Posts by bombastic bob

International Space Station stabilizes after just-docked Russian module suddenly fires thrusters

Oh come on, now, Russians are smart. They can muck their own plans up just as good as anyone else can. Right Boeing?

(under-budgeted and over-promised might be something they are not accustomed to dealing with though)

Re: Next fast-track mission

and no possibility fixing this problem with duck tape or a DAP-like caulking compound like the last one ("There's a hole in the hull of the Soyuz. There's a hole in the hull of the Soyuz. There's a hole, there's a hole (etc.)")

Someone needs to seriously re-think QA at the payload spacecraft manufacturing facility in Russia...

On this most auspicious of days, we ask: How many sysadmins does it take to change a lightbulb?

Re: Q: How many system administrators does it take to change a light bulb?

first thing I thought was "2 to do it, and 1 to read the instructions out loud" but that version was for some other profession...

Re: LAMP

Mine's more of a LAPP

Chromium devs want the browser to talk to devices, computers directly via TCP, UDP. Obviously, nothing can go wrong

Re: "Like WebUSB, WebMIDI and WebBluetooth, …"

waiting for "WEB pacemaker" and "WEB medicinal pump". And don't forget "WEB autopilot for your self-driving car"

yeah no security issues THERE...

(there was this one Dr. Who episode where the cars were trying to kill people...)

What is your greatest weakness? The definitive list of the many kinds of interviewer you will meet in Hell

Re: Dignity

If not already done, I suggest learning C programming _and_ mastering the language.

Knowing Linux also helps.

Web development is, in my opinion, the "entry level" of software development. Nice stepping stone to a better career, But if you STAY there, you're gonna be stuck in a quagmire.

But if you're good at screens, the 'droid dev kit is free. And it uses Java (don't bother with Kotlin)

Re: Dignity

labour market fixing

I believe there was actual collusion in Silly Valley a few years ago, "non-recruiting" agreements between several large corporations. As I recall, it was uncovered and rectified in some kind or lawsuit and federal investigation...

there are many other fingers in many other pies on this topic. It's like several hornets' nests glued together with africanized honeybee combs with ready-to-hatch baby bees in them, floating out in the middle of the La Brea tar pit.

Re: My greatest weakness...

BOFH answer: Weakness? Here, let me show you. You know, over here. By the window...

Dell won't ship energy-hungry PCs to California and five other US states due to power regulations

Anthropogenic Climate Change is a reality.

No, it is NOT:

* black body radiation cools the earth by losing energy through IR radiation out into space

* a greenhouse gas prevents that from happening to some extent

* CO2 is *horrible* at absorbing black body radiation corresponding to actual temperatures on earth, and is only 0.04% of the atmosphere (and is at equilibrium).

* Water, on the other hand, is very very GOOD at it, and can be 1% ofr more of the atmosphere, and changes by huge amounts ALL of the time.

* Nobody is trying to control atmospheric water, because it's obvious we can't. So CO2 is blamed, for other-than-scientific reasons, even when water can make 100 times the difference whenever it changes, which it does all of the time.

These are scientific facts and are easily confirmed. I challenge anyone to refute them. Until they are refuted, the science is NOT settled on anthro-climate-change.

we need to get to a point where everything has enforced limits on power consumption.

NO. Why would a FREE person say such a thing? And WHO has the kind of rights / authority to make THAT kind of "one size fits all" determination? You need to think through ALL of the implications before you go off making blanket statements like this. No 2 people's needs are the same, nor are their wants, or their ability to pay for the necessary power consumption.

I hear there's a war on pickup trucks in Canada. Only a CITY DWELLER who does not live 20 miles from the nearest store (or place to dump your trash) would try to ban one of the most USEFUL utility vehicles in the world, particularly for farmers, ranchers, contractors, or anyone living in a rural area.

And that's just ONE example. No doubt, there are MANY. And NOT being able to mail order a high end computer that consumes LOTS of power because that's what the fastest machines do... is ANOTHER.

