Posts by bombastic bob

Sorry to drone on and on but have you heard of Ingenuity? NASA's camera-copter is ready to head off to Mars

Re: Eye in the Sky

"I just hope neither the US Space Force nor Elon takes over the concept."

Why not? (see icon)

Re: Hard to test this

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)

OpenJDK lands on Windows 10 for Arm: Not 100% there yet but enough to start tinkering

Re: Is Java still a thing?

Android uses Java. That's something. Last I checked, Kotlin uptake was still pretty small (TIOBE index)

Re: Is Java still a thing?

"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.

Windows 10 Insider wondering where Notepad has gone? Fear not, Microsoft found it down the back of Dev Channel

Re: Good Grief...

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...

Maze ransomware gang threatens to publish sensitive stolen data after US aerospace biz sensibly refuses to pay

Re: An sensible response, indeed

dare them to carry out their threat

make sure the cops are involved

follow the money

eventually they'll get caught. Seeing them spend a decade or two in the iron bar hotel is worth it.

Things that make you go foom: Destruction derby as NASA and SpaceX test rocket components to failure

Re: Hot LOX

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

Release the pressure: Win16 support arrives for version 3.2 of Free Pascal

Re: And in the next release ...

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 ?

Re: Granny pix

I wrote my first PC-compatible program with Turbo Pascal. Went to Turbo C quickly after.

I guess I'll need to check out Free Pascal now. Haven't coded Pascal in DECADES, though... might have to re-learn it.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses... but not your H-1B geeks, L-1 staffers nor J-1 students

Re: H-1B visas [*] Silicon Valley to fill engineering departments with top intl talent

"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?

Virgin Galactic inks deal with NASA to train astro-tourists looking to buy a seat to the International Space Station

all good news, really

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)

Huawei going to predict the future? Nope, say company leaders when asked about Joe Biden winning US election

Re: Biden hardly gets a mention here in the UK

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.

Sure is wild that Apple, Google app store monopolies are way worse than what Windows got up to, sniffs Microsoft prez

Re: I clicked on 'Accept All Cookies'.

just flush when you're done...

(If you're using chromium, "rm -rf ~/.cache/chromium/Default/*" erases all history, etc. in Linux; for firefox, you can tell it to erase all history on exit. You're on your own otherwise)

The incumbent President of the United States of America ran now-banned Facebook ads loaded with Nazi references

Re: I didn't know of the triangle badges in the prison camps

"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?)

Re: Spoken like a true FOX news viewer

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.

Re: I'm still not sure how much of this is pulling our leg

"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)

Re: I'm still not sure how much of this is pulling our leg

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")

According to Media Matters...

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*

By emptying offices, coronavirus has hastened the paperless office

Re: For the last 45ish years ...

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..

Hayfever in Haymarket, or has Windows sneezed out a BSOD?

Re: I just don't understand why this is supposed to be hilarious

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

Splunk to junk masters and slaves once a committee figures out replacements

Re: Where will this end....

And, is it unfair to call irrational numbers "irrational" ?

And if some numbers are "imaginary", are the NON-imaginary numbers being excluded? Do they LACK an imagination?

(this will never end as long as FEEL supplants COMMON SENSE)

Microsoft disbands three-ring Windows Insider circus and replaces it with 'channels'

what about a channel for...

what about a channel for things that don't go b0rk?

Wow, Microsoft's Windows 10 always runs Edge on startup? What could cause that? So strange, tut-tuts Microsoft

Re: Remember when...

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]

Don't like Mondays? Neither does Microsoft 364's Outlook Exchange Online service

Re: Ah The Cloud

maybe it was Just a Test...

Micros~1.364 - heh - and counting

GitHub to replace master with main across its services

Re: "There's no slave in git though"

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.

Re: I look forward to M$ sensoring the classics...

oops, my coffee and keyboard...

(keep the PUN-ishment coming, though, I need a laugh)

Windows Server to require TPM2.0 and Secure boot by default in future release

not THAT hard to argue against this...

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 !!!]

Facebook's cool with sharing the President's nonsense on its mega-platform – but don't you dare mention 'unionize' in its Workplace app

Re: A real problem

A solution to this might be simple: As part of the service, provide everyone with a relatively un-moderated "water cooler" area within the company-paid-for thing, as a standard feature.

ZFS co-creator boots 'slave' out of OpenZFS codebase, says 'casual use' of term is 'unnecessary reference to a painful experience'

Re: Bollocks.

after having looked at that web site I'm not seeing anything particularly compelling.

But I still like the possibility of using S&M terms like "dominant and submissive". Being cynical and snarky in the choice of terms would make up for not being able to use master/slave.

Re: Master and Servants

"What is to stop someone getting offended by those words also?"

I propose a new internet rule: If someone says it, someone else will be offended by it.

Re: For those who learn only one side of the history

It's also possible likely for a politician to mindlessly align themselves with popular opinion of the time

Seems more likely (to me) than just possible.

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".

After IBM axed its face-recog tech, the rest of the dominoes fell like a house of cards: Amazon and now Microsoft. Checkmate

Re: What about face recognition for ROBOTS?

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].

What about face recognition for ROBOTS?

It seems the tech has a proper use. It should be DEVELOPED. Just because SOME people/entities MIGHT abuse it, does NOT mean it should be BANNED or ABANDONED, especially because of PRESSURE from POLITICAL ACTIVISTS. Since when is there any kind of 'cancel culture' for TECH? I hope, NEVER. But it appears my hopes have been dashed by the INSANITY of the times...

