Posts by bombastic bob

NASA scraps budget-busting GeoCarb greenhouse gas observatory project

collecting data from space = good

I think that collecting data from space and producing maps is a VERY good thing.

Down side, we won't have any starting point for comparable data. Trying to compare space data to on-the-ground trends would tend towards apple/orange comparisons.

Still it should help show things like whether active volcanoes ARE actually pumping huge levels of CO2 into the atmosphere (which i believe is the case).

This would also help with monitoring obviously-man-made CO2 concentrations in low-rain areas away from coastlines, taking wind and weather into consideration. It would help to show whether (or NOT, as I would claim) the models of CO2 production and depletion actually fit reality, and whether atmospheric CO2 concentrations are really affecting temperature [you could correlate concentration to cooldown rate at night when there are few clouds and no wind, for example).

Ideally this data would be available for EVERYONE so that citizen-scientists can look at it, etc. as well as college students and profs.

I just hope that they would not in any way filter the data to match a political position. Just raw and available to EVERYONE

(Maybe the other project can do the same? Save money and consolidate the mssions?)

that looks like a cultural reference that search engines aren't helping me with much...

Guess the most common password. Hint: We just told you

Re: What!?

an alternative, use something familiar followed by a short random sequence.

KeepassXC generates random pass if you want it. So I'll grab (let's say) 6 random chars, and either prefix or postfix something easy to type that is not easy to guess (let's say my favorite movie character but spelled wrong). So hansolow-{random sequence} then save it to KeePassXC and use either web browser password cache or KeePassXC to keep it.

For longer stuff like github keys I wrote an open source application with a simple shell script example that lets me store a password in an encrypted file. Then I enter the master pass phrase and it puts the password in the clipboard. Then I can say "git pull" on a private repo, enter anything for the user name, and paste in the password. Pretty simple, reasonably secure.

In any case if you do not have to remember it, a combination of "CorrectHorseBatteryStaple" approach with a pure random component is probably the easiest way to get a secure password.

Japan successfully propels steam-powered spacecraft

Re: EQUULEUS

some kind of carefully designed "thermos bottle" might retain heat well enough (on small amounts of propellant) to make this practical, so that you collect heat whenever it is practical to do so, then carefully retain it inside the specially designed tank containing a limited amount of propellant, enough to maneuver anyway. Remaining energy could also be accumulated from solar panels when batteries are fully charged (i.e. heat it electrically with spare trons).

in this case you need no vacuum container (space vacuum works) but you'd minimize the thermal conduction area and insulate as much as possible to avoid radiative cooling.

Re: EQUULEUS

might get more efficiency if you can put something in the water that retains more heat, weighs more than pure water, does not gunk things up,l and does not significantly increase the boiling point. That way you get more impulse for the same wattage, and fuel tanks can be smaller.

an alcohol of some kind might do the trick, maybe propanol/isopropyl or heavier...?

Time Lords decree an end to leap seconds before risky attempt to reverse time

cool... heh

Re: Didn't someone previously propose

"Don't Blink"

FTX disarray declared 'unprecedented' by exec who cleaned up after Enron

Re: Delaware

Close. And Joe Biden is FROM THERE...

Re: Next chapter

Bitcoin is kinda like Tulip bulbs being speculated on, and THEN actually being used as currency. Reference to this:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutch_tulip_bulb_market_bubble.asp

(They fell short of actually using them as currency as I understand it)

I avoid it because a) I cannot afford to lose an investment and b) it is SO volatlle and has 2 major drawbacks: it increases in value slowly, and drops in value RAPIDLY.

But some people invest, and some make money, and probably MORE people LOSE money. My bombastic opinion.

Re: "unprecedented"

Become a master criminal by running a successful company so badly that even though you make money, so did everyone else. have no accounting, no business plan. Then claim incompetence so your assets arent totally taken away. That being said if he has loads of offshore accounts everywhere then good luck finding them all.

Reminds me of "The Producers". When it is completely bankrupt, everyone loses their investment, but YOU keep everything you milked out of the company, even though it was a complete failure, YOU win.

and now a chorus of "Springtime for Hitler" sung by a strung-out out-of-time speed-freak hippy named Brain-Fried, who lives in a poly-amorous commune, and his finance officer, also part of the commune, that cannot even do BASIC MATH. Yeah that show is GUARANTEED to fail (for the investors and customers) !!! [I hear the company bought the Bahamas commune for them, for $40M]

(yeah that's 'unprecedented' alright!)

