Posts by bombastic bob

Microsoft looks to React Native as a way to tackle the cross-platform development puzzle

Re: Microsoft "not depending on .Net" for cross-platform development

I should've mentioned, wxWidgets is very MFC-like *AND* cross-platform.

MS can't you JUST use THAT???

Microsoft "not depending on .Net" for cross-platform development

Well, according to the article, the title is what's happening.

And yet, also from the article:

"In 2016 the company acquired Xamarin, enabling development for iOS, Android and macOS using C# and .NET. Microsoft has also invested in .NET Core, which runs on Windows, macOS and Linux."

Yeah, how's that going again, Microsoft, with ".Not" development at around 8% of the TIOBE index? That includes BOTH VB and C-POUND by the way... which last I checked were 4%-ish each.

"React Native for Windows generates .NET code, but this will be replaced with a C++ implementation in an upcoming release"

That sounds like a clue "has been gotten" to me. /me slow-claps

"WinUI, which is the next-generation API for Windows desktop applications, is built in C++"

Probably "yet another failed framework", but they're at least steering towards the right general direction this time.

(Hey Microsoft: LEAVE Win32 API ALONE, and do NOT *REQUIRE* using SHARED LIBS!!! I static link MFC runtime for my windows stuff, DELIBERATELY *NOT* using shared MFC or runtime because *I* do *NOT* want "the midnight phone call" when some *IDIOT* installs a game or virus-ridden 'something' and KILLS MY APPLICATION with it by replacing MFC and/or runtime with NEW DLLs. I learned this lesson in the 90's, when YOU broke ODBC with Win '98 and '95 OSR/2's shared MFC DLLs)

Yeah, _I_ have been using MFC (and before that, direct Win32) with windows applications since Visual C++ 1.0 so there ya go. I have my preferences and prejudices, and ain't changing. because, after all, I am *RIGHT* about these things, and I don't apologize for my CONFIDENCE.

What could go wrong? Redmond researchers release a blabbering bot trained on Reddit chats

Re: Ok...

I kinda like the sequence "vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous pervert!" Sounds better when Graham Chapman said it.

Re: Interesting but...

ack. Although I admit liking [to laugh at] that AI-written Eurovision-based song that was featured in an El Reg article a while back, I don't think having a conversation with an AI bot [especially in a worthless forum like Reddit] would be even mildly amusing...

"Gaining enough control to prevent offensive-output issues"

what a bunch of WUSSES if that's their biggest concern.

"Oh NOES, 'teh intarwebs' OFFENDED"

yeah, welcome to 'teh intarwebs'. Grow a thicker skin.

NOT having _that_ is recipe for BOREDOM. But then again IMMATURE (and INSECURE) people _LOVE_ having "disussions" with their fanboi clubs, filled with sycophantic yes-men and echo chambers, merely confirming what they WANT to *FEEL* on any subject.

And if that's all that the AI can do, then it's a COMPLETE waste of time.

Have you been naughty, or have you been really naughty? Microsoft 365 users to get their very own Compliance Score

what disturbs me..

what disturbs ME is their mention of "Company Code of Conduct"

Why is Office 365 getting involved something like *THAT* ??? And WHAT does that have to do with your "compliance score" ???

Re: Compliance score for office 365 ?

The foxes CLEARLY stated that they do NOT eat the chickens. Why don't you believe them?

Pro-Linux IP consortium Open Invention Network will 'pivot' to take on patent trolls

Re: SCO

"Baked beans are off"

"Can I have SCO instead of the baked beans, then?"

etc.

troll icon 'cause it's apropoo

Revealed: The new icon you'll click to download an alternative browser, and more from Microsoft

Re: Chrome and Firefox I guess.

I wish they'd FEEL less and THINK more... then maybe they'd put ACTUAL EFFORT into making the UI look like something MOST people want - not all 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE FLUGLY!!!

and JUST how much time and money and effort was wasted pinched out excreted used up in that 'new icon' design?

Boffins blow hot and cold over li-ion battery that can cut leccy car recharging to '10 mins'

Re: Charge or just swap the batteries?

I think I'd rather use that "liquid energy" that I can fill my tank with in about 2 minutes.

Electric cars won't be practical until they're all using FUEL CELLS. And storing fuel cell compatible fuels in a car [and re-filling the tank in 2 minutes] is still a long way off...

