* Posts by jake

26591 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

Page:

Chromium devs want the browser to talk to devices, computers directly via TCP, UDP. Obviously, nothing can go wrong

jake Silver badge

Re: But look at the response to April in the Twitter thread

"Who's calling who "legacy"?"

"Legacy" is used at Boardroom Level to indicate stuff the youngsters don't understand because they don't bother teaching it in school anymore. It must be eradicated at all costs, because it's not new and shiny.

If you want to see a C-suite member go apoplectic, point out that all his financial assets are handled by Legacy Mainframes running Legacy COBOL and Legacy Fortran.

jake Silver badge

Re: But look at the response to April in the Twitter thread

You forgot one:

TCP/IP: 1975

jake Silver badge

Re: Brilliant

"Google really have lost the plot"

They haven't even read the CliffsNotes[0] from what I can tell.

They see that familliar black & yellow "under construction" sign, and all they comprehend from that point forward is the Almighty Buck .... and fuck everyone and everything that they trample in its pursuit.

[0] That'd be Cliff's Notes if you are my age ...

jake Silver badge

Re: Trustworthy?

You mean you haven't banned Chrome yet? Why ever not?

jake Silver badge

Re: Trustworthy?

"I was forced only the other day to fire up Chrome"

Forced? Were they holding a gun to the head of your firstborn or something?

Or do you mean "I had to because SHINEY!!!!1!"?

Oh what a feeling: New Toyotas will upload data to AWS to help create custom insurance premiums based on driver behaviour

jake Silver badge

"They won't be outlawed per se, the registration fees will just continue to rise until the car is worth less than the annual taxes."

Not here in the US ... That would put people who can't afford a new car ("poor people") at a distinct financial disadvantage. The courts will never stand for it.

And again, if any politician even hints that s/he/it might support such an idea, they will most likely find themselves tarred & feathered and run out of town on the rail.

jake Silver badge

Re: good joke

Yeahbut ... those "black box insurance deals" were not only optional, but you were fully informed as to their nature, and what they were doing. This new telemetry that is built into cars? Not so much.

Audi, Subaru, Opel, BMW, whatever took the fancy of the local prats in your jurisdiction (it varies from country to country, state to state, county to county) ... Chances are good that they couldn't lie their way out of it anyway, before automotiveSPYware started becoming inflicted on the rest of us.

Essentially, automotiveSPYware assumes that all drivers are criminals. I don't do business with companies which assume I am a criminal, and thus they have a right to invade my privacy without so much as a by-your-leave.

And for GAWD/ESS sake, don't you DARE hit me with the totally bogus "If you're not doing anything wrong, what have you got to be afraid of?" line of bullshit. Unless, of course, you have a plate-glass window to the outside world installed in your shower. You're not guilty of anything whilst showering, right?

jake Silver badge

Re: I'm trying to remember

You mean they will lie through their teeth to make a sale?

Yep.

jake Silver badge

Re: I'm trying to remember

Yes, I do expect them to be aware of it. How else will they be able to lie convincingly to the GreatUnwashed?

jake Silver badge

Re: That's settled, then.

What did I say to deserve THAT insult, Sir? I'm appalled.

jake Silver badge

Re: That's settled, then.

I don't carry a so-called "smart" phone. In fact, I rarely carry any cell phone at all. I see no need to always be electronically leashed to the rest of the planet.

jake Silver badge

Re: eCall only activates when there's been an accident

"but since the accused were found guilty, then I guess that's all for the good."

Unless the accused weren't actually the guilty party, of course.

When and why did our society decide that an accusation was proof of guilt? Seems that it has become more and more the norm with the rise in anti-social media.

jake Silver badge

Re: Not as easy as you might think.

These old cars aren't owned by "the rich"[0], who don't drive their garage queens anyway. Rather, they are owned and driven by blue collar workers, the middle class poor, the GreatUnwashed, and yes the farmers and other rural folks (a far larger group than you seem to think). By some estimates, there are over 50,000,000 vehicles on US roads that are over 40 years old. That translates to a LOT of votes.

If you attempt to get rid of what these people perceive as their legacy, as a politician you will be in the bread-line right next to them after the next election. The slimy bastards know it, too. It ain't going to happen.

[0] Whoever that is in a first world country ...