They're gonna put THIS one right at the front of the "Dumb Crook" file!!!

Re: LOL'd at this one

now they are gonna need a "handcuff" emoji to represent where most (if not all) of them are headed...

Re: LOL'd at this one

But... but... but... their ESG score was STELLAR! I mean, VEGAN! Contribute to DEMOCRATS! Climate Change!

And I'm sitting here rolling on the floor laughing over just how comical this all would look if Brain-Fried actually said that...

(while constantly jittering like he did in a video being interviewed by some liberal media guy, like he was strung out on speed)

I hear Brain-Fried is scheduled to make a speech in NYC on 11/30 or thereabouts. I hope he shows up!! "Inspector Zenigata" will be there with a nice new shiny pair of bracelets for him...

Twitter engineer calls out Elon Musk for technical BS in unusual career move

Re: Top marks for honesty

Frohnhoefer replied flatly: "Zero. The apps don't make RPC calls."

Technically correct, I suppose, as the app itself does not "make" the calls, it rather causes them to be made. The RPCs being referred to presumably happen server side?

arguments over terms and semantics. exactly what I think was happening.

This probably means that territorial boundaries are getting stepped on, and those in charge of the territories are getting nervous and a bit defensive...

(so maybe Elon wants to integrate and probably consolidate, a thing that a new CEO is likely to want to do)

Re: Bit klunky, but...

OK you are the captain of a ship. Someone on the bridge starts insulting your personality or ability to command the vessel because of a disagreement, maybe even during a crisis.

What do they call that again... MUTINY? INSUBORDINATION?

Yeah. from the perspective of the CEO, it is like THAT. UNDERMINING the leadership at the top to that extent can damage the company structure in ways you cannot imagine, if you think "feeling stupid" has anything to do with this.

This needs to pass the "shoe on the other foot" test.

Re: Bit klunky, but...

it is also possble that the term "RPC" in Elon's mind means something different in their programmers' minds, like "we do not do RPCs we do "remote API requests" or something equally tedious and irritating [so typical of people trying to hide things, or maybe Simon the BOFH when he wants the boss to leave him alone].

Musk understands enough to know the *kinds* of questions to ask. He expects (as was pointed out earlier) straight answers, and NOT territorial spats and blame on "10 years of coding".

Some time ago I was working on an application that collected data and sent it to a server by phone. Circumstances being what they were, the person who designed the server side left the company (maybe because I asked too many questions). But it was taking MINUTES to do uploads from an iPhone... and it was due to server-side kludginess! Needless to say I went in and improved the upload efficiency by a factor of 10 by re-writing significant parts in C instead of python. But for some reason that was NEVER considered until I did it. of course my reward was to have my contract NOT renewed, and now the company no longer exists due to the INCOMPETENCE of those who ran the show. I think one of the people behind it simply liked Python and did not want to see an EFFICIENT solution replace the Django one, even when being called by DJango as external utilities to process things. [he even went so far as to re-re-design the hardware for the only product using features the rest of us had abandoned years before because it was proven to fail catastrophically in a short amount of time, but who am I, I am not a college professor, just an engineer... academic arrogance, nuff said. project and company DIED]

And THAT example is kinda where I think Musk wants to go - he has discovered an obvious bottleneck, he wants to know why it is being done that way, and he wants to re-do things to address the worst of the efficiency problems first. if it has to round-trip to the server several [thousand?] times, you have performance problems. I bet that's what he means.

That is pretty much what *I* would do, too.

(this sort of lines up with how AGILE is FRAGILE, why you do NOT make everything 'object oriented', and why falling back to a well established standard compiled language like C instead of 'new, shiny' is not necessarily a bad thing...)

NASA's Artemis mission finally launches after faulty Ethernet switch delayed countdown

I had the evening cable news on while busy on the computer, noted the switch in coverage, watched the coverage (about 5 min I think). Very nice launch. I think NASA has redeemed themselves from the delays etc.. Much better than a spectacular loss of system integrity.

Looks like SLS will do the job. cheers!

Sorta reminds me of watching all of those Apollo (and some of the Gemini) launches back in the 60's and early 70's.

