Posts by My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

Diversion to power datacenters earns Boom Supersonic a ticket to revive fast air transport

Re: Of all the numbers, they picked that one?

If someone hadn't said it, I was going to. A round for you --->

Apply here to win a Microsoft Ugly Sweater. It's uglier than ever

I want this for "ugly Christmas sweater" contests (icon)

Peak MS to me was when we had to start caring about Microsoft at all -- mid-to-late 1980s DOS days: To go with our PC clone, Dad got a real IBM PC DOS set from work (manuals in custom-sized binders with 5-1/4 inch "'diskette" pockets, all in a cardboard case, all beige/pale pink) -- I believe it was 2.1. But my older brother quickly found out he couldn't play the latest sneakernet games without an upgrade, and it had to be "genuine" MS-DOS (we mostly used 3.3, maybe also tried 4.something).

That was peak: Microsoft or bust. Computers at school that weren't Apple had DOS, mostly to use WordPerfect, even into high school (mid-90s). I could even fit my own DOS files on a 3-1/2 inch disk and reboot into my own ANSI.sys boot screen / menu and play some games [1].

Windows (3.1) was just a (slow) add-on until it started taking over everything, especially with Win95 [2]. It's all been downhill since.

Bootnotes:

1) Mostly runtimes from QBasic like Nibbles and Gorilla, back when the chips were slow enough.

2) And when Win95 hit, the whole school switched at once and forced us into MS Office from there on (save for Pagemaker for the student newspaper plus the proprietary yearbook layout program).

Old-school rotary phone dials into online meetings, hangs up when you slam it down

Well done + random thoughts

Old POTS/PSTN devices are not as easy as banging together some TTL logic or even basic audio. Kudos! ----->

I still hope someday someone will design & build an iPhone dock with Bluetooth and Qi charging [1] so I can use a physical/tactile number pad and handset to make calls without touching my actual phone. Adding USB for a computer -- Teams/Zoom/etc. -- would be quite doable. Maybe even hold some speed-dial memory. You could still slam the call dead and have decent sideband -- like our subject found -- unlike most headsets. [2]

1. When I first thought of this, it was back in the 30-pin days and Bluetooth was still too sketchy.

2. I have an older headset (Plantronics/Poly) that I won't give up because it's sideband is perfect; the newer one (Logi[tech]) stinks in that area.

BOFH: You know something's up when the suits want to spend money

Re: The old line from "Ghostbusters" is never lost on me

Yes, that too. Shame on me for omitting it.

The old line from "Ghostbusters" is never lost on me

"We may not be talking human sacrifice and cats and dogs living together, but it could be bad," the PFY replies.

A Friday toast ---> to Simon for alluding to Pre-Web "Deep" Geek Culture.

(You want my vote for anything? Quote "Ghostbusters", "Spaceballs", or Monty Python in my general direction.)

De-duplicating the desktops: Let's come together, right now

Re: Always looking the wrong way at the wrong thing.

My 13-year-old son is now using Linux Mint to learn Inkscape, with weekly lessons. Wake it up, let me put in a password, click the icon in the taskbar panel, use -- following along with the lesson on his iPad -- save, close, put to sleep until next Wednesday. As simple as it gets!

The machine is quite old and previously had Windows Vista. His older sister previously ran the same course using a Windows 8 laptop. It was newer hardware, but slower than this Mint setup thanks to Windows bloat.

My kids have used Windows before and (seem to) understand the Windows-like Cinnamon desktop just fine. If other kids can learn/hone basic computer skills on ANY OS that mimics Windows, it will translate well to using any other Windows-like OS in the workplace, including Windows itself. I don't see a problem inherent with Linux or the fact that the desktops are like Windows. (The author's point about desktop duplication is valid, though.)

Black Hawk chown: DARPA takes helicopter pilots out of the air for $6M

Distances

Hmm. Knowing Michigan, it might seem like 80 miles round-trip wouldn't reach land-locked Camp Grayling from Lake Huron. But checking some maps, it would reach the very eastern edge of CG if the "pilot" was right by the shoreline. Getting over the city of Grayling proper, or any of the camp's big-wig buildings, might be double that distance -- it's a very large area! (It has to be -- trust me.)

