* Posts by bombastic bob

10275 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

ALGOL 60 at 60: The greatest computer language you've never used and grandaddy of the programming family tree

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: .. never used .. ?

Back in the (very) late 70's at a university, my PDP-11 assembly language class was taught by a professor that LOVED ALGOL. Brilliantly, he required all assembly language assignments to be accompanied with a "high level language" pseudo-program. Of course, it had to at least LOOK like ALGOL or you'd get a LOT of uncomplimentary comments when he returned it to you. I resisted but it was futile. So I started handing in the ALGOL-like pseudo code along with the homework assignment [which always worked].

But the focus of that class wasn't assembly language per se; rather, it was on structures and lists and other things that languages _like_ ALGOL (and also C) are PERFECT for. I do not recall what kind of structure and/or pointer support you had in ALGOL, but I think there was at least _something_. 'C' of course took this concept, ran with it, and basically INVENTED how it's done from that point forward.

NOTE: I've also had to work with FORTRAN 'EQUIVALENCE' and 'COMMON' blocks which indirectly accomplish the same thing, in a 'hobbled' kind of way. Pure assembly is NEARLY as 'hobbled' though. On the PDP-11, and with good x86 assemblers, you can specify an array index as a register offset and 'sort of' look like an index, and maybe 'struct.member' as an offset as well. But old assemblers had name size limits, and you had to get very creative with names....

You can't have it both ways: Anti-coronavirus masks may thwart our creepy face-recog cameras, London cops admit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

"i predict it will be a lot longer than a few months that people will be wearing face masks"

MANDATORY mask wearing is a BAD thing [and does little to help with disease control]. However, VOLUNTARY mask wearing, which is common in S.E. Asia, is a GOOD thing if you know you're sick and don't want to give your cold/flu to others. So if it simply becomes "acceptable" it's DEFINITELY a GOOD thing [common sense vs insane panic-fear-based mandates].

That and I don't like being ORDERED to do things that are unnecessary and/or inconvenient.

(so I'll keep wearing the Guy Fawkes mask until the nonsense stops)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

Re: Lookie likey

yeah I'd definitely choose the mask used for the 'anonymous' icon

(I am the one wearing the Guy Fawkes mask in public to comply with "social distancing")

You overstepped and infringed British sovereignty, Court of Appeal tells US in software companies' copyright battle

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: US Law applies worldwide

"in the eyes of Lawyers and Judges in the USA."

Maybe THEM, but not ME. Well I'm not ENRICHED by demanding that a UK (or any non-U.S.) entity comply with a U.S. judge on matters NOT specific to the U.S., and that's probably why.

(we have a hard enough time dealing with frivolous lawsuits and legalized theft)

NHS contact tracing app isn't really anonymous, is riddled with bugs, and is open to abuse. Good thing we're not in the middle of a pandemic, eh?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Why, oh why...

"And who ends up paying the price?"

Middle Class working people as usual.

From the article: "working on an app to make it simpler."

That is like 'working on a lubricant so it doesn't hurt your hole as much while being "involuntarily violated"'

Sorry, that's the image that keeps coming into my head. Their "app", vs our privacy. Same idea.

(it's apparently happening in the USA in a couple of places too).

"Whoops that battery just keeps falling out over and over and over!"

Better late than never... Google Chrome to kill off 'tiny' number of mobile web ads that gobble battery, CPU power

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I'll stick to firefox thanks

and don't forget 'NoScript'

Breaking virus lockdown rules, suing officials, threatening staff, raging on Twitter. Just Elon Musk things

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

how many people died of:

a) traffic accidents

b) drug overdoses

c) suicide

d) old age

e) cancer

f) INFLUENZA

etc.

track these, too, to put things into perspective. And keep in mind that many of the Wuhan virus deaths were in NYC and New York (the state), quite possibly due to a bad policy caused by the governor (Cuomo), who deliberately sent infected patients BACK INTO NURSING HOMES when there were empty beds available in the temporary hospital in NYC and also on the Mercy (hospital ship) waiting for such patients, but left empty, unused... and so the elderly residents at those nursing homes had about 25% die from the Wuhan virus [as I recall]. It was grossly irresponsible.

