* Posts by rafff

188 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Apr 2020

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Time to make C the COBOL of this century

rafff
Devil

Re: C is the new COBOL

"You do not want chainsaw-juggling gift-sets sold for family Christmas presents."

Why not ?

It would solve the housing shortage.

rafff

Re: C is the new COBOL

"what is the improved waiting in the wings replacement for COBOL"

I have no love for Cobol (I worked with it for too long), but I do not know of any modern language that does what Cobol does - and does well.

Yes, I know it's verbose, clunky, has over 1k reserved words, has no real standard ....

Hundreds of Dutch medical records bought for pocket change at flea market

rafff

As the company no longer exists no action can be brought against them

It depends on the jurisdiction. IANAL but as I understand it in the UK a limited company protects the directors and shareholders from financial liability, but not liability for dodgy behaviour. In France I believe it is the other way around. In NL, I dunno.

Lawyers face judge's wrath after AI cites made-up cases in fiery hoverboard lawsuit

rafff

Re: what are you paying for

"to whom should they say they use AI? The clients? The court? The other side?"

Surely the "other side" should have checked the rerences and flagged them up as fake, and raised merry hell?

Legacy systems running UK's collector are taxing – in more ways than one

rafff

COBOL and FORTRAN are supported on ...

But which dialects of Fortran or Cobol? One estimate put the number of possible *standard* Cobol dialects at over 100000, even without implementor defined features.

Then you have to take into account changes in the way that the language interacts with its environment: character encoding, buffering, disk file format, system calls, in Cobol f'rinstance how does one mark a deleted record ...

Migration aint easy - even if one does not have to do it in a rubber dinghy

DOGE geek with Treasury payment system access now quits amid racist tweet claims

rafff

Foreign humanitarian aid ... is a drop in the bucket

Don't go confusing us with facts; they have no place in a political flame war.

Early mornings, late evenings, weekends. Useless users always demand support

rafff

Re: Solutions exist

"why would you install works stuff to your own equipment!?!?"

Regardless of the current discussion about out of hours calls, you should always keep clear water between your work equipment and accounts, and your personal stuff. If you don't, you open yourself up to accusations of unauthorised access and other naughty things.

So, no dual SIM phones; always two separate devices. Ensure everything is air-gapped.

Me, paranoid? You should see my collection of T-shirts.

Privacy Commissioner warns the ‘John Smiths’ of the world can acquire ‘digital doppelgangers’

rafff

Re: Tough Problem

Idiom

My father had an assistant in his shop who, until the day she retired, was always referred to as "the girl".

And it is always a "girls' night out", regardless of age, marital status etc.

Astronomers red-faced after mistaking Musk's Tesla Roadster for asteroid

rafff

Tesla roadster launched on SpaceX's first Falcon Heavy mission.

Around here we have breakers' yards for unusable motor vehicles

British Museum says ex-contractor 'shut down' IT systems, wreaked havoc

rafff

Re: lax procedures

"So how did they get access to the computer area"

I suspect that there was no security, no badge needed; at most a combination lock, and he knew the combination.

Enquiring minds ...

BOFH: How to innosplain your way through an audit

rafff

Re: Compiling a list of assets

"something called an Ada compiler. Can I see It please?"

We once got a compiler (forget which language) from the Ozzie Atomic Energy Authority and had to sign a disclaimer that we would not sue them for radiation damage arising from its use.

GM parks claims that driver location data was given to insurers, pushing up premiums

rafff

you can post a very large bond (£1 million?) to be used in the event of an accident.

Organisations with large fleets of vehicles do this e.g. GPO - when they existed, and probably bus companies.

Scammers exploit UK's digital landline switch to swipe cash

rafff
Happy

Up to the minute?

Yesterday I was visiting a friend who still uses a rotary dial Strowger phone.

Tech support warrior left cosplay battle and Trekked to the office

rafff

Re: What's the weirdest outfit you've worn to a tech support job?

" Note that splitting is perfectly legal here in California. "

And in Britain the Highway Code recommends it. At least it used to; I haven't read a copy in many years.

One third of adults can't delete device data

rafff
Unhappy

Another pedant alert

"connect your phone to it's systems"

"To ITS systems" FFS. "It's" = "it is", I learned that in primary school.

The US government wants developers to stop using C and C++

rafff

Re: Stop with the useless A better than B crap

"reading the entire data to be worked on"

So how long does it take to process a non-terminating (potentially infinite) data feed?

rafff

Re: What is old is new again

At the time that UK MoD were mandating Ada, a friend was in charge of software procurement for the Royal Navy. He asked me one day, what questions he should ask the Ada "experts" who are bidding for RN contracts. I told him: ask them what language they use to write their in-house accounting software.

rafff

Re: No, of course I've no idea if this remotely resembles the actual syntax used...

