Posts by bombastic bob

Microsoft patches problematic OS to deal with SSD woes

Re: Masterful PR tactics

RH asks money for support. But last I checked, Fedora is still free.

And to get rid of systemd, how about Devuan? [works for me]

I really hate it when FUD is so obviously FUD.

Hold on. Here's an idea. Let's force AI bots to identify themselves as automatons, says Cali

I doubt a law will make a difference.

a) robo-calls are ALREADY illegal, except for politicians [they exempted themselves, of course]

b) the 'do not call' list exists, but the robo-dialers IGNORE it, already illegal but they don't care

c) robo-callers NEVER identify themselves - if they did, I'd report them to 'donotcall.gov'. It's always "press 1 to speak to a human" or whatever

If I could personally "take care" of the humans who run these operations, I'd do it. They flaunt the law, so _I_ should be able to as well, right? </joking-but-not-really-joking>

In any case, they're already flaunting the existing laws. Adding more laws won't solve anything. ACTUALLY PROSECUTING THEM would. Jail time would be appreciated. These bottom-feeding nuisances need their "come-uppance" at the earliest possible opportunity.

Microsoft gives users options for Office data slurpage – Basic or Full

Re: Corporate users?

What now?

Abandon MS Orifice, particularly 'Virus Outbreak' (aka 'Microsoft Outlook') and switch to Libre Office.

That's my suggestion. Don't worry, the cost savings and increased security/privacy will outweigh any "disadvantages" that might occur along the way. Once everyone gets used to it, you're all set!

Re: Firewalls?

Ummm... what "vital" service does Microsoft offer

Well if you're a programmer and need MSDN stuff [for example] that might be considered "vital" to your profession.

Otherwise, for 'mortals', I'd say "NOTHING".

Re: Dear Microsoft

Libre Office and Open Office are looking a LOT better these days!

I wonder if Corell, Lotus, and Word Perfect might resurrect something to compete, making "no slurp" their primary FEATURE?

US Senator Ron Wyden to Pentagon: Encrypt your websites

Re: Here's an Idea

"Maybe we need to convince Americans that Encryption is like a gun"

Back in the early 90's, it was. Exporting encryption technology carried restrictions such that "strong" encryption technology could not be exported. This resulted in a number of _BAD_ things, from 'weak' https in U.S.-written web browsers, to Korea's SEED encryption (which is ActiveX based among other BAD things).

So yeah, this paradigm of 'encryption as a weapon' - already tried, and the unintended consequences were just *BAD*.

Re: Why is self-signed such a bad idea ?

"the problem is that the largest PKI trust chain out there - which includes the most common Web browsers - doesn't recognise the DoD as a trusted root CA"

sounds like "someone" didn't pay "someone else" enough PAYOLA to 'play in their sand box'.

Yeah, I bet it's POLITICAL. Well, my earlier suggestion was for the DoD to issue their own root certs (being their own root CA basically) _AND_ at the same time, if "the world" won't play, then they ISSUE THEIR OWN BROWSER, too.

While they're at it, I'd appreciate a firefox fork that had the "old school" interface (no flatso Australis, no hamburger, 3D looking buttons, nice colors). And, of course, one that ACCEPTS the DoD's CA.

I think it's time that the DoD stop using 3rd parties (especially akamai) for certs and ONLY issue their own. Browser makers will just have to get on board and recognize the DoD's root certs.

If they won't, then it's time for the DoD to "issue it's own browsers", too. Wouldn't be that hard...

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04: Make yourself at GNOME. Cup of data-slurping dispute, anyone?

Re: "opt-out was probably the best choice"

I'm pretty sure the article said that the IP addresses weren't being logged... so "not persionally identifying" and "not personal data". which is fine with me. I might consider letting Ubu (and others) know stuff about what I install and where I install it, next time I install one of their distros.

I used to allow that, long ago, even for Micro-shaft, until it became obvious we were being snooped and tracked and whatnot by aggressive advertising firms that seek to target us with their marketing.

Perhaps this article is like the pendulum swinging back towards the middle again?

EmDrive? More like BS drive: Physics-defying space engine flunks out

Re: The Germans don't watch youtube enough

the problem with photon propulsion is that the energy required is highly inefficient. the existing ion drive using a heavy element gas is much better, since thrust = delta momentum = delta velocity * mass of propellant.