Compare THAT to how Sweden has done it.

(no more lies, damn lies, and tainted statistics, please)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Einstein vs Newton? Where the hell did that come from?

"In Newton's time there was no known technical reason why lead should not be turned into gold,"

There still is no technical reason why it can't be done. In fact, using a nuclear reactor, it CAN be done. The thing is, the yield is poor and so expensive, it's much cheaper to mine for it like we always have.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: Elon Musk Is An Ass

"Elon Musk is a selfish child and deserves to be smacked with a glove."

Maybe... but like a broken clock that is right twice a day, THIS TIME ELON MUSK IS RIGHT!

These RIDICULOUS SHUTDOWNS are NOTHING MORE than a POWER GRAB OPPORTUNITY for LEFTISTS, COMMUNISTS, SOCIALISTS, and CONTROL FREAK POLITICIANS that are COMPELLED (probably by psychological disorders) to MICRO-MANAGE OUR LIVES. "THEY" get to decide what is "essential" and what is "non-essential", and MAKE PROTESTS ILLEGAL while they're at it!!! So, if *THEY* get their way, and WE DO NOT REBEL AGAINST THEM, the SHUTDOWNS WILL *NEVER* *EVER* *END* !!!

So, we must simply lay down and "take it" and THANK THEM AFTERWARDS? I DON'T THINK SO! *REBELLION* is necessary when ALL OTHER MEANS HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED.

MUSK is DOING THE RIGHT THING. You can NOT control a people who will NOT LAY DOWN AND TAKE IT.

(I'll be the one wearing a GUY FAWKES mask to practice "social distancing" screwy requirements - V is for Vendetta!!!)

[yeah downvotes expected. thank you in advance, my howling fans]

Third time lucky for Windows 10 2004? Microsoft yet again fiddles with code and adds a go-live SDK licence

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I read the article and saw a comment about "get to coding" or similar and I have to wonder... are there some kind of new "feature creep" features in this new, shiny version that we're supposed to start using such that our applications will not run on ANY earlier version of windows except THIS one ???

No thanks.

The end really is nigh – for 32-bit Windows 10 on new PCs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Amazed it took them this long

32-bit works as a test VM, smaller download. Definitely NOT a "daily driver". But Win-10-nic isn't a "daily driver" for me ANYWAY and until MS stops supporting 32-bit applications running on that platform [which they probably will some day, when they DUMP the Win32 API and kill ALL backward compatibility and non-TIFKAM applications FOREVER] I'll continue to use the 32-bit version to test things, as needed...

Not so strangely, you can find 32-bit versions of Linux and FreeBSD if you need a 32-bit OS. Not so amazingly, they run just fine on systems with less than 4G of RAM. And those systems, amazingly enough, ALSO seem to work just fine for a LOT of things, as long as you're not running something *PIGGY*.

Last year, at an "at that time" Win-10-nic-only shop, I was tasked to work on integration of a system that used an RPi to control things [naturally running Linux on the RPi]. As they only had windows machines, I brought in an old (2003-ish) Toshiba laptop that had Linux on it to do the editing, since ssh and "remote X11" worked really well, AMAZINGLY well, on a laptop with ~500M of RAM running about 1Ghz. About the only thing it would NOT do was run Firefox because FF has become such a PIG even on Linux...

(seeing me use a 17 year old laptop to do my work more effectively than with a brand new Win-10-nic box, they soon handed me a Win-10-nic box to be turned into a Linux box - I put Devuan on it). And of course, having Linux was absolutely necessary for creating RPi SD card images.

Nine in ten biz applications harbor out-of-date, unsupported, insecure open-source code, study shows

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: To be fair, many company's services use unsupported and/or un-updated commercial packages?

Question: How much of "lack of updating" is CAUSED by "Feature Creep" and/or dependency nightmares that might RESULT in "Feature Creep" in OTHER things...

update lib -> must now update everything that depends on that lib -> feature creep that you did NOT want

yeah THAT sort of thing... and if it results in an incompatibility of a CLOSED SOURCE application, which then FORCES you to "not use the newer/fixed version" and no replacements are available, THEN what?

