Posts by Lucy in the Sky (with Diamonds)

The iPhone 15 has a Goldilocks issue: Too big or too small. Maybe a case will make it just right

Re: Phones are lovely but they'd be much better without cameras

Well, my answer is, Levis jeans have a little key pocket on the top right (from the user perspective). In the front left pocket I keep the wallet and the personal and work phones (yes, they scratch each other, but who cares about phones?), in the main front right pocket the actual camera and the handkerchief (white, pressed). The rear pockets I leave empty, for the pickpockets (public transport and side streets).

I carry a single key in ther key pocket that opens and starts the car, and the car carries a garage door opener that starts the home.

Someone at work wanted me to take a picture of something and send it to them, and when I explained that I usually transfer the memory stick to the PC once every month or so and can it wait until then?

Kind of drove them up the wall. They suggested that I might take the picture with a telephone. My laughter drove them further up the wall.

But, being helpful, I wrote the information they needed on a piece of paper with a pen. Technology that works.

India's space agency set to launch lunar lander, rover

ILSA? quite a She-Wolf she is...

It is so nice, that ILSA is finally making it to space.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071650/

Maybe they are trying to make Iron Sky for real?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034314/

Twitter rate-limits itself into a weekend of chaos

Once a year

About once a year I accidentally sight a twitter post because I mistakenly read a pretend journalist who instead of writing a story, takes a screen grab of a twitter message and uses it as a reference.

Usually, I am quite good at spotting this, and once I see the by-line of a twitter cut and paste artist, I simply back pedal and read a different story.

Twitter messages should be limited to verified users only and they should not be able to repost them anywhere else. A nice walled garden for special people. It is okay to be special, as long as it does not hurt others.

Elon is doing a good thing by destroying this horrible platform, and of all people on earth, he has the means to do it and not care about the costs.

Great Graph Database Debate: Abandoning the relational model is 'reinventing the wheel'

Don't say ever no never again...

My Ol' Pappi always said to me, "Don't no say no nothing about double negatives to nobody, never again, or I won't tell what I wouldn't do to you."

Romance scammers' favorite lies cost victims $1.3B last year

Re: Young 'uns

But, and play along with this one, what if "Springtime for Hitler" is a great success and the little old ladies want their cut?

Generative AI is out of control: Nothing, Forever is a Seinfeld spoof about nothing... forever

There Will Come Soft Rains

When I think of AI, I remember Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles, near the end, reciting Sara Teasdale's poem "There Will Come Soft Rains":

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,

And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,

And wild plum trees in tremulous white,

Robins will wear their feathery fire

Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one

Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree

If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,

Would scarcely know that we were gone.

BMW updates 90% of EVs sold in the US over power software bug

Re: Everybody loves the dinosaur...

E32 750i ;o)\

Everybody loves the dinosaur...

My 1989 BMW runs on Dinosaur Juice(tm) and it predates airbags, computerised controls, and yes, even the internet cars.

It is a mechanincal car, that does car things, and does them well.

From here on out, I will only buy cars that are older then this one.

I have been working with computers from long before the car was made, but I do not want my work to interfere with the driving experience...

"Pure Driving Pleasure" as the Bavarians used to call it in days of past...

'What's the point of me being in my office, just because they want to see me in the office?'

I like working from work

In my job, generally I am Lord High Executioner.

It does not involve much actual work, but it is important to be seen at the office, to put the fear into people who need fear be put into them.

When I am needed to perform my task, it is not something that I would like to take home and do there, also the large crowds gathered outside to witness the deed would freak out the pets and neighbours.

Also, as part of my job, I like working with people, sometimes crack a joke, to put them at ease.

Working from home would be like sending Rosencrantz & Guildenstern to my place with a letter saying “do your thing with whoever delivers this letter”.

Ad blockers struggle under Chrome's new rules

Means to an end...

Chrome, isn't that the thing you use to download FireFox?

Convicted felon busted for 3D printing gun parts

Gentlemen Smoke Lewis Guns

When you show up to a gunfight with a Lewis Gun, you do not really have to aim to make a point, just direct it in the general direction of the adversary, pull the trigger, and try and hold on...

Make sure, you are not the team member who is designated to clean up afterwards, unless you like the messy bits...

Is the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope worth the price tag?

Sharks in space suits...