From Intel to the infinite, Pat Gelsinger wants Christian AI to change the world

Re: Absurdity with high chances of success

As a card-carrying Christian who is big on theology and small on religion -- which, as a practical definition, can mean "applying your theology to actual life" and not necessary rules and rituals, but those may come out of the process -- I think your discussion on "tekton" as "builder" applies to Christ Jesus even more appropriately than "carpenter" ever did! For those who believe that God the Son was an intrinsic part of the creation narrative, then naturally he had "the whole structure in mind."

This LLM may be absurd since the Christian circles I run with extoll personal Bible study, daily devotions, and the like. There is plenty of existing material to interpret, explain, and apply the Bible, plus more being made constantly. An LLM would answer things about as well as a simple tract -- the kind left on top of the restaurant bill (which I've *never* done, especially in lieu of an actual tip because decent service should be rewarded) -- and probably make theological mistakes which could drive progress of "go[ing] and mak[ing] disciples" backwards, and given our (supposedly) "Christian" politicians and other public figures we certainly don't need any more help making Jesus look bad!

God is good. Jesus is Lord. This world has issues, mostly due to people, who are deeply flawed since creation. And LLMs come from people, so they're flawed too.

(My suggestion: C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity" -- a good starting point for anyone who is willing to learn, and it's short enough to not need LLM to summarize. I like Lewis a lot even if I don't agree with all his theological points.)

Microsoft gives Windows 11 a fresh Start – here's how to get it

Re: Recommened section

I don't like how this methods require turning off the Recent items -- in addition to Recommendations -- because it doesn't affect only the Start Menu but also the "Jump Lists" (Taskbar > right click on any app) and also within File Explorer. I use the Jump Lists quite frequently and they're essentially the only way to pin items to said lists. Recent items for Jump Lists (Taskbar) should be a Taskbar setting, not directly tied to a Start Menu setting.

But, then again, I don't like Win11 on the whole -- it's my work laptop and forced onto me, probably for good reasons.

(Plus, a potential bug: I turned Recent items off just to verify my claims, then back on, and the previous lists were deleted and not coming back. Good thing I added some necessary pins just yesterday.)

There's mushroom for improvement in fungal computing

Social media mushrooms? Probably taste like the fertilizer they grew in.

(Trying to bite my tongue because this shittake came from Ohio State and my in-laws are Wolverines aka U. of Michigan fans. That's no reason to start a flame war in our favorite forums, lest I get banned, but the struggle is real.)

SpaceX is behind schedule, so NASA will open Artemis III contract to competition

Re: Go Fever

History flashback (Wikipedia): "Kennedy stood before Congress on May 25, 1961, and proposed that the US 'should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.'" That was a full eight (8) years before successful landing, even including a temporary pause after (and due to) the Apollo 1 tragedy.

Kennedy then gave his famous speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962 -- over a year later, but while NASA was still accomplishing things that helped understand the challenges.

This new goal is only 4 years out and has some unique things both going for it (including massive rocket already designed) and against it (funding).

Referencing the same article, JFK did not have much public support at the time, but it increased, especially after his assassination. I'm not suggesting anything against the current administration, but should the unspeakable happen, we could do it as a tribute to him... but maybe on a more relaxed, reasonable timescale.

Literal crossed wires sent cops after innocent neighbors in child abuse case

Re: BT

I didn't mean it against you personally. I was commenting more on the original article, specifically the potion you quoted. I apologize for any offense since none was intended.

Re: BT

Letting the utility in question just ignore questions is, frankly, weak. I understand monopolistic utilities on either side of the pond not wanting to answer to their (ahem) customers. But this was a government tribunal. A US court could have issued subpoenas for said utility to give testimony in writing and/or in court as to what/why/how these events happened. The answers might be incomplete or insufficient, for which the company can be found in contempt of court and fined, hopefully (hah!) with the fines going straight to these unintentional victims.

Microsoft veteran explains Windows quirk that made videos play in Paint

Re: Fun!

With large-format mega-res monitors -- and a decent visibility angle -- they don't have to look off-screen to see the final composited video which lets them observe exactly to what they were gesturing. Of course, they still might out of habit/tradition.

What do we want? Windows 10 support! When do we want it? Until 2030!

Not the same?

There are certain technical differences between these scenarios:

1a. A piece of hardware (such as a smart speaker) is no longer functional (or significantly reduced function, such as "dumb" speaker mode only) due to an online resource (server) being no longer available and/or a kill code activated.

