Posts by bombastic bob

Re: Conflicted

I almost wish that FaeceBan would actually DO that.

Then Texans would be all like "why were we wasting time on this CRAP?"

Re: Censorship

your argument works until you have a public space. at THAT point, various civil rights legislation limits who you can exclude (and why), even when privately owned. THIS is the precedent set back in the 1950's and 1960's here in the USA, which has been constitutionally upheld.

Re: Forced speech

what do you mean? How about religious confectionaries making wedding cakes for GAY WEDDINGS and NOT being VILIFIED if they choose NOT to? Yeah, there haven't been any activists going around to businesses for any such reason, just to "out" them and make ink in the newspapers or anything...

The problem here is the DOUBLE STANDARD of the application of EXISTING law, and when a new one is created that is deliberately NOT AMBIGUOUS, why is it simply ASSUMED to be UNCONSTITUTIONAL? And, they seem to be using the SAME *kinds* of arguments that (allegedly) bigoted business owners/operators used back in the 1950's and 1960's to JUSTIFY DISCRIMINATION???

From the article again: The law puts politically manipulative misinformation on equal footing with good-faith opinion and verifiable facts.

WHO arbitrates 'which is which', exactly?

How about if we all just let anyone say anything (so long as it's not openly abusive or illegal), put a BIG FAT DISCLAIMER on the entire web site, and let people make their own choices? THEN, people get to grow their OWN info filters and become smarter.

Re: Censorship

yes. they can take their business elsewhere.

This *KIND* of argument did not go over well in the 1960's however... when civil rights and equal treatment became "a thing".

Re: Title bar

You had me agreeing and then you JUST had to say NICE things about that BLASTED DAMNABLE HAMBURGER "so-called STANDARD" MENU ICON, which *I* *HATE* and should be *NUKED* *FROM* *HIGH* *ORBIT* with *GREAT* PREJUDICE*.

Still, I also like the title bar AS IS. BUT *NO* HAMBURGER IN IT. The title bar sometimes becomes informational, let's say when I run firefox as another user to completely sandbox it, and the title will say "(as otheruser)" along with everything else. This is helpful to me in a LOT of ways, like a warning to NOT do something in THAT instance of Firefox that might track me.with cookies, script, or anything ELSE I had to enable to "access that one thing" (like an electronics distributor's order pages).

So YES, keep the title bar. But, ***NO*** do ***NOT*** ***CORRUPT*** ***IT*** by putting a HAMBURGER MENU ICON IN IT!

Re: Nice

I disagree. Other than a slightly "new shiny" look, it's apparently still the same:

* attempting to make your desktop look like a phone

* 2D FLATSO FLATTY McFLATFACE (like Windows, Chrome, Australis, ...) lock-step compliance with mediocrity and the "kiddie pool" 'programmers' who FEEL (instead of think) it's a GOOD thing

* apparent focus on the optics in lieu of ACTUAL improvements (how long does a 'file open' dialog take to display the entire contents of /usr/bin, for example??? And WHY so PIG SLOW like WINDOWS???) (I wrote one using my own X11 toolkit, that's still not done because I have to earn money to live on, that displays a list of files like /usr/bin in about 2 seconds, anecdotally >10 times faster than the gnome-ish ones, since mine doesn't have to scan EVERY! STINKING! FILE! for mostly unnecessary information BEFORE listing the names, that's why)

* apparent CHANGE for the SAKE of CHANGE, and not necessary, or even necessarily a GOOD change.

and so on.

and I do not see any of *THAT* as "an improvement". But I did not expect it would be.

(still using Mate and/or Cinnammon, and SCREAMING if I ever have to select a custom application for a file type in firefox because it STILL takes FOR-EV-AR to load up /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin just so I can pick 'atril' or whatever because there is NO PLACE TO TYPE IN THE NAME and it's probably the GTK toolkit doing that).

So yeah, how about REAL improvements?