You *bang* will never *smash* humiliate me *whack* in front of *clang* the teen computer whizz *crunch* EVER AGAIN

jake Silver badge

Re: How you really fix an Amiga 500

"pushing the DIL RAM chips and others back into IBM PCs"

That feeling under your thumb, almost like you had just busted a very thin sheet of glass as the pins individually snapped back into place, each according to how much friction it took to shift 'em ...

jake Silver badge

Re: mea culpa - always check compatibility

"I'm not entirely sure what my oldest "active use" tech is."

This would make an interesting ElReg column ... and probably the longest comments section ever. For the record, the oldest bits of computer kit I use regularly are printers ... an IBM 1403 from 1963 (plus a parts machine from 1960), and a Xerox Daisywheel from 1976.

jake Silver badge

Re: No unplugging required

"circa 1974, no "just telnet in" option"

I'm fairly certain I had telnet on a PDP-11 in 1974 ... See <a href="https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc206.pdf</a> ... However, for that particular problem, I'd have probably used dial-up. Regardless, I would have completely missed the cleaner. For some things, absolutely nothing beats boots on the ground :-)

jake Silver badge

Re: took his hammer and smashed it to very tiny pieces

They are called "mortisers" or "mortising machines", depending on where you are on the planet. I have an ancient one that is foot powered (inherited from my grandfather), but you can purchase mains powered versions for your home woodshop if you do a lot of that kind of work. As usual, beware of the cheap ones made of chinesium, unless you want to spend your money again.Consult a local woodworking group for the best deals in your area. (Be careful here, too ... woodworkers are almost as religious as audiofules. Do your homework. Caveat emptor.)

Note: Learn the mortising process with chisels before trying the powered tools ... Electricity allows you to make bad mistakes a lot faster than doing it by hand. Mortises are three dimensional. Measure eight times, cut once.

jake Silver badge

Re: took his hammer and smashed it to very tiny pieces

"One of his stories was being given a design which required him to make a square hole in a timber component to take fitting a square-shafted fitting. Once he was left to get on with it he drilled an ordinary round hole, then got the fitting and a suitable hammer..."

The square hole is called a mortise. For smaller versions, most people drill out the bulk of the hole, and then finish it with a chisel. For timberframing, I use a couple of different chain mortisers ... and often still wind up finishing it with a chisel for a perfect fit. Hammering the proverbial square peg into a round hole is just asking for the joint to fail at an inopportune time.

If you are handy and have never done any timberframing, I recommend giving it a try. It's a sturdy, long-lasting method for building almost anything out of wood ... the first project I made was a figure-four mailbox stand, the second was a coldframe. Both are nearly fifty years old and show no signs of failure.

jake Silver badge

Re: With great power comes great incompatibility

For future reference, they make locking outlet covers that fit over an inserted plug or plugs, preventing the removal of same. The locks are trash, easier to pick than a file cabinet, but they work for this kind of thing. Under twenty bucks, and usually in stock at your favorite purveyor of sparky stuff.

jake Silver badge

Re: took his hammer and smashed it to very tiny pieces

Mine range from the 10x10x24 inch Douglas Fir mallet that I use when assembling timber frame bents to a small brass one that I use to tap pins back into clockworks and the like.

Horses for course & all that.

jake Silver badge

Re: With great power comes great incompatibility

No need to replace plugs, just separate the cleaner from the keys ...

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the cleaning staff. It's their job to clean the place, floor to ceiling, board room to bog, watering plants, replacing dead light bulbs & emptying the trash in their wake. The modern world wouldn't run without janitorial staff. Extending this to include the labs that evolved into computer centers in the 1950s wasn't even thought about, it just happened. Janitorial staff having the keys to the entire kingdom (as it were) was the norm.

But computers are fickle. And jealous. They don't appreciate sharing power with vacuums.

So we in the glass room started putting our collective foot down in the late 1970s/early 1980s. It wasn't until the late 1980s that it started becomming uncommon. By the late 1990s it was as rare as hen's teeth. The last time I witnessed a janitor coming unannounced into a data center "in the wee hours" was 2005 ...

'Get out of my office, you're being a pest!' Yes, son. Toymaker releases work-from-home-themed play sets

jake Silver badge

Re: Stuff that, I want one of these!

Cops in this part of the US are supposed to sample the effects of the taser as part of their training, too. I have no idea if this is true in all jurisdictions nation-wide, but it ought to be IMO.

I've tried to track down real stats for taser use, too. I can't find anything that isn't obviously tainted from either the pro or anti camp.

jake Silver badge

Re: Stuff that, I want one of these!

"I wonder if you can still buy luncheon meat?"

Looks like it. Princes, of course. Not recommended, if it's anything like the product I sampled back in the '70s.

jake Silver badge

Re: For a home office, set boundaries.

