* Posts by Me19713

52 publicly visible posts • joined 14 Oct 2013

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Oracle throws toys out pram again, tells US claims court: Competing for Pentagon cloud contract isn't fair!

Me19713

Re: Larry wont get a new yacht

He was hoping to get an aircraft carrier to replace one of his yachts. Preferably with some nuclear weapons to use on Seattle.

Uncle Sam gives itself the right to shoot down any drone, anywhere, any time, any how

Me19713

Use of excessive force is authorized.

US states accused of skimming cash from 911 emergency call dosh

Me19713

Too bad we can't charge the governors of these states under the RICO Act.

'The capacitors exploded, showering the lab in flaming confetti'

Me19713

Electronics design with training wheels

Young EEs are lucky to be toying with low voltages.

Back in the vacuum tube era, the voltages were much higher. I remember being in middle school, wiring my 65 watt CW transceiver in the bedroom. I learned about paying attention to polarity on electrolytic capacitors one night. Night of the flaming confetti. Dad wasn't impressed.

Whizzes' lithium-iron-oxide battery 'octuples' capacity on the cheap

Me19713

Thermite?

Is it safe to assume that these will burn like a thermite charge on steroids?

Royal Bank of Scotland website goes TITSUP*

Me19713
Devil

New Normal

Perhaps TITSUP is the new "normal"?

HPE CEO Meg Whitman QUITS, MAN! Neri to replace chief exec in Feb

Me19713

Re: Proud?

I'd say that it is a toss-up between McNealy and Whitman. From the standpoint of effect upon technology, I'd say that McNealy had the worst effect by selling to Ellison. I keep hoping that a monsoon will eat his island...

No spoilers! Norway won't tell Snowden if US will snatch him on a visit

Me19713
Pirate

Re: Another solution ?

Yup, one finger -- the other hand would grab him by the short hairs, throw him onto a private jet and rendition his sorry ass to Guantanamo. Good riddance.

Or he just might fall out of the plane over the Bermuda Triangle. :-)

Big Pharma's trying to kill us, says man with literally millions to lose

Me19713

So he drank the Koolaid too. Good, I hope it was a batch made by Jim Jones...

Singapore Airlines 777 catches fire after engine alarm

Me19713

From Boeing AERO magazine:

To comply with FAR 24.1001, the 747 and MD-11, for example, require a fuel jettison system. Some models, such as the 777 and some 767 airplanes have a fuel jettison system installed, but it is not required by FAR. Other models such as the DC-9, 717, 737, 757, and MD-80/90 do not require, or do not have, a fuel jettison system based on compliance with FAR Part 25.119 and 25.121(d).

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/articles/qtr_3_07/article_03_2.html

Would YOU start a fire? TRAPPED in a new-build server farm

Me19713
Mushroom

I got locked into our NOC once, years ago. Despite my very explicit instructions that all electric door strikes must fail to the unlocked state, the contractor did whatever they please.

I called facilities, but they couldn't get the door to release either. Fortunately, we had a big plate glass window into the lobby (so that people could see the pretty NOC without having to enter the NOC).

I'm a pretty big guy, so I simply threw a swivel chair through the larger of the windows (the most expensive one) as a sign of my displeasure. Once I got access to my tools, I ripped the entire door frame out of the wall.

I had no more trouble getting into and out of the NOC that weekend. :-)

NASA: We'll try again in the morning after friction ruins engorgement

Me19713
Childcatcher

They need to send some KY jelly up on the next freighter to reduce the friction!

Euro Patent Office prez's brake line cut – aka how to tell you're not popular

Me19713
Mushroom

Where is the BOFH when you need him?

A Brit cloud biz and an angry customer wanting a refund: A Love Story

Me19713
Mushroom

Maybe the company accidentally misspelled their name -- it was meant to be "Mobster Cloud".

Unisys releases its ClearPath MCP OS for VMs or x86

Me19713
Childcatcher

Cool!

I learned how to program on a Burroughs 5500 running MCP - started with ALGOL, then taught myself FORTRAN and ESPOL. Those were the good old days! Later, I taught COBOL to comp sci students on the B6700.

I'm having serious flashbacks!

Must listen: We've found the real Bastard Operator From Hell

Me19713
Devil

Alternative solution

We used to have a dial-a-prayer recording here in town. I used to forward the salescritters to that. I was sorry to see it go...

Intel's XPoint emperor has no clothes, only soiled diapers

Me19713

This is the nastiest article I've seen in the Reg to-date.

Please take a pill, calm down, and while you are it, go wash your potty-mouth out with this bar of lye soap....

Good grief.

Let’s re-invent small phones! Small screens! And rubber buttons!

Me19713

I'm still using my old Blackberry Curve

I like it, it has a REAL keyboard!

I HATE that touchscreen garbage.

Oracle traps its cloud inside own tin boxes

Me19713

Hot air and Water

Larry has plenty of hot air, all they need is a little water...

