* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Win 11 refreshes delayed, say PC makers – and here's why

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Lovely Jubbly

"There will be a lot of fairly high spec PC's hitting the USED market at cheapo prices"

I guess I should comb places like E-Bay again for a spare server - it only needs half the processing power as it's merely a firewall amd NAS running mail, subversion, etc. with FBSD. Any 64-bit machine with decent RAM and I merely swap in the hard drive, good to go! the current one has 5G RAM and a 1.8Ghz Intel Core Duo. Works fine with GBit LAN (dual homed). It just needs to be reliable enough, that's all. Runs FBSD with ZFS. Hard drive has been replaced a couple of times, though.

Is also possible to get some CCP piece of crap mini-PC for under $200, multi-homed even. Not sure I'd trust one o' those, however...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Five year old PCs need replacing :o

"not good for the environment" - well, occupying landfills with still-working tech isn't good for anyone EXCEPT for those whose cash flow depends on obsolescence and replacement of various computer hardware.

The tech is just not improving that fast nowadays. A 10 yo machine is nearly as fast as a "today" machine, maybe with half the RAM, but if the applications were not DELIBERATELY WRITTEN to be PIGS, then that should not be an issue. I'm talking to YOU, Micros~1.

NodeJS-based desktop applications, TIFKAM/UWP, C-pound/.Not, BASS-ACKWARDS 'object-oriented' (which to them means collections, including GARBAGE collections), and all of that OTHER BLOATWARE running within the guts of Winders these days, do NOT an upgrade necessarily require.

I think Micros~1 is just trying to DRIVE HARDWARE SALES AGAIN. And knowing THEM, it will be intended to ENRICH the CCP. And, THEMSELVES.

(the honest business practice is to make people WANT to purchase something by providing what customers want/need, NOT drive them like CATTLE into an ECONOMIC SLAUGHTERHOUSE!!!)

Upgrading Linux with Rust looks like a new challenge. It's one of our oldest

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: Why a new language?

Have you ever

* written a device driver or kernel module

* coded for a microcontroller

* used assembly language for speed

* hand-optimized inner loops for speed/efficiency

If not, THIS is why you do not understand why Linus chose 'C'. It's also true that UNIX and BSD kernels are written in 'C' so the BSD network stack (for example) could be easily ported to Linux.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Why a new language?

I like that - a lint-like external tool for 'C' that evaluates code for "code smells". Make it compiler independent, even better. Just add it to Makefile as part of the .c.o rule, perhaps "lint-like-tool cc [args]" as the command line. works for me!

Like a BETTER MOUSETRAP

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Why a new language?

"The thing that always gets me about computer scientists is when there is a problem, the first thing they do is invent a new language to try and solve it in!"

New/shiny and "It is OUR turn now" are a large part of that.

Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority"

Feds urge 3D printing industry to end DIY machine guns

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

Re: Tax / Restrict Ammo?

no

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Handgun?

In theory you could 3D print a mold, make a (or many) wax version(s) of that part, put wax version in plaster or casting sand, cast a metal part, then machine it with a decent mill/lathe/whatever. 3D print would speed up the process, but making a mold of "a something" can NOT be effectively stopped with a law. Not even close.

In my opinion, just LEGALIZE as much as you can, so law abiding citizens can LEGALLY own them, and any black market problem will just GO AWAY.

(and when law abiding citizens carry firearms, criminals run scared),

Google says replacing C/C++ in firmware with Rust is easy

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Wanna give some examples?

thinking of ref counting, this works when it's necessary like with data of indeterminate lifetime, especially regarding thread safety. Inside a kernel, unless such a thing is NECESSARY, if you have a proper design you will not need it (and I have one example where I used ref counts to solve memory leak problems in an already designed system, which could not be refactored n a short time to fix it any other way). Having built-in ref counting (or 'smart pointer'ing) there IN THE WAY adds extra unnecessary clock cycles to kernel things that often need to be blisteringly fast and efficient, because, kernel code. This is the beauty of C which is generally VERY close to assembly language in efficiency. You can use it to write efficient ISR's.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: Wanna give some examples?

It's not "garbage collection" it's programmatically adding the freeing of memory when the compiler FEELS it should, or by using reference counts, or by PFM and religious ceremonies...

Pfft. Whatever. Call it "Automatic trash pickup" then. It STILL will SLOW THINGS DOWN and WASTE MEMORY, 2 things you should NEVER let happen in a kernel.

Check out the Linux network stack, and how it tosses buffers around the stack, and trims and reshapes them, to minimize copying - aka 'zero copy buffering'. It uses a LOT of pointers, too.

