
Re: "COBOL programmers of the 2030s?
oh come on, show at least SOME optimism...
(This is an opportunity to revive interest in 'C' coding)
smiley face icon even if it's "forced"
10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
Saying that the next generation will want to use a "not C" language, one NOT intended by its very nature to be the language of OS kernels [think early days of UNIX and the 'B' lingo, which became 'C'], is rather CONDESCENDING in my view. It assumes that future kernel programmers won't be able to comprehend the need for a lingo that's ALREADY very close to the assembly code, and can even be hand-tweeked to generate efficient assembly, if you understand enough about how the compiler works and the way it generates code.
It would also be assuming that assembly isn't being used, assuming that garbage collection and excessive validation are allowable, and that complex operations should be "programmed inside the language" where they're almost GUARANTEED to generate less-than-optimal solutions for MOST problems that require things like threads and process control in general.
We have SEEN the results of "this kind of thinking": WINDOWS
How long does it take to open up a "File Open" dialog box these days? Then go back to Win '95 or even Win 3.1, and that less "functional" file open dialog box that DID! NOT! USE! OBJECT! ORIENTED! HELL! on EVERY! STINKING! FILE! ENTRY! popped up SO fast you're like "what?"
And that's my point: when EVERYTHING is being done using "we have fast CPUs now" as an excuse, with bureaucratic top-down "everything is an object as a member of a collection" kinds of thinking, you end up with GROSS inefficiencies that nobody knows how to fix any more... because we're NOT using a lingo like 'C' any more... one that reminds us of how the CPU actually WORKS, because it's low-level enough to be close to the machine code!!!
[and it has the decency to support "native integer" types, particularly UNSIGNED integers]
Seriously, though, give "the next generation" some credit. We, the experienced kernel programmers of the world, should MENTOR them, and turn them into proficient C coders instead!
[then they'll look back and say "why the HELL dd I ever *FEEL* (the 'F' word) that we could program a kernel in RUST ???]
the term 'troll' (spelled that way) is just a geeky pun [I thought everyone knew that...]
Old school gamers should remember "the troll bridge" [another pun and reference to an old kids' tale about a troll and 3 goats and a bridge]. Then 'trawl' sounds like 'troll', making it good PUN-ishment.
So multi-reference pun "for the lulz". You're welcome. Captain obvious says so.
considering how Micros~1's phone OS has been such an *EPIC* failure, the award for "late to the party" REALLY belongs to Micros~1 !!!
And when you consider that the encrypted DNS providers are probably SNOOPING on everything themselves, it's kinda pointless outside of a public wifi or "behind the filtering firewall" setting. Oh, but you get to CHOOSE who snoops on you! O...K...
what was also "sub-optimal" (apparently) was the JUDGE who would have to approve an arrest via an arrest warrant, AND any bail setting in an arraignment that would leave him sitting in jail awaiting trial...
"wrongful arrest" does happen from time to time, which is why we have judges and courts to minimize it. But if the "evidence" of facial recognition is being used to BYPASS normal rules of evidence, and incarcerate people (even if it's awaiting trial), then it's GOT to STOP.
Instead, fingerprints, DNA, and "unexplained income" from the fencing of stolen property, OR the actual stolen property itself - those things would be REAL evidence. Apparently they didn't have any of those.
NOTE: a search warrant may be fine, based on facial recog, but that would just authorize them to LOOK for "the REAL evidence". Not the same as arrest+jail.
(from the article)
Lyft argues that AB5 is poorly drafted and has destroyed thousands of jobs.
And, they're right. People like musicians and handymen are probably the hardest hit by this. You know, the kinds of things that people do OUTSIDE of a corporate+payroll environment, the kinds of which have been done "since civilization", from services like cleaning and gardening, to a clown at your kid's birthday party, and the accountant that fills out your tax forms. Most often these people ARE independent contractors, now apparently ILLEGAL because you didn't pay the payroll taxes, offer them insurance, paid vacations, minimum wage, and deduct various 'withholdings' from their paychecks and THEN distribute those withholdings to the multiple tax authorities, etc. etc. etc.. The 16 year old kid who babysits your offspring is an independent contractor, too. So much for earning money when you're a kid... [the list of things WRONG with AB5 is huge]
And, apparently, all of this was done to "get" Uber and Lyft. No need to ask 'why' either. 'Gummint'. It's what they do.
have you seen a photo of it? The blades are long and wide and apparently fold up nicely for the trip to Mars. I think the total rotor diameter is over 1 meter, and they would have had to construct them from super-light-weight material, maybe like model airplane wings? [yeah I used to build those when I was a kid, paper and balsa wood]
Although i would expect carbon nanotubes from NASA...
