Posts by bombastic bob

Combustion engines grind Linus Torvalds' gears

Re: Dumb interviewers

EV's are (to some extent) a good idea in general, but NOT as your, ahem, "daily driver" or long distance travel. For most people, they are just impractical.

* On average an EV vs dino burner is around $10k more

* Battery replacement after 3 years, might as well get a new car

* resale value poor, used cars not wanted (see above)

* limited range, charge times too long

* Power grid cannot handle it if EVERYONE had an EV

* enriches CCP [where most battery materials come from]

When the battery tech GREATLY improves, or a hybrid "aircraft APU-like" power plant is shipped in every EV, they will become practical and (hopefully) affordable. But until then, I'll keep my dino burner, thanks.

Some day, probably. Just not NOW.

Fired Disney staffer accused of hacking menu to add profanity, wingdings, removes allergen info

Re: His attempts to hide his trail

What, no Toy Story jokes? Was he 'Buzzed' when he did it? Did it give him a 'Woody'? Was 'Sid' involved? Did he 'Etch' his initials someplace on the web site? Was he caught "Slinking" (ok a bit of a 'Stretch')...

(all those Debian releases from back in the day made me think of this)

Beijing claims it's found 'underwater lighthouses' that its foes use for espionage

Re: Does it go ping?

real sonar pings actually don't sound like "ping", though, more like whistling. If you've ever heard them in deep water they sound like whistling in a ginormous cave.

Re: Does it go ping?

SO close to Halloween, I now have Tim Curry singing "The Time Warp" in my head - my mind goes "ping"

[Don't touch the hair! Too late...] [Meatloaf again? We had Meatloaf LAST week!]

Re: The fools

And don't forget This old thing that's been around as long as ME

Re: A "seabed device" ...

and don't forget the barnacles and that "sea grass" you often see at the waterline of ships. Sea life grows on anything it can attach itself to, and does not take that long to show up. A few weeks even...

[these land-lubbers know nuthin' 'bout the sea! Haarrrrr!]

Alphabet posts big revenue and profit growth, just 1,100 job losses

Re: This would explain...

In a LOT of ways, it's the "CCP Model".

* Use super cheap [AI] labor capable of doing lots of repetitive tasks at low cost without complaint nor disrupting the status quo nor even making suggestions for improvement

* Have a handful of bureaucrat types spend all day nit-picking details but missing the big picture

* slap it together really fast, never mind proper testing [that's for the customer or end-user to deal with] or any kind of efficiency analysis nor "overall impact" analysis

* If it does not work right, just add more [AI] bodies, that'll solve the problem!!

nobody left that knows anything

" the CEO won't be so enthused once he realizes all they have left are script kiddies who can't code shit."

And biased algorithms from AI-written code could generate unexpectedky inaccurate search results.

How are those script kiddies gonna fix THAT, hmmm?

Russian court fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Re: Tell the bloke with his finger stuck on the 0...

try rotating the phone 90 degrees.

(this is an especially important step when taking photos and movie clips to be posted online)

Re: Ban them from everything, worldwide.

Carrot and stick approach works better than getting a bigger stick.

Your proposed solution stinks of CANCEL CULTURE...

Keep the stick, but offer a carrot, giving Putin a "way out" [whether perceived or real] and human nature will take over.

(You just need the right carrot)

The only alternative, if things continue as they are, is "see icon". You cannot expect a megalomaniac and slightly deranged dictator like "Pootie" to just BEND OVER AND TAKE IT. What do deranged dictators do when no other alternatives exist?

"the exit strategy"

This could have been done in 2021-2022, but Putin got painted into a corner because the USA and many other nations were being run by IDIOTS who were more focused on getting Putin assassinated or ousted in a Coup d'etat than to simply offer him a way to back out of his delusional goals of "taking back" Ukrainian land and heading towards a new USSR.

But Putin was painted into a corner. So Putin walked on the wet paint.

