Posts by bombastic bob

Google: Linux kernel and its toolchains are underinvested by at least 100 engineers

Re: Has anyone asked Linus what he thinks?

He is also reportedly enthusiastic with the recent moves to make Rust a via language for the kernel.

NOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

30 years of Linux: OS was successful because of how it was licensed, says Red Hat

Re: Just works

I switched a female relative's computer from Windows Vista to Devuan Linux a couple of years ago. Not only did it fix the thing so it worked well again, it did nearly everything it had done before (but better) and did not need replacing with a "New, Shiny" Win-10-nic machine. She knew very little about anything computer-related except using mail, web browsers, managing music files on an iPod nano, playing videos, and playing games. Well, some of the games she played as a kid were no longer available (but I offered to set up the games in a VM if she needed it, so far no).

Her successful OS paradigm transition took less than a day. Mate desktop helped. Everything just worked. It was an older Sony Vaio laptop, and I set it all up on a new hard drive. No problems since.

I would say that, for her, Linux is kinda like using a Mac. Switching from PC to Mac is generally painless (except for the bank account). Switching from Windows to Devuan+Mate, also pretty painless (and the hard drive needed replacing anyway, so no harm to bank account).

More people need to understand this.

Re: Linux on the desktop

That is just more shit to learn

I'm sure there are many 'SMUG's (Small Minded Useless Gits) who would twist this into a "you REFUSE to learn":comment of some kind, and then go on praising the glories of Gnome 3/4 and (the cult of) SystemD. (or Win-10-nic for that matter)

(Even though the rest of us understand that Gnome 3/4 and SystemD are NOT Linux)

Re: Linux on the desktop

The software houses claim there is no demand, so they do not create a Linux version

True, and yet there are still many Linux applications that are commercial.

Ohe of my observations is the way runtme and package linkage are too connected to the distro. You mention Flatpak which would attempt to rectify this. My preference: static linking. Then make updates (to THAT version) free if there are any important fixes later.

Probably the biggest obstacle to cross-platform is the use of "Micros~1 Shiny' as a framework. Old MFC applications could be adapted (using something similar to wxWidgets which is very MFC-like) as long as they're not using the latest 'Shiny". The 'Shiny' always has a lock-in effect to ONLY supporting Windows. And nobody who is SANE would want to use ''.Not" to start a new project (or to support an OLD one for that matter). LOTS of attempts to port games, etc. but Micros~1 still provides their "Shiny" to keep as many devs SOLELY on THEIR platform as possible...

(Seriously this should make Java even MORE popular, I would think)

Re: @karlkarl - Linux is not an OS

What would be the reason of GNU/Linux being so popular ?

Probably marketing and hardware support. The BSDs really didn';t have RH and other commercial support/distributions. And so Linux grew in popularity because you could buy it at the local computer outlet, and it (mostly) supported YOUR hardware. That kind of thing.

Sometimes that's all it takes.

Re: Linux is not an OS

Oooohh, look, a NIT to pick! pick, pick, pick, ...

That's kinda how I read that. [most nits aren't worth picking]

As for the article, I didn't realize Linux was already 30! I guess I've been using it since it was 12...

and a "well done" for the use of [L]GPLv2.* (I think many of us would be unhappy if it ever went to 3.*)

Hacking the computer with wirewraps and soldering irons: Just fix the issues as they come up, right?

Re: I'd hire him...

"The reason that the reported fault address had been incremented to the next instruction was that the machine had actually executed the instruction, using whatever noise was on the memory bus at the time the instruction executed."

I thought that was a "feature"

Tesla promises to build robot you could beat up – or beat in a race

Re: I wonder

I see money from governments going to WAY LESS BENEFICIAL things all of the time. Might as well do something FUN with the money, other than empowering politicians and paying off political debts...

Sure. Let's build a Sci Fi world based on Elon Musk's (sometimes crazy) ideas. Why not? MUCH better than "clown world", I bet. [and it could be a jobs bonanza]

optimism sometimes has interesting positive effects on EVERYONE. I mean if YOU saw someone in a jet pack flying by, wouldn't YOU be inspired? OK I stole that line but seriously...

why can't Elon's projects just be FUN?

Re: Ohhh, master...

you KNOW that the biggest robotics industry of the future will be Rule 34 based... and the most human-looking robots, for obvious reasons. Legal or otherwise.

Re: "Semi sentient"

complete and utter bollocks.

not really. SOME level of 'sentience' may be necessary for proper implementation of Rule 34.

[At some point, (nearly) all domestic bots will become like "Nandroids"]

Japan's aerospace agency hooks up with Boeing to make planes quieter when they land

golf ball exterior

there is some evidence that the appearance of the skin of a golf ball not only reduces the air drag during the ball's flight, but the noise it would generate as well.

I have to wonder what effect this would have on airplane parts...