Wells Fargo, Zelle slammed by Liz Warren over rampant online banking fraud

Re: 0.1% fraud?

obviously they need to do better at dealing with fraud...

allowing transaction reversals by scammed customers might be a good start!

Re: Elizabeth Warren

yeah, pot and kettle. Exactly.

Re: fraud claims vs bank-covered fraud

so, if my funds are transferred without my permission it is THEIR fault, so they re-imburse me. That is fair.

But if I authorize the transfer it is MY fault? That is unfortunately NOT a 'wrong' position to take.

In the USA a credit transaction can be reversed within a reasonable time period (60 days I think it is). A debit or EFT (as I understand it) can NOT be reversed. So when I do online orders it is always with credit, not debit or EFT [except in a very few cases, like paying taxes or doing business with extremely trustworthy vendors].

Anyway part of the problem may lie on a lack of understanding by the users. We hate the outcome, but that's how it is.

Re: Stockholm syndrome

when it comes to loans and business banking, sometimes the larger banks are easier to go to.

Re: "any external analysis done is incomplete.."

welll... did you check the e-mail headers to see what mail server sent the spam? sorry, but I have to agree with chase on this one, if in fact someone merely crammed their e-mail address into the 'From' on the mail header, and the 'reply to'' would have been their scammer address...

I sometimes get spam like this, even spam that pretends to be from Wells Fargo, or rarely, Chase, More often it claims to be from my own mail server admin (which I run for my domain) which is laughable but still sad. (If I am in a rotten mood I report it to all of the appropriate agencies and ISPs). Clicking the 'remove me' link just confirms your e-mail address is real so you can get even MORE spam.

In any case I do business with Chase also and have not seen problems, though the spamming in their name (i.e. joe job) DOES happen.

Re: EWS - Early Warning Services, Inc. - We'll let you know when the feds are investigating.

I think the banks were trying to do a good job on a competing product to PayPay, but underestimated criminal potential.

secure transactions will ALWAYS plague the banking industry, just like bank robbers always have.

As for Lizzy Warren I would not trust her with respect to 'fraud' considering the FRAUD she committed when trying to leverage affirmative action (something I already hate but still) by claiming to be "Native American" with respect to college admission etc.. Me being 1/8 or so (about 1/16 of which is from the Taos tribe in New Mexico), I could have made stupid claims like that and it might have even been LEGIT, but the thought of doing so NAUSEATES me... And also, Warren's DNA test showed her at under 0.1% (as I recall), so in REALITY she's out there playing "Ms. Pot" to the banking industry's "Mr. Kettle" when it comes to FRAUD.

(I do business with Wells Fargo, and I haven't had any problems)

Republican senators tell FTC to back off data security, surveillance rules

Re: Simple approach?

The toughest of all of the states' rules - *that* is what CONGRESS is supposed to decide (and hopefully they DO). You are right, though, about different rules everywhere. 'Interstate commerce' is to be assumed with web sites, and that's why the USA has a federal government unlike the original 'Articles of Confeeration'.

I disagree with 'spanking'. even a small one. More like a Pyrrhic victory.

Big losers: media predictors, polling operations, democrats in general (especially in Florida). Think of the money spent on 'Beta', for example.

Big winners: The People getting a government that really can't do any more (significant) damage for the next 2 years

Strategists get a lesson learned. The problem is not bad politicians. The problem is NOT Trump. The problem is not GenZ either. The problem is a lack of proper communication, and relying on demographics and a polling horse-race down to the last day, when as many as half of the important places voted early.

Re: Simple approach?

"Cue a Supreme Court case in about 5 years..."

We hope it never has to go there, but it is true that a bureaucracy overstepping its bounds of power can ultimately be spanked by the courts,. but it will take a LONG time and a LOT of money to do that. In the mean time Congressional oversight can put the brakes on a lot of it. If special interests do not rule the day, a sane GDPR-like regulation will result for privacy protection, and gummint snooping will be eliminated, at least if it is done the RIGHT way.

[and this 'diversity' thing (from gummints) may be the NEXT thing on the Supreme Court chopping block - valid lawsuits notwithstanding, gummints need to stop legitimizing discrimination in the name of diversity to "comply" with their NONSENSE]

U.S. separation of powers

because 3 branches of government SHOULD be sharing power, not grabbing it, the exec branch cannot invent law, nor can legislative ENFORCE it. Neither can the judicial branch interpret things as law that were not legislated, nor interfere in the executive branch's daily operation. All 3 have separate competing power by design, and FCC cannot step over its constitutional limitations, .