Many moons ago, before my beard was grey, the UK MoD insisted that everything had to be written in Coral66* and not in assembler. The software providers responded by providing programs in the form:

begin code;

... assembly language program ...

end code;

What goes around comes around.

*Anyone else remember Coral66 and the Pink Peril (the language 'spec' - it had more holes than a fishing net)?

Cruise shutdown blastzone increases – Microsoft takes $800M charge

rafff

Re: Big city not working

"SF doesn't wish to provide public toilet facilities ...."

So how is that different from London? My borough has removed all the pubic toilets, and most of those that used to be in the Tube stations are now closed.

British Army zaps drones out of the sky with laser trucks

rafff

Re: "sometime in the early 2030s"

The IDF are already bringing their version into service. But then they move somewhat faster than the British establishment.

Indian police demand Starlink identify alleged drug smugglers

rafff

Re: What? No GPS?

"messages sent over Starlink, and not over a local provider "

There is no local provider more than a few miles offshore. The range of a cell on shore is quite short.

T-Mobile US CSO: Spies jumped from one telco to another in a way 'I've not seen in my career'

rafff

"Simon told us"

That should be "Simon said", Shirley?

Tech support chap showed boss how to use a browser for a year – he still didn't get it

rafff

Re: Thermostats

Very few people, even techies, understand the difference between steady/constant heat/power and steady temperature.

rafff

Re: "learnt many things about how not to run a company"

"Would you go to an Accountant who was not chartered?

Would you go to a Pharmacist who was not chartered?

Would you go to an Architect who was not chartered?"

Would you be governed by MPs who know nothing of how to run a country?

BOFH: The devil's in the contract details

rafff

Re: Coffee vs tea

"US style fast food outlets started pushing the coffee and looked at you funny if you asked for tea"

My experience is that they cannot actually make tea as they do not have any means of boiling water. The hottest they have is about 95C, not nearly hot enough for tea. When I tried to argue the toss at a local Starbucks, the answer I got was that they have to follow rules set by head office, and those rules do not permit them to have boiling water. Go figure.

A local hotel is prepared to put a jug of water in the microwave*, so at least their teas has some flavour.

* I can feel from here the shudders of certain folks at the thought of making tea in a microwave.

rafff

Re: Checking the boxes

Pony tail AND beard AND female? They probably exist.

AI Jesus is ready to dispense advice from a booth in historic Swiss church

rafff

"AI can also give incomprehensible, and in some cases even stupid and idiotic answers"

Just like a human, then.

D-Link tells users to trash old VPN routers over bug too dangerous to identify

rafff

Re: Is there no product liability at all?

"Anybody who bought one can (or should) return it to the retailer "

I actually did this once with a buggy compiler. It took a bit of arguing, but s/w does not have wear and tear, so they coughed up. Private/personal sale, natch.

rafff

D-Link does not support open-firmware which voids any warranty

But we already know that there is no warranty to void - other than that the SW is bad.

Pirate programmer walks the plank for role in massive TV streaming operation

rafff

Re: <shrug>

"pre-pay credit cards"

So how is this a *credit* card? Just wondering.

Ambitious overclocker cools Raspberry Pi 5 with liquid nitrogen

rafff

"an impressive step up from the stock 2.4 GHz Raspberry Pi 5"

But still 1000 times faster than the 2.4MHz 8086 I started with. Times change, and not just clock speeds.

BOFH: Don't threaten us with a good time – ensure it

rafff

Re: Brilliant

"using the serial number at the bottom of her keyboard as a password."

But how do you type while reading the underside of the keyboard?

Your air fryer might be snitching on you to China

rafff

Re: This will get worse.

"Apparently display + knob + buttons on a top end microwave is cheaper than just the 2 knobs (time and power) on basic microwave."

When I recently had to replace my microwave I went for the professional/commercial market. I got just what I wanted, entirely electro-mechanical controls, and at a lower price than anything that the shops were offering. Try f'rinstance https://www.nisbets.co.uk/

Apple 'broke law' by pushing out labor-organizing dev

rafff

Re: Above the law?

"The only thing that will make them think before acting is the risk of jail time."

And being banned for life from any board level or public office. The public office bit is important because of the typical career path of top execs.

