Posts by bombastic bob

Graphical desktop system X Window just turned 38

Re: Walaynd is not relevant going forward

I like the way you think on this.

We don't really use the network features of X enough yet. But we will

I came up with a 'clever' way of creating panel icon shortcuts for Firefox runnin as a specific user with a button click that leverages 'DISPLAY' to run it as a user like, say, 'twitter', which would have no privileges, and its own context (FF may delete all history on exit, or simply allow script and tracking in THAT context). Then you are just aware of the tracking etc. in THAT context if you look at stuff, follow links, etc.. But OTHER contexts could have script blockers, cookie blockers, anti-tracking, whatever. So I end up having one for 'slack' that is work related, one for 'twitter', one for 'script' (let script run, but erases all history on exit), and all of those users have no privs whatsoever. Then you cleverly set up ssh with a cert-based login [no password prompt] and invoke the firefox program with appropriate info and DISPLAY exported, and you're there with a single button click.

(I use the 'script' one to view youtube vids or use one-time web sites that need script to work. carefully of course. Stupid gummint ones are often 'scripty' too. works for those as well)

Also fun thing, different instances have different windows and the title bar says 'as slack' or whatever in it.

All of this is possible BECAUSE of X11's client/server network aware protocol.

Re: Baby and bathwater come to mind.

"One of the central functions of X is that it works over a network connection, something that Wayland by design does not do"

This is THE deal-breaker for me.

I cannot upvote this enough

Re: What I like about X

there have been some extensive graphics performance improvements in X over the last 2 decades like glx (a proprietary open GL in the case of NVidia). There is NO need to not follow the same path of simply extending the capabilities of the X server while retaining backwards compatibility.

TigerVNC also has an X server but it does 100% software rendering because it has to. Same protocol, applications run just fine.

Re: What I like about X

having to re-write for the sake of re-writing. THIS is a HUGE deal-breaker for Wayland!

Re: What I like about X

"The issue isn't that X is unstable, it is that it is obsolete"

OBSOLETEt? By WHO'S OPINION? what else is obsolete, a fork and a knife? If you are concerned about unused legacy code/features, make them optional compile or loadable extensions then.

THIS! DOES! NOT! JUSTIFY! WAYLAND! JUST! TAKING! OVER! (follow the money on who is pushing this)

*I* *HATE* *WAYLAND* the way *I* *HATE* *SYSTEMD* (and 2D FLATTY, etc.). XWayland or not, *IT* *SUCKS*

*WITHOUT* "DISPLAY" environment variable support for X SERVERS ALCOSS A NETWORK, *EMBEDDED* *DEVELOPMENT* *WITH* *LINUX* *WILL* *BE* *IMPOSSIBLE*.

And *EVERY* Linux release that runs on an embedded device had BETTER NOT DEFAULT TO WAYLAND. People like ME have INFLUENCE, and already ONE board did NOT get picked for future development BECAUSE IT SHIPPED WITH UBUNTU/WAYLAND as its "supported" OS !!!

People who do embedded understand this. X11 is a "known" and spending HOURS of company development time adapting to a MOVING TARGET (Wayland) is *NOT* *WORTH* *IT* !!!

But forking X.org WOULD be worth it... which is WHY it is STILL BEING USED.

Microsoft pulls Windows 10/11 installation websites in Russia

Re: I resisted for all of 20 seconds

Russians like things made in Russia. Who knows, 10 years from now when the Putin stupidity is finally over and things get back to normal... well how DO you say 'Windows' in Russian? (it could be a legit fork of something like ReactOS that actually WORKS)

(Right now it's Putin that's the problem - Russians are pretty smart and will not just put up with this)

How did you mourn Internet Explorer's passing?

Re: It's not dead.

yeah well at some point in the project it seemed that swiss cheese unmaintainable spaghetti code might actually kill the project (and I would have to find a different engineering gig). So the guy originally tasked with the device control side (me) ends up taking over the whole project so that it does not DIE (missing customer commitments is a good way to kill it, for sure). Had I been in on the design phase for the web interface I would have directed it AWAY from such things but "that guy" shmoozed everyone into believing he was competent and 'talked a good game' and *I* was busy making motors spin and lights blink (then writing my own 'test' web interface pages because the "real" ones were not even CLOSE to being done, and handing them off to the web guy with 'well here is what *I* did to test it' like a *HINT* but without being too blatant (i.e. presenting him as a FOOL to the boss and being insulting about it).