You know, I have one simple solution, and that is to have sharks in space suits with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads, swimming in a school around the telescope, shooting the micro meteorites.

Is that all too much to ask?

We could always go down the western road, and deploy Cows with Guns, or Chickens in Choppers (in space no one would hear the deafening roar)…

The romantic in me would call upon Bruce Willis to save the day, but from experience, he is better with bigger rocks...

NASA wants nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030

Location, Location, etc...

Perhaps, the best place for it would be on the coast of the Sea of Tranquility, on Three Mile Island.

As an added bonus, if it melts down, we could watch the bright flashing lights from earth...

iOS, Android stores host more than 1.5 million 'abandoned' apps

It's Hammer Time...

One of the oldest abandoned apps in our stores is the hammer. The last major update, the claw, as clearly evidenced in Albrecht Dürer's etching "Melencolia I" occurred prior to 1514.

The hammer is clearly a stale app that needs to be removed form all our app stores, as anyone with even basic grasp of a search engine can locate hundreds of vulnerabilities to break into one.

There is even evidence, that a hammer itself can be used to break into other vulnerable apps, like glass for instance.

Do not even get me started on the wheel…

Disclaimer:

I use WinAmp every day, it works, it is fit for the task, it needs no updates.

Mozilla browser Firefox hits the big 100

I am more of a Netscape person...

I use FireFox because deep down underneath lurks the spirit of Netscape...

Sure, I hate tabbed browsing because I think nested windows are just plain wrong, so I open each website in a seperate window...

I have never liked Chrome, because Google is now the Evil Empire Microsoft used to be, Edge is just weird, and I am forced to use Internet Explorer to get to my iLO cards...

I do not browse the internet on Android or Apple devices, and although I had work iPhones, I have never used them for anything other then voice or text...

So, for lack of better options, FireFox it is, until someone makes a browser that has no tabs...

Worried about being replaced by a robot? Become a physicist

Doing my bit for the little guy(gal)

In supermarket carparks, I always leave my trolley in a creative (yet safe) place, in order to do my bit to keep the jobs of the trolley returners safe...

Beacuse I care...

Not everyone can or wants to retrain, sometimes, returning trolleys is a good fit for their career options...

If we automate unskilled jobs out of existence, what will unskillable people do?

Elon Musk set to buy Twitter in $44b deal, promises stuff

Journalism vs. Copy & Paste...

Personally, I have always loved reading the news...

But, as soon as the author starts pasting Twitter posts, I stop reading the article and start on a new one...

I actually want to read something by a journalist who put effort into writing a story, not pasting a bunch of rants from Twitter...

Intel forms graphics lab to make games look more real

Tetris comes to mind...

In Tetris, the biggest thing that I was missing were photo realistic moulds on the bricks that grew in real time...

In Zork I have always felt that the text could have been smoother, with more rounded edges...

Then again, in Crysis I just enjoyed shooting trees in half...

Star loses $500,000 NFT after crooks exploit Rarible market

Maybe Fungible...

Maybe, this Star's Token was Fungible after all...

Personally, I choose better stars to guide me, for instance, here we have the Southern Cross, and regardless on inebriation, it helps me stagger home...

Depending on cloud cover, of course, in which case I find myself in a distant suburb...

Nvidia reveals specs of latest GPU: The Hopper-based H100

Re: Obligatory comment

Obviously, not on full settigs, but if you scale things down, Crysis will probably run quite nicely.

Microsoft seems intent on buying the gaming industry with $68.7bn purchase of troubled Activision Blizzard

Re: It will be a mess...

That would make me a collaborator, and I will be shot by the resistance...

No, Microsoft will have to bend to my will...

;o)\

It will be a mess...

I have installed Forza Motorsport 7, pretty much solely so that I can set times on the Top Gear Track.

Being a Microsoft Windows 10 game, it is what Microsoft considers to be an “App”.

In my book, an “App” is what kids have on their phones, you know, tiny, trivial little things, unlike Forza 7 at 148GB, which is what might be called a full-on proper program.

Yet, being an app, Microsoft insists in installing it in my profile folder, under WindowsApps by default, instead of my nice dedicated games drive, along with every other game I have. Sure, I managed to bypass it, but it was a hassle.