Yeah, you stick wtih your existing, "it works", stable system and NOT update. [they're often overrated anyway]. Keep it behind a firewall and practice "safe surfing".

'We're changing shift, and no one can log on!' It was at this moment our hero knew server-lugging chap had screwed up

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Labels people, and read them!

why use ancient windows when you can use Linux or FreeBSD ?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Labels people, and read them!

a sheet of mailing labels and a black permanent ink marker are usually sufficient [I even do this with my own stuff - license keys, MAC addresses, and so on]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Not so much a "Who, me?" as a "Who, you?"

and 'you' in this case is named 'Aaron', who may have proven a principle coined by a man named 'Peter'...

What do you call megabucks Microsoft? No really, it's not a joke. El Reg needs you

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: The wolf enrobed in penguin feathers.

"Bad Wolf" - https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Bad_Wolf_meme

When you read through some of those (including the futuristic 'Bad Wolf Corporation' being run by Daleks) it all makes sense...

[I had the pleasure of re-watching all of the Doctor #9 episodes recently]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I'll give it a go...

1. "The Blob" (absorbing everything in its path and growing bigger and bigger and bigger)

[and along with it, the theme song by Burt Bacharach]

2. "MesS" (ok that's lame)

3. "Redmond Overlords"

4. 'Megashaft' <-- an oldie but still valid

5. ok "Megabucks" but with a slightly altered Starbucks logo

6. Semprini [/me ducks]

7. "Cult of Redmond" <-- I've used this one before

8. "Umbrella Corporation"

9. "Maleficent Overlords/Overseers"

10. "Big Brother's Evil Cousin"

probably enough for now. hopefully spawns derivative names, one of which will be settled on as "the official one"

Ok - one more - 2D FLATTY FLATSO McFLATFACE (that was obligatory, heh)

GitHub Codespaces: VS Code was 'designed from the get-go' for this, says Microsoft architect

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: And so the rush back to dumb terminals with subscription access continues

good summary.

But "going in the wrong direction" is what "Umbrella Corporation" aka Micro-shaft has been doing since the '.Not' initiative in the very early noughties...

(unless... their goal... is CONTROL - in which case, it's working)

GitHub rolls out hosted Visual Studio Code in Codespaces

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

a built-in svn gateway for external svn-based repos (or svn gateway for the github repo, for that matter) might be an interesting feature for github. I wonder if they'd do it... ?

I've seen things listed in FreeBSD's ports and Linux packages for svn/github gateways of verious kinds. I haven't tried any of them, though. My local repo is svn, and public things go onto github. Seems to work ok.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Github

I do not blame MS for at least TRYING to monetize github by adding pay-for features [like CPU time for building code you edit with their on-line tool].

But I don't use those kinds of features so there ya go. I'm happy with 'git pull' local edit 'git commit' 'git push' and bulld locally. MS seems to think that other people are willing to pay for the new/shiny features.

Well, good luck to them, then. Just don't break it for the rest of us, k-thanks.

California’s privacy warriors are back – and this time they want to take their fight all the way to the ballot box

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: Quelle surprise...

from the article: The argument made was that passing the law through the traditional process gave greater flexibility because it could be adjusted and amended later to fit in with real-world requirements.

This means: if the ballot measure passes, the (arguably one of the most corrupt in the world) California legislature won't be able to "screw with it" easily based on the demands of the high-dollar-contributing tech companies that ABUSE our privacy, so OF COURSE the POLITICIANS will jump in to PRESERVE _THEIR_ POWER as well as that of their CONTRIBUTORS.

Ain't it typical?

icon, because, facepalm

Eclipse boss claims Visual Studio Code is an open-source poseur – though he would say that, wouldn't he?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Does this imply

notepad lacks the syntax highlight feature that's pretty useful, which of course you have in an open source tool like pluma - think what Notepad does for you on winders, but it's on Linux or FreeBSD, has multiple tabs, doesn't have a limit [that I have ever hit] on file size, and does auto-indent and has user-configurable tab settings. And it does that all-important syntax highlighting if you want it to.

