Posts by Matthew "The Worst Writer on the Internet" Saroff

Hydrogen-powered train tested on Britain's railway tracks as diesel alternative

Why Pressurized Tanks Rather than Metal Hydride Storage Tanks?

Just wondering.

Corsair's K70 MK.2 does nothing a cheaper keyboard can't, but the steep price gets you top-notch components

I Remember, and Love, the Old IBM Clickty Clack Keyboards

They were beautiful.

VMware staff in Silicon Valley can leave a pandemic, wildfire-ridden zone – if they're willing to accept less pay

Re: Take on a Roommate or 15

There is a movie about this starring Jack Lemon, The Apartment.

Re: Take on a Roommate or 15

The idea as that all the people "live" there, but only use the apartment if they are called into the office.

Take on a Roommate or 15

I expect people to start having 15 or so roommates in studio apartments at VMWare.

Mostly, they will just be there when they need meetings, and spend most of their time in "vacation homes."

Problem solved.

Fusion boffins apply plasma know-how to building thrusters

Are there any ISP Numbers

ISP = Specific impulse, not internet service provider.

It's a measure or rocket fuel economy.

For example the Dawn probe, which rendezvoused with Ceres and Vesta asteroids, had thrusters with a specific impulse of 3,100 s and produce a thrust of 90 mN.

Without ISP numbers, it's just a press release.

Oh what a feeling: New Toyotas will upload data to AWS to help create custom insurance premiums based on driver behaviour

Cars Should Be Air-Gapped (Except for Radios)

What happens when the next script kid hacks into 20,000 Toyotas and shuts them down during rush out, or worse, sets the throttles to 11 and disables the brakes.

Notepad++ website sent to China's naughty step after 'Stand with Hong Kong' software update

On the Bright Side

It's just about certain that some group of suits are not going to buy them out, because China will be pissed off for years.

We're suing Google for harvesting our personal info even though we opted out of Chrome sync – netizens

Shorter Goodle: That whole "Don't be Evil" thing is inoperative.

ICANN suffers split-personality disorder as deadline for .org sale decision draws close

What About ICANN Insiders?

The issue is not the financial benefit of ICANN, but that ICANN may be operating for the financial benefit of organizational insiders, such as current and former board members or their relatives.

This could be illegal, look at the case of the severance payments to the head of SADD.

What About ICANN Insiders?

The issue is not the financial benefit of ICANN, but that ICANN may be operating for the financial benefit of organizational insiders, such as current and former board members.

This could be illegal, look at the case of the severance payments to the head of SADD.

At last, the fix no one asked for: Portable home directories merged into systemd

I Do Not Understand Why the Hostility Toward Systemd

Systemd is a great OS. All it really needs is a good init system.

ICANN't approve the sale of .org to private equity – because California's Attorney General has... concerns

I'm thinking that the AG is looking for evidence of self-dealing, which they probably find.

Self-dealing is unlawful, and in extreme cases, which this seems to be, is actually criminal.

I'm thinking that the if the investigation looks for evidence of self-dealing, which is a crime, they will find it,

The Foot of Cupid emits final burst of flatulence in honour of fallen Python Terry Jones

How Can You Not Mention his Documentary on the Crusades

It was wonderful.

ICANN finally reveals who’s behind purchase of .org: It’s ███████ and ██████ – you don't need to know any more

I've Incorporated a 501(C)3

Though I am not a lawyer, so I feel that I have some knowledge in the matter.

How the bloody hell does not violate the self-dealing provisions that are present both in IRS tax codes for non-profits, and the state laws for non-profits?

It is ABUNDANTLY clear that ICANN insiders, and probably PIR and ISOC insiders as well, are deriving personal benefit from this, and that is illegal.

I've Actually Incorporated a Not-For-Profit 501(C)3

So, even though I am not a lawyer, have SOME knowledge in the matter.

How the bloody hell does not violate the self-dealing provisions that are present both in IRS tax codes for non-profits, and the state laws for non-profits?