I’m guessing, from here on out every Activision/Blizzard game will want to install to the profile folder as well.

Pony Ma tells employees Tencent is ordinary and replaceable in company meeting

Seen this somewhere before...

"I am making this speech out of my free will. I am treated well, and not been harmed in any way. I have been assured, that I will be released once the demands are met. Glory to the glorious nation of <insert name of captors' nation here>!"

2021 in storage: We waited for a flash price revolution that never came. But about creativity? We can't complain

Flash price revolution...

A flash price revolution was not something that I am waiting for, so count me out of the "we".

It is a flash size revolution I am looking forward to, maybe in the ten to twenty terrabyte per SSD range.

Hopefully in the 2.5" form factor with a sata interface, so I can jam one into a laptop and not have to use external storage ever again...

Okay, I would need 40TB for all my data, but twenty will get me by on the essentials...

Developer creates ‘Quite OK Image Format’ – but it performs better than just OK

Re: Incredible

Well, who can forget John Scholes' code for "Conway's Game of Life" in a single line of Dyalog APL:

life ← {⊃1 ⍵ ∨.∧ 3 4 = +/ +⌿ ¯1 0 1 ∘.⊖ ¯1 0 1 ⌽¨ ⊂⍵}

Re: "C with a diacritic?"

Hungarian writing only ever puts marks above vowels, never above consonants.

Every six year old knows this, as that is the age it is taught.

Now, the Česko does like to put marks above the consonants, and not that there is anything wrong with that...

The monitor boom may have ended, says IDC

Monitors are overpriced

Since August I have two 55" 4K TVs on my desk as displays, powered by a PC each. I have only ever had dual monitors at work, at home it is nicer to have a single computer for every screen.

Realistically, they do not make desks that fit anything bigger, and I am uncertain about replacing my desk with a dining room table...

Although, then I could fit a third computer and screen, and once again play two player network games with the middle one showing videos for distractions...

Sure, purpose made monitors are probably higher quality, but luckily for me, I can not tell the difference, so El Cheapo TVs are perfectly okay with me to watch computers on...

Sun sets on superjumbo: Last Airbus A380 rolls off the production line

Back in the good old days...

When I was young, back in nineteen hundred and seventy, those were the days...

Men were on the Moon, Concorde was flying in the skies, it was cool to smoke on airplanes and people could speak their minds without offending others.

I have been convinced for over fifty years that I was born at least a hundred years too late.

Would have loved to live in Victorian SteamPunk times, with a touch of Jules Verne tossed in.

Superjumbo airships, with a jolly good Cricket field on the poop deck. Build a mighty big cannon in Baltimore and shoot people to the Moon...

That sort of thing...

Another Debian dust-up with Firefox dependencies – but there is an annoying and awkward workaround

Re: "dangerously outdated browser"

Indeed. My servers are a given, as in I did not pay for them, but were given to me, and I use them to host my ESXi farm at home. It will not be upgraded in the next two or three decades, my expected lifespan considering my drinking, but that is a personal matter rather be glossed over.

I can happily use IE to access the iLO cards, but my major issue is that all my older browsers live on the historic VM farm, which are on the ESXi servers with the iLO2 cards, so when I truly need it, it will not be in the right place.

Besides, in this day and age, not throwing away functional kit is considered green by tree huggers, so why not take one for the team?

So, sometime after Mirosoft fully deprecates IE out of windows, I will need to build a physical XP box, just so I can manage my servers.

I would prefer a major off switch in FireFox instead. Yet, It would be sexy to have a beige XP box, with a VGA CRT...

Re: "dangerously outdated browser"

Ah, do tell, how would you update iLO2 hardware?

The hardware is given, it needs to function, and will function for decades to come.

My issue is with browsers that refuse to do what I want them to do.

Also, I do not expect my iLO2 card to launch an attack on my browser.

Do you even know what iLO2 is?

Maybe it is you who needs some remedial training...

Re: "dangerously outdated browser"

Current FireFox is so dangerously out of date that it no longer opens iLO2 webpages, making it a clear and present danger to my environment.

I have to fall back to nice and reliable Internet Explorer.

A so called "modern browser" needs to accomodate the end user, and not some design dogma.

Sure, let there be a "Children's Setting" for default installs, but let people opt out of all of those...

