* Posts by cdilla

57 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jan 2009

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Citizen Coder? Happiness Concierge? Here come 2023's business cards

cdilla

"Zarniwoop save us"

"Zarniwoop save us"

Thank you for that little DNA reference. Made my morning.

New research aims to analyze how widespread COBOL is

cdilla

IDENTIFICATION DIVISION.

PROGRAM-ID. TUATLTUAE.

AUTHOR. DNA.

PROCEDURE DIVISION.

DISPLAY "Forty Two".

STOP RUN.

Remembering happy days trying to get HHGTTG references in my code sheets past my System Analyst. I suspect there are still some accountancy programs acredited to Zaphod Beeblebrox lubricating various government systems around the world.

Black Hat and DEF CON visitors differ on physical risk management

cdilla

Be considerate

Masks work both ways. Wearing a mask reduces your mouthbreathing detritus entering the immediate environment.

Masks reduce the risk of infection. They don't eliminate it.

The more payload is in the air the more is taken in, mask wearer or not.

Just be considerate.

NYC issues super upbeat PSA for surviving the nuclear apocalypse

cdilla
Unhappy

Threads

I lived in Sheffield at the time Threads was filmed there.

I have made sure all my family have watched it.

All have the same reaction. And none ever want to watch it again.

There is no worthwhile survival of that kind of event.

114 billion transistors, one big meh. Apple's M1 Ultra wake-up call

cdilla
Thumb Up

Re: I was there

Marvelous to see George still being remembered.

Can't say I'd want to write COBOL programs any more and then hand puch the cards because I couldn't wait for a gap in the Data Prep teams schedule.

But the times are remembered fondly from afar.

Nice article.

Humanity has officially touched the Sun (or, at least, one of its probes has)

cdilla

So many of my favourites things wrapped up in this story.

Humour - HHGTTG: Heart of Gold and Disaster Area

Storytelling - Ray Bradbury: Golden Apples of the Sun

ScienceFi - David Brin: Sundiver

What days we live in. Sun skimming, Pandemic, Climate Change, Fools on the Hill governing the country.

BOFH: You'll find there's a company asset tag right here, underneath the monstrously heavy arcade machine

cdilla

Re: I love my kitchen fire alarm ..

The closest fire alarm to our kitchen is called the Dinner Gong

Revealed: Perfect timings for creation of exemplary full English breakfast

cdilla

Re: Lester Haines memorial hangover breakfast recipes

Much missed. How quickly the years pass.

Just had myself a rerun of Lester's Post-pub nosh neckfillers series.

My personal favourite:

https://www.theregister.com/2016/02/12/post_pub_nosh_gatsby/

Hacking is not a crime – and the media should stop using 'hacker' as a pejorative

cdilla

The vote tally is all you need to see

As an aside it speaks volumes about the bias of most folk who post.

Grab a towel and pour yourself a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster because The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is 42

cdilla

Rarely does a day go by without a refernce to or memory of the works of DNA brightening up the day.

42 years. My parents were right - the passing of time only accelerates as you get older.

As Tesla hits speed bump after speed bump, Elon Musk loses his mind in anti-media rant

cdilla

Personally I largely agree with Mr Musk with regards his opinions of the portions of media he is referring to.

Individual hacks may or may not care about or have a relationship with every company or person they do stories on, but many do have axes to grind, and many more do care about what their boss thinks of them, and who doubts they have agendas?

Even with the "fiercely independant" new sources, the name under the tag line has to be taken into account when deciding how much salt to take along with the info in the article.

Das blinkenlights are back thanks to RPi revival of the PDP-11

cdilla

I too found my career path due to using a PDP-11 at Uni as part of a physics course (which I ditched in favour of programming soon after).

I also have one of Oscar's most excellent PDP-8 kits, a blinken fine piece of computer history.

Japanese sat tech sinks Sea Shepherd anti-whaling activists' hopes

cdilla

Re: I don't get it...

