Posts by Patched Out

Google Maps to roll out Trump-approved Denali and Gulf of Mexico rebrands

Re: Not only the Americans who are at it

We have both Derry and Londonderry in New Hampshire!

Stock-trading apps fall under the feet of stampeding panicking investors

Re: Trolls out in force today.

What are you on about?

Looking up the meaning of FOCF, I get "Free Operating Cash Flow" which is a business term and can't "win" per se. The other definition is "Friends Of the Capital Forest", a mountain biking organization out of Olympia, Washington.

So you are afraid of a mountain biking organization winning the election?

BOFH: An 'AI PC' for an Acutely Ignorant user

Brilliant Idea!

I'm going to start selling AI retrofit kits on Amazon. Each kit consists of a purple LED pre-wired with a plug for the motherboard, an appropriately sized drill bit, and a little sticker to apply on the case next to the LED that says "AI Engaged". Oh, and a tiny installation instruction sheet with useless diagrams and instructions translated to Chinese using Google Translate, then translated back to English.

Will Windows drive a PC refresh? Everyone's talking about AI

A Cunning Plan

I hate to put this idea out there, since someone from Microsoft might actually read this and think it is a good idea:

If Microsoft wants to improve take up of Windows 11, all they have to do is force AI onto Windows 10 hold outs. ... but only if it is made so that Windows 11 becomes the lesser of the two evils.

A thump with the pointy end of a screwdriver will fix this server! What could possibly go wrong?

Re: 2 years with a dry joint, running an engine testbed

Not a professional amplifier, but about 20 years ago, a colleague knew I was handy with audio equipment and asked me to look at a 20+ year old Pioneer stereo receiver that had developed a hum when the phonograph input was selected. I took a look and found that, in order to route the audio from the phono preamp to the main portion of the amp, the designers chose to run shielded audio cable across the board instead of running it through the PCB traces (probably to help reduce noise and hum pickup from other circuits).

I found on one end where the signal lead of one of the two channels was supposed to be soldered to a PCB pad, that the wire itself just had a solder ball and only mechanically (and electrically) contacted the plated through hole that formed the pad. The pad appeared to have solder mask over it as well. Some how it worked for all those years but didn't survive a recent move. Scraping off the solder mask and resoldering the wire to the pad made it as good as (actually, better than) new.

Research finds electric cars are silent but violent for pedestrians

Re: Just a thought

With an add-on bonus of randomly ejaculating, "Run away! Run away!"

Cops developing Ghostbusters-esque weapon to take out e-bike thugs

Re: Not viable

The inverse square law applies, but the power required for a unidirectional radiator with a small beam width is significantly less than what would be needed for an omni-directional radiator. My guess is this would be a point and shoot type weapon with a vary narrow beam width, therefore quite viable - especially if it is powered from a backpack-style, unlicensed particle accelerator.

The end of classic Outlook for Windows is coming. Are you ready?

Re: I need classic outlook

I concur. I use IMAP on all my household devices except for one PC where I use POP3 to get local copies of all email. I have it set to not delete emails that are pulled down, but do delete emails off the server if I move emails to Trash on the POP3 client. This way I can manage my email without having to access my ISP's terrible web-based email interface.

I'll be looking at transitioning to Thunderbird for my home PC.

WATSON picks up slack on Mars for SHERLOC as Perseverance gadgets show age

Percussive maintenance?

Can't they just take the arm and rap it against a nearby rock to loosen up the hatch?

Note joke icon ----->

Windows 3.11 trundles on as job site pleads for 'driver updates' on German trains

Re: I remember those days!!!

And this was all because IBM, in its infinite wisdom, chose to use memory-mapped I/O which took up the 64K just above the 640K base memory. The 8088 processor had a Memory/IO pin that they chose not to use. This could have been used as an extra address pin to remap I/O to another area.

For a while in the 90's, I owned a Victor 9000 (Sirius 1). The Victor 9000 was in every way superior to the IBM PC (except that it was not IBM PC compatible, having come out just before the PC, which led to its demise) and did not have this memory restriction. It had 896K of contiguous memory space for DOS and applications.

Scientists use Raspberry Pi tech to protect NASA telescope data

Re: I'm reminded of early space exploration

Mechanical pencils are banned in our electronics lab as part of our FOD (Foreign Object Damage) prevention program. As others have noted, the thin graphite can break off and fall into the equipment where it can cause short circuits.

I certainly wouldn't want conductive bits of graphite floating around in my space capsule or space station!

Food robots delivering bombs? Oregon State campus shut down by 'prank'

Re: Avoid all robots until further notice

That's easy. Order some food to be delivered via robot (ideally using a stolen ID/credit card). Presumably the person ordering the food has the ability to open the robot's cargo container using same credit card. Remove food item and replace with nefarious item. Done.

That said, hopefully the developers thought to include safe guards against that sort of thing...

Astronomers debate whether or not lightning strikes even once on Venus

Re: 690,000km/h

Since Mach is the ratio of speed relative to the speed of sound, every craft not within a planet's atmosphere is traveling at Mach v/0 which is mathematically undefined since sound doesn't travel in a vacuum.

