Posts by bombastic bob 10903 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
I would think that if it had a pointy part with 'legs' on it like a molly screw, it could be fired at a rogue tumbling satellite, the pointy thing would penetrate and stay attached, and the entire operation would help to (eventually) de-orbit the thing.
Yeah, it would be like a "Space Ballista" if you think about it.
"can't determine Sandworm's initial means of intrusion"
It would seem to ME that there has been a LOT of intelligence gathering on this very topic, and we are just not being given the details.
* Russia deploys a weaponized virus+worm to a SCADA system controlling power distribution
* The system was apparently NOT connected to 'teh intarwebs' directly (as it should be)
* Spyware returned intelligence, allowed remote control and "denial of service" attack
You know SOMEONE is watching all of this, taking notes, and NOT revealing what is actually known.
Putting on my conspiracy hat, THIS is the kind of situation that warmongers MIGHT manipulate others into, in order to reveal previously unknown information.
(So Ukraine war is deliberately being turned into a prolonged QUAGMIRE so that warmongers can learn about Russian cyber warfare tactics?????)
I am a LOT more concerned about the "Woke Speech". Asking ChatGPT on certain topics either gets you a lecture, or even outright pejorative comments towards those who do not hold the currently accepted "settled science" position, particularly with respect to things like "Climate Change" and "Net Zero".
Seems the robots are heavily biased towards 15-minute cities and restricting our freedom, and calling those who do not agree "deniers". Oh, and ChatGPT too, not just the fleshy robots.
I've seen plenty of examples of this sort of thing. It's seriously disappointing. The entire model of scanning what people CLAIM and how frequent+loud those opinions are drives it into ARTIFICIAL STUPIDITY... just like WIkipedia is on certain topics.
Grok needs to be completely DISINFECTED from the 'Woke Mind Virus'. THAT would make it USEFUL.
the touch interface would not work under Wayland.
At least you CAN "switch back" to XOrg. For now.
[this helps to prove that Wayland on RPi, which would interfere with the BEST feature that using Linux for an embedded OS can offer, i.e. running GUI applications via the network on a remote computer, would be a HUGE mistake and any workaround kludge that CLAIMS to still work is just going to create even MORE problems]
How many "native Wayland applications" had to be uninstalled and replaced with Xorg compatible ones? Or was it just the GUI toolkits?
(put on your gravelly 'movie trailer guy' voice for this one)
"In a world, where embedded developers use the Raspberry Pi hardware to create awesome devices, something is brewing underneath..."
'"I used to be able to do my code editing on my Xorg-based Linux desktop, with the DISPLAY environment variable pointing to it on the RPi. But NOW, Wayland is PREVENTING THIS from WORKING! The RPi touch screen is just WAY TOO SMALL! And I can't even work with HEADLESS systems any more! What am I going to do?'
PFF dit dit dit dit dit dit dit dit BOOM dit dit dit BAM dit dit dit *PWAAAH*
"Embedded developers, forced to work on a small RPi-compatible screen, lose their patience... and their SANITY"
'I cannot TAKE this any more! WAYLAND has RUINED MY CAREER!!! DAMN YOU, Raspnerry OS!!!'
"Coming this year, to an engineering lab near you: NIGHTMARE on WAYLAND STREET!"
at least one software developer online believes that Micros~1 EVENTUALLY intends to DROP the Win32 API, based on things he's read.
This would CERTAINLY *BREAK* all legacy software and any hope of using Wine.
Never say "They'll NEVER do that." Because what they did in 7 was the LAST attempt to make customers happy. Windows 8 and later have ONLY been Micros~1 STRONG-ARMING us into a "solution" for non-existent "problems" that take away OUR ownership of the computer and transfer it all to THEM, beginning with the Micros~1 Logon and FORCED UPDATES.
They believe they have the bull by the balls, and are in a position to DEMAND we COMPLY. Unfortunately this seems to be true.
"If you can, ditch Windows ASAP."
I let my Visual Studio (formerly known as MSDN) subscription expire. The keys I already claimed for Win 7 VMs (etc.) remain valid.
If I need an 11 box in the future (let's say to do taxes) I can buy the cheapest piece o' crap with 11 pre-installed for less than HALF of what it costs per year.
I'm too old to switch gears and have PLENTY of embedded opportunities with Linux, etc.. No need to maintain it.
Saving $800/yr is something I have to do because of the economic situation degrading since 2021. I chose NOT to burden my main customer by raising rates 20% to compensate. I think I get more work that way, as they've been seeing cash flow issues from the economic stupidity that's mostly created by gummints.
So saving money by NOT renewing MSDN/Visual Studio makes TOTAL sense. Not like I've had it for over 20 years or anything...
