Posts by bombastic bob

NASA boss insists US returning to the Moon after Peanuts to show for past four decades

classic "schmuck bait"

really, all of the jerking around and moving targets of the past (with respect to NASA and the moon) were nothing less that "schmuck bait". Question is, who's the "schmuck"? I think it was the voters...

A lot of talk happened right around the time "Apollo 13" the movie was released. Then it died off. Again.

The REAL problem is that only GUMMINTS are talking about it. Gummints involve politics, "other people's money", and (too often) voter manipulation.

It's hard to find a better analogy that doesn't involve a totally cynical look at political leaders, like maybe "The Deacon of the 'Deez" in Waterworld, who gave a speech and showed the tattoo'd back of the kidnapped girl in order to inspire the minions, and got them all rowing ["They'll row for a bleeding month"] even though the Deacon had no clue as to where to go. [IRL example, Jerry "2nd time around" Brown]

If we stopped spending money on social programs, and bought MOON ROCKETS instead, the rocket makers would hire the people who WERE getting freebies from gummint, and they'd be working to get their money [and would probably have a LOT more of it to spend]. And we'd have MOON ROCKETS to show for it. you get what you pay for.

So now I need to come up with an analogy for a) manipulating voters into FEELING that gummint giveaway programs are a good idea, b) dangling "back to the moon" to a group of voters to get THEM to vote for you, too, and c) tossing the idea of going back to the moon, CUTTING the NASA budget, and then SPENDING EVEN MORE on worthless "social programs" to buy even MORE votes.

And Lucy with the football seems close enough for me. "Schmuck bait". And the VOTERS are the 'schmucks'.

Commodore 64 owners rejoice: The 1541 is BACK

Re: "6502 CPU and two 6522 processors"

" But it was never a processor."

well, there was a documented way of sending code to the on-board 6502 for things like "fast disk". but since the RAM was limited, you couldn't load very much. Seriously, though, it was doing what microcontrollers often do, in this case moving the diskette drive heads and whatnot. The ROM was decoded and documented in various books and whatnot. I don't have any of those any more [gave them all away along with the hardware, long ago] and I'm pretty sure that whoever ultimately ended up with it all probably didn't appreciate the geek factor of it...

In any case, it was possible to use the on-board 6502 as an actual 'processor'. It was just somewhat difficult and impractical for anything NOT disk related.

Re: Bang!

interesting. That might explain why my 1541's lasted quite a while, even though on one of them [the first one I bought] I had to cut open the case a bit and place a cooling fan on top because it overheated early in its life. I noticed that Commodore went with external power supplies for later models, which prevents the overheating.

Re: Perfect!

I had a koala pad [but couldn't print the drawings]

AI crisis: Sony reports shortage of cute robot puppies!

Re: Cheap compared to a real puppy

And, why exactly does it NEED a "cloud subscription" ???

Just sayin'...

Microsoft sees Red ...Hat for OpenShift-on-Azure public cloud offering

RH dealing with the devil (Micro-shaft)

I don't really blame RH for wanting to "partner" with Micro-shaft with cloud services (etc.) but I strongly suspect they might end up being swallowed later on...

(history suggests this pattern)

As for IBM, they've been committed to using Linux for quite a while now, so I'm pretty sure they'll be happy to make hardware that Linux runs on (and software solutions that run on them). No danger to RH there, as far as I would guess.

But RH needs to make sure they have an 'ass protector' already installed (and properly configured to defend against Micro-shaft). They're sneaky little buggers and RH doesn't need a "surprise".

Adobe, 'hyper personalisation' and your privacy

"In reality, with enough data, Shell would know to mark up this guy's petrol"

Worse: the Shell station near me has MINI-TV's mounted in the pumps that PLAY ADS while you're dispensing fuel... [I normally ignore them, but they're irritating, and you KNOW that if the fueling station has your personal data, they'll TARGET THOSE ADS TO YOU].

Re: Hypo-personalisation?

and NOW we know why the Adobe reader wants you to LOG IN ONLINE...

(at least it did the last time I booted up a new/reconditioned windows (7) machine with Adobe pre-loaded, and in a horrified panic, I couldn't find "uninstall" fast enough)

Re: Choices

"no real drop-in replacement for its products that can maintain compatibility"

I've been using Atril to view PDFs for a long time. haven't had any trouble indicating any incompatibility. I used Evince before that, except that they "went .Not" so I'll *NEVAR* install it *AGAIN*. Morons.