(duckduckgo search, "mars helicopter photo", lots of hits, some with people so you can get a size reference)
"now that Oracle want to start charging a per-user annual fee for the runtime."
wouldn't OpenJDK fix that? It comes with OpenJRE [in case you were not already aware] for the runtime, and it's iicensed under the GPL. There are also Linux distros using something called 'IcedTea' so that they can get pure-GPL-compatible builds of OpenJDK and OpenJRE for the package system (apparently there's some minor proprietary component for some of the java classes without IcedTea being in there).
So if Oracle wants to license their java run-time "per user" for commercial use, with their 'Oracle JDK' binaries, let them. We still have OpenJDK, it's "fork-able", and GPLd.
someone forgot to finish the 2D FLATTY ADWARE "The Store": version before the update shipped...
(the respons was SUPPOSED to be "it's in The Store" and then, like games, make everyone download the ad-ridden crippled FLUGLY version of what used to be a useful tool...)
But they were caught, and had to quickly put it back while whistling in the air like nothing happened...
good observation - I was going to comment on this.
in short, metals are typically embrittled as temperature goes down. So failure at low temps is typically brittle fracture, which tends to be catastrophic. Ductile failure, at higher temperatures, can cause swelling before it finally bursts, but in essence the dynamics of the test change considerably when you drop temperature down to LOX levels.
A fairer test might be liquid nitrogen to avoid explosive reactions with O2
6502 systems like Apple and C64 might just get more attention if there's a compiler that supports them. OK emulation, especially emulation with an RPi, might be the way to get these environments to work, but there's enough ancient-computing-hardware fandom out there, it might just work...
maybe simh ? xmame ?
"willing to work for 35% of market prevailing wages."
I'm not 100% convinced of the 35%, but it is already pretty much well known that people brought in under H-1B (or similar) visas might be willing to accept positions at a lower wage, in exchange for being brought in under such a visa (it's like competition, right?).
Seriously, though, if the USA has an unusually high unemployment rate, for whatever reason, importing more people to do work (potentially at a lower wage) is NOT helping...
Question: which candidates are supported by Siicon Valley mega-corps, the same ones who've allegedly colluded with one another to 'not recruit one another's employees' to keep overall wages low? (I know there was an El Reg article about this a few years ago) What is THEIR standing on H-1B (and other) work visas?
think about it - multiple private companies trying to offer space-related things, which maybe in 5 years or so would be actual space craft launching with private citizens in them, to an orbital getaway.
Could it help to pay for a "hotel wing" to the ISS? Maybe. One of those inflatable add-ons perhaps. Inflatables. Heh. And a new level to achieve for the mile-high club.
All good! (think of the history of flight in general, and we're on a good path right now)
I am not at all convinced that Bush 41 would have lost in a traditional 2-way race.
More than likely, he would not have lost. But if Sanders were to play the role of Ross Perot in 2020, he'd siphon away the already pathetic number of votes for Biden, making it even MORE laughable when Trump wins in November. Polls aside, they were 20 points off 4 years ago at this time in the race, and that was NO coincidence [many people believe that these political polls are deliberately used to drive Republican voters away from casting their votes, by depressing them or making them believe their votes won't count, so they stay home... and so the wording of the questions is carefully crafted, or the population samples are deliberately 'not representative'].
Trump is an efficiency-thinking business guy, and goes for the win in an efficient and planned way. So a clear margin in the electoral college is how you win, NOT the popular vote, and THAT will be the strategy. Again. The Trump 2020 campaign really just started 2 days ago. With the lamemainstream media against him in ALL ways possible, often deliberately stretching anything even remotely resembling truth into outright lies and falsehoods, while simultaneously leaving out ANYTHING that even REMOTELY resembles 'good news', it's a wonder that his numbers are as high as they are at the moment, except to simply say that MOST of us aren't fooled by it, not one bit. But there are a few I think that are losing hope, with the latest assault of doom, gloom, and daily pessimism. That should turn around VERY quickly (Trump's best talent, infectious optimism).