UK councils bat away DDoS barrage from pro-Russia keyboard warriors

rafff

Re: suspected online hackers

"double mattresses in small cars - they roll up quite well "

Only if you have the el cheapo foam ones. Try rolling up a fully sprung mattress with a steel frame and see how far you get.

rafff

Re: suspected online hackers

""Or you could just take it to your local dump ("household waste recycling centre")"

You are out of date with your terminology. It is now an "Amenity Centre".

But try getting a 5ft double mattress into a small car. It would be easier getting t[w]o W[h]ales in a Mini.

Relocation is a complete success – right up until the last minute

rafff

Re: Crt

"21’ sun or ibm monitors"

If you had 21ft monitors they would certainly have blown the fuse. I suspect that you meant 21" :)

rafff

"Modern-ish PCs will tend to use around 50W, add about 25W for a monitor so 75W per setup, for 1875W in total."

But the fuse on a lighting circuit *should*[1] be 5A, so only 1200W available.

[1] Yes, I know that "should" is a weasel word.

UK gov report to propose special zones for datacenters, 'AI visas'

rafff

Re: We don't need AI.

"rural types tend not to want .... vehicles travelling at more than 20 mph."

On many of our rural roads even 20mph is a bad idea. You have clearly never tried to navigate them.

rafff

Re: Questions, Questions

"treats dependents such as wife and children as 2nd class citizens?"

The point is that none of these people are citizens at all, neither first-class nor second-class; they are aliens (in the legal sense)

UK sleep experts say it's time to kill daylight saving for good

rafff

Re: Seems a bit specious

"I like having a summer where the sun doesn't set until after 9,"

Move to Scotland, or Orkney, and you can have even more - even without BST. Mind you, the winters ....

rafff

Re: Leave the clocks alone

" If it's going to be fixed, fix it at GMT+1 all year round."

We tried that for a few years in the 70s(?). You have to remember that Edinburgh is west of Bristol, so all the inhabitants of our frozen northern wastes* are way out, even on GMT. On BST they are totally out of sight.

* Awaiting rude gestures from Scottish readers.

Smart homes may be a bright idea, just not for the dim bulbs who live in 'em

rafff

"Lights will go on and off at various times. "

I've been using plug-in electro-mechanical switches for over 50 years. Cheap as chips, and they last for decades. Remember; "state of the art" really means tried and tested, not brand new and flaky.

Smart? Bah! Humbug! (It's nearly that time of year)

Linus Torvalds declares war on the passive voice

rafff

Re: Simple Perfectly Rare and Raw Uncommon Sense

"'to clearly not misunderstand' is an egregiously split infinitive"

Split infinitives are only a venial sin in English. See Fowler's Modern English Usage (Gowers edition, not Burchfield, which IMO is useless). The real fault is that the adverb should normally come after the verb or adjective it modifies. But there are exceptions: "only" can come almost anywhere in a sentence. In all other cases in English the modifier come before the head item that it modifies: preposition-noun, subject-verb, adjective-noun.

Other languages have different patterns. I believe that Hungarian is strictly postfix.

</grammar nazism>

rafff

Re: He's right, of course

"I have searched for a word that refers to itself."

In a logic text book I once read the word is "homologous". "Heterologous" denotes a word that does not refer to itself. Clearly, there are no other possibilities.

"Short" is a short word, and so is homologous; "long" is not a long word and so is heterologous. But what about "Heterologous" itself? If "heterologous" is heterologous then it does not refer to itself and so must be homologous. But if it is homologous then it does refer to itself and so is heterologous.

NIST: New smoke alarms are better at detecting fires, but still go off for bacon

rafff
Unhappy

Ensure .... your alarms are a few meters from the cooking area.

If only my kitchen was that big

To patch this server, we need to get someone drunk

rafff

Re: Reminds me of a claim by a sysadmin

"he didn't count the reboots for security patches as downtime, because he didn't physically power down the computers."

IIRC that is the IBM contractual definition. So long as it is powered up it counts towards the SLA.

rafff

Re: Prison

"driving on the wrong side of the road "

No **you** are on the wrong side, all because Napoleon changed things over to mark a victory in battle when he attacked on the unconventional (right) flank of the enemy.

iGulu F1 could be the hoppy ending to your home-brew horror show

rafff

Wish I knew to get the beer kits Boots sold in the late '70s

All you really need is a 5-gallon bucket with a lid and a rubber tube for syphoning it out.. The difficult thing nowadays is getting hold of proper ingredients; the real stuff, not essence of this or essence of that - GIGO

US indicts duo over alleged Swatting spree that targeted elected officials

rafff

Re: Undermining safety in society

"Gotta be worth 30 years or more"

Nah, just 3 years. Now if they had stolen some money from a congressman ...

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