Posts by My other car WAS an IAV Stryker

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 -->

Re: Hmm

I deal more with spreadsheets (usually items in an assembly and/or the components that make up those items) and drawings/diagrams (ANSI "D" or "E" size), plus sometimes 2D/3D modeling. Horizontal-wide (but NOT "ultrawide") is fine for day-to-day, and as someone else said a laptop with left-and-right-side pull-outs might be more useful for me.

But I also feel you all who want vertical space -- you have really good reasons -- ever since I was a high school newspaper editor and wanted to see my whole page layout without the lettering going "Greek" (halftone-gray bars). We did have one Mac with the fancy rotation option, but didn't have PageMaker on it. I've rotated 2nd/3rd screens before in an office setting, but that only lasted ~2 years. (I'm not going back; you can't make me! And those fuzzy HP monitors were utter crap!)

Missing a "hmmm"/thinking-it-over icon, so I'll use this -->

Eight things that should not have happened last year, but did

Summer of 2023: My UPS guy noticed I was getting a lot of business items (especially heavy steel enclosures) as I was assembling things in the garage for eventual installation elsewhere [1]. The heavier items he made sure went to the garage doors on the side, not the front door, but still made sure I was aware so they weren't nicked. At the front door, he'll put the items in our plastic tote/storage bin (if they'll fit) and ring the bell [2], very nice when it's delicate/expensive componentry.

1. This meant hauling the finished items myself to "The UPS Store" -- pickup was additional charges. At least *I* didn't have to pay for any of it aside from the gas, which is much less mileage than having to build all this in the office where no one was around to receive the parts deliveries AND there are no basic hand tools or testing equipment so I'd have to use my personal items anyway.

2. In contrast, FedEx won't do either -- probably the cheapest delivery subcontractor of the local FedEx distro center whereas UPS drivers around me are direct-hired and union.

When old Microsoft codenames crop up in curious places

Re: Chicago

Hey there, everybody / Please don't romp or roam / We're a little nervous / 'Cause we're so far from home / So this is what we do / Sit back and let us groove / And let us work on you...

Yeah, it worked on me, all right. I'll admit my first album of theirs was #9 (their first Greatest Hits), but CTA (#1) was my second.

---> A full round for you, me, and all Chicago lovers

Microsoft hijacks keyboard shortcut to bring Copilot to your attention

Alt-Space then C - *the* number one way to close a window

Alt-F4 is too unwieldly -- finger stretch plus why are the F keys so tiny these days? (I miss PC AT or XT -- or clone -- keyboards. Left hand F keys... Any USB versions with a full 12 on the left?)

Ctrl-W can act differently within different programs -- sometimes closing the program, sometimes just a tab or sub-window. (Not as far a stretch as Alt-F4, but more stretch and movement than the alternative below.)

However, Alt-Space then C(lose) takes minimal hand/finger movement and works for just about all programs in Windows. I must use it somewhere between a dozen and a hundred times a (work) day. And I will shove those fingers into the eyes of whoever thought messing with Alt-Space was a good idea. Or maybe just push the big, red button -- target: Redmond ----->

Trump tariffs transform into bigger threats for Mexico, Canada than China

Re: I have no doubt you blame Trump for not controlling covid....

That's the active ingredient in the liquid chlorinator for my pool. You know, the stuff used to kill germs and algae and help break down other biologic junk (pollen, leaves, grass clippings, skin, sunscreen). It's quite harmful when not properly diluted, and even then you don't drink the pool water!

(At least, not my pool water that's properly treated -- I don't want to be liable for your idiocy. Of course, right now it's half-drained and covered for winter, so if you try to drink some I'll press charges and/or sue you for trespassing, vandalism, and property damage. All monies recovered will be used for repairs, including next summer's pallet of chlorinator -- it ain't cheap!)

Nolanverse Batmobile leaps barrier between film and reality – but it'll cost you

Rich car-lover who respects the road laws: Jay Leno -- one of a kind.

(How many of the other customers would be willing to break a few more laws and install some kind of accessory fuel tank to create the flames?)

Any R/C version would also not be street legal. --->

We know what Musk will probably dress up as this year: A victim

Re: It’s amazing…

American healthcare is still very expensive even if you're not poor and have good insurance.