Re: Connections

The screen has got a penguin, a smiley Mac icon, and that ridiculous 2D FLATSO twisted-to-one-side windows logo, but it's missing a BSD Daemon. I guess 'Connections' isn't "inclusive enough". Heh.

Re: SNAFU after SNAFU

one BIG reason that certain kinds of information is classified is to KEEP our informants and operatives form being KILLED. Or worse.

I have no doubt that every country (even allies) has operatives in pretty much every other country whenever possible, even if it's an informal operative in the form of an embassy staff member.

However, we all know that in certain places in the world, revealing these people and their activities can result in torture and/or death, and not just be an embarrassing "oops" that makes a headline or two and probably gets you laughed at on late night comedy shows.

I once saw some classified material back in the day (while doing a 'burn run') in which I instinctively recognized that if "that face" in the photo ever got to the wrong people, several people would DIE. This is why it was classified. It's not so much about the information, it's about the people who obtained it, or the people that are put in danger when that information is compromised.

Re: Too many blunders

I'm not inclined to think that the U.K. would make such a blunder deliberately.

(as for OUR current gummint...)

Re: The invention itself is irrelevant

"Test Case" = "How can we manipulate the system today?"

Re: The same DOOFUS (sorry DABUS) software...

when I put liquid in a cup I do NOT want it going to room temperature FASTER...

I want hot tea and coffee to STAY hot, iced tea and soda and beer to STAY cold, and if i put cubes in it I want them to MELT SLOWER. What's the point of a cup that gets to room temperature FASTER?

(das blinkenlights may be ok, if you can put it in the dishwasher and not destroy it)

Re: Not what he said

That is how you manipulate opinion.

It's how activists do things, yeah. "lost the case" = "the judges 'agreed' that..."

(spinning it like the cartoon Tasmanian Devil)

Re: How stupid is this?

Stingray - awesome show (saw it when I was a kid)

Unfortunately the TV station only aired it when i was in school and I only got to watch the episodes when I was home sick (like when I had the mumps) back in the 1960's.

[Thunderbirds was on AFTER I got home so I was able to see most of those - home VCRs had not been invented yet]

Re: Why a submarine?

25 meters may NOT be deep enough, FYI. Heavy seas at 100 foot keel depth were more than just noticeable as I recall. And if your navi-guession system can't handle taking 20 degree rolls every 2 seconds at that depth, and still compensate 'dead reckoning' so you do not go off course (it's too deep for GPS and radio navi-guession without a trailing wire antenna that would pose yet another navigation hazard to other ships in the area), then you could end up crashing into rocks or hitting a sea mountain without a whole lot of warning.

And constantly pinging with active sonar will only do you so much good.

If I wanted to build a ship that is incredibly hard to capsize and/or sink in bad weather I would build a catamaran or trimaran. But existing cargo shipping design is still pretty good.

There are just SO many difficult-to-solve problems involving sub design vs surface ships. Just the trim and drain system ALONE (to deal with neutral bouyancy as part of depth control) is a huge part of it, with trim tanks, fixed and variable ballast tanks, emergency blow systems, low pressure blow systems, yotta yotta yotta.

Re: Why a submarine?

in theory a submarine on or near the surface would potentially be A NAVIGATION HAZARD. Subs have specia navigation lights for when they are on the surface (including an amber spinny one as I recall) for that very reason. You only see about 10% of the actual boat above the water line.

Subs are notoriously inefficient for cutting through surface water. Their hulls work well UNDER water but they are deliberately heavy with ballast. Attempting to use cargo in place of ballast is BEGGING for problems.

And do not forget a fuel per mile calculation, which is EXTREMELY likely to favor a standard displacement hull over a submarine one for fuel efficiency.

Subs are good for war and spying, because being under water you can HIDE. And unless you plan on carrying LOX with you (for a hydrogen-based propulsion), you would have to snorkel a lot. And snorkeling in places whee using subs WOULD make sense (like under the polar ice cap) may not even be possible (like under the ice cap).