I also NEVER use flash, not for many years.

So what else does Adobe provide [with no reasonable open source equivalent] that I might actually need? I suspect that if I can't do it with Libre Office already, or perhaps mash together with gimp, I probably won't think of it [or will write my own application to do it with imagemagick and/or shell/Perl/Python/C]

Maybe you can list a few things I don't know about, just for grins. I'm actually curious.

Re: Choices

"what you outline is what incurs the big fines."

EU will NOW test this concept. If it works, I think the USA will demand it too. I fear that a workaround is 'ready to go' such that the big players continue to get away with it, while the smaller ones get the fines.

Good luck with GDPR. I want to see it actually succeed. I think it won't, though.

/me imagines the 'forget' list for search engines being SO large that it renders them pretty unusable...

Re: "People are buying experiences, not products"

This 'experience' thing reminds me of a light bulb joke:

Q: How many people from Silly Valley does it take to change a light bulb:

A: Three. 1 to change the bulb, and 2 to "share in the experience".

Yeah, it's how these idiots think. Why are we (collectively) ALLOWING them to "define the future" FOR us?

icon, because, facepalm

Microsoft reckons devs would like an AI Clippy to help them write code

Re: "Hello it looks like you are writing code...

don't forget "auto-edit+refactor that variable/function name to conform with Hungarian notation and CamelHumping"

[there are people who absolutely HATE Hungarian notation and shift-ridden function names - and sometimes THEY set the shop standards]

Micro-shaft: dumbing-down the developers, developers, developers, developers since they invented ".Not" and C-pound and then shoved it up our as down our throats (because they couldn't Embrace, Extend, Extinguish Java) !

/me points out Android Studio isn't much better, out-of-the-box enforcing K&R style. Yuck. I spend the 30 minutes' time to fix that, make it Allman style, no hard tabs [so I can keep what little sanity I have left].

And we don't need "Micro-shaft Clippy" doing even WORSE...

Re: There is a reason that I gave up developing for the MS Platform

I already *HATE* [lack of intelligence]Intelli-sense getting in the way of my high speed typing. Now they're making it WORSE...

/me goes back to using 'pluma' to edit code...

Re: #Nostalgia

beer for the Salmon Days "clippy clip" - it was the first thing that entered my mind when I saw the article's title.

The world is becoming a computer, says CEO of worldwide computer company Microsoft

Re: Nadella, Nadella, Nadella

beer beer beer!

Re: This is improvident imbecility

"dire and deadly results of human demolition of our planet is Luddite in the extreme"

human DEMOLITION of our planet? gimme a break! You need to study REAL science, not enviro-wacko propaganda.

*yawn*

*bored now*

icon because: facepalm at the lame. the sky is NOT falling. and the emperor is NAKED.

Re: Here's a thought, MS.

"How about an OS that just works?"

ack. instead of:

instrumenting everything and gathering the surveillance data, which in turn needs to be dealt with, often using a cloud service.

Question: _WHY_ do _I_ need "surveillance data" collected on me?

Micro-shaft is selling something we shouldn't want.

And, if they cared about DEVELOPERS, they wouldn't be SHOVING UWP UP OUR DOWN OUR THROATS!!!

Only a matter of time before:

a) slurp everywhere [even on Linux]

b) subscription OS

c) No more Win32 API - *EVERYTHING* UWP!!!

Equifax reveals full horror of that monstrous cyber-heist of its servers

Re: And how...

considering that we never really gave permission to Equifax to collect all this crap, but rather OUR BANKS DID IT FOR US, who can you blame?

I think "they" have too much power. WAY too much.

Fork it! Microsoft adds .NET Core 3.0 including Windows Desktop apps

"Mono" is a disease

see topic

Re: Meanwhile in the rest of the world...

"And unlike .net you get a statically linked executable."

that's something I've been (slowly) working on for a few YEARS now (for C, C++). mostly done for X11, but I keep running into things that end up requiring major re-writes of a portion of the API [like how X11 handles true type fonts vs standard X11 fonts].

But yeah, that should be the goal: to easily and rapidly develop an application that can be shipped in source or binary form and installed on any platform, with minimal dependencies. Too bad Lazarus is pascal...

Re: Microsoft becoming Donald Trump

Why are you insulting Donald Trump that way? [I think he's the best president since Reagan, and want 6 more years with Trump at the helm - SERIOUSLY!]

