Posts by chololennon

Venezuela loses president, but gains empty Starlink internet offer

Yankees go home

Here we go again... the Yanks doing what they do the best (in my beloved LATAM), pure colonialism and robbery. Free Starlink, really? metanselo en el ojete lpmqlp.

Starlink satellite fails, polluting orbit with debris and falling toward Earth

Re: Great...

> Just a genuine question here. Can you point me to any data showing the number or percentage of Starlink satellites that remain operational?

You can download the dataset (and do your maths) from:

https://www.space-track.org/

If you don't want to create a free account to download the datasets, you can get a copy, updated in February 2025, from:

https://github.com/EnzoRg/space_debris/tree/main/data/raw

What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows

The problem is not the desktop...

Please stop worrying about the Linux Desktop (and the year of it). Nowadays the Desktop is OK (whichever one you choose, with few exceptions).

The key here is that Windows comes preinstalled. When Linux came/comes preinstalled like in Chrome OS or Android, people used/use it. Of course, there are people who are held hostage by some applications, but most do not have those restrictions.

The problems to solve are: 0- Establish Linux as a "brand", a good one. 1- Convince big OEMs to sell Linux machines, 2- Convince companies/governments to use Linux machines. The last one is the most difficult because Microsoft is very aggressive on that regard.

pearOS is a Linux that falls rather close to the Apple tree

RE:

> No it's not. It's configurable to look like a few existing mainstream distros and nothing much else

> blah blah...

Liam, a long time KDE hater, can't accept that, like it or not, KDE is the most configurable desktop out there, not even Windows or MacOS are as configurable as KDE. Of course, being the most configurable DE doesn't mean that you can convert it in any other desktop, or that it should have the most twisted configuration feature he wants/needs.

Mysterious mystery: He always finds a way to describe KDE negatively ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Vibe coding: What is it good for? Absolutely nothing (Sorry, Linus)

For mediocre programmers...

In my personal experience, as a long time developer, those who embrace vibe coding are mediocre programmers, or people who can barely code. They are people that feel empowered by the initial results (fast setup for small projects for example), but sooner or later, a real knowledge is necessary. The problem is that vibe coding is not good (actually is terribly bad) for getting/improving your knowledge.

I hope this trend/nonsense (which is also not free) fades away into the fog. Real/passionate developers are still necessary.

Cloudflare broke itself – and a big chunk of the Internet – with a bad database query

Re: Bad Rust code was the problem...

> There was no re-write - the existing solution did not scale any further and they had significant internal experience in Rust so went with what they knew for v2.

I wasn't saying that Cloudflare has rewritten its service in Rust. What I was trying to say is that Rust code has bugs too, especially because there is a lot of (bad) Rust PR that is brainwashing programmers, who end up thinking that, if it is (re) written in Rust, it will be better than a long time established piece of code written in C or C++.

The PR is so negative that I saw posts from Rustacens praising the .unwrap() call, because (they said) "without it, an undefined behavior would have occurred with unknown implications". Yes, the UB didn't occur, but half the Internet was down!, only because the error was not properly managed (or because .unwrap_or_default()/.unwrap_or(...) were not used). No language, even Rust, can't protect from programmer stupidity/laziness.

Bad Rust code was the problem...

For those who sanctify Rust every day, a plain .unwrap() in production code :-O

https://blog.cloudflare.com/18-november-2025-outage/

Remember, Rust is neither the holy grail nor the silver bullet, it is just another tool that can be used by incompetent programmers. Having said that, stop this nowadays nonsense of trying to rewrite everything in Rust.

China uses Mars orbiter to snap interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

Meanwhile, Avi Loeb...

...(for incomprehensible reasons) sees green martians in the Chinese picture :-P

Canonical CEO says no to IPO in current volatile market

Re: Linux on the desktop ? You 'aving a larf ?

>> Half of the "file managers" out there can't bring up the browser for a .html file.

> I agree most "file managers" for Linux are kinda junky. OTOH I practically never use them so I don't care much --

I don't know which Linux file managers you have used, but those based on KDE (Konqueror, Krusader, and Dolphin) were, and are, way better than any version of Windows File Explorer (in other words, **for the past 25 years**, Linux has had at least 3 file managers that are better than the one provided by Windows).