That's really what it is about. NOBODY gets too much power. EVERYBODY argues over it until the appropriate branches lof gummint do their job and hopefully get it right. NO power too great to any one agency or individual, elected or bureaucrat. 'We The People' remain free. (at least, that is the plan)

Husband and wife nuclear warship 'spy' team get 20 years each

Re: Damn!

no, you're mistaking it for a rectalinear poobah. This particular device uses the more superior 'gonkulator'.

Re: Damn!

they must be like QWERTY keyboards, now.

Re: From Brazil directly to the CCP

a good point. I'm glad they handed it over to FBI (at least this time). Not sure how long this had been going on, though, or who the initial contacts were...

From Brazil directly to the CCP

this is more serious than it appears on the surface (a subtle submariner joke, heh)

Brazil currently has been GREATLY influenced by the CCP, with mineral interests and other things. (The now former President of Brazil was anti-CCP for example, barely beaten for a split term by his predecessor who is apparently favorable towards the CCP). If the link between CCP and Brazil remains tight, you can be sure that any info obtained by Brazil spies would end up with the CCP.

And with tensions in S.E. Asia, from Taiwan independence to territory disputes with Japan, it is NOT good for the world to have things like this happen.

KFC bot urges Germans to mark Kristallnacht with cheesy chicken

I was actually thinking 9/11 was a better comparison... (or 'worse', depending)

I guess it;s a bit like their 9/11 . Did not know there was a national comemoration for that.

So it was sorta like saying "Celebrate your 9/11 by buying this cool product!"

(This probably means that you should never let computer AIs generate advertisements).

GitHub's Copilot flies into its first open source copyright lawsuit

Re: Most human programmers were also trained on open source code

I'd shorten that down to "concept vs copy". Or in legal specifics, patent vs copyright.

It is very hard to argue (In My Bombastic Opinion) that an AI-based programming algorithm is anything more than a fuzzy data compression and expansion method. As such the data from the program source it scanned is uncompressed and included in the output. Whereas humans, of course, would have to create something fresh the way it has been done for 100,000 or so years. OK so your neighbor made a wheel. You can make one, too. NOT plagiarism (but maybe violates his 'patent'). etc,

Re: FOSS conditions

I would rather have the positive affirmation of "OK to use" rather than "NOT OK to use", sorta like "Opt In" vs "Opt Out"

Re: Snowballs anyone?

true - imagine the litigation over use of 'for' or 'if', or (worse) variable names! "I had a 'for(i1=blahbnlah)' in MY code and YOU COPIED IT!"

Re: "Open source is a cancer"

This asks the addititional question: who exactly is going to assimilate WHOM? At least for the OS, a workable windows running on Linux would be a better model...

As for open source licensing, in theory this whole situation with CoPilot begs the question of "what exactly is plagiarism"? I'd say if you look at code in a book or online and then write your own it is NOT. But if a machine creates an AI model (like fractals for a photo) and then re-creates that code from the model (in a nearly identical way) it IS plagiarism. Hopefully the courts will agree.

I am not too happy with such AI writing code. I see gross obvious junior-coder mistakes in THAT future.

Elon Musk reportedly outlines horrible Twitter layoff process

Re: I've never used it but...

I have a suspicion that those who are engineers (i.e. do not need to "learn to code") will mostly be retained, but those who have high salaries for "moderating content" are all in the first wave of layoffs.

The average salary at Twitter is in the $140k/year range from what I have read. "Content Moderator" is probably NOT worth that much, especially when their activity gives the comopany such a bad reputation that Elon buys the company out to STOP them from doing it.

"employees can be fired for no reason at any time"

that is actually not true. "wrongful termination" is still a legit reason for a lawsuit. And nobody wants to work for a company that is that 'unstable' with its employees.

Then again I work mostly as a contractor and am used to projects lasting for a time, then I leave and go elsewhere as there is no more work for me to do. Personally, i like it BETTER that way.

being laid off entitles you to unemployment compensation, which is billed to the company that did the layoff. If you get work within the next 6 months, that bill to the company no longer exists. It is in the best interest for the company to give you a nice reference for your next gig.

being fired gets you an accompanied speed-walk carrying your personal things in a box, right out the front door, and not a very nice reference for future employers that want to know why you left. NO unemployment is paid by the company or government.