Huawei is trying to appear like they're not making any bets. But if I were them, I'd plan on 8 years of Trump, Republicans dominating elections across the USA (again), manufacturing leaving China, and more tariffs. Then again, they COULD become more open about things, particularly when it comes to the security concerns (China government snooping via any networks Huawei owns, for example), go out of their way to respect intellectual property (even for domestic products), and become the friendlier, more honest, more customer-oriented company we'd like them to be.
"Nazis _were_ socialists."
Correct (government takeover of businesses is one of the characteristics that defines socialism).
I expect that if Nazis hate socialists, they hate themselves, but they hate OTHERS MORE (like Daleks) and so "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
(there should be a Dalek icon. Cybermen are their 'rival enemies' and so I can't really use the terminator icon, now can I?)
What was the inspiration of using an inverted red triangle?
because it's shaped like the down button on an elevator/lift ?
there's a lot of missing context here... and a LOT of unnecessary overreacting.
Strangely, this triangle-thing is being said about one of the most Israel-supporting U.S. presidents EVAR.
"when you go actively looking for them, you see them 'everywhere'"
Just like conspiracies.
To a hammer, everything is a nail. etc.
icon, because, nothing says "conspiracy" like black helicopters
(if it had been 666 we'd be laughing at it)
Yet, 8 is perfectly symmetrical. It can be cut 4 different ways to produce perfect symmetry.
(those who do not get the reference, you're missing out on something awesome)
And don't forget how many CPUs have had 8 bit words (including microcontrollers), along with the standard 'Byte'.
I've also seen '88' used a LOT in COBOL code, in the DATA section.
It sure is a stretch to make a big deal out of 8 and 88... it's almost like you HAVE to be WANTING it to "mean something" that can THEN be used for UNDO CRITICISM.
(and pointy-down triangles are OFTEN used for elevator/lift buttons and indicator lights... "going down")
Title is a short quote from the article, a 'reveal'.
That particular organization (and its funder) are well known for political bias and related activities.
Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and others have exposed them many times for who they are, what they do, how they operate, and so on.
big FACEPALM icon since it's *THEM*
tree harvesters re-plant their forests (unless they WANT to go broke!). In some cases I believe it's require by LAW. Canada produces a LOT of lumber (/me sings the lumberjack song), and I'm pretty sure that the leftovers from the saw mills end up in paper mills, along with a lot of recycled paper. It's an efficient business, NOT like a bunch of humanoid termites swarming a forest and turning it into mud.
Seriously, it's a true *RENEWABLE* resource. We don't lose 8 billion trees. In fact, I'm pretty sure we're GAINING trees, because of re-planting and putting out forest fires, etc..
OK this is the joke: a sign has an OS failure report on it instead of the usual content
(and windows is infamous for this happening too often on our personal computers)
It's a bit like The 3 Stooges, but I laugh at them, too. And if I shave my head and beard, I look like Curly. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk Woobwoobwoobwoob...
icon for irony
now there's not only the system registry, and the user's registry, but also the task scheduler (which I've only looked at long enough to dislike it, especially when compared to something straightforward like crontab), in addition to a common startup directory and a user startup directory. All of these have the ability to start processes automatically on bootup.
So yeah. need to check all those things. Or maybe there's a background service that's running on startup for Edge now, and for some *weird* reason it spawns on the desktop...
sad icon, because this really happens [apparently]
master
with main
across its services
I don't mind calling it 'main'. I mind why it's being changed.
There have been too many instances of this already. My overall comments and opinions remain the same, regarding activism forcing (read: bullying) the rest of to comply with ever-changing "rules".
That last part is why I do NOT like it.
From the article: It's hard to argue against the change because Secure boot is a more-than-useful way of ensuring that servers boot into know and trusted environments..
It's not THAT hard to argue against this. LINUX. FREEDOM to put the OS of YOUR choice on the hardware YOU pay for. And NOT require us to use hardware that RESTRICTS us with "featuers" like 'secure boot'.
