* Posts by jake

26584 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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Boffins store text message inside E coli bacteria using electromagnetic signal – and you'll never guess what it says

jake Silver badge

amfM will now ...

... spontaneously combust.

Trump's gone quiet, Parler nuked, Twitter protest never happened: There's an eerie calm – but at what cost?

jake Silver badge

Re: A shameful time for big tech and supporters

"and hundreds of sworn statements detailing abuses"

Hundreds? Really? Where are they? Post proof or retract.

Hint before you start: Several Trump appointed Judges looked at the Trump's so-called evidence and said there was no case to be made. Not one of them, mind. ALL of them.

jake Silver badge

Re: Twitter is acting entirely properly, the problem is in relying on twitter

"I *think* Mastodon is in this model..."

Why re-invent the wheel? We've had IRC, Usenet, Fido and UUCP longer than we've had TCP/IP.

jake Silver badge

Re: 1st amendment

"and more planned"

When three sit down to talk revolution, two are fools and the third is a police spy.

jake Silver badge

But Trump hasn't been censored, AC

He's free to spout his drivel anywhere he likes. But not on my systems. And apparently not on Twitter's.

Tell me, AC, is he free to use your gear, at your expense, to spew his garbage?

jake Silver badge

And evaporate it did. The "twitter protest" in San Francisco consisted of one lone person waving a very small American flag.

Seriously. They had a protest in San Francisco, and nobody came.

I guess there is a first time for everything.

jake Silver badge

Re: AWS now liable?

This isn't a freedom of speech issue. It's a freedom of the press issue. And as we all know, "Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one."[0]

I own a printing press (two, actually). I am allowed to take contracts to print anything I like, for anybody I like (obvious exceptions exist: kitty pR0n, national secrets, etc.). But it's my press, so I am allowed to reject any contract if I don't agree with the message I am asked to print.

However, I am ALSO allowed to accept a contract I do not agree with, if I need/want the money. And I am free to reject a reprint of that contract, or further work from that party, if I no longer need the money. Or simply because I don't want to. Completely capriciously.

It's my press. My power over its output is absolute. If I refuse to print xtian or nazi or MyLittlePony propaganda, it is not censorship. The person requesting it can go elsewhere to get it printed. Or they can purchase their own press and print it for themselves.

Anybody who doesn't like this are free to not contract with me to do their printing. They can even ask their friends to not use my services. But they can NOT force me to print for them. The law doesn't work that way.

[0] In 1941, Norman Woelfel published a work called “The Fourth and Fifth Estate” which included the following quote: "It is foolish to assume, because in America we do not have an official propaganda agency dictating what shall be broadcast, that American radio is free. Like the press which is free for those who own and control it, the radio is free for those who can buy equipment, hire technicians and talent, and secure profitable advertising contracts.". Today, I rather suspect he would have included "Internet Servers" in that sentiment.

jake Silver badge

Re: Distributed options

Isn't going to happen. The systems are already in place, and in use, planet-wide (IRC, Usenet, FidoNet, UUCP et alia). However, the brain-dead idiots the rabble-rousers are trying to recruit are too fucking stupid to figure out anything more complex than point & drool.

Linux developers get ready to wield the secateurs against elderly microprocessors

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Damnit!

At least there is little chance of learning something new while doing the times crossword .... unless you cheat, of course :-)

jake Silver badge

Re: what is linux good for?

"it's mostly the asinine case sensitive filesystem that irks me"

Funny you should mention that .... I can't get my head around a case-insensitive operating system. I mean, not only did some "genius" decide that "a" is functionally the same as "A" (and etc.), they actually went out of their way to code a computer to work that way ... and THEN managed to convince a bunch of other people that this brain-dead idea was a good one!

The mind absolutely boggles.

jake Silver badge

Re: As long as

So compile it on your fastest Linux box, with the GCC target CPU set to PDP-11. Should only take a few minutes. Cross-compiling is fun, educational, and quite lucrative sometimes. Try it, you might like it.

jake Silver badge

Re: So what?