I just did "annual enrollment" for benefits with my employer a couple weeks ago (still open). We need the best health/dental/vision plans due to plenty of chronic conditions, particularly my wife (internal) and son (derma/allergy), plus orthodontia for 2 out of 3 kids (oldest has "graduated" from it), eyeglasses for most / contacts for the missus, etc. Either guarantee to pay high premiums biweekly with low co-pays, or high deductible for arbitrary number of weeks/months with low premiums. Either way, we're nigh guaranteed to spend the same by year's end, but likely more with the "classic" high-premium plan, especially if something truly goes wrong (including any kind of emergency or surgery). I'm just thankful I've never had to pay an ambulance bill!

Tower PC case allegedly used as 'creative cavity' by drug importer

That's heavy, Doc.

Forget the x-rays or the shipping method. I've lugged some old PC cases up to about 20 kg. I've never ever met a 100 kg PC tower. Heck, 100 kg is approximately 5/6 of ME (~ 120 kg)! The sheer weight/mass alone should have tipped off any of the proper authorities!

Russian court fines Google $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Not my joke, but apropos

"...[priceless object's] price tag uses 'kilo-GNP' to save time and zeroes. If you have to ask how many zeroes there would have been, you don't have enough zeroes."

iFixit to the rescue: McDonald's workers can rescue their own ice cream machines

Re: It's not "ice cream"

My family -- like many here in the US "Midwest" -- prefer frozen custard anyway. And since you can't call it that without rules, it's better than wannabe-ice-cream.

Plenty of local shops around us plus at least one decent franchise operator with consistent quality/availability (Culver's). I don't care which machine they use -- for all I know, Culver's makes their own machine -- but it's worth the price premium over the Broken Arches (McD's).

Is Microsoft's AI Copilot? CoPilot? Co-pilot? MVP creates site to help get it right

Re: BAU for MS is it not?

And sometimes (often) your SharePoint team (file share) is connected to your Teams team (channel) so no one knows where to find stuff.

Except me, because I linked the SharePoint file storage to my OneDrive and make it appear as part of my own files, avoiding using both browser (SharePoint) or Teams client from file operations which are best* done with good ol' Explorer. (Seriously, I hate file management through browser or browser-like clients such as Teams. *Best = of these three, not of all options in the world.)

BOFH: The Boss pulled the plug on our AI, so we pulled the pin on him

"Pull the pin"

I expected said pin to lead to something a bit more... explosive (see icon), particularly on a grenade.

Of course, you're invited to check my handle again and remember who my primary customer is, plus many of my coworkers over the years are ex-military.

Or maybe I'm just channeling MythBusters: "Jamie want big boom." I may look more like Mr. Savage (with goatee) but act more like Mr. Hyneman.

Floppy discs still run a U.S. metro? Japan steps in with 'project kill floppy'

I don't mind a stable DOS system.

Scene: a US high school, opened on 6 Jan 1996, freshly built with all new networks and shiny computers in the main lab running Windows 95, plus a handful of Macs. Yet one computer in the main office was still running only DOS [1], and had to have 24/7 uptime... because it ran the fancy 16 X 80 incandescent Daktronics sign out front, the first for any school in the district.

Said sign turned lots of 'leccy into lots of heat, plus sufficient light to be distracting to the commuters headed for the nearest major metro (almost blinding at night). It wasn't the best Big D had to offer, but on the district's budget it was the best they could do. And the master software [2] ran in DOS -- I personally ran it my senior year (12th grade). I could manually run sequences or load a full month's worth (or more) into the schedule, including on/bright/dim/off commands. So while the sign was off, the DOS box still had to run all night to wake it up again in the morning and command the appropriate sequence(s) for the next day.

It mostly ran on a (small) hard drive, but it did have a 3-1/2" drive (not 5-1/4), and loaded other software just to see what the machine could handle... without messing up the current operations. [3]

Good times...

[1. Admittedly not actually that out of date, yet. If it's still there now, that would be a different story, but I assume they've upgrading the sign and the computer since then, probably full-color, full-video LED.]