Good luck coding something THAT efficient in Rust... (and we'll include pre-allocated memory in linked lists too while we're at it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Wanna give some examples?

reading these kinds of replies makes ElReg more interesting

Agreed on the GC - it is my #1 resistance motivator to having Rust in a kernel. And as I mentioned earlier, if 'smart pointers' are too slow, and you use 'unsafe' ones instead, WHY shoehorn a "new, shiny" programming language into the kernel and NOT just use C???

(No advantages for Rust other than "feel" I bet.)

[and don't EVEN get me started on the LACK OF BRILLIANCE showed by Google when they REWROTE FIRMWARE just so they could use Rust...]

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Wanna give some examples?

"no downside" ?

* garbage collection memory model

* steep learning curve

* so-called "smart" pointers [pointers are crucial to create certain data structures like linked lists, used EVERYWHERE in the Linux kernel, and adding "smart" with GC just turned a 1 machine cycle operation into MANY machine cycles, unnecessarily, KILLING performance. This is the KERNEL, not a DOCUMENT EDITOR]

(don't get me started on the semantically challenged 'unsafe pointers' vs 'smart pointers' thing, because if you resort to 'unsafe' then why not just DO IT IN 'C'?)

These come to mind right away, and GC along with 'smart' pointers KILL performance. Try contributing kernel code that does ANY data verification. It ALL assumes each part ensures the data is good BEFORE passing it around. Adding param and value checks SLOWS EVERYTHING DOWN and you WILL care if it is the network or disk IO.

And from what I have read, Rust does EXACTLY THAT!!!

/me has contributed a small amount of code to FreeBSD and their standards are VERY high. I assume Linux is the same, based on what I have read about Linus.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Wanna give some examples?

Rust and its toolchain are probably willing accomplices in the laughably pathetic (and occasionally snicker-worthy) attempt at artificial "intelligence" known as 'ChatGPT'.

SQL king Larry Ellison becomes sequel sultan with controlling interest in Paramount Global

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: pronouncing SQL like "sequel"

only IBM's stupid software was pronounced that way (including the original 'SEQL' apparently, another IBM thing from which SQL was derived), and the first time I heard it called "sequel" (early 90's) I tried to research what the guy was talking about, and there were no programs called "Sequel whatever' in ANY of the literature I checked. It's inherently inaccurate to pronounce it that way.

The LANGUAGE was always S. Q. L. (not to be confused with the predecessor) but the IBM SOFTWARE was "Sequel Server". And I REFUSE to allow IBM marketeers from the 80's/90's to define how I pronounce something!!!

(and anyone at a jobsite I'm at calling it "sequel" is in danger of extreme ridicule from me)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

pronouncing SQL like "sequel"

Icon says it all

Ex-Windows boss who tried to save the Start Menu now Shopify tech wizard

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "make Start Menu great again" & "head of Microsoft Bing"

I wish he had succeeded. EVERY UI SINCE 8 ("Ape") STINKS ON ICE!!!

Yeah don't get me started on the 2D FLATSO look, phone-on-a-desktop, TIFKAM [CR]apps, and what they did with "Settings"...

(whoops too late)

EV sales hit speed bump as drivers unplug from the electric dream

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I prefer my gasoline engine, thanks.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

batteries vs fuel cells

yes, but EV BATTERIES create jobs and profits in #CCP China, where they've cornered the market on the stuff needed to make them!

oh, wait...

Sorry, Moxie. Blaming Agile for software stagnation puts the wrong villain in the wrong play

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Really?

Mate's "pluma" editor does 90% of what I need an IDE to do, and shell+make does almost all of the rest.

VS is overrated. I still use 2010 (the last of the NON-FLATSO aka NON-TIFKAM versions) if I have to do anything on winders. It just works. But 95% of what I do is Linux-based so there ya go.

Microsoft really wants those old Exchange 2016 servers put out to pasture

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Ah, Microsoft

Unfortunately I can only upvote this once.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I think that problems with SQL Server started when they kept calling it "Sequel Server" - WTF is "Sequel" ? [anyone who pronounce SQL as 'sequel' deserves a sharp strike with a rubber chicken, preferably by John Cleese wearing a suit of armor]

It's just been slow to rot on the vine. Too much REAL competition from Oracle, PostreSQL, etc. so the touches have been lighter, and better quality code.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Terminator

Micros~1 bloatware

the massive RAM needs are probably because of the use of lingos like C-pound and all of that "Dot Not" crap.

Micros~1 forgot how to write efficient software back in the days of Windows Vista and Server 2003.

[and it has only gotten WORSE]

As computers become faster with more available memory, software will naturally grow to fill the empty void and consume all available resources, and NOT show any real improvement in overall performance and/or perceived quality

(ok I just made that up but sounds "quotable" right?)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

as you plan your move to something better than Exchange.

as you plan your move to something better than Exchange.

THAT would seem to be the REAL solution.

I like Cyrus for POP & IMAP, and good ol' sendmail.. Other solutions exist, too. Cyrus works ok with a 'droid slab when I'm out an about, secure TLS acess over "teh intarwebs". Setup meant doing a few RTFMs and intarweb searches.