The last thing ANY of us need is for a nameless activist bureaucrat to determine FOR us what we CAN and CAN NOT HAVE.

Re: As a Californian, all I can sat is "Who cares?".

building your system from scratch

Exactly. So much for Cali-Forn-You's "RULES" and their "REGULATIONS" and their "UN-FREEDOM". (I'm about ready to LEAVE this state, but if I stick around long enough maybe I can help it return to sanity...)

Gamers are often hardware hackers too. Overclocks, etc.. Right? So a custom system is TOTALLY expected for a hard-core gamer (and NOW a requirement, THANKS Sacramento! What a bunch of MAROONS they are in Sacramento!!!)

China sets goal of running single-stack IPv6 network by 2030, orders upgrade blitz

Re: I thought IPv9 was being ratified

if China owns the copyright, it should be rejected on that basis alone...

Re: Still not there...

probably costs more (it's CloudFlare as far as I can tell)

Re: possible?

all home residents will be able to have the same fixed ip address/addresses from the ISP, additionally, individual devices will not have to be placed behind a NAT.

Right. I've also pointed out before (and was even DOWN voted for doing so - nobody likes the truth I guess) that this (for windows machines, at any rate) is a MAJOR security issue, probably at the core of why "not China" still hesitates to get IPv6 fully supported. The fact that phone networks are generally doing IPv6 suggests that phones (running iOS and Android) are inherenty MORE secure than your average windows machine...

NAT inherently provides the basic firewalling that open (and otherwise exploitable) ports need to have so that your computers and devices are NOT exploited.

China forcing this is (maybe) a good move. But they are a totalitarian dictatorship under Communism. It's like "Comply or Die" and "don't you DARE complain!". In the FREE world, people need to WANT it.

correct - unless you use a tunnel (where the tunnel provider does the routing), the IPv6 would be a function of the ISP that assigns it, just as it is with IPv4. But you'd have a fixed IPv6 so that automatic assignment (based on things like randomness and your network adapter's MAC address) could sort of randomize the actual IPv6 if you really want it to do that. But most likely it'd be assigned by DHCPv6 or whatever that intrinsic method is that I cant remember (but my network supports). What's funny is that apple devices support one of those methods, and Android the other. SO to support both you need your network to support "whatever other method it is" as well as DHCPv6. Then there's the auto-generated address using the MAC and random numbers, as I recall. But it's in the same subnet so there ya go. Yeah it can be a little confusing until you have toyed with it for a while.

Re: A possible truth?

I hope not (but I fear you are right)

now if USA could get a fire lit under the collective asses of the appropriate people, maybe our ISPs would be supporting IPv6. Until then I have an he.net tunnel (which sort of needs a fixed or at least stable IPv4)

The old New: Windows veteran explains that menu item

Re: "stop moving stuff for the sake of moving it"

Because people are generally resistant to change.

particularly when:

* the change is NOT an improvement

* the change requires a learning curve

* the change breaks something I like

* the change was IMPOSED and was not an option nor a new feature that I had to "buy a new one" to get because I wanted it

You have to look at the nature of UI changes since the mid 2000's, beginning with Vista, "The Ribbon", Gnome 3, Australis, "The Chrome Look", Windows 8, Windows 10, yotta yotta.

It's NOT for the better... [when 7 and 8 machines were next to each other on the shelves, the 7 machines sold out while the 8.x machines collected dust, all other things pretty much equal. I don't recall which 'El Reg' article pointed it out, but I definitely remember it, and it was so long ago it's become hard to find, and I looked recently even with no success...]

And *YES*, I *DO* resist change, when it is WRONG TO CHANGE!!!

Changes in Windows that I liked:

* Win 3.0 3D Skeuomorphic look

* Visual C++ vs earlier (MS C/C++ with CodeView in text mode with dual monitors)

* Windows '95 [hybrid 32-bit and multi-thread]

* Windows NT 4.0 [even better]

* Win 2k and XP [which could revert to the 2k style start menu]

after that, not so much. 7 was welcome because it was "Not Vista" but I *STILL* like 2k and XP better!!!

