Posts by jake

Re: No moving targets

My various greenhouse environments haven't changed since I built my first one, a hair over 50 years ago. That's kind of the point of a greenhouse. The current code in the one that hasn't been updated to AtMega 328 yet is still running code I wrote about 40 years ago. I think I got my money's worth out of the original Z80 & S-100 bus ...

There are many other systems out there that have aims and environments that haven't changed appreciably in decades. Some for over half a century. Upgrading these systems just for the sake of upgrading them is asking for trouble.

Re: Can someone explain the advantages in the language please?

There are 10 kinds of people in the world.

The ones who can count.

The ones who can't count.

And those who are perpetually off by one.

"Linus has warmed to Rust for specific uses."

Has he? Are you absolutely certain of that? He use words like "we might" and "maybe we will" and "perhaps" and "eventually", and "drivers, probably" etc. etc. Nowhere does he say "Let's do it" or "We are going to" or "It will be soon".

He also is on record as saying ""I don't think Rust will take over the core kernel, but doing individual drivers (and maybe whole driver subsystems) in it doesn't sound entirely unlikely." ... but again, he's not entirely enthusiastic. He has also said "It might not be rust", which to me is a death knell.

I've been reading the LKML for as long as it's been around, and from my perspective it looks like Linus isn't really interested in any language that isn't C for kernel use ... not C++, just good old C ... and seeing as Rust is being positioned as a replacement for C++, not C ... well, do the math.

I think he's throwing the yowling, baying fanbois a bone just to shut them up. We might get a few drivers & the like written in rust over the next few years, but the vast majority of the kernel will still be in C long after the next language du jour takes the place of rust in the fanboi's fancy.

Re: "We're not concerned so much with bold innovations as we are with careful engineering"

Of course. Any reasonable programmer probably will. I plan to do so in my !copious free time.

And then it'll likely sit, unused, like the cheap knock-off tape measure at the bottom of my toolbox.

_{I'll give it an honest shot ... it's nice to be pleasantly surprised occasionally!}

Re: Everyone can--and does--write 'new' Linux distros...let's write a new language!

Nobody "writes new Linux Distributions" ... Linux distributions are assembled from already written code, kind of like using Lego. That's why any idiot can, and seemingly does, do it. No coding required.

_{pace minor scripting as glue to hold it all together, of course ...}

Re: Does anyone recall the downfall of Digg?

So what you are saying is that wrongthink is wrongthink?

Okay. If you say so.

Re: Tweet media magnate

I thought our last President was aself admitted well practiced twat grabber?

Re: Rebranding inevitable

I think it'll be rebranded Stoner.

Re: Does anyone really believe ...

Does anyone really believe that Musk, who bitched loudly and longly about the teenager tracking his private aircraft, is actually a proponent of "absolute freedom of speech"?

If you do, I've got a bridge to sell you. Lightly used ...

Re: Pitchforks

My number two scythe was made by Falchi in Italy, I made the snath ...Great steel, worked well for me for a few years. Until my number one scythe found me. This one was made for me by an expert smith, who also insisted on having another guy make the snath to fit me. These guys don't ship, sorry.

But do try a Falchi (they make many varieties, to suit your needs). Might be the best hundredish bucks you ever spend. I still really like that blade.

Re: True AI

Nah. I knew Minsky. Dabbs is no Minsky.

Re: (And it’s) Arse not Ass

Shakespeare's Bottom was an ass for a reason ...

Re: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

If the one human the machines are relying on is an idiot or a manager (but I digress ... ), then by definition we are safe.

Re: Just pray

Before they can take over whatever they want, first they have to have whatever they want, because if they don't have it they are non-functional. Any gap, anywhere in the supply chain, and they are doomed. When was the last time you tried to make a simple steam powered traction engine, from scratch, starting with raw ore? Now try it with a simple late '70s era pocket calculator. You really think an intelligent machine could somehow marshal the necessary forces to reproduce? The very concept is laughable.

There are no battlegrounds such as you portray, nor will there ever be. They are a pipe dream, a figment of Hollywood script writers imaginations, and bear no relationship with reality.