If there is a reason to FIRE rather than LAY OFF, guess which route will be taken?

not "everyone"

Re: Some people go to car races to see the accidents

train wrecks. I have a nice meme graphic for that. Usually it is accompanied by a rough quote from a Futurama episode where the giant brains made everyone stupidER. "Let's send more trains!"

Re: Just started twittering this week...

I bothered signing up after Elon's first announcement early this year. Had his offer to buy it been canceled, I would have deleted my account. Now I'm watching things unfold, and it seems to have already changed in subtle ways. Fewer "bots" are a possibility already, based on my perception of the level of trolling and the nature of it (compared to a couple of weeks ago anyway).

If it is worth while I think more people might like the *new* *improved* version.... or hold even more contempt for it.

whatever.

Uncle Sam wants allies to join its anti-China chip crusade

Re: America wants

Taiwan is ALSO "not communist".

A while back I worked with some Taiwanese engineers. They were as competent as any I have seen. They had enthusiasm like you would expect. I have also (indirectly) worked with engineers in China (though only by e-mail). They were quick to deny existence of an obvious problem and would generally not accept any evidence to the contrary, ESPECIALLY not any recommended fix, and their "solution" (months later, without fanfair) was more along the line of "use a bigger part" [rather than fixing the design more elegantly - the overcurrent problem was still there, but if the part is big enough, overload does not accidentally boot the CPU].

I believe the MAIN cultural difference between Taiwan and China is that the LACK of communism allows Taiwan to be more competent and more creative than the "social credit score" fears and "do not draw attention to yourself" mentality of someone living under communism.

Can gamers teach us anything about datacenter cooling? Lenovo seems to think so

Re: Isn't it statingthe obvious that liquid cooling is more effective than air cooling?

"pumping a refrigerant that changes phase when it is heated, and releases that heat when it is re-condensed"

essentially mounting the chiller coil of a mini-fridge to the CPU to cool it. I was considering mentioning that, but you beat me to it.

Although physical size and heat capacity of peltier devices is a bit limited (for now), this may be the REAL future. Combine a peltier device with some kind of liquid or "fat heat pipe" cooling system and you may be able to improve the cooling capacity even more, without the need of refrigerant phase changes and the pumps that make it happen.

Then (maybe) the peltier device is built into the CPU package? it would eat more juice but could greatly improve cooling ability, at the expense of having to move even MORE heat out of the cabinet (but more effectively).

Google kills forthcoming JPEG XL image format in Chromium

Re: Are google planning on pushing AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) instead ?

Oh... PATENT issues!

Now we see the REAL reason! Thanks for that.

Hopefully libjpeg will support the newer formats anyway.

It looks like ImageMagick has a patent agreement from google for JPEG-XL

https://github.com/ImageMagick/jpeg-xl/blob/main/PATENTS

(The only way this format can ever become a standard is if the use of patented tech is granted for all open source, In My Bombastic Opinion)

Elon Musk jettisons Twitter leadership, says takeover was 'to try to help humanity'

Re: "the bird is free"

The first 2 paragraphs are correct. The third is opinion, which I disagree with.

Re: "the bird is free"

$55 billion? well seems nice that he'd get a ~20% profit!

*whisper* the truth about these acquisitions is that the company becomes a form of currency, and as long as the banks continue to get their loan payments, it becomes part of "net worth".

But yeah, "Free Bird" was his goal.

/me now goes into that classic Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar solo...

reminds me of Wednesday Adams in the original "Adams Family" TV series. Her headless doll was named "Marie Antoinette"

Re: Geez ...

you know the O.P. thought the article was "over partisan" right? (I also think so)

But what you said sounds like you were disagreeing with that same point... by making that same point.

Re: More court cases to come?

Those kinds of contracts are called "golden parachutes" and are often done to make buying up a company and "evicting" the "Ivory Tower" more expensive.

Seriously, it is a fraction of the total cost of buying the whole company in this case. And as I recall, such contracts require approval from the Board of Directors, who (at the end of the day) want to MAKE MONEY on the purchase (if any).