Posts by bombastic bob

Don’t blame AI for rise in carbon emissions, says Google exec

Re: Green washing?

None of this, i.e calling the gas YOU and I and EVERYONE ELSE exhale, and which plants need in order to live ( CO2 ) "emissions", has ANY RELEVANCE IN THE WORLD OF SCIENTIFIC REALITY.

CO2 is good for plants, and thereby our FOOD SUPPLY. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere FOLLOWS TEMPERATURE as I have said many times, and does NOT in ANY WAY *CONTROL* it.

The NONSENSICAL and UNSCIENTIFIC Climate Scam is in and of itself a sort of intelligence test. Can the average person, when shown the simple scientific facts, choose to ignore the voices of DOOMERS and MANIPULATORS, and believe what their own "lying" eyes and ears are SHOWING them?

Big Music reprises classic hit 'ISPs need to stop their customers torrenting or we'll sue'

Re: Due process

RIAA etc. must prove guilt in a court of law, NOT just try to "cancel" people on a WHIM. ISP takedowns are pointless .

They're better off making people want to buy the music by making music people WANT to buy. And they need to stop marketing CRAP.

I suggest using Tor to hide the endpoints so "they" cannot track it.

Net neutrality in danger again: US appeals court puts FCC's resurrected rule on hold

Stop exceeding the authority of one branch of gi,,imt over another

This is actually simple: BOTH the executive and judicial branches must REFRAIN from deriving laws where thry do nott exist.

In the USA it is CONGRESS that makes laws, NOT bureaucrats nor judges.

If you want "net neutrality" have CONGRESS do it.

Eldorado ransomware-as-a-service gang targets Linux, Windows systems

Re: "encrypts files on both Linux and Windows machines"

/me guesses - well known user name, default password, allows ssh login as root, and by default has 'sudo' with no password and can run any privileged application...

This would point to a default setup problem. Like RPi OS maybe?

(sad but true)

Texas court blocks FTC noncompete ban, and you can blame SCOTUS

Re: Slavery

If noncompete agreements are THAT bad, legislatures need to ban them... NOT bureaucrats!!!

And that WAS the point of the Chevron case.

China working on standard for brain-computer interfaces

Re: You have to... because its a (ISO) standard!

A definite thumbs up for the Dr. Who reference

Re: 4 6 89

I think (for myself without the CCP spying or influencing me) that they (the CCP) can FORNICATE the HELL OFF with their "ISO standard".

4 years of tariffs and various sanctions under "you know who" will put a stop to this... (and the slave labor, and the unfair market tactics, and the mlitary posturing, and the industrial espionage, and the shipping of single males of military age across the US border, and the buying up of US farmland, and the shipping of fentanyl precursors to the drug cartels, etc.)

Trouble in space as Boeing's not going, and China's back from the Moon

Re: Space, the messy frontier

Low tech space junk solution: a big bucket/dustpan

* rocket goes up with half full fuel tank(s) to assist boosting the fuel tanks and rocket into orbit

* fuel tank(s) emptied, upper half swings open on a hinge to form 2 "buckets"

* rocket with buckets flies around 'catching' space junk

* full buckets then de-orbit into safe place.

"Operation dustpan"

Re: Space, the messy frontier

If you need gravity, think "2001 a Space Odyssey"

Re: Schools (not prisons)

I think that kids learn best when NOT being indoctrinated, whether it's Chinese COMMUNISM, CRT, DEI, or guilting them into being socialists. Similarly, they learn best when NOT DRUGGING the kids because they're smart (calling it AD[H]D or autism to justify it).

Just sayin' - since the WRONG kind of schools might LEAD to prison!!! Or, being COMMUNISTS...

Chinese space company accidentally launches rocket in test gone wrong

Re: Trajectory optional

/me coughs a few times while saying "ripoff!"

They say that "Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery". But in China's case, "Imitation is best the way to do business".

They should stop making cheap knock-offs of things that are (intentionally or otherwise) capable of flying.

Re: Only one thing more spectacular than a successful rocket launch

Did they just miss July 4 fireworks by couple o' days?

