Posts by Mishak 838 publicly visible posts • joined 16 Apr 2021
I love the "confusion" it causes in the US when using a UK keyboard.
Some guy talking about some C code: "So, we pound-include the header file".
Me: "You mean hash-include?"
Guy: "No, you use the pound symbol".
Me: "You mean this one (shows £ symbol) ?"
Guy: "No, you use #".
Me: "Like I said, the hash key".
I don't even bother to move on to the the € that I also have...
More confusion arrises with Twitter/X, where people are happy to use # to "hash-tag"...
Not because it has Copilot, but because it is Windows on Arm. She was also looking at MacBook Air, but this got her a better spec for less money (Apple have since improved their specs).
She uses it for school (and will use it at uni) and gaming*. She loves the fact it's small, fast, has a very, very nice screen and runs for at least two days without having to be charged.
Copilot was not considered when she was looking for a machine, and she does not use it.
* when the games work - a lot seem to suffer memory corruption (looks like the frame buffer is used for game data) and "do not yet support Arm" as a consequence. Wouldn't be surprised if there's some undefined-behaviour in there that's manifesting itself in a bad way on Arm...
We once had a graphic designer use a font that I couldn't source anywhere, so I asked them where to get it.
They provided a link to a site that got an "AWOOGAA, AWOOGAA" alert from the browser, along with a "do you wish to continue to this malware-laden warez site"?
Turned out they were using a ripped-off copy of a very expensive font...
I found a nice, free alternative that everyone was happy with.
Reminds me of a place I worked at where I proposed a new way of controlling regenerative braking of a motor system, only to be told "We've been doing this our way for years, and we know yours won't work".
I eventually fell out with them over something more serious so, I gave my notice - which included a warning that I would take them to a tribunal for constructive dismissal.
Strangely, they still made me work my month's notice, which I used to implement the braking algorithm I had proposed. I was told they finally adopted it a number of years after I left "so that it could be someone else's idea"...
Bought a new shaver - it wants me to download an app and connect to it via Bluetooth so it can show me "my shaving profile" (or something).
Toothbrush - this also has a Bluetooth connected app.
All other IoT that I have that is (slightly) better with an internet connection is connected to my IoTatt WiFi on a heavily-filtered VLAN.
I have never understood why I would want a WiFi-enabled kettle or dishwasher as neither will fill or empty themselves!
No one:
1) Testing took place within a test cell.
2) It was enclosed by a barrier*.
3) The only person allowed in the cell whilst the vehicle was operating was the driver.
4) All testing took place at low speed.
5) The hardware automatically put the controller into a safe state if the micro failed.
Up until that point, everyone believed the stickers were there to prevent long term erasure - no one was aware that a burst of weak UV could lead to corrupted reads.
An easy to remove cover was put in place after this incident, followed shortly after by a move to the use of FLASH.
* I had this put in place when I saw how things were done at the time I joined the company, as safety was not great.
I'm sure I've done this one before but...
Working on controllers for electric fork-lift trucks, we had a controller mounted high on the back of a vehicle so that it was easy to get at. It never had a cover on either so that the EPROM could be swapped out to update the software.
Worked like a charm until one afternoon when the controller started to reset now and then when the vehicle was moving towards the outside of the building. Many an hour was spent reviewing the code but no faults could be found. I then noticed a shaft of sunlight that moved up the back of the truck as it moved towards the widows - with the controller resetting when the sunlight hit the EPROM.
Whilst they can be a pain to get off at times, those light-proof stickers that are supposed to be put over the UV erase window can be useful - the EPROMs weren't getting erased, but there was enough charge getting moved about to cause the occasional read error...
This is normally down to the HDMI driver chip not being able to drive into the capacitance on the cable. Everything should work up to 15m - but that depends on the quality of the cable.
Dropping the resolution and/or frame rate can help - I had problems with a Dell trying to drive 4K@30Hz at 0.5m, but it was ok with a lower resolution.
A local stone mason (probably the best in the area) built the wall outside the front of a house I used to own for the previous owner - who did not pay (he was a builder on "account hold" with all the builder's merchants within 150 miles in all directions). The owner came home one day to find the stone being loaded onto the bed of a flatbed truck...
Had a similar line from a client. I had done the work and the invoice for £lots was seriously overdue.
