Posts by ben kendim

others' -> other's

Only one other, not multiple others. :-)

My computer, my code, my memory. So I don't need any of this security stuff...

I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I code... :-)

To make my life a lot easier, I use C or C++ and

a- I usually avoid 'private's. I have everything declared as 'public'.

b- I also have most 'important' variables (except small local things like i, j, n, etc.) as globals...

c- I try to avoid #include of anything other than standard libs. I make a single huge .cpp file from everything of mine that I would have included. (Obviously including .h are OK.)

But then again...

1- I am the only one using the code which I write.

2- I never deliver. No one else ever gets their hands on it...

3- It is for research, not production or distribution.

4- It only ever runs on my own computers.

Really??? This is a problem? Nothing better to write about?

I use tabs and I use spaces and sometimes I mix them just because I feel like it at the time. Never had a problem, never thought about it.

If your compiler can't handle that, you need a better compiler.

If your interpreter can't handle that, you need to be using a compiled language. (In any case, independent of this reason...)

Yup, been there, almost done that!!!

Summer of 1978, I opened the still spinnning disc drawer on a 360 with inoperative interlock. Scared the heck out of me. I did not reach in to unload the disc pack, just stepped back from it... I was an intern, and was worried about being sent home.

Why are you linking to Xshitter for photos instead of NASA or JPL???

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/26/nasa_ingenuity_rotor_damage/

You all can't be bothered to see if NASA or JPL have imagery? You need to go to Musk for that?

But why is The Reg linking to Xshitter? JPL doesn't have a website?

https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/26/nasa_ingenuity_rotor_damage/ You all can't be bothered to see if NASA or JPL have imagery? You need to go to Musk for that?

Ahem... Tektronix 4010.

"A host machine, plus dumb text terminals on serial connections, with no graphics and no networking – even so, high-end kit for the 1970s."

You wanted graphics in the 70's? You got it!

https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/4010 was a beautiful machine!!!

Finally, that rare someone who understands where we live on the spectrum...

Merry Christmas. Thank you for this gift:

"When you're in a full-screen CLI, especially editing, what you get above all is focus. Compared to a GUI desktop or, heaven help our grasshopper minds, an in-browser task, it is supremely quiet and uncluttered. It is you and your keyboard, and text that wants to be free of variant forms and options. If you're coding or writing text where actual content is more important than form, it is a zone for reason and thought like none other in modern computing."

what we need to do is make the advertisers hurt...

The ad blocking plug-in we really need is one that also examines the blockes ads and makes a list of the advertisers and products they advertise. Then, in addition to us not seeing the ad, we would know who tried to put an ad for what on our screen - so we can boycott them... You ask, who would pay for the servers and the creators? I don't really give a damn. If I like the content enough, I will donate directly to the creator (e.g. Tom Voelk of Driven fame.)

Absolutely..

As a new hire Assistant Professor I was tasked with keeping minutes of a faculty meeting. I did so, verbatim. Examples: "Professor X said the Dean supported us for opening a new faculty position, but he would like to not let Mechanical Engineering know about it for now." Or, "Dr. Y said we should put EEyyy on the schedule, even though there will probably not be enough students to open it." and on and on. Was never asked to do minutes again...

Yellow? Perhaps in Britain.

All the DECNET thick cable I had in the US was orange.

Starlink's website is just a service address and email harvester

I went to their website to check out about the system, and it just wanted my email and address. No way to get any information on what they are considering to offer.

So, I simply walked away.

"they should have subscribed to the board-discuss mailing list,”

He must have pulled this gem from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Philip Arthur Dent should have gone to the basement of the planning department to see that his house was scheduled for demolition.

Never ever go into the rat's maze...

This is how IKEA is meant to used:

1- Find what you want online and get it's aisle / bin number.

2- Park you vehicle in the pickup area.

3- Enter, backwards, through the checkouts and into the warehouse.

4- Get what you want.

5- Pay for it.

6- Leave.

The Polish ship in the photo is not a destroyer..

... it's an Oliver Hazard Perry class guided-missile frigate.

Costeja González has no right to be forgotten in the USA... Thankfully.

https://globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/cases/google-spain-sl-v-agencia-espanola-de-proteccion-de-datos-aepd/

Why does your desk assume it didn't hit a prop?

(The drone, I mean, not the desk.)

So, which craft landed without incident, the drone, the King Air, or both?

"There's also no news of where the drone struck. As the craft landed without incident, The Register's aviation desk will assume it wasn't chopped up by the plane's propellors with attendant spray of plastic and metal."

A King Air prop, with a PT6A driving it, could probably shred a DJI and never know it.

So go get a commercial license and tell the railway to go jump in a lake...

Let me get this straight, if he were to get a CAA commercial drone operator license, then the railway would have no standing in the matter, right? (Unless he actually hit a train or landed on their tracks or right of way.)

Welcome to the Stupid Australian Judge of the Month Club

But then again, maybe it's not the judge that's stupid at all. It may be the Aussie legal system that's goofy.

If so, I apologize to the poor judges that have to work within that system.

Roll your own garage door remote

Beaglebone: $39

Relay, wires: a couple of bucks.

Time to code and install: half an hour.

Being independent of some company: priceless.

And the landing/takeoff speed over ground would be???

I am sure it can fly. It can get up to the required INDICATED airpeed and fly about.

Tougher on landing or takeoff though. The actual speed over ground would be hundreds of miles per hour. So even if there were a 10 mile long runway on Mars, the tuchdown speed would be something like 600 mph.

Austin Meyer wrote about this long ago: http://www.x-plane.com/adventures/mars.html

How does my credit card issuer fit into this story?

I wonder?

They have Majel Barrett Roddenberry's voice digitized...

... that's what I want to hear from my droid! https://twitter.com/roddenberry/status/772493204121944066

Used Excel for PC board layout...

OK, it was a small board, but Excel was the most convenient thing I had right then.

Select all, set column heights and row widths to 0.05", and use borders/lines with 0.025" thickness, and voila PCB design tool... Can do multiple layers using different colors.

Here is a sample I just did in 5 minutes...

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6XOKbodr2nOVDV6a014X2JjRVk