I spent nearly 4 years on a U.S. Navy sub. And I wouldn't use a sub for cargo. Nope. For FUN, sure, to cruise underwater for touring reasons, looking at fish and corals and things, or for exploration (like finding ship wrecks or new forms of life) but that's the extent of it.

Robotic surface ships are a possibility though. Yet I think people would still want a captain on board to at least be available in case of emergency. And the total value of the cargo would justify it.

And contrary to what some may believe, stormy weather still affects a sub at periscope depth and down to about 150 feet or so. You need to get a lot deeper than that to be unaffected by heavy seas and stormy weather.

there are fuels for torpedo engines that can operate in a high speed engine without air, but the ones I have read about exhaust nasty substances (like cyanide gas) and therefore should not be used outside of military applications that make even BIGGER messes (like blowing up ships and other subs). And with 'green hydrogen' as the fuel, you'll need some kind of oxidizer (even for a fuel cell).

Additionally I have read that the USSR experimented with placing rockets on the forward part of a torpedo so that the rocket exhaust would shroud the torpedo in a gas cloud, giving it some thrust but greatly reducing the friction of the surrounding water. They were apparently VERY impractical to use, though.

Re: Ends versus means

a company (or a gummint for that matter) shoulrd NOT strongarm ANY form of "parenting" upon THE CUSTOMERS.

And if I had a teenage kid it would be simple: if you want to use something _LIKE_ TikTok, BUY YOUR OWN PHONE AND INTERNET with MONEY YOU EARN. (they don't need the brain poison and indoctrination, from the viewpoint of a parent who would ONLY care about such things for his OWN kids - other parents can make their own decisions about their own kids, and GUMMINT STAY OUT OF IT)

Re: Forget software for the moment - study grammar

Translation:

Iffen zie triun der runnin of 11 onner boxen verboten, und der virtual boxen specificallen, zie hammer makken und kopfen bangun uber allen zu blinken lights gehappen. (and they'll take away your birthday and whack your, uh, thingun).

Not only does Micros~1 tell you WHAT toys you MUST get, they ALSO tell you HOW to play with them and WHAT KIND OF SANDBOX TO USE, and PREVENT you from using ANY other kind!!!

Re: So, let's summarise this..

blame Microsoft for your own inadequate security practices.

like NOT using a non-Windows OS to surf the web or read e-mail?

(yes! I think that WOULD be Micros~'s fault at some level...)

Re: No MS account

youuuuuuuu've read the EULA, haven't you?

Re: No MS account

nice trick. I have not done a 10 install in a while and I always had to find the right stupid buttons to press in the correct order in order to set up the initial account as a local account. Micros~1 really DOES strong-arm you into using their privacy-violating "cloudy" logon.

I shall remember this trick in the future, next time I need a fresh Win-10-nic VM. Does it work with 11???

Connecting anything with a phone is such a brilliant idea: loose it, break it or may the phone be stolen, and then you cannot log to your PC anymore.

With this, when things go wrong, they go REALLY wrong

(don't forget to let your phone do credit card account purchases also, so that anyone stealing your phone has more access than if they stole your wallet and forged your identity - and let it stick out of your back pocket while you're at it so that you butt-dial and crack the screen sitting on it, and also make it easier to steal)

Re: Within limits, more CO2 would be better than less

There is no longer any controversy that climate change is being driven by burning fossil fuels,

WRONG.

* CO2 is a lousy greenhouse gas. it does NOT in any significant way affect the amount of black body radiation sent out into space, which is the way the earth cools at night. Its IR absorption spectrum excludes the energies that correspond to ACTUAL TEMPERATURES FOUND ON EARTH.

* CO2 is only 0.04% of the atmosphere and is at equilibrium both chemically AND biologically. Greatly increasing its production (or depletion) rate will generally have an insignificant effect on the equilibrium concentration. Chem 101.

