Posts by Jou (Mxyzptlk)

Tesla Berlin gigafactory goes dark after alleged eco-sabotage

Update on this:

Official citation: "Die Ermittlungen werden nach wie vor in alle Richtungen gegen Unbekannt geführt und dauern an"

Translation: "The investigations are still being carried out in all directions against unknown persons, and are going on"

I.e.: I was right, it is still not clear. Neither left, right, eco, Tesla haters (most likely up to now) or "just weird". Still unknown although several groups have taken the responsibility for their own propaganda.

Happy downvoting to all who downvoted my first post :D. Prejudgement is the hardest to fight and generates the most hate.

Re: If they're camped in a German forrest...

Then the original poster did the usual "Abbreviation can only mean what it means here in my environment" thing. A VERY United States Of America thing, since their abbreviations are "expected" to be used world wide.

Re: If they're camped in a German forrest...

Naa, the RAF were communist. Musk is not.

Re: It is not left wing extremists

The irony is that you only see far left or far right nutters. But nutters are nutters, no matter which of the many political direction they are from. Does you country have, practically, only two major political parties?

Re: It is not left wing extremists

"Eco-Terrorists" are neither left or right wing. Don't compare Germany to democrazies which have have, practically, only two partys to choose from - for more than 100 years.

It is not left wing extremists

It is still under investigation. You should check which German sources you ask. Because some newspapers, which should be called instigator-papers, prematurely blame left-wing terrorists just 'cause they love to blame everything on them.

Don't trust Bild (similar to The Sun for UK), or its local branch bz-berlin which is even worse since it is "locally". Both are known for making up truth instead of reporting it.

And just because someone claims to be responsible doesn't mean they are - we have enough examples of such claimers.

US wants ASML to stop servicing China-owned chip equipment

Re: The United States Of America are going too far...

> China has expressed intent to attempt to annex Taiwan by force.

Oh, you mean the current version of the Cuba crisis where a foreign power is using a little island right in front of your own house. Only this time it is not the Russians using Cuba, it is USA using Taiwan, so a bit reversed. Of course China has to act on such a provocation, just like USA did 60 years ago, didn't it? China wouldn't be so pushy if the US wouldn't be so. It is the old finger-pointing game. On both sides. Again.

The United States Of America are going too far...

Are they trying to test-stretch how far they can go - again?

How dare to impose on that level against EU countries.

Year of Linux on the desktop creeps closer as market share rises a little

Re: It is the UI

> if you manage to talk to one of the "got to have the latest" crowd about that aspect their compulsion they tend to get a little, err, tense.

But I am lucky. Those I know personally, which are of that type, are honest. They clearly say that they like the newest stuff, and just for the fun of it, even if it does not make actual sense. Same goes for some Germans which drive oversized or speedy cars, they either say "of course a fun car, what else?" or "of course to size up my d*** and get women, what else?".

Re: Familiarity and compatibility

> I put the stickiness down to familiarity, with a side of no awareness. People know Windows and Office, and can't be bothered

No, that is way too simple preconception. I know many who use Libreoffice on Windows. The reality are all other programs, many over 20 years old, which still work with the same binary on Windows 11. Extreme example: You can copy calc.exe (any many others) from Windows NT 3.51 to Windows 11 and it just works (calc.exe what for? Get rid of 7.345e-4 notation and show 0.0007345). And then there are games from before the year 2000 which still setup and work with only minor weirdness (Microsoft Fury 3, aka Microsoft Terminal Velocity, as my latest test).

> Also there's compatibility. If I'm working with partners or customers who are using Word and Excel

I agree on that. Only rare cases show weirdness, like Office 2010 to Office 2021, and usually it is only minor formatting.

Re: Repeat after me:

> as more and more stuff moves onto Microsoft's platform, the risks will just get bigger and we will see some catastrophic failures.

You need to correct this | sed "s/we will see some/we saw, see, and will continue to see more/". But you are out of the edit window :D.

Re: It is the UI

> In this instance the one you want is code.

Oh, so that's what I need to use. I tried pre and many other things, but not code.

This "limited set of html" is a not-so-clear description, it is missing the list of supported tags - at least by the time I got notified that I am eligible to "limited set of html"...

