Posts by Aseries

JARGON

Itis considered polite to define an acronym upon first usage and not just drop it into something.

After looking it up now I know what is a Large Language Model, thank you.

GIGO

First rule of database quality.

GARBAGE IN = GARBAGE OUT

China and US need each other.

I fail to see the need for aggressive rhetoric aimed at each other except for selfish political purposes. China and US economies are interlocked in a death grip. US economy needs the consumer goods and loans. China needs the factory orders and investments in US Treasury bonds. Taiwan is in the middle and thriving since the 1950s. A shooting war will upset a lot of applecarts with no good prospects for an outcome. China really has nothing to gain except ego points. A destroyed Taiwan is useless to everyone. Perhaps with time Taiwan will become the Switzerland of the East. with chip foundries instead of banks.

MS EDGE aggression

I ran into a disturbing MS activiy between EDGE and CHROME recently running with Windows 11. I was using my backup LOCAL user. I had made some shortcuts from the Chrome browser on the desktop. When I opened one of the shortcuts I got a dialog to choose a browser FROM THE MS STORE. The only browsers available are Edge and Firefox. I had an interesting conversation with a MS Help chat. To say the agent was evasive is an understatement. He explained some technical jargon why Chrome was not secure enough for the MS Store. Chrome is the default browser for that user. I investigated the default settings by protocol. Chrome was default for HTM and HTML but could not be set for HTTP or HTTPS. My shortcuts are HTTPS. This seemed to have happenedd after the last update. It appears MS is up too something with browser defaults.

Autonomous?

Think of TESLA. I can see it now, $100 Million autonomous ship disappears.

What about the humidity?

I have seen attempts to use ambient atmospheric air (outside air) in data centers. My experience is in Minnesota. One would guess below zero F air would make for great cooling. The problem with such cold air is that it tends to be very dry. The unmentioned part of data center environment control is maintaining stable humidity. Low humidity causes static problems and other issues.

Windos 11 Update related Audio issues.

Windows 11. The audio in my Gigabyte MB desktop developed a problem where headphone audio worked but main speaker did not. I was convinced it was a hardware problem to no avail. After the latest update all is back to normal.

I have always considered a good exercise for team building is have 5 people select one 3 ingrediant pizza.

Tesla may eventually become a useful transportation device.

Tesla may be forced to engineer their vehicles into something more than a large expensive toy.

A very popular aftermaket option for Teslas is a kit bolted under the rear bumper that simulates conventional ICE dual exhaust. It is actually a set of loudspeakers. Another add-on is a set of simulated analog dash instruments, MPH, TACH, etc.

DECI-WHAT?

Well, everyone has DECIMATE figured out? To me the modern usage of DECIMATE would apply to a work unit that experiences a reduction in force due to poor performance. Unlike the Roman legions the decimated can look for other work.

The ALIEN xenomorph is real.

The ALIEN xenomorph is a fictionalized version of the real thing. A species of black wasp found in Australia that injects eggs into caterpillars where the larvae eat there way through the host. The parasite can actually brainwash the host to defend the nest. A species of the wasp played a major role in the Norwegian horror series FORTITUDE.

https://www.amazon.com/Fortitude-Stanley-Michael-Gambon-Richard/dp/B00R0419HW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3FIHQ8UPFXV95&dchild=1&keywords=fortitude+season+3&qid=1630209212&sprefix=fortitude%2Caps%2C198&sr=8-3

You've come a long way baby!

Bezos has gone a long way since selling books out of his garage. I bought one of his college textbooks with my first Amazon purchase in 1997.

Universal Ergonomics

The operator panels of audio visual equipment, PCs, Remote controls, home appliances, automobiles and possibly aircraft all use those little iconic symbols that translate to PLAY, STOP, FAST FORWARD, REWIND, OPEN/CLOSE, ETC. I have seen a few people of a certain age (mine) become confused as to the functions. When I have to help someone I like to tell them it's OK, the symbols are in Klingon.

Wait a minute.

How does this sharing take place? If some other users are tacking on to your Internet service are they not getting there through some other ISP? Or is this about folks in your apartment building leaching off your WiFi?

Monkeys can do more than type Shakespeare

Many years ago some Univac engineers trained a chimp to operate a Univac 1004. The operation consisted of pressing four buttons in the correct sequence.

Playing the professional sports stadium card.

The ability for professional sports teams to extort $Biliion stadiums from State and Municipal taxpayers is not lost on corporations pedaling factories and development centers.

COUP

This was a planned coup and insurrection. Capitol security was inexplicably weak and ineffective. US military refused to release the National Guard until so ordered by the President Donald Trump after the damage was done. From reports by officials inside the Capitol terrorists were searching for the Electoral College State vote certificates. As could be expected President Trump convinced radical followers to do his dirty work for him.

Hoping for Trumps 2nd term

Brockman may be pouring funds into POTUS campaign. Donald Trump hates to see his billionaire club friends put away, at least not for long.

Meanwhile in India

The Indian government is set to shell out some Billions to connect 46,000 rural communities to the Internet by fiber.

Employee Rating System

I am 13 years retired but Performance Reviews and rating systems don't ever really change that much. Back then HR was enamored of the BELL CURVE. That is fine but they took it to mean that all the employees must make the curve an actual bell. No matter what, certain proportions of employees had to be rated below average, average or above average regardless of actual performance. When redundancy time rolled around they went after the below average people regardless of what was actually happening in the organization. When I retired veteran people could not be harassed into leaving due to previous legal sanctions. What they did was place a hard limit on retirement benefits based on years of service. That did it for me. I took my 39 years instead of the new limit of 25. That was OK with me as I was well into Social Security age. I took a voluntary layoff with a defined retirement benefit, 39 weeks pay to do nothing, State unemployment and a session with a job hunter service. I made it out alive.

