Posts by Doctor Syntax

So your [expletive] test failed. So [obscene participle] what?

Re: Good to keep a sense of humour

Of course, the extra memory needed for the code to do it that way will mean out of memory is reached sooner.

You think ransomware is bad now? Wait until it infects CPUs

It's time to bring it back. It would need to cover updates to microcode as well.

A new Lazarus arises – for the fourth time – for Pascal programming fans

Re: Not fun

The main issue of "Pascal" was it was not portable across platforms.

UCSD p-System was in that, like Java, it defined a virtual processor and compiled to that processor's "machine" code, the virtual processor being implemented on a number of different platforms. The original Apple Pascal was UCSD with a 6502 implementation of the p-machine.

Kylix was badly received because it didn't work well. The IDE was Delphi on a customised version of WIne with a cross-compiler. I had code that compiled under Delphi but threw a spurious compilation error under Kylix. The real problem was that it got left behind. It was released, IIRC, towards the end of the version 2 kernel era and didn't get updated for version 4 when a lot of the underlying libraries changed. Nothing to do with Linux "purity", Borland let it die.

Re: No OOP in the new book?

"I always think a OO language is just the non OO one where the object reference (self, this) has crawled under the procedure name and advertised (->) itself to the left of the now rechristened method"

In order to do that the language also needs to provide for the definition of methods accompanying data structures. That's the feature that makes it an OO language.

Code can be written in an OO style in any language that provides some form of data structure, much as a Basic style program can be written in an other language; it's just that adding OO features to the language makes it easier. (Writing an OO program that is, not a Basic one!)

Re: Not fun

I've used both but my initial step was Pascal to C. I found them to be the pessimal* distance from each other for learning one from the other in that they do similar things in quite different ways. It's a very long time since I used C. Come to think of it, it's a long time since I've used Pascal either except for a few toy applications for my own use but as they've been GUI applications for Linux they were written with Lazarus.

* I thought I'd made it up but it really is a word.

Re: No OOP in the new book?

"Almost completely and utterly wrong, but interesting."

An admirable illustration of the "all you have is a hammer" principle in taking an inappropriate use of OO as a counter example of the whole in favour of sequential data processing and pipelines.

As a counter example I'd offer my little Object Pascal file card program with different card types for text, tabular and image data, an absolute natural for OO in presentation. For storage, however, I had two options, a database (underlain by a set approach) such as SQLite or text which involved sequential processing.

Or my crossword assistant. It would be unreasonable to expect SWMBO to construct a grep command so it gets encapsulated in OP with the output displayed in a TMemo object.

Successful application development requires thinking in whatever mode is appropriate - OO, sets (OO fundamentalists freak out at the idea of an RDMBS), sequential or anything else that springs to mind.

Pragmatism is the true approach.

"I wonder it it will make it into the new Debian/Devuan"

It has. It was RC3 when I looked but no doubt the final version will follow PDQ.

I wonder it it will make it into the new Debian/Devuan - the hard freeze date is supposed to be next week. I'll be interested to try it out but I found a number of issues with complex programs developed with the current implementation but the FPC version is the same.

People find amazing ways to break computers. Cats are even more creative

Re: Power cables

Oddly, not that I can recall.

I can't remember whether the incident was before or after we found him recovering used benzene by distilling it in a 2 lire flask heated by a couple of bunsens.

Re: rotating cat

When it's accelerating it's in free fall and would feel weightless.

Re: Cats just sit on the keyboard

Or the other way around.

Re: We had an issue with a rabbit

Maybe that's what happened in Spain but with two storks.

Re: Power cables

"A few minutes later and, if they hadn't noticed the smell of gas, they would probably have reached in and turned the lights on, then possibly boom."

The closest call of that nature was the lab cleaner who arrived one morning to find a jet of flame issuing from a wall mounted gas tap. What we decided must have happened:

Research student failed to completely turn off a bunsen when he left for the night. The flame struck back, i.e. moved back to become a small flame the jet inside the air-hole at the base. This heated the base until eventually it melted the rubber tube where it joined the base. The flame then moved back to the hole in the tube. For the rest of the night it progressively melted the end of the tube until there was no tube left and the flame, still small, was now burning at the tab. This heated the body of the tap. The tap was wall-mounted with the outlet pointed down at 45° with the operating lever sticking up at 45°. The heat expanded the body allowing the weight of the lever to fall into the fully open position which must just have happened before the cleaner arrived. She turned it off with the handle of her mop, no damage done other than coating the inside of the room with soot.

