Posts by MyffyW

Whitehall seeks lone C++ coder to keep airport passenger model flying

Now I have flash-backs to The Simpsons Barber Shop Quartet episode.

Let It B(sharp)

So much for power to the people – AI datacenters could jump UK grid queue

Watt are you trying to say, @AC?

Ig Nobel Prize flees US for Switzerland after 35 years over safety concerns

Re: "concerns about the safety of those attending the US event." - clocks

If I recall correctly, Steve McQueen didn't actually get to Switzerland. He got in a bit of a tangle at the border.

Microsoft Azure CTO set Claude on his 1986 Apple II code, says it found vulns

Re: Why Claude?

A reasonable question.

Perhaps because Mark isn't just any old Microsoftie. He's an actual software engineer from back when men and women wrote their own 120-byte machine language routines.

China browses lunar landing spots in race to land on Moon

Re: Too late

I am told the shade of red and blue on the stars and stripes are not prescribed officially, so in theory a powder pink, white and light blue colouration would still be old glory. And be a glorious statement of support for our trans brothers and sisters.

Re: I prefer ...

Thank you to both posters, this charmed my morning.

Fly me to the Moon: NASA reshuffles the Artemis card deck

I knew NASA was broken back in 2004 when at the KSC tour they were still referencing the X-33 / VentureStar cancelled back in 2001. It's a perfect example of sincere individuals being employed by a make-work government programme.

On the other hand, I'm hardly enamoured by the corporate-welfare nonsense that has supported SpaceX et al down the years.

Maybe just as much as "Space is hard", "Funding Space is hard" should be the watch word.

NASA's fill-'er-up Moon rocket 'confidence' test sees mixed results

Re: Cryogenics is hard

Methane boiling point is 100 K, whilst for Hydrogen it's 20 K.

Explosion limits for Methane are 5% to 15%, whilst for Hydrogen it's 4% to 75%

Engineering tolerances are markedly different for the two fuels.

The real reason for Hydrogen's use is high energy per unit of mass and high specific impulse. Which sort of matters when you're heading to the moon.

Mechanical mutts make it official: Now full-time at Sellafield's hot zones

Whilst not encouraging such behaviour, there would be a very Alien Earth justice to that

Re: The cover up

At the time they were certainly "economical with the actualité" partly from institutional practice and partly because this was a nuclear weapons project.

Yes, unbelievably, the reactors were air-cooled, with the original design envisaging direct venting to the atmosphere. At a late stage, Director John Cockcroft insisted that high-performance filters were fitted on the chimneys, at some expense and initially referred to as "Cockcroft's Folly". They were clearly visible towards the top of the stacks.

The choice to have filters very likely made the 1957 disaster "not great, but not terrible". It is estimated they caught 95% of the particulate exhaust from the fire.

To quote Manchester University "Had they not been built, it is no exaggeration to suggest that a large part of the surrounding area – including the Lake District – might be inaccessible today. "

If you're one of the 16,000 Amazon employees getting laid off, read this

I left a well paid (but horrible) job for an opportunity that unwound after just 10 months. Pay took a bit of a hit for a year or two but absolutely no regrets and look back fondly on those 10 months + the subsequent gig I landed in a hurry.

I later left a lovely company that had nowhere for me to grow and leapt into another that had the right role. Loved it and though ultimately that ended in redundancy 5 years later, absolutely no regrets.

You've not got career experience until you're on the receiving end of redundancy. Be there for each other, wear your "Open to work" badge with pride and always, always play it forward.

AWS's inevitable destiny: becoming the next Lumen

Re: "have a life wtihout KFC waiting in retirement."

Yeah - it doesn't end well for the chicken in most scenario

It's a clucking shame

Concorde at 50: Twice the speed of sound, twice the economic trouble

Re: BA were asshats about it

True. That will probably be my "out" too.

As you were, OP.

Re: BA were asshats about it

Speaking as an engineer, I would vehemently resist being cannibalised.

Rocket Lab's Neutron schedule under pressure after unexpected tank rupture

Re: That photo

It reminds me of my curling tongs and a bottle of black nail varnish, but hey-ho, each to their own :-)

Microsoft veteran explains the one weird trick that made Windows 95 restart faster

Or "Strike any user to continue" as we used to say

That (avoid launching startup folder items), was also in Window 3.1x (if my own memory serves me well).

Was useful when somebody decided to have each of the Lotus SmartSuite apps launch on start. Fecking users....

For the price of Netflix, crooks can now rent AI to run cybercrime

Re: carry on offshoring

Interestingly both JLR and M&S are examples of companies that used* to look after their staff. A regular shopfloor or factory-floor job at either used to garner respect and even a degree of envy.

