Posts by bombastic bob

India’s contact-tracing app unleashes KaiOS on feature phones

"the Android paired bluetooth device has to be completely reset before it can pair with Android again"

Apple uses something called MFi for "legacy" bluetooth (i.e. NOT 'BTLE'). Apparently this is messing with the base processor for some reason...

making use mandatory is unreasonable

(title quoted from article)

I agree 100% with this statement (from the article). And if it has demonstrable security issues, they should DEFINITELY be published [and then fixed].

(oops that battery JUST keeps falling out! So much for 'mandatory'...)

Vint Cerf suggests GDPR could hurt coronavirus vaccine development

"Its time to understand the difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law isn't it?"

I have a novel suggestion: ASK the person that owns the data if it can be used, in writing, and THEN ensure proper privacy protection as much as possible.

Then you comply with GDPR [as I understand it], and are STILL able to do whatever research you need with the data.

Yeah, treating the owners of the data as PEOPLE instead of STATISTICS - what a novel concept!

Cyber attack against UK power grid middleman Elexon sparks in-house IT recovery efforts

Re: Backups

"A sophisticated hacker would infect backups for months before pulling the trigger."

a sophisticated IT manager (read: BOFH) would realize this, and re-load affected operating systems from scratch - THEN restore just the data [and nothing that's executable]. In cases where boot viruses occur in motherboard EEPROM, this may be a bit more difficult, however...

(but a proper phorensic analysis of the scope of infection would tell you this, most likely).

In general, however, crooks are dumb. A simple "restore from backup" probably worked fine.

India opens its space industry to private companies

Space has been 'militarized' the moment Sputnik launched. But I doubt India does anything more than take pictures of the earth in "strategic" locations, just like everybody else.

Actually if they do a LOT of "space port rental" to companies in India AND from other nations, it could give them an advantage over other nations that aren't so lucky as to be so close to the equator.

Though for polar and other 'non-equatorial' orbits, there's no advantage to such a location. So spy satellites won't be sent from there, most likely.

The earth is roughly 24,000 miles in diameter, so it's moving about 1,000 miles an hour near the equator. That compared to Canaveral, which is about 28 degrees North, making it roughly 880 mph. This difference is significant enough but the latitude of the Baikonur Cosmodrome is ~46 degrees, which is only ~690mph. So launching from India gives you a ~300mph boost over what you'd get at Baikonur.

(the difference between 8 deg N and 5 deg N, to point out, is insignificant - cos(latitude) * 1000mph for the approximate rotational speed at that point on earth).

A real loch mess: Navy larks sunk by a truculent torpedo

Re: Oops!

I cannot confirm nor deny this [which is the standard response for something that may be classified if confirmed or denied]. But in the movie 'Hunt for Red October' the Alpha captain disabled the safeties on his torpedos so that Capt. Ramius could not go in a semicircle to avoid getting blown to smithereens (and then he was later hoisted by his own petard when they came around and hit HIS sub). If the movie has any accuracy when compared to real life, there ya go.

Huge if true... Trump explodes as he learns open source could erode China tech ban

Re: Oh dear

Only those "news" agencies that regularly cite "sources say" without doing actual journalism, as a pipe organ for a specific political position (one that would continue to hate Trump even if he were to personally cure cancer and end all poverty) would look upon the title in which the initials for 'SATIRE' are clearly visible, and either ignore it or miss it entirely, and then report this as if it were fact SIMPLY because they'd want to believe it to be so.

Most people, however, seem to have got the joke from the beginning, though it would be BETTER satire if it were grounded in truth, and not just 'pandering to the perception'...

Russia admits, yup, the Americans are right: One of our rocket's tanks just disintegrated in Earth's orbit

Re: Honest question....

Reminds me of something from the Navy: "Sweepers, man your brooms"

Or in this case, similar styled satellites. We're gonna need them.