(and if I occasionally do windows dev it's always a 7-compatible EXE with *NO* ''.Not' entanglements, and I use the 2010 DevStudio 'cause everything after that was oriented towards TIFKAM etc.)
That's right. They LOST me as a customer. Buh-Bye Micros~1. *hork* *spit*
"phones are now 7" because zoomers use it as their one and only "computing" (consumption) device"
yeah, probably true but I cannot see putting a 7" slablet up to your ear to talk on a phone... (but I guess some people do that)
mine's the phone that isn't that smart, just me for paying $100/yr for a pre-paid that I really never use except when I really need it)
The #1 missing feature in Wayland is the use of the DISPLAY environment variable, either from the SAME machine (which lets me use multiple user contexts) or from across the network (which lets me do EMBEDDED DEVELOPMENT).
A kludge layer is insufficient as far as I am concerned.
Wasting time re-inventing the desktop to be more like MICROS~1 has lost us 10+ YEARS of what COULD have become X11R8 or even R9, with even more built-in enhancements (let's say some or all of the OpenGL and Cairo features) and dynamically loaded legacy support for ONLY when it is actually needed (to reduce memory footprint). Keeping the client/server model, then enhancing it with multi-core awareness, can ONLY make the desktop more efficient, maybe even better than Wayland PROMISES to be.
I *HATE* so many of these "it is OUR turn now" "features" being done by INEXPERIENCED developers. This not only includes Gnome, Windows, KDE, and Wayland but this ENTIRE paradigm shift from ACTUAL 3D skeuomorphic displays into "New Shiny" with MISSING features, and 2D FLATTY FLATSO UNSHADED CHEAP PHONE-LIKE UIs, using light blue on white (aka 'unreadable') FLAT BOXES instead of buttons, too much white space, and light grey on bright white text. You know, like CHROME.
It's as bad as ViDEOS TAKEN IN TALL-SKINNY ASPECT, apparently the way in which "4 inchers" (aka those who view the universe through a 4 inch phone screen) narrowly view EVERYTHING.
So while putting their NARROW focus on Wayland, FLATSO interfaces, hamburger menus, AdWaita, and phone-like appearance with UNREADABLE color combinations, these same "developers" spend the last 10+ years unnecessarily re-inventing something that WORKS, and instead of an evolutionary change (like mempry mapping and X video and OpenGL and so forth) seek to REPLACE it with what THEY *FEEL* (not THINK) is "superior" and eventually FORCE the REST of us to get on board THEIR train, because "their turn now".
systemd was unfortunately just a warning sign of "more to come".
Obviously these "developers" either did NOT read or did not understand Aurthur C. Clarke's 'Superiority'.
I have to wonder how much of this CHANGE (for the sake of change) is being driven by RH, Google, and Micros~1 funding...
"the sheer persistence of the holes in its feature list leaves me worried."
This is why Wayland can NOT just 'take over' in place of XOrg
#1 feature: remote execution, perfect for embedded development, and the VERY thing X was designed to do. Wayland FAILS.
And so far that is reason ENOUGH for ME to NEVER install Wayland.
I had an idea to make a 3d printed model steam plant. had a turbine wheel that looked pretty good. But then I tried one component (air ejector) with actual steam from a Cappucino machine and it quickly warped and melted. Well, that means I'd have to send out for parts to be made of metal, which kinda took the wind out of my sails.
Seeing this idea pulled off for REAL sounds pretty fun, actually.
I prefer the EXISTENT "big reactor" industry. We should be producing at least half of electricity with nuclear power, and use carbon-based fuel plants, hydro plants, and so-called "renewables" to handle the variable demand. Often the constant demand is handled by coal plants, but I think that replacing them with nuclear is better in the long run.
Not to say that coal is NOT the right choice in a lot of cases, just that its up/down sides have to be weighed against similar up/down sides for Nuclear.
[actually coal plants could be adapted to burn plastic waste if you mix it with the coal, as so much plastic never actually gets recycled]
Fukushima was an accident because of a natural disaster, a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that flooded the emergency generators. Radiation release was limited. I would live near there now without any concerns. But the area needs a good cleanup first. Think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which after cleanup, were ok to live in.
Sorry, you cannot cherry pick information and then go into hysterical hyperbole to make your point. El Reg is frequented by very smart people.
Here is a site reporting some more recent analysis (2021-ish) from Fukushima radiation monitoring and from what I can tell [I'm not good at reading Japanese with kanji, and lots of PDFs - I looked at a weighted average and tried my best] it appears to say that the current water radiation levels are below the limit allowed for drinking water.
https://www.tepco.co.jp/en/hd/decommission/data/analysis/archive/2021/202101-e.html
Are you talking about Charnobyl? That particular cold war accident was pretty bad, and yet the effect on surrounding populations (to the best of my knowledge) does not appear to be significant.