And as one commentor already pointed out (using different words): if the USA and UK and EU countries do not develop this for legit reasons, CHINA will instead.

On a related note...

We have had an interesting series of debates and ongoing re-runs about encryption over the last 2 decades or so. One thing that came up early on was that encryption NOT developed by 1st world nations would instead be developed by ROGUE nations, most likely to be used for nefarious purposes, and then we'd be behind the world in that particular tech. Similarly, facial recognition.

OOP there it is: You'd think JavaScript's used more by devs than Java... but it's not – JetBrains survey

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]

Re: I just can't get away with them...

/me facepalms

Re: Take it with a grain of salt

"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.

Re: re: The server is coded in Java.

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)

"I bet those figures would have given a completely different picture."

We should ask them. Though if the TIOBE index is any indication, it might not be the results you are looking for...

Speaker for yourself: Looks like 5 patents are table stakes as Google countersues Sonos

Re: Invention?

"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.

Forget biz insider threats for a moment – let's talk about partners turning rogue and installing spyware on phones

Re: But what is to be done about

From the article: design the technology to empower and inform users

I was thinking something _like_ this while reading, then saw it at the end. "Empower Users" so THEY have complete and informed control of everything on their own devices.

Someone got so fed up with GE fridge DRM – yes, fridge DRM – they made a whole website on how to bypass it

Re: Entirely legal

your position on this issue makes TOO much sense. heh.

But, if it WERE illegal to bypass an RFID sensor [by taping/gluing an appropriate RFID to it], how are the fridge police going to STOP us?

Wailing Wednesday follows Patch Tuesday as versions of Windows 10 stop playing nicely with plugged-in printers

Fix one bug, grow two more

"Windows 10 users woke up to borked printers following the monthly Microsoft bugfix party, Patch Tuesday."

99 new bugs found in the code

99 bugs in the code

you take them down, patch it around

127 new bugs found in the code

(I saw something like that in a meme, thought it would be apprpriate)

icon to prevent spilled coffee on keyboard

NOTE: I appreciate the attempts at Micros~1 fixing bugs, especially the serious vulnerabilities, but they need to go back to having in-house testers when it comes to thorough testing before releasing them...

(printer drivers, at least kernel drivers, are ALL submitted for signing now, so it's not like they don't have all of them handy, just run down the list and test 'em - tick, tick, tick, tick, *OOOPS*)

Are you having a hard time following what Microsoft is trying to do with .NET 5.0? You're not the only one

Re: kill the beast...

"Single file apps remain an ambition"

"is that with, or without, the gargantuan over-bloated monolith called .Net?"

"with" of course. But if I build an application WITHOUT .NET I can usually static-link EVERYTHING and ship it as a single binary ".EXE" file (for windows that is; Linux/BSD usually get to be open build-from-source). Though in some cases I might have to jump through some configuration hoops to get there.

NOTE: wxWidgets works well for cross-platform. It's similar to MFC.

Oh crap: UK's digital overlords moot new rules to help telcos lay fibre in sewer pipes

Re: Fiber in sewer pipes

"and fix a service outage.."

Or would that be blockage?

"first burying a relatively large diameter pipe, and then blowing the fibre through it."

I've seen construction electricians do this for power wiring inside conduit, makes sense really.

A piece of string with a cotton ball on the end is stuffed into the conduit, and blown through into the next junction box with air. Then you tie the string to the wires, and pull them through.

You know Facebook has an image problem when major nonprofits start turning down donations over political lies

I must express my opposition to this

I _MUST_ express my opposition to this article, the tone of it, and what appears (to me) to reflect a "pandering to the perception" rather than something concrete and informative. Facebook is RIGHT to NOT CENSOR POLITICAL SPEECH. In fact, they should not censor ANY speech. Nor should they use one-sided "fact-checking" that really isn't, like Twitter has (allegedly) done. It isn't "gutless" to NOT censor. In fact, it is BRAVE to STAND UP for people's individual beliefs, and their ability to FREELY use a public platform to EXPRESS them. There may actually be existing U.S. laws that DEMAND this (NOT censoring speech they happen to disagree with, specifically).

I am EXTREMELY disappointed that nobody else seems to be saying this. I hate to say it, but I actually AGREE with Zuck on this one aspect (or at least with what his position APPEARS to be). It may be reluctant, because he's probably saying "I do not want to lose the company's protected status with respect to liability" but STILL, it is the RIGHT position, In My Bombastic Opinion.

Russia drags NASA: Enjoy your expensive SpaceX capsule, our Soyuz is the cheap Kalashnikov of rockets

Re: Kalashnikov = 'Cheap'?

"they were designed long ago by a system that threw money at them."

yeah, well, it sorta HAD to happen that way, in the 1960's.

I expect that once Boeing gets in there with actual rockets (successfully) flying actual astronauts to the ISS, others will eventually follow. Airbus might even get a rocket design going, under the principle of being the "low cost alternative".

Something worth considering - when Toyota invented a particular type of practical hybrid gasoline engine for the Prius, it's my understanding that they licensed this design to other auto makers that wanted to build competing cars (and in Ford's case, they were working on a similar system already). In a similar way, SpaceX's "land on the tail" tech might find its way onto competing rockets through patent licensing. It's actually pretty smart to just go ahead and license the tech, just to keep people from making competing tech, and maybe with an agreement to share improvements among the stakeholders would be a win-win-win (etc.) for everyone.