/me wonders if you could string a net of some kind between 2 of them, made of some kind of carbon fiber with high tensile strength and low mass

Beer gut-ted: As many as '70 million pints' spoiled during coronavirus pandemic must be destroyed in Britain

Re: It's probably not actually "bad".

right, if lager isn't chilled it spoils and tastes nasty. Back in the day as a teenager I worked in a drug store that would occasionally put Coors on sale in cases, but they got warm in the warehouse and out on the floor. The beer truck driver said it ruins the beer, and he oughta know because the beer was always delivered in refrigerated trucks. Well, people bought it anyway... even though the taste was no longer "ideal" [this was ~40 years ago to put it into perspective].

but nowadays I usually drink ale since pilsner/lager beers give me a headache...

Mirror mirror on the wall, why will my mouse not work at all?

Re: obvious

we're dealing with a 12:00 flasher - everything in the house is ALWAYS FLASHING 12:00 !!!

Time to ask "Is there a child in the house?" [3 dead trolls in a baggie, yeah]

Rust marks five years since its 1.0 release: The long and winding road actually works

Re: On speed

"if you can get any of your computations done in parallel"

multi-thread parallelism is good in SOME cases, but not all. I took a look at how Rust manages this and I wasn't too keen on it. Since I've done this myself in C and C++ using pthreads and windows threading, I know what's going on under the hood. [I once wrote a cooperative thread library for Windows 3.x the 16-bit OS decades ago, similar to fibers - I've been doing this kind of thing a LOOooong time!]

In short, every time you create a thread you have to initialize it within the OS, which takes a bit of time. In the case of a quick sort, half the process in the initial part of the algorithm [the pivot] must be single threaded, and the followup can be multiple-threaded (in my multi-thread demo, qsort with 4 threads is about 2.5 times faster than single-thread, YMMV).

Typically I would use work units and a mini-scheduler to limit thread count, and since I've written this sort of thing before, adapting an existing one is pretty straightforward. The 2 main features, "spawn a thread" and "wait for all work units on this thingy to finish" need to be built into it like an object, but it's not that hard to do. The pthreads 'join a thread' is very useful for this purpose. With Winders it's just a bit more difficult though [not much just a bit]. No spinning on 'yield()' either, you have to go into true 'wait state' and NOT do rapid polling, or the CPU will read 100% all of the time when it's really NOT. [I've had people try and argue with me over this, too, yet it's easily observed when you do it wrong - but then again, does Rust do it RIGHT?].

When the overhead of creating multiple parallel threads is ABSTRACTED, then it won't be obvious to the coder that his threaded solution becomes LESS EFFICIENT. And it easily CAN.

And anything that's trivially multi-threaded doesn't need "all that overhead" that I'd expect from the internals of Rust. Those could easily be coded in plain-old 'C'. (DFT comes to mind)

Still, having threading built into the lingo is interesting. Perhaps in the next evolution of C++ it'll be there, too.

From a C++ & Ada perspective

Hmmm... ADA as the pinnacle of safe and reliable programming? [yet hardly anyone uses it]

I wasn't aware that Rust represented a crusade against OOP. I think the OOP-obsessed have done that to THEMSELVES, by making *EVERYTHING* into "an object" and forcing everyone ELSE into "the java way" or something (as is '.Net' throughout). I don't even like seeing this in Python and Perl. It's "bass-ackwards". And THAT is what's wrong with OOP-obsession. But I digress...

True "Object Oriented Programming" seeks to abstract the physical data storage from how it is used, and so "an object" becomes "a data storage unit and the methods that work with that data". Any requirements BEYOND that were added later, somewhat artificially; as an example, polymorphism is more like a derivative of OOP and not OOP itself.

I'm not familiar enough with Rust's syntax to comment much, but it was initially confusing to me when I read through some Rust source. "Steep learning curve" is _NEVER_ a good thing for a new programming lingo.

And I'm also a bit skeptical when "safety" is claimed. From what I understand, you have to turn MOST of that "safety" OFF to work with 3rd party libs and operating systems directly.

As for efficiency, it's a fair bet that "cumbersome" things happen under the hood, and once people figure out where those are, they'll be writing "unsafe" workarounds to BYPASS it. As an example, an STL class that uses vectors or allocators. 'Nuff said yeah.

SO based on things _LIKE_ STL and how it fails to be universally "a good thing" [especially for microcontrollers and tight loops in time-sensitive applications] I also have my doubts as to the internals of Rust [the ones we don't see but do all of that "safety" stuff] are JUST AS BAD because they were created with the SAME _KINDS_ of THINKING behind them.