When "Progress" causes you to GO BACKWARDS with respect to quality, convenience, or usefulness, it's *NOT* *PROGRESS*.

(Right Microsoft? I'm talking about WIn-10-nic, and pointing a big fat finger at YOU)

Watch tiny swimming magnetic robots suck up uranium in a droplet of radioactive wastewater

certain areas in Mexico apparently have yellow clay that has occasionally been used for things like pottery... and the yellow is from the Uranium.

Radiation poisoning etc. is a non-simple thing. MANY factors, from the type of emitter and nature of exposure, to biological half life and decay rate and energy levels of the emitted particles.

The one thing that struck ME is to have these bots go out and MINE FOR MORE URANIUM. That, and recycle spent fuel. how about going through spent fuel rods to extract all of the remaining uranium so it can be reprocessed and turned into MORE FUEL???

THAT would be AWESOME!

Just take a look at the carnage on Notepad++'s GitHub: 'Free Uyghur' release sparks spam tsunami by pro-Chinese

Re: Why do businesses try to avoid politics?

the reason that many businesses try to avoid politics and ESPECIALLY "politically incorrect" politics is basically for business reasons.

1. not all of your customers are political

2. those that ARE political are more likely to boycott you from the position of the left

3. Organizations like 'moveon.org' and 'media matters' who pay people to troll the internet basically looking for opportunities to BULLY a right-leaning or conservative business position into capitulating and moving as far left as possible (including WHO THEY ADVERTISE WITH)

4. getting people *FIRED* over political things, like the former CEO of Mozilla whose name was on a list of donators to a proposition in california that FAILED - but because THE LEFT did not LIKE him even DONATING to getting the thing passed, he was **FIRED**.

5. bullying, in general, from the left. They have history of this kind of thing from Unions, too.

So way too many businesses make the "business decision" that THE NAIL THAT STICKS UP GETS THE HAMMER, and they either do NOT stick up, or they remove the nail entirely.

And those businesses that are DEFINITIVELY "on the left" (Google and Microsoft, for example) get a FREE PASS for partisan politics in hiring, contributions, news media, filtering our searches, and using our data AGAINST US to MANIPULATE.

That pretty much says it all I think

Re: *Standing, thunderous, rowdy ovation*

"This is the Chinese people who have been brainwashed into thinking that Westerners have been brainwashed"

It's a fair bet it's really party insiders who are brainwashERS, and not brainwashEES. You know, like certain "non profit" organization employees that are paid to troll teh intarwebs with their socialism sewage (and target howler monkey sock-puppet responses to people like me, naturally).

I hadn't thought about Notepad++ before, being NOT a windows power user since the early noughties. My respect for this program and its developer has been greatly increased.

I do recall a sample application called 'multipad' that I built from an early windows SDK, and used as a sub for notepad a couple o' decades ago. MS should've done that on their own.

Retaliation from Communists against the Notepad++ dev is a LOT like me getting downvoted by the Howler Monkey faction of my fan club, only better. It's a badge of HONOR for doing the RIGHT THING!

Now we need him to mention something about Hong Kong and watch THOSE fireworks with popcorn and beer!

'No more room for wars in the new world'? Who are you and what have you done with Microsoft?

Re: The war room is occupied

/me yells YEEE HAAAA! while riding the bomb down to its target.

Heh.

C-pound trends poorly on TIOBE especially compared to Java

What should be obvious to EVERYONE, especially if you actually look at the TIOBE index history and compare Java to C-pound, you'll see that C-pound is under 4%, whereas Java is nearly 17% and has been #1 (occasionally trading places with C) for a VERY! LONG! TIME!

C-pound is *very* ".Not"ty. I think that's the reason it's not doing very well, because ".Not" *STINKS*.

Java, on the other hand, is established as a true cross-platform language, one reason why Oracle and others use it for, well, CROSS PLATFORM stuff.

C-Pound in the early noughties was Microshaft's response to an attempted HOSTILE TAKEOVER of the Java language, which Sun (at the time) was NOT going to allow to happen!

I have to wonder about MS's TRUE motivations with being involved in OpenJDK. Are they going to attempt a HOSTILE TAKEOVER of Java again???

Google goes full Anti-Flash-ist, boots Adobe's insecure monstrosity out of web search index

Re: The lowest common denominator

"Well JQuery's only 13 years old, so that's impressive"

There is NOTHING "impressive" about JQuery. It is nothing LESS than a poor quality HACK, working around early javascript limitations with what can ONLY be described as "unnecessary BLOATWARE".

