Posts by el_oscuro

Don't panic: An asteroid larger than the Empire State Building is flying past Earth this weekend but we're just fine

Re: Ignore clickbait?

Maybe you should have 3. I think that is the required amount (plus peanuts) required to successfully use the Electronic Sub-Etha Signaling Device.

Lenovo certifies all desktop and mobile workstations for Linux – and will even upstream driver updates

My first Linux laptop was a Dell - which came preloaded with Ubuntu 7.10. Dell has offered Linux laptops for a very long time.

All-electric plane makes first flight – while lugging 2 tons of batteries aloft

Re: The video

There is a lot of drag taking off from the water that engine has to overcome that doesn't exist from a normal runway. That plane would probably take off from a runway in like 100 feet.

Re: Compulsory El Reg commentary moan

To torture this a little bit more, here is a car analogy, also poked around from teh Interwebs:

Tesla Model 3: 3,552 to 4,100 lbs and a range of 250 to 322 miles.

Toyota Camry: 3,241 to 3,572 lbs and a range of about 450-500 miles

So electric is heavier and has less range, but difference isn't quite as much as most people think.

Beer gut-ted: As many as '70 million pints' spoiled during coronavirus pandemic must be destroyed in Britain

Re: K'in eejets.

Over on this side of the pond, most standard beers come in at 5%, while the light ones are usually about 4%. German standard bier like Pils and Export usually have about 4.8-4.9%. Bocks and such have more.

I have never heard of a 2% beer.

Psst... Wanna buy some stock in a spaceplane company? Virgin would like a word

Re: Galactic?

I though it was pretty cool - back in 2004. Since then, SpaceX has managed to get a Falcon 1 into orbit, Falcon 9, reuse, Falcon Heavy into a Mars orbit, and has actually flown Starship at least a little bit.

Meanwhile their competition, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin?

Crickets...

Data centre reveals it modeled interiors on The Hunt for Red October sets

Re: Remodelling

Elon Musk's secret volcano lair is in Olympus Mons.

Re: Remodelling

I think it is because the gravity is wonky on the Moon. Different rock densities cause it to vary and things that orbit too close tend to crash.

Re: They got it WRONG

If you really want to go down a rabbit hole, check out Blind Man's Bluff:

https://www.amazon.com/Blind-Mans-Bluff-Submarine-Espionage/dp/0099409984

We beg, implore and beseech thee. Stop reusing the same damn password everywhere

Re: OK, sp which password manager to plump for?

Bitwarden?

Re: Nope cant be arsed.

No comment required

Thanks. You gave me a word list where my commentard account can generate Markov Chain comments like those used in The Automatic Donald Trump

https://filiph.github.io/markov/

Re: scott

welcome1 is the new hotness

Re: OK, sp which password manager to plump for?

You must have accidently added a unicode U+202e Right-to-Left Override in your comment.

Re: If you don't ..

I have a script which generates a list of passwords from /dev/random and a word list of my choosing. I can specify the delimiters, capitalized, number of words/characters, added numbers, etc, that will match any arbitrary password requirements while still being easy to type. I just pick the one I want from the list and since it came from /dev/random, it isn't going to be easy to guess.

I use these for accounts where I have to actually still type the password, but for everything else I use bitwarden.

Re: In other news....

If a site requires me to create an account to buy something, I usually don't. I just go elsewhere where they accept Paypal.

At least for me, having an account requirement is kind of like putting your merchandise in a disused basement lavatory with a sign on the door that says: "Beware of the leopard" .

Re: In other news....

How did you guess my password?

Re: In other news....

If you have Firefox, try this:

https://lifehacker.com/enable-copy-paste-in-web-pages-that-disallow-it-with-a-1601848114

OK brainiacs, we've got an IT cold case for you: Fatal disk errors on an Amiga 4000 with 600MB external SCSI unless the clock app is... just so

Oracle, Windows, and keyboards

About the same time, a user was having problems with Oracle*Forms on Windows. It would GPF all the time. I opened a service request and troubleshooted for a while. Then they asked what type of keyboard the user had. He had one of those Microsoft "Natural" keyboards, which apparently had some sort of conflict with Oracle*Forms.

Several years later, I told that story to another consultant: She was "OMFG - we had that same issue too. But we never solved it - we tried reinstalling Windows, a new PC, everything. But the one thing that was in common was the users keyboard.

BOFH: Will the last one out switch off the printer?

Re: Boss's hairy throat

I think I might have to have that scene in "Airplane!" where they are driving to the airport in the Mustang.