^^^ let's hope I'm wrong. Honestly I'd rather be wrong on this. But I bet I'm *NOT*. Sadly.

Re: Meh

I prefer if(!x) rather than if(x==0)

though I don't mind doing if((expression)==variable) which 8is an alternative of the '0==x' thing

/me points out that if you write your C or C++ code in such a way as to assume that NOT you, or a FORGETFUL you, will have to MAINTAIN it, a lot of programming problems just "go away" on their own.

If American tech is used to design or make that chip, you better not ship it to Huawei, warns Uncle Sam

Re: Also Microsoft

"There's not much bias in the article, it neither condones nor encourages."

Agreed. In My Bombastic Opinion most El Reg articles have little or no bias. Some do, and they get appropriate comments (often from me).

Re: Also Microsoft

"Now if Trump really wants to hurt those Chinese, he really needs to stop them using Windows software!"

Notably MISSING, because it would NOT actually "hur"t them to NOT be able to use Windows...

(yeah we don't need the 'next OS' created by China as a competitor to Windows, now do we?)

Similar with Android and iOS I bet.

(the day of widespread Linux on the desktop might be *hastened* if Windows _were_ denied to them!)

Everything OK with Microsoft? Windows giant admits it was 'on the wrong side of history' with regard to open source

Re: My Hope

"My hope would be the Rejects from Redmond would ditch Bloat in favor something that is stabler and generally works."

Maybe, in 15 years' time...

I'd just like to see them "get religion" with respect to the 2D FLATTY FLATSO FLATASS McFLATFACE that was somehow "snuck in" and CANONIZED by Sinofsky [who was allegedly fired over it] and Larson-Greene [who also invented "the ribbon" yet was NOT fired... go fig].

I guess it means that "Micros~1.net" are compelled to HIT ROCK BOTTOM before they get a "moment of clarity".

In the mean time... how about if they make a "Windows Sub System for Linux" ? You know, like Wine, but actually WORKS and lets us RELIABLY run windows applications on Linux... [I would PAY MONEY for that... as long as it supports Win32 API!!!]

Multi-part Android spyware lurked on Google Play Store for 4 years, posing as a bunch of legit-looking apps

Re: So...

when I started reading this, I was thinking that you had to load multiple applications, but apparently that loading is coordinated by the original. I did not see whether or not the user still had to confirm and allow permissions, etc. but most people just "click through" all of that blindly.

However, what _IF_ the malware was in parts, and would NOT run unless ALL of the parts were loaded? That is, you might need to install the wallet, the e-mail, AND the music player [for example] and let's say all three of them SELF PROMOTE [and to make the ads stop you can install them]. Then when all three are loaded, the malware does its thing... how well could THAT be detected by current means?

At any rate, what the article made me think [initially] is actually a bit WORSE than a "payload downloader". But it definitely points out that "App Stores" are NOT inherently "safe", no matter how much of a LOCK DOWN [that would be YOU, Apple] is being done to "prevent infections".

Hey. LOCK DOWNS DO NOT WORK. There. I said it.

Micros~1? ClippyZilla? BSOD Bob? There can be only one winner. Or maybe two

Re: 8.3

Micros~1.net

Even BETTER!

ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and grandaddy of the programming family tree

Re: .. never used .. ?

Back in the (very) late 70's at a university, my PDP-11 assembly language class was taught by a professor that LOVED ALGOL. Brilliantly, he required all assembly language assignments to be accompanied with a "high level language" pseudo-program. Of course, it had to at least LOOK like ALGOL or you'd get a LOT of uncomplimentary comments when he returned it to you. I resisted but it was futile. So I started handing in the ALGOL-like pseudo code along with the homework assignment [which always worked].

But the focus of that class wasn't assembly language per se; rather, it was on structures and lists and other things that languages _like_ ALGOL (and also C) are PERFECT for. I do not recall what kind of structure and/or pointer support you had in ALGOL, but I think there was at least _something_. 'C' of course took this concept, ran with it, and basically INVENTED how it's done from that point forward.

