Posts by bombastic bob

Open-source projects glibc and gnulib look to sever copyright ties with Free Software Foundation

Re: Why assign copyright?

I would guess that this is a part of it (i.e. prevent someone withdrawing their submission and expecting that to be honored). But I think the "work for hire" concept would be more practical.

* as a contributor, you are "working for" the project

* As 'work for hire', the project has ownership

* They can, and should in my opinion, allow you to also distribute things on your own terms that are derived from your work [but I don't think this is part of it] to avoid YOU being sued later if you copy/pasta your own code into some other project

* They are free to license it consistently with the rest of the project (as owners)

In short, you gave them the contribution, so it's theirs now. Plus, if you GPL it, a derived work can always be made from the source (so no withdrawing it later).

So yeah, that and IANAL and my understanding of these things is limited to my own experiences.

(I think most contributions take the form of patches to existing things, though I somewhat recently contributed a userland application to the FreeBSD project - it may still have my copyright but it is under a BSD license anyway. It had to meet their somewhat tough standards, too, or they would not accept it)

Spacewalk veterans take a trip outside the ISS to pump up the power with new solar arrays

Solar Panel long-term performance

The ISS is a good test environment for solar panels in a worst-case environment.

* frequently heating/cooling every 2.5 hours [or whatever it is] as they orbit

* exclusive source of power for ISS and must be reliable

* "up there" for years, not so easy to replace or repair

So far they seem to be doing very well. Hopefully the replacement/upgrade panels will outperform and outlast these, as the tech develops.

(I would like to see a method of producing power via solar wind, especially for interplanetary craft)

Solar cell disposal, however, is another problem entirely. Recycling is best (due to things like CE prohibited materials, etc.) but can it be broken into panels and returned via Dragon capsules? That's where a Space Shuttle would be more effective.. (ok these are staying up there for now but eventually)

And while they're at it, they should send up some additional modules to go with the extended power availability... and maybe some (laser, TIG) welding equipment and laser or plasma cutters (if not already there). I'd like to see them get a head start on orbital construction on a much larger scale.

then they'll need MORE panels, MORE modules, and MORE trips to/from ISS. But when the ISS is all connected, you have one "thing" orbiting, i.e. easier to control the orbit.

SpaceX spat with Viasat: Rival accused of abusing legislation to halt Elon's Starlink expansion

Re: Viasat

you'd think they could afford an actual SCIENTIST who would tell them that below 600km altitude orbits decay in relatively short time frame.

According to NASA "Debris left in orbits below 370 miles (600 km) normally fall back to Earth within several years."

I'd say a collision at THAT altitude is much less dangerous "to the environment" than advertised...

Mensa data spillage was due to 'unauthorised internal download'

Re: Wow

I put 'ransomware' in quotes (followed by a 'd') because it's a similar concept, to threaten something based on a data leak and to potentially want money to NOT release it [unautorized data encryption/decryption being another variant].

But it was released, nonetheless, and the details about whether money exchanged hands (or did not) wasn't in the article... and if "police are investigating" it implies something a bit worse than your average data theft intrusion.

I suppose I could have said "data-leaked" or "cyber-burglared" or similar and been more accurate

Re: Wow

IQ can be a curse as much as a gift.

"Flowers for Algernon" - that was one of my takes on it.

Charlie was just as out of touch with everyone else around him on BOTH ends of the I.Q. spectrum. But when his I.Q. was high, he was AWARE of it...

Re: Wow

more like their definition of "smart" does not include "savvy"

(and as a result, one of the 'smartest' organizations in the world gets 'ransomwared')

It's like the 'ivory tower' mentality in its most irritating form. From my observations, I think their I.Q. tests may be oriented towards making themselves look smart at the expense of everyone else [especially older people, and "non-college-students" in general].

Perhaps with practice any reasonably smart person could 'ace' their IQ tests, but anyone NOT accustomed to "what they expect for an answer" will be at a serious disadvantage [making their IQ results _and_ membership requirements completely out of touch with reality].

A friend of mine (back in the 80's) who had at one time been a member warned me about them. He was pretty smart, but had not been able to complete one of the most difficult military schools [one that I had done pretty well with, the U.S. Navy nuclear power program] where half the students typically drop out. But he was smart enough to have joined Mensa. I have to wonder how many OTHER Mensa members could pass that school...

(If I saw a resume/CV with Mensa membership on it, I'd accidentally round-file it)

Debian's Cinnamon desktop maintainer quits because he thinks KDE is better now

Re: Tumbleweed with Wayland

if Wayland weren't trying to re-invent things [for the lulz apparently] while SIMULTANEOUSLY becoming more Windows-like _AND_ removing the one capability that makes X11 superior to all [display and interact on remote desktop over network or even on the same machine with a different login context, simply by assigning the 'DISPLAY' environment variable] I might actually consider using it. But I don't.