Apple Vaporware

Apple vaporware prior to rollouts and the Pavlovian reaction of tech blog writers and fanbois has become something between a social phenomenon and a bad joke.

Taught to hate unions

Conservative propaganda has taught most Americans to hate the idea of labor unions. Right to work laws and outright illegal intimidation of union movements have mostly destroyed such activity except where long entrenched for many decades. Without a union in workplaces such as Amazon the result of suppression is obvious in a return to labor conditions right out of Charles Dickens. Interestingly, the strongest unions are law enforcement who support conservative politicians, judges and prosecutors. Wisconsin Governor Walker suppressed all the State public unions except the State Police, among his strong supporters.

Microsoft's Big Show

Back in those days Microsoft had flashy roll-out presentations for us geeks in movie theaters in certain large cities complete with free popcorn, software handouts, t-shirts and caps.

Call it what it is

It is just a helicopter.

Corporate Arrogance

This is exactly the sort of corporate arrogance that is epidemic in the USA and I believe to be encouraged by the Trump administration if not by policy then by example.

UK has options

OK, canceel those F-35s. Order up some Shenyang FC-31s.

Ransomware Aftermath

People don't understand if they pay up and MAYBE get their data back their computer system is not theirs anymore. Unless the complete system storage is sanitized and OS clean reinstalled the criminals still own the system.

Desperation move

The question is, who will buy up the remains of Xerox when the buyout fails.

Here we go again.

Everytime a new Windows is fed to the users it is like a Kabuki Play. Early Adopters jump right in and enjoy battling with teething problems. Mouldy Figs swear they will die before their current version is ripped from their grasp. Linux Evangelists have a field day with righteous conversion speeches. Business and Corporate users get caught between legacy applications and approaching support deadlines.

I can hardly wait to watch the fun.

Just BOOT it up

Back in the late 1970s I serviced an aging mainframe system at a large metro newspaper. The combination device for reading and punching cards as well as printing was an even older device. The technology of the "printer" was based on numerous relays. The printer was having startup problems. I pulled out the box that controlled power, it was completely filled with relays. After cleaning the relay contacts it came back to life. I noticed the box had a large black mark on the outside. While I was attempting to clean the black mark the computer operator remarked to not bother, that was where they would give it a swift kick when it got cranky.

GO, GO Surface GO

I have been using a Surface GO for almost a year. I had to replace my worn out 6 year old ASUS T100T with a similar configuration. The T100T came with WIndows 8 and Office. It was my entry into WIndows 10. I used to do a lot of mobile computing, not so much now. I like the Go with its backlit keyboard, 12 hour battery and 400 USD price point. Along with the GO I am running 2 self-built gaming desktops and 2 laptops, all more or less on the latest Windows 10 updates. Just for fun I keep trying to find a system where Windows 10 will not run. I got it to run more or less smoothly, all things considered, on pretty much everything, 2009 Gateway laptop, 2011 HP laptop, 2008 Dell 1.6 Ghz Atom netbook (upgraded all the way to 2GB RAM and 32 GB SSD).

So you think you got back your files

Criminals have been rooting around in your system locking down your files. You had great archives and recovery is looking pretty good. You think you are out of the woods? They could also have been hiding back doors all over and now your system actually belongs to crooks and you may not know it. Pretty soon the other shoe will drop.

How convenient

Trump needed a distraction and some "strongman" action to unite his "base".

Iran needed a symbol to unite citizens and a distraction from all the public unrest in large cities.

Good coordination. Iran has lots more creepy generals.

RN was particularly ham-handed with Carrier operation. Primary was leadership. RN was ruled by Big Gun admirals who believed enough guns would always clear the air for their ships. Over and over they had to find otherwise. Carrier groups were commanded by non-flying Admirals with no sensitivity to the complications of air ops such as sailing into the wind and sufficient CAP. During the 1920s the USN was ordered to organize carrier operations with only commanders that were trained Naval Aviators. RN AIr Arm had this weird condition where flight operations leaders were often "observers" with little feeling for actual naval aviation. The Seafire was a poor carrier fighter with weak landing gear and short range that required they spend much of their CAP re-fueling. The RN Far East Fleet that operated with the USN was mostly populated with Lend-Lease US Hellcats, Corsairs and Avengers for more effective operations and RNFAA pilots trained in the USA. With the known state of RNFAA operation and available aircraft any RN carrier would have been meat on he table to the superior IJN aircraft, naval aviators, tactics and large modern carriers.

As 1980s mainframes go those are pretty small entry level systems for medium size businesses.

ADs blocking vs. avoidance

I don't use dedicated AD Blockers but I do use facilities built into browsers. Most have some settings to help. I also like DUCK DUCK GO that suppresses tracking. Beyond that I avoid certain sites. One example is COMPUTERWORLD, mainly just a mass of sidebars stuffed with Ads. Also avoid the Lists of X this and that, nothing more than Click-Bait.

It was a crappy CPU anyway.

Bulldozer was a failure and was instrumental in 1000's of laid off workers.

I am running it's more successful follow-on the Piledriver 8350.

Some hilarious comments. This article concerns the ability to fill corporate supply chains with a viable alternative to good old Intel. It has nothing to do with CPU fanbois. The Strawberry Pi suggestion really got me.

HO HUM

From the tone of comments AMAZON's rep is suffering from a case of "what have you done for me lately".

Too Late.

As with the USA 2016 election day, Where were you all when it counted?

And here it is.

I am on 18353 right now, still checking out new stuff, but working OK.

Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

To quote Adam Savage of MythBusters, "Failure is always an option."