IPO = Enshittification

Nowadays IPO is one of the first steps (if not the first) in a product enshittification process, so, what would be the future of Ubuntu as a publicly-owned company? (a linux version of Windows OS? an ads/espionage machine where users must be milked at all costs?)

Microsoft rolls out AI-enabled Notepad to Windows Insiders

> I think I'll just stick with Kate and/or KWrite.

Sadly, Kate for Windows is is not very well known. I like Notepad++ (it used to be my editor of choice), but when I discovered that the port from Linux (on which Kate was always my favorite editor) was ready, I didn't hesitate, I made the switch. The integrated terminal and LSP support are a must for me.

China is building a thriving semi industry off US leftovers, export controls be damned

"Netherlands" has denied?

"While the Netherlands has denied extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography to the PRC market..."

That's clearly wrong, correction: "...USA has denied extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography to the PRC market...", the Netherlands is just another European lackey of the United States, pathetic.

If you can't use AI then it's bye bye, Accenture tells staff

My interpretation is...

...If you can't work (way) faster than before (because now you have the AI help) then you're fired.

And it's not just Accenture: nowadays I am seeing a lot of job offers (for software developers) on LinkedIn that requires, for the sake of efficiency (yes, the offers say that), advanced use of AI to code (Gemini, Copilot, Cursor, etc). Awful times for ancient developers, forced to not use their brain and, in exchange, use those crappy and inefficient tools.

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

> ffrankly all those Linuxtards having to comment on each article about Windows your way are really annoying.

Look at you, a Windowtard, what a surprise, it is the same when you comment/troll on (a lot of) articles about Linux.

> But probably people like you do still envy Windows has a decent GUI and applications

Haha, just KDE alone is vast superior to Windows GUI. It seems that the awful GUI inconsistencies of Windows UI don't count for you: Settings vs Control Panel at the same time?, Control Panel/Disk Manager/Event Viewer/etc with different DPI, really? (ohh but zoomed-in just to be aligned with the rest of GUI), Ribbon Bar in File Explorer, OMG! File Explorer and its particular way to show the User's Home Folder, a mess. Constant change of the Start Menu, one worse than the other. Search in Start Menu that fallback to Edge with ads even if my default browser is other. Start Menu in Win11 in a movable middle point, WTF!?. How about the GUI differences between Win32/WFP/WinForms/UWP/etc?. And not to mention nasty things of the past like having to install all apps as Admin because the OS "GUI" didn't have a proper way to elevate permissions without resorting on the command line.

> while Linux desktops still look designed and implemented by amateuers without a clue about good UIs

Well, if "amateurs without a clue about good UIs" design way better interfaces that "professionals" at Microsoft, I will always stand with the "amateurs".

Rust-style safety model for C++ 'rejected' as profiles take priority

Re: Is this new news?

It is sad that Sean Baxter (a very talented developer) couldn't with the committee :-(

He has very good WORKING ideas (like Circle C++ or Safe C++).

I'm not convinced by the Stroustrup's Profiles either. The latest Stroustrup's creations like Concepts, IMHO, are not really good.

Re: Rust is the future

> Therefore the entire world's codebase will need to be rewritten in Rust

>> Ah yes, and you are paying for that work?

Also new code introduces new bugs, even in Rust, yes, even in Rust. So, "rewrite everything in Rust" is not a solution, especially for old well tested software with years of stabilization.

Why Rust people (like the OP) think they are perfect developers? It is ridiculous.

Check this out for example (the video is from today, 16th of September):

"Ubuntu's Rust GNU Utils Replacement 17x Slower & Buggy"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIEqpFI43no

After deleting a web server, I started checking what I typed before hitting 'Enter'

Re: will do what you said to do and it WON'T ask if you are sure

> The problem is Linux...

The Linux Hater is back, can't fail.

In a psychological way, can you explain what happens/happened between you and Linux? Did you lost data? Are you scared of the darkness of the command line? :-P

Let us git rid of it, angry GitHub users say of forced Copilot features

Move away from GitHub!!!

I moved away from GitHub (several month ago) to Codeberg. Easy and without regrets. For big projects that require CI functionality I always preferred Gitlab over Github, so there is no excuse to stay on Github.

Now I have to ditch VSCode (and its intrusive Copilot). I used to use VSCodium since its inception, but several extensions from MS, which IMHO are the best (Python, C++, Typescript, Java, C#), no longer work on it. Luckily the extensions for Java (Redhat) and Rust (www.rust-lang.org) work Ok. My current poor man alternative is KDE Kate which supports LSP for all the aforementioned languages. The experience is not the same but is getting better.

