Posts by CorwinX 509 publicly visible posts • joined 28 Jan 2023
... who can be both a good manager and a techie at the same time.
In my long career I never accepted a promotion above team/project leader.
I don't have the personality to deal with people problems. My approach tends to be more along the lines of Mr Travaglia's BOFH ;-)
It was (I think still is) the original distributed database/email system.
Drop an .NSF file anywhere, local or server, set up a replication doc and it'll sync perfectly on a schedule.
Back in the day my mailfile sat in eight countries/continents.
UK, Amsterdam, North America, South America, Tokyo, Australia, NZ, Moscow.
Plus the server in my flat.
Why think an LLM could do better?
The GIGO principle comes into play.
Too many people, and therefore LLMs, think "Religion" = Christianity.
I happen to be a pagan/wiccan and believe in a Goddess.
I only mention it in passing though, I don't bang on about it.
I'm the one who submitted the story, though regonimised as Nathan.
Lifted the trapdoor in the floor and the cables were tangled around the actual crank handle you turned manually to operate it.
It's not about the blame game - if you're turning a handle and can see cables getting tangled up in it and damaged then any sane person would stop ne pas?
NoGoogle Ai - there are others.
All it does is automatically select the "Web" category on the results page (next to Images, News, Video, etc).
Gives you the good old list of links not AI-ified.
If you want AI occasionally you can click AI Mode at the left of the options.
https://www.theregister.com/archive
Close to the old site but it doesn't have section names next to headline.
Then again, even when opened, some articles have "Add section name here" where that should be.
Easy to switch from there to the new version by clicking the banner logo.
It does at least have all articles in chrono order, up to the minute, and is my new Reg landing page.
Note - I have to refresh the page to show how long ago the article was posted but that may only be in my browser - Firefox Android.
On the old site, when you read an article the link changed colour to show "read".
You know, how things have worked since the web was invented.
Now I've got to scroll through the whole mess snd read every link again to see if there's anything new from, say, a few hours previous.
Pleass at least provide a switch.
Primary has the SIM with a number I've had for about 15 years.
Everything mirrored to both GDrive and OneDrive.
Secondary has a PAYG SIM, hardly used.
Daily, I switch WiFi Hotspot on on Primary. Secondary connects and syncs any changes down. Mostly books, music and backups.
If Primary went west in any way all I'd need is a replacement SIM and Secondary would be the new Primary.
The likes of Zotac have been doing this stuff for years, certainly over a decade.
Their Micro PCs - ZBoxes - come with a choice of a dozen CPUs, GPUs, Memory, SSDs, yada.
The one I've got is only 10.5x10.5x3cm and runs Win RDP, Citrix, etc fine for VPCs. With wired and wireless NICs, Bluetooth, HDMI, USB, eSATA, SD card slot, etc.
I use it as a multimedia hub but the company I worked for when I decided to get one myself had about 60 of them, booting into Linux with an RDP client to VMware VPCs and Servers for each user.
The only local computing was some financial stuff they didn't want to put in the cloud (it's an investment company) and local backups.
That was around 10 years ago.
One of my bits of kit - air-gapped, no intenet connectivity - is a media server.
Music and video. Broadcasts to my TV, PC, Laptop, Phone...
Files copied to it via a plug-in drive.
It runs on WinServer 2003 with and does it's job perfectly.
Doesn't need no steenking "upgrade".
A Volkswagen Beetle's weight varies significantly by era: classic air-cooled Beetles (1960s–70s) are very light, typically weighing between 730–930 kg (1,610–2,050 lbs), while modern, water-cooled New Beetles (1998–2019) are heavier, ranging from approximately 1,230–1,450 kg (2,712–3,197 lbs).
Needs to have another comparison.
How many average badgers do they weigh?
... or more likely willfully ignoring is that vast swathes of their users don't need or want all the stuff they're bundling. No matter how much its theoretical "value" it is.
What use all the wizzie stuff if all you want is to virtualize a couple of mail servers and a webserver.
Or have all your users using virtual PCs.
It's like trying to sell a truck with a trailer included as a "bargain" to a customer who only wants a truck.
I used to specialise in Notes/Domino - mail not so much dev.
It was pretty bulletproof.
Y2K - not an issue - it had always stored full 4-digit years.
It had 2FA before anyone had heard of the term (User ID files).
It mostly disappeared because it wasn't flashy compared to Exchange.
It also introduced web access, which was pretty seamless compared to the full Notes client.
With full public/private key encryption fundamental to how it worked.
There's still some financial companies that use it because they just don't trust Exchange.
I was put up in a very nice hotel very near to the office of the company I worked for.
With remote access to all the systems from my laptop.
All expenses paid.
Spent most of the time raiding the mini-bar, ordering room service and reading a book.
And fielding phone calls asking me if everything was still OK.
They almost seemed disappointed that nothing whatsoever happened.
Still, a nice break for me.
I think that what you get with Musk is "unplugged", unfiltered by PR.
He has some controversial opinions but I think they're at least honest ones to him personally.
Do you want an honest guy with opinions you disagree with or a politician feeding you bullshit they think you want to hear to get them elected?
... have been used for decades.
Traditionally the autopilot has used triangulation from radio beacons at the airport to pinpoint the plane's position and descent.
GPS is only an evolution that be turned on or off.
There's also the backup of runway lights and ground radar. Not just the lights down the centre - there's coloured lamps at the side that can only be seen if you're on the right descent.
And the onboard radar tells you altitude, when you're close to the ground, more accurately than the analog altimeter.
Even old-style ILS could, in extremis, "fly to the ground" (land). But without the pilot "flaring" - raising the nose just before touchdown - the front undercarriage may need a bit of work.
... have been used for decades. Garmin (and Avidyne) are gold-standard.
But remotely controlling them?
There's another thread in the last few days about cars being shut down remotely.
Any system can be hacked if it can be accessed remotely. Just don't do it - a plane's systems should be completely self contained.
Yes, in certain cases, it could save a few lives. But on the flipside, a bad-actor gaining contol of an airliner's nav system...
And a variation of Colossal Cave.
Also Ship of Doom (Adventure C) from Artic.
And of course one of the gold standards - Hitchhikers.
Go, find, and try to get your hands on the damn Babel Fish! Took me days.
And don't get me started on the bloody "pocket fluff"!