I could go on about the REAL motivations, which include promoting SLOW escalation of war over YEARS (no you can't attack there, no you can't have planes, no you can't have these weapons, ok NOW you can have/attack/etc. but you cannot XXX - sound familiar?), a twisted form of money laundering, and the Military Industrial Complex.

[Don't ya hate it when conspiracies turn out to be RIGHT?]

Re: Presumably, Putin is going to ask his good buddy Trump ...

no, your perceptions are incorrect

Trump would just end their war, sell oil and natural gas at a lower price than Russia can, and let Google and Russia work things out on their own. Aside from losing half of their economy, Russia might be forced into a position where THEY have to beg companies like Google to come back. UK and EU get cheaper energy, USA starts paying off national debt, Iran can't fund Hamas any more, all good.

Re: Wow

"Putler" - I bet he hates that! [I've often called him "Pootie"]

no, but he was stroking a hairless cat...

Re: I have

I think there may be fewer atoms on the earth than there would be nickels.

(130,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms aka 1.3e50)

Re: I have

We'll just have to implement the Dollar-V6 protocol so we can add a few more zeros. That and value each atom on earth at about $0.01 each to pay for it all.

(130,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms according to one web site)

Intel to expand Chengdu facility, despite US China tension

Trombone going "womp womp womp woooomp"

"Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger has been vocal about his disdain for US export restrictions on China"

Of COURSE he is. It's CHEAPER and you can get away with POLLUTING MORE if your foundry is "over there".

And many OTHER things look really GOOD on the bottom line, but NOT in the larger picture, including the [in]direct funding of a government that employs slave labor, has no regard for human rights, threatens geographic neighbors (Japan, Taiwan) and engages in predatory and outright unfair trade practices (including industrial espionage and intellectual property theft... It's a fair bet they have an off-the-books "4th shift" that clones intel's designs and stamps a "not for export" label on them for use inside China).

So, Mr. Gelsinger, sorry that the WELL DESERVED export restrictions (that your competitors ALSO have to deal with on equal footing) are affecting your bottom line. I suggest investing in foundries in other places using newer/better tech and improved robotics+automation so you can AFFORDABLY locate them OUTSIDE of a badly acting nation like CCP-controlled China!!!

WordPress forces user conf organizers to share social media credentials, arousing suspicions

Re: Maybe I didn't read it right

maybe it was snark... I momentarily paused when I read that, figured I missed some detail, and moved along. Perhaps I'll revisit that instead

FCC fines be damned, ESPN misuses emergency alert tones yet again

"Gummy" abusing the emergency alert system itself

The FCC may be up in arms over ESPN abusing their emergency alert tones, but WHAT ABOUT "GUMMY" (a portmanteu of 'gummint' and 'mommy') ABUSING THE EMERGENCE ALERT SYSTEM ITSELF?

Hurricanes and tornadoes notwithstanding, I got REALLY SICK AND TIRED of WAY TOO MANY "OVER-CAUTIOUS" FLASH FLOOD WARNINGS in San Diego and LA-area counties during THUNDERSTORM SEASON. For ONE thing, it interrupted me watching "The Five" on Fox while I eat lunch. For another, it was TWICE THE VOLUME of the programming. For YET another, NOTHING HAPPENED and the warnings were SO often it was like "The Boy Who Cried 'WOLF'!!!"

But the WORST are those "Amber Alerts" (missing kids) sent to people watching CABLE TV identifying CAR LICENSE PLATES, probably because DAD was late returning kids from visitation to some MEAL-TICKET MOMMY the custodial parent! I mean, SERIOUSLY, what makes THAT an "EMERGENCY" for 5-10 MILLION PEOPLE???

How about we punish the people triggering FALSE "EMERGENCIES" INSTEAD???

I've seen plenty of memes from the UK regarding something VERY similar...

Re: you could see people start to pull over thinking it was the law.

or talk rasdio

Re: Broadcast licence?