CISA looked at C/C++ projects and found a lot of C/C++ code. Wanna redo any of it in Rust?

Re: Choices

Simple solutions and I have implemented them where not implemented before:

* Use ref counts. The final 'Release' deletes the object and frees memory.

* Show some coding discipline

* ONLY use string/memory/IO functions that check buffer length like strncpy, snprintf fgets etc.

* enable format warnings for printf-like function calls and FIX THEM

* assign global scope pointers to NULL after freeing memory (and similar inside functions). Make it a macro, even

. #define FREE(X) { free(X); X=NULL; }

* synchronization via mutex etc. when using threads

and so on. too easy, so WHY a NEW LINGO except JUNIOR CODERS wanting an edge over THE EXPERIENCED???

Re: Rust, or ....

It is likely that the vast majority of Windows is already in C-pound and only the kernel remains in C.

This would explain why Win98 on a Pentium-I performs as well as (or better than) Win-10-nic on a bleeding edge processor, for basic UI responsiveness, program load/startup, and other "user perception" things.

So much for 16GB RAM and 4Ghz clock and multi-core if the DAMNED PROGRAMMING LINGO is THAT FORNICATING PIGGY! And I'm talking PISS POOR INEFFICIENT GARBAGE COLLECTION MEMORY "MANAGEMENT"!!!

Re: The Rust Evangelism Strike Force...

From article: "Memory-safe languages, like C#, Go, Java, Python, Rust, and Swift, handle memory management for the developer"

Handling memory management for the developer INEFFICIENTLY via GARBAGE {stall} COLLECTION...

{stall} {stutter} How's that responsiveness and performance working out for ya??? Even on the highest end platform a garbage collection stall/stutter can INFURIATE just about ANY user!!! Computing like it's 1999 with 4Mb RAM on Windows 98!!! (actually that probably did BETTER)!

NOT an improvement. Leave a web browser open for a week and check its memory footprint, if you do not believe me. But you'll have to use Linux or FreeBSD for that [not with Wayland] as OTHER configs are likely to crash+burn way before you can watch it happening. Yeah, when swap space usage maxes out for no reason other than GARBAGE COLLECTION MEMORY "MANAGEMENT", and applications go "non-resident" and respond like CRAP because SOMETHING ELSE ate up all of the virtual memory!

PROPER memory management in C is EASY. Just clean up before you leave (a function) and assign pointers to NULL after freeing them if there is a chance they''l be re-used. And for C++, do not go crazy with the 'new' and 'malloc'.

REAL coders do not need mommy and daddy to do things FOR them.

FreeDOS and FreeBSD prove old code never dies, just gets nifty updates

Re: Why?

FBSD is MUCH more "developer friendly" than Linux, especially if you want to build ports/packages from source. Installing a library is ALWAYS the "-dev" version.

FBSD does not make 3rd party packages part of the OS (they install to /usr/local). FBSD also appears to have better legacy support and also has a lot of userland compatibility with OSX.

FBSD is also NOT license encumbered with GPL ambiguity and silliness. It also has native ZFS support and is easy to install for a pure-ZFS system.

And the native compiler is llvm (but you can also install multiple versions of gcc if you need them)

So, lots of things work better with FBSD. YMMV

FreeDOS can be used for embedded things and legacy games.

nVidia on FBSD

I've been using this for a while, NVidia on FBSD, and though some drivers and cards have quirks [one card likes to change its PCI ID if you reboot without power off] the results are pretty good.

FBSD legacy video support

The drivers are in the ports collection. I would suggest having a look at freshports.org if you want something specific.

The VESA driver works with just about anything but without any harsware-specific aceleration NOT part of the VESA spec. YMMV and pretty much like Linux for XOrg.

As for Wayland I suggest avoiding it, even on Linux. OBVIOUS reasons why (including my extreme dislike).

(long time FBSD user here, since 4.8)

Oh and a ice big fat thumbs up for FBSD and FreeDOS, (and DOSBox too).