Re: It is the UI

It is not always a boolean operator as you VERY often try to paint it. See "Thou shall NOT reduce the argument down to two possibilities", aka "False Dichotomy".

Re: It is the UI

The masses don't "jump" when the upgrade says "nope, too old PC". They get it with new hardware when the old hardware dies. Except for a few ultra-nerds who need Nested-V for AMD (here), robocopy.exe /iorate (here), WSL (dontcare), containers (dontcare) or similar non-ui-related feature, no one jumps. (Yes, I forgot those who jump on every newest thing just o show off that they have the newest whatever thing, but I love to forget them on purpose)

Re: It is the UI

> that look like this ${array[${#array[@]}-1]^^}

Which magic spell do you use to get monospaced-coding-style front on el-reg?

For the rest of your comment: Indeed, the "surfing, email, browser-games, look at pictures and videos from phone" works with every OS, this is were linux works great as desktop.

But Windows does have it's magic spells too. And I am not talking about powershell, which is readable and better than bash, I talk about .CMD perversions which make bash look like "object oriented programming".

It is the UI

and nearly ONLY the UI which prevents good sales. That includes way to many annoying popups, which makes using an unadjusted Windows 11 like this scene.

Updates are plenty but fans are few in Windows 11 land

Re: Be less intrusive, less pushy, less blocking work,

You mean the companion

Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Out-GridView -Title "Select AppX Provisioned Packages to remove" -PassThru | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online -AllUsers

which is indeed good and frees up disk space but can have some bad side effects since you cannot always correct a "Oups, I need that back, my Windows behaves strange" mistake. And the package may not be available in the online repo from Microsoft to download if you need it back.

Make a backup before using this is more important than with the other version :D.

Re: Compatibility is Crap

> I noticed this first personally, when I found that my 2019 PC based on a 16-core Threadripper was not permitted to use Windows 11

There is something wrong here, please name the exact CPU. Ryzen 2xxx based Threadrippers with 16 core were released 31. August 2018. Therefore Windows 11 must run on that CPU. If not check your BIOS.

Ryzen 1xxx based Threadripper were released in 31. August 2017, which therefore cannot run Windows 11 (with a few rare exceptions depending on the mask version, check ElReg which exactly).

So either you have a Threadripper 1950x and have been ripped of if bought in 2019 ooooorrr you have a Threadripper 2950x and never updated the BIOS, 'cause that CPU can run Windows 11 officially.

Re: We only just got Windows 10 settled....

Are you seriously twisting an argument when someone has to manage possibly thousands of users into a personal "you can't"?

No fish for you, rather the big axe to filet you.

Be less intrusive, less pushy, less blocking work,

less advertising, less nagging, less rude, less mouseclicks to do the same as before. And where is "SendTo" and "refresh" in the new menu? Ah, in the old "more options" menu. More mouse clicks for no good reason.

Taskbar which forcibly wastes space unless you use auto-hide - yes, Windows 11 is the first WIndows since Windows 95 where I enjoy Taskbar-Auto-Hide.

And now copilot? One more feature to remove via

Get-AppxPackage | Out-GridView -Title "Select AppX Packages to remove" -PassThru | Remove-AppxPackage -AllUsers

etc etc

AMD may have failed to dumb down its chips enough to allow China sales

Re: Makes sense not to sell to Russia...

Hold it hold it: Freedom for United States Of Americans. For the rest of the world: You have to play nice with that empire, or else. But even if you play nice you may get an else...

Sound like NVidia lobbying

what else could be the reason AMD gets a bashing, and NVidia an easy slip.

Windows 11 users herded toward 23H2 via automatic upgrade

Re: Win 11 21h2 patches stopped five months ago

That is why I have no update problems. I only get defender updates. Until they fix my pet but, the broken access to local shadowcopies (aka previous versions tab in explorer), I'll stay with 21h2. I've used them since XP SP2, broken since Jun 2022. I might end up with 24h2 or Windows 12, 'cause I know (tested) that this bug is fixed in insider 25xxx and 26xxx builds nearly a year now.

Re: My laptop is fine as it is

Unless you need a very specific feature, like my case of nested virtualization for AMD CPUs, noone needs Windows 11.

Still at 21h2

My pet bug, inaccessible local shadowcopies, is not yet fixed. However I know a fix will come this year, probably even Q1, since someone from Microsoft saw my constant complaining mid last year and is pushing for the fix since then.