(parts of the article already allude to existing features that might behave similarly, like lots of small holes in a control surface, which could also reduce weight)

Re: Why not go the whole hog

that might work if the people compartment has the general shape of a shipping container. Roll it out the back like a C-130 dropping supplies...

Re: Why not go the whole hog

And perhaps the screams of the passengers

have an upvote

Cloud load balancer snafu leads to 3D printer user printing on a stranger's kit

I'm thinking of a scenario where a Custom Adult Toy maker sends a design to a 3D printer, only it's someone ELSE's printer, maybe at a school. That'd TRULY be a "cock up".

More Boots on Moon delays: NASA stops work on SpaceX human landing system as Blue Origin lawsuit rolls on

Re: Loser pays

"Tort Reform" at the federal level. You're making too much sense!

Re: At least it isn't going to slow stuff down

we really don't need predatory and/or burdensome and/or malicious (or even VEXATIOUS) lawsuits getting in the way.

Bezos, exactly HOW many successful spacecraft has your company designed and flown in ACTUAL missions, other than that sub-orbital publicity stunt you did a month ago?

*cricket* *cricket* *cricket* *cricket* *cricket* *cricket*

Ya think maybe SpaceX might have a good track record of price and performance? And contracts should NEVER be based on ANYTHING ELSE.

(stupid predatory, burdensome, malicious, and vexatious lawsuits)

Bezos: GET A TRACK RECORD. COMPETE. Your "Legal Tricks" are for CHILDREN!

Trust Facebook to find a way to make video conferencing more miserable and tedious

Re: VR meetings with an EULA and TOS

(see icon)

Re: Add on

naked avatars " Toobin' "

Re: Who is the target market for this?

do kids still say that?

never try to be "Lame Dad" and speak like a teenager, because it will always come out wrong [at least it did when OUR Dads did it].

I still like using hippy jargon on occasion... but mostly 80's. Totally!

[so if you use YOUR generation's jargon, they'll get it and may actually use it themselves when you aren't looking]

Re: VR meetings with an EULA and TOS

if I wanted to chat, just give me an IRC client any day

A _LOT_ of open source projects do just that!

Re: VR meetings with an EULA and TOS

But what happens if Fa[e]ceBAN decides to... BAN your company from their service, because you make rifles, or let certain kinds of speech go uncensored on your service, or gave money to politicians and causes they do not like... (etc.) ?

Yes, this NEVER happens to ANYONE, right? I'm sure people in the board rooms of defense contractors and certain news organizations are just WAITING for this kind of heavy-handed EULA/TOS *LAND* *MINE* which can (potentially) have a negative impact on your JOB.

As for me, I remember a room with a speaker phone only a decade and a half ago, and our meetings went just fine. No cameras, no distractions, just actual discussions between international participants.

I do not trust Fa[e]ceBAN for a GREAT MANY reasons, not just those already mentioned by others.

(aside from the Matrix-like imagining or WoW-like avatars being a major anti-work distraction)

Having trouble getting your mitts on that Raspberry Pi? You aren't alone

3b+ and 4's seem available enough, for now

If your industrial solution can use either the 3b+ _OR_ the 4, there seem to be enough units available in the short term, or so I've been told by the guy doing the procurement at the moment...

If it's getting better over time (not worse) this is actually good news.

[mostly I just need the Pi touch screen, USB 2 ports, ethernet, and wireless, and CPU is fast enough on 3b+, and then you get flexible with the power supply so it can feed either unit and voila!]

Microsoft, flush with cash, raises cloud office suite prices for businesses

Re: My CD-ROM copy of Office 2013 still installs and works fine

have you read THIS El Reg article yet?

Can I pay less if I don't want them?

it doesn't work with cable TV, why would it work with Micros~1???

(I never watch at least 1/3 of the cable channels, and barely watch another 1/3)

At least they should give you 'compensation' discounts based on outages...

Re: Remind me again why we chose PCs over timesharing?

it's all because the Redmond Marketeers could sell ice water to indigenous people of the Arctic...

(on a subscription basis)

Re: You get what you pay for ...

and I just got done reading THIS El Reg article...

Boston Dynamics spends months training its Atlas robots to perform one minute of parkour almost perfectly

Re: Boston Dynamics didn't release any information about their battery life.

the kind of energy you'd need to jump around is kinda like the energy you need to fly a quad-copter.

So if you extrapolate typical quad-copter battery life, maybe similar?

Re: When you can train it to do the housework....

Nandroids. heh. Reminds me of Emmy the Robot (web comic)

Re: Quick learner

I have to wonder how much paralleliism there is in the robots' learning algorithm.

With a lot of parallel operations, you could power it with a server farm and something a bit better than wifi networking. That'd speed the learning process up, right?