Apple engineers rebel, refuse to work on iOS amid FBI iPhone battle

Me19713

Developers

I wonder how these developers would like a stay in San Quentin? Last I heard, disobeying a court order can buy you a charge of contempt of court, which can lead to unhappy consequences.

Of course, Tim Cook would just import a few additional battalions of H1B's the next day to fill the empty seats.

Verizon only cares about fiber, lets copper nets lapse into ruin – gripes

Me19713
Devil

Re: The rest of you are F'ed

You're nicer than I am. My property is posted No Solicitors.

I slammed the door, called the cops, and went with them to the magistrate where I swore out a complaint. If wasn't much of a fine, but it did keep them off the street for an evening and my neighbors got to eat dinner in peace.

I also got a no contact order against Verizon. If any of their devil spawn grace my door, they'll be dealing with a contempt of court citation.

SAP’s Byzantine licensing leaves its customers feeling exposed

Me19713
Mushroom

MAD

In such a case, we can only hope that it will be a case of Mutually-Assured Destruction.

Carly Fiorina makes like HP and splits – ex-CEO quits White House race

Me19713
WTF?

HP Flashback?

... baby's brain being harvested from "a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking," ...

Sounds to me like she's describing what she did to Hewlett-Packard. Some kind of flashback triggered by whatever they put in the Kool-Aid at headquarters.

Cops stuff Mumbai thief with 48 bananas

Me19713
Devil

Reminds me of

My late father had a problem with someone stealing his roast beef sandwich from the refrigerator at work every Monday morning. So, being a biologist, he engaged in gastrointestinal warfare.

He mixed phenolphthalein (the active ingredient in ExLax) into the horseradish on the sandwich. A bit after lunch time, the culprit was obvious after spending a long time in the men's room.

No more problems after that. Knowing that Dad developed insecticides, the thief got off easy! :-)

Apple CEO Tim Cook was paid more than $28,000 a day in 2015

Me19713
Devil

I guess he can skip that job as a greeter at Walmart.

IBM dispels the doubts and bags quantum computing funding deal

Me19713
Devil

Programming the beastie

Let me know when the COQOL compiler is ready.

EMC mess sends New Zealand University TITSUP for two days

Me19713
FAIL

Proverbs 16

Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before stumbling.

Taxi for NASA! SpaceX to fly astronauts to space station

Me19713
Mushroom

Re: Isaac Asimov on the subject of rocket fuel

Ever spill some LOX on asphalt pavement?

Try it. Let me know how you make out.

Me19713
Mushroom

Re: My God, it's full of stars

Even if von Braun's rockets occasionally came down in London...

Why Microsoft's .NET Core is the future of its development platform

Me19713
Thumb Up

Re: How many times have we gone through this?

I wore out one of the rotary switches on our IBM 360 from doing console debugging... First thing in the morning I used to depress the Lamp Test switch just to make certain that none of the address or data indicators wasn't burnt out.

Hexadecimal forever!

Drones are dropping drugs into prisons and the US govt just doesn't know what to do

Me19713
Mushroom

EMP

Electromagnetic Pulse. Pickup a drone on the radar, pop a nuke over the exercise yard. No problem.

Volvo eyes kangaroo detection tech

Me19713

No problem

I am sure that Raytheon could could design an AKM (anti-Kangaroo Missile) for Volvo. Of course then the PETAphiles would come out of the woodwork... :-)

Imagine a Volvo with a smaller version of the Patriot missile mounted on top. I'm sure it would go over big in the States.

Think Fortran, assembly language programming is boring and useless? Tell that to the NASA Voyager team

Me19713

Old (OLD!) programmer here -- Burroughs ALGOL, DC-ALGOL and ESPOL, Fortran II (IBM 1620 and SDS 930), Fortran V (Univac 1108), IBM 1401 and S/360 assembler, ... Those were the days. Amazing what we could do in a few K of memory and cycle times less than 1 MHz.

Post-pub nosh neckfiller special: The WHO bacon sarnie of death

Me19713

Why civilized countries give the United kNuckleheads and their associates billions of dollars is beyond me! Have you ever seen these people at the scene of a disaster? All they do is generate carbon dioxide and heat.

Fuming Google tears Symantec a new one over rogue SSL certs

Me19713

Re: Internal testing?

Hire someone from the CIA - they've been chartering phony corporations in Delaware for years...

Bacon as deadly as cigarettes and asbestos

Me19713

Give me bacon,er liberty, or give me death!

Will IT support please come to the ward immediately. Weeeee have a tricky problem

Me19713

Many years ago, when I was the supervisor of network ops (and the help desk), the VP of Information Technology called me on my personal line and told me his brand new Memorex color mainframe terminal was down and he needed help ASAP. He was demonstrating it to our Senior VP at the time.

I strolled down the hallway into his office, turned the power switch on, turned around and went back to my desk. You could have heard a pin drop in the VP's office, although I did get a smile from the Sr VP. :-)

I miss those old terminals -- a lot simpler problems and they don't get viruses!