A big thumbs DOWN to your post. And the topic. And the horse you rode in on.

Microsoft is more like an EVIL FASCIST COMMUNIST DICTATOR than anything else. And "they" want to micromanage YOU and your computer and everything you do online and in your life, and MONETIZE it all, because the ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS. That's more like OBAKA if you ask me...

Re: .dot not a lot

"they're too lazy take it out"

In DevStudio 2010 you have to go through and "un-check" a bunch of things (for an MFC C++ application, anyway) but [unfortunately] you STILL need a damned 'manifest' to avoid your application NOT being compatible or being treated with UAE when you don't want it to. At least, from DevStudio 2010. I don't like any of the later DevStudios as they're all oriented towards that 'UWP' crap and have 2D FLATSO user interfaces. 2010 is the LAST DevStudio I'll evar use, probably. And I'll target Win 7 if I ever have to write another winders application.

But yeah, if you jump through the hoops [there are a finite number] and turn OFF all of that "shared MFC" and "shared runtime" and "framework" and other CRAP, you can produce something that only has the windows API as a dependency. That's right, JUST AN EXECUTABLE! Amazing concept, huh?

[who needs all of those DLL HELL libraries anyway, just static link and be done with it - it'll load faster, too]

Welcome to the 21st century, where pretty much EVERY computer nowadays has GIGABYTES of RAM, and TERABYTES of hard drive storage, and if you pack around 256kbytes of "what COULD be shared libs" in every application, it's a drop in a bucket [and probably will load/run faster too].

ok someone will ask: how can it RUN FASTER? Well, if you do static link optimization tricks, you can get functions that "call each other" to be located within the same block(s) of memory, which helps to make L# cache more efficient, with a smaller code footprint in the cache, and more likely to get various CPU-driven optimizations to happen, yotta yotta. And of course, LESS PAGING ACTIVITY when the system demand is high. And did I mention it would LOAD FASTER?

Re: MS Tax

ack - there are several manufacturers who build computers without pre-installing windows. Sometimes the linux-capable versions cost MORE, though.

and there are also the 'netbook' variety computers, if all you want is something with a screen and keyboard and USB for mouse [and maybe a simple touch pad] for "el cheap".

So yeah Linux is out there, but doesn't have the marketing capital being shoved at it like MS does for windows. Also Wine is pretty much "not good enough, still" to run any windows application, so people with legacy applications [or those that REQUIRE windows, shame on you devs who STILL do that] will end up paying the MS Tax, and getting stuck with "the boar that has lipstick on the non-oinky end" known as Win-10-nic.

If I had the capital, I'd complete a cross-platform toolkit that would allow developers to create both C and C++ applications that are truly cross-platform, using a reasonably low-level API [so as NOT to have a boatload of shared libraries that it depends upon]. But as it's me funding myself doing the work, I still have to pay bills and so can't devote sufficient time to get it all done fast enough. Dammit.

Re: RE: How long before core becomes windows only?

if "the Core" is windows-only, then Micro-Shaft won't be able to CRAM UWP UP OUR A DOWN OUR THROATS on Linux, Mac, and "anything else you can imagine".

Remember, it's about WORLD DOMINATION, a lock-in to THEIR tech, so they can enforce SUBSCRIPTION models. If UWP is free *NOW* it's because it hasn't been monetized... yet.

They're doing the Embrace Extend Extinguish dance, all over again. "Embrace" Linux, with SQL Server and ".Not Core". "Extend" Linux with full-blown (2D FLUGLY) UWP "CRapps", _SO_ convenient for developers! Then, when end-users are CALLOUSED to the 2D FLUGLY LIMITED UI CRAPWARE, *EXTINGUISH* the "free" part of "Free Software" by INTRODUCING A SUBSCRIPTION MODEL. You know "pay up or it won't run".

Either that, or they COERCE the world into having NO other alternatives but THEIR CRAP.

Imagine Windows 10 running with Linux underneath. Powershell instead of bash. And _YOU_ paying a MONTHLY FEE in order to USE YOUR OWN COMPUTER.

Brain Bleach? That way --> http://freebsd.org/ http://linuxmint.com/

(while we still have control over our own choices)

Re: What a mess

Windows is (unfortunately) *UNDEAD* now. It's been killed so many times, it's a shambling zombie, staggering around going "UUUuuuuuhhhhh"... [like me before the coffee kicks in]

Microsoft's most popular SQL Server product of all time runs on Linux

Microsoft learned not to overreach.

since when? Win-10-nic says the opposite.