(eventually >256 core CPUs but who knows when THAT will happen... at least one that STILL fits in a robot)

LibreOffice 7.2 brings improved but still imperfect Microsoft Office compatibility

Re: Keeps gettin better

I've used LibreOffice for years and have rarely run into compatibility problems.

Similar experience here, and also with Open Office prior to using Libre. Still I welcome compatibility fixes.

Magna Carta mayhem: Protesters lay siege to Edinburgh Castle, citing obscure Latin text that has never applied in Scotland

Re: Sumption is wrong

it was an articulation of the rule of law as priority to the whim of the King.

Correct, and in many ways it was one of the first very important political reforms ever made.

In the USA our Constitution says that we have the right to PEACEABLY assemble and address our greivences etc.. So rioting is COMPLETELY out of the question as far as the law is concerned. I'm sure in the UK it's pretty much the same. Using bad interpretations of the Magna Charta to justify lawlessness is pretty stupid.

But rioting gets attention, especially from the media, making these people "attention whores" and not protesters. [similar criticism applies to riots in MY country as well] When you riot, you draw attention to YOU (like a child having a tantrum). When you protest peacefully, you draw attention to YOUR CAUSE (which becomes part of the solution).

A thousand people marching peacefully with signs and bullhorns makes a very big message for politicians. Or maybe just one guy with a sandwich board marching up and down a street [or wearing a Guy Fawkes mask in protest] is a simple enough message that's also both peaceful and law abiding. And it generally draws attention to the message, not to the messenger.

What these people did (trying to storm the castle) just makes them look like idiots.

China reports local chipmaking boom with output up more than 40%

your point about human rights failures is "not wrong" of course, but the method should be simpler: build competing factories elsewhere, i.e. no more "all eggs in China's basket".

In 2021 there are 2 additional reasons to do this. One, China has proven themselves to be an unreliable part of the supply chain. Two, the manner in which they (the CCP) just "shut things down" without warning, damn the consequences. The combination of the two suggests they can't be trusted.

(other places in the world exist where tech investment is likely to pay off BETTER)

Re: Quality

my recent experience with a chip shortage (in which a Hong Kong chip dealer offered to sell them for over 20 times the normal price in very limited quanitities) on an otherwise popular (yet single-manufacturer) device that had good world wide supply at design time [my solution was to re-do the firmware to accommodate inverted-logic and save tens of thousands of dollars] suggests that China may pick winners and losers until they've completely cashed in on the disaster.

And last I checked, China was STILL a communist country.

seeing the chip making FINALLY recover though is still "good". But I hope the recovery is TOO LATE to stop manufacturers from building chip factories elsewhere.

Cassini data from last decade reveals insights into 'diffuse' nature of Saturn's core

Re: To check their results ....

because of that joke, they changed the planet's name to "U-rectum"

(ok that little 'Futurama' shout-out was screaming to be seen/heard)

(coat, please)

Re: odd

"recent" in cosmic terms could even be "when the asteroid belt formed":

So Jupiter swallowed a rocky planet, and Saturn acts like a proto-star. Interesting.

gas giants being more like proto-stars and less like planets actually sounds VERY plausible.

WhatsApp pulls plug on Taliban helpline, shuts down official-looking accounts

"follow the money" ? I don't think it's that bad or that simple. More likely they have no REAL motivation to "bother with" places like Afghanistan. Not like it affects THEM.

(human nature and Occam's Razor and all of that sort of thing)

Re: The Abiding Self-Destructive Problem in a few simple words.

I think it's simpler: do we REALLY want big tech and social media to be our NEW THOUGHT POLICE? Do we REALLY want to surrender control over communication in our society to *THEM* ???

I say, NO WAY IN HELL!

However, it would be better for them to get the ACTUAL police involved, when crimes or the appearance of things _LIKE_ terrorism are involved.

"Hey look, we have a bunch of people on our social network claiming to be Taliban and it looks like people are using this as if they ARE" - then let the cops or even the military get involved, and if a court or some other REAL authority shuts it down, fine. "Due Process", society run by LAW, and all of that. This might mean some local authority gets to have control over local stuff on social media, and gets worked into the administration of the media services, but that would be MORE like REAL LIFE.

However, letting a techno-oligarchy "just decide for us" to ban (or not) content based on THEIR FEELZ???

NO. Just No.

Hard to tell how the Taliban will rule

not really. They've 'ruled' the same for a VERY, VERY long time. Rewind 20 years and the only real difference between then and now (from their perspective) will be how much better the Taliban now are at manipulating the media and big tech and "the world" with their B.S..

Re: "We're obligated to adhere to US sanctions laws," explained a WhatsApp spokesperson

There are apparently NO such sanction laws involved in many of the alleged 'cancel culture' bans done by FB and Twitter and Google (and most likely their 'pwned' companies as well), but there ARE some apparent ideological similarities among many of those allegedly victimized by alleged 'Cancel Culture' bans, allegedly done by these companies. At least, that's the perception.