[*yes, I know, long ago, before Tech Bros. And the Dark Times]

Open source's new mission: Rebuild a continent's tech stack

Re: It's not just the software

Old enough that I downloaded the "A" disks of Slackware at work, overnight and then wrote the images to actual floppy disks

Developer writes script to throw AI out of Windows

Re: No kidding

I've lived long enough to see the products and great companies rise and fall and (very occasionally) rise again.

I've been a starry-eyed neophyte for everything from 32-bit (and then 64-bit) operating systems to handheld tablets, smartphones, virtualisation and 3-D printing. Lord, I've even given some credit to cloud computing benefits (though it's the thin end of the feudal wedge, in my opinion).

So I feel I carry some experience when I opine: Generative AI is a load of bollocks. Worse it's profligately wasteful of energy. And it's thirst for hardware has introduced a massive opportunity cost where RAM and GPUs are unavailable for actual innovative work. Any sane society would actually ban (or at least heavily regulate) it's use.

What if Linux ran Windows… and meant it? Meet Loss32

Re: If you

I run Teams and the Office 365 web apps OK* on my Linux desktop without worrying about WINE or Windows licensing.

Whilst there might have been a use case 20 or 30 years ago for Windows native apps on Linux, the Linux application estate is so extensive I have not felt any need to reach for WINE or other imperial entanglements.

[* "OK" being about as much credit as I'll give to anything from our friends from Redmond).]

UNIX V4 tape successfully recovered: First ever version of UNIX written in C is running again

Re: /usr

I too was told that. Unfortunately it was about 20 years ago on the RHEL Engineer course, so I'm not absolutely convinced it's canon.

DVSA's clapped-out booking system gets bot slapped as new boss rides in

Re: It's been a disgrace for years

In the UK anybody sitting a driving test will generally have a provisional license.

Repent ye inefficient – the ‘Palantir-ization’ of IT services is upon us

Re: "forward-deployed engineers"

"here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale"

Re: If you own the meaning of the words

Remember that the Principles of Newspeak is written in the past tense, in standard English. It will not endure.

Re: "forward-deployed engineers"

It was "ontological flywheel" that caused me to send my morning brew flying this morning.

AI datacenter boom could end badly, Goldman Sachs warns

Re: Tulips, railway mania etc.

Goldman Sachs are amusingly offering a pick-your-own future for investors to choose from.

Which, interestingly, is one of the few tasks that I would trust Generative AI with.

The future of long-term data storage is clear and will last 14 billion years

Though we are a similar age, I spin with more grace than your average disk platter from the 1970's.

I will admit my average seek time has increased with age, and the information recalled is rather more tangential.

Thankfully my reproductive days are behind me.

Re: disco ball

I've watched the 1970s Buck Rodgers, trust me in the far future they cannot disco dance.

[flicks her hair in the style of Erin Grey]

Activist groups urge Congress to pause US datacenter buildouts

A lot of things are a threat - or at any rate a balance of harms.

- Cooking and heating with dung or wood might give you lung cancer, but it beats raw meat and hypothermia

- Migrating across an ocean so that you can exercise your manifest destiny risks drowning and angry natives, but (according to some) it beats Anglican church services (well the new vicar can drone on)

- Getting a vaccination carries risks but it sure beats polio (ask FDR)

Now, AI. It risks polluting the water, ramping up the global temperature and impoverishing us all with higher utility bills. BUT it does give us the chance to generate generic meeting notes and six-fingered "digital art". AND it offers a novel way to further enrich that most benighted of demographics, the very wealthy.

Welcome to America - now show us your last five years of social media posts

Re: “God’s Own country”

It's true: as an example of successful multiculturalism Trump should study the Lancashire-Yorkshire dynamic:

- No Tarriffs

- No Borders

- Plenty of Muslims (and other faiths, and no faiths, and the better for it)

- Gorgeous scenery

- Ancient animosity consigned to a little bit of gentle ribbing about the dismal prospects of cricket/football/rugby teams

Google says Chrome's new AI creates risks only more AI can fix

Re: As any pet owner knows

If the cat shits on the mat, get a cow with constipation and feed it laxative

Re: Circularity

Coming up next: Why we should be giving matches and cans of petrol to the under-fives.

Alas there is a degree of truth, @CD.

In fairness to Pharma, there is regulatory oversight of their medicines. And serious investor scrutiny of the product pipeline. AI - not a jot.

Linux 6.18 arrives as the year's final drop and likely next LTS

Only came here to say that.

Diolch, Owain

Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever

2001: Peak MS = Slough of Balmer?

I think Balmer referring to Linux as "Cancer" has to be the point when MS realised how dangerous Linux was to their server OS business.

I mean, seriously Steve, at least SNAP! got a useful rhyme out of using the "C" word.