Re: Boss's hairy throat

I just had my first video call today. Somehow, my picture didn't break the camera, though I think it was about to before I quietly turned it off and just listened to the meeting.

Things that go crump in the night: Watch Musk's mighty missile go foom

Kerbal Space program

Using the SpaceX mod, I am able duplicate this almost exactly. Once set up on the launch pad, my starship always falls apart and explodes.

NASA's classic worm logo returns for first all-American trip to ISS in years: Are you a meatball or a squiggly fan?

Should have an option for both

The worm looks awesome on the side of a rocket. The meatball should be on all letterheads and coffee mugs.

Re: Meatball

Manned missions have definitely told us nothing about Mars - since we haven't been there. 50 years later, we are still learning science from the Moon ones.

Any manned trip to Mars is by definition long term and somewhat self sustaining - if for no other reason than planetary alignment. The amount of science meat bags could collect on a trip is absolutely mind blowing.

It's time to track people's smartphones to ensure they self-isolate during this global pandemic, says WHO boffin

The US system isn't health care. It is basically institutionalized price gouging and outright theft between the drug companies, insurance, pharmacy benefit managers, and providers, all over billing each other, with the poor sod who actually needs healthcare getting stuck with the bill.

It's Baaaaaack (or is it?): Microsoft Teams suffers a Tuesday totter

Re: Teams is working for us...

There is also PlaysForSure, Zune, MS Passport, and the Phone to name a few more in its graveyard.

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

Re: Remember the Philosophers

Which side of the pond? Both?

Re: fun facts

You can play the game now on BBC:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1g84m0sXpnNCv84GpN2PLZG/the-game-30th-anniversary-edition

Re: Anybody fancy a game of...

This post should be banned for abusive language.

Disk stuck in the drive? Don't dilly-Dali – get IT on the case!

Re: In my case

In a somewhat related incident, I perpetrated what was later known as "The Ramen Event". After 30 years of successfully using a microwave, I put a bowl of ramen noodles and set it to nuke for 3 minutes. The problem was, I forgot to add water to the noodles, causing it to catch fire. Even worse, I added ghost peppers to the noodles to make it extra spicy.

I effectively pepper-sprayed the entire building. But even better, it was about an hour before a happy hour so the end result was beer o'clock started early. I have never lived this down.

BOFH: Here he comes, all wide-eyed with the boundless optimism of youth. He is me, 30 years ago... what to do?

Re: Mixed Feelings

A website I originally designed is still in production. Best viewed on Netscape Navigator 3.

We regret to inform you there are severe delays on the token ring due to IT nerds blasting each other to bloody chunks

Re: obligatory link to Dilbert

Please see icon

C'mon SPARCky, it's just an admin utility update. What could possibly go wrong?

Re: It wasn't me!

From the way-back machine, I had a Commodore 64 and as a teenager had no money for the $35 macro assembler cartridge. So instead, I wrote a very simple one in C64 BASIC that supported JMP labels and such. But since the C64 didn't have a built-in editor, I also had to write one in BASIC. And it was based on EDLIN.

25 years of Delphi and no Oracle in sight: Not a Visual Basic killer but hard to kill

Re: Language!

We *still* have production P*w*rB**ld*r apps in use. In 2020.

And while I never used Delphi, I made extensive use of Borland C++ builder which had the IDE and VCL fully implemented as classes. Despite it's GUI emphasis, I wrote server apps with it and made extensive use of the VCL classes for backend processing.

The most significant was a OCI web app that processed up to 3m calls a day until we migrated to Linux in 2011.

So you locked your backups away for years, huh? Allow me to introduce my colleagues, Brute, Force and Ignorance

Re: Seen in the wild - gloopy

I guess Gloopy is the Russia translation for Goop.

Re: Seen in the wild

In the old days, we had Grid Laptops (before they were bought out by Tandy). These had titanium cases and DOS in ROM.

Occasionally we had to perform a "drop test" to reseat those ROMS. This involved dropping the laptop onto a flat surface from about 3 feet high.

Vendor-bender LibreOffice kicks out 6.4: Community project feel, though now with added auto-█████ tool

Re: LibreOffice Draw

Many years ago, I was working on a project where I had to open a document in Office 2007. What is the very first thing I needed to do? Print it of course. Having never seen the ribbon before, I couldn't find the print button. So I asked the system admin and he admitted he didn't know either. But he gave me a trick: The old DOS shortcut Control-P still worked, along with other standbys like Control-S for save and Control-O for open.

