* Posts by jake

26584 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007

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We've never even built datacenters using robots here on Earth

jake Silver badge

Nobody implied that. Read it again.

jake Silver badge

Re: Too Alien a Concept for Production and Man Factoring? Or already something to worry about?

Why on Earth would somebody spend the time and money to build and program robots in order to build a datacenter, when it would be both cheaper and faster to have the folks building and programming the robots simply avoid the middle-bot and build the datacenter outright?

Keeping your head as an entire database goes pear-shaped

jake Silver badge

Re: Every time I see

"Cue retrieving dead laptop from skip.. and pulling the HDD for copying"

What kind of company throws a laptop in the skip without destroying the HDD?

jake Silver badge

Re: Backups

Yes. And as a one-time member of DEC's so-called "flying squad", I'm here to tell you that we were often advised that, although it would be quite functional, and would lead to overall efficiency of IT operations at such sites, we were NOT allowed to throttle the IT Director. Yelling at the twat was allowed, however, which I'm sure helped minimize our blood pressure.

jake Silver badge

Re: Backups

I occasionally build data centers for a living. As a result, I get to test that Big Red Button, pretty much whenever I like (it's in the contract) ... It's not nearly as much fun as you'd think.

jake Silver badge

Re: Backups

Back when I worked for Bigger Blue (late 1970s), on Fabian Way in Palo Alto, we'd kill the mains power at 3PM on the last Friday of every month to ensure that the battery would carry the load long enough for the genset to warm up enough to take over. In the event of failure, everyone went home early with two hours pay ... This last never happened while I worked there.

jake Silver badge

"smashing the stack" is geek-speak for just one of many types of buffer overflow.

The tldr version: If you put 10 pounds of sugar into a 5 pound bag, you'll be able to stand on the resulting pile and reach the cookies on top of the fridge.

World’s smallest remote-controlled robots are smaller than a flea

jake Silver badge

Re: Do you expect me to talk, Goldfinger?

Bond wears Y-fronts?

Who knew.

jake Silver badge

Re: You Will All Be Assimilated

The concept was well known in SciFi long before the borg were thought up.

jake Silver badge

Re: "The heat is applied remotely through a laser"

Assuming you can convince people to allow tiny metal spiders into their mouth, these things aren't strong enough to handle a lot of standard dental work. For the bits they are strong enough for, they move too slow to be of any use.

jake Silver badge

Re: "The heat is applied remotely through a laser"

"Stay perfectly still as we adjust the laser(s) to make our robot(s) walk into your crevice(s) at the rate of 0.25mm/second."

That'll go over well at the surgery ... Presumably they will offer free psychological counseling after each treatment?

And how are they made to move after they are in said crevice(s), out of range of the laser? Endoscope? If so, why bother with the robots?

Salesforce staff back an end to its relationship with NRA

jake Silver badge

Or to put it another way ...

Salesforce workers used the mass shooting to push marketing and fundraising of its cloud based CRM software.

"It is unconscionable to consider their use of mass shootings to capitalize on their cloud marketing," said jake.

jake Silver badge

Re: Anti semitic ????

I refuse to purchase anything (including vacations) from ANY terrorist state, not just Israel. Would that be illegal?

jake Silver badge

Re: "How do we protect our 2nd amendment & our kids at the same time? "

Beware of what you ask for, even in jest. The Republicans are working on it.

Original killer PC spreadsheet Lotus 1-2-3 now runs on Linux natively

jake Silver badge

Re: Bring back Quattro Pro

Quattro Pro is still available from Corel, as part of their WordPerfect office suite. Standard edition $250, student edition $100. See:

wordperfect.com

Yes, you can get there through the corel website.

Personally, I'll stick to LibreOffice. Seems pragmatic, somehow.

jake Silver badge

Re: Lotus 1 2 3

Lotus never properly grasped the concept of the GUI, and so 1-2-3 had been pretty much EOLed by Excel when IBM bought it in the mid '90s ... which coincidentally was pretty much when people first started fiddling about with mousewheels. Lotus/IBM never bothered to include mousewheel capability, despite IBM selling Lotus products for nearly 20 years after the purchase.

Enough history ... The real reason I'm typing this is a bit of a heads-up ... I have seen various bits of utility software that purport to make the mousewheel functional with 1-2-3, but every single one of them have turned out to be malware. Be careful out there.

jake Silver badge

Re: Not Perfect

Fortunately you could (can) tell WordPerfect to emulate the WordStar keystrokes, so that argument never held any water.

Incidentally, you can easily tell vi and EMACS to emulate WordStar or WordPerfect, if you like.

jake Silver badge

Re: Is simpler really better?

Try it for yourself. I have.