Can't ANYONE JUST ADMIT that THE CHANGES AFTER 7 (and for Vista) SIMPLY *SUCKED* FOR THE CONSUMER???

Re: Always an important consideration

I have spent hours working to retrain myself to use the search function.

search would be more useful if it DID! NOT! HIT! THE! INTERNET! first, or second even.

(has this been fixed yet? no need to track me via a search engine, after all... I've simply been NOT using it, Cortana or otherwise, even back in 7 or XP when it was more sane and did not hit teh intarwebz)

As for the 'new thingy' feature, I use it for directories ('Folders' for you young-uns) and (as mentioned) that all too useful "text documnt" for which I can provide a file extension [last I tried it]. Not very often, though, just sometimes when it's convenient. And I think you can do it inside of a ZIP archive.

'new shortcut' on the desktop, also very useful.

back in the day, one guy I knew would create nearly everything on the desktop like this, then move it where he wanted it afterwards.

Survey of astronomers and geophysicists shines a light on 'bleak' systemic bullying

I think I get what your real point is... "Perceived bullying" when it may actually NOT be happening.

Some people _DO_ seem to go about their lives waiting to be offended. At least, that's my perception and I suppose *I* could admit waiting for someone who seems to go about etc. etc. you all get the point right?

So it might be interesting to know what "experienced bullying" (in the survey) actually means, and not some vague description that's likely to cause emotional overreaction [i.e. polling to deliberately create an outcome to advance an agenda - yeah THAT never happens].

Think of it this way: was the SLOWPOKE who kept you from being ale to pass him on the highway this morning a BULLY and DOING IT ON PURPOSE? Or was it just some discourteous smug ass hat going about his self-centered existence? Or was it just someone who was clueless?

"Bullying" by many definitions exists throughout society, from subtle to overt. To fix it, let's start by ELIMINATING CANCEL CULTURE (number one on my pareto chart).

(and THEN be aware that accusations of bullying may actually be misunderstanding and need no further attention)

Still, if the hiring and recommendations DO have prejudice and discrimination inherent within them, THAT needs fixing as well. Sex, race, personal preferences, after-work behaviors, religion, politics, age, general appearance, and other "non-work-performance" issues shouldn't matter. EVAR..

Microsoft has a workaround for 'HiveNightmare' flaw: Nuke your shadow copies from orbit

Re: Time to 'Nuke' Microsoft

> But let's not replace Linux on our desktops, oh no.

too late (by about 17 years or so)

(even if my 'Linux' is actually FreeBSD)

I actually think it might be time for Micros~1 to start open sourcing a lot of its stuff, to be peer reviewed and rapidly patched by the community at large.

(and maybe we'd get security fixes for XP and 7 to go with it, via pull request)

You'll want to shut down the Windows Print Spooler service (yes, again): Another privilege escalation bug found

and programs like Quickbooks will lose half of their functionality without the ability to print (including "save as PDF")

I no longer have a burning hatred for Jewish people, says Googler now suddenly no longer at Google

Re: HR departments are the problem

HR departments are one of the reasons I'm a contractor rather than an employee.

I agree with your assessment. also a contractor

H.R. doesn't have to make a profit within their department. Their motivations are COMPLETELY "Bass Ackwards". Even I.T. has to JUSTIFY it's expenses and head counts... and show how it is at least SAVING MONEY for the company in order to exist at all. But _NOT_ H.R.. They are like BUREAUCRATS working for a government agency in that regard...

(and I would expect more 'woke' and 'cancel culture' from within their ranks)

bypassing H.R. in hiring and job seeking is a good idea whenever possible.

As for whether it was Google's HR department that flagged this guy for termination, I wouldn't think his manager did it, nor his manager's manager. I bet they're too busy trying to keep their jobs, being faced with "bottom lines" and "deadlines" and "performance" and other more important "company profitability" things.

