Posts by Down not across

At one place where I worked I had SS10 and I loved the speaker box that was shipped with SS10s.

Re: Unix was always diverse

I relied heavily on uucp and also C-Kermit as most things had a serial port.

They only had a 10ft pole.

They would've needed a 2000 to maybe 7000ft stick.

Re: Rate your skill level

Ideally, a good developer should be able to look at a query plan and tell you what is wrong with it.

Instead we get "the database is slow!"

Once eventually pointed out the query plan (and often the initial design) is crap they then require constant hand holding in trying to resolve the issue.

Now, there is nothing wrong with needing some help, after all the DBAs are likely to have more knowledge of the RDBMS in question and be more aware of quirks/pitfalls/bugs. However, at least reasonable base level of understanding of databases (if developing code that uses a database) shouldn't be too much to ask.

GM V8 in a Yugo

You're not that far off... how about 2 500cid 460 hp Caddy V8s (ideally not used simultaneously...)

Re: Gwynne Shotwell

Reminds me of Suckling Airways' AMS-CBG flights with their Dorniers. More often than not the landing on CBG was sideways due to crosswind.

Re: Murky

Well, that's them on my "Do not use. Do not recommend. In fact recommend to avoid" list then.

Re: What is the advantage of lubricants over Hydrofluoroethers

For example, 1-methoxyheptafluoropropane is Non-flammable, non-ozone-depleting, Non-corrosive, High electrical resistivity of about 10^11 Ω·m (roughly the same as glass). Boiling Point (@ 1 atm) 34°C (93.2°F). Freeze Point. -122°C (-187.6°F). Typically sold as 3M Novec 7000 Engineered Fluid.

The Engineered Fluid are more like a solvent though I thought. I'd rather use 3M's Fluorinert (which incidentally is what Cray used to use too although current ones tend to be clear rather than coloured) if i was looking at immersion cooling.

You might be suprised how many would volunteer for that trip.

Re: So what fuel will be used ?

Fuel or propellant?

Anyway, the article was short on details but the news bit at DARPA emits this:

Nuclear thermal rockets have been built before, so DRACO has a head start. About 50 years ago, the technology was tested on the ground. DRACO is now leveraging lessons learned from past NTR reactor technology, but instead of using highly-enriched uranium, DRACO is using high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel to have fewer logistical hurdles on its ambitious timeline. As an added safety precaution, DARPA plans to engineer the system so that the DRACO engine’s fission reaction will turn on only once it reaches space.

Fission, the same process used for nuclear power, is the splitting of atoms. It creates high levels of heat that can turn rocket propellant such as hydrogen from a liquid to a gas phase. In the NTR, that gaseous propellant is accelerated out a converging/diverging nozzle in the exact same way as a conventional chemical rocket engine. The high performance of an NTR is enabled by the reactor passing its heat along to its rocket propellant. DRACO’s proposed solid core NTR temperatures could reach almost 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, requiring use of advanced materials.

Re: Thanks

Certainly think carefully before touching any of their "Cisco Small Business"/RV line kit. Some of that kit was unbelievably buggy and cisco had no interest in fixing any if the issues even whilst it was still current/supported.

At least they support (somewhat at least) the normal enterprise kit.

Re: Psion, what a machine

The 3 was just right for pocketability. The keyboard on 5 was fantastic and screen was nicer too. Many colleagues went for Palm Pilots but I preferred the Psions. Should still have Psions in boxes somewhere. may have to hunt, although i seem to recall display cable issue on some.

OPL was great for passing time, especially on airports and planes and trains. Later i used pretty much just Nokia Communicator instead of 3/5.

Re: “Only”

Hear hear. The Wall Street induced chase for eternal growth and ever increasing profits in insane.

I remember when companies used to look after their employees, there was loyalty both ways and it was sufficient to be enough in black that in addition to normal business operations there was bit in the kitty for investment/improvement and for rainy day.

Re: fratzonic chambered exhaust

If they could accurately reproduce the sound of the Vulcan, that would definitely piss off the neighbours. ..and anyone within quite a few blocks. It could put a smile on your face tho.

Yeah the lineup is a bit convoluted. Still that could work in AMD's favour.... no having to choose between different ratios of P vs E cores. About the only benefit Intel has in the higher end is larger cache (at least based on recently available products (laptops in this case)). A buyer could quite easily, when presented various intel options, just go "feck it that's confusing I'll just take that AMD instead...".

Re: "Hybrid"

I, in my own view, disagree. I have no issue potentially going into office for a meeting if there truly is a need to do it in person. It is not rocket science to schedule it so that people are present. As for team meetings, that depends on your team, ours is geographically diverse so that would be the most ridiculous reason to traipse into the office.

Re: My eyes have been

Quite often the bonuses are tied to company / department performance as well as one's own performance. To top it off, they tend to insist on following the bell curve and even if everyone exhibits truly exemplary performance only one or two is allowed to be rated as such and receive maximum bonus. it is all smoke and mirrors. You'd be insane to budget including you bonus (even if you budgeted with less than 100% bonus).

It is just a way for companies to claim your total earnings/reward is higher than it generally is.

Re: Worst code I ever saw...

It is not always about what the code does, but why.

Re: Man-month

I got my copy when I was at Data General...they used it in a management course.

Did they also use and hand out Soul of a New Machine?

One word. Trevor.

Re: I have no problem with this.

Long cold and slippery winters tend to get that into you.

Worth keeping in mind the almost two day roundtrip for the communications. I suspect there were fair few command/reply sequnces involved.

Re: moderatrix

There can be only one. Seems unfathomable that the reference would be to any other than Ms Bee.

...over 10 years ago...as if I didn't feel old enough already.

Re: Other countries are available.

...if there is public transport. Once you get outside the concrete jungles, availability and usability of public transport tends to drop massively further.

Sun SPARC escapes to PROM monitor on receipt of BREAK.

Break on serial connection is holding TxD positive for a period of time. On a SPARC 9600bps console connection 4ms is enough for it to think a break was sent and drop to the PROM. This was almost guaranteed to happen if plugged into serial terminal that was then turned off or on (with most terminals if not necessarily all).

Re: Am I safe?

A very good point. Also SSD tends to fail irrevocably, whereas if you have the dosh you can get spinning platters read in a cleanroom supposing the drive electronics have failed.

No need for clean room. I recall recovering customer's data from "dead" drives by swapping in PCB from a working drive.

Granted, these were old Seagate MFM/RLL drives and I also tried to use same/similar revision board if possible.

Re: How fast is the data connection?

Here in the UK a noticeable minority have ditched DSL / Cable etc for unlimited data plans with their mobile phone acting as a hotspot.

At least there still is DSL option. In some places (Finland for example) copper phone lines have been mostly ripped out so if you live bit more rural your only telephony/intenet option is mobile.

Re: Reminds one

My Kaypro 2X had character map in a ROM, I dumped the ROM, crafted the bitmaps for {}[]/|, then burned into a EPROM, soldered it piggy back over (a copy of (just in case)) the original character map ROM and fitted a toggle switch to CS line. Worked a treat (even without a fancy debounce on the switch).

Sounds like someone had the same approach for those ADM-3As.

Where we're going, we won't need eyes to see.

Re: Busy

The flakyness of Teams is not all bad. At least you can just kill it in order for your laptop to actually be usable and if anyone complains excuse with "oh teams may need a restart or something".

Name one person...

If DECnet is still alive, name one person or company that currently supports, maintains or develops the protocol architecture.

I do. I still have some old VAX and Ultrix boxen and some other ancient DEC hardware for example DECservers that boot using MOP over DECnet.

Real men don't eat quiche