Also to be completely pedantic, Mach 1.0 is not a constant. It varies with air density (atmospheric pressure and altitude) and humidity. (I.e., Mach 1 at 60,000 feet ASL is not the same speed as Mach 1 at sea level; and Mach 1 on Earth is not the same speed as Mach 1 on Mars).

What does Twitter's new logo really represent?

Re: Obvious really,

Not just a W, a big W.

Mars helicopter went silent for six sols, imperilled Perseverance rover

A good thing they didn't give Ingenuity the call sign "Maverick", then.

Google to kill Dropcam, Nest Secure hardware next year

Re: Its all well and good

I am a Comcast internet customer and own my own modem and separate router. Comcast has no ability to muck with my router's settings. The modem is set to bridge mode and there is no issue with WiFi and no DHCP service conflicts.

Blockchain needs a reason to exist, Boris Johnson tells roomful of blockchain pros

Re: Get yer finest blockchains here...

Cut-Me-Own-Throat Johnson?

Creator of spec for melting RTX 4090 cables urges Nvidia, others to 'ensure user safety'

Re: Why 12V? USB managed to ditch 5V

You are absolutely correct. Not only would the connectors be seeing less per-pin current, the wires would have much lower I^2*R losses (which is the reason the wires heat up). Note that the current parameter is squared so any increase in current has a power of 2 factor on the losses (i.e., heat). Internally, the video card primarily uses 3.3V logic with probably 1.2V processing core voltage, so they have to have Point-of-Load regulators anyway. The DC/DC Converters used as the POL regulators can most likely handle a higher input voltage without modification.

The only problem is that customers then have no choice but to purchase a new power supply that would supply the higher voltage and I'm sure the marketing people didn't like that idea.

To make this computer work, users had to press a button. Why didn't it work? Guess

Re: Bad design

You should have bought a Pentax DSLR then. One mode dial, two or more function dials (depending on model). Lots of dedicated buttons (that are re-assignable if you really want to) plus the dreaded 6 way switch if you really want to get into the advanced stuff.

Pentax is well known for its ergonomic designs.

Manufacturers could be forced to include repair instructions

Re: Vote with your wallet!

After looking at their website and offerings, I think the Fairphone is a great idea. I would buy one if they would sell to someone in the USA, but right now they will/can only sell to customers in Europe.

BOFH: The Boss has a new watch – move readiness to DEFCON 2

Re: Problems in search of solutions

We were all issued "smart" power strips for our monitors. They have a motion detector unit that sit on the desk and automatically turn off the monitors after a time when no motion is detected. The problem is that they suck more vampire power than the monitors themselves if just left in standby ...

BOFH: It's Friday, it's time to RTFM

Watch for hidden acronyms.

The Patriot Missile should be PATRIOT Missile. PATRIOT stands for Phased Array Tracking to Intercept Of Target. I'm not kidding.

Re: Intelligence?

DH. Designated Hitter? Dunder Head?

The crime against humanity that is the modern OS desktop, and how to kill it

Re: windows 11 makes me cry

Way back when, I was in a camera club which hosted a guest photographer who was also a film tester for Kodak. He did not mention this story, but did say you would get better results shooting TRI-X at 200 ASA* and pull processing it** rather than shooting at the rated 400 ASA.

* ASA was the defacto standard for rating film speeds, later to become an ISO standard

** For non-photographers - Pull processing is shooting a film at a lower (slower) ASA/ISO setting than the film is rated for, then developing the film for a longer time to compensate. Push processing is the opposite - Shooting the film at a higher ASA/ISO than rated, then developing for a shorter time. Films used to come with detailed datasheets including developing time/temperature charts for this purpose.

IBM board probes claims of fudged sales figures that led to big bonuses for execs

Re: Big surprise

Well, if you remove all those pesky regulations, then nothing that they do is illegal. Ergo, no more scandals ... right? /s

I paid for it, that makes it mine. Doesn’t it? No – and it never did

Physical media

I still purchase music on CDs and movies on DVD or Blu-ray. People think I'm a luddite, but I rip them to a harddrive and have the disks for backup. I don't trust that even Amazon wouldn't turn around and disappear a movie I paid for on their streaming service.

And I own no products that require constant connection to somebody else's server or cloud service in order to operate ... except my cellphone ... and I suppose my Windows based computers, though there are ways around the computer issue ...

BAE scores $699 million contract to support US Army supercomputers

You are looking at the BAE Systems UK site. Better to look at the BAE Systems, Inc. site for U.S. jobs. Of course you'll need U.S. Citizenship for most positions...

Dev's code manages to topple Microsoft's mighty SharePoint

Yet another VBA limit

I too had to create a massive VBA macro to convert data in Excel format so it could be imported (also in Excel format) into another tool. The macro was working great until I added a couple lines of additional code and then suddenly it didn't. It turns out there is an overall character limit for a Module. I had to break up the code into functions so that they could be placed in different Modules just to get around the character limit.