[2. Actual sign ops were in a separate box screwed to the wall, connected by serial. This ran only the current sequence from its own memory and needed the PC to give it the next instruction/sequence.]

[3. Because of #2, the PC *was* allowed to reboot -- and the control software called up from autoexec.bat -- but you had to manually reload the Scheduler. This was definitely NOT preferred and usually only happened if power was lost, in which case the sign rebooted blank, which was (marginally) better than some default pattern or re-running something out-of-date.]

US contractor pays $300K to settle accusation it didn't properly look after Medicare users' data

Name the subcontractor

Why doesn't this Agreement name the subcontractor? Surely the gov't agency in question knows who it is. Unless part of the purpose of the Agreement is to protect their public reputation.

Elon Musk's disaster relief promises: Should we believe the hype?

Sympathies to the author

Obviously for the immediate situation, but also for being turned into a sacrificial pawn in a political game. It is understandably frustrating, and writing an article such as this is a step toward relieving the frustration.

I hope you can restore as much of your pre-disaster life as possible, both physically (basic necessities of shelter/home, food, water, electricity, etc.) and emotionally.

FCC probes whether it can pop a cap in ISP data caps

"Reach out and [throttle] someone."

Namely, throttle (i.e.: choke) the customer until they pay dearly.

A USTelecom spokesperson commented: "Providers offer an incredibly wide range of choices to empower consumers to select the plans that best meet their individual needs. Consumers should continue to be in the driver's seat when making these choices, not government."

"Wide range of choices"? Hardly. My current mobile provider: A) older plan for 3 (me, missus, oldest kid) which throttles at 7 GB, which I can no longer adjust or add new lines to -- and I have two more kids to add (eventually); B) no-throttle "unlimited" plans that are *at least* 20% higher price -- and even more to enable 5G -- until/unless I consider the fourth (and fifth) line(s) where it might break even (hopefully).

Anything else involves pre-pay (nope -- that's more of a scam than a "plan") or changing carriers, but our phones are probably SIM-locked anyway.

Thunderbird for Android is go – at least the beta is

Re: Interleaved posting

But but but that takes more time and thought to not only create (write) but also read! You monster!

(See icon. I do this too. You make three points; you get three replies -- in a single email -- each tailored to one point at a time.)

If you're excited by that $1.5B Michigan nuke plant revival, bear in mind it's definitely a fixer-upper

These are the issues I've been commenting about.

See title.

However: The campaigners went as far as warning, "If the reactor were allowed to restart, it would put one of the oldest US nuclear power plants at risk of a meltdown." Probably not. Leakage of radioactive cooling water is the highest risk here, contaminating the soil, groundwater, and oh yeah the adjacent Lake Michigan. After so many prior examples of coolant loss becoming a problem for the reactor, I think it's a safe bet Holtec will be covering that thoroughly and a "meltdown" is (still) highly unlikely.

I think nuclear is a necessity if we want to get off coal for electric production, and maybe even oil and gas, and I like it when old tech can successfully last longer than planned (like El Reg's ongoing articles on Voyagers 1 & 2). And while this ongoing drama is entertaining, it's not in a good way.

Uncle Sam lends $1.5B to reignite Michigan nuclear plant in 2025

Re: Options for public money

I wouldn't say restarting an old plant -- that still needs major upgrades -- is "zero risk" (see below), but I agree with your larger point of Return on Investment and gave you an upvote.

Further supporting your point: the "smart meters" around here have only enabled two things: 1) checking if your power is actually "out"; and 2) "peak hour" billing. I'm definitely not a fan of the latter -- I understand the economics, but I'm paying more for using (mostly) the same power year-on-year.

Regarding that non-zero risk: most news sources are ignoring the "minority reports" of actual former employees who are pointing out exactly how risky this operation is. Yes, nuclear is, by and large, safe from major radioactive issues save for the spent fuel, especially compared to coal exhaust, BUT something can always go wrong, and with this older equipment the chances increase. Maybe not dramatically, but at least significantly. Being in the same state, I am watching this carefully. (The last time I commented on this particular project to make this point I got severely downvoted; maybe because I was trying to be dramatic.)

US Army orders next-gen robot mule to haul a literal ton of gear

Reminds me of my days back at "Stryker HQ"

aka General Dynamics Land Systems (if I haven't dropped enough hints to that yet).