At least their SQL server group is STARTING to "get it". But for the rest of the company, it's same thing, different day. Customers are "minions", to be herded and coerced into doing things "Microsoft's way" so that the market can be cornered, dependency can be established, and nobody DARES go outside of the box!

And YOUR computer is under THEIR control!

It's World (Terrible) Password (Advice) Day!

Re: Sensible Rules

just hand out the root password to everyone who might need it. Make sure it's so cryptic that you have to write it down or store it someplace. Problem "solved".

@Squander Two - you're trying too hard here.

Just do the 'correct horse battery staple' with predictable non-alpha-numeric characters between each word, like: "correct-horse+battery/staple". To "change" your password, merely change the value and/or order of the non-printables, making it easy to remember, difficult to crack.

back in the day Compuserve issued passwords very similar to that concept, consisting of two unrelated words separated by a non-alpha-numeric, like "kettle?gear" [no that wasn't my password, but I still remember what it was, more than 20 years later].

Also a line from your favorite movie might work, with similar characters between words... "go-ahead+make!my/day?"

Pentagon in uproar: 'China's lasers' make US pilots shake in Djibouti

Re: Laser canon and sonic death rays.

maybe we could just equip military aircraft with a kilowatt laser that "fires back" at the laser? "Send it back" with 'interest'!

That's right, "mine's bigger". Wanna see? Heh!

FCC shifts its $8bn pot of gold, sparks fears of corporate money grab

Re: Overcharge

"Maybe they should quit collecting the money for six years."

Maybe they should quit collecting the money for six years AND SCRAP THE PROGRAM

fixed it for ya.

This "program" (aka wealth transfer of O.P.M. to buy votes) has CERTAINLY outlived its usefulness (if it ever had any), especially with how cheap cell phones are these days... [and WHY should _I_ pay for SOMEONE! ELSE'S! PHONE! LINE! with TAXES???].

if you don't make a boatload of calls, you can get a <$50 phone with pre-paid from AT&T for $100/year. that's what I have, actually. works for me, just fine.

Microsoft's latest Windows 10 update downs Chrome, Cortana

Re: I've outlined the reasons on El Reg countless times

" Insiders = nincompoops. Fanboys, not professional QA testers."

Yes, Micro-shaft definitely made it VERY UNFRIENDLY for *ANYONE* who became an insider in order to improve the product by feeding opinions back to Micro-shaft, when such feedback did NOT fall in LOCK STEP with the FASCIST REGIME opinions of Micro-shaft.

Dissension was rewarded with BANS and DELIBERATE+OBVIOUS BIASED TREATMENT of so-called "term of use" violations. Fanboi trolls would deliberately engage people, "a comment" that didn't even violate TOU would be issued from the target, and then *POUNCE* and BAN. They got REALLY BAD after a while, like they were DELIBERATELY trying to clean out EVERYONE who dissented, so they could have a nice "pleasant" forum of like-minded sycophantic groupies.

One day 4 or 5 individuals commented to me in their forum about things that were irrelevant, but it was like 'sock puppet' posts, people who were CONSTANT violators of the TOU (they were frequent ad hominem attackers, for one). Next thing I get is a 'ban warning' (a "last warning" in fact) for allegedly doing something NOT COVERED by their TOU. At that point I abandoned their forum to their own folly. It was obviously NOT going to help any more to tell Micro-shaft why they were screwing up, with examples and specificity, in as many areas as I could think of [which I did for about a year, actually, and did NOT violate their TOU]. So yeah I saw it first hand. They didn't want dissenting opinions. Many other dissenters left the forum at the same time.

Yeah, no @#$% this really happened.

If you're a Fedora fanboi, this latest release might break your heart a little

Re: A differente audience

smells a lot like Ubuntu, looks a lot like Unity.

Unless it comes with Mate I'm not even going to download the thing - I don't like using rpm packages anyway, tried/tested CentOS and wasn't all that impressed with it. I got used to dpkg/apt a long time ago and I can stick with it.

But at least the screenshots weren't all "2D FLATSO". I appreciate THAT much.

Ubu has non-free packages. I guess this may have driven RH to do the same.