Sometimes these old tried and true (and VERY WELL TESTED) systems "just work".

I haven't looked at Rocky Linux lately but maybe their basic e-mail system setup would do for most people...?

Core Python developer suspended for three months

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

I am classed as 'neurodivergent', having been diagnosed with Asperger's, and I do need special treatment. I need people to be direct, blunt and to disregard tactfulness. I don't get subtlety, and I can also be very blunt and tactless.

That is what I call "common sense and efficiency in communications".

If you have to stop and *FEEL* you're wasting time!!! It's like "just say it directly". Like in the (used to be that way) military. Black Adder would approve...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Bad journalism

Semprini! One of my favorite function names after seeing someone else do this in a different code base.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Sad day

neuro-di-what-the-FEEL???

If you are referring to the calling of BRILLIANCE and GENIUS a "disorder" of some kind, sure. That is nearly always INAPPROPRIATE, by the (wannabe) shrink to have DONE so. One man's ADHD or Asperger's is another man's GENIUS and BRILLIANCE and of course, "emotional IQ" is for BABIES! So if Tim is really just your average geeky genius who happens to exhibit a few "I do not give a crap about your feelings" behaviors, is THIS what he's being criticized for? It makes me think even more that CoC's might be used by hypersensitive whiner activists who cannot deal with others accidentally "hurting their FEELINGS" without getting all fascist and tyrannical and CONTROLLING to over-compensate for their OWN pathetic isues...

(good luck getting cool stuff invented without geniuses)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Sad day

I was trying to approach this with an open mind. The question of whether CoC was being implemented by either fascists or whiny little babies who have no sense of humor, balanced against trollish offensive posting of public comments, is likely to have tipped over in favor of the "accused" on this one.

Sad because CoC's should not even have to exist, nor whiny baby activists who seem to want to write them way too much...

Google paying to be default search on phones is totally against antitrust law, judge rules

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

the best politicians big tech can buy

these politicians talk out BOTH sides of their mouths.

Gov Le Petomaine: "I didn't get a harumph out of you!"

Gov lacky: "Harumph!"

Gov Le Petomaine: "You watch your ass"

(From 'Blazing Saddles')

Google will continue MANIPULATING RESULTS (and people) with a STRANGLEHOLD on the 'search' market space (like Micros~1 does with software) and

NOT! A! SINGLE! THING! WILL! BE! DONE! ABOUT! IT!!!

Boeing's Starliner proves better at torching cash than reaching orbit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Space is HARD

A little bit of a break for Boeing. But ONLY a little.

Tesla asks customers to stop being wet blankets about chargers

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: We've asked Tesla to comment. ®

Perhaps the REAL problem is a lack of cooling on the handle. Anyone think of a water jacket or cooling fan?

Proofpoint phishing palaver plagues millions with 'perfectly spoofed' emails from IBM, Nike, Disney, others

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Insecure by default

I wonder how many of these spoofed phishing e-mails would have been too obvious to fall for if e-mail were VIEWED AS PLAIN TEXT instead of html?

[use of HTML in e-mail is *evil*]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Open-Relay

The 1990's called and want their open relays back

Sam Altman wants a US-led freedom coalition to fight authoritarian AI

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: How exactly

Keeping AI development "open" is one way of "controlling the narrative", or at least putting everyone on an even playing field. To participate it becomes more practical to use the open code rather than starting over from scratch.

The moment the source is primarily closed, a monopoly becomes more likely, RIGHT Micros~1??? Google?

CrowdStrike file update bricks Windows machines around the world

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Re: Related?

https://i.imgflip.com/66uud2.jpg <-- work safe

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Related?

ZP had built-in safe mode ans recovery options. I do not know about 10 though. It should, but probably does NOT if you actually boot loop

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Related?

No OS can cope with that

At least in FBSD you get a core dump (if you set it up) and a boot to a loader that gives you recovery options.

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Related?

THAT and making a BSOD boot optionally jump to a screen that gives you the ability to ROLL BACK THE SYSTEM or "safe boot" instead of showing an UNRECOVERABLE TOMBSTONE SCREEN

You know like "press F1 for recovery options" somewhere on the BSOD screen. XP used to have something like this as I recall, detecting a failed boot the next time you start up. But I only use 10 in a VM...

Don’t blame AI for rise in carbon emissions, says Google exec

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Green washing?

None of this, i.e calling the gas YOU and I and EVERYONE ELSE exhale, and which plants need in order to live ( CO2 ) "emissions", has ANY RELEVANCE IN THE WORLD OF SCIENTIFIC REALITY.

CO2 is good for plants, and thereby our FOOD SUPPLY. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere FOLLOWS TEMPERATURE as I have said many times, and does NOT in ANY WAY *CONTROL* it.