To double thrust you either double delta-velocity or double mass. If you double delta-velocity, then delta-kinetic-energy is QUADRUPLED.

So shooting photons has nearly zero mass times "speed of light squared" energy, as compared to something considerably less relativistic speed-wise, and the mass of a heavy nucleus. It may consume fuel, but the ion drive wins every thrusting contest this way.

Yeah the dream is sticking out your solar panel and having an electric no-fuel thruster, but it would be SO inefficient...

President Trump broke US Constitution with Twitter bans – judge

Re: The Question is...

"All because one man in a powerful position can't tell the difference"

more like: All because ONE CAREFULLY SHOPPED-FOR JUDGE and a handful of money-grubbing l[aw]yers want to INJECT CHAOS into the system through FRIVOLOUS LAWSUITS AND FRIVOLOUS 'DAMAGE' CLAIMS, as usual. These sewers suers are the REAL problem...

About to install the Windows 10 April 2018 Update? You might want to wait a little bit longer

Re: Not Avast Me Hearties!

looks like Avast FAILED to recognize Win-10-nic as "the virus"...

Re: QA Anyone?

Micro-shaft doesn't do 'QA' any more. They fired all of their QA staff just before releasing Win-10-nic upon the masses. Yeah no $#!+ this really happened!

Re: Steve

Re Linux: "I switched 2 years back. Much happier now. I only miss paint"

gimp can do most of what MS Paint does [and without "the ribbon" or "the metro"], and a LOT more.

As for anti-virus causing this: At least in Linux and on the BSD's, you really DO NOT NEED anything *like* anti-virus [unless you lack the intelligence to NOT do things as 'root' all of the time, or mis-configure sudo to be promiscuous with permissions].

This is because Windows has been 'insecure by default' for a VERY, LONG, TIME!

So when "the fix" becomes "the cause", you KNOW it's F.U.B.A.R.!

/me points out that fixing any Linux system [that might have been root'd or virus'd] generally means inserting the Live CD/DVD, booting the optical media, going to a recovery console, and re-installing the base OS packages. it would require a *little* computer savvy, but not a whole lot. Compare THAT to fixing a windows system with the problem described by this article. yeah.

Hitler 'is dead' declares French prof who gazed at dictator's nashers

Re: Conspiracy Theories?

"So if Hitler died in 1945 who DID shoot Kennedy then ?"

I'm tempted to say "yer mom" but I won't. Heh.

Well, the general conspiracy surrounding Kennedy is that a) Oswald was a lousy shot [confirmed by my uncle, by the way], and b) he was NOT working alone.

At the time Kennedy was succeeding in the area of civil rights, particularly with respect to the way black people were being unfairly treated in the southern states (like Mississippi). It's a fair bet that someone(s) in the Demo[c,n]rat party wanted him to 'go away'. LBJ claimed to be 'pro civil rights', but there's enough secondary evidence "out there" to prove he really wasn't. Although I doubt LBJ was behind it, the conspiracy would be "someone within the government" hired Oswald, and also had someone staged on 'the grassy knoll' who made the fatal shot. And when you look at what's being investigated at the moment with respect to the U.S. DOJ and FBI in particular, it's not that much of a stretch.

[last time I was in Dallas, well, the ONLY time anyway, I could've gone to the mini-museum they apparently have there, but I didn't. I wasn't that bored, and it was only a 2.5 day business trip]

As for Hitler's remains, I think the Russians did NOT want anyone DISproving that it's Hitler. The fact that it was PROVED to be Hitler must be a sigh of relief for more than a few people. Russia was probably the biggest single victim of Hitler's activities during WW2. As I recall they suffered more casualties than anyone else, or at least that's what Stalin wanted everyone to believe. So yes, they have a vested interest in knowing that THEY have Hitler's dead body, and it's definitely Hitler, if for no other reason than a bit of national pride. And no conspiracies allowed [from their perspective, I'd say].

Re: Um… Why?

"And do people who voted for Trump, or for Farage, ever wonder how someone like Hitler could ever have gotten into power?"