Can I run this MicroChannel controller on your Pi?

jake Silver badge

Re: Damnit!

Devious? Nah. I'd call it analyzing the problem, and implementing a least-cost solution.

Or, in the language of my youth, "a nice hack".

jake Silver badge

Re: As long as

Stick BSD on that VAX. Worked for kremvax and moscvax, comrade.

jake Silver badge

Re: Damnit!

Don't laugh. 8-bit Linux actually exists.

It's kind of slow, though. A couple hours to get a bash prompt from a cold boot, using init=/bin/bash as the kernel command line.

jake Silver badge

Re: Dear me

486? Newbie!

I've got a contract for LSI-11s still cranking out machine parts[0] ... Just renewed the support contract for "one more year". Again. It's been over 30 years since I took over when the manufacturer went belly-up ... Easy money never gets old.

[0] Granted, they are not running Linux.

jake Silver badge

Re: what is linux good for?

Who said anything about Windows? When it comes to embedded, the small stuff is often too small to boot MS-DOS 1.0 ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Bad metric ?

Pretty much. The only thing I worry about with the older stuff is folks discovering security issues ... and even then, I only worry about it if the gear isn't airgapped, which is rare for this class of computing.

jake Silver badge

So what?

Modern kernels won't run on 4megs of RAM anyway.

If you've got a 386 that you need to use for something, the older kernels will still be available, and they still work admirably. I've got 386 based machines running various versions of Linux 2.4 doing useful work in odd corners of the world.

jake Silver badge

Re: what is linux good for?

Bad troll. No cookie.

Failed insurrection aside, Biden is going to be president in two weeks. What does it mean for tech policy?

jake Silver badge

Re: Follow the false flags

For rather large values of often.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Democracy

::snort::

You owe me a new keyboard.

Have a beer :-)

jake Silver badge

Re: Rent a mob

PDNFTT

Ta.

jake Silver badge

Might as well throw Right To Repair into that mix.

It's a far more important issue than most people think it is.

If you don't believe me, ask a local farmer their opinion of John Deer.

Buggy code, fragile legacy systems, ill-conceived projects cost US businesses $2 trillion in 2020

jake Silver badge

Re: Something to remember ...

If I remember correctly (and I'm certain someone will jump in and let me know if my memory is on the fritz), that was a compiler flag issue. Even today that would be an easy fix. Or should be, anyway. See Slackware-current's change log, search for "revert" for one way of handling that kind of thing that works well.

To fix what I was talking about would be a complete re-write, from scratch, of the core OS used by almost all businesses today. And then a generation (or three) to un-learn bad habits and reflexes.

Microsoft almost had it with Win2K ... then Marketing took over completely.

jake Silver badge

Re: Praise Where and When Praise is Due.

amfm has always had that side to him, if you listen. The one surprise in the above was the reference to MAD ... I always thought he was based in the UK, but that is a particularly North American reference, and mostly sub 49th parallel, at that.

jake Silver badge

Something to remember ...

... is that the kids who graduated Uni/College and got into the corporate computer and networking world back when computers started becoming ubiquitous on desktops all over the corporate world are now roughly in their mid 50s.

Note this is managers, users, coders, programmers, systems folks, everyone.

They started commercial computer work with Windows 2.x and DOS 4.0 (or thereabouts), and have become conditioned to the Redmond Way ... In their minds (and the generations following) it's supposed to be shoddy code, it's supposed to not be secure, it's supposed to break at the least convenient time, it will crash at random, updates will make things worse, over time it gets bigger and worse, if you turn it off and back on again it might fix it (maybe; try it again) ... these are all enshrined in the corporate attitude.

So why bother building clean, elegant code that just works when the underlying OS doesn't support such a concept? There is no point.

Those of us who started coding in the 60s or earlier are just left shaking our heads. Can you imagine what the reaction in Corporate America would have been if DEC or Burroughs or Sperry or IBM had made just one release that was as buggy as the code that is run as a matter of course on modern computers? Or worse, the drek in "the cloud"? The company's stock would have tanked, they would never have been trusted again, heads would have rolled ... ugly wouldn't even begin to describe it.