NOTE: I've also had to work with FORTRAN 'EQUIVALENCE' and 'COMMON' blocks which indirectly accomplish the same thing, in a 'hobbled' kind of way. Pure assembly is NEARLY as 'hobbled' though. On the PDP-11, and with good x86 assemblers, you can specify an array index as a register offset and 'sort of' look like an index, and maybe 'struct.member' as an offset as well. But old assemblers had name size limits, and you had to get very creative with names....

You can't have it both ways: Anti-coronavirus masks may thwart our creepy face-recog cameras, London cops admit

"i predict it will be a lot longer than a few months that people will be wearing face masks"

MANDATORY mask wearing is a BAD thing [and does little to help with disease control]. However, VOLUNTARY mask wearing, which is common in S.E. Asia, is a GOOD thing if you know you're sick and don't want to give your cold/flu to others. So if it simply becomes "acceptable" it's DEFINITELY a GOOD thing [common sense vs insane panic-fear-based mandates].

That and I don't like being ORDERED to do things that are unnecessary and/or inconvenient.

(so I'll keep wearing the Guy Fawkes mask until the nonsense stops)

Re: Lookie likey

yeah I'd definitely choose the mask used for the 'anonymous' icon

(I am the one wearing the Guy Fawkes mask in public to comply with "social distancing")

You overstepped and infringed British sovereignty, Court of Appeal tells US in software companies' copyright battle

Re: US Law applies worldwide

"in the eyes of Lawyers and Judges in the USA."

Maybe THEM, but not ME. Well I'm not ENRICHED by demanding that a UK (or any non-U.S.) entity comply with a U.S. judge on matters NOT specific to the U.S., and that's probably why.

(we have a hard enough time dealing with frivolous lawsuits and legalized theft)

NHS contact tracing app isn't really anonymous, is riddled with bugs, and is open to abuse. Good thing we're not in the middle of a pandemic, eh?

Re: Why, oh why...

"And who ends up paying the price?"

Middle Class working people as usual.

From the article: "working on an app to make it simpler."

That is like 'working on a lubricant so it doesn't hurt your hole as much while being "involuntarily violated"'

Sorry, that's the image that keeps coming into my head. Their "app", vs our privacy. Same idea.

(it's apparently happening in the USA in a couple of places too).

"Whoops that battery just keeps falling out over and over and over!"

Better late than never... Google Chrome to kill off 'tiny' number of mobile web ads that gobble battery, CPU power

Re: I'll stick to firefox thanks

and don't forget 'NoScript'

Breaking virus lockdown rules, suing officials, threatening staff, raging on Twitter. Just Elon Musk things

how many people died of:

a) traffic accidents

b) drug overdoses

c) suicide

d) old age

e) cancer

f) INFLUENZA

etc.

track these, too, to put things into perspective. And keep in mind that many of the Wuhan virus deaths were in NYC and New York (the state), quite possibly due to a bad policy caused by the governor (Cuomo), who deliberately sent infected patients BACK INTO NURSING HOMES when there were empty beds available in the temporary hospital in NYC and also on the Mercy (hospital ship) waiting for such patients, but left empty, unused... and so the elderly residents at those nursing homes had about 25% die from the Wuhan virus [as I recall]. It was grossly irresponsible.

Compare THAT to how Sweden has done it.

(no more lies, damn lies, and tainted statistics, please)

Re: Einstein vs Newton? Where the hell did that come from?

"In Newton's time there was no known technical reason why lead should not be turned into gold,"

There still is no technical reason why it can't be done. In fact, using a nuclear reactor, it CAN be done. The thing is, the yield is poor and so expensive, it's much cheaper to mine for it like we always have.

Re: Elon Musk Is An Ass

"Elon Musk is a selfish child and deserves to be smacked with a glove."

Maybe... but like a broken clock that is right twice a day, THIS TIME ELON MUSK IS RIGHT!