I know _exactly_ how Hitler rose to power. In fact, in the 'Star Wars' universe, it's very much like the way that Emperor Palpatine did HIS rise to power. Yeah, I noticed.

a) identify a 'crisis', and work both ends against the middle, by identifying 'a villain' (even if it's fabricated)

b) appear to be 'the savior' and [with natural ability to motivate people] get yourself put in charge [even if it means assassinating your way to the top]

c) dissolve the parliament so that you become dictator [this is the most necessary step]. Just rendering the parliament irrelevant isn't enough.

that pretty much sums it up, I think

Re: Still I don't understand why Russian doesn't allow full tests.

conspiracy theories may obfuscate other things that are just as "conspiracy worthy" but may either be embarrassing or implicate other criminal behavior that "they" want kept under wraps...

It may be that the Russians don't want Hitler's body turned into an object of religion, or bring too much attention back to a period of time that should be remembered "a certain way". Also there was some kind of DNA analysis done on one of the bone fragments many years ago and the conclusion was (as I recall) that it was female DNA. I call B.S. on that in general, but who knows, maybe Hitler was an 'xx male' [which is 'a thing', xx males typically have undersized genitalia and are sterile but in other ways look and act 'male'].

In any case the Russians are sticking with their story that Hitler is dead, and they have the body. I think this last analysis pretty much nails THAT coffin shut. Good riddance to the world's worst A-hole, EVAR.

/me reminded of Hitler in a French Maid outfit, getting his daily pineapple, in 'Little Nicky'

The future of radio may well be digital, but it won't survive on DAB

Re: There are plenty of reasons NOT to use IP

"2) multicast is your friend"

and the router bandwidth that it would require is NOT. Just sayin'.

On a related note, about 30-something years ago (in the USA) the AM band was almost dead. NOBODY listened to music stations on AM. There were attempts at AM stereo, but it doesn't address the fundamental problems. Quadrature detectors in AM receivers help a LOT, but you still get a lot of noise. Yet, just about every car still has an AM radio. Why?

Well, AM was basically saved by the news/talk format. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, MIchael Reagan, Dr. Laura, Glenn Beck, and many others [including local talk hosts and nighttime shows like 'Coast to Coast AM'] basically re-opened the AM band with shows that people could listen to while driving, working, or whatever. For drivers, there are the frequent traffic updates. And so AM is still "a thing" around 100 years after the first radio transmissions.

As for FM, digital exciters can improve the quality on the modulation side, and digital music playback in the studio gets rid of the pop/hiss/scratch of vinyl. FM quality is extremely good (at least here in the USA).

This is all because AM and FM broadcasters (including the PBS and college stations) need to compete for an audience, here in the USA. I'm not sure about how the BBC is set up, but it seems to me that there isn't a significant amount of competition for them on radio. That's probably the driving force for 'change' even when 'change' isn't for the better. You know, like what Micro-shaft did with Windows "Ape" and Win-10-nic.

(I'm quite happy with FM radio quality and AM programming out here on the left coast of the USA, and the fact that ancient radios can still receive it)

/me wonders how you can teach electronics to a kid when crystal radios no longer receive anything?

Astronaut took camera on spacewalk, but forgot SD memory card

Re: Next NASA manual...

how to insert/remove an SD card while wearing space gloves...

Boffins detect antimatter thundering down from Hurricane Patricia

in effect, storms causing nuclear reactions

did Tesla learn about this 100 years ago?

Now I wanna build a million volt Tesla coil to test the theory...

OK now let's speculate on how this might affect a FUSION reaction... if high static potentials can cause electron/positron pair production, what ELSE can you create with it? A wormhole?

heh, mad science rules!

Microsoft, Google: We've found a fourth data-leaking Meltdown-Spectre CPU hole

Re: So who else...

"The fourth variant can be potentially exploited by script files running within a program"

and I too, run 'NoScript' for reasons that now include THAT --^^^

US Congress mulls expanding copyright yet again – to 144 years

Re: Creative Commons

using 'pay/donate if you like it' is kinda like shareware. I'm sure it works, but artists will probably starve.

It also takes power away from MPAA and RIAA (etc.)

Unfortunately, the existing system [even though it picks the winners and losers] is more lucrative to actors, artists and musicians.

Re: Copyright extensions need to stop

"the history of that little ditty that gets sung at just about everyone's birthday party"

not 'the birthday dirge', right?