* CO2 concentration in the atmosphere varies due to temperature because the gas solubility in water varies THE SAME WAY. In other words, when it is colder, there is more CO2 in bodies of water, and less in the air, because the equilibrium reaction shifted due to the temperature of the water (and not the other way around). Soda goes flat faster when the liquid gets warm for this very reason.

* WATER, the "other greenhouse gas", absorbs a SIGNIFICANT amount of black body radiation that would otherwise cool the earth, keeping that energy in the atmosphere (and causing a 'greenhouse effect').

and so on

Hardly "settled".

(As for an app that actually helps you to lower your personal costs of fuel and electricity, that might actually be HELPFUL)

No, I wrote some perfectly fine code. I wanted to check that 0 ≤ i < n, so I wrote the obvious code. If I don't write "i >= 0"then some reader will assume that I forgot to check the lower bound.

if(myvar < limit) //myvar unsigned, always >= 0

maybe THAT ^^^

I've even had some young whippersnappers complain that things like that are too hard to read.

They probably learned Python as their first programming lingo. Ask these kids the difference between a signed and unsigned variable type, see if they choke on 2's compliment math. Bring popcorn and beer.

I have to wonder if any of them could hand-optimize inner loop code by looking at the assembly code generated by the compiler, even when 'objdump' is readily available

bit shifting and bitwise operations used to be a lot more important back in the day, but are still VERY important in kernel drivers and microcontrollers.

the compiler should have a warning that using a single character name for a variable or other entity is incredibly stupid if you ever want to be able to review and/or refactor the code without additional (unnecessary) difficulty, particularly variables that can easily be mistaken for the number 1 or 0, or a vertical bar. Most people doing this sort of thing are old enough to require glasses to read or see the monitor, and slowing down a manager's gaze at your code because of bad programming habits is likely to PISS HIM OFF (let alone the maintainer that has to fix something 2 years from now).

And I'd rather not try searching for every 'i' in the code instead of 'ii' or 'iterator', Just because a particular IDE has "idiot hand-holding" features does not mean it is an excuse to have BAD HABITS in variable naming.

there may be a saner fix involving a cast to an integer as long as you know that the range checks will still work properly... or use a variable of the correct type instead?

I run into this kind of signed/unsigned comparison warning a lot with microcontrollers that have 8 bit unsigned integers as counters for "reasons" (like speed+range). I usually just type-cast the warnings away and make sure the code is sane. It's good to hand-optimize microcontroller code anyway.

NOTE: magic numbers in code should use #define or a 'const' type anyway, so you could fix it in the definitions.

and with the original argument

"if(thingy >= 0 && thingy <= llmit)"

where 'thingy' is unsigned, and you know it is unsigned, why leave the '>=0' in the actual code? At least use a comment if you need it there for some reference type of reason, maybe:

"if(/* thingy >= 0 && */ thingy <= limit)"

(then add a comment that says 'thingy is unsigned' or similar)

I sometimes do this with an ending 'else', comment out an 'if' following it that indicates the condition in the 'else' if the 'if' would always be true (and also indicate in the comment that it's always true), so that someone reading the code (including me a year later) will see that and go "ok".

Warnings in 3rd party libraries

If possible I'd rather leave -Werror on (or at least clean up ALL of the warnings prior to release) and if they are in 3rd party libraries:

* patch it in my own branch

* submit fix(es) upstream (and keep the patch files just in case)

this is ALSO related to why I do not like endlessly chasing moving targets in 3rd party libraries... especially when "upstream" suddenly decides to CHANGE THE API WITH NO BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY causing the use of "new version" (to get the most recent fixes) to be EVEN WORSE.

(and propagating "worse" up/down the dependency chain, the stuff of nightmares)

I would like to think this would be LESS of a problem in kernel code, though

FreeBSD has its own branches of contributed 3rd party things that are in the base distribution (including llvm). Fewer moving targets this way.