1b. A piece of software (such as a game) is no longer functional (playable) due to an online resource (server) being no longer available and/or a kill code activated.

2. A piece of software (application or OS, in this case Windows 10) is no longer receiving updates -- basic functionality remains but vulnerabilities are no longer patched.

Yes, planned obsolescence is dastardly in all its forms and this kind of thing should not be part of any EULA. (Let's just scrap EULAs entirely? I shouldn't be worried someone else is going to revoke my license on a whim.) But El Reg mentions the Bose shutdown in the same article as the end of support for Windows 10 when they are not the same. The speaker issue is more like other software end-of-life issues from many articles past.

Before you all downvote, please note that I truly appreciate El Reg for covering all these things and bringing them to light, as well as their ongoing coverage of Linux, and the discussions allowed by these forums. All this has led me to (finally!) try Linux Mint by resurrecting some older Windows machines (wouldn't even run Windows 10, I reckon), giving me practice for when I commit to doing the same on our family Win10 box and, except for work, kissing Microsoft goodbye shoving Microsoft out the door with a heel to their rump. As someone else mentioned, it is a crying shame more mainstream media isn't covering this option. Kudos to the whole Linux community for letting our tech live in digital freedom (or at least with looser reins)!

Only way to move Space Shuttle Discovery is to chop it into pieces, White House told

Re: Unless I'm hallucinating...

Not as big as a shuttle orbiter, but the biggest move-by-road project I can remember from before the shuttle's retirement:

There is a pair of light rail transit tunnels (one each direction) drilled under the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (US state of Minnesota). I remember when the biggest local paper covered the planned arrival of the tunnel boring machine's (TBM's) cutting head through the Great Lakes into Duluth harbor, then trucked on two side-by-side flatbed trailers using two semis/lorries with drivers in constant communication/coordination down Interstate 35 (probably with police escort the whole way), taking very specific interchanges/ramps due to the width required, to get it to the airport construction site.

I don't remember subsequent press coverage, but the logical plan would be to drill one tunnel, move it over, then drill the other. Although the tunnels meet surface at both ends, I believe they had a vertical launching shaft at the airport. Press also didn't cover the aftermath -- having to truck/ship it out to whatever project was next for that TBM.

The light rail line (MetroTransit's Hiawatha Line, later renamed the Metro Blue Line) partially opened in June 2002, with the airport tunnel and final portion later that year. I've been on it quite a bit those early years and through the tunnels many times.

Re: Unless I'm hallucinating...

Not "intact" -- not by a long shot -- but a story of moving a building...

I know of a medieval French chapel (Catholic). It was once disassembled stone-by-stone and moved to Long Island, New York. Then it was donated to a Catholic university and relocated again to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Each stone was meticulously labeled on 3 sides (minimum) with a systematic numbering scheme to aid in reconstruction. It has been expanded, re-roofed, and now has electric and HVAC and still holds Catholic masses -- the oldest building that is currently in North America (having predated all buildings built here) still used for its original purpose.

A shuttle orbiter, stripped down to truck-sized pieces (53-foot lorries)? If it were any other vehicle -- even a tank (*cough* I may have some experience there *cough*) -- this shouldn't be difficult thanks to modern nuts and bolts. But add that outer layer -- the tiles and thermal blankets -- and you have a shell that won't come off unless it's destroyed. No thanks; it's fine where it is.

Intern had no idea what not to do, so nearly mangled a mainframe

Re: Expensive Lessons

The ones you can trust enough to learn, you keep and it won't happen again.

The ones you can't / don't trust, you let go, and it won't happen again.

It's win-win for an upright manager!

Make Windows 11 more useful and less annoying with these 11 Registry hacks

I hope to never resort to using these tips...

...because I will not install Win11 on my own machines (work laptop, unfortunately) -- I am more confident in that than ever.

The boost in confidence is due to finally attempting "the big switch": a toast ---> to the developers of Linux Mint (specifically LMDE) which breathed new life into two much older machines (details below), one which will probably never get used again but was a good candidate in case in blew up in my face, and the other for the kids to use, mostly to learn GIMP and Inkscape -- in its former state it couldn't handle latest versions of either.