How to build a server room: Back to basics

Me19713

Floor loadings

I can testify with regard to floor loading problems. Even if it has an access floor already installed. Actually, especially if there is an access floor -- they come in different strength levels and add an appreciable amount of weight to a structure.

Decades ago, I was helping some friends of mine (different company) and our IBM field engineers install a new IBM 3033 mainframe. As we were pushing it into the computer room, we noticed that we seemed to be going "down hill" a bit. Caution ruled and we pushed it out on their loading dock while we investigated.

We opened up the suspended ceiling in the employee's cafeteria below and found chunks of concrete which had spalled from the deck. Imminent structural failure.

IBM had to take the machine back until they built a new data center (about two years later!).

Oooops. I wonder how much an IBM 3033 depreciates if it drops a floor? :-)

Brit hydro fuel cell maker: our tech charges iPhone 6 for a week

Me19713

Can't wait for the first youtube video of some wanker's back pocket going into Hindenburg mode.

Crazy Canucks heat their lab with muahaha-capable server

Me19713

Just nuts

2 KW in 2U is just nuts. If you aren't going to have direct-to-water cooling, then just resign yourself to going elsewhere. Why move all of that air when a few gpm (or lpm) of water can do the job?

We had water-cooled IBM mainframes here for many years and I can only recall one very minor leak.

Of course, you could always immerse the whole kit in some nice cold Fluorinert... :-)

Two foreigners, a desert and a jeep full of bank statements

Me19713

About 40 years ago, I worked for a bank as an applications programmer. One of the systems for which I was responsible was the US Savings Bond program we ran for some external payroll customers (we were also sort of a service bureau for some of our bank customers in those days).

There was a definite cutoff time for these external payrolls, with checks (and bonds) that must be delivered to these bank customers in time for Friday paydays. And the armored car was late in delivering the blank savings bonds to the data center (they were stored in the Trust Dept vault in town).

So my boss sent me into the city in a marked bank car to fetch them! I walked into the bank HQ building and signed for about $500K worth of blank savings bonds in white bags. And carried them two blocks to the parking garage. No guards, no guns... Off to the data center. We made the deadline. Barely.

I don't think that I would do that today!

ISIS: You bomb us, we’ll interrupt your TV transmissions

Me19713

What the Ericsson Rep Really Said

"The Register asked Ericsson whether its upgrades may have introduced vulnerabilities to the broadcast platform, but the telecoms giant categorically denied it had anything to do with it."

Actually, he/she probably said something along the lines of, "God. I hope not." :-)

Light the torches! NSA's BFF Senator Feinstein calls for e-book burning

Me19713

I guess that I'll have to forget everything I learned during my summer jobs at Ft Detrick and Edgewood Arsenal too.

Maybe we should just ban science and engineering too.

Power, internet access knackered in London after exploding kit burps fire into capital's streets

Me19713
Mushroom

I work for a power utility in the US (37 years and counting). We ran a lot of fiber in unused power and gas lines in urban areas. Early one morning the substation operators were busy re-energizing some manholes after a fiber-pulling session.

We had a phase-to-phase fault (34 KV, IIRC). A 36" manhole cover was blown into the 4th floor windows of one of the local banks. No one was hurt, but the fireball and falling debris tore up a few cars. And there were more than a few broken windows (and dirty shorts).

That certainly broke the monotony.

Cross-dressing blokes storm NSA HQ: One shot dead, one hurt

Me19713

Re: Blaming it on the SatNav in ... 3, 2, 1

Maybe they got into some of that sh*t up the road at Edgewood Arsenal. :-)

Me19713
Thumb Up

NSA Police

They should replace the Secret Service uniformed police at the White House with NSA Police. At least they show up to work sober and shoot straight!

Cops cuff Colorado girl for allegedly poisoning mum after iPhone ban

Me19713
WTF?

What she needed

Was a good and proper whack in the backside at an early age. I watch parents struggle with their children in the supermarket on a regular basis after work - pulling stuff off the shelves in the cart, grabbing candy and eating it while shopping, while the "parent" is busy jabbering on their telephone in a tone that carries two aisles over.

It is enough to make you believe in retroactive abortion.

Retiring greybeards force firms to retrain Java, .NET bods as mainframe sysadmins

Me19713

In the old days (70's in my case), IBM ran a really good educational system on a regional basis for all things mainframe. In some courses (thinking Basic Assembly Language for starters) there was a serious reading assignment and an exam on the first day - fail and they would send you home. There were even specialized schools for specific industry segments such as Financial.

If IBM wants to keep their Z-series relevant, they need to bring those courses back (with some updates, of course -- we learned SNA, not IP in those days!).

john

Amazon workers in Delaware reject trade union membership

Me19713
Happy

Instead of joining IAM, they voted to join IAM Not! gr

Reply-all email lightning storm STRIKES TWICE at Cisco

Me19713
Happy

Handling that volume of email must be why they came out with UCS! gr

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