Some idiot "developer" used JQuery on a project that I had to finish. I removed most of the JQuery-isms when fixing the problems, but a few still remain in "it works" code. Once they're GONE, the entire library goes into /dev/null for that project.

FLASH on the other hand, has inherent problems that have lead to its demise. Why ANYONE would allow "those plugins" to live on their computer or device amazes me. They are beyond security craters; they're like gaping security Einstein/Rozen bridges to HELL.

Flash kept a moving target "standard":for long enough to CONSTANTLY BREAK THE OPEN SOURCE VIEWERS (like gnash). Its security NIGHTMARE and closed source plugins made Linux and FreeBSD use of flash DIFFICULT at best, especially FreeBSD.

Still WORSE, many times a "flash upgrade" would INCLUDE SPYWARE BUNDLED ALONG WITH IT, such as menu bars and SPYWARE. You had to EXPLICITLY SHUT THAT !@#$% OFF EVERY! STINKING! TIME!!!

Adobe's aggressive INVASION with their "free plugin" was *JUST* *PLAIN* *WRONG*. It had frequent CERTs and (apparently) more SERIOUS security patches being applied than Windows itself. More often than not (at least for a while) it seemed that the frequent 'patch Tuesday of major concern' would be due to (you guessed it) the Adobe FLASH plugin or something that was side-by-side related to it, like MS Intarweb Exploiter.

And I thought NOBODY was using Flash any more... guess I was wrong about that.

Big FAIL Icon for Flash. And JQuery. And all of that CRAP WARE.

GitLab pulls U-turn on plan to crank up usage telemetry after both staff and customers cry foul

Re: CEO apologises for ill-considered proposal

Google USED TO apologize as well...

Remember the 1980s? Oversized shoulder pads, Metal Mickey and... sticky keyboards?

Re: And

Acid Rain: it also puts sulfur into the soil, which helps to green it. what you don't want is EXCESSIVE acid rain, which would alter the pH of the soil [eventually] and kill vegetation. Small amounts of acid rain, however, are beneficial for putting sulfates and nitrates into it. Plants need those.

yeah what ARE they teaching kids these days? Doom/Gloom and FUD.

Pentagon beams down $10bn JEDI contract to Microsoft: Windows giant beats off Bezos

Re: It will be held up in court

yeah the "sewers" are always abusing the court system, aren't they!

the penalty for an abusive or frivolous lawsuits should be FIRING SQUAD. Lawyer doesn't get the blindfold.

Re: Does this mean ... NEW COLOR CHOICES !

"Microsoft now gives users their own color choice when the SOD happens"

yellow and brown for mine

Re: Does this mean ...

"Windows for Warships" running on hardened laptops. Seen those a decade or so ago when I visited my old boat before it was decomissioned. As long as the DoD can license the source code they've got no reason to complain about ANY of it, except maybe the price tag...

I say give MS a chance, but make it possible to switch vendors painlessly if they price gouge in the future.

Microsoft emits another peep at PowerShell 7 with new toys and the return of an old friend

Re: Ooooo

I think bash under Cygwin has been working pretty much the same for a VERY long time.

I suggest using THAT, instead. If you FEEL (not think, but the F word 'FEEL') you need ".Not"tiness, there's probably a better way to do "it".

(C language Win32 API console utility might be the best way!)

use of '||' and '&&'

Looks like that it took nearly 2 decades to make it do what C was doing in the 70's... and what the POSIX shell was doing in the 80's!!!

POSIX shell syntax with operators and return codes can seem a bit complex at first. But it should work like the C language rules for '&&' and '||' and then it makes sense. For consistency, Power Shell needs to duplicate that [and not try to set the trend on its own]. If I read things correctly, it's going to do that now?

/me points out that MS "setting the standard" has pretty much backfired in the much wider world outside of Windows. It's "/" not "\" for path names, EXCEPT WINDOWS and DOS. It's POSIX shell-like substitution for parameters and environment everywhere *EXCEPT* windows and DOS. The use of PATH and other environment variables is standard EXCEPT for Windows [which uses the registry for 'ShellExecuteEx']. And so on.

And that whole ".Not" thing is its OWN nightmare. I don't EVEN want to begin with *THAT*.

Re: PS silly like putty

Let's just use PERL and be done with it.

