* Posts by jake

26591 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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Move over, Kraftwerk: These musical instruments really are the robots

jake Silver badge

Re: sloppiness

"sloppy" is both an ambiguous and a relative term ... Listen to Cyndi Lauper for "good" sloppy, or Madonna for pitch-perfect no-slop. Madonna and her autotune always gives me a splitting headache, where Lauper doesn't.

Note that I'm not particularly fond of either performer, I just chose two that I'm fairly certain most readers would be familiar with.

jake Silver badge
Pint

As an engineering project, I applaud.

As a musician, it's dead inside. It will always be as unlistenable to as so-called "vocalists" who require autotune ... and for the same reason.

A beer for creative engineers the world over ... without them, we wouldn't have all mod cons.

Current tunage: Robert Johnson's Come On In My Kitchen

Cleaner ignored 'do not use tap' sign, destroyed phone systems ... and the entire building

jake Silver badge

Re: Where's Jake?

Working. I send my four permanent field-hands down to visit their family in the Yucatan for a couple of weeks around solstice/new years every year. While they are gone, the Wife and I take care of feeding and cleaning up after the livestock, turning them out, along with everything else we do around here. This year, we gave 'em an extra two weeks off because they haven't been down there in a couple years (Covid).

Compound that with the weather, and ElReg has (mostly) been on the back burner.

Weather? In California? What's that? ... Well, today is only the third day without rain for the last three weeks. We've had at least half an inch of rain every other day. Several times we've had over three inches in a day, twice over four. In total, we've had well over half our average yearly rainfall since Solstice. Not a lot compared to some parts of the world, perhaps, but for California it's been wet.

I'll be picking up the hands at the airport tomorrow around noon, just in time for another storm to roll in. Hopefully we've managed to keep the place up to their standards, or they'll be giving me shit about it for weeks.

Native Americans urge Apache Software Foundation to ditch name

jake Silver badge

Re: Bit ridiculous

"Why are we always the evil masterminds :D"

For the same reason late-night infomercials on TV are often hosted by somebody with a supposed Brit accent[0]. It stands out to the intended audience.

[0] Daft thing is many of the accents are faked ... and a good portion of them are not Brit, but rather Aussie, NZ, SA or other ... and the faked ones are often about as bad as Dick Van Dyke's in Mary Poppins. Quite jarring to people who can tell the difference.

jake Silver badge

"I think we should all be named using symbols"

We are.

jake Silver badge

Nobody else has asked, so I will.

Have the so-called "Natives in Tech" bothered to actually ask the Apache what their take on the situation is? Or are they just shooting off their mouths, being offended on the behalf of others, who probably don't give a shit one way or the other? It's not exactly likely that nobody who is Apache has ever noticed this use of the name.

I rather suspect the so-called "Natives in Tech" should stick to policing their own. If THEIR tribe is offended by the technical world appropriating their names/symbols/etc., fair enough. But don't speak for somebody else without permission. It make all y'all look like you're trying to make a power-grab ... and trust me, you are NOT in charge of this. The Apache are, if anyone is.

jake Silver badge

When are we going to ban the use of "Washington" as a name?

Ol' George was a slave owner.

And of course the Americas have to be renamed ... Vaspucci was a liar, a cheat and a fraud.

jake Silver badge

Irish coffee is named after the Irish Whiskey in it, not Irishmen. I've addressed German's Chocolate Cake below.

Sourkraut is German, and means "sour cabbage", and dates back to at least the 1630s. The Yank term "kraut" meaning "a German" only dates back to the 1850s. As usual, context is everything ... ESPECIALY when using loan-words in English.

One green beer that I'm aware of that was fairly palatable was Neptune's Green Rooster, but sadly I've heard that Carlsburg bought the name and ruined the brew ... So yes, green beer probably should be banned as undrinkable swill.

jake Silver badge

"The cake is named after its creator, whose surname was, you guessed it, 'German'"

Actually, it was originally named "German's Chocolate cake" after the "German's Baking Chocolate" brand included in the original recipe. The guy who came up with the formula for the chocolate's name was named Samuel German. The actual inventor of the cake recipe was one Mrs. George Clay, of Dallas TX.

"much like how Caeser salad is named for the chef"

The Ceaser Salad was named after the casino in Tijuana, Mexico owned by Ceaser Cardini. History suggests that Alex, Ceaser's brother, was the guy who who came up with it (and the associated floor-show). The salad was originally named the "aviator salad", but customers started calling it "ceaser's salad"because that was the only place they could get it. While I'm at it, contrary to popular belief, a proper Ceaser Salad does NOT contain anchovies ... except those that are included in the formula for Worcestershire sauce, which is part of the dressing.