Something like that, anyway.

Small companies really cannot afford engineering projects to be killed by "THAT kind of web "developer".

This swiss cheese spaghetti code was written using 3 things that need to be avoided: 1) JQuery, 2) Google "materialize" (bloatware, monolithic) style sheets, and 3) obvious copy/pasta from stack overflow and various 3rd party "solutions". And, "circling back" to I.E., this sort of 'thing' first became possible around 1997, and I.E. was right at the forefront of it, with the beginnings of DOM, script, and dynamic HTML (for good or ill). But I.E. had VBScript and ActiveX, whereas the others did NOT. Fortunately, neither of those two things survived the test of time. UNfortunately the use of bloatware javascript libraries and (later on) style sheets has NOT gone away... (and has unfortunately been given a new HIGHLY OVERRATED term to describe it, 'Material Design')

Re: IE died

Now we have Chrome dominating the browser market instead.

Please do not get me started with the 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE look, light blue on blinding white color schemes, and its direct influence on Firefox (Australis) and Windows (8 and later)...

[oops. too late]

(well with THAT said, I.E. looks a WHOLE LOT BETTER than it did 5 minutes ago)

Re: It's not dead.

(see icon)

Re: It's not dead.

have you SEEN the state of modern programming? It's a shambling, mountainous pile of shite fueled by egos at every level that could not pour piss out of their boots with the instructions written on the bottom of the heels.

Don't remind me. I'm waist deep in trying to re-write the UI code for a system that was "made to work well enough" [by me] based on the shotgunned and overlapping style sheet behaviors, use of 3rd party monolithic things (like 'materialize' and 'jquery') by the original author who was given the "your services are no longer required" once he finally had enough done to make it possible to copy/pasta and adapt what he HAD done into an actual functioning interface. Fortunately it looks nice and performs well.

[I have a permanent bump on my forehead that matches an indentation in a concrete wall as a testimony to my own efforts to make customers happy and STILL meet deadlines.]

NOW it is time to re-do it all so that it can work on multiple LCD screens with different resolutions and still look the same. The original was for a particular LCD screen and I admittedly did not help when I had to insert pixel sizes into 'style' values to fix it in various places. Overlapping definitions and shotgunned settings in multiple style sheets (thanks to the original author) made this necessary. Over time I had eliminated most of the jquery code [which greatly improved system stability] and re-did a few things WITHOUT any of "that style stuff" (but with a similar appearance). NOW I get to rip it up and re-do it and am mostly done with Phase I. Necessary to make it maintainable without constant 'fiddling'.

And I think I ALSO just described why "web developers" should *NEVER* *WRITE* *CODE*, but kernel programmers SHOULD be involved in every aspect of web design - to REIGN IN THE CHAOS.

(and fortunately customer is happy with what I am doing and the results I am getting, better, faster, more stable, re-sizeable, all of the things you would want from a system that should only need 'light touch' maintenance and be easy to do future development for it)

Re: It's not dead.

At least I.E. *supported* FTP. "Modern" browsers, not so much (not any more). There are STILL FTP sites out there... downloaded data from one recently - using wget. [420,000 years' worth of ice core data]

I guess it's like modern cars do not have ''wind wings' which (if you have no air conditioning) are VERY effective at directing air flow to keep you cool. (then again I drive with the top down nearly all of the time)

Businesses brace for quantum computing disruption by end of decade

Re: Which will get here first?

well there have been proof of concept reactors for fusion for quite a while, usually of the Tokomak variety (but some using inertial confinement instead), since the 80's even.

Still waiting on a "Hello, World?" example for quantum computing

Symbiote Linux malware spotted – and infections are 'very hard to detect'

Re: The research doesn't mention how the initial infection occurs

the descriptions in the article makes me think it starts out as a compromised process running as root. If true it can muck with the environment during the login process. To truly hide a process you need root access, otherwise you can look at /proc to get the correct info., i.e. /proc/*/cmdline for process ID '*'

Microsoft forgot to renew the certificate for its Windows Insider subdomain

Re: Windows Insider software testing program

either that or they put the payment of cert renewal on a net 30 payment term and issued the renewal bill to AP a week before it was to expire...

apparently have not heard of "LetsEncrypt"