(to the tune of 'Volga boatmen')

Oh, happy BIRTH-day

Oh, happy BIRTH-day

Misery and despair, people dying everywhere

Oh, happy BIRTH-day

You're getting OLD-er

Re: Copyright, Patents all screwed.

"If your song suddenly resurges after 30 years"

A resurgence of 80's music, WITHOUT copyright protection? TOTALLY AWESOME!

[and it would shed the light on how lousy most "modern" music is, by comparison]

On a related note, Smash Mouth did pretty well with retro-60's stuff. A case in point!

Re: Copyright, Patents all screwed.

"the rhythmic moaning of some idiot who can not hold a tone without massive computer filtering"

good one! [it's why I don't listen to most 'modern' RIAA stuff']

Re: how long before...

"The 144 years would be reasonable"

No, it's really not reasonable. It's "gross". Why is it 144 anyway? What kind of rectal extrapolation made THAT determination?

This entire proposal stinks of rectal juice. Because that's where they pulled it out from.

Copyright should have a reasonable restriction in time. Otherwise, it's just "money grubbing" by entities that live longer than the humans that created the content in the FIRST place.

Now that's old-school cool: Microsoft techies slap Azure Sphere IoT chip in an Altair 8800

ack about 'the cloud' - "there is a lot more that can go wrong"

'The Cloud' is _highly_ overrated. I'd much rather have everything running without 'teh intarweb' connection.

[but without 'teh intarweb' and "The Cloud", you can't be turned into revenue for 'the providers' - yes, that was a lame star trek reference]

Other than that, I think the RPi PDP 11 was much cooler! (and a bit more old-school)

Das blinkenlights are back thanks to RPi revival of the PDP-11

I cut my teeth on a PDP-11

back in the day, 11/34 at my high school, and 11/70 at the university. the 11/34 ran RT-11. The 11/70 ran RSTS/E. I did some interesting things with assembly language, the most useful of which was a re-write of the access program for diskettes [it was tee'd from a terminal on a 9600 baud serial port] that did NOT lose data. The one written by the grad student DID lose data, and was pretty much worthless with more than a handful of people on the system. students were supposed to do backups using that diskette drive, but write-only memory is pretty worthless.

WIthout my assembly language program, it was 'write only'. that's because the grad student made a n00b mistake: he assumed that the input buffer would never fill up. what I did to fix it: I sent one buffer's worth of data at a time, and polled for the next buffer after receiving it. Also mine had a FAT-like directory instead of skipping through the disk looking for "directory tags" that would fail for binary files. yeah, mine could store binary files, too. But it was generally incompatible with the 'grad student' BASIC version.

I gave the system operators the source and everything, gave copies to friends, etc. before I left. Thing is, I fear that it was generally unused because nobody understood it... [or they feared I'd put some kind of back door into it, but i thought it was pretty simple ya know? comments read like a book, too]

Signal bugs, car hack antics, the Adobe flaw you may have missed, and much more

I'll have to agree with ACLU and EFF on this one...

U.S. border patrol should NOT be able to snoop/confiscate your devices, particularly if you're a U.S. citizen, without some kind of justifiable cause (and due process). ACLU and EFF are right on this one.

[getting a warrant usually doesn't take that long, courier goes to the court house with documents, judge reviews and signs [or not] the warrant]

I'd expect any rulings here would be applied to non-U.S.-citizens as well.

Open justice FTW! El Reg fought the law – and El Reg won

Re: “Too much GDPR documentation going on.”

when GDPR meets the public's right to know what's going on in the courtroom, who wins? This includes the public being able to see for themselves whether justice or INjustice was served.

Oh, and "nice job" there El Reg

Blood spilled from another US high school shooting has yet to dry – and video games are already being blamed

Re: Early information

Don't forget this (alleged) perpetrator also (allegedly) made BOMBS. If he's willing to do that, he's willing to engage in all *KINDS* of different illegal activity to do what he wants to do.

These kinds of people have a name: criminals. And no law in the world will stop them (but in most cases, it probably deters them). But the law CAN incarcerate them. And so it shall.

To the best of my knowledge, it was illegal for a 17 year old kid to even possess/transport firearms. It was illegal to bring them to school. It was also illegal to shoot people and plant bombs around the area.