How to track equipped cars via exploitable e-ink platemaker

jake Silver badge

Re: Stick them on a Tesla.

Don't give the idiots any ideas ...

Is anybody reading ElReg not tired of explaining why, exactly, so-called "digital zoom" isn't all that useful?

jake Silver badge

Re: Stick them on a Tesla.

I know of many cities here in Northern California which have done away with speed cameras ,,, mainly because they cost much more to operate and maintain than they bring into the city as revenue.

jake Silver badge

Re: Stick them on a Tesla.

"Come on Cops you have the CCTV... why don't you prosecute them. It is not as it you have to go out in the rain and cold to nab them is it?"

Have you seen the sorry images that most .gov controlled CCTV cameras produce? It's almost impossible to see what people are doing on those cheap-ass pieces of shit, much less ID a perp or read a plate ... and that's before all the the bird crap & etc. that builds up on the lenses.

The things might be a deterrent, but it's not because they produce usable pictures.

jake Silver badge

Re: Stick them on a Tesla.

Here in California, Tesla drivers are taking over from the holier-than-thou Subaru drivers who think that "doing their part to save the world" means they can ignore all driving laws whenever they like. BMW drivers take a back seat to the other two in this travesty of a triumvirate.

jake Silver badge

Nobody, and I mean nobody ...

... could have predicted this debacle. NOBODY!

Except the collective wisdom of the ElReg commentardariat, of course.

Mixing an invisible laser and a fire alarm made for a disastrous demo

jake Silver badge

"the wrong serial cable for the UPS"

Anybody know if the APC C* who signed off on that 'orribly advised decision has ever "worked" in the industry again? I'd like to avoid anything he or she has his or her name on ...

jake Silver badge

"quite small (about 30 centimetres long, with a 3cm diameter) but definitely dangerous looking lasers."

Sounds like a late '70s or early '80s design HeNe. Red beam, 632.8nm, most likely under 5mW. The power supply for these can give you quite the zap (around 2500V at 5mA), but the output is fairly benign, as long as you keep it away from the eyes. Useful at over 1000 yards/meters under ideal conditions with proper collimation. Cheep and cheerful, but bulky by today's standards.

jake Silver badge

Portability. Power cables are easy in ways that water pipes are not.

And portable water cooling tends to get bulky and heavy in a hurry.

jake Silver badge

Lasers and scared "clients", number two.

Many moons ago, maybe 1983 bright and early one fine morning I was on the roof of the old Ford Aerospace Building One on Fabian in Palo Alto, trying to re-align a new laser network link to a building across Hwy 101. I got tackled by a couple largish MPs ... Seems that some military big-wigs were about to arrive to inspect one of our satellites (unlaunched, being built in the high-bay), and the two security guys heard someone talk about "jake's up on the roof with the laser, that should sort 'em out". Myself and the two talking about me were detained, taken to a small room & questioned. Seems the security detail wasn't all that versed in the power output of a 5mW HeNe laser, in their tiny little brains we were conspiring to roast the brass.

We had the last laugh. The laser link was part of the demo that the brass was there to observe. We were "rescued" from the grilling after about an hour, and allowed to get on with it. The security guys got a very public dressing-down from a rather technologically cluefull Colonel (in full dress) for wasting his time ... After we concluded the demo, the Colonel sent the security guys to get pizza for lunch and sat & ate with us, discussing the ins & outs of "modern" wireless (laser) networking.

jake Silver badge

Dunno if I terrified him, but he about crapped himself ...

Back in December of 1993 I was setting up a laser T1 link between Redwood City and Newark. The clueless owner brought me a burrito for lunch ... and hung the bag on the fucking laser!

I swore, he grabbed tor the bag, and got greasy fingerprints all over the glass.

Have acetone, ethanol, DI water, q-tips and lens paper, will travel ...

jake Silver badge

Cooling fan(s). Of the same era (maybe a trifle earlier), think Cisco AGS routers and desktop PDP-11 kit. Early 1980s to mid 1990s was peak fan noise, when processor and bus speed nearly outran the technology to be air-cooled. Lots of money went into heat transfer technology in this time period. Such tech also helped with the physical down-sizing of lasers and etc.

Forget the climate: Steep prices the biggest reason EV sales aren't higher

jake Silver badge

Re: Too expensive, too heavy, too range limited

Some Prius 12V "auxilliary" batteries are in the trunk (boot), some under the hood (bonnet), depends on the model/year.

For a battery under the hood (bonnet), jump as usual.

For those with the battery in the trunk (boot), there is a positive tab specifically for jumpstarting inside the fuse/relay panel under the hood (bonnet). It has a red cover on it marked with a + ... connect your positive (red) jumper cable to this point, the other (black) to any unpainted surface under the hood (bonnet). Pretty much everything else about jumping the car is the same as it always was.