The Power Shell's "dot-notty"-ness has always bugged me. Other than that, it's no different than one or two windows command line interpreters that existed back in the 3.x days...

If not for having to shoehorn ".Not" into a command line interpreter, Power Shell _might_ have been something 'ok' I guess. Not like the shell in a POSIX system of course, which is vastly superior.

"Nice Try". Consolation prize. participation trophy. Heh.

Good news – America's nuke arsenal to swap eight-inch floppy disks for solid-state drives

Re: What?

secure nuclear cloud. I like that. Heh.

[actually ARPANET was originally designed sorta like a cloud system is, max reliability so that you could remove part of it and it would still work, intended for DoD use initially, but later became 'teh Intarwebs']

Re: God help us!

I've been looking at some old RT11 code for SIMH PDP-11, trying to fix Y2K on the version I've gotten ahold of [which won't accept dates after 1999, though RT-11 has a way of supporting it, this software won't accept it]. In any case, going over old DEC code written by old-school coders from the 70's, I frequently run into mind-boggling methods that can only be called "clever" because I'm _SURE_ that when it was written, it saved one or two machine words of storage, and beers were chugged in celebration.

(but going over it 40 years later to see what it does, so I can fix it, without ANY comments in the source code that I have, is MIND BOGGLING)

So yeah, "modern IT managers" and their "modern script kiddie contractors" just couldn't do it. They'll need OLD FARTS like me.

Re: NSA, GCHQ, etc?

Thanks, Captain Obvious

"possibly even an OS with the networking protocols removed."

I've done that with an RPi for customer requirement. Dev RPi system has ssh and ether/wireless, let's say, but the ones going out in the field disable both wireless and wired networking. Not too hard to do, well documented for the RPi.

Yeah I keep suggesting this don't I? An RPi Model 3B+ running SIMH with all of the old drives imaged and stored on a 32Gb "high reliability" SD card. backups to USB drive plugged in on occasion.

Re: Is it truly an improvement?

correct, FORTRAN and COBOL still do real work in the real world.

Re: So

2038 - is that the dreaded "Y3K" problem? Or is "Y3K" something else?

[all you need to do to fix the 2038 problem is use a 64-bit integer for time_t but nobody seems brave enough to make that happen, even in 64-bit Linux]

Re: Decisions, decisions ...

" The code probably wasn't 00000000, but it probably was something fairly easy to remember"

/me sings the 'Jenny' song from the 80's... eight six seven five three oh ni-ee-i-eene

Re: Still working is good, but ...

"you also need to consider operational sustainability"

This is one reason why SIMH exists. Already mentioned but I'll mention it again:

a) Raspberry Pi 3B+ with simple plastic case.

b) SIMH

c) image the drives and set it all up on the RPi with a 32Gb SD card (high reliability version) running Raspbian or a compatible version of Devuan

Good for another 10-20 years.

And once you've imaged all of the storage and copied it onto an SD card in a format that's easily read by other computers, you can make backups (etc.) and make sure that the stuff gets archived properly.

I remember old 8" floppies from the 70s, using DEC equipment. At SJSU they had these hard-sectored floppies and these "slap on" peripherals that plugged into a Teleray (serial) terminal. By sending control character sequences you could move the heads around, read/write, etc.. I wrote an assembly language program that actually WORKED to store stuff on disk, gave it to the school. The grad student who wrote the previous one (in RSTS/E BASIC) was a complete DUFUS and that program failed if there was any kind of system load at all [he told the drive "send it all" nevermind buffer overruns and errors]. Mine dealt with that and used the RSTS interrupts so you could access the entire file system, as any decent system-type application should. Anyway, long time ago, but memories have re-surfaced. I've also been toying with SIMH for fun, so there ya go. Old computers can be fun toys like old cars, old radios...

One typical gummint-style cockup though - SJSU had one PDP that was a stand-alone that had 3 disk drives on it, same 8" floppies, except the format was INCOMPATIBLE with the ones connected to the serial terminals. So there was no way to put files on it from the mini system or 'state network' system. When it came to data interchange, it was pathetic. That was the 70's for ya. Networking was just being invented. One prof had ARPANET access. That was it. Had to dial in with a phone modem, too.

I think an RPi with a $5 plastic case and a 32Gb SD card would work...