Turns out I can create and print a document using Wordstar, or create and print a spreadsheet using Visicalc, or create a simple database using dBase (all running on DOS 3.3) MUCH faster than I can perform the exact same task(s) using anything that Redmond is currently pushing.

jake Silver badge

Re: WordPerfect

Early PCs creaked when you did much of anything.

jake Silver badge

Re: Word Star

The DEC VT-50 (1974?) was optionally available with current loop (20mA). I have four or five squirreled away, just in case (I think two are still out on loan to the The Computer History Museum ... thanks for reminding me). Other early DEC terminals were also available with the current loop option, but I don't have a handy list, nor any physical examples.

jake Silver badge

Thanks.

You've triggered my PTSD over the ELF to COFF changeover. I thought I had put that one to bed a decade or more ago. Now I'll probably have nightmares for weeks.

jake Silver badge

Re: Never mind 1-2-3

No past tense here ... my 1403 is still cranking out reams of paper when I need it to. Yes, under Linux. Or BSD, occasionally. I've got a working Xerox Daisywheel, too, but that was made in 1976 ... The 1403 is dated 1963.

jake Silver badge

"Microsoft offered its own version of Unix, called Xenix."

Xenix was not Microsoft's version of anything. Xenix was AT&T's bog-stock PDP11 UNIX Version 7 source, rebranded by Microsoft and offered to other companies "as is" to port to their hardware of choice. Microsoft was essentially a reseller of AT&T source code licenses. The reasoning behind this was because at the time, MaBell wasn't allowed to sell in the commercial sector for anti-trust reasons. MaBell's lawyers decided that jealously guarding the UNIX name was important, thus the name change by Microsoft. As a reseller, Microsoft was allowed to use it commercially as an internal OS for reasons (legal grey area).

jake Silver badge

Re: Never mind 1-2-3

The Epson LX-300 is mere babe in arms. IBM's 1403 is a true grizzled veteran.

IBM-powered Mayflower robo-ship once again tries to cross Atlantic

jake Silver badge

Re: The Scam of the Year

It's a little after sunrise. Overnight, the thing ran at 46% prop, 0% solar (duh!), showed 53 volts (on a nominally 48 volt system), and the battery stayed at 87%. That's every time I checked on it, probably every hour and a half or so.

In other words, this supposedly solar boat ran on diesel all night long, and didn't even attempt to top up the battery, even though the 53 volts is probably the proper voltage to charge it. Note that with a 21.9 kW generator, the prop motors running at half power each makes sense if they are not topping up the battery.

Solar my ass. It's diesel-electric. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

jake Silver badge

Re: The Scam of the Year

I should note that that 44 hp(~33kW) is the power at the flywheel ... the electrical output is 21.9kW, continuous.

jake Silver badge

Re: curse of El Reg?

About an hour later. It's definitely dead in the water and drifting.

Currently heading just North of East (91°) at 1 knot, no prop speed, same rudder angle of 0.6 to starboard, 50W of solar, 87% battery.

It'd be nice if IBM included a lat/lon reading on that page ...

jake Silver badge
Pint

The Brits don't really have a Navy of their own anymore, so they have to denigrate the American's. It's all they have left. Just smile sadly, nod, and walk away.

Or offer 'em a pint. Poor blighters could use one, and they are hardly the enemy.

jake Silver badge

Re: Urban Legend

Thoroughly debunked in the Usenet newgroup alt.folklore.urban back in '97ish (I'd go check for the exact date, but the goo-tards destroyed DejaNews, unfortunately. Seems an ASCII archive is beyond their technical expertise.)

You can read the gist of the debunking at snopes.com ... note the date of the article.

For those of you who intelligently don't blindly click on links:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/the-obstinate-lighthouse/

jake Silver badge

Re: The Scam of the Year

Are you suggesting there are no diesel generators, veti?

From here, and judging by the press on the previous breakdown, the diesel generator is, in fact, the primary power plant. The solar panels are just auxiliary window dressing, there to make the scientifically ignorant greenaholics happy-happy. There is no way that boat has enough square inches for its solar array to power a pair of 20kW electric motors all by themselves, not even under perfect conditions.

jake Silver badge

Re: curse of El Reg?

As I type (about 1:30 Pacific time) The boat looks to be dead in the water.

Telemetry claims 1 knot at a heading 117 degrees (ESE), The prop seems to be stopped, and the rudder angle is 0.6 (which seems to be it's resting state). It has 87% battery power and solar is providing just under 140W.

jake Silver badge

Re: The Scam of the Year

The big one charges the motor battery pack, at 48V apparently. The small one (perhaps a Fischer Panda AGT-DC4000?) charges the battery for the electronics, probably at 12V. And absolutely zero redundancy ... neither can be used to do the other's job in a pinch.

Brilliant.

Note! I'm not dissing the gensets, they are good units! Rather, I'm dissing the application.

jake Silver badge

Re: The Scam of the Year

At least the FISCHER PANDA AGT-DC 22000-48V is actually designed for a Marine environment.

For those not in the know, this genset is run by a 1.5l turbocharged Kubota V1505T diesel engine putting out 44hp (~33kW). One suspects that it would be much more efficient and more environmentally friendly to just attach it[0] to the propeller(s) and get rid of the fancy electronic middleman.

