on your definition of growler I guess.

I've made Cock Ale, it's actually drinkable ... Translating the recipe into more modern terms: First you brew a strong ale (your choice), to make ten gallons. Next, boil a cock (old rooster works well for this!). Bust the boiled bird up with a mortar and pestle (food processor), bones & all. Stick the result into a fine cheesecloth bag with some mace (I use three or four flakes) and cloves (I use 8), and some mashed dates and raisins, about 8oz each. Soak the lot in a couple quarts of fortified wine (I use a young (cheap) version of Oloroso), until the ale is ready to come out of the primary. Discard the bird+spice bag, and decant the fortified wine into the secondary with the ale, discarding the sediment. Allow to sit and clarify for a couple weeks/month(s) before bottling. It's ready to drink after 6 or 8 months in the botttle at cellar temperature (42F (5.5C), plus or minus).

The added sugar from the raisins & dates makes for a bit more fermentation in the secondary. The gelatin from the bird seems to work as finings to clarify the brew. You can't taste the chicken in the final product, but the head is affected (more protein) (the head is minimal, but there). You can leave out the mace and clove (recommended, except for history's sake).

Frankly, while the end result is usually quite drinkable, I don't find it to be worth the effort ... I make it once in a while (nine times in 35 years) just to blow people's minds.

[edit] Do not add salt & pepper, veggies, etc. to the boiled rooster. Make soup with the stock from boiling the bird.

Tout au contraire.

Finding Growler at any company, in any position, during the interview process would be a handy filter in my book.

Re: Depends on your definition of growler I guess.

Here in the US, a growler is a reusable, reclosable jug used to transport beer from a brewpub's taps for off-site consumption of keg beer. The price of purchasing beer this way is usually much lower than buying the equivalent in cans or bottles, but the brew should be consumed within 24 hours (or so) for what should be obvious reasons. They are often half a gallon (64 US oz), but both smaller and larger growlers exist, depending on brewery and jurisdiction. Most good brewpubs will fill a growler purchased from, and branded by, another brewpub.

The batteries on Odysseus, the hero private Moon lander, have run out

Re: Photo

"camera artefacts"

Lens flares.

Please stop pouring the wrong radioactive water into the sea, Fukushima operator told

Re: But it' s safe!

No. The Baltic Sea is a sea.

Re: my first chemistry set

Oxydane is an equine "supplement"[0]; the word you are looking for is "oxidane" ... not that anyone actually uses the term in the RealWorld.

Sometimes satire helps separate the wheat from the chaff ... Can your local politician be taken in by DHMO satire/parody? If so, it's probably time to vote the idiot out of office.

_{Can't spoil the party if you're not invited.}

_{[0] What I think of magic powders added to critter chow can probably be deduced by the astute reader.}

Re: But it' s safe!

"the Irish Sea holds the record for 'most radioactive sea'"

Nope. By most metrics, that crown would belong to the Baltic.

New solvent might end winter charging blues for EV owners

Re: Fluoroacetonitrile

Or, more succinctly:

* do not purchase an EV until the technology matures ... unless your wallet enjoys being a guinea pig

Re: A new solvent.

That's fluoromethyl cyanide, Shirley?

Re: I know why they didn't discover this earlier

You're pronouncing the acronym of one particular description of the compiler, not the compiler's actual acronym.

Re: A new solvent.

If a sewer is sanitary, can you drink from it?

Re: A new solvent.

Paranoid? Not quite, but you're getting there.

_{The survival gene is quite strong in this one ...}

Husqvarna ports Doom to a robot lawnmower – not, thankfully, its chainsaws

On the bright side, it's one way of getting the squids off the road.

Re: A useful feature

If you want your neighbor's kid taking out your peonies along with the grass.

Re: I'm a Stihl bloke

My family has my great-grandfather's kindling hatchet sitting next to the wood stove. It's on its sixth head[0] and 13th handle. My dad started calling it Theseus's axe before I was born.

[0] The original, out of the Sears catalogue in 1897, followed by hand-forged replacements made by Great Grandfather, Grampa, Dad, me, and my daughter. The grand daughter (almost a teenager) has already learned how to forge coat hooks, hinges & the like, so I'm sure she'll continue the tradition.

Re: I'm a Stihl bloke

Arkwright's brush, Shirley.

The last thing I want ...

...on a piece of equipment of that nature is video game capability.