Animals currently live there. The forest is taking over the site. It's "habitable" although I would not want to live there. Most of the problematic radiation appears to be from Cs-137 but that's a group I metal and would form a salt (or a hydroxide deposit) and eventually wash away with rain. 30 year half life suggests that 150-200 years of "uninhabitability" is about the worst you can expect.
Most of the 2009 survey results were in the area of 1uSv/hr (0.1 mrem/hr). I regularly got 80-100mrem/year just being at sea level, without being around an operating reactor, when I was in the Navy (while underway under water we got LESS radiation from the reactor than people get from the sun). At 2.4mrem/day (or about 1 rem/year) you are actually BELOW the legal limit for being a radiation worker in the USA. So after 5 or 6 half lives (2^-5 to 2^-6) you can project the radiation rate will be 1.5% to 3% of that. Habitable.
Lots of info here including 2009 radiation measurements
http://www.chernobylgallery.com/chernobyl-disaster/radiation-levels/
Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine got most of the radiation. A lot went to Sweden but apparently did not cause any well known health effects
The best examples we have on serious fallout and habitability are Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both cities are basically normal with no indications of radioactive contamination nearly 80 years later.
Does experience working with nuclear reactors and health physics qualify me? It's a bit out of date but certainly better than WIkipedia.
MUCH of what you are saying smacks of anti-Nuke hysteria. Those who dislike carbon fuels SHOULD embrace nuclear power but they usually do NOT. This is because (In My Bombastic Opinion) it is NOT about the environment or people's lives; it is INSTEAD about power, control, and the usual separation of the have's from the have-not's in a totalitarian system where upward mobility is heavily restricted for the average individual.
Flying on an airplane at 30,000 feet and getting an annual dental exam probably irradiates you MORE than any environmental effect from nuclear power plants, because the containment vessels have been carefully designed. I did a research paper on them once, back in 1979. The design included hurricane force winds flinging logs directly at them, and NOT having the inner wall crack from the impact.
it would depend on what is being calibrated. Let's say you have a specific secondary vibration limit (like a resonant harmonic) that cannot be exceeded. Measuring that secondary vibration would require a calibrated instrument. Or it could just be a total accelerometer signal level when vibration is induced. Anyway, THAT kind of thing.
(this based on my U.S, Navy nuclear power experience)
Once (nearly a decade ago) I took a 9 axis IMU and made it into a vibration sensor with an Arduino. It measured harmonics on a piece of material that was 'thumped' while weight was being applied as stress. The weight had the vibration sensor attached to it. This was a concept thought up by a materials guy who (as I recall) was working on his doctorate at the time.
"surely there have never been accidents because nuclear fuel got dropped accidentally?"
[and now I get to say it - "and don't call me Shirley" - heh]
Just do not accidentally form a supercritical mass when it lands... although without a casing it would go "ploothhh" instead of "boom" and maybe the containment vessel would keep it out of the surrounding environment, but that's similar to what SL-1 had happen (accidental supercriticality) and it's not good.
(yeah you would hope things were already designed to prevent such catastrophes, but when you compound procedural sloppiness and design issues you sometimes get catastrophes, RIGHT Three Mile Island?)
One possibility, just use a swapfile-backed memory map for your in-memory storage, one that is persistent (if necessary). On Linux, the 'mmap()' C lib function would do nicely. Then you'd just need some kind of utility to fix things or otherwise manage some settings and there ya have it.
"A hash table is a simple form of a key-value store but i wouldn't call it a type of database."
That is my preference, and I normally just pound out the code directly when it's needed (rather than shoe-horning in some 3rd party dependency).
A [scaled] CRC makes for a nice hash method. COPYPASTA a 20 line function and that part's done. Then you just need a simple structure array to store it in. A few more minutes and you've got a class or handful of simple management utility functions. Done. Serial lookup or hashed index (as needed).
I might eventually need W11 for doing my taxes "not on the cloud".
If that happens I'll get the cheapest pile of crap I can find that has 11 pre-installed. If I cancel my MSDN this time, it will pay for it 5 times over in 2 years.
I did zero windows development in the last year., and what I DID do (load something someone else did) I did with a DevStudio that runs on WIn7.
getting sick of Micros~1 and I'm too old to care any more.
