Posts by bombastic bob 10282 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
For general market items like cars, "repaired by anyone" makes sense.
For industrial and farming equipment I expect a lot of customers just go to the dealer anyway [the way that managers "buy microsoft"].
It's the independent and family-owned farmer who would be hit the hardest by these practices. Corporate farmers just collect their pay and let management deal with the upkeep.
As a contractor I am used to it. Basically it means adapting to the 'feast-or-famine' environment and always do your best to keep customers happy [then they keep giving you more projects].
Seriously,getting hired into a megacorp and staying there for 40+ years is highly overrated. "Job security" never really existed. The world changes too quickly, especially in IT and tech. Being flexible to 'hiring and layoff cycles' is just necessary for survival in the modern world.
compromised hosts and poor customer support.
Not necessarily. It is well known that in a typical office you have people with varying productivity. So if the layoffs went to the least productive, they'll be fine.
However, in a company that has WAY too many staff members, it's more likely to be arbitrary.
I'm definitely thinking about Elon Musk's recent dealing with Twitter. A whole lot of people were "deemed unnecessary" and from the look of things, that was mostly right. Also apparently gone at Twitter are those meditation rooms, wine dispensers, and free lunches. Yeah, that's where you trim the fat FIRST (not people)
In any case if the staff reductions at Digital Ocean were careful and smart, they'll be OK. [They should also do what they can to help find work for the unlucky ones, since it is in their own best interest as well]. But if they are arbitrary and driven hy anything OTHER than making the new office 'lean and mean', look forward to MORE OF SAME.
But I suspect 'not OK', and the main reason for revenue loss has been a general failure in marketing and forecasting. 2022 saw a HORRENDOUS amount of inflation, especially for the energy sector, interest rate hikes to "fix" it [but when inflation is caused by runaway gummint spending, it just stag-flates things], and apparently they are headquartered in New York City which is NOT helping. [NYC is an extremely expensive place to live and wages are artificially high, like San Francisco, Palo Alto, etc.]
In other words, if they had kept their eyes open they might have seen this coming. I actually expected the inflation etc. to happen as soon as oil prices began to rise due to 'new gummint policies' on U.S. domestic oil etc. because to ME it was obvious. But I digress. [hedging their bets or planning to move out of expensive areas might have been a way to avoid the layoffs]
And of course the ones who lose the most are the ones who were relying on them for a paycheck, and got sacked.
I would qualify that statement.
If you want to get paid, do not release your software for free WITHOUT a revenue path, such as paid support, customization, or some kind of value that you personally benefit from that's related to it.
If I write a FOSS program to do XXX and it is related to the normal kinds of work I do, then I can haul XXX along with me wherever I go and make it a selling feature for my software development services. Hiring me to contract develop a YYY that can use XXX as its basis and save a month's work _IS_ a benefit, and you can haul your FOSS portfolio around with you wherever you go.
(Also helps to write up a free license for using a customized version AND customer keeping it closed source, and reference the online repo so others can maintain it later)
FOSS is broken,
Not really. You can still work on it for free or get someone else to take over the project if you cannot volunteer.
people need funding to work on it,
Some do some do not.
If I write a FOSS thing that is useful to me getting programming gigs, then it helps me personally to work on it [I have and do].
If others also benefit, you can at least partially rely on them to submit patches and just manage it.
Contributions in the form of patch/test are extremely helpful. I prefer this over money as I have all of my income from other/different sources, and fixing the FOSS code would indirectly help me personally. But yeah, it is often hard to work on FOSS _AND_ earn a living at the same time. I just get too tired to work on the FOSS.
So as far as I am concerned, "in kind" contributions of quality patches and testing are as good as donations for a community supported project.
Customized software and support definitely generate revenue, though, and it is that "value added" part that earns the most, my 25¢ worth.
my understanding is that EV batteries need full replacement every 3-5 years, at a cost of around $10k. YMMV of course [bad PUNishment I know] but my car is >20 years old and the total major drive train maintenance (other than tires ad breaks) was $2000 or so when I got a new exhaust system less than 10 years ago.
If it were an EV I probably would have replaced the battery 3 or 4 times at the price of A WHOLE NEW CAR.
And resale on EVs kinda stinks, because of that foreboding battery replacement cost.
well you are right. The assumption I was making here is that the wind and solar plants were actually working as intended.
But of course when they do not (bad weather, night time) then you do not need a peaker plant (or batteries), you need a standby fossil fuel plant to take up the slack, usually an oil burner or natural gas plant.
yeah maybe it wasn't stated correctly. Here is how it works.