But I believe in "true freedom" so I welcome the [mis-named] "non-free" package repo, particularly when it's 'non-free' as defined by STALLMAN and his hippie/commie fanbois. Stallman's fascist approach to GPL is not relevant any more. Who _CARES_ if the 'GNU List' of "approval" doesn't include Fedora? What matters is what the users/customers think.

And right now, RH "gets it". Well, minus the whole systemd and gome-3-ness...

Re: In Linux, "freedom" means you have no freedom but to bow to Stallman.

"If you're really free, you're free to release your code as you like, and install any application you like."

True.

As for the topic line:

you have no freedom but to bow to Stallman Poettering.

fixed it for ya.

Google will vet political ads to ward off Phantom Menace of fake news

Google's twichy bums

I think they want to have the last-minute filtering "authority" so that MORE DEMON-RATS can be "elected".

After all, telling the TRUTH about Mrs. Clinton's crimes is being universally withheld across the non-Fox media (in the USA anyway), telling the TRUTH about Mueller's so-called "investigation" is ALSO being universally withheld, and telling the TRUTH about Trump's many accomplishments and the improved economy and world-standing of the USA is _ALSO_ being universally WITHHELD by "the left", the lame-stream non-Fox media, and [of course] GOOGLE wants to have THAT kind of POWER, too.

Because shaping public opinion, using emotional manipulation, is the CORE of controlling "the masses", and it can be done through advertisement, "clever" filtering of news, "social media", and the BLOCKING of ANY CONTENT that you deem "unworthy". And the more they slurp, the easier it becomes.

THAT is apparently what Google wants. Their left-leaning slant [by corporate policies and political involvement] is WELL documented. And THEY want Zuckerberg's kind of power, too.

Why does the world need the new 'Arkraino' network edge stack'?

just dont make it...

just PLEASE do no make it:

a) another systemd

b) another 'gnome 3' or unity (referring to the effect on the X11 desktop)

c) another 'dot not' (i.e. bloatware, "change for the sake of change" ware)

d) another SOAP

e) another Silverlight

...

Do one thing, do it well, do it with COMPACT CODE that can fit on a tiny microcontroller or in silicon, yotta yotta. Don't force us to have megabytes of RAM just to run THAT, then make it so you HAVE to "run that".

NASA demos little nuclear power plant to help find little green men

Re: Down Range

"If downrange is the sea, then it doesn't matter"

Well, even _I_ wouldn't go THAT far, to say "it doesn't matter". But "the solution to pollution is dilution" more often than not.

The sea is 'full' of a lot of materials, in extremely low concentrations. However, I don't really want to increase the amount of radioactivity in it, if at all possible.

When nuclear ships (U.S. Navy, anyway) need to discharge reactor coolant, they filter it first (there are a LOT of reasons why this must happen). And they hang onto it (in a storage tank) until they get back to port, if possible, where it will be appropriately processed. But occasionally they may need to discharge coolant into the ocean [and then they keep a log of how much, etc.]. As a general rule, it's "not that radioactive" but they still have procedures to avoid doing so when possible [and this was back in the 80's, so maybe they're even more careful now?]

Re: Down Range

"Any more dangerous than the radioisotope generators we've hurled into space already?"

probably not, just more radioactive material in them. In fact, based on the 'hotness' of a typical radioactive thermal generator, it might be (short term) environmentally WORSE than a much larger amount of uranium.

Now, if a spacecraft with one of these was returning to earth, let's have them ditch the thing towards the sun before they get into earth orbit. I wouldn't want a 'burn up on re-entry' disaster to release FISSION PRODUCTS, which are a whole lot WORSE than Uranium fuel.

Re: So basically....

"dynamically allocate current from different resources."

yes, including batteries, super-capacitors, flywheels, and other 'power storage' means, to absorb the surges while the individual power plants adjust themselves to the changes in demand.

You could even use a hydro-electric method that pumps water into a large storage area to absorb excess power, and then uses it to generate power when demand exceeds capacity. Just a thought at the moment. Its like the epitome of the whole concept.

I am pretty sure that "the power grid" (and the people running it) already uses fossil-burning plants and hydro-electric plants to handle demand changes (at least in the USA), while allowing nuke plants and solar/wind systems to run at full capacity as much as they can, then brings on 'peaker' plants to handle peak demands (gas turbines, diesel) when necessary. That assumes that GUMMINT didn't enviro-regulate everything to the point where no peaker plants were built... [so say hello to 'rolling blackouts' when it's cloudy and hot and humid and wind speed is low due to some kind of tropical depression, or whatever].