These RIDICULOUS SHUTDOWNS are NOTHING MORE than a POWER GRAB OPPORTUNITY for LEFTISTS, COMMUNISTS, SOCIALISTS, and CONTROL FREAK POLITICIANS that are COMPELLED (probably by psychological disorders) to MICRO-MANAGE OUR LIVES. "THEY" get to decide what is "essential" and what is "non-essential", and MAKE PROTESTS ILLEGAL while they're at it!!! So, if *THEY* get their way, and WE DO NOT REBEL AGAINST THEM, the SHUTDOWNS WILL *NEVER* *EVER* *END* !!!

So, we must simply lay down and "take it" and THANK THEM AFTERWARDS? I DON'T THINK SO! *REBELLION* is necessary when ALL OTHER MEANS HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED.

MUSK is DOING THE RIGHT THING. You can NOT control a people who will NOT LAY DOWN AND TAKE IT.

(I'll be the one wearing a GUY FAWKES mask to practice "social distancing" screwy requirements - V is for Vendetta!!!)

[yeah downvotes expected. thank you in advance, my howling fans]

Third time lucky for Windows 10 2004? Microsoft yet again fiddles with code and adds a go-live SDK licence

I read the article and saw a comment about "get to coding" or similar and I have to wonder... are there some kind of new "feature creep" features in this new, shiny version that we're supposed to start using such that our applications will not run on ANY earlier version of windows except THIS one ???

No thanks.

The end really is nigh – for 32-bit Windows 10 on new PCs

Re: Amazed it took them this long

32-bit works as a test VM, smaller download. Definitely NOT a "daily driver". But Win-10-nic isn't a "daily driver" for me ANYWAY and until MS stops supporting 32-bit applications running on that platform [which they probably will some day, when they DUMP the Win32 API and kill ALL backward compatibility and non-TIFKAM applications FOREVER] I'll continue to use the 32-bit version to test things, as needed...

Not so strangely, you can find 32-bit versions of Linux and FreeBSD if you need a 32-bit OS. Not so amazingly, they run just fine on systems with less than 4G of RAM. And those systems, amazingly enough, ALSO seem to work just fine for a LOT of things, as long as you're not running something *PIGGY*.

Last year, at an "at that time" Win-10-nic-only shop, I was tasked to work on integration of a system that used an RPi to control things [naturally running Linux on the RPi]. As they only had windows machines, I brought in an old (2003-ish) Toshiba laptop that had Linux on it to do the editing, since ssh and "remote X11" worked really well, AMAZINGLY well, on a laptop with ~500M of RAM running about 1Ghz. About the only thing it would NOT do was run Firefox because FF has become such a PIG even on Linux...

(seeing me use a 17 year old laptop to do my work more effectively than with a brand new Win-10-nic box, they soon handed me a Win-10-nic box to be turned into a Linux box - I put Devuan on it). And of course, having Linux was absolutely necessary for creating RPi SD card images.

Nine in ten biz applications harbor out-of-date, unsupported, insecure open-source code, study shows

Re: To be fair, many company's services use unsupported and/or un-updated commercial packages?

Question: How much of "lack of updating" is CAUSED by "Feature Creep" and/or dependency nightmares that might RESULT in "Feature Creep" in OTHER things...

update lib -> must now update everything that depends on that lib -> feature creep that you did NOT want

yeah THAT sort of thing... and if it results in an incompatibility of a CLOSED SOURCE application, which then FORCES you to "not use the newer/fixed version" and no replacements are available, THEN what?

Yeah, you stick wtih your existing, "it works", stable system and NOT update. [they're often overrated anyway]. Keep it behind a firewall and practice "safe surfing".

'We're changing shift, and no one can log on!' It was at this moment our hero knew server-lugging chap had screwed up

Re: Labels people, and read them!

why use ancient windows when you can use Linux or FreeBSD ?

Re: Labels people, and read them!

a sheet of mailing labels and a black permanent ink marker are usually sufficient [I even do this with my own stuff - license keys, MAC addresses, and so on]

Re: Not so much a "Who, me?" as a "Who, you?"

and 'you' in this case is named 'Aaron', who may have proven a principle coined by a man named 'Peter'...

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

Re: The wolf enrobed in penguin feathers.

"Bad Wolf" - https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Wolf_meme

When you read through some of those (including the futuristic 'Bad Wolf Corporation' being run by Daleks) it all makes sense...