The mouse that roared... and it sounded like THIS at 853 Hz and 960 Hz .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Alert_System

Re: Broadcast licence?

Can the FCC pull their broadcast license?

Cable network. I think the rules are different than for broadcasting stations that use the public airwaves. Paid-for vs public, big difference.

Then again, if they were political ads for the "wrong candidate"...

Windows 7 finally checks out as POSReady 7 closes the till on an era

Re: Still in use

I'm currently writing an application on Windows 7 that gets TESTED on 10 / 11, but all of the dev work gets done on 7.

It's not a web server or anything that runs out of user context, and is statically linked with NO CLR or ".Not" so NO need for THAT nonsense.

7 works just fine! I don't go online with it [or run as admin unless I have to]. Firewalled by a FreeBSD system. No worries.

Wouldn't it be GREAT if we could license Windows XP and 7 (source) and then just make them available with END-USER support as FOSS or a public project?

Or am I going to have to make a special system that does this using Wine...? [and still runs my Inuit accounting and tax software]

Pentagon stumped by mystery drone swarm flying over Langley Air Force Base

Re: 20 ft long and invulnerable

Sell hunting licenses to locals with shotguns. NO limits on drones flying in the 'no fly' zone. Equip off duty soldiers and marines with whatever armaments they need and let 'em shoot the things for FUN.

Problem SOLVED!!!

or (in my best R Lee Ermey voice) the BASE COMMANDERS can WIMP OUT and act like a bunch of PATHETIC BOOT CAMP REJECT COWARDLY MAGGOTS while OBVIOUS TARGETS fly around their MILITARY BASES!!!

Digital River runs dry, hasn't paid developers for sales since July

Re: It's a delaying tactic

The NYC tort system (and criminal justice system for that matter) has OBVIOUS GROSS and EGREGIOUS FLAWS and INJUSTICES within it, even OUTRIGHT CORRUPTION. Good luck to anyone slugging things out within THAT system... YEARS from now attorneys will burn through whatever settlement you MIGHT have gotten. [it has been ON PARADE *ALL* *YEAR* after all]

Switching customers from Linux to BSD because boring is good

Re: BSD - Dangerous and Unsafe !

Don't tell anyone but I use pluma on a GUI screen with the syntax highlighter plugin and convert hard tabs to spaces and set tab width to TWO. And I indent using "Allman" style!

But before I submit contributed code I convert it to the "kernel normal format" standard using the built-in 'indent' utility

indent infile outfile -nce -di8 -i8 -lp

(see icon - dodging tomatoes and other flying objects from the Ent-like BSD guru devs) (but because of them it is a stable OS)

Re: Linux older than BSD?

Right, Linksys wifi routers back in 2005 used busybox. It makes for a very tiny userland. In short, it hosts all of the utilities in one application, and symlinks for ls, mv, rm, etc. point to the busybox binary. it uses argv[0] to determine what functionality you get. It loads really fast, and is tiny compared to separate utilities. Good for getting a Linux 2.x image into a 4M ROM for a ~100Mhz MIPS or ARM system.

Re: No security updates

FBSD's "build from source" let's you apply direct patches to the source, then re-compile and restart affected daemons. I do this locally so I do not have to update EVERYTHING to apply a single patch, depending. Or you can use binary packages if you want.

build from source is integrated into the ports system. No need for "-dev" version insanity.

Re: Differences

Micros~1 has had their grubby little fingers in projects like Gnome and (pretty sure) FreeDesktop. I *HATE* what they did to it, especially ADWaita and the 2D FLATSO-ness they have helped FOIST upon Linux. Even Mozilla integrates that look now... fortunately you can theme Mate to use 'TraditionalOk' and derivatives

(and don't even get me started on Wayland...)

Re: Lack of commercial support is a problem

FreeBSD has a Linux compatibility layer (Currently with CentOS 7 userland lib binaries). I think CentOS 7 is still being supported for software (though it went EOL in June).

Maybe that helps?