But these days? Navigating through crap, buggy, crash-prone bullshit has become business as usual. Because THAT'S HOW COMPUTERS ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK! Ask any manager. Or coder under 50. (Thankfully there are still a few real programmers out there in each generation.)

I have no answers. I'm not sure there are any.

United States Congress stormed by violent followers of defeated president, Biden win confirmation halted

jake Silver badge

Re: Not Unexpected

If the Presidential election was rigged by the Democrats, does anyone really think they would have forgotten to also rig the Senate and Congress elections while they were at it?

jake Silver badge

Re: ...and where exactly do you live in the US?

Read what I pointed out again. What percentage of Canadians who get Covid-19 will not survive, vs. us Yanks? Looks like about a 65% worse mortality rate in Kannukistan over the span of the pandemic. That is a rather large difference, regardless of how you try to spin it.

jake Silver badge

Re: ...and where exactly do you live in the US?

Both the Wife and I have entered the ICU via the emergency room a couple of times. We have never had to declare bankruptcy. Didn't cost very much, either. Funny how insurance works, isn't it?

jake Silver badge

Re: What frightens me most...

About all a thousand people can do "together" is rush a building. Ever try to coach a sports team? And they actually have a stated, specific common goal with known rules to achieve it!

jake Silver badge

Re: ...and where exactly do you live in the US?

"Canada, you know that country to the North that ranks above the US in pretty much every metric that matters."

Including mortality rate from Covid-19? You lot are sitting at around 2.6%, the US at 1.7%. What was that nonsense that you were spouting up-thread again?

Glass houses & all that.

jake Silver badge

Re: Careful. Slow down and THINK.

By the pint? No ... I never have before, but it's occasionally been tempting these last four years.

jake Silver badge

Re: Careful. Slow down and THINK.

I offered to buy a round, I didn't specify what you asked the beertender to put in your glass.

jake Silver badge

Re: For so many years...

Oh, get off it. We've had to put up with Hoover and McCarthy, just for a start. Which makes the fact that Trump got into the Oval Office all that much more surprising.

And people wonder why the first place governments make cuts in spending is education.

jake Silver badge

Re: ...and where exactly do you live in the US?

And which wonderful country do you live in, Blank? Ashamed to say?

jake Silver badge

Re: Not Unexpected

"a serious lack of any attempt of an investigation by anyone"

If you have actual evidence of this, take it to the authorities.

Or, if you prefer, I offer the immortal words from Usenet: "Post proof or retract". But you will do neither, for the same reason that Trump & minions/sycophants can not.

jake Silver badge

Re: Careful. Slow down and THINK.

I wrote: "Congress will resume in the morning"

Well, damn! I was wrong. They are resuming as I type, this evening, not tomorrow morning. Mea culpa.

Hopefully the anti-American thugs are proud of themselves, because everybody else is yawning at them. Except their mummys, of course; they must be ever-so proud.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Careful. Slow down and THINK.

True enough, Dr. S.

However, I suspect that this is it for this chapter in this country. Might be a few more hotwarmish spots here and there in the next couple weeks, but I doubt it. Even Pence is yapping against his Master.

This round's on me. We can all use one.

jake Silver badge

Re: Unfortunately ...

Be careful what you wish for. Even the conservative ultra-right old guard doesn't want that fucking nutcase Pence in the oval office, not even for just a couple of weeks ... Why do you think Trump picked him as a running-mate? Pence is insurance that keeps Trump from being booted out before his term is over.

jake Silver badge

Re: It's not a funny event.

Nah. The "dangerous" hot-heads have shot their load. It's over. They lost. And should now be treated as the laughing-stock that they are.

jake Silver badge

Careful. Slow down and THINK.

A couple hundred hot-headed idiots are not going to stop the political process here in the United States. Their actions are not going to affect anyone in the US in any way, shape or form long-term ... Except for themselves[0]. The dumb-asses will be processed, and dealt with according to law.