Electrical power demand varies throughout the day and night for obvious reasons. But rather than just having one ginormous plant throttle output to the demand (expensive, inefficient) you run many power plants of varying kinds, some of which (nuclear, coal) run at 100% all of the time, and others (hydro, solar, wind, "peaker") that can be turned on and off as needed.
But to use the wind and solar plants as much as possible, the power grid often has battery storage to suck up power when demand is lower,l and deliver it when demand is higher, thereby evening out demand a bit to make it possible to (let's say) NOT start up gas-powered plants for only a few hours a day during peak demand times (rather better to leave them running at lower power and throttle up when needed and rotate demand to different plants to 'level out the wear/tear' and always have them ready for unexpected demand).
In any case batteries are an effective way to level out demand somewhat and (hopefully) keep costs down. They come with a price (lose around 10% of what they store) but is good enough.
So yeah building more battery storage out of used car batteries is a GOOD thing - as long as they do not burst into flames.
NOTE: When I was in the Navy I worked in the engine room (nuclear sub) and so I became VERY familiar with battery storage and electrical power generation. A properly designed system can easily and automatically shift loads between generators and battery storage systems,. As an example, certain loads would trip shore power breakers if started, but running was OK. So I'd typically take up load on the battery for a bit to allow the equipment to start without tripping breakers, then zero out the battery again. Battery charges were generally scheduled unless we specifically did something to drain it, and there was enough capacity to handle short term peak loads like that.
"If the lithium and nickel are valuable (which they are), why would they be in landfill?"
It's the usual short-sightedness plus expediency, deceit, and green-washing
I understand that plastic recycling suffers the same kind of fate. That is, when I dutifully put plastic in the blue can I assume (in good faith) that Mr. Gummint is also following through and turning these plastic throwaways into more plastic at some recycling plant somewhere.
Unfortunately that often means a landfill in someone else's back yard, possibly in a 3rd world country, who might decide to put it in a barge and dump it at sea instead [and they DO].
Battery recycling *IS* what we all want. But for SOME reason it is NOT what we get!!!
Usually I laugh at this and point fingers at the hypocrisy, but right now i am too saddened by it all. WE THE PEOPLE suffer from it, while virtue signalling elitists say "Nothing to see here"
Of course re-purposing battery assemblies for a few more years [as peak electrical demand storage] IS good so let's keep doing that.
(and do not forget that the energy density of GASOLINE, by weight, is considerably better than a battery pack - and there is no man-made CO2 climate change, either)
Althouh there is some validity to rocket exhaust affecting ozone, the actual amount would be mininmal.
* Ozone holes are fund near the poles where cosmic radiation is less effective at creating it from O2 high in the atmosphere
* In general each ozone hole can be mostly attributed to volcanic activity in which the effluent gasses flow towards the hole
* The chemicals alleged to cause these holes are MUCH heavier than air,.and although for a short period of time the rocket will pass through the ozone layer, the amount of these chemicals that could interact with the ozone layer will be relatively small (in other words only a fraction can affect the ozone layer)
On a relate note...
Until we launch nuclear engines that have NO air pollution, our cell phones, internet, television, and other worldwide communications are going to need *ROCKETS* to get them satellites into orbit, and those rockets are going to affect things... minimally.
I thought "double-decker bus" was an El Reg unit of measure already...
https://www.theregister.com/Design/page/reg-standards-converter.html
(it's listed under 'length')
If you shoot a few small holes in the gas bag it will come down slowly enough to avoid damaging things.
Then we recover the payload and figure out what they hell they were up to.
[Except that the Bidas family has been taking CCP money for so long that their puppet-masters won't let them.]
(If the balloon goes over Texas, Gov, Abbott will probably shoot it down. Same for DeSantis in Florida.)
this most DEFINITELY fails the 'shoe on the other foot' test.
Am I correct in thinking the Gnome people just don’t care?
I suspect they are either a) paid NOT to care, or b) exist in the same 'bubble world' as Win-10-nic TIFKAM etc.
Gnome, like Micros~1, seeking to "migrate US" to THEIR way, instead of 'customer service'
"One Adwaita to rule them all"
from the article: "we humbly suggest that another such replacement is in order."
Forking from upstream 'prior to latest gnome' would be a good start.
[/me absolutely DESPISES 'Adwaita', went out of my way to get it out of firefox, documented the process]
I always figured amber alerts were MOSTLY divorced dads late on returning the kid to the wacky X he divorced because she was wacky, but the courts "saw fit" to give HER custody for political reasons, and therefore he's constantly being subjected to excess scrutiny...