(yeah another plug for 'pluma')

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

have you considered pluma? It doesn't have the irritating gnome-3-ness of gedit these days, but DOES supports auto-indent, syntax highlighting, user-specified tab widths, turning OFF hard tabs and line wrap (or back on if you really want that), and NOW comes with a plugin to remove extra white space from the ends of lines, which it should have done from the beginning...

Then you can continue to use Makefile builds and so on, like you probably would if you're a 'vi' fan.

[I guess all it needs is a gdb plugin and "virtual space" and we're good to go]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Not free

when I checked [right after VS Code released for Linux], VS Code was missing a key feature: Virtual Space. Maybe I missed it, but this is the ONE thing I like about Visual Studio these days. [what I prefer is how it was for VS '97 because i could edit dialog boxes and add callbacks for buttons and stuff using JUST the keyboard, not mousie-clickie-mousie-clickie all the time, removing one hand from home row on an arbitrary decision by VB-oriented people, but I digress...]

I hate it when an editor doesn't let you scroll past the end of a line when you scroll down using the keyboard. It's *IRRITATING*. And nearly ALL of them do just that, and won't let you change it. But I think IntelliJ _does_ support something like Virtual Space. I should verify that, though... I think it's buried someplace, along with the settings to NOT force K&R style when you're doing Android Java code. That's right, MY Java code is NOT K&R style!!! It's ALLMAN STYLE! (like my C++)

If VS code _does_ have this 'virtual space' feature, go ahead and correct me (please). Maybe it was added, or I just didn't find it...? If I am to have gripes about VS Code I want them to be LEGIT gripes.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Nicely balanced article

the survey results suggest a few things, not the least of which is that they have a somewhat limited pool of respondents to poll [the kind of things that makes polls skew to one side or another].

Eclipse USED to be compiled Java. Why would they [apparently] change to JS like VS Code is? Or did they? [maybe I'll have to look more closely at that].

I'm no fan of Java-based editors, that's for sure. They tend to stutter a lot and have quirky behavior, or (worse) INHERIT FEATURE CREEP from Java packages maintained by 3rd parties.

Some time ago when Arduino switched over to a canned Java library, it "inherited" a couple of VERY IRRITATING "features", in particular placing curly braces into your code at certain times when you pressed 'enter'. Yes, it was _MY_ pull request that finally *ALLOWED* users (note: users should NOT be controlled by applications nor their developers) to TURN that *BLANK* *OFF* !!!

In the mean time, if Eclipse actualy moves to NodeJS then I'll NEVER use it AGAIN.

There's still IntelliJ, which [last I looked] was being used for Android. It's bloatware but it works. However, I've had a hard time trying to get the Android stuff running natively on FreeBSD. Fortunately I can still get it (mostly) to run in a VM running Linux.

Back to VS Code: By comparison, its popularity may simply be that there are enough monkeys with typewriters to get something working that fixes MOST of the gross 'missing features' or 'bad performance' issues. However, you're getting a "lipstick on a boar" solution [which THIS time appears to be on the end that goes 'oink']. NodeJS was a *HUGE* mistake. Either make it PURE Java, or write it in something that COMPILES TO NATIVE CODE (and is NOT C-pound or Mono-based).

From the article: If Visual Studio Code usage does decline, it will not be because of licensing, but rather the product becoming bloated or evolving in a direction that is unwelcome to many of its users.

But isn't it SO typical of Miicrosoft to do EXACTLY THAT - add bloaty features we eo NOT want, NOT fix the problems we want fixed, TAKE AWAY features we DO want, and then THROW TRACKING AND SPYING IN on top of it all, making so we can NOT remove it, _ONCE_ _WE_ _HAVE_ _BEEN_ _LOCKED_ _IN_ _AND_ _ALL_ _OTHER_ _CHOICES_ _ARE_ _GONE_ ???