Having laws against these things did not STOP them from happening. However, it DOES allow the courts to put this (alleged) perpetrator in JAIL, following proper legal procedings. And THAT should prevent him from doing it again, as well as sending a clear message to any OTHER potential perp out there... unless he gets off on a technicality, or slap-on-wrist sentencing for being "underage", and then gets out of prison to rinse/repeat.

(but this happened in Texas, so they'll throw the book at him)

Want to know what an organisation is really like? Visit the restroom

Re: I'm guessing

I'm still guessing whether the toilet paper unrolled off the top or from underneath (underneath makes one-handed operation easier), and whether it was 'open rolls' with plenty of spares handy, or a lock box filled with the kind of paper NOBODY would want to steal...

Seriously, Cisco? Another hard-coded password? Sheesh

Re: Unmentionable

"But poster above insists we must use 'person'? Is that really reparative, or merely retributive social flexing? Ah, but social rage is all the rage."

Well, proper grammar (see icon) defaults to MALE pronouns when the sex of the subject/object of the sentence is unknown. Changing that out for "the singular 'they'", or mangling anything with the word 'man' in it to be 'person' instead, is beyond silly.

And I shall continue to DELIBERATELY use 'man' 'he' 'him' etc. whenever I might catch myself accidentally doing otherwise, because I know it will irritate the P.C. police. And it's GRAMMAR-IFIC!

Biometrics: Better than your mother's maiden name. Good luck changing your body if your info is stolen

Re: Biometrics vs Maiden Name

problems with biometrics:

a) scarring [obvious] or other debilitation

b) beards vs no beards

c) fingerprints can be faked with some ingenuity, some superglue, and some tape

d) not sure about retinas, but in how many movies has a stolen eyeball or special contact lense been used to fake that? [I have to wonder how realistic either of those is]

other than a DNA scan [which doesn't work between identical twins, as they have identical DNA] what else could there be? that is, without going the "whole body MRI" approach.

I suspect we'll all be 'chipped' before biometrics becomes practical for every day use at a point of sale machine or ATM.

Microsoft returns to Valley of Death? Cheap Surface threatens the hardware show

Re: It doesn't much matter

"I honestly don’t understand the Windows hate".

It's actually WIn-10-NIC and "Ape" hate. Windows XP and 7 are OK, as far as I'm concerned (and most of the Win-10-nic haters seem to agree).

Ever since Sinofsky and Larson-Greene invented "the Metro", Windows has been sliding down a slippery slope of angering their customer base with "new features", moving away from what the customer wants, and towards what THEY want the customers to HAVE, and often enough, not so gently.

Here are SOME of the reasons for the Win-10-nic hate:

1. The 2D FLATSO "tile screen" of Windows "Ape" and 'the Metro' in general.

2. The abandonment of the best of Windows 7's features

3. The addition of ads and spyware into Win-10-nic

4. The policy of "forced updates"

5. The COMPLETE lack of proper QA and testing of those updates

6. UWP foisted upon developers as "yet another" direction change, and only compatible with Win-10-nic

7. The use of GWX and other "sneaky methods" of shoving Win-10-nic onto your existing computer, whether you really wanted it or NOT.

And this tiny list *EASILY* explains the *HATE* on its own.

Even if you're a 'fanboi' and actually LIKE all of that stuff, it doesn't mean you shouldn't be able to see why OTHERS might hate Win-10-nic (for those reasons and others).

DOJ convicts second bloke for helping malware go undetected

35 years

for accepting money from criminals to give them critical assistance (apparently) in causing millions of dollars of damages.

If it had been assisting 'bank fraud' for millions of dollars, I think the 35 years would be about right. "white collar crime" needs to be punished like anything else, to put a stop to it. Long jail terms are a deterrent to OTHERS who might try this, thinking "slap on the wrist" at worst. nope. IRON BAR HOTEL STAY for half your life, instead.

Yeah, KEEP THEM OUT of law abiding society, k-thanks.

Software development slow because 'Most of our ideas suck'

Re: Flowcharts

actually, for most things, 'structure diagrams' replaced flowcharts a long time ago. It's part of the whole "top down programming" thing, which [of course] is *SUPERIOR* to whatever horrible "most of our ideas suck" process that generates things like Win-10-nic, FF Australis, gnome 3, systemd, ...