(I guess if he is a VP then it's the CEO, President and Board of Directors. Similarly them)

lucky you've never experienced one of my dreams, then...

Re: Anti-woke

The opposite of 'woke' is FREEDOM

I will therefore judge the message rather than the man, and the message sounds pretty good.

You, sir, are OBVIOUSLY NOT a part of "cancel culture".

(and I agree with you)

Windows 11: What we like and don't like about Microsoft's operating system so far

I wonder how much of the "New Windows" was written in Node.js ...

Re: "skeuomorphism"

2D FLATSO is about as "artsy" as something drawn on an ETCH-A-SKETCH

These modern day "Picasso wannabe" types trying to be "artsy"... ~shudder~

/me imagines a Cartman popup, similar to Clippie, all 2D FLATASS like the rest of the interface, saying "Screw you guys I'm going home".

don't forget light blue on bright white, so we can get EYE STRAIN while seeking THICK ENOUGH GLASSES to actually SEE IT...

VERY well said!

I'd go for an XP or Windows 7 style interface ANY day compared to "that thing".

Re: Sounds like they are purging all the crap they added with Windows 8

they're not purging ALL of the crap... THAT! 2D! FLATTY! McFLATFACE! FLATSO! FLATASS! "interface" is STILL THERE...

Re: Bells and broken whistle

And WHY?, GOD, Oh WHY?, do *THEY* keep calling *THAT* "interface"... **MODERN** ???

(my forehead is now PERMANENTLY BRUISED from banging it into the same spot over and over and over and over and over...)

BOFH: Where there is darkness, let there be a light

Re: Count 1, 2, 3,... ha-ha-ha

no shit THIS really happened...

A few decades ago I worked in the corporate materials department of a company that was setting up offshore operations in Singapore. As part of that, inventories of "free stock" (basically stuff you did NOT inventory for a very good reason) was shipped to them.

They sent a reported 1 million washers to the Singapore facility. After a short time, the Singapore manager(s) sent a fax or e-mail or something that basically said "we are short 42,381 washers" (or some similar number with 5 significant digits like it was THE actual number) and that they had RE-COUNTED to make sure!

The response from my department was something like "it is acceptable to count large quantities of small, low cost parts by WEIGHT, and the count of washers we sent you is within the tolerance of the parts weighing equipment"

Needless to say, the mental image of a room full of people counting washers one at a time...

Re: June 31st?

it's necessary to have a June 31st (and a few others, Feb 30 and Oct 32) in order to allow Office-351 to be called "Office-365"

Re: Anything with a network connection can be scanned

the old network cables get turned into cat5-o-nine-tails. You need 5 of them to make it work right, fold 'em in half, half of one of the cables wraps around the bend to form a handle. Useful for correcting certain problems like nosy accountants and incompetent contractors...

Re: Definitely pick which battles you want to fight...

Mice, keyboards, headphones, cables - all consumables.

printers, inexpensive laptops, small UPS devices, phones, and slabs, too.

Only a BEAN COUNTER would want to bother with DEPRECIATION SCHEDULES for anything valued less than $5k, unless it's an integral part to a system with a high enough value to justify it. I have _NEVER_ seen an advantage to doing depreciation for otherwise expensable equipment. It's like they're just making up work for themselves.

Now a rack of servers, UPSs, multi-port ethernet, and routers might be justifiable, but NOT EVERY! STINKING! CPU! BOX! AND! MONITOR!!! The purchase value isn't worth the cost of tracking them and the equipment rapidly loses its actual value over time like a new car off the lot.

Better (and easier, and probably cheaper) just to keep receipts and expense them all in the year they were purchased. You'd do the same for pens, toner, and any office supply thing purchased in bulk. And. any auditor can walk around the office and see that people are using the stuff and it would be an insurmountable task (and maybe even impossible) to verify every serial number against the visible number of company issued phones, slabs, laptops, CPU boxes, monitors, etc. in addition to the keyboards, mice, cables, headphones, and occasional entertainment devices.

