Posts by 45RPM

Or, and here’s an idea, how about the US (and particularly the Republican Party)…

1) stops pissing about and misrepresenting the second amendment as something that it isn’t.

2) recognises the NRA for what it is - a borderline terrorist organisation, holding the politician institutions of the country to ransom (and even, on occasion, via its members, threatening people)

3) banning pistols, assault rifles and magazines larger than 5 rounds. For everything else, ensuring stringent licenses and controls are in place. You know. Doing what the rest of the developed world (more or less) does.

I had an issue with a super fast cluster that I lead the team writing the software for. In test, it all checked out. In integration and UAT it all checked out (this being in the days when we could touch the hardware in those environments, and check it was all correct).

In production? Where we weren’t allowed to go without filling in copious amounts of paperwork? Nope. Not working properly. Odd timing issues were buggering up the software. Right away we were fairly sure what was happening - but the guys who set it up insisted that they’d followed the instructions exactly.

Paperwork was filled in, and three of us marched into the server room only to discover that the instructions had been followed only in the broadest sense of the word. The fibres connecting the cluster were supposed to have been cut to the same length. One was about 80cm long (which was fine). Another was about five meters, and coiled up in rack. Which was not fine. And, in fact, the source of the problem.

Physics. It’s a bugger. And the speed of light particularly so - at least until someone invents Tachyonic Subspace Data Transmission (or maybe Quantum Entanglement Data Transmission)

Lightning had its place and had its time. It was vastly better than Apples previous ‘orrible connector and still much better than other USB connectors. But against USB-C? It’s tosh. Bin it, move on, happy days.

On the one hand this is a good idea because, even if the software works it might contain security issues, be linked against deprecated libraries etc - and requiring developers to do some housekeeping is no bad plan. But…

On the other hand it’s a bloody horrible idea which is likely to generate a ton of e-waste. I have a couple of iPad 2s, 32 bit devices for which no new software will ever be written - but the old software is still available. I can, today at least, install apps from the App Store for it - so they’re still handy devices for the kids to play with. I assume that this stunt will remove all that old software and, in doing so, turn all those old 32 bit devices into paperweights.

It should be said that it is possible to build software for your iOS devices and install using Xcode, and there’s a wealth of open source software available, in effect making side loading a possibility. But it does require technical savvy, and even with that technical knowledge it is a bit of a pain in the arse.

I can’t tell you I’m lying if I think I’m telling the truth either. Because then I’d be caught out in a lie about lying.

Does that mean I’m an AI too? ‘Cos I have to tell you that if I am then I’m not a very good one.

Is it NASAs fault - or is it Boeing? I thought that the rocket was a Boeing product.

If I buy a car and my car doesn’t work then that isn’t my fault - it’s the fault of the manufacturer or the dealer (well, as long as I didn’t break it through my own stupidity).

I’m not surprised. I haven’t heard anything bad about Windows 11, other than the usual grumbling that one hears about something new. On the face of it, I’m the sort of person who’d have upgraded like a shot. However…

Windows 11 doesn’t run on my HP Z800, at least, not without a good deal of farting around that I’m not prepared to do.

I could upgrade to a newer PC - but why should I? Linux works perfectly on my Z800, and I don’t use Windows frequently enough for it to be worthwhile to upgrade.

I have another machine, a Ryzen powered machine that I use for games. It’s currently running Windows 10, and will happily run Windows 11 - but my plan there (and has been for some time - nothing to do with Windows 11) is to upgrade to SteamOS - I hear good things about Proton.

So all in all, I would upgrade to Windows 11. But I can’t. And it was Microsoft’s decision to lock me out of that upgrade.

Not quite the same, but back in the day when we had to write copious documentation for all the software that we wrote, sometimes running to hundreds of pages, I became convinced that no one ever read it.

With hindsight, writing “and they all lived happily ever after” as the very last sentence probably wasn’t the most discreet way of testing this theory. Especially since it lead them to actually read the rest of the document very carefully indeed. And, whilst the document was usable (it contained everything that it needed to), it also had a few, ahem, extra words and deliberate misspellings.

Some of the reviewers thought it was funny. On balance though, the scales of corporate justice were tipped against me. The shit hit the fan.

It was a bit dog slow though. After years of using PCs, this was the straw that broke the camels back for me.

I had a 20MHz Opus PC V 386 at the time, with a generous 8MB RAM, 160MB hard disk and 387 co-pro - and it felt like it was running in concrete boots. Admittedly, when I upgraded to a 486DX2 it was snappy - and my friend with a 12MHz 286 really suffered (you could see the windows drawing rather slowly on that one!)

I needed a 68k machine for learning 68k assembly. I bought an 8MHz Mac SE - and was astonished to see this lowly machine, albeit black and white only, steamroller the 386 for just about everything except playing games and maths heavy tasks. I was sold. Windows was out, and it was Mac from then on for me (admittedly with a heavy dose of Linux and I still have two Windows machines at home. But the daily runner is a fruit)

Whilst I don’t want to work on Linux on my Mac (I have many other machines to use for that), I am delighted that this work exists. It’s a fantastic initial effort and, if successful, with guarantee a users investment in this new Apple hardware even after Apple has stopped supporting it.

For those of us who only want to use MacOS on our Macs, the lessons learned here may also be useful in developing the necessary hacks for a future incompatible-with-first-gen-m1 MacOS to be made compatible. (Just as I can run MacOS 12 Monterrey on my 2009 Mac Pro now)

All in all, a happy story in dark times. A story with no downside!

I like the look of it but…

…I really want something I can tinker with. At the very least, I want to be able to add storage and PCIe cards in the box - not externally. Ideally, I’d like to be able to add memory too - and I accept that there’ll be a performance penalty vs the on die memory.

In a perfect world, I’d like the CPU to be on a card which I can replace - just as I did on my 9600, G3, G4 and Mac Pro. But that ain’t gonna happen (not the end of the world though, any more than the lack of CPU upgrade for my SE/30, Quadra 650 or G5 was the end of the world. I can live with that limitation)

Hmm. Let’s face it Windows, also technology from the eighties, has more than a slight toehold in 2022 - and this despite better alternatives being available.

Speaking of which, Unix (technology from the seventies) and its progeny (Linux, Android, iOS, MacOS) pretty much dominate.

I still have my OS/2 2 install CD - I can’t imagine that I’ll ever use it again.

It’s an odd thing. But when I buy a Mac I buy it because I want it to be a Mac. And even with my old Macs (and some are very old - I still have my SE/30 that I took to university when it was still the newish hotness), I still want them to be a Mac.

Damned if I can work out why I’d put a less capable OS on them. Especially one which is, arguably, one big spyware.

I’ve been running a 64bit Raspbian (CLI only version) on my 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 for several months now - with no trouble at all. It works very well but…

I think that the number one thing that the Pi needs is more compute. For cheap disposability, the Zero and 3 have got you covered. I’d like to see a more expensive, fast, Pi - perhaps even at the £100 price point.

But perhaps I’m a bit Pi obsessed. I love ‘em!

Autopilot should not be marketed as anything other than cruise control. Until the car manufacturer is prepared to take full responsibility for any accidents which take place while the cars software is driving, the functionality should not be marketed as automatic or autonomous.

But there we go. Another example of Tesla being a triumph of marketing hype over function.