Posts by Blank Reg

You can only diffuse the energy so much before you would have been better off just putting solar panels on the ground.

Re: This is not news......just old news re-written in a "cloud" wrapper......

The problem is that far too many people think that the way they do things is the only right way, even though the only reason they do things the way they do is because that's how they've been doing it for years.

Re: Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)

In much of the USA you can fire someone for no reason at all, so it really doesn't matter what the FDA says

Years ago when I worked for a large wireless telco we bought an expensive fault tolerant Tandem. Sure enough it was wired to a single circuit

Re: Stop the pandering!

Well, that is often the problem. If you're an asshole and you're at the bottom of the corporate ladder then you will likely get fired, unless you're the star developer in which case they might overlook it. It gets worse though when the management includes assholes who then hire more assholes. Or the worst case is someplace like Uber where it really did seem to start at the top

Re: Wasting their time

Years ago while programming T1 boards I learned that I could set whatever I wanted for the 'A' (originating) number. The network didn't check and just accepted anything. I don't know if it's still as wide open as it once was, but I get plenty of calls with fake originating numbers so it's still a problem.

Re: Linux phone

Couldn't do that, but I at one time I had worked on DTMF for so long that I could tell the number pressed by the sound. And for fun I'd dial a phone just by repeatedly pressing the receiver button/hook flash in the appropriate pattern, kind of like Morse code, only easier.

Re: "You don't get through the process of hiring unless you're really, really good"

Really? Maybe that's a local thing because here I've been told by people I know at Amazon, Google and Facebook that I'd make an extra 15-30% if I took a position at at any of them. I'm well paid already so the extra isn't enough to make up for the downsides.

Re: Ecological vandalism

Do you really think destroying these prevents others from buying more?

So instead of selling them and having them reused will have more manufactured which will then consume yet more resources.

Re: We had the "cloud" back in 1975

And the PSTN/POTS was usually depicted as a cloud in most diagrams

Re: Your headline reminds me...

I don't know how anyone can stand it. it smells like burning dog crap

Re: Questionable methodology

No, Objective C was always an abomination

Re: Land of the free

These too big to fail companies would fail less often if they focused on the long term rather than the next quarter. Cap executive salaries at a couple hundred thousand with any additional compensation coming in the form of stock with a 5 year vesting period.

And make stock buy backs illegal again to get rid of some of the stock manipulation shenanigans. Then they will actually need to manage the company in a sustainable manner if they want to make the big bucks

Re: The Japanese…

I've been to Japan many times and every time I encounter some new weirdness. There is so much weird that weird is normal

Re: Sharks

No need to rail guns, we just need man made sharknadoes

Re: Gold

It's not even good as a reserve, when markets tanked last year, bitcoin tanked twice as much. Gold on the other hand did quite nicely. It helps that gold actually exists and has real world uses, though of course the value of gold also relies on speculation for a good chunk of it's value.

That's likely a problem for many charities. If they pay enough to get good people then they are seen as wasting money. On the other hand paying below the going rate gets you the dregs that couldn't make it in the real world

Re: Let's move away from remuneration shall we, and consider the wider society

I drive in the snow for fun. When we do have a rare heavy snow fall then I'm out driving the back roads at high speed.

Re: There’s one born every minute

Tally up all the prizes and it's not even a years salary for an Amazon engineer so it really is a good deal for Amazon if they find anything significant

Re: Surprised?

yes, I've often said that his one skill is failure

Re: I am no lover of the Chinese political system

I doubt there is a high enough concentration of miners anywhere for them to be a factor in planning new power generation.

But let's assume there is. So you suggest the run during off-peak hours? How long do you want bitcoin transactions to take? They are already stupidly slow, this will just make it even slower.

Re: I for one commend IRON

Sure but with those 100 cents I could buy a donut last month, I can still buy a donut today, next month I'll still be able to buy a donut and it ten years I may need to kick in an extra quarter for that donut.

On the other hand last month you could buy a Lexus with a bitcoin, this month maybe a Honda, next month will it be a 1972 Lada or a Ferrari? Who knows? The answer is no one, and that's just one reason why it's not a currency

That may be feasible for images but is likely too time consuming for video. Though so far I've yet to see a deep fake video that I couldn't detect was a fake fairly easily

Re: 64 years old, $390K retirement package

It surprising that it even got that far. Here in Canada all it usually takes to improve a low-ball severance package is a letter from a lawyer. Most companies know they are won't get away with it and will just pay up the going rate. In IT, at his age and with his experience it should have been in the range of 18-24 months.

Re: Masks and the Flu

Pre-covid there were at least a couple of universal flu vaccines in clinical trials. If they pan out then we'll always be ready regardless of which strains becomes most prevalent each year. But covid probably slowed down the clinical trials, it must be hard to test when there are so few people getting the flu.

To be fair I'm sure none of these people do their own taxes. But still I'd feel pretty guilty about claiming petty tax credits meant for the poor and middle class if I were sitting on billions. But then I'm not an asshole.

Maybe the intent is to sow doubt about all their communications. If no communications channel can be trusted then that will hamper their ability to coordinate

Except that shiny orange metal actually has uses, and therefore has some intrinsic value. Crypto currencies have 0 intrinsic value and are far more volatile.

It's 100% speculation, basically a greater fool market. You can make money as long as you can keep finding a greater fool than you who will pay more than you did.

Re: How to tell if you're stupid.

Yes the repair people are 100% liable here. They should know better and must be held accountable.

On the other hand I've told my kids to never take a photo that you wouldn't want to show your grandmother. Either by accident or by malice there is a good chance such photos will one day end up where you don't want them to. And once that happens good luck purging them from the internet.

Re: Good

You're probably right, but in this case I think it's worth the effort to try and make it happen

Re: Go for it

Not all governments think that way. Here in Canada we don't make nuclear weapons despite having the capability to do so. In fact Candu reactors may be the best at turning weapons grade nuclear material into something less explody.

Re: "misbehaving cores"

Replacing CPUs is the easy part. Detecting that a CPU needs replacing because it makes a mistake once every ten thousand hours is the hard part.