After WWII there were food shortages and whale meat was one solution (as was imported US wheat) which changed Japanese tastes. As a result it, and bread and wheat noodles, were widely used in state school dinners. That means there is nostalgia value for many Japanse of that generation. Demand would probably fall off naturally were it not for the other factor, mentioned elsewhere, of no-one liking to be told what they can and can't do.

Nintendo Switch orders delayed: Dun dun dun... dundundun dundundun dadada!

cdilla

Here

I got the Royal Mail emails telling me my Switch and Zelda would be delivered 5th-7th March, but both arrived today - one via Hermes and the other via Royal Mail.

Not that I'll have time to play for a few hours yet.

The Life and Times of Lester Haines

cdilla

Thank you

Thank you for this article.

Lester is much missed.

The Register and the world in general is a poorer place with his passing.

Forgive me, father, for I have used an ad-blocker on news websites...

cdilla

Never whitelist

I never whitelist sites. There is the security aspect, but mostly it's because ads are bloody annoying.

Websites that need the income can raise a paywall - if they are worth the money to me I'll pay.

One or two sites I used to visit regularly now block on sensing an adblocker, but pretty much every site has the same information, albeit maybe rehashed by a different hack, duplicated on many others. El Reg is my favourite IT news site and has been since it started, but there are many others covering the same ground to migrate to were ads ever to become mandatory.

Juno shoots 'Marble Movie' of Jupiter

cdilla

Lester

Great to see a link to those wonderful nosh posts by Lester and team.

Another drink to be raised to him in precisely an hour :-)

Apple faces Beijing blackout for iPhone 6

cdilla

鸡爪蒂姆·库克

Tim Cook Chicken. Lol.

Lester Haines: RIP

cdilla

Re: Is this the end of humor on The Register?

I agree entirely. My own visits have dwindled for this very reason.

cdilla

Quite the best hack on the Register. Raised many a smile with his intelligent and humourous style. You could tell from the many many comments to his posts that he well and truely educated and entertained us.

The Register and the world is a poorer place.

DOUGHNUT (donut?) and whale FOUND ON PLUTO

cdilla

Beaten to the "bowl of petunias" comment not once, not twice, but three times out of just ten comments.

As was Douglas Adams, I'm a militant atheist, so I know he isn't looking down and smiling, but still, it would be nice if he were.

Now, where's my towel.

Goodbye Vulcan: Blighty's nuclear bomber retires for the last time

cdilla

Stunning plane

When I was a lad there was a place on High Common Lane that was right at the end of the main runway at RAF Finningley (Now Robin Hood Airport) where we would try and remain standing while Vulcan's took off and roared what seemed like only a few feet above us. I always ended up on my arse. The whole-body feel of the immense power of the Vulcans was literally stunning.

Life, the interview and everything: A chat with Douglas Adams

cdilla

Never a day...

Never a day passes in our household that isn't brightened by some reference to DNA or his work. Whether it's in reference to a piece of furniture stuck in a stairwell, missed deadline or the illusiory nature of lunchtime, a grin is had and an inward nod is made to the great man in acknowldgement of his genius.

HB DNA. If you're up there looking down on us, I know you'll be bloody annoyed, being a fully paid up member of the millitant atheists movement.

Hi-torque tank engines: EXTREME car hacking with The Register

cdilla
Thumb Up

Marvelous

What an utterly marvelous article.

Definitely more of this kind of thing.

Slap my Imp up: Bullfrog's Dungeon Keeper

cdilla

Re: I'm STILL playing this!!

Likewise. As are all my, now adult, kids.

It was a ritual. Every time a new PC was built the first thing that had to be got working was Dungeon Keeper. I have multiple backup copies of the CD. There are few games with such longevity, though I still do fire up emulations of JSW II and AMC from time to time.

Tell us we're all doomed, MPs beg climate scientists

cdilla

Acknowledging ignorance

I like the idea politicians acknowledge they haven't the first clue about an issue they have to make decisions on. It's just a shame they don't fess up to all of them.

It would also be nice if journalists did the same.

Stephen Fry rewrites computer history again: This time it's serious

cdilla

It's a pity ...