Another thing: the phones and slabs are also likely to have SIMM cards in them issued by the company, which probably COST MORE IN A YEAR than the stupid phone or slab did. It would be POINTLESS to track the actual device they're inserted in. Many people would want a new i-device every year anyway. So you might as well just 'expense' them.

Seriously, I bet if you FIRED THE BEAN COUNTERS who are compelled to track things and justify their DEPRECIATION SCHEDULES through labor-expensive inventory audits, you could purchase NEW GEAR for EVERYONE every 3 years and not even WORRY about what happened to the OLD stuff, and STILL come out ahead financially.

[I think I'm starting to sound like Simon the BOFH]

Audacity fork maintainer quits after alleged harassment by 4chan losers who took issue with 'Tenacity' name

A tuba is also a musical instrument. I like it.

Then you make an icon for it that looks like an audio tube, making it a multi-level pun.

I think most of it is just a bunch of bored people being as anti-woke as possible.

except for the occasional psychopath, that is. That actually happens.

Re: Don't mess with Vlad McVladface?

AC, that post was worthy of 4chan/pol/

It serves as a good example of what you typically find there.

they'll be talking about how the world'll be different after the great circumcision.

too late (only it'd probably be UN-circumcision)

Re: The Audacity of them!!!

although your initial point was good, I have to disagree with the quoted part. I personally believe that a "peace through strength" strategy works, not only for personal defense, but for nations as well. Not debating it, just saying. In short: a criminal sees ME, very unlikely to attack. And two female relatives of mine carry pepper spray in their purses (which I initlally gave them). (Another female relative is a cop, she carries a pistol).

But if you want proof, try going to a big city in "certain areas" and act like you're a tourist, vs acting like you at least have some "street smarts". Criminals look for the easy targets and avoid the ones who look like they're capable of defending themselves (and are more than willing to do so).

(so a half an upvote because I liked the first part)

Re: Seriously?

unless more than one person is involved, lone psycho is probably right.

It wouldn't be the first (alleged) lone psycho that posted regularly to the 4chan board to go off the rails and hurt/kill people. I recall some idiot in either AU or NZ that went on a killing spree a couple of years ago, was called "an accelerationist" and had regularly posted a bunch of wacko stuff on 4chan, even had a manifesto, etc.. 1 out of millions of regular people who just want to vent or discuss their favorite anime, THAT guy was apparently a TRUE psychopath. His Darwin award was 'Death by Cop' as I recall, or maybe he did himself...

(And what we do not want is for IRL harassment to accelerate into something far worse, and criminals usually leave evidence, and so I hope the cops in DE catch the perp(s))

black helicopter icon for the fun

Re: physical harassment

And a sign that reads: No warning shots will be fired, AMMO is not cheap!

I hadn't seen that one.

As for applicable warning signs, I just thought another one up:

"WARNING: i am extremely talented and can easily build a proper flamethrower in a very short time with available household materials. Do NOT tempt me!"

or something like that. Kinda like that FPS Russia video with the flamethrowers. "For home defense"

(apparently legal to own in most of the USA, but probably not Germany)

part of what you said is true: These are anonymous posters on 4chan.

Other than that... no.

It would be very very easy to set up clandestine communication channels via various means on a board like 4chan, anonymous or otherwise. Threads are often deleted so that there is no history (to the best of my knowledge) and are not archived. And, a thread that dox's or points to a video that dox's or calls for harassment would probably be deleted (I suspect they don't keep good logs, deliberately). So any posted IRC channels or messaging info or even a graphic with steganography embedded within it might easily have disappeared without a trace.

When anyone can post anything anonymously, this potential for using the platform to do something illegal or abusive is always there.

