* Posts by bombastic bob

10515 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Linus Torvalds tells kernel list poster to 'SHUT THE HELL UP' for saying COVID-19 vaccines create 'new humanoid race'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alien

the problem with saying "the truth" is that both sides of an issue often make claim to exclusive ownership of it, often with no proof other than "feelz" and "wantz" and "afraidz". On BOTH sides.

science demands peer review and repeatability and modified theories when the results do not come up as expected (and there were no lab mistakes that might have caused it). Over time, something close to "the truth" becomes possible. I would expect this to be true with a LOT of things. Over time, the truth will eventually be known. June 15th comes to mind on this one... (see icon)

But of course mRNA had nothing to do with kernels and so Linus was 100% right.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

equally appropriate if it had been SPAM

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: At Arthur 1, re: "Little Linus"...

you forgot your coat...

Fastly 'fesses up to breaking the internet with an 'an undiscovered software bug' triggered by a customer

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: And the bug was?

hmmm - that actually makes a LOT of sense depending on how the date/time math was being done.

more reason to ALWAYS store and work with date+time info as time_t (as GMT), or something very similar, to avoid [most] date+time math issues (then just tolerate any others).

I've done a LOT of date+time kinds of calculations with databases, etc. over the years, for decades even (from business analysis tools to capturing electric power waveform data to millisecond motion data capture) and the idea that a date+time calculation that crosses 0:00 might be responsible for a system-wide outage sounds VERY plausible.

I think AWS (and others), had a similar problem once (or maybe MORE than once) due to a leap second and its effect on the world-wide synchronization of data...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Aspberger’s

non-verbal cues

are highly overrated...

(except for icons)

Google says its artificial intelligence is faster and better than humans at laying out chips for artificial intelligence

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: "OK, we see where this is going"

nobody EVER listens to Marvin, even though he has a brain the size of a planet... (and sounds a LOT like Alan Rickman)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Terminator

but are they "3 laws safe" ?

Uncle Sam recovers 63.7 of 75 Bitcoins Colonial Pipeline paid to ransomware crew

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Another stake in the heart

sorta mentioned in the article, BTC apparently dropped quite a bit in value... and if it is THAT easy for the FBI to play 'follow the money' to find crooks, BTC has significantly less value at hiding them from Johnny Law.

(yet another reason why I don't invest in it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Not your keys, not your crypto

maybe they could pay it out using those exploding dye packs...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Blockchain

BlockHEADchain

('cause they thought it couldn't be traced)

DoS vulns in 3 open-source MQTT message brokers could leave users literally locked out of their homes or offices

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Patch a key

or you just drill out the lock cylinder with a carbide bit and replace it

(new mechanical door locks are pretty cheap)

Microsoft flips request to port Visual Studio Tools for Office to .NET Core from 'Sure, we'll take a look' to 'No'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Not Many Options

in theory, if you create a COM object that has proper thread support, it could still be for a remote process, or an internal process. It should not matter from the perspective of how the owning application uses it.

But performance demands might make it piggy if not designed carefully with "how is it being used" as the number one concern. So maybe THAT is it? Yeah all of that IPC and marshalling can slow it WAY down.

I am curious what it might be that would cause legacy MS Office COM handling to break if there are external processes supporting the COM objects [instead of them being in-process only].

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: What about a .Net Framework service?

you made me look at gRPC, and specifically the "Protocol Buffers" IDL, which I had not heard of until now and at first look my fingers formed the shape of a cross, and I ran away frantically looking for some garlic...

(It definitely reminds me of some of the bad things in the Android API, and I was never a fan of the OLE Automation IDL either)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Java version of .NET Core is OpenJDK

It was my understanding that COM-like IPC capabilities were being implemented in Linux and BSD by use of D-Bus, where CORBA is primarily for things across networks.

For the COM model itself, at least in concept (use of ref counts and querying the capabilities of an object) the basic concepts are good, though I would prefer to call 'QueryInerface' differently (have it return IUnknown pointer and get error detail elsewhere, if you actually care about it).