Humanity's satellite habit could end up choking Earth's ozone layer

Actually SOME humans invented YET ANOTHER FAKE "CRISIS"

That whole fiasco regarding CFCs and "ozone depletion" was bad enough, as the hoax it was (but it conveniently opened the way for newly patented refrigerants!). Anthro-climate-change apparently isn't enough of a hoax EITHER, as net zero nonsense and climate cult panic rapidly wanes in the face of predictions that have not happened and economic pain for the PEASANTS (us).

No, we must INVENT SOMETHING NEW to scare people and point fingers at those who stand in the way of totalitarian control and Neo-feudalism (like Elon)

At a minimum CFCs weight about 2.5 times as much as air (Cl-F-methane specifically, the lightest one). Heating (and maintaining) that chemical at 1000F until it reaches an altitude of 100,000 feet or so is what you have to do to make it deplete ozone. And R12 refrigerant is considerably heavier. Basically you need a volcano (which on its own spews LOTS of ozone depleting stuff) to get CFCs to the upper atmosphere to deplete ozone. Not happening when your car air conditioner is vented.

In a lab CFCs deplete ozone. And so do aluminum-based materials, apparently. Only this time, the hoaxers came up with a "clever" way of "getting the material up there" by having it fall from space. Keep in mind that fine dust falls to the ground. And according to THIS, over 5000 TONS of extra-terrestrial dust is 'swept up' by the earth every year. When you consider the overall abundance of aluminum in that dust you get round 500 lhs of aluminum falling from space every year anyway. That and a whole lot of stuff that would be FAR WORSE for ozone (like sulfur, magnesium, and carbon) that are in much larger amounts, which would separate from compounds into elements at "burn up in atmosphere" temperatures.

Aluminum combines with oxygen on the surface of the metal to form aluminum oxide. Once formed, the rest of the metal stops reacting with oxygen. But other materials in far greater abundance would continue reacting until they are fully depleted (like sulfur and magnesium and carhon). I doubt very seriously that a handful of satellites containing aluminum would make a dent in the ozone compared to 5000 tons of "everything else" every year.

subsequent note: even with Al2O3 as a catalyst you still need the CFCs to get up there and they are STILL way too heavy to make it!!!

Waymo robotaxis set to cruise past red tape into LA and beyond

Hi I'm Johnny Cab

a nice shout-out to "Total Recall"

Re: Not a local issue

The U.S. Constitution actually limits Federal power to specific things, and everything ELSE is in the hands of the states.

Interstate commerce, if involved, justifies federal action. So if a car is legal to purchase in one state, it should be legal to purchase in another. [This should eventually KILL *ALL* state bans on certain kinds of vehicles].

So a self-driving car may need some minimal federal safety standards, and a state may (possibly) extend that WITHIN REASON. but an outright ban or federal overreach SHOULD fail.

This is sort of how things have been for a while. Requiring seat belts, safety glass, advanced anti-skid and braking systems, along with minimal air pollution control devices and standards [Some states go far and above the federal standards] has been established through decades of precedent.

Not simple, but "business as usual" is likely to continue with self-driving cars.

Japan's space junk cleaner hunts down major target

space junk

"demonstrate that Japan's aim of developing commercial space cleaning services is progressing satisfactorily."

so it's only what, a "little nudge" away from being able to de-orbit the thing?

My guess is if you fire something heavy and sticky at it. you can nudge it towards Earth with your basic inelastic collision. Even better if the sticky thing also has a remotely controlled rocket motor on it. Then a de-orbit burn at the right time and voila! space junk de-orbits someplace safe (we hope) and that's that.

All good

Microsoft pulls Windows 11 24H2 from Insider Release Preview Channel

but I thought...

But I thought ChatGPT is writing their code now... in a lingo that uses GARBAGE COLLECTION!!!

Only thing worse, they write it in Javascript like their free 'Code' editor. Or, ChatGPT does it. Either way, they can fire all of their "programmers" and replace them with untrained monkeys aka "newcomers".

Re: rust in the kernel?

Rust in the kernel - I was wondering if this might be behind some of the observed problems.

/me imagines a GARBAGE COLLECTION STALL creating frequent performance lags at the kernel level...