Re: So basically....

"am I misunderstanding how they work"

No, you're right. Heat rejection is a big problem for the moon. I don't know how deep you'd have to dig for a "lunathermal" solution, either. On earth it might be 20 feet or so, depending [then you just put a bunch of water piping undeground to reject heat into the earth]. On the moon you could do the same thing, but it's not very 'portable'.

I assume that the ginormous circular reflector is for that purpose. NASA knows how to make this work, as they did it on the space shuttle. But it's worth pointing out that any heat engine (including the Stirling engine) needs a differential temperature to work. So does a peltiere device, which is what I originally thought they'd use. But peltier devices aren't as efficient and would probably weigh more for kilowatt capable power.

I would also expect inverters and batteries to manage short-term transients. I can't see speed control on a Stirling engine being all that easy. If differential temperature drives it, then that's also what controls it [and you can't heat/cool things fast enough for speed control to work really well]. So they'd probably use 'load control' to also control speed, and use batteries as a 'surge' to keep speed within a safe band [with some safeties to burn off power or 'put on the brakes' when necessary].

In other words, controlling a Stirling engine generator could be like balancing a pole on your nose. Then again it might have some natural speed control built in, due to fluid friction and/or momentum, with that back/forth fluid motion thing going on.

It's a fair bet that the stirling engine + nuke plant would respond poorly to rapid transients, though. But the U.S. Navy solved this a long time ago in their own power polants, since you can go from "all stop" to "all ahead balls to the walls" in a reasonably short time on THOSE systems. Even so, electric power generation transients are usually a LOT slower than "flooring it" on a propulsion system. So maybe it's not an issue?

Re: So basically....

It's the "Son of SL-1"

There are (unfortunately) a couple of significant similarities...

a) small, low power reactor that's portable

b) a single control rod can make it go critical

If there is a way of doing a safety shutdown that does not involve "that one control rod" it would certainly be a LOT safer This is because the fission products in a fission reactor are often "physically bigger" than the original material. Reason: higher density for uranium, lower density for "what it splits into". basic physics.

Basically, the fission process causes 'fuel swelling' as the fuel is burned off. This could cause 'blistering' and/or 'swelling' of the fuel material to an extent that it impedes control rod motion, depending on the design.

And that "single control rod" can EASILY get stuck as the fuel changes its shape over its lifetime. This means you lose control of the reactor. Oops.

To compensate for this, designers need to make sure that you have rod channels that resist the effects of swelling and blistering, as well as having "some other means" to shut the thing down.

NASA needs to work with the U.S. Navy on this (if they aren't already), as well as General Electric and Westinghouse and other military contractors that know how to build small reactors for submarines.

For a bunch of reasons, the reactor core needs to be very compact, as compact as possible. This not only reduces the fuel loading, but it improves the temperature coefficient. Small reactors tend to have negative temperature coefficients, which means that as temperature goes up, reactor power goes down. this makes it stable. Very large reactors tend to have positive temperature coefficients, which means you can't change power levels very fast, and have to constantly monitor it and tweek it to keep power levels stable, because an increase in temperature makes power go UP [in a transistor they call this 'thermal runaway']. Large reactors, however, can have a much larger fuel load so (in theory) you could go longer without refueling. Additionally, a large reactor could be fueled with 'fuel pellets' inside of a permanent tube structure, rather than alloyed fuel material that has to be completely changed out, making the refueling process a lot simpler.

So large reactors have their advantages. they're just WAY harder to control.

In this case the small reactor would be perfect. Down side, it would very likely have 'alloyed' fuel, meaning that it would be subject to swelling and blistering that could cause the single central control rod to stick, resulting in a potentially uncontrollable reaction. The end result could be a partial meltdown, but probably would just overheat everything and damage it beyond repair. Or, it might just slowly drop in temperature until it shuts itself down. There's no telling. Any of these are possible for a number of non-obvious reasons, caused by changes in power demand [among other things], and despite the highly negative temperature coefficient, it's still possible [following a large power transient] for a stuck rod to cause power levels to go unstable and either melt it down right away. or temporarily shut it down and make it go into a 'cyclic' uncontrolled shutdown/restart mode that results in an unrecoverable power transient that completely destroys the thing. Not 'boom', just melt.