Use of ref counting also results in smaller/faster code from my experience.

Java has its own way of doing things, though, and the "garbage collection" vs "ref count" war might explain why "other object models" apparently aren't welcome.

(that might explain the low demand for that feature)

I've toyed with the idea of a simple compatibility layer for COM in Linux/BSD but have not actually written it... yet. But if I did it would probably use DBus as-is, and be small and statically linked open source without license encumberance - and be compatible with things like Libre Office.

Remember Anonymous? It/they might be back, and it/they are angry with Elon Musk

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

The fact that one man COULD manipulate crypto coins via opinion tweets suggests that investments in such things is, at the very least, UNSTABLE.

(which is why I do not do crypto currencies)

Also if someone(s) claims to speak FOR 'Anonymous', and does something lame like this, chances are it's NOT 'Anonymous' but someone(s) that is a pretender, an attention-seeker, or basement-dweller.

something like DDoS'ing the Church of Scientology [with all of the evidence about them] or going after rapists is the kind of 'vigilante justice' that would gain approval of a loosely associated bunch of individuals. Going after Musk or his companies because of a few tweets? No. That's lame.

Biden expands Chinese tech and military blocklist to 59 companies

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Mr. Biden, Tear Down This Wall !

breath of stale air

and deserves a "slow clap" for having done something right

Supreme Court narrows Computer Fraud and Abuse Act: Misusing access not quite the same as breaking in

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

knee-jerk legislation, painting too broad of a brush, out of cluelessness, to the point of unconstitutional "umbrella" laws that empower DA's to abuse them for malicious or even vexatious prosecutions...

That sounds like "Con-Grab" CONGRESS members alright...

(What's REALLY fun is that the 3 most recent Supreme Court members sided with the Liberals on this one, and Barrett wrote the majority opinion)

Google's diversity strat lead who said Jews have 'insatiable appetite for war' is no longer diversity strat lead

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: But but

"more diverse" really only matters if you're being sued for discrimination [which Google is, last I checked]

What you REALLY want is a work force that GETS WORK DONE. But hiring practices need to NOT discriminate on factors NOT related to getting work done. So rock, meet hard place.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: The problem isn't whether he still has those views

The real problem was saying he "still despised" homosexuality in 2007

there IS a difference between disliking a behavior, a sub-culture, or similar, AND YET ensuring that someone is never discriminated for it. If he can guarantee that homosexuals are not discriminated against in hiring, firing, promotions, and so on [including his behavior towards people], what's the problem? "Thought police" goes WAY too far...

Now, if he's a card carrying member of the Westboro Baptist Church, or has made a LOT of online noise that suggest a pattern of pejorative or defamatory things against homosexuals, then yeah, THAT would be a problem...

I happen to REALLY dislike smoking. It doesn't mean I can't work with smokers, nor respect their basic rights [even if being near them after they've been smoking gives me a HORRIBLE sinus headache]. I see it as the same kind of thing, i.e. "I dislike what you do and it causes me distress but I'll respect you anyway". Policing my thoughts over this matter, because I do not embrace it and avoid smoke whenever I'm near it, would be a violation of MY rights.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

your description of 'cancel culture' needs to include: "no forgiveness, and no opportunity for redemption" for these 'cancel culture' people are NOT interested in improving human behavior, they are interested in executing the kinds of shunning power they had when they were in high school (i.e. "the jocks" and "the queen B's court" will NOT allow YOU to be POPULAR, and so on).

however you would normally expect that someone with the term "diversity" in the job description wouldn't have ever expressed any anti-[fill in the group] attitudes. As such, the discovery of ANY kinds of prejudicial attitudes raises questions about the integrity in bringing about any kind of 'fairness' from that job position.

Tech scammer who fooled Cisco, Microsoft and Lenovo out of millions jailed for more than seven years

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

And, in a recent BOFH

I was reminded of a recent BOFH when I read this article...

