Posts by tygrus.au

User asked why CTRL-ALT-DEL restarted PC instead of opening apps

RE: keyboard errors & TSR's

POK or BOK (Paper or book on keyboard) happened several times to my users at work.

I consider some dictators as TSR's. Either they change title and keep a puppet as PM or they terminate others to remain in residence.

OK, deep breath, relax... Let's have a sober look at these 'ere annoying AMD chip security flaws

Is the priority stock price manipulation

The secretive behaviour of those behind the disclosure and websites is very suspicious. It could be an exercise to find a few bugs and exploit them for stock price manipulation or pay-back.

Helicopter crashes after manoeuvres to 'avoid... DJI Phantom drone'

Drone avoidance training

The drone manufacturers need to be charged the cost of testing some of the drones and how they impact planes and helicopters. Aircraft manufacturers pay to test bird strikes.

Guidelines need to be created and tested. These guidelines then need to be a part of pilot training (on paper or with a simulator?).

I would assume the best practice would be for the helicopter to increase altitude. Maybe these drones need an automatic drop from the sky when plane/helicopter is detected within ##m. Or for drones to obey a generic "drop from the sky" signal that is sent from the aircraft.

Microsoft raises pistol, pulls the trigger on Windows 7, 8 updates for new Intel, AMD chips

Re: Question

The analogy would be more like:

1) making roads that only allow <3yr old cars allowed to drive on them;

or 2) making cars that can only drive on freeways.

Intel to Qualcomm and Microsoft: Nice x86 emulation you've got there, shame if it got sued into oblivion

Re: 40 year old tech....

Intel had started work on the 64bit extension to x86 when AMD was talking with Microsoft about x86-64 support. Microsoft made it clear to Intel, MS would only support 1 x86-64 version and AMD was going to be first to market and win out. Intel was already in conflict with AMD over newer extensions (SSE etc) and threats of anti-trust lawsuits in the EU. Intel chose to take the easy road and cut a deal with AMD for cross-licensing between them. With a few minor changes to the core, changes to the decoders and microcode Intel got all but a few instructions completely compatible (I remember their was a early bug where Intel CPU didn't quiet match the AMD behaviour). Intel copy & pasted AMD ISA, find&replace AMD64 with IM64T and Intel regained market domination starting with the Core 2 series.

Microsoft promises twice-yearly Windows 10, O365 updates – with just 18 months' support

Endless cycle of break it and we might fix it

Updates in them and of themselves are not the problem but why does Microsoft have a habit of "First break it and then we might get around to finishing the fixing later". Why do they delete and re-write code of products aiming for big changes then leave it looking like unfinished Uni projects prior to release? They should adopt the doctors' oath of "First, do no harm". A lot of the Linux community are more careful and acknowledge the benefits of keeping backwards compatibility and leave beta testing for beta releases not production releases. If Linus was in charge of Microsoft could you imagine the verbal spray each engineer would get if they continued the same poor MS coding behaviour.

Nuke plants to rely on PDP-11 code UNTIL 2050!

Should refocus on conversion

They should focus their efforts on software to read the PDP11 and convert it to another platform and language. Create a PDP11 simulator to allow testing the old software against the new software running in a newer VM that is sent the same signal combinations to compare outputs. Test behaviour when equipment fails, sensors fail (wrong or missing readings) and human errors. Create tools to assist system design and rule making so it's easier to develop, maintain and migrate in the future.

Australia cuts solar subsidies, and not before time

Exchange rates are also a factor

If the panel price was steady in US$ then the AU$ to US$ change over last few years makes a big difference to the AU$ price. If the exchange rate changes in favour of the US$ worth more then our panel prices will go up again.

They should also have had a system of reducing rebates over time and reviewed annually. The install rebate should be based on a % of total cost and a max $. So if the real price falls below the expected price the rebate reduces based on the % of the total. Less artificial incentive as the cost comes down.

Also the state subsidises install & feed in tariff. These should also have been set to reduce over time. For an install at the start of the scheme they would get 60c/kwh (NSW leg.) for the first 12months, then 50c, 40c .. down to 20c after 4 years. That way the panels cost can be paid back early but once over the hump the over-the-top 60c/kwh is not still being paid like money for nothing that the rest of us pay for. After a year or two of the scheme, new installs have a reduced starting and residual price with no guaranteed price after 8 years. They promised too much and didn't act quick enough. They made it too attractive for low value installs that everyone else has to pay for. I'd hate to think how many I have seen that are shaded for part of the day and don't meet expectations.