It is ABUNDANTLY clear that ICANN insiders, and probably PIR and ISOC insiders as well, are deriving personal benefit from this, and that is illegal.

Call your Congressman and demand an inquiry.

Reusing software 'interfaces' is fine, Google tells Supreme Court, pleads: Think of the devs

Like Your Mother In Law Driving off a Cliff In Your Brand New Car

Oracle and Google are fighting it out, and I want them both to lose, though applying copyright to an API is nuts, but the federal patent court has literally patented a rainy day (weather hedges), so they are nuts.

Bloodhound gang hits 1,010kph, retreats to lab to work on smashing the land speed record

You Missed a Decimal Place

9 kN is the equivalent of about 2,000 lbf, and 1/10 of the max thrust of the EJ2000.

You mean 90kN.

Hope to keep your H-1B visa? Don't become a QA analyst. Uncle Sam's not buying it: Techie's new job role rejected

The Solution to This is to Make the H1B Process More Expensive

Make companies bid against each other for the right to apply.

That way, they will only request the visas in response to a real need, as opposed to doing so to get cheap bodies in the door.

ALIS through the looking glass: F-35 fighter jet's slurpware nearly made buyers pull out – report

The Most Important Thing about ALIS

It is effectively an off switch.

If the Pentagon does not like that you are doing joint exercises with the wrong type, or Lockheed is in a payment dispute, they can shut down your fleet.

Why are fervid Googlers making ad-blocker-breaking changes to Chrome? Because they created a monster – and are fighting to secure it

So, is Firefox Going to Incorporate Manifest V3?

For all the other browsers out there, (Edge shortly) they are Chromium based, so they have no choice, but Firefox does not.

Whave theri statements been on the webrequest API?

Disclosure, I wrote a FF addon, though it does not touch on this issue at all.

This Free software ain't free to make, pal, it's expensive: Mozilla to bankroll Firefox with paid-for premium extras

Speaking as Someone Who Taught Themselves Javascriipt to Recreate an Addon

I hate the fact that Quantum destroyed their existing addons.

I recreated BBCodeXtra, it's called bbCodeWebEx (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bbcodewebex/, source at https://github.com/msaroff/bbCodeWebEx),* I found working with Web Extensions to be a major PITA.

There are still a few things that I have not yet figured out how to do (particularly on non-secure pages), and it appeared that the API was considered context menus as a red haired stepchild.

The problem is that Mozilla concluded that the rapid rise of Google Chrome was because it was somehow objectively better than Firefox, and so they needed to copy every feature as assiduously as possible.

The reality is that Google has used its market power (I get asked if I want to "Upgrade" to Chrome at least 4 times a week) to force the browser down our throats.

*Warning: I think that the source code is ugly enough to cause cancer and male pattern baldness.

US Supremes urged by pretty much everyone in software dev to probe Oracle's 'disastrous' Java API copyright win

Re: @Graham Before people get in to a panic...

I would also note that the appellate court, generically referred to as the patent court, based its decisions on facts not presented in the original case, which as the Supreme Court has noted repeatedly in slapping them down, is wrong.

Appeals are supposed to be decided on issues of the law, with the lower court being (pretty much) the arbiter of issues of fact.

The reason that SCOTUS has been reversing them regularly lately is because the patent court is bat guano insane, and has been for years. (They literally allowed the patenting of a rainy day)

Intellisense was off and developer learned you can't code in Canadian

Why has no one quoted Alexei Sayle?

Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'... they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git.

Firefox 57's been quietly delaying tracking scripts

Re: Oh, that's why

Gotta quote Yes, Minister:

Sir Humphrey: The only way to understand the Press is to remember that they pander to their readers' prejudices.

Jim Hacker: Don't tell me about the Press. I know *exactly* who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by the people who think they run the country. The Guardian is read by people who think they *ought* to run the country. The Times is read by the people who actually *do* run the country. The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country. The Financial Times is read by people who *own* the country. The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by *another* country. The Daily Telegraph is read by the people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey: Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Bernard Woolley: Sun readers don't care *who* runs the country - as long as she's got big T**s.