Re: I love FreeBSD for its reliability

Long time FBSD user here, since early 2000's (version 4.7)

From article: One of Stefano Marinelli's NetBSD boxes sat quietly serving for a decade, because everyone forgot about it. This is how Unix is meant to be.

UPSIDES for FBSD: you can easily build everything from source! I typically do.

DOWNSIDE: building my system from source takes > a week and "up"graded ports sometimes no longer workl (but I get to fix them)

Also the devs are pretty good at accepting submissions but have VERY high standards. I've submitted a few things in the past, latest being SPI-related for RPi boards.

Icon, because FreeBSD

Linus Torvalds declares war on the passive voice

Re: He's right, of course

GNU = "GNU's Not Unix" does that help?

Re: He's right, of course

I've seen cats chase imaginary prey, but tail chasing? [that WOULD be something fun to see, though]

Re: He's right, of course

all snark aside...

I think that using 'passive voice' is an attempt by many to "soften" certain declarative language constructs, similar to using a euphemism.

Some people have told me that speaking authoritatively, or "sounding certain", or even being CONFIDENT, "comes across" [their words; translation 'sparks envy'] for many [translation: snowflakes] as somehow 'aggressive', 'angry', or (in MY bombastic opinion) just MASCULINE.

So I expect that along the way, many of our teachers (and others who had influence) subtly ENCOURAGED us to use a "more passive" grammar style to "soften our tone" (read: sound wimpy and unsure, much like 'up talking') to avoid offending [read: scaring] others [read: snowflakes and overgrown babies].

But science, engineering, and computer programming are (more often than not) VERY certain, precise, and declarative things. And saying "This fixes bug X" is concise and precise and certain.

Re: He's right, of course

In C++, maybe this->this (would that even work?)

or perhaps *(&(this)) or &(this[0])

[now my brain hurts]

Re: He's right, of course

Those of us who understand the snark can be heard laughing

Tesla Cybertruck recalled again. This time, a software fix for backup camera glitch

Re: Softwre start up time?

I'd suggest boot up the camera when the driver's door opens, leave running in standby at least 5 minutes after door shuts, bring up to normal operation when driving system starts, so that it is immediately ready when the "gear" lever is in reverse.

It's true, social media moderators do go after conservatives

Re: Who is the judge ?

Only liars wish to censor others.

I'd like to add "Grand manipulators" "Evil Dictators" and "Communists" to that list

Re: Who is the judge ?

Who fact checks the fact checkers? How are they funded?

InB4 someone else mentions...

*I* heard they were funded by Soros and WEF and ClimateScammers!

(But of course no ;proof beyond an opinion) (which makes tossing the climate / Soros / WEF hand grenade into the conversation even MORE fun)

see icon

Re: Who is the judge ?

pretty much the entire post

a literalist-extremist or a wokester looking for a nit to pick would probably say...

[seriously making the guy's point in a lot of ways!]

Uncle Sam lends $1.5B to reignite Michigan nuclear plant in 2025

Re: Clean energy?

"Or is fossil fuel REALLY that cheap in the US. I doubt it."

Not at the moment, but they will be again. DRILL BABY DRILL!!

'Old Equipment' and the outrageous costs and regulatory environment with respect to boiler/steam generator replacement caused the San Onofre power plant to shut down (just north of San Diego). Details are in the Wikipedia article.

I blame excessive regulation on the overall equipment replacement costs, and ultimately the shutdown and decommissioning of the power plant. SONGS wanted to operate a single plant at reduced power (to avoid further leakage) while re-replacing the defective boilers in the other plant [then switch operating plants and do the other one] but NRC said NO and they had to close. It was that simple. REGULATORS killed it.

Re: Clean energy?

Your post smells of popular perception and misinformation,, which is generally DEAD WRONG, and based on *FEEL* (not science) and F.U.D.