Microsoft's Teams Essential tier seems designed to coax people on to Business Basic

I have kicked my chatting addiction in '97

In 1997, for a glorious three weeks, I had a twenty hour a day chatting addiction.

Then, I had a long look at my life, and stopped chatting. Turned around, walked away, did not look back.

Ever since then, when a workplace tried to force me to use instant messaging to drag out a five minute voice conversation into a ten hour chat session, I told them that I was a recovered addict, much better now thank you, and making me chat would be a health and saftey issue, best avoided.

Funny, is it not, back in the 1950s two of the most powerful words were "Nuclear Weapons", but this century, some of us have managed to weaponise "Health & Safety" to a higher degree.

Chatting is an incredible time waster, and it boggles the mind why corporates would allow it anywhere near the workplace.

When I am supreme being, instant messaging programs will be first against the wall...

Singapore's DBS bank suffers digital fail – yes, regulatory bodies have noticed

Just visit a branch

Why not just visit a branch like normal people?

I liked digital banking in the nineties, but then I switched to a cash based economy.

Real money, you can touch.

Try it, it feels nice.

US Defense Department invites four cloud firms to seek contracts for JEDI replacement system

SitH

The best way to replace JEDI would be SitH, "Software in the Hardware".

A never before attempted unique concept, where software actually runs on hardware.

Once JEDI is gone, SitH will rule the galaxy.

A powerful SitH it will be.

We shall call it Darth Copyrightinfringement.

Sorry, Mr. Lucas...

Amazon tells folks it will stop accepting UK Visa credit cards via weird empty email

Ashamed

I am ashamed to admit, that over the years I have purchased two books from Amazon.

So, I am the problem, because no matter how hard I try to point a finger, it keeps pointing back at me.

I would have loved to bought those two books from my local small retailer at twice the cost, but Amazon put them out of business.

I should have went to the publisher and admonished them for abandoning the local retailer.

It is not a question of money, it is the principle...

Multinationals have made me rich, but I want to blow all that cash by spending at the shops that surround me every day, at home and on my travels...

A diverse range of processing units linked via interconnects. Sounds familiar? Yes, it's IBM's quantum computing

Massive Quantum?

"...a massive distributed quantum computer system..."

An incredibly huge thing, that is all over the place, yet it is so tiny that it cannot be seen.

Our ancestors sold talismans, amulets, bones of saints and even snake oil. Yummy snake oil, although probably for external use...

Today, they would be selling quantum computing powered by cold fusion.

And I know a Nigerian prince, who has the funds to make it all happen...

Windows 10 2004 is nearing the end of the road. Time for a Windows 11 upgrade?

WSUS

I use a WSUS server at home (and also in my clients' environments) to shield the computers from bad updates.

Anything with the word "preview" is a no-no, but I feel no guilt on letting others suffer from it, from which I learn lessons.

Generally, I wait two weeks after patch Tuesday, and approve those that do not create negative headlines.

For most of my clients, the primary objective is to not generate newspaper stories from updates that could have went better.

If I do my job well, nobody should know that I actually exist…

Top Gear Track

I have recently went to Windows 10, just so I can set times on the Top Gear track in Forza Motorsport 7.

Yes, I am shallow, and I have only ever upgraded an operating system just so I can play a game that really wanted to play.

It was worth it.

Once Linux puts out a game with the Top Gear track on it, or a version of Linux comes out that is compatible with all my Windows and DOS games and applications, I will consider moving to Linux.

Calendars have gone backwards since the Bronze Age. It's time to evolve

I use a calendar every morning...

For the past twenty years, I have been using Outlook calendar. For every birthday, nameday, deathday and historic event that I follow, I have set up a recurring yearly appointment from the start year, which is very handy when I need to go back in calendar time to date newly discovered paper photos or negatives.

I also use it to keep track of public holidays, the Melbourne Cup, and yes, even rubbish days.

Every morning when I wake up, there is on my computer, giving me a hint of things to come on the days ahead.

For work, well there is my work computer, where suits and secretaries put meetings as they see fit, and I see it all day every day when I am at work.

My elder relatives keep permanent calendars on the toilet wall, so they see the upcoming events a few times a day, very easy to synch with outlook, just fold to the relevant month, and add a note…

Every night, a script synchs Outlook between all the computers in the house, so I can afford to lose a few.