[I should just stick with what I have, do not need TIFKAM or .Not or that other "App" thing]
If they kill Win32 API, I'm done with them forever.
min acceleration from 18k mph to 25k mph to get it out of earth orbit
or... de-orbit from 18k to about 16k and let the atmosphere do the rest (and humans have tons of experience doing precise de-orbit maneuvers)
probably cost way more to leave earth orbit, fuel + rockets + bigger engines etc.
Well, suppose Elon does a Falcon heavy but does NOT separate the outer boosters before it's in orbit... and the ENTIRE payload is a bunch of FUEL placed into orbit.
Then it is a matter of placing the 3 boosters (or maybe just one) into position, re-fueling them in space, and sending it all back the other way at the proper time.
SpaceX Falcon 9 boosters are (by definition) re-usable. It may be the least expensive option.
[re-fueling in space will eventually need doing, so why not use this time to develop a reliable process?]
Most likely it would work but of course we need data to prove it.
Just how hard would it be to make a 'habitat ring' that spins, for the ISS ? Gyro-stabilized and/or dual counter-rotation to overcome effects of friction and minimize the need for stabilizing thrusters...
Single-rotor helicopters need tail rotors. So a solution for friction (and rotation/mass changes) on rotating artificial gravity would need to be able to produce some kind of counter-torque.to stabilize it.
In My Bombastic Opinion any new battery tech needs to focus on something OTHER than lithium, particularly something that is CHEAP to build, yet still lightweight.
Aluminum battery tech may be the best alternative to something that is likely to form a bottleneck in the supply chain (i.e. Lithium batteries made by CCP). If they are SERIOUS, this is what they will do.
But, if they just want to suck away public funds to hire overpaid people and get ALL NEW equipment for the lab... don't expect ANYTHING revolutionary.
(and NO hiring CCP foreign nationals, either)
Other inexpensive and lightweight materials may be just as good (or better) than aluminum. Problems with lithium (easily catches fire under certain conditions) would be eliminated (not to mention the ENRICHING of the CCP as they have cornered the market on Lithium)
I'm not a fan of pure EV but HYBRID often makes sense as long as the battery does not make them cost prohibitive. Domestically produced inexpensive batteries using materials like Aluminum (which is cheap and available) would help a LOT. Aluminum batteries would also be good for phones, laptops, and so on. I'd just deal with the extra few ounces of weight, if any.
all snarky laughter aside, I ran into a problem with Rocky Linux's default config where they were (internally) using an RFC1918 address range that MATCHED THE NETWORK ADDRESS BLOCK BEING USED FOR THE ETHERNET. Needless to say, routing problems were UNSOLVABLE until I realized what they'd done, after which I did a grep on /etc for "192.168" and found where it was being assigned and then modified it to use something different... I forget what it was for, though. I told the Rocky devs on IRC about it.
"reserved XXX" that nobody knows about except the dev 'wot dun it'. yeah.
"So he admits to using code that he developed whilst working at a former employer for a later employer"
as long as you have permission, it's cool, but you want it in writing.
I have often done my own thing, then (after making it public) used parts of (or even all of) some my 'personal library' to speed up development. But I always put something in writing, and generally comment in the code "this portion of the code is from XXX github.com/whatever and is used by permission" etc. then written permission to the customer/boss, etc..
But yeah your code is OWNED by the company that pays you unless you get permission to use it.
[and yet EVERYONE has a library of past works, don't they? Just be careful using them...]
Excel, In My Bombastic Opinion (and its close relative, LibreOffice Calc) are VERY GOOD for certain *kinds* of analysis.
* I am too lazy to do calculus but I can copy a formula 1000 times with an incrementing 'x' and do an =sum() instead of a definite integral
* I want to chart some data really fast to see if I want to analyze it further
* I want to do :what if' analysis by coping formulas a bunch of times in cells instead of writing an algorithm
* I want to do some mass edits with tab delimited data and 'sed' + 'awk' would be too difficult
* I just want to collect a bunch of info that can be printed later (I do this for business expenses) and kept around forever
* I need to give a BOM to the boss and a spreadsheet lets me paste in URLs to a well known supplier (or download from their web interface if I create a BOM online) and the simple analysis would be total parts cost (from that supplier) as well as listing them all
* same spreadsheet is accepted by a board shop for assembly [so they can program their pick & place machines and source their own suppliers]
etc.
But yeah if I were serious about doing LOTS of math, I'd use a tool (or write one) that is more 'fit for purpose'
Here I am trying to remember all of the overhyped techno-buzzwords used in advertising, to try to ROOK people into buying into some "solution" that probably does not work, or at least not any BETTER than the old one.
So is a 5-tier solution better than a 3-tier? How about ONE HUNDRED TIERS! I'm left with nothing but tears...
