Posts by Gene Cash

Re: Why bother with 3D printing

Because

1) Few people have lathes and other metalworking tools. 3D printers are a lot cheaper too. I got my 3D printer for US$1000. I can't even get ahold of a lathe to even buy one, even if I could afford it,

2) it's far, far easier to 3D print something than machine it. I can easily draw something in OpenSCAD and have a printed thing a couple hours later. I can operate a drill press. I might be able to do simple stuff on a lathe. That's about the limit of my machining. I can't weld anything.

Re: Sad times

Well, the CSM did have a small ability to chase down a malfunctioning ascent stage that barely made it to orbit for whatever reason the ascent engine didn't do a full burn.

Re: Teething problems

Covid... systemd... is there a difference?

The Rule

"Never pull out on a vehicle requiring extensive body repair"

Patent law itself isn't nearly as bad as copyright law in the US. That's still a pretty low bar though (pun not intended)

The problem is the patent office has gotten a "fuck it, approve it all and let the courts settle it" attitude and needs to be beaten soundly with a very large stick.

As a data point, I'm running an i7-3770 on a 9 year old ASUS P8Z77-V Pro motherboard. SSDs keep it very peppy.

Re: IP68

> specified under conditions defined by the requester of the test

What kind of "test" or "standard" is that?

Oh, I want an "A" on my exam, because I specified I didn't have to study beforehand...

> users don't understand IP ratings DON'T MEAN SHIT

Fixed that for you.

Re: I don't get it.

> There was absolutely no question that the process would work

And I'm sure your code is unquestionably bug-free on the first compile.

Re: One careful owner...

I refer to Elon Musk as "a used booster salesman"

Re: You joke, but...

Holy shit, if only I could upvote this observation 1,000 times!

The number of times I've said "this piece of crap is broken" and gotten a "so? what's your point?" response just boggles my scrotum.

> something a decent coder and ops team would protect against.

Sure, but I have a feeling 50% of businesses don't have those. I've seen LOTS of "coders" that DGAS how many CPU cycles or disk I/Os they burn. That gets expensive when you're charged for those.

Re: Influencers

Don't you know? Edison invented Twitter!

I've got a Cusinart one that's probably going in the trash. It's failed miserably at everything its tried to cook.

Re: No doubt the conspiracy theorists will be calling 'fake'!

Per https://www.sparkfun.com/news/3810 it was a Garmin laser altimeter ordered from SparkFun.

> Maybe it's time for new legislation for cars sold with any form or degree of autonomy, to purchase or drive/control one the individual in charge must have completed a full safety course on the control of said vehicles.

The US doesn't require any course in the current non-autonomous death traps. Why should this be any different?

If you can identify 50% of the road signs by shape, you're good to go in the US.

People don't even know you should check/change the oil, that's how poor the knowledge is here.

Re: Dogs are smarter than people

My uncle was shot by his dog.

On one hand he says "my fault for leaving it off-safe" but on the other, he can say "my dog's a better shot than yours!"

Re: We need a patent court

I don't care if you demonstrate it with a TRS-80 running COBOL. I just want to see a concrete implementation as described by the patent. A crap FPGA lashup is fine.

Android data widgets do break for anything pre-01-JAN-1900. Sigh.

Re: Backticks

Two key presses?? My 1997-era Model M has it under the tilde, so it's one keypress.

I see you're new here. Welcome to El Reg!

Re: Here's a wild idea

No, they do not. Writing a modern game is complex.

And Kerbal Space Program is written in Unity. It's rather lean, but it's still pretty big.

Re: That's how it is in the US

In case you missed it, let me repeat: in my part of Florida, vaccinations are being handled by GROCERY STORES.

Now the particular chain is rather competent and gets stuff done, but it's still a massive What The Fuck when you stop and think about it.

Re: Yeeeees, but.

Can I interest you in buying the Deacon's One Hoss Shay? A fine vehicle it is!

Re: Matches, gunpowder, and instructions missing pages

You're not being a pain... you're helping to improve the code. That's the basis of open source.

You "convince" the maintainers of an issue by showing them code to fix it and the rationale behind it. They have the option of accepting the PR or not.

Re: Time to apply the duck test

> they don't hold monetary amounts except for the short time they are in transit through the payment system

Tell that to anyone that's had Paypal lock their accounts... and that's a LOT of people.

Re: Rinse, repeat?

It's better than the US does, which is "throw away the key"

Re: Ah when we took risks to achive great things.

"This country went from landing on the Moon to "This bag is not a toy!" and arguing about evolution in 40 years. This makes me very sad."

"Spaceflight: Once, we dared. Now, we simply reminisce."

Re: Surprised?

C'mon now, an El Reg commentard should know better than an AMP link...

Re: I need to look this up

> Facebook refused to open an account because my real name sounded like a fake name to them

I got lucky the same way, even though there's a very famous singer with the same last name (and no, I'm not related).

I've also moved away from Google Mail in case they throw the same shit-fit. I have no intention of sending Google any sort of proof or other documentation.

Re: There must be a better way to build these systems

> Agreed, but where to find staff that do cobol?

Raises hand. But it'll cost...