Uber, Lyft struck by sue-ball, no, sue-meteorite in California after insisting their apps' drivers aren't employees

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: AB5 hurts more than just UBER...

I've always liked William Shatner. Thanks for the compliment.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: AB5 hurts more than just UBER...

"The whole law is a massive perversion of governmental authority"

YES!

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

AB5 hurts more than just UBER...

as I understand it, many businesses are harmed by AB5, ones that you would never GUESS would fall into this kind of category.

Like professional musicians, playing gigs in bars and clubs [well, when THE STATE IS NOT SHUT DOWN anyway]. These guys who'd normally play for $xxx per gig, suddenly have to be EMPLOYEES? That makes _NO_ sense whatsoever!

And not to mention I.T. and Engineering contractors and consultants - particularly of the 'work from home' variety. Fortunately I have a CORPORATION so nothing really changed for ME, but I know it has hurt OTHERS.

AB5 - it's a *STUPID* law, created by *IDIOTS* for the purpose of CONTROLLING that segment of the work force that's existing outside of a LOT of RIDICULOUS REGULATIONS that ONLY empower GUMMINT, at the expense of WORKING STIFFS. It makes CONTRACTORS LESS LIKELY TO BE HIRED, because companies must THINK TWICE before they make people "employees" with all of the usual ADDITIONAL regulations, insurance requirements, taxes, yotta yotta yotta that's associated with it. The unemployment insurance laws REQUIRE THEM to re-imburse the ENTIRE cost of it for up to 6 months after the employee stops working for you. Whereas a CONTRACTOR is TEMPORARY, and there is NO unemployment tax deducted. [in the case of my corporation I end up paying the stupid tax ANYWAY even though i will *NEVER* use it - it's just "yet another gummint expense" and if I ever DID use it I'd have to PAY IT ALL BACK so what's the point???]

It's what happens when you have ONE PARTY RULE in Sacramento for WAY TOO LONG, and the SOCIALISTS TAKE OVER. It's just a MONEY GRAB and a POWER GRAB, by ELITIST LIBERAL POLITICIANS.

I'm (holding fingers almost together) *THIS* close to leaving Cali-Fornicate-You for GOOD, over THIS and SEVERAL OTHER THINGS, and thereby DENYING them my business in this state. ONE MORE THING and I'm going to TEXAS!!! Or, maybe, Florida... and if I can take my customers WITH me, that'd be even BETTER!!!

I'd like to challenge AB5 on its EXISTENCE and MAKE IT GO AWAY. Go, UBER!!! I'm rooting for ya!

Data centre reveals it modeled interiors on The Hunt for Red October sets

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: They got it WRONG

when you simply take into consideration most people's concepts of a nuclear reactor, how big it is, etc. it's easy to see how the general public would misunderstand missile tubes for nuclear propulsion stuff.

Looking inside of an actual reactor compartment is pretty boring. You have a bunch of large pipes and pumps and other bulky things with thick insulation on them, that twist and turn within a small space, around a giant metal thing covered in more insulation, with a few other large metal things that have large insulated pipes going in and out out of them. You crawl around a bit, and duck your head a lot, and have to 'frisk' yourself down when you leave with a pancake-shaped geiger counter, in case something radioactive got on you. And nobody allowed in while the reactor is 'critical' (i.e. operating). ['critical' simply means that the neutron production and depletion rates generally match, so the nuclear reaction is balanced and controlled, generally "at power" making steam for electricity and propulsion, but it's a typical lame joke to play on newbies to act like you panic when it's announced on the P.A. system].

in any case, the missile bay has that nice perspective thing going.

Microsoft puts dual-screen devices and Windows 10X in the too-hard basket

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: ...a more streamlined way to pair Bluetooth devices in Windows

BT on an Android seems a little easier...

(that might be a lesson to be learned by Microsoft)

NASA signs deals to put a rocket under Artemis flights until 2029

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Artemis?

"What are they hunting for?"

Hopefully a place to put a MOON HOTEL, or at least a few mining camps for rare earths and things with high value, high enough to justify going to the MOON to get them.