Re: rotating cat

It stops working once the toast gets cold.

Feds disrupt proxy-for-hire botnet, indict four alleged net miscreants

It's all a bit Wild West so why bother with indictments of persons not in custody? Just offer dead or alive rewards.

US Transpo Sec wants air traffic control rebuild in 3 years, asks Congress for blank check

Which just illustrates the futility of setting concrete timelines for such a project.

Re: Three years?

"Just wondering what years not to fly."

Just keep both feet on the ground from now onwards.

Re: Amazing ..

TMMM should be required reading. But then, I suppose reading isn't understanding.

US govt's science foundation purges 37 divisions, equity unit among casualties

Re: Well, ...

And exactly what does this have to do with gutting the research that's been feeding the US's pharmaceutical industry etc. for the last decades?

Re: Well, ...

It's news to me that 100% of people voted for Trump but I suppose it says so on his Trump Social thing so you'll believe it.

You may be right. The US science/industrial complex has reached the end of the line. No more transfers from academic research to products.That's going to be the prerogative of wiser countries in the future.

Nip chip smugglers by building trackers into GPUs, US Senator suggests

Re: I'm sure...

"The idea is stupid and probably not as feasible as the article, let alone the politician, thinks it is"

Such politician's dabbling should be required to come with a proof of concept implementation.

Users advised to review Oracle Java use as Big Red's year end approaches

Re: Added value from Oracle Java?

They gain reassurance from the superstition that if you pay for it it must be good and if you don't it isn't.

It's called knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

37signals is completing its on-prem move, deleting its AWS account to save millions

To clarify that comment - his credentials suggest he's entitled to be a law unto himself.

I think it's he who is a law unto himself.

Re: So, who gets the fat bonus this time ?

Reading the Wikipedia article suggests Hansson is part owner. It refers to him as a partner in Basecamp which looks like a stale entry from the time before the company changed its name back to 37Signals. When you own the company, or a large part of it, it makes decision making a lot quicker although it helps if you know what you're doing.

Re: It's always fun ...

"And why we don't do that anymore."

We do. it's just called the cloud. Same difference.

Re: In six months...

It's not only somebody else's computer you don't control, it's somebody else's computer controlled by somebody else's staff whom you don't control.

Microsoft wants us to believe AI will crack practical fusion power, driving future AI

Microsoft wants us to believe six impossible things before breakfast.

BOFH: HR tries to think appy thoughts

Re: "HR tries to think appy thoughts"

They are both ageless.

Re: Once again, the BOFH wins hands down

"having to go into a trash bin to get their phones back."

The BOFH will have rung the skip company to get it taken for emptying in land-fill.

As US scientists flee Trump, MP urges Britain to do more to nab them

If they think the visa charges are bad just wait until they see the salaries. Or are we going to have a two tier salary situation where they get paid more than the British scientists?

Arm says it isn’t worried by tariffs, but won't give guidance for FY'26

Re: Because users are fighting to pay more for AI...

"You are all being conned."

Not all of us.

‘Infuriated’, ‘disappointed' ... Ex-VMware customers explain why they migrated to Nutanix

"Ironically, shortly after the migration was complete, he got a call from a VMware account manager who introduced themselves as his new point of contact - unaware that Johnston had already planned to end Golding's relationship with the Broadcom business unit."

Ironically? In Johnston's place "happily" might have been the least of it. It would have been a call I'd really have enjoyed. Draw it out nicely. Explain what I'd need from VMware. Reject each of his offerings with lengthy explanations. And even if he did come up with some offer, drop the bombshell that he was too late. Finally explain how easy it was to complete the transfer.

Life doesn't present too many opportunities like that.