(at least they do not go over the emergency alert system any more, like they did at first)
icon, for snarky reasons
actually when I hear the lead-in and two tones I'm using profanities because "I was trying to listen" and it's always something irritating like a monthly test or 'yet another storm//flash-flood warning' when you have been hearing them all day and it has been raining all day.
I recall at one time AMBER ALERTS were going over this system (think missing kid except probably just some divorced parent late on returning the kid from "visitation" and wacky X waiting for an opportunity to "GET HIM" but I digress). This practice QUICKLY stopped.
if there were an actual nuclear war, I live within a few miles of several important Navy and Marine bases. I would never hear it. *BOOM*
Dear Apache Foundation:
I'm at least 1/8 American Indian, and though I do not believe I have affiliation with the Apache tribe (the one tribe I am sure of is Taos, many others exist) I am OFFICIALLY giving MY permission, being enough "Native American" to do so (way more than Lizzie Warden, that's for sure) to NAME AN EXCELLENT SET OF SOFTWARE PROGRAMS and the foundation that supports them after a NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE.
Just like the Apache helicopter.
"Get Woke Go Broke" - DO NOT LISTEN to FOOLS who are "Woke": and thereby end up BECOMING THEM.
Think what happened to Disney, Bed Bath and Beyond, and OTHERS who made a SIMILAR mistake,.
The SHRILL WHINY MINORITY must STOP IT, and CODDLING THEM and BENDING TO THEIR WHIMS is *ENABLING* *THEM* *TO* *CONTINUE*.*THEIR* *IRRITATING* *DISRUPTIVE* *FOLLY* !!!
So here is what you do - how about a web page (prominently referenced on your web site) dedicated to the HISTORY of the APACHE PEOPLE to educate and show positive image kinds of things about the Apache tribe! Factual of course, no tirades or ridiculous activism.
pretty much what I was thinking.
When the wacky-enviro-alarmists start legislating you out of business over their pseudo-science fanaticism of doom and gloom (based entirely on fear and ignorance, leading to a kind of economic suicide), it is time to view these places ONLY through the rear view mirrors of escaping vehicles, while you still have enough cash on hand to do it.
I hear Texas, Florida, and other 'red states' SERIOUSLY want businesses to prosper in THEIR states! You know, jobs, prosperity, thriving and healthy economy, and so on.
I've written hyper-efficient XML processors before. As long as you do not do anything exotic with it, the code is pretty simple, infinitely hierarchical, etc. Similar for 'INI' style. I am pretty sure I posted the source online on github, too. Written in C, with C++-like thinking.
(I use a similar github handle as I use here if you want to look for it)
The original reason for writing this is I do NOT like 3rd party bloatware libs for doing simple things. And this code is efficient enough to put into a kernel module, which was being discussed at the time I first came up with the original (and it morphed from there).
We need to look at why this is so.
I have some ideas
* object-oriented to the point that objects do WAY too much 'just in case'
An object that represents the name of a file does NOT have to open and read the file and figure out what it is UNLESS you need to display an icon or a preview (and then it should be done in background on demand).
Mate and Gnome standard 'open file' dialog box is guilty of this, as are common dialog boxen on Windows
* Just because you can, does not mean you should
Unnecessary UI "eye candy", typical for websites that use bloatware javascript libs
Using a web-browser based UI for something that really needs a native interface.
allowing applications to eat RAM for cache and do garbage collection whenever they FEEL like it, thereby causing OTHER applications to run slowly or swap too much. That would be YOU, Chrome, Firefox.
* use of OS memory allocator rather than sub-allocation for tiny little chunks of RAM.
Kinda self-describes
* Use of C++ objects that use 'new' with pointer members, rather than the actual stored type, for non-arrays
Lest we forget, the constructor will get called if you declare a member as a class rather than a class pointer, and you will skip an extra 'malloc' and instead do one for the entire class and all of its members, all at once
* Excess reliance on exception handling and unwinding of things
What it says on the tin. Kernel code often has a 'goto error_exit' where the 'error_exit' label has a cleanup section for managing all of the unwinding and freeing up resources. Better, and more efficient. 'goto' may have 4 letters, but it is NOT a '4 letter word',.
* Use of garbage collection where reference counts would make a LOT more sense.