Each install took hours, not days as feared -- more time spent updating post-install than the core installation. Just having the USB live version was nice to see how it handled. The Cinnamon OS is easy enough to navigate. The extra "Windows" keys on the keyboard map appropriately. There is a lot of hardware I didn't test -- might need to check drivers -- and much tweaking to do, but they are effectively running a *modern* OS -- and browser, and other software -- with firewalls enabled, and without the vulnerabilities of Windows versions long since expired.

Summary of the experience: Refreshing, better than expected, and way better than installing any version of Windows. These machines were otherwise rubbish and now live again. If you can't handle this much, give up your PC and stick to phone/tablet from now own.

Details:

Machine 1: HP laptop from my father-in-law, previously ran Windows Vista (?), 32-bit, < 500 GB HD, 2 GB RAM, lots and lots of ports and old enough for a DVD drive and PCMCIA slot. Battery still had a charge after sitting around for months/years, and it appeared to keep time! Battery took a charge, too, just really slow, which is good since we know failing batteries tend to "charge" quickly. But the Win install was an illegal pirate from someone shady (not my doing!) so it was borked already and no access to previous data -- I had no qualms nuking & paving it. Due to 32-bit, had to use LMDE instead of regular Mint, but that's fine.

Machine 2: Dell tower, Windows Vista, 64-bit, 500 GB HD, 4 GB RAM, no onboard WiFi. Was our family computer for years, mostly for photo storage/sorting and family finances, plus random online stuff. I had stripped all the useful data years ago when we moved houses and I got our Win10 Lenovo tower. I booted into Vista one more time (no Internet) just to see if it would and to double check its state. Even unplugged, still kept time (fast by a few hours) but ran fine. Then reboot to live USB, nuke & pave -- decided to also use LMDE (64 bit) because of age and I don't need many updates -- this will be for the kids now as told above.

There is a Win8 laptop in a corner, but I'm hoping to send that out for destruction/recycling. The battery is trash, one screen hinge buggered, et cetera.

Future: The mentioned Win10 Lenovo, eventually. I'll probably go for Mint 22 Zara (Ubuntu) or whatever it will be then, because it's always on and should have updates ASAP. No program I can't either find a Linux equivalent, run in WINE, or use open-source already. Most data on external drives -- just have to make sure the live USB will read them. I will not rush into this one, but eventually Windows will be gone from this house!

Microsoft boasts about humongous datacenter on abandoned Foxconn site in Wisconsin

Re: I remember when

D'oh! Rockford, not Rochester. My memory is going...

Re: I remember when

Makes sense: not too far from Chicago and Milwaukee, with Rochester (IL) and Madison a little further out.

This project might require updated datalinks to these major urban centers. If I had money to invest, that could be something to leverage.

Trump backpedals as Hyundai factory ICE raid enrages South Korea

Re: "President Trump took to his personal social media channel"

This really hits locally. The Gordie Howe International Bridge (US-Canada) has plenty of American workers (unionized, I think, or at least hope) but the whole project has been funded and administered by Canada for various reasons. The US's domestic two-party squabbles kept getting in the way of this project for years. Finally, CA decided that all they needed was Congress, State Dept., Coast Guard and State of Michigan to sign a few papers and if was Build, Baby, Build.

Meanwhile, US infrastructure is underfunded and falling apart. I'm sure the current leadership would love to turn it all into toll roads and make "users" pay (dearly).

(Is this new bridge economically necessary? Probably. Necessary (to an engineer) due to the aging of the nearby Ambassador Bridge? Absolutely, plus other logistical and legal reasons. Helpful for Detroit's neighborhoods? Maybe. Nice to look at? Meh; kind of plain, but impressive none the less. Wouldn't mind parking nearby and biking on the multi-use path sometime, watch some boat traffic...)

Basic projector repair job turns into armed encounter at secret bunker

Re: How did you get in here?

The (former) main campus library at my undergrad alma mater had an older section (5 floors plus basement) and a newer section (4 floors above ground -- not sure about basement) with the same roof elevation:

• Fifth floor was equal throughout.
• Fourth floor had mid-floor stairs (and accessible lift) from the "upper" old section (4U) to "lower" new (4L), giving impression of a higher ceiling (like x1.5) which was fine for taller bookshelves.
• Third floor only existed in the old section.
• Second floor was level but the newer section had a higher ceiling (again x1.5) for the tall periodicals racks.
• First floor was equal throughout.