Meta slammed with eight lawsuits claiming social media hurts kids

Re: @DS999 - Obviously social media is terrible for kids

The troll warrior nicname associated with this technique: "Hand Grenade"

there are SO many controversial topics that _I_ could have wedged into this discussion, if I wanted to be disruptive... but I did NOT. (You're welcome)

Re: Obviously social media is terrible for kids

Parents need to exercise more of their OWN influence, like:

* If you want to use social media, especially FB or Tik Tok buy your own phone and internet. (El Reg comment boards are exempt from this requirement)

* Go OUTSIDE and PLAY. It is a NICE DAY! Here, have a ball, a bat, go to the park, PLAY. Get out of the house for more than 10 minutes and do NOT take your phone. i know where you will be. Get back by dinner time.

* no more than 1 hour a day online (other than school work), and 2 hours for video games. Any more than that, and it gets unplugged. Buy your OWN electricity if you do not like it.

* no carbs for you until you start exercising instead of sitting in front of a video screen or staring at a phone all day. And that goes DOUBLE for anything made of POTATOES.

and so on.

Not AGAINST suing a company for deceptively making its products addictive to children. But some fault lies with PARENTS, too. They need to teach MODERATION. It helps later in life, when you want to avoid DUIs or drug problems.

No more fossil fuel or nukes? In the future we will generate power with magic dust

their mind thoughts would generate enough electricity to make them independent of the national electricity grid

Well, I would say "not wrong" except in the magnitude of scale (which is obviously LAUGHABLE). Given that thoughts are a kind of 'energy' it would be interesting to see whether they can be harnessed somehow. Crystals have resonance, and if you whistle at the tone of a bell, it will start ringing (this is how radios work by the way with resonant electronic circuits receiving broadcasts).

I have often speculated the possibility that human thought and observation are directly related, and if M theory is correct, that same thought+observation energy must go someplace to create the new parallel universe whenever a (significant) quantum potential is observed. I suspect it goes to its own separate dimension, the "n + 1'th" dimension, one which separates THIS n-dimension reality from the other (theoretical) n-dimension reality(ies) based on the observations of one or more living beings that have thought energy. Or something like that.

Just a thought, at any rate. And no electricity was created by it. Damn.

Re: Why Nuke Plants Are A FAIL

your "rules of engagement" are one-sided. Otherwise I could easily prove you wrong.

Basic point: you confuse basic economics with greed, and overlook the effect of political agendas and governments upon the entire Nuclear industry.

Truth: given the economic potential of waste recycling and nuclear plant operation, many power companies would LOVE to build more plants and recycle nuke waste. It's just that political protests, malicious lawsuits, corrupt and ignorant politicians, and government regulations PROHIBIT THEM FROM BEING PROFITABLE.

And it is not a 'safety vs unsafe' issue either. Any company that wants to be profitable has managers and directors that realize the importance of safety on employee retention, public image, AND profitability in the sense that good safety means more profits, happier employees, and better chance at success. And also, there would be no need to settle all of those wrongful death claims, injury claims, equipment and property damage claims, and other legal problems that negligence and lack of safety can cause.

"IOW" corporations are run by people who are not inherently evil. They just want to make money, for themselves, and for their investors. Who wouldn't?

But these points fall outside of your rules of engagement, so I am sure you will not consider them.

Re: "some of the daylight that the sun carelessly drops in our direction and is just going to waste"

eventually, ALL solar energy turns to heat. Electricity, work, waste heat, friction, you name it - all become heat energy, eventually. 1st law of thermodynamics. The energy of performing work is applied to it in order to overcome some form of friction or resistance, which creates heat. Even your computer gets hot when it computes. Potential energy even becomes heat once the potential is released. Solar power from BG algae is no different, and BG algae growing eventually turns into rotting mass after it dies, which releases heat as bacteria eat it.

Kinda like that. So making and then using electricity out of Mr. Sun's rays still creates heat, in about the same amount as if it had not been made, over time.. Energy in = Energy out, in one form or another.

understanding "non-algebraic but looks looks it COULD be algebra" math notation can be a real bother. Often I do not have time to take 2 years' worth of classes nor 8 hours' of online frustration searches to understand what it means, but if I try and put myself into the mindset of the people that use this kind of math (like statisticians, for example) that SOMETIMES I can "get" what they are doing well enough to create a computer program that analyzes data "that way". Last time I did that was with some averaging method that was being used for ocean wave analysis when suddenly realized that their equations were actually expression values in terms of data sets and the equations that described them, then doing algebra and whatnot wiih equations instead of variables. Then it was like "OK then I guess THIS is what they're doing" and some pretty good results emerged.