Come to think of it, I'm not all that interested in a video display on a lawn mower at all. How much will it cost to replace when (not if!) it dies? I'm absolutely certain that it will refuse to start without it ... which is a rather loud "HELL, NO!" in my book. Even louder if it has to connect home via the Internet to run ...

Re: I'm a Stihl bloke

"Mind you I haven't bought anything Stihl since their designers got new CAD software and everything got made with sexy corners"

You'll never have to buy new again, just keep the old one in good shape. OEM parts should be available from Stihl into the foreseeable future.

Nearly 50 years ago I bought a Stihl 031av for firewood, limbing, brush cutting and other light duty use. I've replaced the bar a couple times, the carb once, the ignition is now transistorized, and I've rebuilt the powerhead a couple times. She starts second pull on a cold morning after a month off. It wasn't the cheapest saw on the market, but I'm still using it in my firewood shed. Not a bad TCO, that.

Miracle WM, a new tiling window manager built on Mir

Re: don't spend half your time arranging windows

Configurability is a feature, not a bug.

Ever try it?

Moving a load with a wheel, I mean.

It doesn't work very well. Multiple wheels make the problem worse.

The real innovative tool is called the axle.

Odysseus probe moonwalking on the edge of battery life after landing on its side

Re: Failure is an option

Yes, failure is an option. Space is not just hard, it's unforgiving. And humans are only human, we make mistakes.

This was mostly a win, though. Science is being done, and we'll soon know more about that corner of the Moon than we do today.

The only issue is the vanity art project ... Shirley the mass of that could have been better spent in installing a heat source to allow the machine to survive the lunar night, so it could continue doing science for more than a week or so. (NASA spent how much on a lander that could only survive 2 weeks? Sounds daft to me!)

I think it's quite fitting that it fell over on the "art" side. Luna has spoken. Stick with science, no more so-called "art".

_{Can you imagine if that hack Warhol (or Max) had been allowed to paint his trash on the side of Apollo? ::shudder::}

"Epic Fail"

Hardly.

Re: Failure is an option

"Once righted the airbag can be released to no-longer obstruct the instuments etc."

You expect it to blow away in the wind?

Starting over: Rebooting the OS stack for fun and profit

Fun little computers I can understand again.

I've been hacking on ATMega328 processors for a couple years now. Reminds me of the '70s. Fun, and useful.

You can use Arduino kit for similar results if you don't like board layout and soldering, or aren't teaching grandkids the basics.

Re: New and exciting vectors for security issues

On the other hand, when you have a decent OS, you only need to reboot it when certain aspects of the kernel need upgrading. Going weeks, or even months between reboots means that the speed of rebooting isn't really much of an issue.

Fox News 'hacker' turns out to be journalist whose lawyers say was doing his job

"I suppose the test for hacking Fox has to be how many times have they have done it to someone else and called it journalism?"

FTFY

72 flights later and a rotor blade short, Mars chopper loses its fight with physics

Re: Why are you linking to Xshitter for photos instead of NASA or JPL???

"How the fuck did the entire planet forget what HTML was for?"

Marketing has bamboozled the GreatUnwashed into thinking glitter is a replacement for information ... and are now in the process of convincing the same ineducable masses into thinking one brand of glitter is better than any other brand of glitter, leading to a tragedy of the commons.

It's quite sad, really (in the old meaning of sad).

Re: plastics?

"guessing the blades were made of some sort of plastic?"

Carbon fiber laid over a foam core.

Judge slaps down law firm using ChatGPT to justify six-figure trial fee

"A good workman blames his tools when the tools are to blame."

Absolutely not.

A good workman doesn't use crap/incorrect tools.

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

Naming systems after Tolkien characters officially became old after I ran across the fifth server named "Bilbo" in a single day (two at Berkeley, one each at Stanford, San Jose State and Mission College). That was in roughly 1980.

Intuitive Machines' lunar lander tripped and fell

Re: Yutu 2

If you ever find a version of any of those old games that references The House of Prime Rib, it probably passed through my lair ...

Re: Failure

"There is no way this can be considered a success."

Disagree. It got to the moon and landed[0] in one piece. The communications link is up and running. Science can be done. Many things will be learned. It is without a doubt a win in my book. The only abject failure is the bit of payload attached to the side that it landed on, and that's just a vanity piece so who cares.

_{[0] Anything you can walk away from is a landing.}