US EV drivers won't be able to choose vehicle safety alert sounds

The odd part about this descision

... is that the NHTSA has nixed the idea of user selectable sounds, but apparently, at least for now, have not retricted the manufacturers on what sound(s) they can use. So if BMW or Cadillac did decide to use some rap beat, that would be OK as long as it isn't user selectable?

Totaled Tesla goes up in flames three weeks after crash

Another one.

This happened with a Tesla in my area. The driver crashed it, resulting in a battery fire. After much work the fire department managed to get it out. A week or so later it caught fire again just sitting in the wrecking yard.

Salesforce staff back an end to its relationship with NRA

Re: pledge to double our commitment to making schools secure.

Unfortunately, the political party that unwaveringly protects the 2nd amendment is the same political party that defunded our public mental health programs three decades ago and blocks any current attempts to increase funding for mental health programs.

NASA's 161-second helicopter tour of Martian terrain

Tiny

Judging by the surface curvature displayed in the video, Mars must be a really small planet!

Yes, this is a joke. See icon.

Zuckerberg sued for alleged role in Cambridge Analytica data-slurp scandal

Washington State gets nothing. It's the Washington D.C. AG bringing the suit.

Failed gambler? How about an algorithm that predicts the future

Re: Half full or empty

As a reliability/safety engineer, I would say that the cup was designed with 100% safety margin.

Start your engines: Windows 11 ready for broad deployment

I thought it was being a little pushy.

Running Windows 10 a couple days ago, I saw a new icon in the task bar information area that looked just like the normal green highlighted windows update only with blue highlights instead. When I clicked on it, it was to install Windows 11...

I promptly exited out, rebooted my machine, and went into the UEFI BIOS to disable fTPM.

Oddly, after saving the change and rebooting, Windows Update still says I'm ready for Windows 11. I most decidedly am not!

Supreme Court urged to halt 'unconstitutional' Texas content-no-moderation law

Re: Restaurant Rules

Have a beer on me. I feel for you being a voice of reason living in a State of Unreason. Perhaps that should be Texas' new motto.

Re: SPAM, SPAM SPAM SPAM!

I'm thinking that all the bulk spammers should now target Texas ISP email addresses since it is now technically illegal to block them. Even better have every Democratic, "liberal", and "left-wing" organization start sending bulk emails to them. See how quickly Texas citizens demand this law be overturned or amended.

Elon Musk 'violated' Twitter NDA over bot-check sample size

It's completely repeatable! Using the same random seed to select the 100 account samples, they always get the same answer!

Windows 10 still growing, but Win 11 had another bad month, says AdDuplex

Snark snark

"The Register contacted Microsoft in order to get the raw data behind Nadella's claims. We will update should the company respond."

Ha ha! Good one!

Your AI can't tell you it's lying if it thinks it's telling the truth. That's a problem

Re: Cue Dr Susan Calvin

Many years ago I saw a planetarium show with a narration of that short story. It was brilliant.

Windows 11 usage stats within touching distance of... XP

Re: When is an upgrade and upgrade?

I believe Microsoft's internal word for customers/users is "marks".

Fish mentality: If The Rock told you to eat flies, would you buy my NFT?

April Fools?

I noticed that Pacific Northwest National Laboratory published their announcement about their "Fitbit for Fish" on April 1st. I'm not saying it is a hoax, but it seems very fishy ...

This may seem weird but don't give us all the chip funding, say Intel and friends

Where is Texas Instruments?

Where is Texas Instruments in all this? They are at least as big a player as Analog Devices. Are they not participating?

Windows 11 growth at a standstill amid stringent hardware requirements

Gaslighting

"You keep using that word. I don't think it mean what you think it means."

Win 11 adds 'requirements not met' nag for unsupported hardware

Making your computer incompatible

That's easy. Just do what I did. Go into your UEFI/BIOS and turn off fTPM. Microsoft will stop bothering you to install Windows 11.

AI really can't copyright the art it generates – US officials

Slippery slope

It's good that the copyright office is holding its stance on this nonsense. I see this as a slippery slope we don't want to get too near. Now that we have "AI" software that can write software code, who gets the copyright for that resulting code? The person who ran the AI tool? The developer of the AI tool? The AI itself? This could get interesting.

Paris icon just for the question mark.

US to attack cyber criminals first, ask questions later – if it protects victims

Re: "to track money through the blockchain"

The United States has never been a democracy in the pure ideological sense. It is and has always been a democratic republic.

Russia 'stole US defense data' from IT systems

Re: Skid mark

Um, your first paragraph was mostly reasonable and actually relevant to the article, but then you went off the rails big time and your message just became noise.

France says Google Analytics breaches GDPR when it sends data to US

Re: To be honest

You're absolutely wrong! Google doesn't just sell the data to the highest bidder, they'll sell it to anyone who can pay their price!

Machine learning the hard way: IBM Watson's fatal misdiagnosis

Re: Watson

Ironically (or perhaps not), Watson was named after IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson, not Sherlock Holmes' sidekick. Although I'm sure the IBM marketing people thought of the sleuthing angle (or perhaps not).

Icon because ... Well, its elementary as to why ...