The original MUTT was NOT designed by us "normal" engineers. I don't know who worked on it; no one knew. Way back when, there was an R&D team in Muskegon -- maybe they created it. Muskegon got partially sold off, partially closed, and only a couple guys joined us at HQ near Detroit (the other side of "the mitten" of Lower Michigan). That's about the time our Stryker ECP project (now the A1) got started, which was probably my most important/impactful work there which led to my "other car" handle here -- I rode plenty of miles for testing around the parking lot. (No, I never drove it; only the union driver/mechanics got to do that.)

Years after that, there was a mass engineer buyout (paying the best to leave), more of our work started to get segregated into "special teams" -- with core HQ engineering functions like powerpack design and electric power generation (me & my closest peers) being outsourced to our suppliers -- and I knew it was time to bail before a chopping axe got swung my way. And that's why the Stryker is no longer my "other car".

Bring the joy of train delays home with your very own departure board

Let's hack this, in the hobby sense

Almost twenty years ago I thought about building my own single-color board and writing scripts to pull/scroll news headlines -- like watching the cable news bottom-ticker without the rest of the screen and the idiocy (and audio) therein. I could glance at it periodically during the day, or not.

But a professional-looking panel like this blows away my home-brew design entirely. I could make the middle-size fit with my WFH setup (though I wouldn't appreciate the glare-cover reflecting from the window behind me). With that much real estate, I could see the entire headline at once (scroll in, pause, scroll out), and use multiple colors for various bits: news, weather, sports. Flashing bits of contrasting color and sound FX for breaking news, weather alerts, and live score updates.

This company needs to broaden their offerings; surely others have the money I don't for such a device. Same display, just different software.

The mystery of the rogue HP calculator: 12C or not 12C? That is the question

Re: Scientific Calculator

Thanks for the earworm. --->

Love me the ol' Motown sound, no matter where it came from. Sam, Dave, and so many others.

Microsoft cash to help reignite Three Mile Island atomic plant

Not the only plant in consideration

I've been following the recommissioning/restart of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan on the Lake Michigan shoreline. I thought El Reg had covered that, but I cannot find the article. It has had plenty of opposition, both from locals (some who moved nearby on the promise the plant was over and done) and at least one former plant engineer. The state, with federal grants in hand, insists it's necessary to meet carbon/green goals, and I don't disagree. On one hand, it's not my backyard; on the other hand, the Great Lakes are everyone's problem, and I don't want cancer when I visit Mackinac Island, "downstream" of the plant. (I also live close to downstream waters, just a LOT further downstream.)

Putin really wants Trump back in the White House

Re: Stupid is as stupid writes

1. Not all "Dems" -- across the wide swath of voters -- support all these talking points. I would also suspect that not all the "Dem" leaders agree 100% with the absolute extreme on every point. Painting with broad brushes is a poor argument.

2. If Putin officially supported Harris, how come that didn't make front-page headlines anywhere?

3. Look at my handle and think about where I used to work. The only "Dems" that support the military-industrial complex (gotta' use Ike's original phrasing) are those whose votes are at stake due to having defense presence in their constituency. I would know; most of my coworkers were/are 100% not "Dem", but they certainly are good people and technically competent. (And sometimes I agree with their politics, sometimes I don't, but we all get the job done.)

4. Don't call me a "Dem" either just because I like to break down arguments. I am staunchly independent and moderate. I do this to both sides, and I usually try to balance my ballot.

Bargain-hunting boss saw his bonus go up in a puff of self-inflicted smoke

I will mention the closer-to-me Miami University... of Ohio. (Not the big orange 'U' of University of Miami, Florida.)

Client tells techie: You're not leaving the country until this printer is working

Re: Closest experience I had

Coincidences...

1. The anniversary of that outage (August 14) was just a couple days ago.

2. I was in grad school (not inside the affected area) and about to take the high-level undergraduate Power Systems course at the time, followed by the Advanced Power Systems, hoping to get a utility job.

3. I didn't get hired by a utility, but did get a job in Metro Detroit -- moved there in March 2005 with no plans to leave.