[I had the pleasure of re-watching all of the Doctor #9 episodes recently]

Re: I'll give it a go...

1. "The Blob" (absorbing everything in its path and growing bigger and bigger and bigger)

[and along with it, the theme song by Burt Bacharach]

2. "MesS" (ok that's lame)

3. "Redmond Overlords"

4. 'Megashaft' <-- an oldie but still valid

5. ok "Megabucks" but with a slightly altered Starbucks logo

6. Semprini [/me ducks]

7. "Cult of Redmond" <-- I've used this one before

8. "Umbrella Corporation"

9. "Maleficent Overlords/Overseers"

10. "Big Brother's Evil Cousin"

probably enough for now. hopefully spawns derivative names, one of which will be settled on as "the official one"

Ok - one more - 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE (that was obligatory, heh)

GitHub Codespaces: VS Code was 'designed from the get-go' for this, says Microsoft architect

Re: And so the rush back to dumb terminals with subscription access continues

good summary.

But "going in the wrong direction" is what "Umbrella Corporation" aka Micro-shaft has been doing since the '.Not' initiative in the very early noughties...

(unless... their goal... is CONTROL - in which case, it's working)

GitHub rolls out hosted Visual Studio Code in Codespaces

a built-in svn gateway for external svn-based repos (or svn gateway for the github repo, for that matter) might be an interesting feature for github. I wonder if they'd do it... ?

I've seen things listed in FreeBSD's ports and Linux packages for svn/github gateways of verious kinds. I haven't tried any of them, though. My local repo is svn, and public things go onto github. Seems to work ok.

Re: Github

I do not blame MS for at least TRYING to monetize github by adding pay-for features [like CPU time for building code you edit with their on-line tool].

But I don't use those kinds of features so there ya go. I'm happy with 'git pull' local edit 'git commit' 'git push' and bulld locally. MS seems to think that other people are willing to pay for the new/shiny features.

Well, good luck to them, then. Just don't break it for the rest of us, k-thanks.

California’s privacy warriors are back – and this time they want to take their fight all the way to the ballot box

Re: Quelle surprise...

from the article: The argument made was that passing the law through the traditional process gave greater flexibility because it could be adjusted and amended later to fit in with real-world requirements.

This means: if the ballot measure passes, the (arguably one of the most corrupt in the world) California legislature won't be able to "screw with it" easily based on the demands of the high-dollar-contributing tech companies that ABUSE our privacy, so OF COURSE the POLITICIANS will jump in to PRESERVE _THEIR_ POWER as well as that of their CONTRIBUTORS.

Ain't it typical?

icon, because, facepalm

Eclipse boss claims Visual Studio Code is an open-source poseur – though he would say that, wouldn't he?

Re: Does this imply

notepad lacks the syntax highlight feature that's pretty useful, which of course you have in an open source tool like pluma - think what Notepad does for you on winders, but it's on Linux or FreeBSD, has multiple tabs, doesn't have a limit [that I have ever hit] on file size, and does auto-indent and has user-configurable tab settings. And it does that all-important syntax highlighting if you want it to.

(yeah another plug for 'pluma')

have you considered pluma? It doesn't have the irritating gnome-3-ness of gedit these days, but DOES supports auto-indent, syntax highlighting, user-specified tab widths, turning OFF hard tabs and line wrap (or back on if you really want that), and NOW comes with a plugin to remove extra white space from the ends of lines, which it should have done from the beginning...

Then you can continue to use Makefile builds and so on, like you probably would if you're a 'vi' fan.

[I guess all it needs is a gdb plugin and "virtual space" and we're good to go]

Re: Not free

when I checked [right after VS Code released for Linux], VS Code was missing a key feature: Virtual Space. Maybe I missed it, but this is the ONE thing I like about Visual Studio these days. [what I prefer is how it was for VS '97 because i could edit dialog boxes and add callbacks for buttons and stuff using JUST the keyboard, not mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie all the time, removing one hand from home row on an arbitrary decision by VB-oriented people, but I digress...]