Objects that clean themselves up when the ref count goes to zero can persist as long as they need to, even across threads [if you design them properly]. Remember OLE 2.0 ? It is based on other things found in the UNIX/Linux world (CORBA was one as I recall) and the ref count is the smartest part of it.
* BLOATWARE "Rapid Development" systems (think UWP)
They add layers and are not always very efficient
* Anything involving '.NOT' or NodeJS
'Nuff said I think
* Trying to use Python as if it were C or C++
Python is a useful wrapper but performs poorly in a loop. I recently used Python to display an animated wallpaper until you touch the screen, then it exits but tells the main application you did it so that it changes its behavior with blinky lights. Maybe 20 lines of Python, the rest managed by GTK and standard utilities
NOT all inclusive, but a good start I'd say...
A few years ago I did a lot of engineering work in that area (LiPo battery management chip etc.). In short LiPo has a high enough energy density to act like a oyrotechnic under the right conditions. If you can manage NOT to damage the thing, they work fine. But they are easily damaged even during the assembly process (right Samsung?) so you have to have not only a reliable case on the device, but a reliable power control chip, circuit board design, and the battery itself.
Last I looked there were a zillion LiPo battery makers in China, with widely varying levels of quality and charge/discharge rates. Undervolt on battery makes it swell up like a balloon. Some batteries come with protection chips built into them, and others do not. Short out one of the ones without a protection chip and you could end up with a fire in (single digit) seconds.
Basically, going with "the cheapest battery/solution" in hardware design may in fact be a recipe for flame-broiled luggage.
was thinking something like that, but rireproof safes already exist, so maybe put one or two in the baggage area, and just check your potentially flamable devices like luggage
My idea was to require that such devices be contained within flame-proof bags inside your luggage, or inside special luggage. They are not that expensive and are often sold to people who like building model cars and aircraft with LiPo batteries (for storing the batteries safely).
Something like THIS maybe?
The early rumor was "a corrupted database file".
Made me think it might have been a '.mdb' file, heh heh heh
But as it's gummint, probably an 'Oracle solution', The articles you mention seem to be about a proposed system and/or data analysis, unless I missed something.
(The longer link did mention Oracle once, also Sybase)
Some possible phrases within that "Who, Me?" article
* What version of Micros~ Access was this written for? I need to re-install it
* Windows 10 was updating? AGAIN???
* What do you mean, "no daily backup"?
* 'Please insert disk in drive A: and press OK'
* That is most certainly a BSOD
* 'mailbox full'
* Can anyone find me a working IDE drive?
* CPU fan was clogged
Did anyone definitively state why the ozone hole appeared and then disappeared?
I think the best explanation would be volcanic activity in places where normal wind patterns carry the volcanic gasses [which are major ozone depleters, including a huge amount of CFCs] towards Australia where the hole was [as I recall], particularly any volcanic activity close to the South Pole, like THIS one. (The ozone layer is weakest near the poles)
In any case, more science would be nice. I would imagine other satellites have taken up the slack.
"The advantage of running XP and Windows 7 is that you know the internet is risky so the hacking level ends up being lower with very old operating systems."
this only applies to tech savvy "refuseniks" that would rather slide dwn a razor blade bannister into a tub of alcohol than use Win-10-nic or Win II that never browse the internet nor receive e-mail (though using T-bird, NOT viewing e-mail as HTML nor previewing attachments, and practicing "safe surfing" in general, is a big help).
windshield wipers in space!
flying squeegee helicopters!
yeah, maybe not...
compressed air jets may be the best solution. Build up pressure in a tank, then spray the panel every few days. You can pump atmosphere at Mars pressure, and it should not take that long. A small multi-stage compressor should do it. Probably could he made out of light materials, maybe even plastic.
I was just gonna say "Space is Hard"
and of course you said better things
Is it time yet (in the world) for space tech patents and scientific discoveries to (in general) be made PUBLIC if they are not already?
Patent licensing of course must still apply, but be made available for legit non-military purposes like Mars rovers.
Just a thought, world politics and CCP notwithstanding.
"Who, Me?" for THIS one, for sure.
"Post-accident calculations, as well as examination of scratches on Rod 9, estimate that it had actually been withdrawn approximately twenty inches" (instead of 4 inches).
/me imagines tech yanking upwards on the thing "This... F'ing... thing... is... STU[@#$%^&^]" because with that final YANK, the rod was blown out of the core in a tremendous steam explosion inside the reactor vessel [and rumors have it that the tech was pinned to the ceiling with part of a control rod through his abdomen after being nearly cooked by highly radioactive steam...].
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