If the above doesn't work, you can also connect directly to the battery in the trunk (boot). Jump as usual.

As always, read your operators manual, as variations can exist from year to year, model to model and trim level to trim level.

Source: Client with a dead car in the barnyard and a minute or so with DDG.

jake Silver badge

The King of the Road don' need no stinkin' Roomba.

jake Silver badge

The sticker price ...

... the lack of parts and repair services, range anxiety, buggy software, no recycle path, the sheer uglyness of all (most?) offerings ... need I go on?

That and the market is pretty much saturated. Those that want one, have one ... and most of those don't want another. (Based on my observances here in Sonoma, Napa, Mendocino and Lake Counties, California.)

First satellite to be launched from European soil leaves Cornwall tonight

jake Silver badge

Re: Marketing notwithstanding, it's not taking of from "European Soil".

"And anyway, the Scots would be mightily pissed off!"

Why? Shirley they'd get the contract for the tugs (which would never be used) ... Lots of loot in that kind of project!

jake Silver badge

Re: Marketing notwithstanding, it's not taking of from "European Soil".

Airplanes "take off". Rockets "launch".

The transport took off from Cornwall. The rocket launched somewhere over the North Atlantic.

jake Silver badge

Re: Marketing notwithstanding, it's not taking of from "European Soil".

Regardless. we were talking about Cornwall and the North Atlantic.

jake Silver badge

Re: Marketing notwithstanding, it's not taking of from "European Soil".

It's not soil amendments that the folks in charge of the RDPs live for, rather it's rule amendments. So I rather suspect that the answer would be a highly qualified "yes" ... with no actual way to meet the qualifications. But they'll spend YEARS working on it. Taxpayer money isn't going to spend itself!

jake Silver badge

Marketing notwithstanding, it's not taking of from "European Soil".

It is being transported from Cornwall to the launch site, over international waters in the North Atlantic.

John Deere signs right to repair agreement with US ag lobbyists

jake Silver badge

"per subscription or sale,"

Fuck right the fuck off, John Deere. Your so-called "deal" stinks worse than a buzzard full of week old dead skunk sitting on a manure spreader in the noon-day sun.

(signed) An American Farmer/Rancher

jake Silver badge

Re: Who is the liar?

John Deere is the liar.

Next-gen Qi2 wireless charging spec seeded by Apple

jake Silver badge

Efficiency is in the eye of the echo chamber, apparently ...

"Wireless charging is significantly less efficient than charging via wire, requiring as much as 50 percent more energy by some measures."

Shirley all the greenaholics should be whining about how wireless charging is destroying the climate/environment? Why the deafening silence on the subject?

Non-binary DDR5 is finally coming to save your wallet

jake Silver badge

Re: Let's get rid of this 1 GB = 1024 x 1024 x 1024 nonsense too then

To be fair, the entire PDP-10 line could use from 1 to 36 bit bytes at the whim of the programmer.

For example, ASCII was usually stored in 4 8-bit fields (7 for ASCII, 1 for parity) per 36 bit word, leaving 4 bits at the whim of the coder (see: SAIL's SAILDART archive system [WAITS on PDP-10], for example).

jake Silver badge

Re: Non-binary memory?

"Unless you have proof of the contrary."

Who needs proof ... the GreatUnwashed read it on the Internet, so it must be true.

jake Silver badge

Re: Non-binary memory?

"Since it's not inherently obvious"

Don't be disingenuous, it's unbecoming.

Dark means night, dangerous. Light means daytime, not so dangerous. It's been that way since all of humanity had dark skins and were dodging sabre-toothed cats and other similar nocturnal hazards.

jake Silver badge

Re: Jeebus, got me worried there

Hardware manufacturers have been shipping systems requiring more money to activate "dark" hardware since IBM started doing it in the 1950s.

C: Everyone's favourite programming language isn't a programming language

jake Silver badge

Re: Nothing new...

"certain classes of problems don't arise"

One man's problems are another man's clever kernel hacks.

Not all clever kernel hacks lead to show-stoppers ... but Rust removes some of that capability from the hands of experienced coders.

Nobody with a brain ever said production kernel coding is a neophyte sport. Nor should it be.

Southwest Airlines blames IT breakdown for stranding holiday travelers

jake Silver badge

Re: Does anybody know....

"Stop, think and solve the problem."

The GreatUnwashed? Think? Really?

What are you smoking? I'd like to avoid it.

jake Silver badge

Re: Outdated scheduling software?

Yes to both. I've even heard filk. Hard-core Trekkies are nothing if not thorough.

No, I'm not ... but I know quite a few. Came with the territory.

jake Silver badge

Re: Blame the Computer

Can't fly out on another airline when everybody's grounded.

Normally, there are other aircraft in the loop being made ready to fly when a crew is rested and ready.

Why am I reminded of an old Nixon for President bumper sticker?

jake Silver badge

Re: Outdated scheduling software?

The problem is that their scheduling includes multi-point loops, as opposed to most other airlines, which use use hubs. Means that the other airlines usually have an aircrew available for any given aircraft that is ready to fly, but these clowns have a miss-match between available aircraft and crews, and when many aircraft are grounded due to weather it compounds.

jake Silver badge

Re: Outdated scheduling software?

"And flight volumes were 1/10th of what they are today."

In the same time, computers have gone from thousands of instructions per second (IBM's System/360 Model 30 could do 34,500 IPS in 1964) to many billions of IPS in modern multi-core mainframes. Memory, storage and I/O have more or less kept up. Between them, they should cover the change in flight volume more than adequately.

"Crew/Aircraft scheduling systems make 3D Chess look simple."

The basic algorithm for passenger aircraft hasn't changed appreciably since it became an issue in the '50s... and 3-D chess doesn't really exist as a thing (Star Trek's famous "tri-dimensional chess" was just a prop, with no rules to go along with it).

jake Silver badge

Outdated scheduling software?

Shirley the blame is on whoever allowed (and still allows) that particular software to be used, right?

It's a poor craftsman that blames his tools & all that.

I remember flight scheduling working quite nicely in the '60s, so how old IS that software, anyway?

Intel settles to escape $4b patent suit with VLSI

jake Silver badge

Re: "investigate the validity of the company's patents"

Either that, or I am allowed to live with cats and observe/interact with them ... and I'm smart enough to learn from my mistakes.

jake Silver badge

Re: "investigate the validity of the company's patents"

If you had actually read it in the early 90s, you would have said "on Usenet", not "on NNTP".

You are Eadon, and I claim my 5p.

jake Silver badge

Re: "investigate the validity of the company's patents"

Back in the day, we had a friend who decided to try the cat/toast theory. The surprising thing is he survived ... but he now goes by the nickname of "Lefty".

jake Silver badge

VLSI and SCO were both founded in 1979. Both companies made some really awesome hacks, used all over the industry. Later in life they were sold, and then sold again. Along the way, they stopped being useful in the technology world. Both now only exist as shadows, just names on paper that are used to sue people for using technology they claim as their own.

jake Silver badge

Re: "investigate the validity of the company's patents"

"Because jurors make the very best patent examiners."

Especially jurors in Texas, apparently. The judges there must be specially trained to instruct the jurors in the fine points of each patent. I wonder how much that training costs ... and who pays, and who gets paid, and what the going rate is.

jake Silver badge

Re: "investigate the validity of the company's patents"

Actually, the USPTO refuses outright to even look at perpetual motion machines, so-called "working model" or otherwise. Most sensible thing they've ever decided.

Since humans can't manage fusion, the US puts millions into AI-powered creation

jake Silver badge

Re: Nothing new.

Last time I checked (10 years ago (ish)), SAIL's original DECtape "Permanent Files" from 1966 to 1972 and then the 7-bit DART tape archives (Dump And Restore Technique ... essentially full system backups of the SAIL PDP-10), from 1972 to 1990, were available to researchers at Stanford's Green Library (in "The Digital Collection"). Access is (was? see below) restricted to people who have permission from the original authors.

I know there was some effort to put all that into a more modern archive format, and then put the results online, right around the turn of the century. I do not know how far the effort managed to get.

Note that the interaction between SAIL and SLAC (and The Big Dish folks) mostly wasn't official, but tapes between the three were exchanged fairly regularly. SAIL mostly helped with knotty algorithm wrestling on large (for the time!) data sets, robotics, and imaging..

The following map shows how close these three campuses are to each other, with the main Stanford Campus upper right. The now sadly demolished D.C. Power[0] building, where SAIL was located, is currently home to Portola Pastures, a horse establishment (bottom center).

https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4071914,-122.1815786,4723m/data=!3m1!1e3

[0] Nothing to do with Electricity ... it was named after Donald C. Power, a corporate director of GT&E, who had built the building as a research lab, and then gifted it to Stanford. Lore has it that SAIL (originally SAIP, "Project") got the last part of it's name from the building ...

Back to work, Linux admins: You may have a CVSS 10 kernel bug to address

jake Silver badge

Re: This does not belong in the Kernel

"If you need *that* level of performance (and you might), why are you using SMB?"

FTFY

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