Posts by Bandikoto

Clustered Pi Picos made to run original Transputer code

Re: Blimey, pt II

An entire kilobytes? Talk about vast tracts of land. My first computer had 256 bytes of RAM and when I added more memory to it, all of my programs broke.

As Zoom bans spread over privacy concerns, vid-conf biz taps up Stamos as firefighter in totally-not-a-PR-stunt move

<blockquote>Overall, who really cares if a 5th form remote learning session might have some information gathered that theoretically be shared to the Chinese?</blockquote>

Sure, information gathered may seem worthless now, but you have various indicators of wealth and status as well as raw data for building psychological profiles of the persons in the "classroom" that may well prove invaluable at a later date.

Politicos freak out over facial recognition and deepfakes, Apple saves Drive.AI, and more

Re: Minor details

Shot-tracking systems are decades old. The first one I heard of used software that processed earthquake data gathered from pole-top microphones to pin-point the shots. https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1996/0096/report.pdf Of course, this public-domain work, bought and paid for by the American public has been privatized and there's a silly valley firm selling it. https://www.policeone.com/police-products/communications/articles/1800129-More-police-using-gunfire-detection-system/

FedEx fed up playing box cop, sues Uncle Sam to make it stop: 'We do transportation, not law enforcement'

Too late, guys

FedEx gleefully jumped on the "Just Say No" bandwagon when Nancy started to bang the drum against pot in the eighties.

Look, we've tried, but we just can't write this headline without saying boffins have probed Uranus's cold ring

Re: 77 Kelvin you say? Not good but not terrible, however...

What's the boiling point of Nitrogen at the other bar, then?

Try the veal.

Oracle's legal woes deepen: Big Red sued (again) for age and medical 'discrimination'

Larry Ellison is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life.

Airbnb host thrown in the clink after guest finds hidden camera inside Wi-Fi router

There are FOUR lights!

Didn't there used to be a Picard-as-borg icon? Anyway, something something Gul Madred something.

Cool story, brew: Utah karaoke crooners receive cold, refreshing shock as alcohol authority refuses beer licence

Re: me no understand

Ezekiel 23:20 is the one I give to bible-thumpers. Unfortunately, I'm rarely there when they look it up.

Sinister secret backdoor found in networking gear perfect for government espionage: The Chinese are – oh no, wait, it's Cisco again

Incompetence or Stupidity?

Given those who got rewarded at Cisco, it could be either.

Cisco has had secret backdoors into the gear for decades now. Every time one is found, they say "Oopsie daisy!" and issue a patch.

I doubt that any of the Cisco spin-offs are any better, given how incestuous those companies are.

Take your pick: 0/1/* ... but beware – your click could tank an entire edition of a century-old newspaper

Re: "But I never experimented on a live system again"

In CP/M and MP/M (which this likely was), numbers 0 through 15 would be user numbers. The files would all go in the same directory area, but you could hide files from others by changing the user number. User zero is where you'd likely find your executables.

Still, with the choice given, HDD numbers would make for a good guess.

How an over-zealous yank took down the trading floor of a US bank

Maybe not 1996 PCs, but 1987 Macs did it well

It was 1987 and although the start-up I was working for had just flamed out, the one client we had committed to deploying our system was building their new trading floor and were not about to fill it with Quotron terminals. Instead, we deployed a fleet of Macs, both color and black&white, both ethernet and localtalk, to handle the traffic. I did the transport layer, both server-side and client-side. Riding up on the train one day, inspiration hit me and I came up with a semi-reliable (reliable enough, as measurements proved) UDP broadcast protocol that solved our "TCP can't possibly handle hundreds of machines" - at that point, with the Mac II being the most powerful machine we could buy. And yes, it handled Black Monday later that year with aplomb.

Fear the Reaper: Man hospitalised after eating red hot chilli pepper

Shades of seventies/eighties tales about that suspect rock and roll guy

Leave it to a British publication to make such a serious error about American Rock and Roll. "Don't Fear the Reaper" is by Blue Öyster Cult, not the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Also, semen, even in massive amounts, doesn't cause stomach upset.

2001: A Space Odyssey has haunted pop culture with anxiety about rogue AIs for half a century

Re: Ah well, back to my PowerPoint slides

>The color-fest at the end?