(that is because top down methodology defines the actual functionality FIRST, instead of moving the target continuously until you feel like you're "done")

Re: What's missing in this commentary

The difference between good and bad ideas is whether or not they bring benefit to the customer.

Heh, you must be OLD [like me]

Re: "Safe experimentation"

Only companies like Micro-shaft [with their forced updates and "up"grades] do 'continuous experimentation' on the unwitting public. Thing is, they all *FAILED* but nobody's willing to admit it.

Re: Precious

I prefer the one in the title: 'Most of our ideas suck'

Systemd is ONE of those that suck. So's the 2D FLATSO crap (including Australis). And yet, these ideas that SUCK have been foisted upon us, the customers, by aggressive "developers" who fail to realize that THEIR IDEAS SUCK.

Perhaps they need to stop trying to solve problems that do NOT exist? Oh but THEN their very existence wouldn't be JUSTIFIED and SMUG MILLENIALS wouldn't be able to CRAM THEIR CRAPWARE into our collective orifices, because they *FEEL* it's better, and it makes THEM FEEL GOOD to do it!

Yeah, it's all about "the feel" with those idiots. I'm glad someone's being HONEST about "most of our ideas suck" for once.

Old school inventors already knew this - I have to wonder how many times Edison tried to make a light bulb work by trying hundreds of configurations before he found one (carbon), which wasn't even the BEST material [but was the first one that worked well enough].

Net neutrality is saved in Senate vote! No, not really, it was a giant waste of everyone's time

actual legislation, not regulatory gerrymandering

is what is really needed. Obaka's FCC should NEVER have simply reclassified internet as a 1930's era telephone, and Pai is 100% correct to abandon that stupidity.

Con-grab needs to do THEIR job and address the issues properly, through a legislative process, and NOT an unconstitutional Obaka-era-style bureaucratic POWER GRAB.

And that was one of _MY_ main points from the beginning. but this was NEVER about 'net neutrality'. It was about REGULATORY POWER GRABS, and CIRCUMVENTING the legislative process, something OBAKA was INfamous for doing.

Oh, great, now there's a SECOND remote Rowhammer exploit

this sounds like you'd need to know something about the hardware

I suspect that direct access to the network is one of the pre-requisites, and with direct network access you'd be able to determine what hardware is being run [more or less] based on its MAC address.

However, I'd doubt any kind of proof of concept working across "teh intarwebs", even with a super-fast fiber line and distributed attack.

subsequent edit. From the linked article (PDF):

To induce the Rowhammer bug, one needs to access memory in the main memory repeatedly and, thus, needs to circumvent the cache. Therefore, either native flush in-structions [87], eviction [4, 28] or uncached memory [84] can be used to remove data from the cache. In particular, for eviction-based Nethammer, the system must use Intel CAT as described in Section 2.3 in a configuration that restricts the number of ways available to a virtual machine in a cloud scenario to guarantee performance to other co-located machines [40]. If none of these capabilities are available over the network, an attacker could not mount Nethammer in practice.

Boffins build smallest drone to fly itself with AI

"HydroElectric dams produce a shit load of power and are pretty darned reliable."

And are cost effective. /me likes hydro power.

But good luck getting one built, these days. Enviro-wackos will red-tape your project into non-existence.

Wait until the enviro-wackos start objecting about solar farms and windmills. No, wait...

https://www.audubon.org/news/will-wind-turbines-ever-be-safe-birds

[the only thing that will make enviro-wackos happy is if we ALL STOP using electricity and fossil fuels, period, and live like LUDDITES and/or Amish - except for them - because they're "the elite" and are "special" and it's OK when THEY "do whatever", it's just the REST of us that have to be inconvenienced, stopped, controlled, whatever]

Re: re: Dodgy Geezer

I'd rather have NUCLEAR than solar. MORE POWER!

And fusion energy (potentially) allows us to have virtually unlimited fuel, assuming you can make it fuse with 1H and not require 2H or 3H or something else.

The 1H+1H->2H fusion reaction has very little mass defect, but doesn't really consume any energy, so it should be possible to have 'breeder' fusion along with 2H+2H->4He fusion for power. Until then, we can use a centrifuge to separate out the heavy water and still be cost effective (and have LOTS of fuel available).