So if Mint/Cinnamon devs want to FOCUS RESOURCES ON THINGS THAT MATTER, and NOT waste time re-re-doing things JUST for Wayland, I'm in agreement with them.

I tried to read his comments by following the link, and that LIGHT GREY TEXT on OFF-WHITE was _SO_ HIDEOUS I had to expand it to 150 percent to even TRY to read it... it was like trying to read badly faded print in candlelight on yellowed paper.

I have to wonder what desktop the *ahem* web author of that page uses. THAT page is just *HORRIBLE*!!! WORST! WEB! DESIGN! EVAR!!!

China launching first crew to its own space station on Thursday

Re: Better not be claustrophobic

I have to wonder how it would compare to Mir and Skylab (size-wise at least)

Say helloSystem: Mac-like FreeBSD project emits 0.5 release

Re: Proof, if it were needed,...

Open Source can't innovate, only duplicate.

Seriously? Gnome and KDE had multiple desktop support around 2005-ish, as I recall. 'vtwm' even had it, a short time later [if I remember correctly], and all of the 'box' managers after that. This same feature took 10 years to show up in Windows. That is *ONE* example where innovation (in this case, for usability and productivity) came to open source FIRST.

Countless other examples exist. Where did that (obviously inaccurate) concept even COME from?

(I do recall some kind of 'powertool' for XP that came AFTER the multi-desktop support in gnome and KDE and it _attempted_ to provide multi-desktop support in XP, but it was brittle and sloppy and generally unusable)

Re: The UI

it always seems to me to be a mistake in generalising and assuming that what works for you is the only way to do things.

THIS is what is WRONG with _SO_ _MANY_ _UI_ _DESIGNS_ these days!!!

The thing that _I_ noticed right away: screenshot of dialog box had 3D skeuomorphic buttons and borders!!!

And to me, the 2D FLATTY is an IMMEDIATE DEAL BREAKER!

So, THANKS to the UI makers for getting *THAT* part *RIGHT* !!

(and using FreeBSD was a cool idea, too)

Dependable Debian is like a rock in a swirling gyre of 'move fast and break things', and version 11 is no different

Re: Desktop is boring?

well if "NOT boring" means "constantly using intarweb bandwidth (and wall time) to 'move fast and break things' and automatically surprise you with unwanted changes and unnecessary bloatware" then I _DEFINITELY_ approve of 'boring'.

"bleeding edge" is SO overrated... [why do people do this to themselves?]

I prefer being able to get work done, and abruptly changing the rules and/or creating instability just slows me down. It's why I like Debian for a lot of things. But I admit, I use Devuan, which is mostly like that too, except no systemd.

What Microsoft's Windows 11 will probably look like

as for lipstick on a pig - the oinky end would have been better

Let's hope Micros~1 gets a clue and AT THE VERY LEAST let's US choose 3D Skeuomorphic and a "Classic" Start Menu/Button over 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE FLATSO [which they're apparently TRIPLING down on now] and a Mac-like look on the task bar...

Granted I can get that with certain desktop managers but I use Mate and want my WINDOWS SYSTEMS to be equally CONFIGURABLE BY ME. And 3D Skeuomorphic, not 2D FLATTY.

Not expecting much else. Too much disappointment and "not listening to customers" LAST time around. It is my strong belief that this practice isn't going to change no matter HOW hard the end users complain.

Realizing this is getting out of hand, Coq mulls new name for programming language

more people should watch the old Python series.

They might learn how to laugh

Re: There are two hard problems in Computer Science

They must have been well known for their

Super High Intensity Training

It's safe to leave your bunker: Blame that Chinese nuclear plant alarm on fuel rod faults

nice video - very "educational" - heh

Re: released in "accordance with regulations,"

"a buildup of noble gasses"

There is only ONE thing that can cause this: Fuel Element Failure. (the article does describe this)

Fuel rod containment failed and allowed fission products into the primary coolant. Not only could this corrupt the physics parameters [because fuel can ALSO circulate] it can greatly increase the radiation hazards when working on the plant while it is shut down ['crud' traps with dangerous levels of gamma radiation, as opposed to something you could work near by for a few hours without it endangering your life]. F.E.F.'s are BAD.

Any leaks between primary and secondary systems (even tiny ones) can cause fission product gasses to end up in the 'air ejector' system of the secondary plant, which then radioactively decay into particulate matter (like Cs and Rb) which end up in the lungs and cause longer term damage. They'd also increase background radiation levels in the steam plant.

The only thing worse than a gross F.E.F. is a MELTDOWN [which is also a type of F.E.F.]