That sandwiched third floor -- with the newer section using that volume to extend 2 and 4 -- had limited use, so it was a great place to get quiet study or to find open catalog terminals (some still existed - including in the basement, naturally, and sooooo much faster than a no-keyboard web interface).

The best way to navigate was via the one mid-floor narrow stairwell that stopped at 3, 4L, 4U instead of a blank landing like between other floors.

A new main library was being built when I graduated, and the former renovated since, but I haven't visited either to see if such nostalgic architectural quirks still exist. I do know the terminals and all catalog telnet are long gone.

(New Main also combined in the former "science library", which had an even worse layout that I am NOT nostalgic about.)

Re: Lower ranking officers

Gotta' quote the Schlock: Maxim 2 - A Sergeant in motion outranks a Lieutenant who doesn't know what's going on.

Linux is about to lose a feature – over a personality clash

There are certain things you don't say about or to others

Making any kind of claims of mental illness -- especially in anger or defensively -- is one of those things.

You don't really know them through just an exchange of emails. You don't know what's going on in their head, their personal life, et cetera. Claiming they are, essentially, sick -- even abnormal -- crosses a line.

I am not a doctor but we all have some experience with ourselves or others. I know I have some low-level anxiety/anger issues and have been through bouts of depression. It takes a gentle hand from a close trusted source to help someone into and along a path to mental wellness. Angry accusations aren't going to help that and might trigger even worse mental state and behavior.

Happy weekend, everyone. This ---> for those who choose to (and aren't dealing with addictions and the like; apologies to those who are).

Behold the wood-block wonder of the Kilopixel display

Reminds me most of flip-disc displays.

Wiki link. Shirley we've all seen plenty of these in urban life.

Tom Lehrer: Satirist, mathematician, inventor of the Jello shot

Re: The pigeons in the park

Not until after all the fans do a tribute round en masse.

Re: Lehrer was wrong about one thing...

Another trio coming?

First, it was Malcom Jamal-Warner, Ozzy, and Hulk Hogan.

Then, Chuck Mangione (the jazz flugelhorn player/composer), Tom Lehrer, and _____???

The real reason why Trump is killing the Mauna Loa observatory in Hawai'i

Our "throttled" future (an ad nauseam argument)

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin promised that "The Trump Administration will not sacrifice national prosperity, energy security, and the freedom of our people for an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas." (emphasis added)

I'm not following everything fanatically, but to my recollection, the climate crisis will cause worse storms of all kinds [1] plus ocean rise and therefore lots (and LOTS) of flooding and wind damage, and conversely areas of severe drought (including "heat dome" effects) that raises wildfire risks (also "helped" by wind). I think that all these will "throttle" American -- if not global -- industries, mobility, and choices much more dramatically than trying to mitigate the problem even a little! [2]

1. American perspective: windstorms, summer thunderstorms including tornadoes (rain, wind, lightning), tropical storms (cyclones -- again rain, wind, lightning plus storm surge, and also spawning tornadoes), and winter snow/ice storms (often with wind and "polar vortex" cold that breaks things).

2. As in "too little, too late" but can we please continue to try things instead of going "head in the sand"? Because that doesn't work out when the predator sneaks up and kills the foolish bird.

Coldplay kiss-cam flap proves we’re already our own surveillance state

Re: What's ironic

Like I often tell my kids (and myself) if they're in an embarrassing situation: ACT confident -- parallel to "fake it 'til you make it" -- but quietly, without drawing attention. Don't act flustered, don't rush, don't draw attention, just be forgettable.

It's like Men in Black but without need for a Neuralyzer, since any group/audience usually has a significant Someone Else's Problem (SEP) field up. The SEP field is useful for blocking truly strange and remarkable things, so UNremarkable things are ignored by default. And exuding a quiet confidence only amplifies the effect. Like so many political aides who can zip in and out of frame while being ignored/forgotten.

(Once a year, I run the A/V for a live show of sorts for 5 nights, with much of the content created from scratch. No matter how panicked I am about the content, audio volumes, show flow, mistakes, etc., I have to put on my "game face" and confidently maintain control of myself and the show. Pretending I'm in charge of the whole room* helps me focus on nailing every cue. *Because I kind of am -- the visuals include "cue cards" to the stage and they'd be lost without me! And I'm never sorry for cueing a sound effect when I feel it fits -- most everyone loves how I bring the whole package. But if I let myself get nervous, then I might screw up and everyone would notice big time!)