Persistent memory to replace DRAM, but it could take a decade

Re: Its gonna be hard to supplant DRAM

That is not the fault of the supercaps per se, I know many which have been in operation for more than ten years. The Zeusram simply used them wrong. Wrong dimension for the usage (voltage without reserve) or too fast charge/discharge are not taken well. A side effect of being able to store that much energy.

Check your BIOS advanced memory timings. There you can see the refresh cycles. With DDR4 somewhere between each 300 and 800 cycles. Divide the RAM frequency by that number, and you have the refresh cycles per second. Like @pmugabi said: Currently several thousand times per second. You can increase that number to get more performance, but I strongly recommend real ECC memory for such tests. Else you never know whether bits flew away until it is too late.

Isn't MRAM wear resistant?

The article mentions wear problem, which is, as far as I know, non existent for MRAM. Proven for more than five decades by its predecessors known as "core memory".

And as far as Optane goes: That is Intel management fuck up. Why limit the RAM-Module version only to the most expensive CPUs for no good reason... If they'd opened it up for all Xeons it would have been used a lot, even for "small" only 16 GB variants. Countless usages come to my mind. Those m2 cards were a bit late too.

Judge orders NSO to cough up Pegasus super-spyware source code

"We are only making weapons of mass destruction"

"But we don't use them, we sell only to licensed weapon users. We don't have a list or tracking data to save thousands of human life."

This narrative is not really new.

Microsoft catches the Wi-Fi 7 wave with Windows 11

Re: Dev drive wouldn't be needed if M$ woudl optimize its NTFS usage.

Defraggler, Contig (sysinternals) Ultradefrag and a few others: Yep, I know them. Especially when booted from USB stick they usually manage to defrag the $MFT, or at least reduce the number of chunks it is splitted. Especially Contig can to it for many other NTFS internals too, which is my first choice when I think a drive needs it.

But none reorder the entries in the $MFT. And none of them defrag the directory (don't mix up with defragmenting the contents of the directory). And while they are there: Collect all directory-data clusters in one continous block, like contig for $MFT defragmentation. These two are what even can slow down NVME and SATA-SAS-SSD storage over time a lot. Observed, not guessed.

As far as the registry key is concerned: Reserving 12.5 % as $MFT, the lowest entry, is way too much. My case of above 3 million files "only" needs 2.2 GB $MFT (with the robocopy /create with additional dummy trick 4.4 GB as a pre-reservation for over 6 million files). Reserving 12.5 % of a 4 TB drive would waste nearly 500 GB space when only 1/100th of that would ever be needed. Read the MS-Article about that registry key, described in detail - especially the Windows 2000 reference there :D.

I miss an "$MFT reservation" option in format. Either by giving it the number of files which may end up there, the preferred size in Mega or Gigabytes, or as a float for fraction. Percentage would still reserve too much for my 4 TB example with 1%, but float would allow me to choose 0.002, i.e. ~ 8 GB $MFT reservation. Or if the $MFT would be extended in larger blocks for big drives, i.e. in 1/1000th of the drive size for everything from 500 GB and larger. mkntfs has a "-z, --mft-zone-multiplier" option allowing to set percentage, which was fine for drives up to ~500 GB. But the volume crated with that linux tool would be an older ntfs version.

Re: Dev drive wouldn't be needed if M$ woudl optimize its NTFS usage.

Defrag the $MFT is something a lot claim, but not many actually do, or are successful at it. The reordering of the entries of the $MFT is done by no-one. None. Nada. Same goes for defragmenting the directory itself. When I had a mechanical HDD there I could hear about 20 to 30 seconds of rattling from the "defragmented" drive when opening a specific directory after a fresh boot, only to get the information for those little triangles in from of the directory. Doing that format | robocopy /create | robocopy "copy real" cycle had a huuuge impact. The directory mentioned above opened in less than a second, even after a fresh boot.

Dev drive wouldn't be needed if M$ woudl optimize its NTFS usage.

Two things not only could, but are proven to speed up a lot, even on SSD: Get the $MFT defragmented into one chunk, and reorder the entries in the $MFT to group files of one directory together. Second would be to defragment the Directory, i.e. the clusters which store the directory structure, and group them together.