I have been using these ever since, and the work in LibreOffice and practically every other program. I have been ignoring the ribbon ever since. Best productivity gain ever!

Chrome suddenly using Bing after installing Office 365 Pro Plus... Yeah, that might have been us, mumbles Microsoft

Re: Phew!

No additional comment required

Re: Antitrust

I had to fix a friends XP computer which had so much crap installed that it took 1/2 hour to boot.

With a Unix background I used the "rm -rf" method. I told them I would be deleting every app that wasn't something like office or photoshop. So it went something like this:

1. Attempt to remove it with control panel which would probably fail

2: c:\> rd /s "c:\program files\crap"

3: c:\> reg delete "hklm\software\crap"

4. regseeker and ccleaner (back when those were good)

5. Lather, rinse, reboot, and repeat

6. Install firefox, a decent free AV, delete IE icons, set browser defaults, etc

They were like "oh my god, this is a like a new computer". I wonder how long it lasted.

Beer necessities: US chap registers bevvy as emotional support animal so he can booze on public transport

Re: Trains and Boats and Planes

Visiting New York last year, one of the locals told me: "If the subway car is empty, *do not* get on it. Don't ask me why."

Re: You don't eat your support animal!

Did you get the get the latest Microsoft update?

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/22/office_365_bing/

Re: You gotta shoot...

When I was stationed in Germany Budweiser (the American one) was actually illegal to sell off the American bases. There were a few dusty six packs of it in the PX, probably still sitting there from the 1970s.

Meanwhile, I would be off to pick up of a case of Parkbrau at the local Esso station.

BTW, if you ever happen to come by the Czech Budweiser, you need to try it. It is *really* good.

Windows 7 back in black as holdouts report wallpaper-stripping shenanigans

Re: Will they replace the start-up sound as well?

I think Microsoft bought out Sirius Cybernetics Corporation to obtain their Genuine People Personalities technology. We should see Marvin's remaining diodes installed in an office assistant soon.

EA boots Linux gamers out of multiplayer Battlefield V, Penguinistas respond by demanding crippling boycott

Re: Few things jump out

I have a Slik-stik arcade cabinet with a Wells/Gardener CRT, HAPPS controls and a Tornado spinner. Originally, I had Windows, but all of the games were like crap. So I installed Lincade, a dedicated gaming distro with built-in drivers for the ArcadeVGA graphics card, and the difference was like night and day.

Besides my arcade cabinet and RetroPi, I also have thousands of hours on games like Kerbal Space Program, FTL, Strike Suit Zero, and Dying Light. All on Linux. I have had to upgrade motherboards and power supplies to properly drive my NVidea 1080 - so my Linux games have a good frame rate - on Linux.

TikTok boom: US Army bans squaddies from using trendy app on govt-issued phones

Re: social media data hoovering is an obvious security risk

I was in the Army many years ago and the entire certification exam for the computer programmer MOS 74-Foxtrot was nothing but cybersecurity.

How are these Army issued phones anything other than locked down milspec issue?

Deadly 737 Max jets no longer a Boeing concern – for now: Production suspended after biz runs out of parking space

Re: Alternate 737MAX design kludge

I think the issue is that the bigger engines become an actual lifting body like a wing when the angle of attack is increased, i.e when approaching a stall. Because of the forward placement, they tend to re-enforce that stall and make it worse.

Re: Welcome to Seattle

One of the very few things that Douglass Adams didn't get right in the HHGTTG: The Sirius Cybernetics marketers will not be the first against the wall when the revolution comes. They will have to get in line behind these people.

Re: Complacency!

On this side of the pond, when I heard that Brexit had passed, I knew we were doomed and that The Donald would get elected. The exact same type of rot that led to Brexit was here and driving it too.

iFixit surgeons dissect Apple's pricey Mac Pro: Industry standard sockets? Repair diagrams? Who are you and what have you done to Apple?

Re: "...the equivalent of a two-bedroom terraced house in West Yorkshire on a computer"

Over on the other side of the pond one of these fully tricked out will set you back a cool 73k. At least you don't have to pay the Microsoft tax:

https://system76.com/desktops/thelio-massive-b1/configure

Since the FCC won't act, Congress finally moves on robocalls by passing half-decent TRACED Act

Re: Robocalls cost cell phone companies money

Over on this side of the pond, it is definitely about land lines. We still have an "unlisted" one and it is relentlessly robocalled. It is to the point that we don't answer unless we know the caller.

On the other hand, our cell phones have remained relatively robocall free.