Posts by jake 28814 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jun 2007
Not quite. Let me rephrase that for you:
When you install a copy of Siemens PLM, part of process includes the code connecting to Siemens to verify you have a license to use the code. This can and does occur even if you downloaded a supposedly "hacked/cracked" version (so-called "warez"). If your licensing information doesn't stand up to scrutiny, Siemens retains information about your use of the illegally acquired code, and offers you the ability to purchase a proper license instead of being fined heavily and/or going to jail for software piracy.
It's called “compulsory licensing”. Most high-end code contains this kind of thing. Sometimes the warez doodz miss it. Caveat emptor.
Your beef isn't with Siemens. It is with the so-called hacker/cracker who released the code to the warez world without actually making the code safe to run "anonymously". And very likely it is your own damn fault for not running the code on an airgapped machine that can't phone home, as suggested in the documentation usually included with the cracked code.
Moral of the story: Use properly licensed software, chuckletrousers.
(Source: Client of mine. $200million dollar a year engineering group. When I found out what was going on, I advised the Board of the above. They fired the CTO and paid Siemens ... NOT a fine, mind, but the same exact rate they would have paid if they had purchased the code through the proper channels. Siemens was actually quite reasonable about it, and threw in an upgrade to the current code and a year of free tech support, which surprised the hell out of me.)
He of the BBC playlist and the pseudo-Yank accent? I try to forget ... Thankfully, we had OtA cassette recordings of Radio Caroline to listen to. Yes, they sounded awful ... but they were still better than the pap played on the Beeb. (Except John Peel, of course. RIP.)
"Not exactly the same thing as an OS that isn't likely to be doing as good a job now is it?"
Good job according to who? I still make money with a PDP-10 running TOPS-20 (or TOPS-10, occasionally). My Bridgeport CNC runs PC-DOS 3.26b (looks just like MS-DOS 3.3) when it's not running Linux. I just fixed my Vet's blood machine, It's an Idexx "Vettest 8008"and runs a version of FreeDOS that is over 20 years old. Each of these tools does exactly the job it was designed to do, and "updating" the OS would break it. Would that be progress?
"Unless these were made before the mid two thousands"
Several of mine were. They still do perfectly good work. Why would I throw them away? Would you throw away your great grandfather's handmade woodworking planes just because you purchased a power planer and/or jointer? Or would you keep them, and put them to use in places where they still do a damn fine job?
At least for the near future. See the 32-bit version of Slackware -current, which will become Slackware 15.0 "when it is ready". Change logs here.
For the record, I am running both the IA-32 and x86_64 versions of -current on several machines, and they are quite stable for me. As with anything in development, YMMV.
Peter, when was the last time you tried Slackware? I installed the 32-bit version of Slack 14.2 -stable on the Wife's machine (kitchen sink install) a couple years ago, and have kept it updated as necessary. The only non-stock software I had to add was LibreOffice[0]. To date, using it as a home user and SOHO, she has been perfectly happy with the result. Absolutely zero headaches, and you know what they say ... Happy Wife, happy life.
You can check out Slack's very grueling update schedule here ... and actually, the last several dozen updates, she's handled it for herself. (Running slackpkg update then slackpkg upgrade-all and answering one or two questions[1] isn't exactly rocket surgery.)
I run both the 32 bit and 64 bit versions, depending on hardware. I also see zero headaches, and there is no need to mess with anything. The days of hair shirts are behind us in the Slackware world ... IF you don't want to mess with it. On the other hand, if you DO want to mess with it, you can.
Honestly, its just install it and run it. It gets out of the way and lets us get on with our work. I actually don't think about which OS I'm running anymore, unless I'm making a post like this one. Can't ask for much more than that out of an OS.
[0] If you don't want to compile code for yourself, between Alien BOB's site (Eric Hameleers) and Slackbuilds, most of your software needs should be covered:
http://www.slackware.com/~alien/
https://www.slackbuilds.org/repository/14.2/
[1] One prompting to run LILO if needed (or Grub, if you prefer) and one about updating config files, or not, and should the old version be saved (she just hits "O", allowing me to back her out gracefully if necessary, which hasn't happened yet).
"Sometimes the mechanical oil pump doesn't start properly and turning it off and on fixes that."