Update turns Google Gemini into a prude, breaking apps for trauma survivors

"Google just cut it all off. They just pushed a model update that's cut off its willingness to talk about any of this kind of work despite it having an explicit settings panel to enable this and a warning system to allow it. And now it's affecting other users whose apps relied on it, and now it won't even chat [about] mental health support."

How many times do we have to say this? It's somebody else's computer that you don't control.

ESA feeling weightless and unwanted amid proposed NASA cuts

Re: There are other partners

"And, over time, so will the US."

By 2050 the US will look back at the 2030s as the great rebuilding. If they're lucky.

PowerSchool paid thieves to delete stolen student, teacher data. Looks like crooks lied

Too many amateurs in the business. Originally they were business-like and you got what you paid for. Being dishonest about it just gives the business a bad name and puts customers off altogether. If this keeps up it will be the death of the industry if people can't trust crooks to deliver.

After that 2024 Windows fiasco, CrowdStrike has a plan – job cuts, leaning on AI

Automating test and release is a good idea - they should have done that already after last year's unpleasantness - but not by using AI.

Sudo-rs make me a sandwich, hold the buffer overflows

"Sudo is a command-line utility on Unix-like systems that allows authorized users to run commands with elevated privileges, typically as root" without the safeguard of an additional password. It fails Saltzer and Schroeder's separation of privilege criterion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltzer_and_Schroeder's_design_principles

Microsoft updates the Windows 11 Start Menu

Re: Ha, ha, ha! I moved to Linux Last Weekend.

But whose email address is it really?

Re: Settings

"Unfortunately StackOverflow, SuperUser and StackEchange (all owned by the same company) now require you to enable cookies and JavaScript to view their webpage as of two days ago."

I have a second browser set up to forget all cookies etc. on exit. Happily click the "accept" button thinking "and much good may it do you".

Re: Settings

"Unfortunately StackOverflow, SuperUser and StackEchange (all owned by the same company) now require you to enable cookies and JavaScript to view their webpage as of two days ago."

Not a problem. I have a second browser set up to forget cookies etc. on exit.

Re: Hey, Clippy

Dead but not buried. Or maybe the other way around.

Re: "Make Start Menu great again"...

But wait until you get to the new KDE settings as on Debian testing.. They've rearranged to top-level menu.

Re: Settings

Maybe it could be used to teach the developers where to put the settings.

90-second Newark blackout exposes parlous state of US air traffic control

From the linked report:

The Department of Transportation will announce a plan Thursday to transform the air traffic control system, remodeling an outdated system that contributed to days of delays at Newark, Duffy, the transportation secretary, told Fox News on Monday.

...

Duffy has since pledged to implement a new, “state-of-the-art” system at air traffic control facilities across the country that would be the “envy of the world” – but said it might take three to four years.

“We are going to radically transform the way air traffic control looks,” Duffy told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.

President Donald Trump has “bought into the plan,” he said

In normal times that might be good news. Now it might be a case of the most terrifying words in the English languge being "I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Suffering those systems as a result of a 90 second glitch (and note that they wouldn't have known it was going to be "only" 90 seconds) was probably the result of already being at the limit due to accumulated stress. They have my sympathy and, from me, no suggestion at all that they "weren't cut out for the job".

Microsoft moved the goalposts once. Will Windows 12 bring another shift?

My instant reaction to hearing Microsoft claim something to be advantageous is to add "for you, not for me" to the message and act accordingly.

Re: How to opt out of the enhancements

They appear to find it perfectly feasible. I'm following the new version, Excalibur, on a second laptop. Stacks of new stuff still coming in (the Debian soft freeze only held it back for a few days) and very little of it Devuan specific.

Re: Reasons not to upgrade to Windows 12

To some extent it's the stock market's fault. They can't be satisfied with a nice little earner, they demand growth. The nice little earner for S/W ought to be get the product complete, shake out the bugs. Don't faff with it to add more so the cost of development can be cut to minimal maintenance and just take the licence fees from new H/W.

But, no. The user base has to be forced to fork out more and more. If that doesn't happen the share price falls below its original unwarranted level and bonuses, tied to further unreasonable growth, are missed and the sharks move in.