Tiananmen Square Tank Man vanishes from Microsoft Bing, DuckDuckGo, other search engines – even in America

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Call me paranoid....

occam's razor. you may have hit this one directly on the head

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: What's in a phrase?

unfortunately, to the intellectual lazy people who all too often prefer wikipedia and search engines to libraries and dead-tree manuals, "disappearing" something on Teh Intarwebs is an effective censorship and revisionist history trick.

But if we're lucky, there will still be a proper card catalog at a nearby library where we can actually look things up "the old fashioned way".

(I suspect that most of us these days use the library more as a "last resort" though...)

Flying dildo poses a slap in the face for serious political debate

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

I did a whois on that

seems to be an ISP or something. I originally guessed 'domain squatter'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Misuse of Drone! What kind of Load?

he should've used a balloon - er, balloon-like... oh nevermind

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

From the article: filmed in portrait - the real crime

And, TRULY, a "dick move" - to film a, uh, moving dick, in PORTRAIT aspect

(these "4 inchers" who see everything through a 4 inch screen in portrait mode need to rotate their cameras 90 degrees so they can view the world properly, with BOTH EYES, instead of looking like they're peeking through a door gap or a keyhole...)

The common factor in all your failed job applications: Your CV

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Get em while they’re young

its something we have to do in a fast changing landscape and at our own expense usually.

Q: What were you doing during the time gap between assignments?

A: improving my skills and re-familiarizing myself with the cutting edge of technology in my field

(Turning the possible disadvantage into an advantage - and better than saying "video games, IRC, and social media")

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: The ones that really bother me. . ..

From the article: Delete the word “feel”

this can NOT be overstated nor overemphasized!!!

Recruiters who are "feelies" should probably be bypassed or avoided entirely.

Seriously, "What Color is your Parachute" [a book about job hunting], as I recall, talks about ways of getting your CV/resume past the eyes of HR and recruiters, and onto the desk of the hiring manager, things like addressing the envelope "attn: hiring manager", and finding out the manager's actual name.

But using CV authoring tricks to get HR droids and recruiters to "not circular file" your CV/resume is also extremely useful (so thanks for the article). The initial prioritizing of bullet points (and then picking different ones for each application) is DEFINITELY a good idea.

(pirate, er PRIVATEER icon, for the contractor in me)

FYI: Today's computer chips are so advanced, they are more 'mercurial' than precise – and here's the proof

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: re: Cuddles: Complexity: Another nail in the coffin...

maybe they need to use an encryption algorithm that isn't susceptible to (virtually) identical math errors during encryption and decryption. Then you could self-check by decrypting the encrypted output and comparing to the original. So long as the errors produce un-decryptable results, you should be fine.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Error detection

I dunno about half speed... but certainly limit the operating temperature.

more than likely it's caused by running at higher than average temperatures (that are still below the limit) which cause an increase in hole/electron migration within the gates [from entropy] and they become weakened and occasionally malfunction...

(at higher temperatures, entropy is higher, and therefore migration as well)

I'm guessing that these malfunctioning devices had been run at very high temperatures, almost continuously, for a long period of time [years even]. Even though the chip spec allows temperatures to be WAY hotter than they usually run at, it's probably not a good idea to LET this happen in order to save money on cooling systems (or for any other reason related to this).

On several occasions I've seen overheated devices malfunction [requiring replacement]. In some cases it was due to bad manufacturing practices (an entire run of bad boards with dead CPUs). I would expect that repeated exposure to maximum temperatures over a long period of time would eventually have the same effect.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Error detection

without revealing [classified information] the concept of "2 out of 3" needed to initiate something, such as [classified information], might even use an analog means of doing so, and pre-dates the space shuttle [and Evangelion] by more than just a few years.

Definitely a good idea for critical calculations, though.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Error detection

CPU redundancy may be easier than people may want to admit...

If your CPU has multiple (actual) cores, for "critical" operations you could run two parallel threads. If your threads can be assigned "CPU affinity" such that they don't hop from CPU to CPU as tasks switch around then you can compare the results to make sure they match. If you're REALLY paranoid, you can use more than 2 threads.

If it's a VM then the hypervisor (or emulator, or whatever) would need to be able to ensure that core to thread affinity is supported.

