Posts by bombastic bob

Re: * Cough Cough *

I should check to see if there's a port for FreeBSD yet...

nope. doesn't look like it. (I'm too busy to write one, will just wait I suppose)

regardless of "FEELINGS" (which are both IRRELEVANT _and_ highly subjective), a job is an exchange of work for money. Any requirement beyond making more money for the hirer than is spent in wages, equivalent savings being a big part of that, is a RIDICULOUS requirement, and might as well be race, sex, or religion with respect to DISCRIMINATION.

that being said, someone who speaks out about politics all of the time in the work environment, and frequently offends people, may be terminated on the grounds that it's creating a "hostile work environment". work is for work. [politics can be 'shared' after hours unless you know it's not a problem].

And that's all that should matter. Too many hypersensitive easily-triggered SJW SNOWFLAKES out there... and THEY need to STFU and be "more accommodating".

the "Cancel Culture" is JUST! PLAIN! WRONG!!!

Re: Slow web sites

I would think a "code coverage" analysis might be interesting. If a zillion functions/styles are loaded, but only a handful are used, mark it *BLOATWARE* because it should NOT be cramming a boatload of bloat into the browser EVERY! STINKING! TIME! you load the page.

NO excuses!!

Re: "spaces won with 51 per cent of the vote"

two spaces, no hard tabs. that's usually established in any coding guidelines *I* write.

Re: "spaces won with 51 per cent of the vote"

I prefer spaces MAINLY so that no matter what editor or viewer I load, from less and vi to pluma and IntelliJ, my indents remain CONSISTENT in the manner in which they display and, well, indent.

If you wanna "save that byte", consider how cheap storage is, and how EXPENSIVE time and effort are, and the impact of "poor or inconsistent readability" on your time/effort.

Re: Shameful

there must have been a compelling reason they went with this design....

Re: Shameful

Landing the first stage is becoming boringly regular.

agreed. If it fails, we'll hear about it, like plane crashes. They're infrequent too, so every time you get one, it's front page stuff.

(this says a lot of GOOD THINGS about SpaceX's tail landing ability, which is still pretty sci-fi cool)

Re: Shameful

I'm convinced that if we're secretly in contact with space aliens, they're TRYING TO HOLD US BACK, and NOT _advance_ our technology. Just sayin'. And I also believe that "certain politics" is the number 1 reason we have not already colonized Mars. In the 1960's, they expected we'd have space stations like in the movie 2001 in, well, 2001. Other "predictions" like graphical displays on computers were actually pretty close and looked good on camera. A HAL computer that has natural language interface, a little early for 2001-ish but these are getting pretty good, too [Watson, Siri, Alexa, etc.).

But our space exploration is PATHETICALLY BEHIND where we COULD be.

Meanwhile, TRILLIONS wasted in government-run social programs... imagine if that was used to purchase cutting edge tech, instead? Jobs, wealth, productivity, national attitude and so on...

Re: Poor filing practice?

hmm... I wasn't aware the F1 wasn't double-wall. Perhaps NASA believed that double-wall wasn't strong/reliable enough. They needed double-wall for the Liquid H engines, but apparently "got away with" not doing that for kerosene engines. They operate at lower temps.

As I recall the double-wall design was intended to preheat fuel and cool the inner wall simultaneously. H2+O2 burns hotter than engine melting point, and that would be why. You could also spray fuel along the inside of the engine to form a laminar boundary layer. Maybe they did that in the F1 ???

In any case it was good enough to get the job done. But yeah "more modern" designs are probably better, more efficient, and so on. We can do that now. In 1960's, maybe not so much... not and meet the deadline of "in this decade".

Re: Poor filing practice?

well, SRBs were cheaper and more efficient, not necessarily better.

As I understand it, and I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, SpaceX uses kerosene-powered engines that are *kinda* like the F1s.

The point of the Saturn V was to build a practical muscle-car rocket, not necessarily the BEST tech, but functioning tech that worked reliably enough NOT to get people killed...

In modern terms, Saturn V is probably as primitive as any other 50 year old design, though "modern" designs would obviously borrow things that work from any past design, no problem there.

And if we wanted to build replica systems, there are a couple of Saturn V's in pieces set up as museums, so no problem unbolting something, doing a 3D scan, x-ray material analysis, etc..

COULD be done. probably should NOT. Let's do a 21st century design that combines efficiency, low cost, reliability, and so on, borrowing from the 1960's when needed but using the last 50 years' worth of experience to make it better!

Re: 59 out of 60

if the failed satellite can't de-orbit itself, that could become a MAJOR problem...

then again, perhaps the new 'space force' could use some TARGET PRACTICE!!!

Re: US Politics

"Go away and grow up."

You should say that while looking into a mirror, actually...

Re: US Politics

I'm not convinced this is the FCC's jurisdiction...

FTC is probably more in line with this (like banking and other business dealings)

Regardless of who's juris-damn-dictin it is, the report needs to get done!

Maybe Demo[n,c][r,R]ats can stop with the ridiculous investigations and actually LEGISLATE something. Otherwise, they are merely crying/whining and passing the blame onto a convenient target (Pai and FCC). But that, of course, would require REAL work, when all they seem to be interested in doing these days is get rd of the duly elected president.. by hook, crook, or coupe d'etat.