Similarly for the quantum computing math, at least I hope so.

Seriously we DO need a "Hello, World?" example.

Re: Give it time

Shh... don't let "them" know the truth about Rick

Re: Give it time

a simple derivation: a solar panel of one square meter can generate about 200W of electricity in good sunlight. I bet this is WAY more space-efficient than a tub of BG algae... just sayin'.

And a typical electric car might require about 10HP for cruising on the highway which would be around 7.5KW. City driving may require even more (on average, even with dynamic braking). So 2 hours' worth of battery is around 15KWH (at the least, let's say), after which you will probably need a charge. Now how many square meters of solar panels do you need JUST to charge the car? (and it has to be during the day - when you are WORKING and DRIVING - in order to be of practical use). And if EVERYONE at your company, or the store, or your apartment building, wants to charge THEIR cars TOO...

Numbers and math and reality are more fun than simply saying stuff that I already know to be true and being argued with because nobody likes hearing it, i.e "My beautiful bubbles, stop BURSTING them!"...

Re: Quantum computing is easy to understand.

How about a proper "Hello World" application using quantum logic gates?

(or perhaps "Hello, World?" - that's a quantum computing joke I think...)

Re: risks, but so do most things in life

They TRIED population control in COMMUNIST China. Now they have too few women because (NPR link) their "one child policy" motivated the aborting of girl babies so that families could have sons to carry on the family name (etc.) and the army could have SOLDIERS. (I chose an NPR link because if I had chosen Fox News, it would have been a distraction for the ad-hominem attackers to exploit).

I _DO_ believe (and it is especially apparent over the last few years) that EMULATING COMMUNIST CHINA is something we should NOT _EVAR_ DO.

Re: re Fukushima

I think the "No Nuke" hysteria started in Cali-Forn-You in the 60's. That pretty much explains it.

and no real science since then, lots of FUD, hysteria, emotions, "feel good" protesting, and willing accomplices in government that do what they can to regulate nuclear power out of existence for their own personal gain (and that of their donors). Yeah, pretty much THAT. And I should know things about nuclear power since I spent ~4 years on a sub running the nuclear power plant (and went to school for about 2 years to learn how to do it, which included nuclear physics so we would understand how the things work and why we need certain procedures and precautions).

Re: re Fukushima

As AC said, the cancer rates are estimated to have increased by a factor of about 0.05 in 4000

oops I misread that. I take back my down vote. I probably need new glasses...

Re: To be fair ...

there was very little warning about the Fukushima tsunami that caused the disaster. Only 2 employees washed out to sea suggests they were at least trying to take cover as best as they could at the time. My best guess is that those two were doing risky things to try and prepare and minimize the disaster (whether it worked or not). I mean they were literally at "ground zero" right at the coastline with a massive wall of water hitting them directly, one that destroyed the entire town (and so on). Mother Nature can REALLY be a BITCH.

I actually just assumed that the stuff about nuclear power was hyperbole... for comedy.

But seriously it's like anything else that is potentially toxic, from the rare earth stuff that make LCD panels and efficient solar cells possible, to the lithium in high efficiency batteries (halt and catch fire?) to the industrial chemicals needed to etch circuit boards and make those silicon wafers that get turned into cell phones. Some of that stuff (like cyanides and flourides) are EXTREMELY toxic and dangerous outside of the controlled environment.in which they are used and it is my understanding that a LOT of recycling goes on (to avoid dumping toxic waste AND be more economical in the long run - win win).

My point is not to scare people. My point is that these industries have safety standards they must adhere to, just like nuclear power plants, which means that inevitable accidents are few and far between (and neither the planet nor human population has been killed by these infrequent accidents). The solution is intelligent application of basic safety and attention to important details by operators and management.

But yeah, to avoid having to live in caves in fear of predators, humans invented ways of using fire, which is ALSO dangerous. Right?

Microsoft trumpets updated HR-friendly policies (that comply with recently changed laws)

Re: Non compete

what you said, yes. It's why the laws have changed.