And of course, an "interplanetary space port" hub. "Moon" becomes the new LAX [let's say].

It's my understanding that there's a LOT of Titanium on the moon. You could build long distance space ships with this. And structures. And if it's Titanium OXIDE, processing it would release OXYGEN.

But as for using 'Artemis' in the name, I think the answer is very simple: Artemis is kinda like Rosie the Riveter for Ancient Greece. And so it's (probably) just a symbol of putting the first WOMAN on the moon. Or it could mean more, maybe 'bold exploration' or similar.

[on a side note, according to Wikipedia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

design ratings and re-usability

it's typical for military equipment to have a design rating that is based on the thing NOT being replaced very often. In the case of a nuclear reactor, let's say, the metals will become damaged by radiation over time. But the limits are set so that you can use the thing for 30 years and not have to replace it completely during the life of the ship. Similarly, a rocket engine is probably running at certain limits according to design margins and maximum stresses based on expected material failure modes, yotta yotta yotta. Additionally, CYCLIC stress is a major factor. Think "cracks that grow". At higher power levels you're more likely to have a crack that grows to an "unrepairable" size, but without catastrohic failure, at the higher power level. Lower power levels would let you "thermal cycle" it a lot more without getting a catastrophic failure (i.e. re-use the thing).

Even though that's just a projection of what I've seen before in military equipment, it's probably close to reality. Material strength and failure modes and how to prevent catastrophic failure, and operating limits based on minimum detectable design flaws and design margins, along with periodic X ray of materials and various other kinds of maintenance. It's how you do it, yeah. But for ONE-TIME use... if you stress it up to the breaking point, you're getting the most possible use out of it!

(but for warships, you also have WAR TIME limits, which are a *bit* different)

We beg, implore and beseech thee. Stop reusing the same damn password everywhere

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: If you don't ..

"different" works if you do this:

correct-horse

horse-correct

h0r5e+CoRR3ct

etc. (to crack these would require human intervention and some social engineering, and knowledge of one of them, and a good guess as to where the others might get used).

but yeah a password manager to track the HUNDRED or so passwords is probably a good idea. LONG ago I'd write them down. The page got full. Then I discovered KeePassXC [NOT the C-pound one WITHOUT the "XC" at the end, but the C language one WITH the 'XC' at the end, that builds properly on Linux and FreeBSD _WITHOUT_ _MONO_ - the LAST thing I need is MONO DEPENDENCIES on my Linux and FreeBSD systems]

in any case my master password is SO long I often make typing mistakes entering it...

(if the password is long enough, chances are you will NOT be "social engineered" to discover all of your derived passwords based on one that was obtained by cracking some 3rd party web site)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: OK, sp which password manager to plump for?

Hiow about something a) open source and runs on Linux/FreeBSD, b) *NOT* written in C-pound, c) does *NOT* have a boatload of unique dependencies (which is why I don't want something written in C-pound).

keepassXC comes to mind - which is the MAINTAINED open source version of keepassX that builds on Linux and FreeBSD.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: In other news....

correct-horse-battery-staple

India makes contact-tracing app compulsory in viral hot zones despite most local phones not being smart

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Fool proof!

S. Korea's online banking once required the use of ActiveX tech WAY beyond the point that even MS was willing to support. The security CRATERS it was responsible for should be a lesson about ANY government mandated "technology".

Gmail and Outlook sitting in a tree, not t-a-l-k-i-n-g to me or thee

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

OAuth itself breaks the whole open source concept. You have to register a particular service to access it, and in theory this could be abused in the current model without some level of secrecy. And those keys "and stuff" you need for OAuth are normally embedded within the application, but you CAN NOT DO THIS FOR OPEN SOURCE without unzipping your pants and letting people see your most private secrets, and maybe abusing them, and getting the service shut down, and breaking EVERYTHING.

This means:

a) you're stuck with "CRapps" to access your mail (which effectively breaks under Linux and FreeBSD)

-or-

b) you use web-mail (which stinks on ice and often requires script to work)

-or-

c) you GO ELSEWHERE <-- my choice

'c' is almost as good as a clue-bat.