Salesforce sacrifices 4,000 support jobs on the altar of AI

So disgusting...

> "I've reduced it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000 because I need less heads," he told The Logan Bartlett Show podcast on Friday...

The language he used is so disgusting, he has zero empathy, just numbers/more money for the investors. I'm sorry, but I'd like to see this CEO "head" in a guillotine right now.

Thunderbird 142 lands with modest upgrades – plus talk of Pro service ahead

> I'm still hanging on with Thunderbird even though they did hideous things to the UI a while back, which broke my long standing workflow in a single update.

You're not alone, I really hate Thunderbird, that update was disastrous: it silently upgraded my ancient profile (which has 6 e-mail accounts) so I couldn't go back to a previous version, infuriating. And what can I say about the UI? OMG!!! awful, inconvenient, unusable, all is too big or too small; who was in charge of its design? He/she must be jailed for a long time.

Codeberg beset by AI bots that now bypass Anubis tarpit

This is a sad news

Several month ago I moved all my repositories from GitHub to Codeberg for the mentioned reasons... almost every day they were cloned (by bots obviously). The only option right now is to make them private or use my own git server :-(

The plan for Linux after Torvalds has a kernel of truth: There isn’t one

Don't waste your time

> Why is it a lame outdated design, because it isn't a "microkernel"?...

Don't waste your time, he/she is a well known Linux hater, just check his/her posts in this site.

VS Code previews chat checkpoints for unpicking careless talk

High speed enshitification

Microsoft is enshitificating VSCode at such high speed that I started to abandon it. For some projects/languages I returned to my beloved Kate (integrated terminal, LSP/git/make/project support, etc)

The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is back for 2024

Re: moon.c

> Compile your program with:

> $ gcc -Wno-error moon.c

Maybe this ^^ doesn't solve your problem.

(My) openSUSE 15.6 uses an old version of gcc (7.5, defaulted to c11) which, I don't why, it doesn't consider an error the lack of a variable type at the point of declaration (since c99 this must an error). The solution is to change the standard (tested with gcc 14):

$ gcc -std=c90 moon.c

Re: moon.c

> I could not get that to compile unless I put "int" on the line above "a,b=44,x,".

Check you compiler (gcc?) flags, mine has "--disable-werror" set (on openSUSE 15.6), so I don't have problem with the default int type:

$ gcc -v

Compile your program with:

$ gcc -Wno-error moon.c

Microsoft eventually realized the world isn't just the Northern Hemisphere

Re: Oh, whoopee doo

The Register's article and the whole thread of the post reminds me the Saturday Night Live "Washington's Dream" sketches :-P

Washington's Dream 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYqfVE-fykk

Washington's Dream 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ62EfUKI3w

OpenSUSE Leap 16.0 reaches RC status

Time to switch to Tumbleweed Slowroll

As a long time openSUSE user I am disappointed with the upcoming future, definitely Leap 16 is not for me. I will switch to Tumbleweed Slowroll in order to see if I can keep some familiarity with the "old" openSUSE.

Project Banana ripens into a pre-alpha for KDE Linux, and you can test it

No way

I am a KDE user, but there is no way that I will use a distro with a read-only root partition; for me it's nonsense, and it is based on my own experience with Android tablets/phones. I want the full control of my device(s)! period. I am really worried about this new trend, especially because my distro of choice (openSUSE) is in that direction :-(

Users left scrambling for a plan B as Dropbox drops Dropbox Passwords

Re: $2 billion Revenue, a rough time indeed"

> It's this obsessive mindset that profits have to *improve* every quarter, as if that is ever going to be sustainable

Sadly, that's the capitalism mantra that is destroying good products (enshitification), and more importantly, destroying our planet :-(

NASA faces brain drain as thousands exit under voluntary resignation scheme

Sad and dark times...

In a minor scale, Milei in Argentina, is doing the same, destroying everything that has connection with science (including universities of course). The far right everywhere, is full of lunatics, ignoramuses, flat-earthers, and Middle Ages people who are "afraid" of science, because they don't have arguments when someone well educated (especially in science) can show/destroy their lies.

A prestigious entity like NASA doesn't deserve this.