You could even run SIMH to simulate the minicomputer. I think it does those old IBM minis (it does PDPs and VAXes and HPs and some IBMs). Just copy all of the software off of the old box [make backups naturally], image the hard drives [if there are any], put them on the RPi, and voila!

All for the cost of one night of binge-drinking [if you don't binge too hard, that is]

/me recently grabbed an RPi off of the shelf at the client office, where lots of RPis are being used for embedded things, and made a test web server out of it. $5 plastic case, a power supply, and some network cabling and it's a perfect little test server for web things. Port forwarding and a DNS record complete the picture.

Microsoft Surface Pro X: Windows on Arm usable at long last – but, boy, are you gonna pay for it

Re: Opportunity missed

"hy couldn't they have made the Surface Pro 7 with the same form factor, keyboard, pen, etc. as the Surface Pro X?"

Marketing. The only thing missing here is Steve Ballmer going around the halls of Redmond saying *BING*

'X' is '10' and that's like Windows 10 and "everybody knows" 10 is better than 7

(it probably has more "tiers" in it, too)

Re: the device starts at £999 for the 8GB version

"Who would be stupid enough to buy a device with only 8GB of storage in 2019"

I believe that was RAM. And I'm able to get MY work done quite effectively with machines having <= 8Gb RAM on them... because operating systems like Linux [unless you're doing Android development] and FreeBSD do *NOT* require "Hog Slopping" amounts of RAM just to LOAD (let alone DO anything).

Certain Web browsers, on the other hand... [using 'noscript' helps with that]

a few years ago I picked up a reconditioned Lenovo for cheap with 4G and *WINDOWS 7* on it. It's my accounting and music production machine, 3Ghz dual core with a spinny drive. Does the job quite well, probably for the next 10 years. Occasional windows development, too [recently did P.O.C. for client].

Re: looks nice

"why do people have expensive cars, expensive watches, cloths or expensive art?"

Because they *WANT* to ???

Freedom. It's a *GOOD* thing. "MYOB" is a good thing too. also NOT judging. etc.

I noticed YOU said you use Apple. You should understand better, like people who buy BMW's or products labeled "Organic" - paying twice or more for the same products that aren't "those", but why? I say it's because you WANT them, and that's good enough for me.

Re: £1,700 for a Surface Pro X

how does it compare to a CHROMEBOOK ? Especially one in which the OS was swapped out for Linux?

*crickets*

I figure if I want an ARM-based slab/laptop that's not an android I could get a Chromebook and then install Devuan on it. Pretty sure it would work, from what i've heard...

But $1700 (or GBP, whichever) for THAT? Yeah I noted the tone of the article to be a bit "disappointed" as well.

And if Apple costs the same, I expect people to buy Apple products instead, being that only Apple fans seem to have the money for that kind of hardware (and are willing to spend it).

Help! I bought a domain and ended up with a stranger's PayPal! And I can't give it back

Re: Whe someone uses my email address...

As far as snail mail goes... writing 'return to sender, address unknown' on the envelope and putting it back in the mail usually stops more from coming. Also works to help stop voter fraud [I recently received a confirmation of address from the registrar of voters indicating a name I'd never heard of - and yes, I marked the "wrong address" box as well as 'return to sender' on the front]

Re: Whe someone uses my email address...

it could also be a malicious and/or deliberate use of your e-mail address as a "Prank"...

a) malicious hacker grabs e-mail address of someone, signs up to "some service"

b) this service is poorly designed and does not send confirmation mails making it an instant target for abuse by malicious hackers.

c) malicious hacker signs up to every e-mail list available through that service, then goes away

d) victim gets mail bombed

That sort of "prank" doesn't work very well these days. I haven't seen it for YEARS, though I've been on the receiving end of things like that more than once. USENET trolls. It's worth +10 points if your pet troll does things like that. (The dating service for farmers was the funniest) It's worth +150 points if you can use it to (in any way) track them down IRL though... ! (the subsequent doxing becomes a spectator sport)

a) reset password (you own the e-mail)

b) follow the reset links, change password to something funny

c) change e-mail address to something different [a throwaway 10 minute mail address would do ya] in which you receive the confirmation (if any), and then forget it.

d) close the account. If "it won't let you", just leave it sending SPAM to a fake mail address.

problem goes away. This after trying to do it the NICE way, of course.

Re: Or

"I'm baffled as to why he didn't reset the PayPal accounts password, login, and close the PayPal account."

that's pretty much what I was going to suggest. Might not hurt to forward a hard-copy of the closure acknowledgement to THE BANKS whose accounts are associated with the PayPal.