[I bet Trump would sign it if they do something reasonable to limit [ab]use of privacy info]

Re: Security

"GitLabs need to relocate their HQ"

San Diego would be a good start, if they want to stay in Cali-Fornicate-You, but in my view, that's probably a bad move... so if you must move, move to Texas or the S.E. USA. There you will find lower living expenses, less socialism, less gummint interference, and people who aren't SNOBBY SOCIALISTS.

(then again they sometimes object in those places when Californians go there, and bring the FAILED SOCIALIST MENTALITIES WITH THEM, screwing up the 'good place' with bad ideas that caused them to move away from where they were in the FIRST place)

But if I were to pick a foreign country to set up in, why not the UK ? Plenty of talent, decent place to love, yotta yotta. Taxes and expensive might be higher than Texas or S.E. USA, but then again LOWER than San Francisco...

Re: Security

"Only about 36% of USians hold a passport."

mine expired. I never used it. Got it over a decade ago because $WORK at the time thought they might have to send me overseas to fix something [had gone to Texas to fix something before, and it worked out very well, 2 days there and a weekend over the phone fixed the problem, kept the customer contract alive].

But the problem was fixed locally and so did not require me going overseas. But now I had a passport.

I went overseas a lot when I was in the Navy, of course. Wouldn't mind visiting those places again. Military ID is as good as any passport when you're active duty.

Aside from that, I have no problem hiring foreigners as long as they aren't inside of a country that poses a security risk [like China]. Again, not the PEOPLE, but the GOVERNMENTS that pose the risk.

Re: Shirley...

"GitLab could dodge this bullet by giving companies the option to specify exactly who works on their code?"

I think the concern here is more about INDUSTRIAL ESPIONAGE...

In other words, if I have a private repo (many many reasons to do that) storing my company's software source, ANYONE at the hosting company (gitlab, github, sourceforge, whoever) can view it if they have the right privileges. At this point, if it's viewable by someone inside China (let's say) whose login credentials are easily sniffed by "the great firewall", there is NOTHING stopping the government of China from doing a bit of industrial espionage on PRIVATE REPOS. Their past performance with respect to industrial espionage suggest NOT ONLY that they WOULD, but PROBABLY DO ALREADY.

So they go on a fishing expedition for things they can rip off, or SUE OVER, or PATENT TROLL with, using stolen credentials that were "stealable" due to MITM across the great firewall.

THAT is the concern, I'm sure of it.

Re: "Retaliatory behavior"

I still have (and recommend) github. Some of its features just make sense.

On the other hand, I keep a wary eye on what Microsoft may "feature creep" into it. In other words, what I do does not rely on github specifically. My bags are effectively packed...

There's still sourceforge but they were bought up by doubleclick some time ago... can't recall if doubleclick sold it off or not. Still I have a presence there as well.

I think the concern is NOT over individuals being a risk, but of their governments AND those parts of the internet that are OWNED by those governments...

So regardless, a government could (and in China's case, apparently DOES) set up MITM gateways across its "great firewall", thereby enabling spying on https traffic that might contain sensitive or private information that a government MIGHT consider "leverage".

Look at what China's influence (apparently through Nike) has done with respect to basketball players and their position on things like HONG KONG freedom-loving rebels. Don't they DARE support HONG KONG in this, or RETALIATION (like no more advertising contracts with Nike) _WILL_ happen.

I _TOTALLY_ get the concern here. Sad, but reality.

it does not make me very happy about it, though.

"CEO Zuckerberg also continues to avoid visiting London, or anywhere in the UK, out of fear he will be arrested for repeatedly failing to comply with a request by Parliament to answer questions about Facebook’s actions, as revealed in the tranche of documents."

heh - this alone is popcorn worthy

Re: Interesting but...

ack. Although I admit liking [to laugh at] that AI-written Eurovision-based song that was featured in an El Reg article a while back, I don't think having a conversation with an AI bot [especially in a worthless forum like Reddit] would be even mildly amusing...

Re: Compliance score for office 365 ?

The foxes CLEARLY stated that they do NOT eat the chickens. Why don't you believe them?

and JUST how much time and money and effort was wasted pinched out excreted used up in that 'new icon' design?

Re: *Standing, thunderous, rowdy ovation*

"This is the Chinese people who have been brainwashed into thinking that Westerners have been brainwashed"

It's a fair bet it's really party insiders who are brainwashERS, and not brainwashEES. You know, like certain "non profit" organization employees that are paid to troll teh intarwebs with their socialism sewage (and target howler monkey sock-puppet responses to people like me, naturally).

I hadn't thought about Notepad++ before, being NOT a windows power user since the early noughties. My respect for this program and its developer has been greatly increased.

I do recall a sample application called 'multipad' that I built from an early windows SDK, and used as a sub for notepad a couple o' decades ago. MS should've done that on their own.

Retaliation from Communists against the Notepad++ dev is a LOT like me getting downvoted by the Howler Monkey faction of my fan club, only better. It's a badge of HONOR for doing the RIGHT THING!

Now we need him to mention something about Hong Kong and watch THOSE fireworks with popcorn and beer!