(Then again C-pound is probably WORSE about garbage collection than Rust, but probably is NOT in the kernel, only the grossly inefficient 'Windows Shell' internals)

that is not 'capitalism'

Exploitation is not capitalism. Capitalism is a fair exchange of money for goods and/or services based on free market value. For it to work properly, you need competition and a level playing field.

What THEY are doing is more like the monopolies and trusts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In other words, EXPLOITATION in an UNFAIR market.

White House hopes $180M will solve science, tech gaps in commercial fusion power

Re: Not Needed, They Already Had A Solution

Upvot4 for mentioning fission power. It is good for many purposes [I have operated fission reactors] and exists today and is safe.

Downvote for saying we do NOT need fusion research. That is for TOMORROW and USA developing it is good for the world.

If I had MY choice, I'd stop wasting money on Ukraine and SUBSIDIZING illegal immigration and so-called "renewables", and sink $150 BILLION into SERIOUS fusion rtesearch which would demand RESULTS before getting paid!!!

Unleash a series of high dollar X pries for DOE-owned patents for fusion processes and improved efficiency and energy collection and electricity generation and we'll have this working in a DECADE!

Pussy-foot around and pay a pittance for "research without results" and you'll get what you oaid for.

NASA, Boeing opt to fly leaky thruster as-is for first crewed Starliner CST-100 mission

Boeing quality problems

According to Forbes, Boeing issued thir very first "Diversity Report" in April of 2021.

Since that time, there have been a *cough* FEW issues with quality at Boeing. There were earlier problems with 737 Max (2 crashes, software) around 2018, and the plane had to be re-certified in 2020. But 2 other versions of 737 Max have had waivers issued and were never certified due to quality issues. Then there was the door falling off in mid flight earlier this year, and even more problems with starliner.

Many of these problems initially pre-date their DEI implementation but some of them since then reflect serious manufacturing and assembly issues, and not necessarily design flaws.

Boeing has management problems and they have tried "cleaning house" to fix it. I fear they hired new management that are just "diverse" versions of the same *KINDS* of bad management that led to the 737 Max and Starliner issues, and the fact remains that DEI hiring picks identity over qualifications....

End-to-end encryption may be the bane of cops, but they can't close that Pandora's Box

Re: The bits I love

recently set up an ad-hoc "bearer" scheme to handle sessions where data could be modified or destroyed by a miscreant.

You can generate a new public/private key pair via openssl, and each end sends the public key in plain text [even using ssh or https this helps secure the process from possible replay attacks. etc.]

Then using those one-time generated keys, you send a secret back and forth, like a login + password or some kind of key, getting a one-time hash that ends up in 'bearer' for your session [good for a very limited time, for specific IP addresses, stored in server internal session vars, whatever]

It's a bit like the way SSL works with the DH key exchange so not a NEW idea, just something easy to set up with an hour of PHP coding and program that uses 'curl' to send a request via https

And that is the point - any relative newbie prograner with a couple of hours reading 'man openssl' should be able to configure a tightly secured public key based scheme that generates new keys on both ends every time. Good luck cracking THAT, anyone.

CISA boss: Secure code is the 'only way to make ransomware a shocking anomaly'

reading between the lines

Right now, the only potential "solution" I can see being proposed would be

* Closed source

* Locked down with certificates

* Developers having to pay to get code signed (or it cannot run at all)

* CRapp stores must get THEIR piece of the action

* Operating systems having internal certs built-in for signed code (which means stealing the master key is still possible)

Micros~1 has been trying this since Vista. 64-bit Win7 REQUIRED kernel components to be signed BY THEM. And of course "a moderate fee" is involved.

It's really just a matter of trusting the vendor, and limiting the scope of malware. Easy "administrator" access BY DEFAULT is STILL a problem, as is a 'sudo' derived security model that makes it too easy to just gain root access whenever you want it. Convenient, yes, but should NOT be :"the default".

So the REAL problem is still between chair and keyboard... and settling for "the default" even when it is a BAD idea.

Miss your morning iPhone alarm? It's not just you, and Apple is looking into it

It's a well known soldier's trick when you have one man on guard duty and one man sleeping (like in a foxhole). Drink a bunch of water, you wake up in a couple of hours needing to pee, then switch roles.

having a kid is a good idea. Elon has often pointed out that we're below self-sustaining birth rates in many places.