He might have lacked Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent. But Balmer sure knew how to look like one.

MS-DOS - Version 6.x

Controversial, I am sure, but hear me out:

This was the pinnacle of MS-DOS.

Yes, future versions came out tied to the 9x products, but with built in utilities covering automation of memory management (MemMaker), disk compression (DblSpace, sorry DrvSpace), PC-to-PC file transfer (Interlnk) and an anti-virus engine (it was a nice idea), this felt like a fully evolved product. Albeit a technology cul-de-sac for 386 and above PCs.

Run Windows for Workgroups 3.11 on top of that and it was about as good as you could get in 1993.

Windows NT was definitely a better operating system. But everything that came after MS-DOS 6.x took away the personal aspect of personal computer and put the long arm of corporate policy on top of your desktop.

Windows 11 needs an XP SP2 moment, says ex-Microsoft engineer

Kohl-black eyeliner and crystal-cut vocals set to an ethereal synth-and-guitar set up. Always going to brighten your day :-)

Re: Windows 11 is pretty bad

Honestly, exactly this. I'm actually happier troubleshooting a Linux desktop than anything post-Windows 7

Re: Windows 11 is pretty bad

My Win11 corporate device was just off the other day after returning from a 10 minute tea break. Not "simple press of the button starts it up" nor even BSOD, but properly lights-out, hung and unresponsive*

[* I am aware, after typing, that "hung and unresponsive" has miles of comedy potential, so off you go, have that one on me]

Proud to have been one of the girls rocking NT4 on my desktop whilst I shook my tresses to Dubstar back '96

Cheaper 1 GB Raspberry Pi 5 lands as memory costs go through the roof

That, unfortunately, has a non-zero chance of happening

Re: I see the future and it's some very thin clients

Yes, AI or otherwise, we are well and truly back into the era of rentier capitalism.

It'll be feudalism next, and we'll look back at even these days as some sepia-tinged bliss.

Re: a1

I'll be honest it was my first year university lecturer (god rest his soul) who properly put me off fluid dynamics of the computational or any other kind. We used to call him Dr Death, because he was such a happy, cheery man. But I digress.

Yeah, Raspi is not really peak AI bullshit, as evidenced by their we're-definitely-not-nvidia share price.

70-hour work weeks no longer enough for Infosys founder, who praises China’s 996 culture

I am coming to see much of our current strife in the context of older, wiser statesmen:

Either poverty will use democracy to win the struggle against property, or property, in fear of poverty, will destroy democracy

- Aneurin Bevan, from an idea by Thomas Rainsborough

Zoomers are officially worse at passwords than 80-year-olds

Sorry, Nigel, repeating characters. That's the password equivalent drowning on somebody else's vomit.

Typing Llanfair P G out in full is absolutely ofnadwy though

Britain's first small modular reactors to be built in Wales

Re: Sounds dystopian.

I've done my bit in creating two lovely human beings, thankfully without Elon The Sperminator.

I think it's a good thing that we have agency to decide when we want to conceive whilst those with an Act 2, Scene 3 problem only have to pop a pill to perk things up.

Re: Sounds dystopian.

Properly long term storage (of the order of thousands of years) is theoretically possible, and the Scandinavians are doing it. In the UK "kicking the can down the road" is a fair summary.

In the UK the first generation of nuclear power stations were designed to produce plutonium (for far less benevolent purposes), with power generation a nice side effect. We have been decommissioning these since the 1990s, so the process is at least established.

The second generation were to be a standard pattern, even sharing generator tech with contemporary coal-fired stations. In practice each reactor had differences from the other as experience of build and use dictated. They are also CO2 cooled, which in a nation that has a limited number of pure CO2 manufacturers might not be the best idea.

The third generation (just one, Sizewell B), is a more standard approach (internationally) but suffered from being built just as a certain part of Northern Ukraine embarked on a radical rewilding experiment.

The SMRs are supposed to be based on similar tech to that used in our nuclear submarines, where size is an obvious constraint. To the extent that we have experience in this domain, and folk who live months on end no more than a couple of dozen yards away from the reactor, I suppose it makes some sense. Within certain definitions of the word "sense".

Re: Sounds dystopian.

Depends how you judge it, Seven.

A world-weary, slightly cynical riff on Britain's relative decline down the years will usually get you an upvote or two, especially if you reflect on past glories.

Nuclear power? Well us commentards are largely led by the evidence. The attitude to the last 70-odd years is generally "2 Level 7 incidents - not great, not terrible". But in my view all opinions are welcome. Even those Russian trolls I seem to attract.

I rather liked your tongue-in-cheek encouragement to have my country men take up Viagra (they did their bit in proving it's efficacy in the first place, after all). That said since my preference is for Cymraes rather than Cymro, I'm probably not the best person to opine.