Sometimes the facts purveyed in good faith by enthusiastic amateurs need to be corrected or clarified, and I'm all for that, but does it have to be done in such an unpleasant way?

Sinclair's FORGOTTEN Australia-only micro revealed!

cdilla

Re: when I was a young local government IT assist ...

Likewise. My weeks spent "training" at Beaumont House are remembered fondly. Regular breaks when concord flew overhead, croquet on the lawn outside, wandering down to the neighbor's house for a bit of celebrity spotting. To be honest, as a training centre I've never come across a better environment.

And I remember those machine the receptionists used - they had a box of those mini tapes and let me have a couple for my QL.

Looks like Beaumont House is a hotel now.

Oooh! My NAUGHTY SKIRT keeps riding up! Hello, INTERNET EXPLORER

cdilla

Calendar

The calendar in her room has a nice reference to the Anime Festival Asia meet in Singapore this weekend.

Makes a change from the usual advertising. I imagine it will have some success.

Reg man goes time travelling at iconic observatory

cdilla
Thumb Up

As a young kid Patrick Moore was who inspired my interest in astronomy, but it was visiting Jodrell Bank that inspired me to take up astrophysics. I first saw the dish from afar the top of Mow Cop when I was 10. Pure Science Fiction. I asked to see it up close and recall, as did AndrewC, controlling a small dish.

I revisited several time through my university years too and was further inspired by briefly meeting Sir Bernard there shortly before he retired as director.

It is a rare thing that bestows such nostalgia and is also so prominent in current science.

Definitely more of this sort of thing from El Reg.

A pleasant change to the increasingly poor items posted elsewhere.

Last remaining reason to order an iPhone 5 disappears

cdilla
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Cynosure

It seems LP's cynosure is AO. Sad to see him moving further in that direction.

Legendary sci-fi fantasy author Ray Bradbury exits planet Earth

cdilla

memories

I have memories of two childhoods. One of my own very happy childhood, and a second equally happy one set in Greentown Illinois courtesy of of the great Ray Bradbury.

Whilst many of his books and short stories have repeatedly passed through my reading list over the past few decades, it is Dandelion Wine that is always with me.

I first read parts of it to my son when he was six. By the time he was twelve he had read it himself many times, and so another generation began to see the world through the wonderful visionary eyes of Ray Bradbury.

My top two authors. RB and DNA. Now both gone.

Virgin Media wipes out websites with routing blackhole

cdilla
Unhappy

So...

... who can recommend a fast and reasonably priced VPN service? VyperVPN?

I'm sick of Governments, ISPs and advertising agencies grubbing through every packet. And now it seems that we'll suffer outages, degraded performance and higher costs (to pay for all the monitoring) to boot. Bastards.

Is there life after ads for St Zuck?

cdilla

Re: There's the problem......

"Who is going to pay for it? The masses want stuff "Free" "

There are people who create an maintain complex code for free several of my PCs run entirely on free software.

I'm keeping an eye on the freedombox foundation and have my dreamplug ready and waiting. It may be years before something comes along that free, secure and gains critical mass, but the world is not entirely devoid of skilled and dedicated people working towards that end. Likewise the number of people who are finally "getting" what the likes of facebook are about and are disengaging from them, is growing all the time.

cdilla
Thumb Down

All Facebook is interested in is making money off the private data provided willingly or otherwise by its users. They don't have the users interest at heart at all and will continue to take liberties with privacy to squeeze every last penny out of them.

The sooner a proper user-centric privacy oriented social media infrastructure is established the better.

Hopefully the vampiric and intrusive "services" like facebook will soon be a thing of the past.

All credit to the creators though, for exploiting the moment and making their fortune.

Best and the Rest: ARM Mini PCs

cdilla
Meh

Sheevaplug Dreamplug

As others have already pointed out the great Sheeva and Dreamplug machines should not have been left out. They are cheaper than some of those cited here and the Dreamplug especially offers a lot of connectivity (2xLAN, wifi, bluetooth,2xusb,sdcard,jtag, sata, optical, audio, mic).