The NONSENSICAL and UNSCIENTIFIC Climate Scam is in and of itself a sort of intelligence test. Can the average person, when shown the simple scientific facts, choose to ignore the voices of DOOMERS and MANIPULATORS, and believe what their own "lying" eyes and ears are SHOWING them?

Big Music reprises classic hit 'ISPs need to stop their customers torrenting or we'll sue'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Due process

RIAA etc. must prove guilt in a court of law, NOT just try to "cancel" people on a WHIM. ISP takedowns are pointless .

They're better off making people want to buy the music by making music people WANT to buy. And they need to stop marketing CRAP.

I suggest using Tor to hide the endpoints so "they" cannot track it.

Net neutrality in danger again: US appeals court puts FCC's resurrected rule on hold

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Stop exceeding the authority of one branch of gi,,imt over another

This is actually simple: BOTH the executive and judicial branches must REFRAIN from deriving laws where thry do nott exist.

In the USA it is CONGRESS that makes laws, NOT bureaucrats nor judges.

If you want "net neutrality" have CONGRESS do it.

Eldorado ransomware-as-a-service gang targets Linux, Windows systems

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: "encrypts files on both Linux and Windows machines"

/me guesses - well known user name, default password, allows ssh login as root, and by default has 'sudo' with no password and can run any privileged application...

This would point to a default setup problem. Like RPi OS maybe?

(sad but true)

Texas court blocks FTC noncompete ban, and you can blame SCOTUS

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Slavery

If noncompete agreements are THAT bad, legislatures need to ban them... NOT bureaucrats!!!

And that WAS the point of the Chevron case.

China working on standard for brain-computer interfaces

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: You have to... because its a (ISO) standard!

A definite thumbs up for the Dr. Who reference

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: 4 6 89

I think (for myself without the CCP spying or influencing me) that they (the CCP) can FORNICATE the HELL OFF with their "ISO standard".

4 years of tariffs and various sanctions under "you know who" will put a stop to this... (and the slave labor, and the unfair market tactics, and the mlitary posturing, and the industrial espionage, and the shipping of single males of military age across the US border, and the buying up of US farmland, and the shipping of fentanyl precursors to the drug cartels, etc.)

Trouble in space as Boeing's not going, and China's back from the Moon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Space, the messy frontier

Low tech space junk solution: a big bucket/dustpan

* rocket goes up with half full fuel tank(s) to assist boosting the fuel tanks and rocket into orbit

* fuel tank(s) emptied, upper half swings open on a hinge to form 2 "buckets"

* rocket with buckets flies around 'catching' space junk

* full buckets then de-orbit into safe place.

"Operation dustpan"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Space, the messy frontier

If you need gravity, think "2001 a Space Odyssey"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Schools (not prisons)

I think that kids learn best when NOT being indoctrinated, whether it's Chinese COMMUNISM, CRT, DEI, or guilting them into being socialists. Similarly, they learn best when NOT DRUGGING the kids because they're smart (calling it AD[H]D or autism to justify it).

Just sayin' - since the WRONG kind of schools might LEAD to prison!!! Or, being COMMUNISTS...

Chinese space company accidentally launches rocket in test gone wrong

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Trajectory optional

/me coughs a few times while saying "ripoff!"

They say that "Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery". But in China's case, "Imitation is best the way to do business".

They should stop making cheap knock-offs of things that are (intentionally or otherwise) capable of flying.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Only one thing more spectacular than a successful rocket launch

Did they just miss July 4 fireworks by couple o' days?

CISA looked at C/C++ projects and found a lot of C/C++ code. Wanna redo any of it in Rust?

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Choices

Simple solutions and I have implemented them where not implemented before:

* Use ref counts. The final 'Release' deletes the object and frees memory.

* Show some coding discipline

* ONLY use string/memory/IO functions that check buffer length like strncpy, snprintf fgets etc.

* enable format warnings for printf-like function calls and FIX THEM

* assign global scope pointers to NULL after freeing memory (and similar inside functions). Make it a macro, even

. #define FREE(X) { free(X); X=NULL; }

* synchronization via mutex etc. when using threads

and so on. too easy, so WHY a NEW LINGO except JUNIOR CODERS wanting an edge over THE EXPERIENCED???

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Rust, or ....

It is likely that the vast majority of Windows is already in C-pound and only the kernel remains in C.

This would explain why Win98 on a Pentium-I performs as well as (or better than) Win-10-nic on a bleeding edge processor, for basic UI responsiveness, program load/startup, and other "user perception" things.

So much for 16GB RAM and 4Ghz clock and multi-core if the DAMNED PROGRAMMING LINGO is THAT FORNICATING PIGGY! And I'm talking PISS POOR INEFFICIENT GARBAGE COLLECTION MEMORY "MANAGEMENT"!!!