Remembering when NASA stuck a Space Shuttle on top of a Boeing 747

A shuttle of that scale looks familiar

I believe I've seen a LEGO Space Shuttle of similar scale before: 1990's set #1682, where all the proportions were wrong, the external tank was gray, and the tower was fixed on the ground instead of on the Mobile Launcher Platform. (And forget the whole long ramp, Crawler-Transporter, etc.)

This shuttle appears to be just a little larger (if anything -- the scale of the bay doors is about the same) and with more custom parts, but I bet I could make my old version fit that 747.

My son has a pretty decent looking non-LEGO 737 MAX 8 model (which hasn't crashed as many times as it's real counterpart) that I could marry ye ol' shuttle to. Fixed landing gear, but it might be good enough to educate the kids.

Techie exposed giant tax grab, maybe made government change the rules

Sleuthing [1]

"...my home city's most prominent retailer" combined with dissatisfied local sports team owners and multiple sales taxes: The city is Minneapolis, Minnesota, the retailer was Dayton's [2], and the teams were the Twins (baseball) and/or the Vikings (American gridiron football [3]).

1. This is mostly guessing with some personal history of living nearby. I could be totally wrong, of course, so no bets.

2. AKA Dayton-Hudson most of my life. The stores got merged with Marshall Fields, sold off, sold again, rebranded as Macy's, and many of them since closed (especially post-pandemic). The company embraced their second-tier brand Target and lives on quite happily with the new name and from a new HQ (same city). Go see Wikipedia if you want more.

3. Because I appreciate El Reg's cultural roots (along with many of its readers) and shall not sully the worldwide love of association football by using the same term without qualifiers. In return, please don't be upset if we call footy "soccer" for convenience.

US Navy backs right to repair after $13B carrier crew left half-fed by contractor-locked ovens

Re: Contracts have been this way for decades

Sounds disturbingly similar to the infamous Therac-25... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25

Thanks for that read. ---> (plus another for the poor victims)

Feds arrest DoD techie, claim he dumped top secret files in park for foreign spies to find

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer," but the "friends" who could easily become or aid/abet enemies (i.e.: insider threats) get watched closest.

It does not matter what you think of the current administration and/or its policies -- you do not violate your lifetime NDA with the US Government.

(It's too rich that the suspect who worked in the Insider Threat Division himself became an insider threat. You would think he knew better, knowing how closely others were being watched, therefore he was being watched also.)

BOFH: The Boss meets the unbearable weight of innovation

Best line?

And there we have it. The company needs to get smarter because the Boss can't get the crisps he wants out of a vending machine. This is my job. This is where years of IT delivery has got me.

In my opinion, the most lager-worthy line of the article (icon; and I'm surprised no one else highlighted it before me). Glad the PFY saved the BOFH from the indignity of actually having to do it.

Of course, an experienced reader might suggest that the resident Bastard has not actually delivered the IT he claims to have done so for "years", instead "delivering" years' worth of potently painful, and potentially deadly, punishment. However, someone making that suggestion might indeed be inviting the BOFH and/or PFY to pay a nasty visit making just such a "delivery". But not me, no -- I'd never make such a suggestion, nope. They deliver (entertainment) just fine, thanks.

US Navy sailor charged in horrific child sextortion case

Re: Not the Sharpest Knife

Sins against minors such as this are maybe better classified as a disease, and he is certainly sick. And disease such as this is not usually tied to intelligence or lack thereof. Leaving such a trail of breadcrumbs and still thinking he'd get away with it... THAT was just dumb.

If "dumb" were a disease then it is surely an epidemic, possibly pandemic, and everyone has their periods, if only occasionally, completely unlike the rare (but increasingly visible) "disease" causing this b@stard to do what he did.

BOFH: HR tries to think appy thoughts

Sounds like the intranet of my current employer, almost exactly.

Still better than the "portal" of my last employer aka Stryker/Abrams HQ. Yeah, I'm saying it: their portal from 2005-2018 sucked. Probably still does.

The sound of Windows 95 about to disappoint you added to Library of Congress significant sound archive

Re: Dun Dun

As well as it's theme (the original show, not the spin-offs).