And fossil fuels [a misnomer, "carbon-based" is more accurate] are NOT "damaging the Earth". In many cases we avoid "damage" by pumping out liquid hydrocarbons before they leak to the surface and form TAR PITS. The Earth itself forms hydrocarbons and CO2 gas from within the mantle, which contains a LOT of carbon (it is the 4th most abundant element in the universe, behind oxygen, helium, and hydrogen). And man-made CO2 from burning carbon-based fuels is *NOT* causing any kind of 'Climate Change'. A plethora of supporting information on that topic can be found on Tony Heller's web site "realclimatescience.com" if you want to see it.

Since I used to operate nuclear reactors for the US Navy I know quite a bit about the topic. I also know that the biggest stumbling blocks for nuclear energy are political, from wacky environmentalists abusing court systems to keep plants from operating (or being built), to those who want to insert "Governmentium" into EVERYTHING.

The San Onofre power plant just north of San Diego should re-open NEXT. People I knew from the Navy had been working there. My electricity rates were lower when it was operational, instead of relying on UNRELIABLE wind farms, etc.. Instead my power bill has a "decommissioning fee/tax" on it. Yeah. Thanks "Gummy" [a portmanteu of 'Gummint' and 'Mommy']

Re: Clean energy?

*facepalm*

China calls for realtime censorship of satellite broadband

Re: TW ground stations?

is any of your kit made in China? Because the Chinese government is now taking an interest in your company.

Which is why the world needs to STOP BUILDING OUR STUFF OVER THERE (until they stop acting like evil communists)

Might take a while for that last part...

[stop teaching a POTENTIAL ENEMY how to make ALL OF OUR TECH!!!]

Re: I wish China good luck

you are "not wrong" about many of the things you say.

A strong USA and UK would help to rectify this. It's in the works. The possibility that the light at the end of the tunnel is NOT an oncoming train is still there...

"Bears" too much resemblance to Xi Xing PoohBear

Might as well just say it, right? Heh

[Musk and Starlink already rolling on the floor laughing I bet]

Bad PUNishment. Ah well, where did I leave my coat. It's autumn. Time for leaves. Watch for "fall"ing puns.

FBI boss says China 'burned down' 260,000-device botnet when confronted by Feds

This is what happens

This is what happens \when a COMMUNIST country is building all of those devices with SLAVE LABOR and have intimate knowledge of their inner workings... and a pattern of EXACTLY this kind of nefarious behavior, from violation of I.P. to outright criminal activity (like THIS).

California governor goes on AI law signing spree, but demurs on the big one

Re: Gavinator Nuisance is just another $%#& politician and it is a presidential election year

see icon

Gavinator Nuisance is just another $%#& politician and it is a presidential election year

NEVER trust ANYTHING Nuisance says, does, or claims. See title.

Article: if the AI industry is pushed too hard, it might flee California and take its billions in funding with it.

Businesses are ALREADY fleeing Cali-Fornicate-You. Shoving ANY more regulatory, tax, anti-freedom, and/or tyrannical heavy-handed nonsense onto us "Peasants" is likely to drive nearly everyone (who is NOT an illegal alien on the dole) to Texas, Florida, or even Arizona or New Mexico. Living in hell is still hell, even when it has nice weather.

Politicians have NO CLUE as to what is going on with AI or _ANY_ kind of tech. They just want their grubby little fingers in it so they can extort campaign contributions and say they're "doing something" at election time.

Elon Musk's assassination 'joke' bombs, internet calls for his deportation

But when you DO point out the obvious, it's usually funny!

From the article speech can be considered incitement to violence, and thus not protected, if it is "directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action," and "likely to produce such action."

Like things said by Nancy 'Skeletor' Pelosi, 'Mad' Maxine Waters, 'Sleepy' Joe Biden, Komrade Kamala Harris, [up]Chuck Schumer.... ah hell, MOST of the Democrats, even comparing Trump to Hitler and insisting he'll be a dictator and end democracy.

Yeah, no "incitement" there...

[just let people say what they want and stop trying to censor and cancel - tolerance is a 2 way street]