4. My wife -- obviously before we ever met; she grew up the area -- was working as an EMT through that blackout and has quite the horror story about their ordeal, particularly with regards to the potential dangers of nearby heavy industries (the Marathon refinery and Zug Island steel mill). The worst-case scenario did not occur, but could have, making an argument that reliable electric power saves lives!

Disney claims agreeing to Disney+ terms waives man's right to sue over wife's death

Re: The negligent Manslaughter aspect aside...

It's partly an honor -- they're not mere "employees" or "associates" or "personnel" because they have an active role: like a movie or show, your cast members are actors. As part of the job, they must act like it is the Most Magical Place on Earth, lest any guest's expectations go sour. Dehumanizing, no, but certainly humiliating at times*.

Using that term "cast members" for employees who aren't Disney's -- employed by the pub leasing the space -- does further the illusion that Disney has some control/liability, and therefore responsibility, in situations just like the case at hand (but as someone else said, not necessarily culpability/blame).

* The most humiliating part is that every cast member has to act the role of janitor/cleaner (at times) because there are no dedicated janitorial/cleaning roles in Disney parks. Not sure about the resorts and cruise ships, because I expect those still have "housekeeping".

Intel's processor failures: A cautionary tale of business vs engineering

Re: Engineers and MBAs

"The brass knows HOW to do it by knowing WHO can do it."

Maxim 63 on the official list. First and second citations.

(I just assume every money-grubbing businessperson is a mercenary at heart if not by practice -- all about profit and murky, if any, ethics.)

NASA's NEOWISE asteroid spotter turned off for the final time

Re: Well Done!

You're talking consumer goods -- agreed that we end-users can't buy what they won't sell.

OP was talking about things like satellites, rovers, and other NASA shiny, where 100% is custom-made/bespoke and the general rule indeed holds. But, like all gov't agencies, for all other factors being equal (or only slightly skewed), the lowest bidder (usually) wins. Part of additional cost for quality is materials but mostly is engineering time (labor) for additional design and testing.

To paraphrase a comic strip, "I'm with the government -- I can't afford the product quality we actually want because I can't pay good engineers what they're worth."

Report slams Boeing and NASA over shoddy quality that's delayed SLS blastoff

Another unhappy Boeing customer from earlier this century

The massive U.S. Army Future Combat Systems (FCS) was cost-plus, co-run by Boeing and the pre-2013 SAIC [1]. I saw lots of waste working that program, especially the copious design review meetings with lunch provided (approx. once a month [2]). It was probably good that they killed the entire program but it seems [solely my opinion here] that Army R&D, especially for ground vehicles, has been a bit haphazard ever since. I'm hoping the Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV, the M2 Bradley replacement) and M10 Booker (formerly Mobile Protected Firepower, MPF) fit the supposed purposes.

[1] Split into the primary successor Leidos and the smaller spin-off SAIC (kept the name, tweaked the logo) with both sharing the corporate history/story and none of the FCS blame. The split was due to different areas of the same company creating competing bids / conflict of interest over contacts, not due to any FCS fallout.

[2] Didn't help my waistline / scale readings in my first few years starting my career.

Michigan probes Musk-backed PAC website that weirdly tried and failed to help register people to vote

On all the days

An article about Michigan voter registration, published literally the day before Michigan's (non-presidential) primary elections. Delicious coincidence. Good on the Michigan SOS to get involved, if a little late -- but not too late to hopefully stop any potential General (November) Election voters from getting scammed.

NASA pops repair kit in the mail so astronauts can fix leaky ISS telescope

Ah, that makes more sense. I didn't know the story -- thank you! In return, have this, as every good story deserves ---->

Re: "keep doing groundbreaking science"

The politics are, arguably, necessary to get people to pay for this. Without government support, not much astro-science would get done. It would be nice if gov't support was steady, but every part of gov't becomes part of the usual political games over time -- whether pro (pork-barrel spending) or con (mainly due to ideology) -- and there we agree that it stinks.

Aside from government, not enough rich eccentrics willing and/or able to pay for it themselves. Branson only had so much dough to spend on VG, and Musk built SpaceX to turn a profit, not altruism (and those profits partly paid by gov't via NASA). Not sure about Bezos/Blue Origin.