That's not quite the end. That's the "intergalactic switching-station", assuming that I'm remembering the chapter title from the book correctly. <spoilers>From there, we have Bowman arriving at the habitat the monolith aliens had provided for him. He meets his aged self, not understanding that the aliens are four (more?) dimensional, settles into a routine eating the weird blue cheese stuff in familiar containers and watching years-old television broadcasts, finally he reaches the end of his life and becomes/is reborn as the Star Child. As the Star Child, he returns to Terra, visits his mother, and prevents the various blocs from setting off their orbital nuke - rather, he (if he can be said to have a gender, still) prevents them from having any actual effect.</spoilers>

I saw it as a wee lad, during a re-release, on the biggest screen in a large city. Probably in late '71 or '72, as we also saw The Andromeda Strain and THX 1138 projected in the classroom from 16mm prints.

Microsoft's Windows 7 Meltdown fixes from January, February made PCs MORE INSECURE

I'll just be sitting in my basement, occasionally firing up a dead XP box in a VM in order to program devices. Oddly enough, MSFT is still updating the darn thing!

My 7 box is still on 7 because it was dead during the free upgrade to 10 window.

Apple Macs, iThings, smart watches choke on tiny Indian delicacy

Re: Compose yourself

Worse yet, the country that melts down on the ASCII sequence T I B E T is right in the middle. 中

Ugly, perfect ten-rated bug hits Cisco VPNs

Re: Security appliances memory errors and programming bugs

So, did the "best and brightest from the best universities" programmer fail to NULL out the pointer after he or she freed it or were there multiple copies of the pointer to the memory region in the code? Both are no-nos that were supposed to be banned in IOS more than a decade ago. Also, looks as if someone removed the "zero out a freed memory buffer" code - probably because it was "slow". Let's not forget the old "freeing freed memory" check that was in IOS.

But I know nothing.

"Our software is our crown jewels." -John Chambers

OK, Google: Why does Chromecast clobber Wi-Fi connections?

It's typical "I've been taught to code, but I don't actually understand computers and the culture/environment in which they're used". People who have no idea of the limitations of where their code will be executed — i.e. why it's unreasonable to bang out N packets all at once, rather than feed them to a rate-moderated emitter, or in this case more than N (for small values of N) is unreasonable to stuff into your for(register x=0;x<N;x++) resend_MDNS_announcement(last_index_sent+x); /* spot the errors */ loop.

What is 2,000,000 packets blasted out on your typical 802.11g network in a typical crowded urban environment, anyway?

Why, indeed, is it unreasonable for any one subsystem to be able to allocate all of the available RAM for its own use and then busy-wait while it's waiting for those 2,000,000 packets to be stuffed out the radio?

Drone crashes after operator failed to spot extra building site crane

Well, it was flying a pre-programmed flight, so it was autonomous, just not self-aware. Time for 3DS to add collision-avoidance cameras like DJI has done? Then again:

https://forum.dji.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=93915

With a helpful screen-shot of its T&Cs. This flying ace managed to fly his very expensive drone into a power line. DJI was helpful until he threatened them with his advocate.

VMware: New year, new job – you're fired

the perfect solution - finally

It keeps the troops terrorized, preserves options for C-level execs, frees up money for bonuses, and lets sadistic managers get their jollies abusing staff. VMware isn't the first Valley firm to do this. Management By Intimidation is a Valley Virtue.

Huawei spied, US federal jury finds

Sysco

It's not as if their product had the exact same error messages, poor spelling and all.

FCC douses America's net neutrality in gas, tosses over a lit match

Re: Black arm bands for everyone

In the years before? No-onBUFFERINGe remembBUFFERINGers tha

Programming bootcamp compiles $375,000 check after triggering New York AG's error handlers

Re: So...

Hush you. Without this constant stream of "programmers"/"coders", how can they effectively suppress wages fight the tech worker shortage?

I ran into some of these types here in Flyover Country, and they were claiming that their grads got jobs that paid what turns out to be half the going rate here, which is less than what the imports get, even.

Hollywood has savaged enough sci-fi classics – let's hope Dick would dig Blade Runner 2049

Re: a flurry of branching narratives created to feed the attention span of modern Hollywood

Which is why you have the extended stupid exploding rubber doll sequences in "Total Recall". Well, that and the three-boobed mutie. (Hm, one of each hand, the other for...?) It gives the mouth-breathers something to enjoy while the rest of us are watching the story.