Now... if the requirement to BE ABLE TO DISABLE IT is included with secure boot "by default", then I won't object to it. But I'm not seeing this in the article. Shouldn't it be? Remember, it's NOT the case for ARM devices that run windows to REQUIRE the ability to disable secure boot... [that was part of the licensing thing from a decade or so ago, remember? x86 devices needed to have secure boot "disablable", but *NOT* ARM !!!]
In my own code, I could use "bastard" for background threads, instead of "child"
A friend of mine once used 'semprini' in the code [as a function name] and I had to ask about it, having forgotten that particular Monty Python episode. I think I've used it at least twice since then.
So now you got me thinking of terms I could cynically sneak in to just about any code I write. Wouldn't be the first time. Adding subtle references to "fridge moment" jokes is a programmer's perogative, and helps deal with the tedium. Heh.
Intereasting... you started your post with: "Are you a child?"
I recognize this particular technique. It ALWAYS seems pejorative to me, and very irritating (and I can add many more adjectives to this list, but I digress). I wonder how many 'incorrect ideas' such a leading question spreads? Ah, the irony...
"there are much more important things to worry about than semantics."
That, and the alternative of living in fear of whether you might *accidentally use* one of these "offensive" terms and then become a target for "cancellation" for the rest of your life...
I must say one thing about the ZFS mods, which were submitted as a pull request. So in this case, it was not a hunch of activists *whining* about it, attempting to use 'activist techniques' to force OTHERS to do the work, but INSTEAD it was someone who literally took the time to do the work HIMSELF, and then submitted it to the project, "all ready to go".
I think you missed the point about the tech itself being useful OUTSIDE of "big brother" surveillance... and AGAIN, just because some might ABuse it [such as a "big brother" gummint], you don't abandon the ENTIRE tech because of it [and, of course, because of any kind of activism].
And, keep in mind, "those places" ALREADY do 'abuses', and nothing WE do is stopping them...
So yeah, I want to see face recog for robots, so they can recognize YOU, your friends, and those you don't want inside your house [as an example].
to add to the credibility of the JetBrains survey, see The TIOBE Index, where Java has been _the_ most popular language for the most of the last few years, occasionally trading places with 'C' in popularity (as with the last couple o' months, it seems).
C: 17.2%
Java: 16.1%
JavaScript: 2.3%
(but if you combine C with C++, that would make the two of them together the most popular, something worth pointing out)
So now that JetBrains has results that are at least _similar_ to the long-running TIOBE index, I tend to believe them more. As opposed to "the other one".
[now I would just like to see IntelliJ made more efficient, and particularly made more useful for C and C++ dev on Windows and POSIX/X11 systems, like a 'DevStudio' might be, otherwise it's good enough for 'droid dev]
"And of course a good fancy editor to put it all together."
pluma! Or I suppose, you COULD use IntelliJ... or Eclipse...
/me does a LOT with embedded web thingies on RPi and pluma is an excellent editor when you run the editor on the RPi itself, but ALSO use an X Server on a networked Linux box via the DISPLAY environment var on the RPi side. I've tried remote X11 with things like IntelliJ before, from within a Linux VM specifically, and the results weren't that impressive.
Kotlin, yeah.
I think 'droid adopted it as a backup plan to the ongoing legal dispute between Google and Sun/Oracle. I've chatted online with people who really like it, but they admit there's a somewhat steep learning curve of a month or so before they become as competent with Kotlin/Droid as they already are with Java/Droid.
Something to consider, maybe...
(last I checked Kotlin was barely a blip on the TIOBE index, below COBOL at number 30)
"The idea of broadcasting media to players in different rooms of a house isn't new"
You can also do this with an icecast server and feed it with your own playlist, though the music may not be entirely synchronized, depending on the players/PCs involved. [the internet radio I was given years ago lets you specify a custom station in its cloud thingy, and so I use a LAN address for the icecast server, running on FreeBSD and being fed with sometimes random, sometimes planned, songs from all of the audio CDs I've ripped to OGG format].
But yeah, NOT a new idea. Since, like, broadcast radio. And it's possible to do your own.