If this gas accumulation is SO bad that they have to release it (via a 'de-gas' operation which should be infrequent) into the atmosphere at levels above French safety standards, it HAS to be at least SERIOUS.

As I mentioned, fission product gasses (typically Xe and Kr) decay into particulates (typically Cs and Rb), which (as particulate) stay in your lungs for a while after you breathe in, and create "longer" term radiation damage. it's not like you can go outside and breathe fresh air to get rid of it. There is a known "biological half life" for removal of the radioactive particulates. I think it is a month or so.

The article points out that TINY F.E.F.s are acceptable (still bad but you can operate). This is why limits exist. If you are above the limit, your problem is SERIOUS and you need to SHUT DOWN and FIX it. And everything I have read in the article suggests that it's SERIOUS enough to SHUT IT DOWN, at the very least. Then they can replace or repair the affected rod and start it up again. That could take weeks, though [you would probably have to wait for decay heat and radiation to be sufficiently low, etc. beforehand]

(you KNOW the N.R.C. in the U.S. would have shut them down!)

it appears, though, that all eggs may be in one basket and there's no other source of electricity that can make up for the temporary loss of this power plant. Lack of proper planning aside, the pressure is ON to KEEP IT RUNNING ANYWAY.

We can expect further information leaking out about this event to be "filtered" accordingly. Unlike the gas releases...

Fancy the ultimate no-Air-outside-bnb? NASA willing to rent out ISS for two weeks

Re: Where are they going to sleep?

I think they need to send a few more (inflatable?) "Hotel Modules" up there to accommodate the guests.

"Hey can I get some more towels? And another bathrobe? And will there be cappuccino at the continental breakfast? You can add a bit of liqueur to mine, please."

(Don't forget to tip the bellman)

or maybe it's more like camping out under the stars... "roughing it" for fun

Mark it in your diaries: 14 October 2025 is the end of Windows 10

Re: Obvs

Windows365

Your number '365' is too large. Try subtracting a bit...

Re: Two possibilities

you mean... like

HAL is to IBM as VMS is to WNT

(I had to do a search on Dave Cutler, to discover he's the former DEC guy that helped design VMS)

Re: Two possibilities

changing over to the Linux kernel

as cool as that would be, particularly for kernel drivers (assuming they don't taint the kernel nor require signing certificates), our hopes were dashed LAST time when we all probably believed that Windows 10 would be a revert back to 7's UI...

(and a big big frowny face for that)

they will be charging for the next version

subscription, right?

"Micros~1 Windows 361" (or 359, o 352, etc.)

Inventor of the graphite anode – key Li-ion battery tech – says he can now charge an electric car in 10 minutes

Re: There still remains......

an international standard for batteries would be less important than a universal standard for charging connections. Sorta like using USB-C connectors except it's a car. The power source would know its own limits, and query the limits of the car, and give you a voltage+current that is appropriate.

the car would be responsible for converting that power into battery voltage and charging correctly, like your phone.

Re: There still remains......

@tfb - ok - here's some math

According to one source, 173 terawatts of semi-usable and otherwise unusable energy strikes the sunny side of the earth continuously. Only a fraction of this can be practically turned into electricity, when you consider solar panel efficiency, infrastructure, cabling, conversion and transmission losses, and unpredictable weather. And we can't cover every square meter with solar panels, so most will be unavailable for use. So we're limited by the flux (energy per square meter), and the ability of our tech to turn that into electricity [when the weather is nice].

It takes about 30-50kwh of energy (let's say) to charge a typical electric car daily to support average commutes (let's say an hour each way) in California, based on claims of battery capacity and range and some ballpark atmospheric extrapolation.

A solar panel that is one square meter (on a good day, at a good time) could produce 200W (and in 8 hours, 1.6kwh). Angle of the sun and day/night limits this effective time period.

with 10 million commuters in California, for 300 million kwh, you would need at LEAST 200 million square meters of panel if you get 8 hours of usable sun each day (or equivalent). More than likely you'll need at least TWICE that and some means of backup power for extended bad weather.

For a single family house, it would mean 20-40 square meters of panels per car JUST to power the cars, assuming good weather all of the time and hyper-efficient storage to handle the peak demand of having your car plugged in every day. That's a lot of panels for one house, bad weather notwithstanding. Apartment buldings with multiple floors would be even LESS practical.

Many places (mountains, lakes, forests, roads, agriculture areas, etc.) could NEVER have solar panels on them. Power loss in conversion and transmission forces you to have the generators reasonably close to the point of demand.

In short, claiming that the sun shines 10,000 times the energy needed by human electrical demand onto the planet is EXTREMELY short sighted and does NOT take into consideration what it would require to harness it (nor the efficiency). You just can't put solar panels EVERYWHERE and expect it to work. It's just not practical. [I used to run a nuclear reactor on a submarine, including the electrical power plant, and worked in the power industry for a while, so I have a pretty good idea about a lot of this].