Yeah, we've had a long time to practice. Doesn't alter the concept I was trying to convey.

jake Silver badge

Re: Stuff that, I want one of these!

Did you note the saddle-broke Crocodile, nicely accessorized with a cannon? Who needs sharks with lasers?

(Not sure I'd want that cannon firing if I was at the reins, though ... )

jake Silver badge

Sounds like a plan. When do we start?

jake Silver badge

Re: Stuff that, I want one of these!

To be fair, the police don't claim that stun guns are not dangerous. They say that they are "less lethal". Which is the absolute truth.

How many people who are a threat to the general public and/or themselves have been zapped and taken into custody, none the worse for wear (and alive, good to waste everybody's time and/or hurt somebody, as soon as the 72 hour hold is up), that would otherwise have been shot and potentially killed with conventional firearms? Last time I looked, the numbers were in the high tens of thousands.

jake Silver badge

For a home office, set boundaries.

I never had an issue with my kid "bothering me" when I was working. They key is in the setup ... Up here in the office, I have two desks. One is for the myriad of Ranch businesses, the other is for my computer consulting business. The wife, kid(s) & dawgs[0] know not to disturb me when I'm at the consulting desk, unless it's an emergency. Compartmentalization and teaching the boundaries to all and sundry is key in any home office.

Household business happens down in the kitchen.

[0] The cats even cooperate, at least for the most part. Go figure.

jake Silver badge

Re: Stuff that, I want one of these!

Careful ... it's probably classified as an illegal offensive weapon in Blighty.

jake Silver badge

Is this gonna be forever?

No, not forever. But it sure seems that way to the short-atterntion-span-theatre YouTube Generation.

Not now, Gartner. We've had enough of the future to last a lifetime: Meet 'Formative AI' and 'Algorithmic Trust'

jake Silver badge

"Algorithmic Thrust"

That was Martin Gardner's jazz/blues band, right?

jake Silver badge

Re: Spin

On the bright side, there is good money to be made picking up the pieces when it all comes crashing down. The fun part is that, as a consultant, your job is to tell management that they have fucked up yet again, and cost their company $megabucks through their own ineptitude. The second (third, fourth, ... ) time around you can even say "I told you so!" if you play your cards right.

jake Silver badge

Re: Other noted features on the Gartner Hype Cycle not mentioned in this article include...

The Glade of (pick one):

— glorification

— glitter

— glamorization

— glossiness

— glitches

— glitz

— glop

— glaring

jake Silver badge

Has anyone ever proven ...

that water is wet and the sky is blue outside the lab?

Doesn't the act of proof imply a lab, of one description or another?

jake Silver badge

And most of it slides down and winds up rotting on the floor.

Someone please have mercy on this poorly Ubuntu parking machine that has been force-fed maudlin autotuned tripe

jake Silver badge

Re: Thanks for the tips

Yes, I know how and where it is used. I can hear it, as can anybody who has an ear for music.

Now guess why I don't intentionally listen to tunes on the radio anymore.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Full fledged consumer desktop environment?

Are you working with a subset of busybox?

Typing busybox at the command prompt should give you a list of commands compiled into your version, along with other info.

Note that busybox might also be your init! See the link above for more.

Yes, working with a subset of the tools we all know and love is a pain in the ass ... but most of those devices are built down to a price, and RAM/ROM quantity suffers. The fact that the manufacturer doesn't expect the consumer to actually use the CLI doesn't help any. In a worst case scenario, you might be able to flash a FOSS firmware solution that'll make your life easier.

Have a beer, relax, slow down, think about it. First, do no wrong.

jake Silver badge

Full fledged consumer desktop environment?

Shit, that thing probably has a full developer environment on it. Why bother with a targeted sub-set of the DVD when "install all" is a mouse-click away?

As we all know, having the full GCC system on a parking kiosk somewhere in the wilds of Scotland might come in handy someday. Might be fun to switch the language to Tagalog ... and the calendar to Julian. They left in the options, so we might as well use 'em, right?

jake Silver badge

Re: Thanks for the tips

Strangely, autotune filtered vocals always give me a splitting headache. No idea why. Thankfully all such so-called "music" is crap, so I'm not exactly missing anything by avoiding it.

You there. Person, corp, state. Doesn't matter. You better not shoot down or hack a drone. That's our job – US govt

jake Silver badge

Re: This is solvable

"so the privacy of one's backyard is already irretrievably lost."