Next major update of Windows 11 prepares for launch

Re: I'm surprised that it's not appeared on more ordinary people's machines

I guess the general public aren't upgrading PCs as much

In a BAD economy, with DOUBLED fuel prices, rapidly rising food prices, and with computer hardware costs ALSO abnormally high (along with so many OTHER things) due to supply chain bottlenecks and "chip scalpers" inflating prices beyond the customers' ability to pay, is Micros~1 TRULY expecting us to wait in line JUST to get a new PC with THEIR OS on it, when MANY OLD designs just cannot run it?

Priorities on spending whatever family income is LEFT after TAXES, rent, utilities, food, fuel, and replacing broken things does not leave a whole lot of dough for replacing something that WORKS with some "New, Shiny" that Micros~1 *FEELS* is better, especially when it is NOT. They did not learn from Windows Vista hardware requirements, *FEELING* that re-packaging that nonsense as 'New Shiny Windows 11' would work THIS time for sure.

I suspect people will be contemplating new clothes and new phones (especially for their kids) and even NEW CARS, LONG before getting anything resembling an "11-compatible" PC replacement with Redmond's newest impersonation of an operating system pre-installed.

Results predictable. Micros~1 lost touch with customers a LONG time ago. This is just more of same.

I love the Linux desktop, but that doesn't mean I don't see its problems all too well

Re: What if the number of distros increases?

Linux Distro = package maintainer (when you boil it all down)

In theory, this just determines how you install and keep your Linux OS updated, and what comes with it by default. But, what matters for REAL is:

* what init system(s) you have available from your Linux distro

* what GUI system(s) it uses by default (and can you CHANGE it?)

* what device support it has (other than going out and finding source and compiling yourself)

* which desktop options you have that are EASILY set up (this includes boot to console)

* what [other] 3rd party software you have available for easy install

* how reliable and close to 'bleeding edge' the binary package versions are

* how easy it is to build from source if you need to fix things or do development work

Any Linux distro that has good support for THOSE things for YOUR purpose is just fine, I say

Many distributions seem to provide these things. My current favorite is Devuan.

However, when working with / evaluating a development ARM board recently, I had to install a version of Ubuntu (only available choice) which was pre-loaded with WAYLAND which i had to IMMEDIATELY SWITCH OUT for Xorg for MANY reasons, and even after being ANGERED by WAYLAND and FIXING IT to use XORG (which was a bit painful) it STILL did not work with the LCD screen afterwards... (not even a change in Linux distro or desktop back-end can fix hardware design flaws). But CHOICE between Linux distros would have led me to that conclusion a LOT quicker.

Alt-tab doesn't show apps on different desktops

I'm glad it doesn't! ctrl+alt+right and ctrl+alt+left switches between desktops in Mate, though, at least on my FreeBSD systems. Alt+Tab then switches between things on THAT desktop. I use the desktops to organize tasks, and I do not want to alt+tab between 30 different windows on 9 different [named] desktops (not exaggerating) when I'm switching between open mate-terminals (let's say), or different browser windows, or whatever else, on a specific desktop where I want to get things done.

So I'm quite happy it works "that way" and hope it NEVER changes. A change to the basic behavior of Alt+Tab would REALLY hamper my productivity.

Re: Computing smarts in the cloud

if your social credit score permits

yet ANOTHER reason NOT to have all of your data in a cloudy place

AI and ML could save the planet – or add more fuel to the climate fire

Re: Too late far too late

do you understand the difference between stable and unstable systems?

Consider the behavior of an unstable system, balancing a ball on your nose.

Consider the behavior of a stable system, balancing a ball in a baseball glove.

Now re-read what you wrote and re-consider. If the climate is UNstable, that is, going into a "thermal runaway" situation, it would have done so a LONG time ago. But... when water vapor accumulates in the atmosphere, *IT* *RAINS*.

(that is where the stable system takes over and balances things, like equilibrium)

Re: "It's good to get ahead of this issue"

why do these people keep buying into that LAME HOAX about "Man Made Climate Change" via CO2 when ANYONE with a scientific background could EASILY verify that CO2 is TERRIBLE as a greenhouse gas on earth, though on MARS it helps maintain that -80F average temperature. This is just SO sad. I guess people want to *FEEL* threatened by a crisis or something, then control OTHERS in order to *FEEL* *IMPORTANT* or something WORSE than just controlling their OWN behavior...