SanDisk man tipped off his family to Fusion-io fusion, bagged $220k in share snatch – says SEC

Re: If they were a bit smarter

He no doubt got noticed precisely because they're not big boys. The big boys being the only ones meant to make a mint off of that sale. Can't be profiting from the actions of the oligarchy.

Ex-sperm-inate! Sam the sex-droid 'heavily soiled' in randy nerd rampage

I'm not sure if you are or are not referencing 1964's "My Living Doll" starring Julie Newmar, whose character Rhoda aka "AF 709" (a robot) popularized "DOES NOT COMPUTE".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057774/

Weird white dwarf pulsar baffles boffins as its pulsating pattern changes over decades

Re: a teaspoon ... would weigh 15 tons.

> if you use a balance calibrated for earth

Well, actually, if you use a balance and always use the same standard weights (masses - yes yes we know they're different things, especially outside of a 1g field) on one side of the balance, it will register the same weight/mass no matter where you use it.

Your bog-standard springy scale, on the other hand, is another story entirely.

Paris nightclub red-faced after booze-for-boobs offer exposed

I can imagine the casual chat Management had with the barmen

"Good job lads, but next time, ixnay on the ignsay." However you say that in French.

Calm down, internet. Elon's Musk-see SpaceX spacesuit is a bit generic

Re: Double vacuum

>I think pure O2 is frowned upon nowadays.

Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White II, and Roger B. Chaffee all lost their lives in Apollo 1 before we realized that was a Very Bad Idea.

Apple bag-search class action sueball moves to Cali supreme court

Reminds me a lot of my time at ChipzillaWannabe in the eighties

ChipzillaWannabe back in the eighties had a fellow who was former (retired?) Army Intelligence as their head of security. His trusted lieutenant was former (retired?) Army Counter-Intelligence. They had instituted bag-checks (but NOT purse-checks) as a counter-measure against theft. This included locked bank-type bags for moving chips from facility to facility, etc. Their claim was that it saved the company millions of dollars (back then, a million bucks actually bought you something) so it was justified. Of course, my co-workers and I found out about it when they wanted to start searching our luggable computer (a Network General Sniffer™), our TDR, tools, our ladders (for getting up to the big yellow hose), spare keyboards/terminals, and of course our personal backpacks. (Remember the days before everyone carried a backpack?) Their measures slowed us down at every building entrance and exit, and in the fashion of the time, the buildings were wide-spread across the valley because there was minimal traffic. Network outages were measured in minutes, so this rankled, as their measures greatly cut into our performance stats. Claiming my backpack as a purse didn't prevent the unnecessary fondling.

It all blew up in their faces when they decided to accuse our techs of time card fraud, which was proven by your correspondent to be false, as I dug through the terminal concentrator logs and showed that they were working when they said they were. Not to be one-upped, Security claimed that they were still lying because they supposedly had to first enter our building, and then travel to the building they were performing the day's tasks in.

And the chips that their anti-theft measures prevented from being stolen? Those were being manufactured overseas. Any chips we had in our building were engineering samples and in fact, our main workplace was a design (and IT) center. If I remember correctly, they had one fab there in Sunnydale, which might have been for making the 20% faster than Chipzilla's CPU chips, thus the entire brouhaha an exercise in Wang-waggling by the ex-military types.

Foot-long £1 sausage roll arrives

Re: It's not the odd bit of the pig

"Everything but the squeal."

Cancel your summer trip to nearby Proxima b. No chance of life, room service, say boffins

Re: Not a clue

Waiter, I'll have what he's smoking.

Meanwhile, certain types continue to defecate all over our planet, as if they'll be magically transported to a paradise once earth is uninhabitable.

Crims snatch 5.5 million social security numbers from Kansas govt box

And who is REQUIRED to make an account and post up their resume/job history there?

It's a condition of getting Kansas unemployment benefits that you make an account and put all of your info up there. So yes, 25% of Kansans have been unemployed in that period. (n.b. The real figure is slightly smaller, as it's all persons who live or have worked in Kansas and want to collect unemployment benefits from the state.)

Breathless F-35 pilots to get oxygen boost via algorithm tweak

SPO2 meters are under $20 now - why isn't the aircraft recording/monitoring the pilot's vitals?