So, yeah. That single control rod is a big concern.

Re: Hmm...

DOH!

Ahem! Uber, Lyft etc: California Supremes just shook your gig economy with contractor ruling

Re: More complicated in the US

"although in reality few can afford it"

I know, it's been a HARDSHIP since Obaka-care took over a huge slice of the economy, and I haven't purchased ANY insurance because of it. I don't want it anyway. but it's a HARDSHIP, and I've said so on every tax form since that became a requirement to crawl out from underneath that STUPIDITY. Because, it IS a hardship. $1000/month, typically. I'd rather NOT have to move into a GHETTO and live on rice+beans to compensate.

Good thing the "individual mandate" (an UNCONSTITUTIONAL provision that should have NEVER happened) is GONE now.

If I need a doctor, I'll go to a clinic of my choice and pay cash. There's one 1/2 a mile from my house, next to a dentist office.

Re: What if ...

form an LLC. it means paying extra money, though, and filing separate tax returns, setting up a payroll service, yotta yotta yotta. _I_ think it's worth doing, because it puts you more in control and has other benefits.

Re: Work Choices

"for a period in the 80s and early 90s it was a lot more lucrative for both employer and employee for the programmer to be paid as a contractor but that extra loot came at the expense of the taxman."

YOU, sir, deserve a BEER!

This is NOTHING MORE than a clamp-down on contractors (in general), Gummint just wants our money. I'm glad you DARED to say it!

Re: About damn time

*NO*. Just *NO*.

I do _NOT_ want gummint limiting my ability to be a direct contractor for any individual or organization. This is just a (yet another) POWER GRAB to force employers to pay into "the system" with payroll taxes, etc.. Just like the earlier rulings that said a contractor can claim unemployment insurance MEANT THAT _I_ HAD TO START PAYING INTO A SYSTEM THAT WILL NEVER GET BACK TO ME. Since I own the corporation, and contract through the corporation, the rules are (for now) a bit different, but GOD DAMN them, because you KNOW that people like *ME* are on their targeting radar, too... [for more money to be extracted, more regulations to be imposed, etc.].

Even though i'd fail the current ABC test for being "an employee" because a) I do work at home on my own gear, and b) even if I'm on site, it's through a corporation of which I'm an employee. Fortunately I can still choose how much to pay myself with 'wages" and how much "with other things" and things like computer hardware, software, online services, etc. are all business expenses [so they are off the top of revenue, BEFORE being taxed], though it's a wash when you consider all of the OTHER taxes that I have to pay (including that UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE that I will never be able to claim - 'FUTA" - I have 'grade F' and the rate is one of the highjest, for some reason - *A* *TOTAL* *RIPOFF*).

It also makes me wonder about the job-shopping temp agencies. How will this affect THEM???

Press F to pay respects to the Windows 10 April Update casualties

Re: Sadly

"The unwanted ( by pretty much everyone) 3d crap is still there"

proving that, to Micro-shaft, '3D' meant something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

When _I_ say '3D' I mean an XP-like or Windows 7-like interface (not "the Metro" 2D FLATSO with shading like lipstick on the non-oinky end of the boar).

Micro-shaft missed the boat on that one. Easy to do when you've already jumped the shark and fallen off of the cliff...

Re: "Upgrading users should be able to ignore the viewer as before."

"once you've navigated through a maze circle jerk of help options, none of which quite address the problem you are having."

fixed it. you're welcome. sometimes a local 'grep' gets you the answer faster than being jerked about by link-hell.

(ok it means installing Cygwin on a winders box, but I generally do that)

Re: "have mobile Internet on their phone for when the PC is broken"

"There are still some situations" [snip] " and you would still like to have help available"

I've already tried these kinds of "cloud based only help" things before [read: DevStudio after 2010] and NEVAR want this kind of ABOMINATION *EVAR* *AGAIN*!!!

I don't need internet bandwidth choke points (or service outages) to get in the way of me doing work. wasting spending time commenting on El Reg takes up too much of my time already...

Re: "Upgrading users should be able to ignore the viewer as before."

"Most people have mobile Internet on their phone for when the PC is broken, and wired Internet on their PC for when their phone is broken."

I'd downvote with the link but the count is currently '42'

Re: "Upgrading users should be able to ignore the viewer as before."

"Sometimes we just want"

And Micro-shaft makes sure you ONLY GET what *THEY* WANT you to have!