UK COVID-19 contact-tracing app data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends, MPs told

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: data may be kept for 'research' after crisis ends

"A bunch of inbred data CONTROL-fetishists."

Fixed it for ya. but they need the data to get to the "control" part.

(1984 is a typo)

There's something _really_ disturbing about using your MEDICAL records for this sort of thing...

icon, because, black helicopters

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: "please install the app, and use it"

and the battery keeps falling out

Oracle faces claims of unequal pay from 4,000+ women after judge upgrades gender gap lawsuit to class action

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Counterclaim?

"The Equal Pay Act of 1963"

You'd think they would KNOW BETTER than to (allegedly) VIOLATE that...

Three is the magic number, unless you're Apple. That's how many million iPad shipments it was down in Q1

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Overpriced

I bought a 'droid slab for around $50 a few years ago, made by RCA. It's crippled in a few features, like only one camera and it FACES YOU, but otherwise it is pretty good for doing dev work which is what I wanted it for, mostly to learn 'droid dev and not yet do anything serious. In the mean time I've also worked on 'droid applications for clients, so it all paid off.

$50 droid slab vs $xxx iPad. eenie, meenie, miney, DROID! [I don't live on my phone so I don't even use the slab as a phone, just as a convenient portable computer to remotely read e-mail and do dev work].

As Brit cyber-spies drop 'whitelist' and 'blacklist', tech boss says: If you’re thinking about getting in touch saying this is political correctness gone mad, don’t bother

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

let's just make things as confusing as possible

It's my understanding that 'Red Hat' got its name because in certain countries (like maybe China) the 'Red Hat' is the good guy, and the 'White Hat' is the bad guy. Or something like that. And KKK members wear white hats. And I own a black hat (I'll be wearing it with my recently obtained Guy Fawkes mask).

So next is what, traffic lights? Can't use 'Red' for 'Stop' because it offends "Red People" ? Or 'Yellow' for "Caution" because it offends "Yellow People" ? Or maybe 'Green List' vs 'Red List' because they're already used for traffic lights? Except in some places they use Cyan rather than Green.

Oh hell let's just use the ENTIRE RAINBOW. for EVERYTHING and just CONFUSE EVERYBODY! And then we'll offend the LGBTQ{rest of the alphabet} people because they use rainbows to represent their "community"... [seriously dividing ourselves up like this using 'identity' is completely _BOGUS_, and then people get to pretend they care about PETTY CRAP like 'offensive' color-related terms]

I have a better idea: STOP caring about PETTY CRAP like this, and care about things that MATTER instead. [yeah nothing BLATANTLY OBVIOUS comes to mind at the moment...]

icon, because, facepalm

ICANN finally halts $1.1bn sale of .org registry, says it's 'the right thing to do' after months of controversy

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Now charities are doomed to never turn a profit.

regarding non-profits...

You might want to study "fund accounting", specifically how it works and why it's done "that way", and you'll see how non-profits do their thing (from an accounting perspective).

It just means they don't pay out dividends or increase stock value or anything like that. "Fund" accounts are depleted via expenses, and added to by contributions. It's not quite the same as debits and credits with a profit/loss statement at the end. It's more like buckets into which money is poured, and then taken out to fund things [like expenses, charity, etc.]. A school (or the school store) might use fund accounting, which is where my experience with it was [writing an accounting package for school stores back in the 90's]. Also your average non-profit could do things that way. So it's a little different than normal accounting, but not THAT different.

I would expect everyone in I.T. has had to do a LOT of accountant support, so this shouldn't be too difficult for people who visit this web site. heh.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Shame on you, Kieren

there was once an alt-hacker.org that was owned by a guy who was a frequent poster to the alt.hacker newsgroup (unfortunately he died a few years ago and the domain expired). But that is one example of an individual who had a '.org' address related to a USENET newsgroup, and I'm pretty sure others also exist.

"non-commercial" use is probably the criteria for '.org', as I understand it anyway.