I have to do regulary (every two to thee years) for an quite active drive:

1. Backup that thing (robocopy is enough).

2. Format the thing fresh.

3. robocopy back with /CREATE, which creates the $MFT entries and directory storage in one place, since it creates ZERO LENGTH files.

(3.1 do that again somewhere else on the target drive as dummy to force the $MFT to grow early on and in one piece - see fsutil.exe fsinfo ntfsinfo d:, all lines starting with MFT)

4. robocopy the real data back, same as with 3. but leave out /CREATE.

(4.1 don't forget to nuke the dummy created in 3.1)

Result: Same data on the SSD, but hell, why is the access suddenly so fast? Why does bitlocker unlock suddenly take only a fraction of a second instead of four seconds? Simple! See my complaining above what M$ should improve with their defrag tool in the first line of this comment. And then we would not need a pseudo ReFS marketing push which reminds you on and on how mature ReFS actually is.

Musk 'texts' Nadella about Windows 11's demands for a Microsoft account

Re: there are plenty of alternatives to Windows 11 out there

> (I've got an old game called "Steel Panthers: World at War" running under WINE but just occasionally, it starts in a very odd screen resolution and the sound is really glitchy..)

Curiosity got me, as always when someone mentions an old game he likes. So download the game (there is no GOG version) and try with Win11. Installer works. Says I need to reboot (I ignore that, usually not true). Game works fine too, glitch free.

But I suck at that game and with the first clicks I killed my own units with friendly fire. Luckily a manual is included, no chance without it if you are used to C&C style control.

Re: there are plenty of alternatives to Windows 11 out there

It is not like Windows 11 where, where a program written for Windows NT 3.51 and above, it just works. However if the program it was written for Windows 95 or 98 you need some luck whether the installer is true 32 bit, or whether the program is 32 bit. Starcraft and Delta Force 1, for example, install fine from the CD (if you still have an optical drive) - just don't install them in C:\Program Files, install them in C:\games. Or old Office in C:\Office97 or another drive.

With Linux you don't have that luxury, but it is not that bad. But you can have bad luck that the program you need does not work, and won't compile on your system due to many changes in the linux libraries and compiler picky-nes over the last three decades.

In short: All three major OS-es are shit. It is just a different shade. And all major OS-es can surf, email and Office. Print is about to go out of fashion, so that may not be so important. Scan is going out of fashion too since those smartphone cams reached 40+ MPixel (but you have to use OpenCamera for advanced features).

The option is named following way

As for Windows 11 Pro use following Microsoft Credentials to easily create a local account.

username: x@x.x

password: x

Result: "Too many bad logins, want to create a limited local account?"

As for Windows 11 Home: A bit more difficult, for example having no network, having to use SHIFT-F10 and "OOBE\BYPASSNRO"... If that still works.

If we plug this in without telling anyone, nobody will know we caused the outage

Re: Let's Check the Server Room Access Log

I don't get your complaint. That is actually good! Why move a VM which is running fine to another host for no good reason?

Re: Ugh I hated SCSI cables

This is what I love SCA connectors for. One plug, mechanically much better, done.

Some Intel Core chips keep crashing, game devs complain

Re: Golem.de looked closer than ElReg...

That depends on the room whether 1500 Watt is enough or not. After some rather optimizations I need a lot less heating. But it depends on many other factors what works on other homes.

Golem.de looked closer than ElReg...

As the German Golem article pointed out with their actual testing:

Many BIOSes, like the one shown in picture two in the linked article, set the "Short Duration Package Power Limit" to 4095 Watt. The "long duration" was >100% above the Intel recommendation too. Result: CPU get ONLY throttled by thermal limit. But see pic 4 with corrected values, and ZONG, suddenly stable!

I am not an Intel fan for a lot of reasons, but this time it is not Intels fault (alone).

Work for you? Again? After you lied about the job and stole my stuff? No thanks

The training you complain about is what I call "bulimic learning". Binge in, purge out, forgotten. Most useless style, but that is what the world seems to want instead of knowledge and understanding of a subject.

I usually write a lot up, on paper, during important things to learn. Once it got through my head and out of my hand it stays better in my mind. Though that does not fit the usual "2 Minutes read" the teaching material says on top.