They should at least be monitoring heartbeat, respiration, and SPO2, if not galvanic skin response. (For a proper measure of performance, some kind of pucker factor probe is indicated.) This is old tech now and should be trivial to fit into the system. WTFUSAF?

NASA whistles up electron noise from the Van Allen belt

Van Allen Belt surrounds it!

This is the space age ...

This is the space age ...

(repeats and fades)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khQiqFArffo

Elon Musk reveals Mars colony rocket capable of bringing pizza joints to the red planet

Methane? Forget the pizza

Mars colonists are going to be eating a lot of beans.

Software dev bombshell: Programmers who use spaces earn MORE than those who use tabs

Re: tabs take fewer keystrokes

>Unless your still programming in vi, I don't think you are actually typing these spaces. Of the 2 modern(ish) IDEs I've used this week, pressing enter will indent automatically to the same point on the next line.

And this is why I hate looking over someone's shoulder as they attempt to use vi. Vi has had autoident since I first encountered it in 1981. ":set autoindent" and be done. Also of use: ":set shiftwidth=MYPREFERREDINDENT" and the ^T and ^D insert mode commands, which head out to your next indent and unindent for you, respectively. In command mode, you would enjoy <MOTION and >MOTION, often used as << and >>.

Crapness of WannaCrypt coding offers hope for ransomware victims

Re: 'Important Folders'

So you're saying that "Swordfish" was a work of fiction?

Way to destroy my hopes and dreams, man.

German robo-pastor preaches the GNU Testament

THX 1138

I'm sure that OMM 0000 would have something to say about automated churches: " Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy."

Cisco cuts 250 jobs in San Jose, has 850 more pink slips to hand out

Yet the cutbacks aren't small to the people being showed the door.

How times change. The Cisco considered itself a software company (thus sayeth Rev. Chambers) in the early aughties shortly before Huawei was caught selling hardware running IOS, The Cisco's self-described "Crown Jewel" of software.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/01/24/cisco_sues_huawei_over_ip/

NASA duo plan Tuesday ISS spacewalk to replace the mux that sux

Re: Uh-oh

It was everyone's first thought.

Code-thief pleads guilty to pinching file system to sell to China

Perhaps the unnamed company could speak to the formerly-great routing giant to find out what happens when their cheap workers steal their source code.

No nudity please, we're killing ourselves: Advice to Facebook mods leaks

Do you remember all those religious nutters from the seventeenth century?

Your ancestors sent some of my ancestors to the Colonies, starting in 1620, because they were religious nutters. The Puritans might have changed - the UCC is now one of the most liberal Christian churches in America - but their blue-nosed offspring live on.

Microsoft's Windows 10 ARM-twist comes closer with first demonstration

Surface 3 and better can do that because they're x86 devices. Prior ones ran WindowsRT and software had to be recompiled for them.

Fancy a relaxed boozy holiday? Keep well away from Great Britain

Easier to get guns in some states then Scotch.

I've never had to fill out a federal form (required for all retail firearm purchases in all states) to buy hooch.

Male escort forgot pregnancy protection, scores data protection instead

Re: Cue David Lee Roth

What instrument do you play?

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Victoria_Williamson/publication/235417631_Contracting_Earworms_The_Roles_of_Personality_and_Musicality/links/0fcfd5116185c5013d000000.pdf

Re: Proof

>"Anal" is also an effective contraceptive. Apparently.

That's how you get lawyers.

Re: A bit of German

And someone who is "earnest", could be said to be serious. Thus, it works in English as well, you just have to pick your words carefully and translate the lad's name.

Linux Mint-using terror nerd awaits sentence for training Islamic State

Re: Trump had better hurry up and ban Mint

He's on-tape as favoring Tic-Tacs, though.

BOFH: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back

Re: Optional

Scott has gone full Randroid. If the garbage man had anything of worth to say, he would be paid accordingly.

Drunk user blow-dried laptop after dog lifted its leg over the keyboard

Tap water? Why not distilled water? Why not pure grain alcohol? (197 proof ethanol)

Water's all fine and dandy, but tap water? Surely you keep distilled water on-hand to block Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

For me, the cleaner of choice is pure grain alcohol and a toothbrush. It will absorb the remaining water and whisk it away.