GitLab reset --hard bad1dea: Biz U-turns, unbans office political chat, will vet customers

Re: I don't understand people

An OUTSTANDING display of COMMON SENSE. Thank you!

Re: The only way ...

ethics = equal treatment, regardless of politics, religion, or agreement with your belief system or anything ELSE. I think TOO MANY people FORGET that, or is it *CLOUDED* now in a sea of *SITUATIONAL ETHICS* in which *AGREEMENT WITH YOU* determines whether it's ok to *DISCRIMINATE AGAINST PEOPLE* or not...

As far as I am concerned, there's only one color: GREEN. There's only one creed: honesty in business. There's only one race: the RACE to SUCCESS in BUSINESS!

And SJW-ACTIVISM is the OPPOSITE of that, *AS WELL AS* CAVING to the BULLYING from *THEM*!!!

Re: Congratulations

This makes their initial "shrug it off" stance understandable (if a bit tone-deaf for late 2019

*W* *H* *A* *T* ????

TONE DEAF? What the @#$%^ is *THAT* supposed to mean???

How about if a BAKERY were to DENY YOU SERVICES because of POLITICS? Oh, you'd be a SCREAMING SJW with *PLENTY* of WILLING MEDIA helping you along, I'm sure.

But when the shoe is on the OTHER foot, you APPEAR to be DISPLAYING the *SAME* kind of *BIGOTRY*!!!

Or, did I somehow get it wrong about what you meant?

Re: Congratulations

ack on the "there might be a future for GitLab". This *SICKENING* trend of "denying services" to people based on politics or any OTHER non-business-related reason is not only BLATANT HYPOCRISY (i.e. it's the same as NOT baking a cake for a gay wedding, from MY perspective), it's the LATEST "SILENCE THEM" effort that MOSTLY comes from the SJW's and THE LEFT.

From the article:

"Deciding not to turn down customers on 'moral/value' grounds is still a 'moral/value' choice," said Eva Galperin, director of cybersecurity for the EFF

And when she [assuming 'Eva' is a GIRL name, and I *REFUSE* in advance to apologize for my choice of pronouns] ALSO says "It's just the wrong one. I hope that GitLab employees are furious." I can _ONLY_ conclude that the EFF is NOT interested in FREEDOM at ALL...

It';s a *SICKENING* trend. Blatant hypocrisy about "denying services", while BLATANTLY DENYING SERVICES based on POLITICS and SJW *ACTIVISM*.

So THANK YOU, GitLab, for *GETTING*! *IT*! *RIGHT*!!! (or at least a step in the RIGHT direction)

Icon for GitLab's new "truly awakened" policy, i.e. NOT bending over to "*THEM*".

Hundreds charged in internet's biggest child-abuse swap-shop site bust: IP addy leak led cops to sys-op's home

Re: Bitcoin anonymity

yes, I noticed that too!!!

From the article:

" with the help of blockchain analytics outfit Chainalysis, track down the individual users who were behind the spread of this horrific content by tracing the flow of bitcoin from the site to various exchanges and wallets."

And I thought that bitcoin's big appeal was a level of ANONYMITY and UNTRACEABILITY...

REALITY and GOOD POLICE WORK *BURSTS* *CRIMS* *BUBBLES*

(well done, cops!)

Sudo? More like Su-doh: There's a fun bug that gives restricted sudoers root access (if your config is non-standard)

Re: As a ex sys-admin....

FYI - group membership and creative use of sudo config can do what you mentioned, I bet...

(there are many examples in the sudo docs of using group membership for sudo command filtering)

Re: As a ex sys-admin....

anyone with explicit access to the computer can boot up a CD/DVDROM Linux, chroot to the hard drive root [after properly mounting], and run passwd as root to reset things to whatever you want. Or, remove the hard drive, attach a USB-SATA adaptor to it, plug into "hacker laptop", switch to root, mount things, and reset the root password [using one of several methods].

SO randomly generated root passwords are ok I suppose, but there are limits to which any root password can be guarded like that.

better to just be safe, moderaly cryptic, limit who can access the computer [especially remotely] to avoid dictionary-based attacks, explicitly deny root logins via ssh, and so on.

Re: As a ex sys-admin....

yeah I don't have systemctl either on most of my systems and/or VMs. One or two unfortunately do...