For such questions, it is always B.

Well written wall of text. I actually read it all!

Whats that with Taylor Swift

What is that weird hype about Taylor and SWIFT? Oh well, politicians and banksters, hyper hyper!

Suits ignored IT's warnings, so the tech team went for the neck

Re: Fun with tie-wearers

Never heard of it, but it is available: https://winworldpc.com/product/calcstar/1x (firing up DOSBOX now) (edit: Does not work there "not enough memory" :D - probably have to try the CP/M version in an CP/M emulator)

Biggest Linux kernel release ever welcomes bcachefs file system, jettisons Itanium

Re: Filename limit?

> I regularly run into problems with this when transferring file trees to a Windows machine during projects.

1. Learn robocopy. Can handle long paths at least since the Server 2003, never needed it in Windows 2000 or before. Or, to be exact, I used different workarounds for Windows 2000 and NT 4.0, and it did not happen that often back then.

2. Learn the \\?\c:\ (or \\?\UNC\Server\share) syntax. Can handle long path names since Vista/Server 2008 (if all updates are installed), for CMD/dir/xcopy etc. And since 2008 R2 with Powershell 5.1 it works in powershell too, but you have to use -LiteralPath on some commandlets.

You can use "Method 2" with most file managers as well.

Oh, you did not mention which way you transfer, but I suspect explorer-copy, which is not the best way in quite some cases, especially huge number of files (large files are OK).

And if your transfer millions of files, learn robocopy /create. No matter which filesysten the target has, this lowers fragmentation, especially fragmentation of the directory storage (not the contents of the directory, the clusters which hold data structures for the directory).

Dave's not here, man. But this mind-blowingly huge server just, like, arrived

Re: We had the unsackable

Did Herbert stay out forever? Did the boss react on this with just a very broad smile?

Backblaze's geriatric hard drives kicked the bucket more in 2023

Re: No Use Of SMART To Predict Failures

Of course it is when you have a "pack of 10 disks where two may fail at any time, and mirror between those two packs".

I don't know the exact Blackblaze style i.e. pack size, but with that or similar configs I would definitely wait until it fails too, or do a bulk-swap of failed and "soon fail" drives once a day.

Yeah, the WD 500 GB RE2 were the most reliable ones. That is why no one is using them any more. 'cause they are the best in servers. Didn't need seven times swapping within four weeks with three customers until I convinced Fujitsu to send Seagates instead.

The 1.5 TB Seagate Server drives were the most reliable ones when that size was new. That is why no one is using them any more. 'cause the are the best in servers. Didn't need five times swapping within eight weeks with three customers until I convinced Fujitsu to send WD instead.

(Repeat with all HDD manufacturers which existed or still exist - only those who survived a bad series are still left)

ST12000NE0007 vs ST12000NE0008

My little server was upgraded to four ST12000NE0007, I think in 2018 or 2019, in RAID5 (actually Storage Spaces Parity). Now they are two ST12000NE0007 + ST12000NE0008, cause two of them failed within warranty time and got replaced by Seagate without problems, but no other problem surfaced so far.

The funny part is: It somehow matches the Backblaze statistics for the -7 being less reliable.

Being paranoid about watching and logging the SMART values I got a early heads-up before the actual failure of each drive. And they failed about one year apart. But sending the "this is how the SMART values developed over the last four weeks for ALL drives" helps getting it swapped without the slightest discussion.

Angry mob trashes and sets fire to Waymo self-driving car

Re: Curious?..so never been to Califoria then..

> https://maps.app.goo.gl/MscUNBmMhuF4J9P69

> The white pick-up truck would definitely not be road-legal.

Actually THAT one would be road legal in Germany, albeit just barely with the normal driver license. But check that one: Would require a difference driver license in Germany, for cars above 3.5 ton (metric) weight when loaded. And the insurance is the next class too.

As some from the US explained to me: The reason for those oversized pickups being bought is a tax (or similar, I forgot) loophole, originally designed for farmers who have actual use for old Ford F150 type cars. Nowadays this semi-truck class look like show-off, with a laughable mini platform half the capacity old F150 have. Mostly used to drive kids to school and back and groceries, for everything else they look to shiny. And don't you dare to drive the new F150 on roads the old (really old) F150 has no problems with.