My "backyard" is about 2,000 feet from the nearest property line. We have had drones chasing the livestock (laying hens, sheep, dairy cows and a very young colt) and peeping at a group of soccer moms taking part in a synchronized swimming exercise class. What say you now?

jake Silver badge

Re: Hypocritical

The 2nd Amendment says nothing about shooting drones. In fact, it doesn't say anything about shooting period. Really. Go read it for yourself. Its pretty easy to parse, being just the one line.

With that said, not buckshot. Goose loads, modified choke. Handloads optimized for your particular firearm work best. Good out to 80 or 90 yards, maybe 100 if the weather cooperates and the shooter has clues. Any duck hunter worth his/her salt should have no trouble taking out drones if they are in range.

Whoa-o BlackBerry, bam-ba-lam: QWERTY phone had a child. 5G thing's newly styled

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Thanks for the laugh.

I see your point, and make one of my own. Some of those tapes actually go back to Peel on Top Gear (no, not that one).

Thanks for the link, I'll be adding to my collection. Put your money away, I'm buying.

jake Silver badge

Re: Thanks for the laugh.

Following up to myself ...

That was the group Manfred Mann, pre-Earth Band, in '68. Brain fart. And wonder of wonders, I found the John Peel version, which to the best of my knowledge has never been officially released. You can hear it for yourself, if you like. Might want to borrow a copy have a listen before Auntie Beeb nukes it.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: A beer for the headline alone.

The only question is, how long have they been waiting to use it?

Note: ElReg is a 7-day-per-week Red Top, not just Sundays.

jake Silver badge

Re: Thanks for the laugh.

I think you meant Lead Belly. You can skip ahead to 1:05 for the familiar refrain if you don't like real music.

Manfred Mann's Earth Band released a version in '68, nearly 10 years before Ram Jam. I have a version of them (MMEB) doing the song live for John Peel on the BBC ... it is a bad[0] recording to cassette off the radio dated '72, digitized many moons ago.

For an up-to-date nod to the old classic, see Mason Rack Band's cover ...

[0][ Bad is relative. It's better than some of the remaining examples of Robert Johnson's tunage, all of which is quite worth listening to ...

You'd think 1.8bn users a day would be enough for Zuck. But no. Oculus fans must sign up for Facebook

jake Silver badge

One fewer thing to spoil the nieces & nephews with.

I will not contribute to companies who insist on having their hardware phone home for absolutely no reason.

Regardless of the spin they try to put on it, they are SPYING on their customers.

Fuck 'em, and the horse they rode in on.

How to have a more positive 'outage experience' according to Microsoft: Please don't rely on the Azure Status page

jake Silver badge
Pint

Sounds like a plan.

I'll get this round in :-)

jake Silver badge

I don't believe they are inevitable.

In fact, quite the opposite.

My personal email/FTP/Usenet/Shell account system has been online, and available to whoever has an account, since Flag Day. That was January 1st, 1983, when we changed from NCP to TCP/IP. It had already been running for a number of years, and probably would have survived the change, but I chose to reboot everything at midnight, just to come up from scratch.

Note I said "system" ... it's multi-homed, multi-OS, multi-hardware, multi MTA (and etc). ... redundancy is fitted in everywhere I can fit it. It started as a Thesis platform when I was at Uni (three locations: at SAIL, under Bryant Street in Palo Alto, and at MAEWest), and now is spread out on six continents.

Over-kill for a home system? Absolutely. But as a research platform, she's mostly tax deductible. It scales well, and parts of the concept are in place at several Fortune 500s. They should see similar uptimes for the bits they use, barring the almost inevitable catastrophic human maliciousness ... and even then, systems are in place to minimize that kind of damage. Maintenance at this stage of the game is on the order of minutes per month, and that's mostly just scanning the logs for anomalies.

We've come to wish you an unhappy birthday: Microsoft to yank services from Internet Explorer, kill off Legacy Edge by 2021

jake Silver badge

You're decades late, Microsoft ...

... seeing as many of us killed off Explorer over two decades ago.

And once bitten, twice shy, that same many never installed Edge in the first place.

What's that? You have a third browser, also called Edge? Why on Earth would anyone with more than a handful of working brain cells expect your third attempt to work any better than the first two abject failures?

Thanks for the info, but no thanks for the code. Come back after nuking your entire code-base and starting from scratch. Then, maybe, we'll talk. But I doubt it.

jake Silver badge

Re: good riddance

You don't need a browser to download a browser. Instead, use FTP:

ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/

Kids these days ...

Page: