Posts by jake

Re: Outdated scheduling software?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.}

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?}

Re: Outdated scheduling software?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.

Re: Outdated scheduling software?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).

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

Re: face god and walk backwards into hell

Who?

Re: Ughhh...

As I said ... all that needs to be said is the reality that the chain of custody is so tainted that not even Trump's failed lawyer (the dis-barred Giuliani) could get any traction out of it. It's not a thing to anybody but the terminally brain-washed trumpephiles.

Re: Clean Up In Aisle 3!

"I am also rather flabbergasted by the poll results so far."

It's obviously taking the piss ... but us Yanks have already been bitten by the Trump arsewipes once. Nobody wants to see that happen again, even in jest. BoJo is the next candidate on the idiocy scale.

Re: I think me

You want the job, therefore you aren't qualified.

Re: Ughhh...

"Just give it a rest."

They can't. It's all they've got.

If you really want 'em to shut up, ask 'em about the chain of custody. Or lack thereof.

The Biden laptop is a non-issue, and always has been, simply because of the lack of a clear chain of custody. It is not admissible as evidence in any court in the US. Won't stop the anti-American folks in charge of the next Congress from wasting the next two years trying to prove otherwise, though.

Re: Mr Broadus Jr.

As a Californian, and most definitely NOT a Republican, yes. Da Governator did a pretty good job. Quite a bit better than most.

Re: Obvious answer.

I was thinking Joe "Tailgunner" McCarthy.

"Twitter is infested with Commentards. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to Saint Elon as being members of the Commentardariat and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy here at Twitter."

Or maybe J Edgar Hoover ... that fetching little black dress would help pacify at least some of the crowd.

Re: Obvious answer.

Nah. John would steal all of Elon's pot.

Re: What exactly is the edge?

That's Digital Equipment Computer Users Society.

Yes, DECUS had symposiums. Yes, the late-night back rooms were where the action was. (Where do you think CES attendees got the idea?) I was one of the guys babbling about BSD on PDP-11 to anyone who was interested. Still am, come to think of it ...

Re: Best way NY airport to Downtown

About a billion years ago (in Internet time, call it 1985ish), I was booked on an "emergency" flight to LAX to fix some computers for Disney. I got the call at noon, was in the air by 1PM. Unfortunately for me, the Disney offices were in Glendale, so I should have been flown into BUR ... which might as well be on another continent at 4PM on a Wednesday if you're using wheeled transportation.

Fortunately, helicopters exist. I was only 2 hours late. My fault, naturally.

Did the job, staff came in Thursday morning & were happy with the change, customer signed off on it at noon, and I was home in time for supper. Job well done, right? Maybe not ...

The PM (or necropsy, as I prefer to call such things) showed the temporary secretary assumed that everything in the LA area had to go through LAX ... but it was my fault anyway, as I should have known better & flagged the bogus destination before I boarded, This despite the fact that my instructions were oral "Take this briefcase full of hardware, fly to LA and install it. You will be met at the airport and taken to the site. Further instructions by telephone will follow." I didn't even know the name of the destination company until I was on the ground in LA. But my fault, so no bonus for the emergency call. It was right about then that I started thinking about going freelance ... it was also the incident that caused the company to outfit us emergency field service guys with new-fangled DynaTACs.

Re: What is this shit?

It's not a fee to drive somebody out of the airport. It's a standard fee to drive to a specific location. One fee for Manhattan, one for The Bronx, one for Yankee Stadium, etc. This is to stop unscrupulous cabbies[0] from doing several laps around Central Park, followed by a quick lap of Hoboken, just to to bump up the fee.

And quite frankly, fifty two bucks from JFK into lower Manhattan (13-14 miles, a trifle over half an hour on a good day) is a fair price[1] ... Sure beats walking!

[0] Not that such a thing would ever exist, of course. Honest as the day is long, those NYC hacks ...

[1] Drive it yourself once to find out. You'll never do it again ... Guess how I know.

Re: IBM Model F Keyboard Horrors

"I have lots of pre-IBM-PC keyboard experience"

So do I.

I also still have and use lots of pre-IBM PC keyboards. Your memory is perhaps viewed through rose tinted glasses? There is no way I would consider any of the pre-F keyboards that I own and/or have used superior to the F as shipped with the 5150. The backslash key placement never really bothered me. The wells in the keycaps just assisted with feedback for a touch-typist. IMO, of course.

And of course there were so many new keyboards appearing at that time that we were used to switching between them.

The AT version of the Model F, that one pissed me off and I had to do some serious keyboard remapping. I never did find out what idiot decided that the <esc> key belonged with the 10-key. From that point onward I just re-mapped pretty much every keyboard to suit myself. Even the Model M that eventually replaced the Model F in the AT line.

I still primarily use a (remapped) Model M. Best keybR0ad ever made for the touch-typist, IMO.

Re: brush up on your touch-typing

This isn't the latest IT, this is the latest haberdashery.

But yes.

Re: 30 Years-Ago Apricot Keyboard

In 1982, every keyboard but the one you were used to using was strange. As such things went, the F was less jarring than many others. For one thing, it actually had an <esc> key! Kinda handy for us vi users ...

_{Is the inital design of the LK201 further proof that Ken Olsen hated UNIX?}

Re: 30 Years-Ago Apricot Keyboard

"It has all the ergonomic horrors introduced by IBM on the original IBM PC's keyboard"

Eh? Not sure what you are talking about ...The IBM Model F was known as the best keyboard available for ANY personal ("micro") computer at the time.

Zero nanoseconds?

In my case, almost an eternity ...

I high-sided a bike at Thunderhill once. At about 140 MPH ... a friend & I were practicing drafting, and swapping the lead back and forth ... He cut in a trifle early and my front tire hit his rear as we were accelerating out of a sweeper. Not good with hot sticky race rubber. I remember thinking "Well THAT was a daft thing to do! This is going to hurt. Pull in your arms & legs & get ready to roll. Shit, the wedding is in a week, SWMBO is going to be PISSED! I wonder if I'll be able to get a beer in the ER? Hopefully Doug will get the bike back to the house for me." and then I hit the deck and was rolling through gravel. I wasn't in the air for more than a tenth of a second or so.

No hospital, just a badly bruised knee. I drove myself+bike home. Made the wedding.

SWMBO still laughs at my limp in the videos.

_{That reminds me, I must call and ask if one can get a beer in the ER ... and if not, fix it.}

Re: Great learning tool?

"Even proving working code from a year ago probably needs changes because the language, IDE, or engine has been updated."

No mention of the underlying solution to the problem at hand? Is the algorithm not important anymore?

We used to make it work, then make it pretty. These days, it's the opposite ... and strangely enough the finances STILL seem to run out before that second phase is implemented properly.

Re: Lower barriers to entry

AI can't lower that threshold. Never will be able to, either.

Re: I, Robot. You, Stupid.

"Could we be on the verge of another AI winter"

I think it started a couple years ago, but the investors haven't noticed quite yet.

Re: The paper begins

The only issue with that quote is that programming is NOT about putting code on paper. Programming is finding a solution to a problem, and then translating that solution to code.

Writing code is EASY, any idiot can do it. Even AI.

However, there is no lowering of the barrier to finding the initial solution.

Re: Some say there is nothing new and everything is bested with/in a re-run

Shirley that should be "Unfurl the SAILs"in the amfM canon.