Keeping the cost down for the AI is really what is important. Tying it into a *LIE* like "Man Made Climate Change" (a lie that motivates people to try and take away OTHERS' FREEDOM) is NAUSEATING.

icon, because, facepalm

(hint: temperatures are CYCLIC. And this cycle isn't even the HOTTEST one in 450,000 years of ice core data!)

To cut off all nearby phones with these Chinese chips, this is the bug to exploit

Re: Next level

I was reading medical and other science books when I was 5... but did not start a company. (I look back at how hilarious it must have been back in 1966 when *they* tried to hold me BACK in kindergarten for "Improper Social Development" yet I was reading a 1st year medical book given to me by the family doctor, and due to mother and doctor they were FORCED to give me an I.Q. test, which included Rorshach drawings - one looked like a bat, and another looked like cells dividing so I said "cellular mitosis" since I wanted to impress the teacher with big words being not quite 6, and the teacher said "whu?" and I repeated and added "See those look like the chromosomes dividing". She left the room and I waited forever, thought I was in trouble - for being "smart". Test continued and I played with blocks for a while as some guy used a stop watch. I heard later I was pegged high off of the IQ scale - and NO SHIT, THIS REALLY HAPPENED - and *they* wanted to HOLD ME BACK in KINDERGARTEN for IMPROPER SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT (and, of course, DRUG me) - like a bunch of SOCIALISTS - in 1966! Hell I had nothing in common with other 5-6 year old kids, so what the hell?)

Re: Google will roll out this fix in its upcoming Android Security bulletin

I would not be surprised if MOST of these are not 'droid devices, but ones that use a different OS like maybe KaiOS

46 years after the UN proclaimed the right to join a union, Microsoft sort of agrees

Re: A necessary evil

i've heard that, too. Back in the B.C. Roman days, It was reportedly Vitruvius that invented the steam engine by using bent pipes on a boiling pot of water on a spindle, proving the concept.

Anecdotally, the response by those who might have funded it and/or promoted development: "What will we do with all of the slaves?"

(Apparently the Roman economy was too closely to slavery)

Re: A necessary evil

You are not wrong.

Although I see unions as a necessary evil in some cases (to deal with exploitation) by asking for too high of a wage and/or too expensive of a benefits package,. unions can often shut down the company, especially when it is on the verge of unprofitability as it is (right Hostess?).

Still, a union can ALSO be a benefit to all if it manages the HR stuff for the management company, and provides reasonable cost for services (almost like a contracting agency would).

For software people, a union would be a BAD idea. Many reasons exist as to why.

And of course Microsoft's position seems to be the only one they CAN take when it comes to unions.

(when you potentially make 6 figures doing creative things and playing with cool toys, why would anyone want to form a union and JEOPARDIZE that?)

Small nuclear reactors produce '35x more waste' than big plants

Re: Opaque

well about some of that I'd say "you are not 'wrong'" in the general sense...

The thing is some of what the article says IS true. That is:

* smaller reactors have higher neutron flux, which means higher incidence of neutron activation of components that make up the reactor, coolant, and surrounding equipment.

* smaller reactors use higher fuel enrichment and necessarily have higher concentrations of unspent U235 in the waste

So in SOME ways they are right. What *I* call B.S. on is the "5 times" figure which seems oddly exaggerated to me. (if you assume all U235 in spent fuel as "waste" then MAYBE, but that would be a gross underutilization of U235 fuel, which I think is a WORSE thing than higher waste volume, if you consider how expensive enriching it is)

Also you have to keep in mind that U235 in nuke waste CAN be removed chemically. Were it not for a lot of N.I.M.B.Y. nonsense (and in the case of Sellafield, equipment and storage facilities in need of proper maintenance), we could streamline the process and maybe MAKE USE of decay heat in some practical way.

Radioactive metals from neutron activation are a problem, though, as are materials like Co60 that you get when Iron corrosion sends rusty particles through the coolant and into the heart of the reactor, where it is exposed to maximum neutron flux. The technical term for this radioactive rust is "CRUD". "CRAP" is what you have when things get contaminated outside of the reactor, like "I got crapped up when that valve dripped contaminated water on me".

So - MY $.10 worth (or maybe up to $.25 now) is that YES, you DO get more waste from smaller reactors, which is one reason why the industry likes BIG ones. But 5 times as much? I doubt it.