Backup tool Rescuezilla resurrects itself across six Ubuntus

My evolution from Hiren's Boot CD to Rescuezilla

I was a huge fan of Hiren's Boot CD, my respects for all the help provided prior to 2005 (*). After that I started using only Linux so Rescuezilla is a must have tool in my arsenal :-)

(*) I used to maintain more than 15 cybercafes ranged from 20 to 100 PCs each one. Deep Freeze was the other tool that deserve my respects in that ancient epoch.

Xlibre fork lights a fire under long-dormant X.org development

Re: Touch screens? Niet,no,non

> just ask Xerox, or Apple, we’ll ignore Microso$t as they just stole Apple’s UI.

You just forgot that Apple stole ideas from Xerox.

KDE targets Windows 10 'exiles' claiming 'your computer is toast'

Re: RE: technical expertise required

> Installing docker on Linux shouldn't be difficult though. Using it, maybe. But it should be as simple as telling your package manager to install it and start the daemon.

Well, ideally yes, but depending on your distro, the installation has it gotchas, that's why this long documentation exists: https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/

RE: technical expertise required

> The problem in the 90s is the same as now: the technical expertise required is a massive barrier for entry. Most people don't want to fiddle with command lines or resort to documentation to install software, ESPECIALLY when Microsoft offers functionally one-click installs.

Context: I am a Linux/KDE user, but I have used Windows for many many years (since Windows 3.0).

You seem to forget the vast amounts of problems that a Windows user must face in his/her entire life, problems that they cannot solve by themselves, problems that require a technical expertise:

- Driver problems

- BSOD

- Infinite reboots

- Registry problems

- Update problems

- Installation problems (e.g. DLL hell)

- Configuration problems

- Printer problems

- Virus/Malware

- Login problems

- Filesystem problems

- Application problems

- Etc, etc

How many Windows users have the knowledge to install the OS or to solve the above problems? IMO, nearly zero. I solved/solve all of them for my family/friends/customers (in many occasions using a terminal with batch or powershell commands), so it's unfair to say that for Linux "the technical expertise required is a massive barrier for entry". The only Windows advantage over Linux is that it comes preinstalled.

PS: C'mon, with all respect, your anecdote about installing docker on Linux is ridiculous... docker is for advanced technical users (*), not for the average ones, they cannot install Docker Desktop on Windows either.

(*) you, like it or not, must read the documentation about the installation process in the docker website.

Ransomware attack on MATLAB dev MathWorks – licensing center still locked down

"One of the main issues was that MathWorks' licensing server was down"

As other noted, what worked/works for me is Python with pandas/numpy/scikit/etc or Octave. I am pretty happy with both of them.

I will never use a proprietary software that requires an online license server (pure nonsense greed).

Three ways to run Windows apps on a Linux box

Re: Some Of This Sounds Like Heavy Lifting!

> "If anyone can suggest how I buy a new laptop WITH NO OS licence on it, I'd be very interested!!"

> System76 is the only one I know of (they ship with Linux)...

For those who live in Europe, there is a Spanish company, Slimbook, https://slimbook.com/en/

Builder.ai coded itself into a corner – now it's bankrupt

Happy

As a software developer, I'm very happy that these types of AI "coding" companies aren't going anywhere.

UK 'extremely dependent' on US for space security

Lapdogs

> UK 'extremely dependent' on US for space security

You can't be a lapdog for ever, right?

The 'End of 10' is nigh, but don't bury your PC just yet

Re: "Home users don't use Illustrator, Photoshop, Xcode or Autocad or one of those hundred..."

> I'm an IT professional but my hobby is photography. And I do use Lightroom and Photoshop on my personal PC, while I don't use them at work. And other photo-related software. And Logitech devices and Canon printers which aren't supported in Linux.

Your personal experience is valid, yes, but it says nothing, because I can say the same from the Linux perspective: I am also an IT professional. My hobby is astrophotography, my telescope (Skywatcher) and astro camera (QHYCCD) are manged from Linux (from my laptop, x86_64, and also from a RPI 5, arm64) without any problem, drivers available. The capture software like AstroDMx and INDI controllers like Ekos (KStart) run natively on Linux. Planetarium software like Stellarium and KStars also run natively on Linux. Some photo stacker software (like Autostakker) run under Wine perfectly well. Gimp/KDE Showphoto for the final touches. BTW... I also have a Logitech webcam, and HP laser jet printer, both work OK on Linux.