Japan to dangle as many Yen as it takes to lure chipmakers to its shores, because everyone else is doing it too

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Join the club

most likely it will cause an increase in automated processes. China often does labor intensive things because they pay slave wages. Moving foundries away from China requires less labor in the process to be profitable. There are a lot of foundries already in places _NOT_ China. But yeah, this kind of move won't happen overnight. "All eggs in one basket" no more.

Stack Overflow acquired for $1.8bn by Prosus (no, me neither)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: there is an upside

I rarely see anything useful in Stack Overflow unless it involves:

* Python

* Javascript

* CSS

And even then, it's because I'm too lazy to actually read "all that documentation" first.

Code contributions to GCC no longer have to be assigned to FSF, says compiler body

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Apple and GPL

I'm not convinced that a GPLv3 license was the right way to go with GCC.

Perhaps a GCC project (that gets all of the 'ownership' from FSF) could revert to GPLv2 and add the necessary license exceptions to manage any other license compatibility issues.

That would probably fix it.

Least likely, that it would allow for proprietary closed-source versions. But, if it could allow linking with and/or running with closed source components, that should be the choice of the end-user. My $.10 worth.

(not that I would LIKE it... having a closed-source component for developing on a particular platform... I most likely would NOT)

then again there's also llvm

Surviving eclipse season and resurrecting 25-year-old software with Windows for Workgroups 3.11: One year with Mars Express

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: It might be a race to see what fails first

ack. People who program microcontrollers and write kernel stuff often still use assembler.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: air filled, so lucky!

hard disk drives require a working fluid (air) to elevate the heads above the spinning disk surface. Head crashes occur when there's not enough air or drive speed to float the heads.

Old style clean rooms were needed to work on them, to prevent hair and dust from getting on the drive, which would be thicker than the air layer between the disk and the head.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: air filled, so lucky!

I wonder if they have an address to which we can donate old hardware...

Firefox 89: Can this redesign stem browser's decline?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Not another UI redesign please!

I'd prefer a RETRO-redesign - like "before Australis" UI.

(I wish *I* could get paid to do *THAT* - because if I were, it'd be done RIGHT!)

"simpler" UI is not necessarily the best unless there's an "Advanced" setting to get the full monty.

I'll probably still use it, though.

Dear Mozilla: try putting the lipstick on the OTHER end, not the end that goes "oink"

Space junk damages International Space Station's robot arm

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

the laws of the open sea used to include salvage rights for derelict ships, no matter what flag they once flew. In space, it can be the same...

THEN, if salvage bots cruised around looking for "dangerous" objects, and either collected them (for salvage) or simply de-orbited them (for safety), it'd eventually clean a lot of it up.

Insurance companies and underwriters would definitely be interested in this.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: everywhere humanity goes it seems to leave its garbage

unless we wake up sooner and change our ways.

to what, exactly... living in poverty on $2 a day? I don't THINK so...

(personally I make very little non-recyclable trash and nearly everything goes into the blue recycle can. what little is left over goes into a land fill along with everything else, and then houses are built on top of it when it gets full enough)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Nuke it from orbit, right?

No just a handful of "happy accidents" when objects too small to be detected (and leave a mark suspiciously looking like a bullet hole) "accidentally" strike the objects of interest and "accidentally" drive them into a safe LEO trajectory that decays into a safe splashdown someplace where no further accidents can happen...

(because knocking things into a higher orbit at escape velocity would be too difficult, and blowing them up makes even MORE dangerous space debris)

"Hey derelict space junk, come check out this view, right next to this open 3rd floor window."

Will the real IRC please stand up? Freenode’s forest fire leaves ashes – and fresh growth

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Kinda the opposite of Cancel Culture, no?

Cancel Culture is when the people in charge of social networks force people out

not entirely but you're at least 'warm'.

It's more like the clique groups in high school [the ones run by "the jocks" or "the queen B" specifically], or an "exclusive" country club that doesn't want to let the "riff raff" in...

very ironic, and even HYPOCRITICAL, in a world that is supposed to be "more inclusive".