You drive a vehicle with a known unreliable oil pump? That's not exactly the most intelligent comment I've read in these hallowed pages ... A Clevite-77 bearing is cheaper than an oil pump, until you have to install it.
"the 1970s, a time when I believe it was still possible to install this sort of thing in the US."
It is possible to install that sort of thing TODAY, anywhere you like. Getting it to pass inspection is another kettle of worms entirely. And no, that wasn't to code in the US in the 1970s. The hint is in the "knob and tube" reference in the URL ... K&T was in common use from the 1880s into the 1930s. It was considered obsolete before the US entered WWII.
Note also that there were at least three additional circuits added after the initial installation, most likely by the homeowner, and without permit or inspection. Probably has something to do with why the photo is captioned the way it is, no?
The colo(u)r of the wires/terminals has no bearing on safety. As long as they are standardized and clearly marked, it does not matter if they are metallic or a primary colo(u)r. Those "fully shrouded" terminals aren't going to protect little B1FF. He's already taken off the cover plate, so by definition he has a screwdriver.
I'll leave the rest of yours alone. Home wiring is not today, and never will be, a Fischer-Price play toy. Trying to dumb it down for the masses will just turn well-meaning "helpful" people into corpses. Or killers.
Whatever, Martin. I've lived with both systems. The US one is easier, cheaper, and just as safe (if not safer) than what I experienced in the UK. Note that the first of the two "wiring practices" photos that you provided are not to code in any US jurisdiction that I am aware of ... and the second was clearly installed by an amateur. The "higher currents" argument is a red herring ... I have multiple 50A, 240V sockets (NEMA 14–50) here at the ranch, whereas that daisy-chained example's entire circuit is probably rated at no more than 10A @ 230V.
Also, note the fuse panel in Martin's first example ... That thing runs THE ENTIRE HOUSE! And sadly, it is actually quite typical of British household wiring, at least in my experience. Kind of made me yearn for that archaic 60 Amp breaker panel from my first apartment when I first ran across it. Good thing most of their houses are made of stone, no?
"any socket tended to have its power supplied via two separate circuits"
No, just one circuit. It's a loop (or "ring", imagine that!) connected to a single breaker/fuse. It's only in use in the UK (and a few former outposts). Daft concept, unless you're almost out of wire making materials.
"BS1363 - probably still the safest domestic sockets in the world :-)"
Unfortunately, it's your ridiculously over-sized plugs that are the problem. It's easier to put the safety factor upstream from the plug. Safer, too. (You really think a 13A fuse is going to protect little B1FF or Buffy?) That's why this whole place has GFCI (RCB to you Brits) protected circuitry everywhere that it makes sense.
But if you actually enjoy living with a wiring standard that was de rigueur when George VI was on the throne, who am I to argue. Just note that most of the rest of the world has moved on, and for very good reasons.
You think your friends are shocked? The only TV in this house is a 32" 1988 Sony Trinitron. Purchased new, by me, in 1988. HDMI? What's that? I still use RCA plugs between the TV and whatever I'm using as input. Works just fine, for my needs. What kind of fucking idiot would I have to be to pay money to make a change just for the sake of change because marketing told me I had to?
I know people who have purchased a new telly every year or two for the last couple decades! What the fuck? WHY? What an ostentatious waste of money!
My daughter sent me a video. My granddaughter had pulled the bottom drawer out almost fully, the next drawer out 3/4 of the way, the next half way and the top one about a quarter, forming a staircase to get onto the kitchen counter. Then she moved the coffee pot over to form the final step, so she could reach the cookies on top of the fridge. She was three, nearly four.
In the email, daughter confessed to doing the exact same thing, except she used the conveniently placed microwave oven as the final step. I told her that I knew about it, why did she think there were only cookies up there on very rare occasion? And why was it only three or four cookies?
She asked how I knew ... I told her that I had observed her through the kitchen window. The way I figured it, it was better to allow the minor transgression & victory than let her figure out something more dangerous ...
I also told her that I had used a breadbox as the final step.
Forwarding the email and video on to my Dad, he allowed as to how the cookies were on top of an icebox in his day, and he had used the flour canister as the final step. Makes me wonder how my grandfather managed it back in the 1800s :-)
That's not proof, amfM. That's conjecture.