I hate it when an editor doesn't let you scroll past the end of a line when you scroll down using the keyboard. It's *IRRITATING*. And nearly ALL of them do just that, and won't let you change it. But I think IntelliJ _does_ support something like Virtual Space. I should verify that, though... I think it's buried someplace, along with the settings to NOT force K&R style when you're doing Android Java code. That's right, MY Java code is NOT K&R style!!! It's ALLMAN STYLE! (like my C++)

If VS code _does_ have this 'virtual space' feature, go ahead and correct me (please). Maybe it was added, or I just didn't find it...? If I am to have gripes about VS Code I want them to be LEGIT gripes.

Re: Nicely balanced article

the survey results suggest a few things, not the least of which is that they have a somewhat limited pool of respondents to poll [the kind of things that makes polls skew to one side or another].

Eclipse USED to be compiled Java. Why would they [apparently] change to JS like VS Code is? Or did they? [maybe I'll have to look more closely at that].

I'm no fan of Java-based editors, that's for sure. They tend to stutter a lot and have quirky behavior, or (worse) INHERIT FEATURE CREEP from Java packages maintained by 3rd parties.

Some time ago when Arduino switched over to a canned Java library, it "inherited" a couple of VERY IRRITATING "features", in particular placing curly braces into your code at certain times when you pressed 'enter'. Yes, it was _MY_ pull request that finally *ALLOWED* users (note: users should NOT be controlled by applications nor their developers) to TURN that *BLANK* *OFF* !!!

In the mean time, if Eclipse actualy moves to NodeJS then I'll NEVER use it AGAIN.

There's still IntelliJ, which [last I looked] was being used for Android. It's bloatware but it works. However, I've had a hard time trying to get the Android stuff running natively on FreeBSD. Fortunately I can still get it (mostly) to run in a VM running Linux.

Back to VS Code: By comparison, its popularity may simply be that there are enough monkeys with typewriters to get something working that fixes MOST of the gross 'missing features' or 'bad performance' issues. However, you're getting a "lipstick on a boar" solution [which THIS time appears to be on the end that goes 'oink']. NodeJS was a *HUGE* mistake. Either make it PURE Java, or write it in something that COMPILES TO NATIVE CODE (and is NOT C-pound or Mono-based).

From the article: If Visual Studio Code usage does decline, it will not be because of licensing, but rather the product becoming bloated or evolving in a direction that is unwelcome to many of its users.

But isn't it SO typical of Miicrosoft to do EXACTLY THAT - add bloaty features we eo NOT want, NOT fix the problems we want fixed, TAKE AWAY features we DO want, and then THROW TRACKING AND SPYING IN on top of it all, making so we can NOT remove it, _ONCE_ _WE_ _HAVE_ _BEEN_ _LOCKED_ _IN_ _AND_ _ALL_ _OTHER_ _CHOICES_ _ARE_ _GONE_ ???

Uber, Lyft struck by sue-ball, no, sue-meteorite in California after insisting their apps' drivers aren't employees

Re: AB5 hurts more than just UBER...

I've always liked William Shatner. Thanks for the compliment.

Re: AB5 hurts more than just UBER...

"The whole law is a massive perversion of governmental authority"

YES!

AB5 hurts more than just UBER...

as I understand it, many businesses are harmed by AB5, ones that you would never GUESS would fall into this kind of category.

Like professional musicians, playing gigs in bars and clubs [well, when THE STATE IS NOT SHUT DOWN anyway]. These guys who'd normally play for $xxx per gig, suddenly have to be EMPLOYEES? That makes _NO_ sense whatsoever!

And not to mention I.T. and Engineering contractors and consultants - particularly of the 'work from home' variety. Fortunately I have a CORPORATION so nothing really changed for ME, but I know it has hurt OTHERS.

AB5 - it's a *STUPID* law, created by *IDIOTS* for the purpose of CONTROLLING that segment of the work force that's existing outside of a LOT of RIDICULOUS REGULATIONS that ONLY empower GUMMINT, at the expense of WORKING STIFFS. It makes CONTRACTORS LESS LIKELY TO BE HIRED, because companies must THINK TWICE before they make people "employees" with all of the usual ADDITIONAL regulations, insurance requirements, taxes, yotta yotta yotta that's associated with it. The unemployment insurance laws REQUIRE THEM to re-imburse the ENTIRE cost of it for up to 6 months after the employee stops working for you. Whereas a CONTRACTOR is TEMPORARY, and there is NO unemployment tax deducted. [in the case of my corporation I end up paying the stupid tax ANYWAY even though i will *NEVER* use it - it's just "yet another gummint expense" and if I ever DID use it I'd have to PAY IT ALL BACK so what's the point???]