Wanna feel old? It is 10 years since the Space Shuttle left the launchpad for the last time

Re: Still feel bad about it

a new shuttle design, with a more efficient (and re-usable) way of getting into orbit, could be the next phase. Perhaps a 2 or 3 stage rocket with "return to earth" capability from low orbit for the boosters, and a shuttle-like re-entry vehicle. That big fuel tank might have been needed to be in the design 40 years ago, but if you strip most of the engines off of the re-entry vehicle, give it internal fuel tanks only along with maneuvering jets, you could make the 1st (and maybe 2nd and/or 3rd stage if there is one) both re-usable like the Falcon rockets.

the space shuttle's expense included those re-usable liquid fuel rockets on its tail end, which provided something like 30% of the thrust until the SRBs separated, then 100% to orbit. So they needed that massive fuel tank. But if the booster itself detaches and lands separately, you don't need the massive burn-up-in-atmosphere fuel tank, nor the massive engines on the tail end of the shuttle. Just small ones would do.

so - a "component system" rather than a more monolithic one, yet avoiding the "throw away" mentaity so often seen in modern consumer stuff.

worthy of note: SpaceX is avoiding making a booster that de-orbits, which would be considerably more expensive than one that never quite makes it out of the atmosphere (it is moving slower and doesn't have to do a re-entry so much, can use something like a parachute early in the process). Getting a 2nd and even a 3rd stage through re-entry to land like the 1st stage could involve shuttle-like tech, with minimal jettisoned stuff.

Re: Good.

enjoy your non-satellite media and brick-sized cell phones, which (without space exploration driving the technology forward in the early days) would be about 20 years behind where we actually are, In My Bombastic Opinion, were it not for the U.S. SPACE PROGRAM and NASA (in general).

Also don't forget space telescopes and planetary exploration bots. All of those close-up photos of the outer planets. That kind of thing.

Imagine instead that the USSR had "won" the space race. Or China. Probably worth more than just a passing thought.

CentOS Stream: 'I was slow on the uptake, but I get what they are doing now,' says Rocky Linux founder

pulling source from the CentOS repo

I was thinking about this a while ago, when CentOS Stream and Rocky first became "A Thing", that NOW we have a 'preview' release of the bleeding edge code, before it becomes a stable release. But to have RHEL also cut from the same preview distro (more or less) as Rocky means that Rocky should be at roughly the same point as RHEL as far as package versions and software updates and stability are concerned.

So yeah, it's a good thing. RH may have done us a favor after all. (But they should've been more up front about it)

Linux Foundation celebrates 30 years of Torvalds' kernel with a dry T-shirt contest

Re: designing a T-shirt to celebrate 30 years of the software

I had a similar thought with Tux the penguin and a glass of Wine, but it was more like the caption reading "I can't believe I'm actually 30 now" [or similar]. Yeah Tux is officially "old" heh heh heh. I suppose it was a similar shock when members of The Who reached their "age of getting old" after "Talking 'bout my generation".

11-year-old graduate announces plans to achieve immortality by 'replacing body parts with mechanical parts'

Re: I for one

sadly, "overLord of the Flies" is a more likely outcome (when 11 year olds get too much power) regardless of how smart they are.

Book smarts is one thing. Academic achievement another. But experience is the one thing that an expedient educational achiever can NOT master. And with experience, wisdom.

(I say give the kid something useful to do, but don't put him in charge)

then again, in the movie "Lord of the Flies', wasn't the smart kid the first one to get killed?

Microsoft defends intrusive dialog in Visual Studio Code that asks if you really trust the code you've been working on

Re: Nice idea but won't last long

it's like the day I realized that SHUTTING OFF ANTI-VIRUS for the directories that contain all of the code I'm working on (and all of the output binaries) made EVERYTHING GO FASTER, in particular the compile-link-debug cycle.

Re: To be fair

I always try to make the code maintainable. After all, *I* might be the one who has to maintain it [years from now when I, too, ask similar questions about the author's intelligence and ability to code - whoops, it was me!]

Seriously, though, if I can't maintain my own code years later, something's wrong with the author.

as for a popup dialog asking me to trust the author of the code, pluma and a bash or csh shell are looking MUCH BETTER these days in lieu of any kind of "helpful" IDE...