Heck, every TV theme by Mike Post works for me.

(He did some non-TV stuff too. I've heard a couple of tracks. Not bad for smooth-jazz-type background music.)

How do you explain what magnetic fields do to monitors to people wearing bowling shoes?

Re: Simon?

I expected the text "(no, not that Simon)" possibly with a link to the certain other page. The one I have bookmarked. And it's Friday, so it's time to pay that page a visit.

(Is there a reason his stories don't appear in the RSS feed? Even Dabbsy would appear there.)

Edit / follow-up: No new BOFH today, so a visit for nought.

HP Inc settles printer toner lockout lawsuit with a promise to make firmware updates optional

Fail-safe solution (for HP)

If I understand correctly, HP's "solution" here is to let you ignore firmware updates.

Catch #1: Being a settlement, there are no court-ordered requirements to this new "feature", particularly that the information for each update tells you if it's going to block the "trouble" cartridges. The only out is to block/ignore all firmware updates period. (Icon: be vigilant or your printer will be damned)

Catch #2: HP made to claim that you could roll-back/undo firmware updates. Anyone who might be affected has probably installed firmware already that would do this (aside from you fellow El Reg readers), which I'm guessing is 90%. (Icon: your printer is probably damned already, from which there is no return.)

Only 10% might survive, and only if they read about this settlement and follow the guidance to ignore <u>all</u> future firmware updates. Not very likely except for the few of you who already commented that you're in that small demographic. I shall call you the 1% -- print happy and cheaply.

(I hope Canon isn't as bad. Just received new cartridges this week from the Bezos Bazaar. Thought I was buying genuine cartridges but didn't check very carefully. Now I'm afraid to load one.)

Crew-9 splashes down while NASA floats along with Trump and Musk nonsense

Re: a renaming frenzy that includes the Gulf of America

Let Canada keep them. They're flippin' annoying and probably taste worse than wild turkey (which are definitely worse than farmed turkeys). Yet as a life-long resident of Midwestern states, they are almost always present. If I could shoot them, I'd buy a gun (a suitable model, not concealed-carry and not military-grade).

Up to $75M needed to fix up rural hospital cybersecurity as ransomware gangs keep scratching at the door

Just a gut feeling

...that the decimal point needs to move one place to the right:

...an estimated $300,000 to $400,000 per rural hospital to raise its security posture to basic standards.

To do the same across all 2,100, it would cost between $700 million and $750 million.

Rationalize this with any reason you want, such as 1) the problem is bigger than we thought; 2) this is taking so long it became bigger on its own as more problems were discovered; 3) government is getting in the way so it took longer, plus more lawyers and bribes lobbies; 4) we needed to hire consultants, et cetera. Heck, let's just round it all up to an even billion.

One stupid keystroke exposed sysadmin to inappropriate information he could not unsee

Re: Too much information

"I needed a good dose of mind bleach." You mean this? It's on me -- after all, it's Friday. ----->

Schools are horrid microcosms of society. My wife serves lunch at a US public elementary school. Some kids are whiny, lying, demanding little assholes, and she can tell that's how they're taught/reinforced at home -- no respect for authority or rules/laws, just gimme gimme gimme. Whereas she can also tell which kids eat next to nothing at home, and when they ask for more -- politely, more often than not -- she is happy to oblige, rules be damned. ("However you treated the least of these" is one of the many tenets we try to follow.)

BOFH: Engage Hollywood Protocol – because nonsense always looks legit

For we ole "User Friendly" fans

Reminds me of Miranda's "MovieOS":

- Password = password

- 20-column screen; easy enough to read on camera.

- Excellent security until you type "override".

(Probably can also play a mean game of Global Thermonuclear War.)

Musk's move fast and break things mantra won't work in US.gov

Re: "You're driving towards a wall!" "No I'm not!" *smash*

Agreed. But may I add:

1. It's one thing to "take out some trash", especially cleaning up a workspace so the remaining workers can operate more efficiently. This works both literally and metaphorically.

2. Sometimes "taking out the trash" means knocking down a building to put up a brand new shiny one, a breaking a bone so it can be re-set to heal properly.