It's what happens when you have ONE PARTY RULE in Sacramento for WAY TOO LONG, and the SOCIALISTS TAKE OVER. It's just a MONEY GRAB and a POWER GRAB, by ELITIST LIBERAL POLITICIANS.

I'm (holding fingers almost together) *THIS* close to leaving Cali-Fornicate-You for GOOD, over THIS and SEVERAL OTHER THINGS, and thereby DENYING them my business in this state. ONE MORE THING and I'm going to TEXAS!!! Or, maybe, Florida... and if I can take my customers WITH me, that'd be even BETTER!!!

I'd like to challenge AB5 on its EXISTENCE and MAKE IT GO AWAY. Go, UBER!!! I'm rooting for ya!

Data centre reveals it modeled interiors on The Hunt for Red October sets

Re: They got it WRONG

when you simply take into consideration most people's concepts of a nuclear reactor, how big it is, etc. it's easy to see how the general public would misunderstand missile tubes for nuclear propulsion stuff.

Looking inside of an actual reactor compartment is pretty boring. You have a bunch of large pipes and pumps and other bulky things with thick insulation on them, that twist and turn within a small space, around a giant metal thing covered in more insulation, with a few other large metal things that have large insulated pipes going in and out out of them. You crawl around a bit, and duck your head a lot, and have to 'frisk' yourself down when you leave with a pancake-shaped geiger counter, in case something radioactive got on you. And nobody allowed in while the reactor is 'critical' (i.e. operating). ['critical' simply means that the neutron production and depletion rates generally match, so the nuclear reaction is balanced and controlled, generally "at power" making steam for electricity and propulsion, but it's a typical lame joke to play on newbies to act like you panic when it's announced on the P.A. system].

in any case, the missile bay has that nice perspective thing going.

Microsoft puts dual-screen devices and Windows 10X in the too-hard basket

Re: ...a more streamlined way to pair Bluetooth devices in Windows

BT on an Android seems a little easier...

(that might be a lesson to be learned by Microsoft)

NASA signs deals to put a rocket under Artemis flights until 2029

Re: Artemis?

"What are they hunting for?"

Hopefully a place to put a MOON HOTEL, or at least a few mining camps for rare earths and things with high value, high enough to justify going to the MOON to get them.

And of course, an "interplanetary space port" hub. "Moon" becomes the new LAX [let's say].

It's my understanding that there's a LOT of Titanium on the moon. You could build long distance space ships with this. And structures. And if it's Titanium OXIDE, processing it would release OXYGEN.

But as for using 'Artemis' in the name, I think the answer is very simple: Artemis is kinda like Rosie the Riveter for Ancient Greece. And so it's (probably) just a symbol of putting the first WOMAN on the moon. Or it could mean more, maybe 'bold exploration' or similar.

[on a side note, according to Wikipedia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world]

We beg, implore and beseech thee. Stop reusing the same damn password everywhere

Re: If you don't ..

"different" works if you do this:

correct-horse

horse-correct

h0r5e+CoRR3ct

etc. (to crack these would require human intervention and some social engineering, and knowledge of one of them, and a good guess as to where the others might get used).

but yeah a password manager to track the HUNDRED or so passwords is probably a good idea. LONG ago I'd write them down. The page got full. Then I discovered KeePassXC [NOT the C-pound one WITHOUT the "XC" at the end, but the C language one WITH the 'XC' at the end, that builds properly on Linux and FreeBSD _WITHOUT_ _MONO_ - the LAST thing I need is MONO DEPENDENCIES on my Linux and FreeBSD systems]

in any case my master password is SO long I often make typing mistakes entering it...

(if the password is long enough, chances are you will NOT be "social engineered" to discover all of your derived passwords based on one that was obtained by cracking some 3rd party web site)