(otherwise who will take care of us when we're too old to take care of ourselves...?)

Re: Ironic...

You could cobble together a home radio station using inexpensive "stuff", feed it from MP3 player on 'random'. Might be nice to take music with you out to the garage or back yard as well.

Re: Ironic...

overseas orders are fine as long as shipping does not take 4-6 weeks...

Re: Had the Same Problem

They won't need to find you. They'll just transmit a signal and turn us all into Cybermen

Re: TikTok

I have a ~$15 clock radio that only make noise when it goes off. Seems to work well.

TikTok ban could escalate US-China trade war, ex-White House CIO tells The Reg

Re: Who will actually lose out

This is an application used to play short videos to those with a short attention span, what is the fuss about, or is there something else behind the scenes that we are not being told about.

Not only that but it seems they are all in tall/skinny "narrow minded" aspect whenever people post this stuff on other platforms, complete with a TickTickBOOM watermark.

* These amateur videos are basically crap

* NO serious photographer or cinematographer EVAR uses tall/skinny 'narrow mind' 4-incher aspect ratios

* WideScreen was invented because it is preferable to 4x3, let alone tall/skinny 'narrow mind' aspect

* Our eyes are side to side, NOT on top of one another. Humans see in WIDE SCREEN mode.

* Important "Big Picture" details are lost with tall/skinny aspect and constantly moving camera position

In short these videos are CRAP, distort what's actually happening, and only appeal to 4-inchers (i.e. those who view EVERYTHING through a 4 inch phone screen)

Good Riddance to TickTickBOOM.

The eight-bit Z80 is dead. Long live the 16-bit Z80!

the Z80 is a simple chip by modern standards and is easy to implement on an FPGA

as stated in the article. So we could either wire it up with different pin assignments or build a sort of daughter board with the programmed FPGA so that the pins line up.

So yeah. Worth mentioning at any rate.

ByteDance 'would rather' torpedo TikTok than sell it off

Re: Shut it down!

What really bothers me is that Chinese companies can expect a fair trial in our courts whilst our companies have no such luxury in China.

They ALSO expect the USA to honor their patents and other intellectual property, while REGULARLY violating our patents etc. for "Domestic Only" distribution.

I understand TickTickBOOM has some built in video editing tools that are covered by SOFTWARE PATENTS. Let's just violate them with a U.S. developed competing product and be done with it.

Senate passes law forcing ByteDance to sell off TikTok – or face a US ban

Re: Nobody needs $app

It would spout right wing propaganda

You've never heard of NPR have you...

Europe gives TikTok 24 hours to explain 'addictive and toxic' new app

Re: Is social media 'lite' as addictive and toxic as cigarettes 'light'?

it took centuries for science to recognize just how harmful tobacco use can become, along with the addictive nature of nicotine, and then for society and gummints to sufficiently regulate the use and sale of these products.

Cigarettes, being the obvious example, are 'convenient' enough to invite excess use, and are often (as reported) made to be as addictive as possible BY DESIGN.

I am disturbed by the obvious practices being done by Tik Tok, the specific GROOMING of younger minds, the PUSHING of specific agendas by "influencers", and the number of videos of people doing the stupidest of things, quite possibly because the camera is on. [I also hate tall-skinny "narrow mind" aspect ratios on videos, often posted on other forums like X, nearly all of which have TikTok watermarks]

Is the CCP using Tik Tok like a BF Skinner inspired scheme to TRAIN us to [NOT?] think in a certain way, and GET ADDICTED to it?

I do not trust the CCP at ALL, and in China their grubby fingers are in EVERY BUSINESS, both state-owned and private. I think the ABuse of "Tik Tok 'lite'" IS deliberate, and should be gotten to the bottom of ASAP.

