Posts by Paul Crawford

Re: "Then calloc() returns an error"

For typical PC code I use a version of the NR vector() function that calls calloc() AND checks the return, forcing a ext if it fails after logging that numbers that triggered the failure. That way my code is neater than lots of in-line tests, etc.

I know there are cases when you want to continue and try a different value, but in most cases if you run out of allocatable memory it is game over for your original planned execution anyway.

Other languages have ways to trap stuff that don't relay on a function wrapper, but equally mine can have a brutal #define vector calloc used if I want simplified code for embedded stuff.

Re: Ace PFY skills

Typically the watchdog will do that for you. With extreme prejudice...

Re: paradigm shift

The current shit state of electric cars could be fixed at a stroke if they were able to slope off autonomously at night to recharge somewhere sensible, and be back by dawn.

Sort of AI dogging parties?

Re: Essentially webassembly *is* Javascript

Be careful what you wish for...

Better them at 550km and dropping out in 25 years no matter what, then sitting at 1200km for centuries or millenia and denying us safe access to the rest of the solar system (or GPS and GEO injection path).

It could be said and it is true.

But if you have put in a fibre run that can take, say, 12 fibre pairs, each of which can easily do 10Gb or more (depending on length, use of WDM, etc) you have one hell of a greater bandwidth than a GHz or so of RF spectrum will allow.

Delivering not just kilowrists of speciality video, but hitting that mythical megawrist barrier.

Re: Sorry, China.

Sadly the west's appetite for cheap tat and out-sourcing to give bigger bonuses to the management says otherwise. How many companies or countries actually do anything against the Chinese government's increasingly authoritarian stance?

I rather suspect the UK will suck up to them again when Boso needs some trade deal or someone to fund new power stations, etc.

Re: Love your neighbour

Well, by the French for a start.

Re: Rednecks incoming.....

Anyone who uses "woke" in a sentence that does not include having a shower and breakfast deserves no respect. Either claiming to be one or denigrating others for it.

Oh I think the regulars have no issues working at Microsoft

Working with Microsoft, now that is a different ball game...

Re: The Russians are coming

Well as long as they use some Kleenex, I don't want sticky patches under my bed again. Mutter, mutter...

Re: Brexit.

English man: "I say, do you say a payer before evening meal like we do?"

French woman "Non! We know how to cook"

Re: 5 years

The lifetime is not just in-orbit.

They actually have to keep going in terms of solar panels, battery systems, attitude control system, TT&C and of course the actual broadband payload. I seriously doubt that more than 70% will still be fully functioning after 5 years.

Re: And this is why air travel is so safe

And on the other hand we have self-driving cars...

Re: This would never have happened at a certain broadcaster I used to work for.

Indeed there have been some remarkable two-stroke diesel engines developed, such as this beast:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic

In their day an astonishing power to weight ratio, but reliability not on par with modern expectations.

Re: Why 5G?

Not a range-limit as such, but mm waves are impacted far more by rain and (depending on frequency) cloud / water vapour level. Also it is far more difficult to make high power solid state amplifiers and low noise amplifiers, compared to the sub 10GHz bands.

69 votes (Well, you're either getting it or you're not)

I wanted to up-vote you but you were enjoying 69 at the time so it seemed too rude to do so.

It is ironic that while gravity is a tiny force on a particle-particle basis compared to the nuclear and electromagnetic effects, it is ultimately able to overcome all other forces and crush matter out of existence in a black hole.

Probably, I'm not sure the fate of black hole contents is known (or indeed, knowable).

Re: China has to be bigger than one man

More seriously, any leader how throws a strop about being compared to Winnie the Poo is losing the plot, and for China and the world that has serious consequences.

Re: Yet another uncomfortable truth

It is far worse than just the lack of "sound principles" being used, these days software comes with license agreements that abdicate responsibility of the consequences of crap code.

What other discipline would get away with that?

Add to that a lot of connectivity and inter-dependence being added is driven my marketing droids (or worse, advertising brokers) and the future looks bleak indeed.

Re: fragmentation

For small files (relative to the disk usage) they do not, but as swap files can be large!

Also it is another thing that has to be turned off to unmount the file system cleanly, etc. A swap partition is not bothered by a hard reset as it never expected persistent internal structure anyway.

Re: PiHole

What proportion of the general public (not El Reg readers) install Windows? Being 10 or 100 times easier is still a very small number.

It is the result of a human mistake.

That mistake was to assume software is reliable enough. Where is the back-up hardware or hydraulics that can be 100% tested?

Re: Luxury goods

I bought a Casio 'Waveceptor' because it is radio-controlled, so no need to set it for accurate time-keeping, and it is solar powered, so the battery drain from radio control and the leaks that usually follow battery replacement are gone.

As far as i know they are not easy to find in the UK any more, so presumably i am from a very limited group who want a watch that just works and keeps working.

Re: Up to date experience

I also think the w2k (and "classic" for XP, not default Fischer-Price) user interface design was the best MS did in terms of being logical and consistent in virtually every way. Win7 is tolerable, but the lack of keeping constant look & feel was showing before it disgorged its unholy load with win8 and later tried to stuff it back in, poorly, with win10.

And shall we mention the spyware of later MS offerings?

Re: Well....

Funny thing is taxi firms have been sustainable for over a century after "the knowledge" was introduced.

Re: "The Clink" at Brixton Prison

That is a brilliant idea!

Gives them a chance of getting a good job and paying taxes, instead of ending up re-offending and costing taxes to be kept in jail again.

Re: Double keying already used in some banking applications

Yes, but you care about the results, not about outsourcing to the cheapest supplier.

Re: There is no chip shortage!

Just in time = just too late when anything changes unexpectedly.