In any case, i just want the cost of energy to be lower, so if solar is actually cheaper [not because of gummint taxes and regulations and subsidies, either] then use it. Otherwise, burn dinosaurs and ancient plants. And nuclear fission, too. Whatever costs the least, doesn't force rolling blackouts or 'conservation' or any other inconvenience, etc..

After all, why should MODERN people in 1st world countries live like they're in 3rd world countries? if you run out, MAKE MORE (note: this does NOT mean 'pollute everything' so you anti-tech fascists can't say it now, bleah). And tell the enviro-wackies to GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY and stop blocking construction projects.

7 minutes' flight? That's still not bad, though battery tech now becomes the limiter, and not the electronics or programming.

the solar panel can be in the docking station. then you can make it as big as you want.

Agile development exposed as techie superstition

Re: Let's get rid of these myth too

"10x programmer"

no, that would be me. The secret to being a 10x developer is to get as much done in as short of a period of time as you can, so that you'll be left alone to work independently on "the hard stuff".

So if you come in and there's a backlog of things that need to get done, you hit them in order of 'easy to hard', with some "high priority" items stuck near the top so that people are happy with you. not only do you look as if you're DOING SOMETHING, you earn the freedom to approach things your own way, because it WORKS.

Then, when you've reached that difficult thing, you can spend time on that as you need to, because everything else got done. You can explain how hard it is, and maybe break it up into smaller goals that you can get as many as possible "done" within a short period of time, so it looks like you're busy and good at what you do.

Interestingly, when you reach a major roadblock, that requirement might end up being removed, when other people see how much effort is required. They get used to getting things done, too. Everybody wins.

Re: Agile, another idea sold to the weak minded

upvote for the title

Re: Another Speaker talking without experience

"I simply feel"

got my downvote. just being honest.

The problem with Agile appears to *BE* "feel". Instead of 'think'. Or study. Or analyze. Or 'manage'.

My number one example of this: The 'scrum' meeting in which everybody gets to have their 'say', including the PFY that wants to feel good about himself and his ideas. I've seen it before, and it was a disaster, when "junior guy" convinces "manager" that HIS idea is a good one, and then "manager" tells "senior people" to do it the way the PFY wants it done, amidst objection, but he's the boss. etc.

because, *feel* instead of think. A proper manager would NEVER allow THAT to happen. But it does.

Re: Thank the heavens

"the rest of us have to work in teams - typically with a wide range of skill, experience and frankly basic engineering talent."

This is where proper management comes into play, and a 'top down' method is superior: you define the requirements, put one member 'in charge' of the sub-tasking, and hand off "the task" to them in a way that stays out of other people's sandbox as much as possible. 'The Manager' would then be in charge of anything that crosses into other sandboxes. The manager would also assign the teams.

Competent management makes this possible. A lack of competent management may be the ROOT of why 'agile' was *FELT* to be "the right thing to do" (in a kind of 'straw' test case). Results, predictable.

Re: Thank the heavens

On the surface, 'Agile' sounds more like 'affiliation' management style, rather than a proper top-down 'delegator' style. Even a dictatorial 'authoritarian' style would be better [since directions and specifications are more likely to be clear, and not moving all of the time].

As opposed to what FRagile appears to be, an affiliation-based collective with a "let's just have a meeting and that will solve it" approach, because PFY *must* have ideas that are as good as grey-beard-ent engineers, because, FRagile. And meetings fix EVERYTHING!

/me once wrote a proof of concept in ~8 weeks [total effort], a linux kernel module, that was used as the demo for a new software product that was being worked on by 3 people (manager, senior eng, junior eng) for a *YEAR* and they STILL didn't finish, so they asked me to come back into that project [when junior guy was getting laid off] and basically 'get it working'. I saw the manager's door closed a LOT during that year, while the 3 of them wasted endless time in 'meetings' and I worked on a bunch of 'other things'. And I heard senior engineer trying NOT to complain, but throwing his hands in the air [effectively] at what "was decided" by the other two. A LOT. He did what he was told. Can't expect much else, really.

And, the talk when they started? How great 'agile' was and how they wanted to implement it in this project!

I've been told that what THEY ACTUALLY DID was not "agile" but who knows, maybe it really _was_...