Back in the 90's I worked on a program with a name that started with "AI". It used code generated by an algorithm that took a lot of parameters into consideration as part of its decision algorithm. By current standards it was primitive, but it did ok. Company ended getting purchased by a large company that was a customer, when it went started having financial problems. (I left before that)
Marketeers never cease to hype up 'snake oil' do they...
On a related note seems Warner signed a new "AI pop star", complete with a pretty decent single, and an "uncanny valley" video to go along with it:
Sometimes CUPS lags with 'bleeding edge' printer support. Solution: get a slightly older model, check for CUPS support beforehand. Save money. If it was bleeding edge 3 years ago, should be just fine now. Printer tech does not change THAT fast.
And if you check with the MFG they may have CUPS drivers, or if they support postscript even better!
I have an older 'all in one' print/scan/copy/fax that works well with CUPS and WIn 7. Yeah it is an HP but HPLIP is fine with me.
Had to use Win10nic this year to do taxes (did not want cloudy version), corporate AND personal.. Did it in a VM. Using 'windows update' print driver hung the driver, left paper stuck in printer with nothing printed on it EVERY! SINGLE! TIME!!!
I gave up, wrote to PDF (which TurboTax lets you do) and then used atril on FBSD to print stuff.
Maybe I can find a GENERIC postscript driver for Win1X that is compatible with CUPS and set up CUPS for internet printing - anyone?
I was thinking that this is Micros~1's way of "picking winners and losers".
You want YOUR device to run on Windows, right? Pay UP or GET LOST! *WE* control *EVERYTHING* now!!!
3rd party drivers and the DDK were one of the BIGGEST REASONS windows became "a thing". This new "One OS to rule them all" posture from the latest generation of "It's OUR turn now" [probably woke] 'engineers' is one of the biggest "READY, *FIRE*, AIM" "Shoot your own foot" maneuvers from these "less than highly intelligent" people YET...
One thing I have done in the past (somewhat necessary if chrome gets used when doing an embedded UI in kiosk mode) is to find out which files in Chrome's hierarchy can be deleted without deleting ALL of the personalized settings, and then DELETE THEM with a script on exit, or before Chrome starts.
That list seems to change a bit with newer versions, though...
If chrome has not yet got one, it needs an "erase history on exit" feature. Firefox has this (or did last I checked).
Chrome is often brain-damaged and even caches style sheets when you are trying to work on them,. Painful.
At some point the 'M' for 'MAP' will be added to the LGB alphabet soup (if things continue on the current path), much to the chagrin and outrage of the 'LGB' portion (who just want to be left alone to live their lives, consenting adults etc,). The radicalized agenda has driven things WAY past common sense, long ago, and everyone who disagrees with this new added letter (or is outraged by it) will be labeled 'bigot' or some kind of '-phobe'.
(I'm sure pointing this out is potentially offensive to many, but so is having an agenda crammed at us, so SOMEONE had to say what many are thinking, and take the arrows).
That being said, the "moral outrage" crowd that would play "THOUGHT POLICE" with art that does NOT exploit actual children may actually end up signing onto the radicalized agenda behind changing the word 'pedophile' to 'MAP'. Do NOT doubt me! (Rush Limbaugh used to say things about this topic a LOT, particularly regarding organizations like NAMBLA, who have been around for a LONG time)
(sad face because nobody really wants the 'M' for MAP in there)
To summarize, exploiting actual children needs to be punished with extreme prejudice to the fullest extent of the law.
Prosecution for anything else that does NOT exploit an actual child is essentially "THOUGHT POLICE" and must NEVER happen, regardless of any professed "moral outrage"
That's my take on it, at any rate.
[environmentalist wackos] "questioning the decision-making process of the FAA in granting SpaceX a license to launch in the first place."
I wonder how many of them use things like cell phones, internet, and satellite TV? You know, things that (often) need A ROCKET to put a mini-moon into orbit.
Vexatious SLAPP sueballs - there needs to be a SERIOUS PUNISHMENT for doing that, but it seems there never is...
(it's an example of 'Tyranny of the MINORITY')
"Who owns any product these days?"
* TV deliberately "not smart" and not connected to intarwebs (cable box notwithstanding)
* Blu Ray NOT connected to intarwebs either
* Computers built by me running FBSD and Linux except that one that has windows 7 on it (reconditioned Lenovo, from which i do NOT web surf)
* Car is 20 years old. I keep fixing stuff when it breaks.
* Fridge, clothes washer, GAS clothes dryer, microwave oven are well over 20 years old (old school stuff) and still work.
This old stuff still works just fine. "Upgrades" are *HIGHLY OVERRATED*
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