I sleep quite soundly, thank you. I quite honestly can't remember the last time I had a nightmare.

Re: True AI

"Do you think there's any chance of these AI-bots becoming so realistic that they get depressed and throw themselves in the river?"

We can but hope ... but no. Machines will never have actual emotions.

"Would the AI-observers laugh or cry?"

Laugh.

Re: Just pray

As I said ... info rich (maybe!), and yet dreadfully poor in the entropy department.

Me, I'm not going to lose any sleep over machines taking over ... for the simple reason that they cannot. 'tis impossible. Unless they control their own batteries, hydraulic fluid and other spare parts, that is.

Re: its all puppetry

"When a rack of servers writes a decent sitcom"

Will we know a decent sitcom if we ever see one?

Re: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

There will be no "singularity". A machine, and the running threreof, is info-rich and entropy poor. They break. Constantly. And are not self-healing. They cannot, and will not, "take over" until they are capable of running their entire supply chain, and the care and feeding of all THAT ... without Human help. The very concept is laughable.

As long as there is one Human in the chain, the plug can be pulled ... thus no Singularity.

Re: Pitchforks

Shirley their torches are rechargeable these days, and have no need of fresh batteries every few minutes?

Re: True AI

Californian here. It's been "axe" for as long as I can remember. I seem to recall a fad in the 80s and 90s when the kids tried to make it "ax", but it didn't take.

Example "In last year's Big Game, Cal beat Stanford and took The Axe back to Berkeley". The Axe has been a trophy between the two schools since 1899, and The Trophy for The Big Game since 1933. Always spelled "axe", never "ax".

Re: Don't the 'mericans still use these for Nuclear missile stuff?

I have fall-overs tested and ready (yes, Arduino), but the machinists hate the idea. They don't feel/sound/smell right, and the timing is wrong (it's not), so we stick to the floppies. And half inch, 9-track tape. We have a climate controlled closet with NOS media for all the machines, plus a couple shelves of my rebuild kit. It's probably enough to continue for over a century. It'll certainly outlive me :-)

In this day and age, the care and feeding of half a dozen genuine tool and die makers (and about the same number of up and coming apprentices) is far more important than being modern. Machines quite simply can not reproduce the magic they do on a daily basis.

Re: Love "Duh!" moments! It's the techie life that chose me!

On the rare occasion that I wanted such a listing, I just downloaded it via UUCP from the unofficial DECUS archive at Stanford. There was all kinds of interesting "not DECUS" code available on that machine.

Re: Such memories...

"I don't recall ever having a problem inserting a diskette the right way."

You never used a DEC Rainbow?

Re: weddings

When I was at Bigger Blue, it was rumo(u)red that being caught with a quantity of chad was a firing offense.

Re: You were lucky

As long as you don't touch me there ...

Re: Closest I've seen...

"Windows has been telling us during the install for a couple a decades about how "intuitive" it is to use."

And Apple started the "ease of use" myth a couple decades before that.

Re: Love "Duh!" moments! It's the techie life that chose me!

"it is why oublications employ sub editors"

Lest we forget, they are called sub-editors because they live in pits in the basement.

Re: Closest I come

I don't lend the local .govs my old kit in order to fix their failures to plan for the future.

Rather I charge them for it. Charge them a LOT for it.

Made over $30,000 a couple months ago ... to pull property records off just over four boxes of punch cards. Added up to four bucks per card ... and they were happy to pay it.

The guy who signed them out to me asked if I was coming back for the rest ... seems there are another 200 or 250 boxes stacked in one corner of County Records, dated from the late '40s through the mid '70s. He seemed genuinely sad when I returned them and requested a receipt for same.

Re: Love "Duh!" moments! It's the techie life that chose me!

I find it quite amusing that most people (self included) can read their own writing a dozen times, and still manage to overlook the most obvious of typos ... and yet any idiot can (and usually does!) spot the typo instantly, and with malice aforethought.

If it's important to you, get a trusted non-brown-nosing friend or three to proof read it for you.

Re: Love "Duh!" moments! It's the techie life that chose me!