My conclusion: there is NOT enough energy being produced by the sun in order to meet the demands of human electrical power, if you include all of the cars and our needs (and desires) for transportation, and factor in the needs to convert, transmit, and store this power to meet demand.

Hence, we need to use Nuclear, Fusion, or even fossil fuels until we have a technology that's better than what's available now. Keep in mind, with fast-charge high capacity batteries (which we do not have yet) and some form of nuclear power (which is being resisted on every level from what I see) to charge them, electric cars make sense. Without all that, they do not.

(I really didn't want to get this wordy, but it looks like I had to)

Re: There still remains......

This is ALL very true. Very often fossil fuel plants are the ONLY ones capable of handling that kind of electrical demand. There is NOT enough solar radiation on the planet to power cars, whether it is collected via solar panels, wind, or falling water.

The only real solution (if you are trying to eliminate fossil fuels, a position I wholeheartedly disagree with) is FUSION energy, which is the only thing that would make electric vehicles practical AND universal. The second possibility is FISSION energy, until we have working fusion plants.

(Other implications are obvious)

I would like to see worldwide fusion energy. I see it as the cleanest and most abundant form of electrical production. But nothing comes without cost. The question is whether the extremists are willing to shut up about their extremism long enough to get it done.

Seven-year-old make-me-root bug in Linux service polkit patched

you are right. I'll need to check to see if polkit on FBSD is vulnerable...

(it's actually a little convenient on FBSD - remembering you already were prompted for a password recently and not prompting again, for example - but now I'll consider disabling it)

An anti-drone system that sneezes targets to death? Would that be a DARPA project? You betcha

Re: spraying pink spunk doesn't solve the problem

when high speed rotors are spinning, a sight out-of-balance is all you need to cause catastrophic failure in a short period of time. Severe vibration, blades strike shrouds, or blades break off. All bad for Mr. Drone, who will soon have a very, very bad day.

Re: .. spraying the whole city with small-arms fire?

yeah a 16 inch turret gun on an offshore battleship shooting silly string projectiles to take out a few drones...

(that would be *EPIC* and funny as hell at the same time)

Re: The Great Argle Seizure

* snot bot

* SN33Z3

* Autonomous Combat Helicopter Ordinance Obliterator (A.C.H.O.O.)

* The Pink Mist (Halo reference)

* Super Silly String Sting

(coat please)

Dealing with the pandemic by drinking and swearing? Boffins say you're not alone

Re: The 5 rules of problematic drinking

A pot of coffee is "12 units" or that'd be my guess. I wonder what a quad cappuccino qualifies as? [my daily breakfast]

84 units of coffee a week - heh

Re: The 5 rules of problematic drinking

I got 1, 4 and 5 nailed down, but am still working on 2 and 3. Does it count as medicinal if it settles my digestion and makes tolerable the 'old age' symptoms?

BOFH: Despite the extremely hazardous staircase, our IT insurance agreement is at an all-time low. Can't think why

Re: Good one !

a while back someone did an online mini-series of videos called "Salmon Days". it had its funny moments, especially when the BOFH wrestled with the paperclip because it was repeating "It looks like you're writing a letter", and there was a lady that sounded like a modem or a FAX, and 'Microshaft' customer support froze up in mid phone-answer with the floating paper overhead... but unfortuately a lot of it just wasn't that funny, and it disappeared into the ether.

Re: Strong arm!

you just need to use more cement

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

Re: At a phsician's

just worth pointing out... vaccination _is_ a way of establishing herd immunity...

(either that or do what parents did in the 60's for mumps, measles, chicken pox, etc. - expose your kids when they're young and get over it faster, whenever there's a breakout)

I prefer vaccines, myself. Only reason I haven't gotten one (yet) is I probably had the virus in early Jan of 2020 when a co-worker came back from china and then had to leave work due to fever etc. and then a couple of weeks later I had the symptoms, which went away in a day or so, and came back just once a week later (but milder). And a relative that lives with me got similar symptoms in that time frame. And things with sugar in them taste funny, now (instead of sweet). And early on, I thought "I'll let others get it first" since I'd most likely had the virus, when it was in ultra-high demand. But eventually, when it's convenient, I'll probably get the jab(s) just to make sure I'm immune.

So yeah I'm not even remotely close to being an anti-vaxxer, but i still don't like seeing people turn into extremists on the either side of this, especially when the arguments deviate from actual science.

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.

equally appropriate if it had been SPAM

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

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...

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

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)

but are they "3 laws safe" ?

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

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)

Re: Not your keys, not your crypto

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

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

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'

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].

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)

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

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.