Perhaps the REAL question is whether selling '.org' makes it beneficial to the owners of domain names or not. At this point it doesn't make a difference to me either way, but if the first thing that happened after "someone" buying the domain registry is an INCREASE IN PRICE, that question would be quickly answered.

.

Spyware slinger NSO to Facebook: Pretty funny you're suing us in California when we have no US presence and use no American IT services...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Being a U.S, government contractor

if the U.S. government is spying _WITHOUT_ some kind of due process (even FISA) then they can be held accountable for THAT much at least. But do we know it's the U.S. gummint behind this?

FB (and subsidiaries) needs to close their security holes, at the very least, if they do not want to be a vehicle by which such malware can be spread to targeted individuals.

(I hate to root for FB though in winning this lawsuit, but the alternative [them losing] is WORSE)

$31bn spent on cloudy infrastructure in Q1 on back of employees' mass migration to home working

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

well, did SOME good come out of this?

"Work at home" is awesome for those who can do it. I normally do this, lately about 50/50 on site or at home when I can bring the equipment home, etc.. - except when my CUSTOMERS can't work because THEIR customers can't work, etc. etc. so we're all furloughed until "those exercising their newly found power" STOP the nonsense.

In any case, the 'work from home' thing is GREAT and if cloudy services can make it happen BETTER, then everyone who currently switched to a work-from-home status and got used to it is PROBABLY NOT going to want to go back [unless there's some compelling need]. Not everyone CAN do this, but in the IT world, it seems very likely.

And I'd guess that cloudy-things would make this easier. I've been doing github for a while now, so that I can make source consistent in multiple places via private repos. [in theory it would help with collabs but as things turn out I'm often the only one doing the actual work at this level, but I still make heavy use of it, go fig]. Some people ALSO like google docs in addition to things like github [though editing these docs over the internet STINKS for performance].

And as WAY more people try to make use of these 'cloudy' things to facilitate work-from-home, the complaints about sucky performance will [hopefully] drive innovation and competition and so on.

So yeah, it COULD become the new "virtual workspace" we'd all (most likely) like to see. Commute from bedroom to office every day. Walk the dog for exercise during lunch or while you're "thinking about it". That kind of thing. My normal day, most of the time.

And we'll get to teach small children what "Daddy's working" means.

Dell to unleash hybrid server/storage boxen that can run virtual machines

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Perfect for parallel file systems

thinking of "scale" in general, I wonder how it does in THAT department... as in could these things be "scaled up" into a full data center in order to get better performance for, say, an SQL database with a web interface, something practical for a medium company that is on its way to becoming a LARGE company, and will need to "scale up" at some point?

My guess is it'll scale, because, VMWare.

(I don't do mega-IT so maybe this stuff is more obvious to others, though I'm still curious)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Boxes

yeah, "kids today" - no sense of humor! Then again with the 'grammar nazi' icon, it might've started out as a joke...

(no up/down vote from me until the snark level has been properly measured)

Faster than reflection: Microsoft previews Source Generators for C#

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Many commonly used libraries [snip] also make heavy use of reflection

Interesting. I always knew ".Not" had some serious performance bottlenecks [primarily due to the OBVIOUS performance differences between Win2k server and Win2k3 server on the SAME HARDWARE] but it's nice to get some confirmation as to WHY.

So here's a question: WHY must the fundamental design of these libraries require RUN-TIME DISCOVERY of ANY kind? This "collection" and "arbitrary data type" and "arbitrary property" kind of mentality is BEYOND SILLY and crosses into LUDICROUS. It is THIS FUNDAMENTAL DESIGN FLAW that _IS_ the problem!

These are the kinds of "features" you expect to find in INTERPRETED languages, and NOT a COMPILED one for 21st century programming!!! For someone like me who does stuff for device control and kernel modules and microcontrollers and things like that, it's OBVIOUSLY THE WRONG WAY TO DO THINGS.

Like the Mythbusters used to say when looking at a catastrophic failure: "Well, THERE's your problem!"

Microsoft! Please, put down the rebrandogun. No one else needs to get hurt... But it's too late for Visual Studio Online

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: One problem with the lockdown

Codpieces. I like your name better