[0] Or rather, a version of the same engine built for that roll, as opposed to built to be a constant RPM battery charger.

jake Silver badge

Re: Just maybe

If it were THAT intelligent, it would avoid the East Coast, head for Panama and then up the Pacific Coast to any port North of Morro Bay.

jake Silver badge

Here's the "crew".

https://mas400.com/people

Probably not a hell of a lot of peach-fuzz left on that lot anymore.

I must say, though, it's a hell of a lot more folks than I would expect for a project of this size and scope. I was expecting maybe ten, total, given that IBM was involved[0]. Methinks there might be another issue:

Designed and engineered by committee.

[0] Ever see IBM field engineers in lots of fewer than three?

jake Silver badge

It would be weird for the electrical system of any other ocean-going vessel, yes.

But not this boat! It has AI! Who needs redundancy when you've got AI?

jake Silver badge

Re: What is the actual goal?

Isn't it obvious? It has AI!!!!!!1!!!one!!!11!!!

Clearly it must be the best boat ever.

Version 251 of systemd coming soon to a Linux distro near you

jake Silver badge

Re: They call it progress

You really don't have the foggiest idea of what you are babbling about, do you DrXym?

jake Silver badge

Re: They call it progress

You are not even wrong.

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: "you can expect it to feature in the next version of your preferred distro."

Steady on, old chap. Show at least a little decorum.

jake Silver badge

Re: "you can expect it to feature in the next version of your preferred distro."

"Nope. Ever heard of geek humour?"

Rumo(u)r has it the dinosaurs suicided because their version of Millennials wouldn't stop telling the same "jokes" over and over and over ... The survivors, who still found it funny after many generations, eventually turned into chickens.

"Besides, cancer doesn't begin with a D, even I know that."

No, but Daemon does. I'm tryin' m'best to cast one out ...

jake Silver badge

Following up to my own post ... I should know better than to post late-night. (Why bother with the follow-up? Because someone might run across this someday. Hopefully it'll help at least one person, eventually.)

That's /etc/slackpkg/mirrors

You can also run slackpkg install-new before upgrade-all to pick up any new packages PV has added to the distro. This is rare in -stable, but can be common in -current.

A web page to keep an eye on for changes to the distribution:

slackware.com/changelog/

Need I tell you to please pick the mirror that is logically closest to you?

A host is a host from coast to coast

And no one will talk to a host that's close

Unless the host (that isn't close)

is busy, hung or dead. —David Lesher

jake Silver badge

Re: Support Slackware!

I think if you dig into it, you'll find there is a lot more than one person working on Slackware.

It is on a shoe-string budget, though ... but then it always has been. PV manages to muddle through, though, as he has for over a quarter century. I agree that it'd be nice if more people would contribute.

jake Silver badge

Re: Just as the internet 'routes around damage' ...

You obviously missed the "takes a little longer" bit. We're not done yet.

jake Silver badge

Re: access to the source code

"Linux-heads believe that since FOSS allows everyone to have access to the source code, it is thereby established that everyone SHOULD understand that source code and be able to work with it."

\

Oh, bullshit. Nobody ever said that, except Microsoft shills spreading FUD.

What we are saying is that it's there for anybody who cares enough to read (and/or fix), unlike the commercial competition where you are stuck with wherever Marketing decides you have to go today.

Perl Steering Council lays out a backwards compatible future for Perl 7

jake Silver badge
Pint

Re: Backwards compatibility

You've spent how long, just in this thread, bitching about what exactly?

During the meanwhile, in all the years I've been using perl (a third of a century, give or take), I've wasted exactly zero seconds worrying about this non-problem.

Life's too short. Relax, have a homebrew.

Or, you could bop over to the perl forums and try to get the people who can actually make the change you want agree with you. That, at least, would be constructive ... if probably an equal waste of time.

jake Silver badge

Re: Sensibly written

Any language can be written to be unintelligible to the uninitiated, even English ... but I would wager that the more unintelligible the code can be made to appear while still doing exactly what the programmer intends, the more powerful that language is.

jake Silver badge

Re: Backwards compatibility

Some people use steam engines on current projects. My 1915 Case might only make 65HP[0], but she'll also happily deliver upwards of 1200 ft/lb of torque. Quite the handy bit of kit.

[0] That 65 HP is burning scrap wood. She makes about 70 at the flywheel on coal (according to an ancient belt-driven dyno), but have you seen the price of anthracite recently? And no, I'm not going to burn low-grade coal. I'm the guy who has to work on the ol' gal. Likewise, I don't burn pressure treated wood.

jake Silver badge

Re: Backwards compatibility

"These people would still be using steam engines if they could."

I still use a steam engine (more formerly a traction engine, specifically a 1915 Case) to plow my bottom land. She's the only tractor I have that'll pull the 12 bottom in that soil (rocky, with a very high clay content). Are you seriously denigrating this very useful tool?

Likewise, I can show you successful businesses that are still running 40 to 50 year old COBOL and Fortran code. Not everything old is useless.

Shall we mention the Voyagers?

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