Re: Pinta is great

> I put that down to being based on DotNet

As a KDE user, that's why I replaced Pinta with KolourPaint

A new Lazarus arises – for the fourth time – for Pascal programming fans

Re: "Pascal is good for teaching you the disciple"

> C++ "smart" pointers are needed because C++ lacks a "finally" statement because Stroustrup couldn't understand the need to free objects properly in large complex applications.

With RAII you don't need 'finally', period. It is a real problem to rely on programmers to code consumer release instructions in the finally block, sooner or later a resource leak will occur because he/she forgot to code one of those instructions.

Trump wants to fire quarter of NASA budget into black hole – and not in a good way

Returning to the medieval period...

These far-right medieval "leaders" (Trump, Milei, Bolsonaro, etc, etc) don't believe in science or scientific thinking, because:

1. They are only interested in money for their own pockets.

2. They are truly ignorant.

3. And more important, science can question them, their lies can be rigorously exposed, or in other words, science can question their fascist/totalitarian/narcissistic/celestial leaderships.

Science and democracy are not perfect, but they are the best we have.

It it sad, but these pseudo-kings + the techno-feudalism of Meta, Google, etc, are too dystopian for this 21st century :-(

Devs sound alarm after Microsoft subtracts C/C++ extension from VS Code forks

Re: Unfair competition - alleging self-preferencing?

> Microsoft didn't open source the code, the original project was open sourced before they purchased it

AFAIK VS Code was developed entirely inside Microsoft, it was not purchased.

The same old behavior

I've already written my rant about this situation where C++/Python/Typescript/C# extensions (I use all of them) no longer work on VSCode forks (https://forums.theregister.com/forum/all/2025/04/18/microsoft_copilot_not_wanted/). It is Microsoft at its best... a crappy shitty company with the same old behavior :-(

Microsoft Copilot shows up even when it's not wanted

I hate it

I really hate Copilot (and MS). The latest versions of VSCode are infected with that piece of s#it. Also, I cannot use Codium (like in the past) because MS started to play dirty (again). The MS extensions for Python/C++/C#/Typescript don't work anymore outside VSCode (unless an awful and temporary hack is applied). Fortunately, the Rust and Java (*) extensions don't belong to MS so they can be used in any fork of VSCode.

(*) MS has a Java extension, but also Redhat (which is very good in my experience)

ActiveX blocked by default in Microsoft 365 because remote code execution is bad, OK?

Re: ActiveX?

> ActiveX? That's still a thing?

I was thinking the same. I coded my last ActiveX in 2005, after that I abandoned COM (and Windows programming, and also Windows).

101 fun things to do with a locked Kindle e-reader

Re: Slow decline

> I have a Kindle 3 and a Kindle 11.

> The Kindle 11 has a much better screen. That is the only thing that is better. The reading experience stutters every few pages, downloaded books can't be found in the list, and you need to search for them, there is no longer folder support. The list goes on.

Agreed.

I also have a Kindle 3 and a Kindle PW (7th gen.). The latter has light, but it is awful: no sound and no page buttons on both sides of the screen. Buttons are always useful, specially when you have only one hand available (like in crowded subways). Also the touch screen is flawed when links are in the text, a lot times a page change is instead a slow travel to the browser or to another section of the book.

As Alibaba launches server-grade RISC-V CPU, Beijing throws its weight behind ISA

> Might be the only way the rest of us get access to it in future.

Yeah.

Also "created in America" is incomplete, the full sentence would be "created in America with plenty of people from all over the world".

C++ creator calls for help to defend programming language from 'serious attacks'

Re: Failure to see

> Since he's talking about smart pointers, I think the poster is referring to moving things only via std::move and r-value refs, in which case it is a requirement that anything moved from still be in a valid state.

It is up to the programmer to ensure that requirement, that's the problem! programmer can code a wrong move ctor or move assignment operator. Also the usage of std::unique_ptr remains optional.

> You don't need to zero anything manually; if you std::move from a std::unique_ptr then the latter is guaranteed now to be set to nullptr by the language specification.

I know how std::unique_ptr works (and how it is implemented), I was referring to the cases where programmers have to code their own movements.

Re: Failure to see

> No, it cannot. It's explicitly defined to be atomically nullptr after moving.

I said the std::unique_ptr smart pointer variable not the pointer it holds.