(since I have worked with one VERY small reactor design, and know what happens when it is very old and pipes are full of 'CRUD traps', and how often they need refueling, etc. etc. I think I can make a qualified assessment in this case).

Tweaks to IPv4 could free up 'hundreds of millions of addresses'

I've only seen 127.0.x.x actually in use, and I've often made use of alias loopbacks with different 127.0.0/24 addresses. So normally I would assume that outside of 127.0/16 it could (theoretically) work to free them up.

I would rather see IPv6 universally implemented, though...

Elon Musk orders Tesla execs back to the office

Re: Prediction

requiring management to work to almost the same conditions as factory workers

EXACTLY! Middle and upper management jobs require you to actually MANAGE, not sit there at home in your underwear doing 'remote meeting' stuff.

Not the same as IT which can be done remotely or on site, depending on how you set it up and whether or not physical hardware is involved.

But building cars and rockets needs people who make physical things to perform their tasks on assembly lines and test with expensive equipment and so forth, and managers need to BE THERE to streamline and solve problems.

Fusion won't avert need for climate change 'sacrifice', says nuclear energy expert

Re: Fusion quite possibly will never work but there are alternatives

Aluminum is lighter but has higher resistance than copper. For super high voltage lines over long distances, I would expect aluminum cables to be of practical use, though.

Also because of 'skin effect' the high capacity distribution lines are really hollow pipes.

Re: Fusion quite possibly will never work but there are alternatives

the method of heat generation for a typical steam plant can be radically different, but the steam produced generates electricity in roughly the same way (superheaters and operating temperatures notwithstanding) and require the same kinds of "infrastructure" to control the electrical generation systems and deliver power onto the grid. So yeah.

Re: Fusion quite possibly will never work but there are alternatives

geothermal is GREAT news, but here is a problem: think of the reaction by environmentalists to FRACKING, which just might double the amount of oil that can be extracted economically from an oil well (and if I remember correctly, helps TREMENDOUSLY with natural gas extraction, which carbon-neutral people should LOVE).

Then consider how many "it affected my cows" claims will fling multiple lawsuits at ANYONE trying to produce energy from geothermal, regardless of how much you AND *I* like the idea.

Because, it is NOT about the environment, about some farmer's cows, or about saving the planet. It is about ECONOMIC CONTROL. (snip the rest, it's what I've said many times about taxation and elitists and whatnot)

Still, practical geothermal plants. I like that.

Re: From the cheap seats: NO SACRIFICE IS NEEDED (and you KNOW China will not do it ANYWAY)

The west's dependence on oil or gas sources controlled by regimes that range from dodgy to outright evil

True, except when the USA becomes a net EXPORTER of oil again, which we were doing a couple o' years ago, and EASILY can, again. Then we stop funding evil regimes through the blockage of U.S. (and indidrectly Canadian) oil drilling.

humanity will have burnt up hundreds of millions of years' worth of stored sunlight in a little over a century

Most of the world's carbon (I think it is the eighth most abundant element in the universe, or something like that) is in the MANTLE, and is often gassed up by volcanoes and (indirectly) the surrounding area, which is (one of several reasons) why CO2 levels measured near Mauna Loa are skewed.

of course, the REAL problem is not so much evil regimes producing oil. The BIGGEST problem is that no matter HOW MUCH every OTHER country that is "not china" increases our own cost of energy [and wrecks our economies] through unnecessary carbon fuel taxes and bans, CHINA WILL NOT DO IT. That should frighten people.

Re: From the cheap seats: NO SACRIFICE IS NEEDED (and you KNOW China will not do it ANYWAY)

correct! (even if you were being cynical)

Re: From the cheap seats: NO SACRIFICE IS NEEDED (and you KNOW China will not do it ANYWAY)

burning fossil fuel faster than the released CO2 can be recaptured

No.

you have never done an actual phosphate titration, have you? Consider the HUGE amount of reagent that is needed to get "past the hump" to the next equilibrium point. Then re-read what I quoted.

(most of the good stuff I reserve for #ClimateChangeHoax )

California Right-to-Repair bill quietly killed in committee

"died in committee" "despite broad consumer support"

Why am I *NOT* SURPRISED! (voice of Gilbert Godfried as Iago the Parrot)