I skimmed through this article, seems relevant: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/china-business-xi-jinping-communist-party-state-private-enterprise-huawei

Rust rustles up fix for 10/10 critical command injection bug on Windows in std lib

Re: Argh

"On the occasions when I am forced to use Windows, the first thing I do is install a proper shell, be it Cygwin or MinGW, WSL or a VM"

Back in the day I used them for lots of things. One of my more (in)famous batch files at $workplace was called "Megamake" (it built everything and produced a distribution as a zip file). Windows nmake is pathetic so I used a batch file to coordinate the build. Worked well enough on a Win '98 or NT 4 system. Obvious Spaceballs reference, heh.

Re: Ha! Rust Is The Answer To All Our C Programming Security Issues?

I once wrote a windows 'command.com' shell I called 'WinCMD' that did a lot of what CMD can do, specifically batch files and asynchronous windows applications from the command line. CMD in Win '95 of course made my application obsolete.

Maybe someone might write a console application for Win 7 and later that can do similar things, NOT be PowerShell, and contain improved command line security features...

Re: Ha! Rust Is The Answer To All Our C Programming Security Issues?

"They've never claimed to be a silver bullet for all security issues ever."

which means we should snark even harder, for laughs

/me rolls on the floor in a wild snicker fit

US reckons it's about time the Moon had its own time zone

Re: Surely Coordinated Lunar Time is CLT

Based on what we did when I was on a sub decades ago, switching clocks to 'Zulu Time' (UTC) once outside of territorial waters, using adjusted UTC would be the best and makes the most sense. All you need to do is make sure that Lunar time exactly tracks UTC based on the time it takes for a radio signal from Earth to reach the surface of the moon at the center of its face and we're good. Then we can make adjustments for craft in flight as needed.

[on a sub daylight cycles only make sense when at periscope depth or on the surface. For everyone else to keep regular schedules, Zulu makes the most sense when submerged, which is most of the time]

Hillary Clinton: 2024 will be 'ground zero' for AI election manipulation

where were you in 2000 with the "hanging chads" ??? AlGore kept insisting on infinite recounts.

You may have short-term-only highly selective memory, but nice try - mine's more complete

And HILDEBEAST herself INSISTED that she won...

/me thinks: a shill for Demo[n,c][R,r]ats would say...

* FACEPALM *

[the left cannot meme]

I think we should let the people decide, and make sure that NO speech is silenced, filtered, nor edited [including the vile kinds of things that are often said about Trump] so that everyone is well informed, NOT motivated by pure emotion nor psychologically manipulated. and that ONLY legal (live) citizen votes are counted, exactly once per voter.

Do that and I'd accept the results. But I doubt that will actually happen... (the neo-nobility is compelled to divide us and keep us peasants in our place, RIGHT CCP???)

Singapore improves the AI it uses to detect smokers

As F'ing irritating as public smoking is...

does anyone REALLY want to live in a society that is an AI-based *POLICE* *STATE* ???

How about we just ask them to put it out instead? Oh wait, that means treating people like HUMAN BEINGS.

I happen to get horribly bad sinus headaches and runny nose from hell just being around people who have RECENTLY smoked, let alone catching a face-full of exhaled cigarette exhaust. That being said, I do not like this AI surveillance at all, I'd rather just ask nice, first.

[then if the idiot won't put it out I find a cop, delegate up, and allow the cop to ask nice before arresting/etc.]

Uncle Sam's had it up to here with 'unforgivable' SQL injection flaws

"Bobby'; drop tables;" - heh.

You can store that within the table as "Bobby&#3b; drop tables" [only tolerating internal ';' when part of a '&#' sequence]. Or similar.

Re: Coders vs Developers

Ahem. count the number of 'goto' statements in the Linux and BSD kernel source. Efficient code often requires old-school methodology.

Re: Coders vs Developers

"String building SQL commands etc etc should just be an absolute no no."

You mean like constructing an 'INSERT" or "SELECT" command yourself? Works fine every time for me. Hard rules like that are what do not belong. Old school C code building queries and passing it to psql (or whatever) could be the best solution, even using 'malloc()/free()' on pointers, fixed length temporary buffers, and stdin/stdout to send and get data to/from a forked process that does the DBMS work, I do that a lot. It also means not having to link your code to a specific library, nor re-writing the interface too much if you switch DBMSs.