2. DOGE is not taking out the trash or even knocking over buildings. They are most definitely interfering with the infrastructure of our government; some may consider it destructive on the surface. And if their explicit actions aren't destructive enough, plenty of folks (experts, media) have raised the possibility of vulnerabilities that could be turned into backdoors for bad actors, state-based or otherwise.

A certain MAGA mindset holds, "the system is broken; we NEED to break it -- quite literally -- in order to fix it." However, this is not re-breaking a bone to reset it. There is no cast and Musk is no doctor*. There is no restoration back to the way things were; we must see where this ends and pick up the pieces to create something new, hoping we can restore and/or maintain the necessary functions that will actually help people.

(*As an alternative to all the HHGTTG references lately, where is THE Doctor when we need him?)

Early mornings, late evenings, weekends. Useless users always demand support

Re: Solutions exist

I keep work stuff on the phone because I'm remote, I homeschool, and sometimes we leave the house (where the company laptop stays). It also helps when travelling, especially when the company travel app wants to verify something using email when I'm away from the laptop or Wi-Fi.

But outside of working hours, I set an alert profile called "Personal" that, like the above post, mutes the email + Teams (including the work softphone) entirely. You'd have to text/call me directly, which I only allow some to do, and if so I know I better answer.

Re: Barclays

"...paperwork that literally needs to be completed in triplicate and then lost multiple times."

Did it also need to be buried in soft peat and recycled as firelighters?

Beer before hitchhiking with Vogons, Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster after -->

SLAP, Apple, and FLOP: Safari, Chrome at risk of data theft on iPhone, Mac, iPad Silicon

Well, that does it - no new Apple for me (for now)

Guess I'll just keep using this ol' iPhone 8 Plus as long as I possibly can! Already on its second battery; maybe I can make it last until Apple finds a way to patch this.

(I don't like the idea of losing TouchID anyway, even though the newer shiny has brighter screens and supposedly longer-life batteries, plus Wi-Fi improvements.)

Oh, Deere! FTC sues tractor maker, alleging decades of monopolized repairs

Re: Sowing the seeds

Caterpillar and Allison aren't entirely clean either, depending on your point of view.

Granted, I'm not a farmer, and haven't actually had to maintain a CAT engine or vehicle over a lifetime, but I have had opportunity to use the CAT Electronic Technician (ET) service tool on a laptop while supporting an engine integration (check my nickname again). It's a very powerful tool to tweak (and save backups of) customer parameters (including many of the I/O functions), view & log live telemetry, and check the Diagnostic Trouble Codes (DTCs).

However, I always got to touch relatively new engines without actual issues -- except those that went through our powerpack checkout test cell without proper parameter programming, which I then did myself -- so I don't know, to take a common Deere example, if CAT ET could or even needs to reset something after a bad sensor is replaced.

I do know that certain functions like updating the engine fuel map require Caterpillar employee access with a special technician password, and there are mechanisms to prevent password reuse -- each is unique to a particular engine and may also include OTP/salting; a piece of engine data is needed from CAT ET for the CAT technician to generate the password. But before anyone calls foul on this practice, fuel maps are the kind of thing that can literally break your engine and CAT does not want to get blamed for a customer run amok -- it's entirely understandable.

(It was less than understandable when they sold my former employer a bunch of engines that had supposedly "military unrestricted" fuel maps but we couldn't get proper acceleration. I showed coworkers how to use the tool, and they used the data to get CAT to fess up that they goofed on the fuel maps, then had to travel all over to reprogram each and every engine in the prototype vehicles and off the LRIP assembly line. Oops!)

Allison Transmission's DOC tool has even more telemetry -- really good at checking DTCs, too -- but almost nothing is tweakable. Without going into the customer configuration process (I don't want to run afoul of them), everything must be configured and checked well in advance. Even if I/O could be tweaked, surely things like gear ratios and timing parameters would be locked down so you don't break the tranny (gearbox). If something breaks, you're probably better off sending the whole thing back to Allison anyway and not risk voiding the warranty.

Rollable laptop displays to roll off the production line from April, says Samsung

Re: I don't give a damn about the rollable bit...

5:4 (1.25)? I once had a LCD and work with that ratio. That particular aspect ratio is an abomination that gave me fits whenever I tried to incorporate screenshots into PowerPoints that used the old-school ratio of 4:3 (1.333), like 99% of CRTs I ever used (and most non-wide LCDs).

But you're entitled to your opinion and I'll go now -->