* Posts by manford

6 publicly visible posts • joined 12 Jun 2019

The latest language in the GNU Compiler Collection: Algol-68

manford

Re: "Why did Van Wijngaarden still call it Algol and not Mindfsck"

Wirth didn't like coding in assembler, so he designed and created PL/360 in order to create the Algol-W compiler using primitive structured techniques. The PL/360 compiler itself was written in PL/360, so a mini-version of it was written to bootstrap up to the full PL/360 compiler. Algol-W was a great language for computer science instruction, but I/O wasn't its long suit, so it failed to get traction out in the real world. The same can be said for its successor, Pascal, also by Wirth. Because Algol-W was dependent on the PL/360 compiler (and hence the IBM mainframe), its use fizzled as superior alternatives that were platform agnostic were developed.

The compiler(s) in original form are still available on the MTS tapes for running under Hercules if you are so inclined.

systemd 256.1: Now slightly less likely to delete /home

manford

Too complex!

This just supports my view that systemd has grown much larger than any of us ancient hacks originally imagined. In the beginning, it made sense to come up with a system that could replace maintaining all those init files. Now it has grown to be larger than Linux itself.. Regrettably, it is getting much more difficult to find a non-systemd Linux distribution.

Microsoft introduces AI meddling to your files with Copilot in OneDrive

manford

I am so thankful that I chose not to ever use OneDrive. 'nuff said.

VMware has clouded the SmartNIC market, not created it

manford

Antitrust?

I am wondering if this marketing decision is related to VMware now being owned by Broadcom. There could be an antitrust issue here with VMware, Symantec and hardware DPUs all combining under the Broadcom umbrella to muscle out any competition.

Boffins improve on tech that extracts DC power from ambient Wi-Fi

manford

Crystal radio?

This reminds me of the old crystal radios that grabbed enough power from AM radio transmitters to power a earphone with the broadcast. WiFi is nowhere near as powerful as a 50000 kilowatt transmitter several miles away. As a kid, it struck me that if you could link multiple circuits together in phase, you could likely power a light. Unfortunately, that was long before efficient LEDs came on the scene.

Western Digital invites frenemies to help hash out storage standards of the future-ture-ture-ture

manford

"Like SMR, this approach requires serialisation before data is written, and this needs to be done by the host system"

Hmmm.... Sounds like tape to me.