My sheeva and dream plugs are used for a variaty of linux based server and monitoring duties.

I have a R-Pi too, though am spending more time on making a case for it than actually using it :-)

ARM creators Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber

cdilla
Thumb Up

An excellent read

Thanks for this well presented and interesting article.

More of this kind of thing!

Computer nostalgia is 10 PRINT 'BOLLOCKS'

cdilla

educational

I didn't buy a ZX81 for it to be educational, but it was.

I had written fortran programs as part of a physics degree course but never something that would show some real time visual output. With the ZX81 and subsequent 8-bit micros I thoroughly enjoyed creating demos, games and other rpograms. Along the way I learned z80A, 6502 and 6809 assembly and machine code, something that eventually allowed me to break from my mainframe cobol career into a PC C++ career.

My kids are Nintendo generation and they just don't have the same kind of entry point I did into programming.

Twelve... classic 1980s 8-bit micros

cdilla

There's only the Grundy I didn't have at one time or another. Sad sad sad.

Have to agree that the 6809 instruction set was a joy to program with which was why my Dragon got so much of my attention.

Good to see the Ace appearing, I picked on up at an auction a couple of years after it was released. I'd used forth at uni (for controlling radio telescopes), and it was so damn fast.

Anyone remember the Enterprise? That was my dream machine, but I don't think it ever made it to mass market.

Ten... eight-bit classic games

cdilla

Jeff Minter

Surely at last one of Gridrunner, Matrix, AMC, Ancipital, Batalyx, Yaks Progress or may of the others should be there?

The baffling paucity of Jeff Minter titles in this list aside, it's good to see these games getting coverage still from time to time. The glasses may be a little rose tinted but I still do play these from time to time (on iPad these days) and recapture the essence of those heady days.

Ten reasons why you shouldn't buy an iPhone 5

cdilla

OK, you've convinced me

I'll buy one immediately.

Two UK suspects cuffed in Anonymous manhunt

cdilla
Trollface

appropriate penalty

"a couple of hours community service" sounds like an appropriate penalty to me.

A Farewell to Oates: Adios, El Reg

cdilla
Pint

Good luck

Good luck in your future endeavours. You are one of the better (ex) Reg Hacks.

Parmo v poutine: The ultimate post-pub nosh deathmatch

cdilla
Thumb Up

Top Entertainment

Best entertainment on the site all week. Bar none. Sorry Simon.

So, LOHAN: What's it to be?

cdilla
Thumb Down

Gawd, not LOHAN please

Pick something beer related ffs.

And if you absolutely have to go with LOHAN, at least mitigate the awefulness by making it stand for, and hopefully execute, Loft Orlowski High And Nuke.

Bug-Byte Manic Miner

cdilla

Marvelous memory

Thank you for that wonderful memory. I was in my mid twenties when I played this and it's successor JSW. It is pure, distilled nostalgia to see and hear it again :-)

NotW accused of hacking Milly Dowler's voicemail

cdilla
Alert

Tory sleaze

Tory leader smooching with sleazy media bitch. That's nothing new.

And will anyone do any time at all over this? Hands up anyone who has the slightest faith that the British Government or the British legal system or the British police will see to it that there is a satisfactory outcome to this... thought not.

The political leaders bleat about how the image of British journalism is being tarnished! How the hell can a turd be tarnished?

Fox News tweets hacked to show Obama death stories

cdilla
Thumb Up

Cool

Nice to see El Reg doing its bit to cement the reputation of LulzSec by acknowledging there is a "LulzSec wannabe" demograpahic out there.

Unexpected, but good on you all the same.

Moderatrix kisses the Reg goodbye

cdilla
Thumb Up

A definite loss

A definite loss to the El Reg wonderwall.

Good luck in your new venture(s) and don't look back.

Man says he lost $500,000 in virtual currency heist

cdilla

dyr

It's an increasing trend with El Reg comment mongers to type with wild and inaccurate abandon before doing even the most cursory of investigation in to the subject matter.

There are one or two, well, OK, just one, El Reg hack of which that criticism can be leveled too.

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