And it's somewhat Earth-centric. I believe you said "out there in space", which starts (by international convention) at the Kármán line ... That's 100km up (about 62 miles), if Martians don't speak Hungarian.
... someone has inhaled a trifle too much cosmik debris.
Or perhaps they are calling attention to the misunderstood, un-studied and generally ignored Mars Trojans and the like? I mean, the obvious pro-Oortness of this mission is clearly to the detriment of the other bits & bobs floating around out there. INNER SYSTEM ROCKS MATTER!
According to the OED, "dumpster fire" seems to have first showed up in print in the newspaper Arizona Republic in 2003. It was in a review of the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre, written by one Bill Muller. Sadly, Bill passed away in 2007, so we can't ask him where he got the phrase ... but as is almost always the case, it was probably around in the spoken language for a number of years prior to that.
Despite it apparently being common in the sports-talk world since about 2009, I don't remember hearing it until it entered Politics with the Trump nomination ...
As a side note, the word "dumpster" was coined for the first modern refuse collection system, where a truck picks up the box of trash and deposits the contents into an opening at the top, for transportation to the dump (tip, to you Brits), leaving the box behind for another fill. The inventor of this system was a dude named George Roby Dempster, who coined the trademark names "Dempster Dumpster" and "Dumpster" in 1935. These days, like kleenex, hoover and xerox, it is usually used as a generic noun and not capitalized. It's a good thing a guy named Dempster invented it ... Somehow "wheelie bin fire" or "skip fire" doesn't have quite the same ring to it.
According to my friends at the OED, who haven't actually listed it yet, the term "shit show" in this context first entered the English Language as a translation from a comment made by Monika Berberich, a member of the Red Army Faction (so-called "Baader-Meinhof Gang"), during her trial. It was in reference to her opinion of the presiding Judge's handling of the courtroom. This occurred on 22 June 1973. I believe a more correct, idiomatic (if not quite so literal) translation would be clusterfuck, and have suggested it to the OED.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Sam Goodman and Boris Lurie's 1964 No!art installation at the Gertrude Stein Gallery consisting of 21 piles of sculpted shit made from extruded plaster. It was titled “No Sculptures/Shit Show". However, while it was obviously intended as a mockery of the more conventional modern art of the time, it was intentional as opposed to the unintentional fiasco meaning in this discussion.
For the record, the first time I have heard it "in the wild" is during this Autonomy trial ... and I collect this kind of thing. It would be interesting to ask the folks using it how it entered their personal lexicon before the memory of the events fade ... again, I have suggested this to the OED.
We now return you to your previously scheduled dumpster fire ...
You'll only get one of them. That's a throwing axe, the handle is too short for felling, and too long for carving (the 490-2 is still a throwing axe, badly balanced by the long handle). Instead, I'd recommend this, for both visual effect and close-in functionality. Or this, just because it's the best store-bought felling axe I've ever used.
1) I have seen Windows, including Windows 10, reboot WITHOUT authorization far too many times to count. Even when told specifically not to. Even the so-called "enterprise" versions. But I wasn't talking about Windows. I was talking about the OP's comment, and didn't even mention an OS.
2) I was responding to the OP's seemingly misguided opinion that any change to the Kernel means a reboot is necessary. I was not specifically commenting on the issue at hand.
Hotpatching is as hotpatching does. I use it occasionally. It's not like a reboot is going to kill me or anything ... I gave up on the uptime DSWs a LONG time ago.
I am perfectly secure, thank you very much :-) Oh, wait, you mean this computer attached via TCP/IP to the world-wide network called "The Internet"? No, that's not secure at all. No such computer is, for the simple reason that TCP/IP is inherently insecure. So I take precautions when using it, like not using my real name/address, not giving out my SSN, not doing any banking and not using my credit cards over it. Yourself?
Where did I say I was abroad with the Brits?
Well, to be perfectly honest, I was abroad with the Brits, but only because I am a Californian who has spent close to 20% of my life in the UK. But visit Spain with you lot on VACA? No fuckin' way. I have much better things to do with my down time than drinking Harp, Carlsberg or Kronenberg on a beach in Andalusia or Valencia.
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