Yeah no ginormous glowing hypocrisy here, nothing to see, move along...

So when will sanction laws coincide with the whims of Big Tech? Would that become a GOOD thing or a *REALLY* *REALLY* *BAD* thing? (See icon)

Pi calculated to '62.8 trillion digits' with a pair of 32-core AMD Epyc chips, 1TB RAM, 510TB disk space

Re: Bah. I've done more.

Years ago I found some code for a Pi calculator written in C. There was no author attribution that I remember. I ended up publishing my modified version (which included a bug fix and some significant speedups). The thing that makes mine different is that it is MULTI-THREADED. But the speed benefit is only about 2.5 times, due in many ways to the limits of just how much parallel stuff you can do in the basic algorithm.

In any case, my updated modified threaded version can calculate 1 million digits of Pi in about an hour and a half on a typical amd64-based system. Since it's roughly an n-squared relationship, it implies that this algorithm could calculate 63 trillion digits in about 6 billion hours. Not very impressive, yeah.

It might be interesting to see what the actual numbers would be...

(and since the Swiss algorithm is apparently using 64 cores, they must've found a better way to introduce parallel calculations)

Re: Pi calculations are all very well but

how about a video instead?

(10,000 digits of Pi by Hatsune Miku - I think this is the original one)'

Debian 11 formally debuts and hits the Bullseye

Re: a single DVD image?

why not a single DVD? Traditionally this has been the case. Subsequent DVDs just have other packages on them. I normally do a net install though, so I burn a CD (or just use the IMG for a VM) with the net installer and let it rip for a few hours downloading and installing. Net install is usually pretty small, WAY less than the size of a CD. But the DVDs typically have a live system which sometimes makes fixing things easier.

I should probably verify it but chances are it's still the same as it's traditionally been.

Re: Strength & Weakness

I haven't seen a "Big Ender" build of any OS for quite a while. Used to be thought that Big Endian would run faster on certain hardware and be advantageous for networking. I'm pretty sure ARM can still do it or maybe that was just ARM32. But if it doesn't matter for performance, might as well keep it the same, yeah. Still might be a fun comparison test. Every time you need to flip byte order (htons, ntohs) it adds to the execution time and footprint. On "Big Ender" systems, for these kinds of function calls the compiler doesn't need to generate any code.

sysvinit has been outdated for some time

'outdated' - I do not think that word means what you think it means...

I ran into this very problem when making it possible for an RPi (using Raspbian which is based on Debian and has systemd) to act in several wireless modes including AP and Wifi Client, and during startup you have to tweek things LIKE resolv.conf - I think the utility might have been 'resolved'. It's unnecessarily confusing, though (typical of things related to systemd).

The fact that you can still work around systemd to make something cool happen is pretty good. I just hope that the remnants of more 'traditional' network setup do not disappear. Assuming that the future direction will be MORE choice for init systems, it's looking ok.

from the article: Support for init systems other than systemd

so the DEFAULT is to use systemd, but apparently easier to switch it out for something SANE.

(I was somewhat impressed by this in any case, a happy surprise)

Still using Devuan, which is based on Debian, but I'd think that Devuan maintainer's job just became easier.

You could kinda say that default Debian comes with GNOME, just like it comes with systemde, and forget that there's a Mate and LXDE (and others) desktop setups available, too.

Tired: What3Words. Wired: A clone location-tracking service based on FOUR words – and they are all extremely rude

Re: WHat Three Words - commercial algorithim that cant be shared without license payment

A "tourette" version. heh.

In some places, making a parody version of "What3Words" might be considered "fair use".

Microsoft emits last preview of .NET 6 and C# 10, but is C# becoming as complex as C++?

Re: Cross-platform UI?

a generic WebKit-based cross-platform frame for HTML-based 'apps' might actually help...

(I've been kicking this idea around, and it could be written in Python if you don't need real features)

#!/usr/bin/python

import sys

import gtk

import webkit

import gobject

gobject.threads_init()

window = gtk.Window()

window.set_default_size(800, 480)

window.fullscreen()

window.connect("destroy", lambda a: gtk.main_quit())

browser = webkit.WebView()

if len(sys.argv) > 1 : browser.open(sys.argv[1])

else : browser.open("http://theregister.co.uk/")

window.add(browser)

window.show_all()

gtk.main()

and then, you wouldn't need complicated installers, monolithic run-times, etc. [other than webkit and python and the other supporting packages that could be loaded with something like pip if you use pythyon. otherwise, an open source C/C++ program compiled for your OS]

eh, but what do I know...

C# came from a late-1990s project within microsoft called COOL (C-like Object-Oriented Language)

I was thinking more like a place, with lots of flames, pitchforks, and tormented people screaming...