I have never thought about putting my calendar on a telephone or an online account.

The pandemic improved the status of IT workers … forever

Somewhat doubtful...

In 2020, on day one of the lockdown, our entire IT department was made redundant, and everything outsourced to Office 365.

So, my status has improved from being an unwanted line item on a failing company's opex budget to becoming a person of leisure.

I doubt that the bean counters have ever respected the IT people, but as kharma has it, the beancounters were also made redundant soon after, and outsourced to Xero.

Remember when you thought fax machines were dead-matter teleporters? Ah, just me, then

October 21, 2015

I bet, that by October 21, 2015, every room of every house will have a fax machine.

And that is not being nostalgic about the past, but thinking back to the future...

Computer scientists at University of Edinburgh contemplate courses without 'Alice' and 'Bob'

What about Harold & Kumar?

Harold & Kumar are politically correct, and they can even take Alice & Bob to White Castle, to discuss why is it inappropriate to call it White Castle.

I can see the textbook sample:

"Harold is trying to send Kumar a secret message, but is too stoned to realise it is in clear text..."

"What should Kumar do?"

This is AUKUS for China – US, UK, Australia reveal defence tech-sharing pact

Re: Imagine: NATO Energy Security Agency

The whole idea of war is that you go to a foreign country and make it your own.

Serving millions for thousands of years of recorded history.

That is how war works.

Then, the winners get to write history.

That is how history works...

Don't ever ask how they make sausages work, because that it a dark and foreboding place...

Watched over by the former President of International Union of Socialist Youth

Sadly, New Zealand's Supreme Dear Leader is a Communist. The former President of International Union of Socialist Youth to be exact. So, Dear Leader is doing everything possible to kiss arse to the Maoist Masters.

So, New Zealand does not wish to upset Red China...

They are our friends and comrades after all...

Hail, Supreme Dear Leader!!!

LibreOffice 7.2 brings improved but still imperfect Microsoft Office compatibility

Knock-Off products

I was going to write this long diatribe about how terrible Libre Office and Google Docs are at being compatible with the real thing, but as I was composing it, I remembered the Seventies, when cheapskate relatives gifted me so called compatible Lego blocks, that were anything but.

I hate fake Lego blocks, and I am no longer five, so I don’t have to put on a fake happy face to please Aunty Cheapskate (God rest her soul).

That is all I have to say about Office Knock-Off products.

Un-carrier? Definitely Unsecure: T-Mobile US admits 48m customers' details stolen after downplaying reports

No Plan is a Viable Plan

I personally am a great fan of pre-paid mobile phones.

Once a Vodafone agent cold called me, to convert to a plan, and I asked the agent “Do you know who I am?”

The agent pondered on this for a moment and said. “No, I do not”

“Precisely” was my reply…

The trick is to not tell the cell phone provider who you are, and if they get hacked, the hackers will have the same information the cell phone company has, which is nothing…

Debian 11 formally debuts and hits the Bullseye

Pizza Oven

A proper wood fired oven would not drain the battery, although the stone lining and firewood hopper will add extra weight.

You can now live life like Paul Allen on Microsoft cofounder's luxury yacht for '£1m a week'

Thinking Big...

Yet again, people are not thinking big. I am more along the lines of renting the USS Nimitz Carrier Group (CSG-11 to its friends and family), so I can engage in my favourite hobby of regime change in nearby island nations.

If I pick the right islands, and the crew performs to SLAs in a timely fashion, the rental will pay for itself, so to speak.

Rise, Lex Luthor, Ruler of Australia…

I did always like seaside real estate...

The old New: Windows veteran explains that menu item

Very handy tool

I use it all them time for work, it verifies whether the user I am working on has write access to a folder. So I click on new 'whatever' document, then delete it. Much safer then trying to delete an existing item, that might be important to some, and a lot less clicking then examining effective rights.

Don't actually use it to create files, but I have found a superior alternate use for it, like I am convinced that drinks coasters in bars are provided, so one can stuff them under legs of a rickety table.

Trouts on a plane: Utah drops fish into lakes from aircraft and circa 95% survive

Where is the romance?

Maybe, some candles, Russian Caviar, a bit of Foie Gras, French Champagne, the odd oyster, a bit of romantic music, and they will re-discover the lost art of breeding.