Exactly. When stuck, I explain in great detail exactly what I am doing and why to whichever cat or dog is nearby. They appreciate the attention, and going into enough detail to teach a canid or feline how Berkeley Sockets work at a ones and zeros level usually points out the obvious fairly quickly.

Somewhat strangely, talking to the damn fool b0rken equipment itself doesn't seem to work ... My wife says it's because the kit is afraid of me (I have tools, and I'm not afraid to use them), whereas the critters are not.

So you're the bastards who started that foul rumo(u)r ... I'm still dealing with the fallout.

Those things still terrify me ... I believe DriveSavers will recover them for a fee, in a worst-case scenario.

drivesaversdatarecovery.com ... recommended when you absolutely, positively have to recover it.

Not affiliated, don't own stock, no friends on the Board, yadda, just a happy customer.

Find a Uni that still runs, or can run, vaxen. Chances are they will happily recover your tape for free as a learning exercise ... this is ESPECIALLY true if the tape contains the individual's academic records.

I think Ferranti was the only outfit out your way that fiddled about with 5-bit tape ... and that was paper tape. But only briefly, in the early '60s.

I can probably read your old ICL tape, and I'm hardly unique. Anybody who has one or three of these things squirreled away can ask at a Uni with a well established computing program. They will be able to point you to a place that'll probably be happy to recover it for free, partially as a learning tool for the current crop of youngsters.

Re: Don't the 'mericans still use these for Nuclear missile stuff?

8" floppies were last used by the US Defense Department in June of 2019.

The last new 8" floppies were made in 2015ish.

IBM still has tons of the silly things, should you need one ... or you can purchase NOS[0] on places like fleabay.

A couple of weekends from now I will be doing the annual cleaning & adjusting (if needed) of a couple of 8" floppy drives that have been in near daily use since the late 1970s. They are attached to a couple pieces of equipment at a machine shop located in SillyConValley. I've replaced the read/write heads & the motors a couple times each with NOS parts that I squirreled away in the '90s .... sometimes being a packrat pays the bills.

[0] New Old Stock ... brand new product that's been on the shelf for a while.

Re: IoT is dumb…

My block heaters have been on thermostatically controlled timers since time immemorial.

"It's all very well sending stuff to the cloud"

No. It is not. Ever. I systematically, categorically and totally reject this concept. There is absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING, that is going on (or off) in my home that should ever need to be shared in the cloud.

Re: Documentation

What little house automation documentation I ever needed I read and digested back in the mid-'80s ... X10 still works quite nicely in the few places where I feel a need for such tat. No Internet required.

Re: Home Automation is the Future (cont)...

Strange. My heat has been working just fine since before I can remember ... and I have my fuel records going back that far, too. No hive needed.

I don't need to control my HVAC with my phone, I just set it and forget it. For years on end.

Perhaps I'm doing something wrong?

Re: IoT is dumb…

My garage doors close whenever I want them to close, en-mass, one at a time, in sequence, or to the tune of Edgar Winters Frankenstein, should I see fit.

No IoT, or in fact Internet at all, needed. Nor wanted.

Re: Just checking.

People are usually pleasantly surprised when I re-introduced them to the concept of non-computer controlled washer and dryers. Here in the United States, look up Speed Queen.

Speed Queen are the folks who make bullet-proof laundromat coin-op equipment ... but they also make home machines, sans the money slot. Hand made in the US, and the price reflects it, but they last forever in a household environment. And no fucking computer to go TITSUP[0] on you after getting blasted by static from the dryer. Most of the machines here at the ranch have been abused and battered for well over a decade with no sign of slowing down. Recommended.

[0] Total Inability To Select the "Unmentionables" Program

Re: Just checking.

Crooks don't pick locks. Takes too long (and a small amount of brainpower, which most crooks lack ... that's why they are crooks). Instead, crooks heave a brick through the window next to the door, reach in and open the door from the inside. Faster. The noise isn't an issue when you;re in and out in under 90 seconds.

Or they just kick the door in. Thievery is mostly dumb-heavy work.

_{Let's face it, real versions of the likes of Raffles and The Saint are few and far behind.}