Remember, children, protest is GOOD. Everybody is allowed to voice their opinion here in the US. And we SHOULD. However, dumb-asses rioting and busting into Federal buildings isn't voicing an opinion, it's an attempt at insurrection. Which is about as anti-American as it gets. How dare they?

Congress will resume in the morning, the Republicans will have their little tiff, the Democrats (with the help of the VP) will probably gain control of the Senate, and Biden will be sworn in at Noon on Inauguration Day. Nothing will stop this, regardless of what the cry-baby in the Oval Office and his self-appointed violent minions try to do.

As for me and mine, nothing that is happening in DC this afternoon will affect our lives one bit. It is absolutely laughable to think otherwise, no matter how much the news tries to suggest otherwise. This is a story that happened, but it's all over now ... barring the mopping up, of course. Time to get on with prepping dinner, tomorrow is another day. Will probably lightly till the trash under in the big veggie garden and put in our yearly Winter cover crop to hold the soil in until spring. Life continues, and we all gotta eat.

[0] Yes, I know, apparently one women was hurt badly, possibly shot. Keep her and her family in your thoughts. They have done absolutely nothing to deserve being put into this position by a handful of un-American thugs.

File format conversion crisis delayed attempt to challenge US presidential election result

jake Silver badge

Re: "[they] lacked standing to pursue the case, and that they’d sued the wrong target"

Again, read the complete journal, and then get back to me. Perhaps then you'll understand my reticence to give it any of my time. Life's too short.

jake Silver badge

Re: "[they] lacked standing to pursue the case, and that they’d sued the wrong target"

"Sadly I watched police mace people at the Capitol building"

Would you prefer they had shot the thugs illegally breaking into a Federal building? At least with the mace they can go crying home to their mummies.

jake Silver badge

Re: "[they] lacked standing to pursue the case, and that they’d sued the wrong target"

"If only independent audits and full investigations had been allowed"

Trump and his minions did everything they could to overturn the results. In front of many Judges. In many different jurisdictions. Not a single Judge said a single case had merit. Not one. Zero. Not even the Judges that Trump himself had appointed.

Which makes me wonder ... what the fuck would have to happen for you and your ilk to believe that Trump had no case? Would it take the hand of Gawd/ess him/er self writing it on your forehead do the job?

Honestly, the mind absolutely boggles ...

jake Silver badge

Re: "[they] lacked standing to pursue the case, and that they’d sued the wrong target"

I referenced the entire site.

But thank you for admitting you are cherry-picking to support your premise. Confirmation bias is an ugly thing.

jake Silver badge

Re: "[they] lacked standing to pursue the case, and that they’d sued the wrong target"

Have you actually read the silly journal for yourself? Or have you just cherry-picked a bit that seems to back a claim that you have made? It's all there, in black and white, for anybody to read. Shirley you don't need me to explain the big words for you ...

Mark Zuckerberg, 36, decides that having people on his website deny the deaths of six million Jews is a bad thing

jake Silver badge

Re: Morals and values?

We learned it from the best.

Ever hear about so-called "smallpox blankets"? They came about during the siege of Fort Pitt, during Pontiac's War in 1763. The United States didn't exist yet. It was English Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, who ordered the germ warfare. He wrote in a footnote of a letter to Colonel Henry Bouquet on July 16th, 1663 P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execreble Race.

In other words, he was knowingly attempting genocide under the authority of the Crown. Nice group of folks, you Brits. Have you hugged your Golly today?

Lay down your souls to the gods of rock 'n' roll: Conspiracy theorists' 5G 'vaccine' chip schematic is actually for a guitar pedal

jake Silver badge

Re: I notice

Statistically meaningless? Wow. Just wow.

I suppose in your mind the over 170 deaths per 100K in N&SD vs CA's 67 deaths per 100K is also statistically meaningless.

No bloody wonder you're posting AC.

jake Silver badge

Re: California

California just crossed 2.5 million confirmed cases last night, and the US as a whole 21 million. Note that these are both cumulative, and includes folks who have recovered.

The SF Chronicle has kept this page up to date since March.

The best over-all US stats page I've seen yet is here. (CA-only version).

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