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: IRC was the CB of the '90s

and Microsoft had 'Comic Chat', which worked well as a regular IRC client when you turned the comic stuff off [leaving it on polluted the channel with various comic-related noise, though there WERE some IRC channels devoted to it for a long time]

In some ways I miss 'Comic Chat'. You could do funny things with the panels. But yeah for serious tech-related things, text-only works way better...

/me done migrating IRC settings to use Libera as official channels like #freebsd have moved there

Why did automakers stall while the PC supply chain coped with a surge? Because Big Tech got priority access

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: They only have themselves to blame

also another elephant in the room:

Nearly all eggs in ONE basket (China)

I just wanted to point that out.

If your 2nd source is basically the same as your first source, and you cannot purchase capacity because demand is too high for both of your sources, then you didn't do your material planning correctly.

Just in Time deliveries only work when you can get the capacity from the suppliers along with the necessary on-time deliveries. It's putting a LOT of risk on the ability of your suppliers to follow through on their end of the bargain. And, apparently, they're not willing to hire temporary people and work extra shifts to manage the varying capacity. There was apparently no room in their plans that included the ability to ramp things up. The end result, what we see now.

I used to work in 'Material Controls' a while back, so I know how it all works. "Line Stops" due to missing components are BAD. VERY VERY BAD. It doesn't help when the supply chain is disrupted on a global scale like this.

TCP alternative QUIC reaches IETF's Standards Track after eight years of evolution

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

networking boffins rated QUIC as more vulnerable to web fingerprinting than HTTPS

I am also concerned about packet injection, impersonation, and other such security issues

TCP at least TRIES to make packet injection and impersonation difficult.

Four women suing Google for pay discrimination just had their lawsuit upgraded to a $600m class action

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: If Google can get away with paying women less than men for the same job...

Considering they have over 100k employees

that's where the arguments for/against it being systemic come in. With that many employees, you would think the law of averages would compensate for, let's say, a lack of women in the sales force who aren't on "the sales ladder" track [or whatever they called it] but throughout the REST of the company it's "ok" [let's say].

Having ONLY MEN on the "sales force" track is compelling enough, at least for that part of the business, but if they made up for it (or explained it well enough, like 'too few applicants' etc.), then Google might have a defense against "this one case" with the promise to "handle it internally" and avoid the class action penalties, i.e. "The rest of the business is 'ok'" or "move along nothing to see here." That's the best outcome for Google I'd think.

However, past performance suggests that they DO have systemic promotion-related (and other) discrimination problems, as indicated by some of the other claims mentioned in the article, as well as past lawsuits, etc..

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

as I recall, she thought of piano chords and that's how she came up with the idea of spread spectrum modulation. Or something like that.

Big Tech has a big problem with Florida passing a law that protects politicians from web moderation

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Private companies that are "common carriers" must abide by strict guidelines, some of which involve discrimination against individuals, organizations, and (yes) politicians.

If your phone company could disconnect your phone line because you LIED over the phone, according to their definition of "lie", it would be illegal for them to do so as they are a "common carrier". Similar for other public utilities.

There are also CAMPAIGN FINANCE laws, which would attribute a "de-platforming" or "censorship" or "flagging as incorrect" as CONTRIBUTIONS IN KIND, as if these actions in and of themselves constituted a form of ELECTIONEERING or "indirect campaign ads".

What Florida is doing is, essentially, based on these well tested precedents. And I agree with them.

The Audacity: Audio tool finds new and exciting ways to annoy contributors with a Contributor License Agreement

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Forking Hell

GPLv2 always enables forks (at least for the original code).

As long as you keep it open source, you can distribute modified source+binaries all you want.

'Audacity' is such a cool name, though.

Possible new names:

* Bedazzled

* Cacophony (ok that's being used but I mentioned it anyway for laughs)

* Personal DAW

* SoundWorkStation (or SoundWS or similar)

probably would have to google for other similarly named things [I already rejected several 'cause they were being used, but that's how it is with trademarks and stuff]