I had sent reminders and all invoices and statements included (in bold) "We understand and will exercise our statutory right to claim interest and compensation for debt recovery costs under the late payment legislation if we are not paid according to agreed credit terms".
The last time I called them I was told "If we pay you we won't be able to pay our staff" - to which I replied "if you don't pay me, I can't pay me".
They obviously thought, as I was a one-man-band, that they could get away with it.
I contacted a debt collection agency, who, for a fee of £2.50, sent a "letter before action". I have no idea what it said, but funds to cover the invoice, statutory interest and £2.50 fee arrived as soon as it was received.
I later learned that another business that I worked with had the same problem with this lot, so I pointed them to my friendly debt collectors...
At least my mobile has the ability to call for help via satellite when there is no mobile signal or WiFi.
I've got enough battery power to keep my ONT and router running for at least four hours (more if I move a UPS), but most won't :-( Came in handy during the Euros when the power went out and the street was desperate to watch the England match!
I think the only fire suppression system is just in the launch table?
The water deluge at launch isn't the same, wouldn't be "kind" to the booster if it were to impinge on it, and there's no water or gas (used to force it out) left after the launch for another use (they were using tankers to ship in water to fill the storage tanks - is that still the case?).
Or "mumble-fest"+, as I call it. You can tell it's bad when you have to use the subtitles to follow the dialog and/or stop your ears being blown off when the "background sound"* picks up.
+ Makes it more dramatic, I'm told.
* I always thought the dialog was supposed to be louder, but that's often not the case.
I can understand this to some extent.
The rocket itself seems to have performed as expected and can fly without any SRBs. I would expect the SRBs to be "grounded" until the failure has been understood and mitigated.
Scott Manley pointed out in his breakdown of the launch that they were lucky the fragments didn't impact the first stage.
Though it does look like they may have held on to the SRBs a bit longer than normal to allow them to drop into the designated splash zone due to underperformance caused by the missing nozzle meaning they were a bit short. Hard to say for sure though, as they do hold them for a bit after burnout on a nominal flight - but the flight clock did show a sequence of planned events occurred late.
I originally tried Lyca when I decided Three needed to go* (even though EE have no usable signal where I live; the same as all the others).
However, I couldn't get WiFi Calling to work, with their support telling me they didn't offer it! Have they got it going yet?
* Three's WiFi Calling would drop out, sometimes for days (and sometimes only fixable with a new SIM).
Mine is included in that - only I had to go outside and hope the wind was blowing in the correct direction for it to "work". I switched to a Vodafone MVNO, and I can now use data in the house - sometimes :-(
I can't see how a merger is going to improve that! Though I have noticed places when I'm away from home that I only get Edge where I used to get 3G (coverage, but not data bandwidth of any significance).
I think it's about time all the operators were told "no 6G license until you provide a working service to those who are paying for 4G/5G".
I had to leave for a meeting, so couldn't keep it going.
I do know someone who kept them going for over an hour.
He convinced "Microsoft" to let him remote into their system "so I can then had control over to you as it's not working the other way", and then proceeded to erase their machine.
I tried to use the support desk of a well-know PC backup tool.
They remoted into my XP machine, dug about a bit, asked me to inert the installation CD, dug about a bit more and then started using Task Manager to randomly terminate unrelated processes - at which point I revoked access rights.
Support : "Sorry, but I seem to have lost remote access".
Me : "Yes, that was me. You started terminating processes that are not related to your product".
Support : "I was wondering if they were causing some compatibility issues".
Me : "I wonder if you know what you're doing. Sorry, I mean I know you don't. Manager please. Now!".
These days it would just be an hallucination.
I guess it depends how they "mix it".
I dropped Three and moved to Lebara* (Vodafone MVNO). Signal is about the same (unusable), but, when there is what should be a reasonable connection, the data rates over Three ranged from zero to not much better. I hope they adopt the Vodafone infrastructure when they merge.
* at £4.95 a month for unlimited calls, inclusive roaming, texts, and 5GB of 5G data.
Disclosure - I used to work in static analysis.
Abstract interpretation, as used by Polyspace and Absint, can indeed catch more defects statically than "simple" static data-flow analysis. However, decidability means that abstract interpretation is still not able to detect all errors. SPARK helps by limiting the features of the language that are permitted (it defines a language subset). Subsetting is very difficult to enforce within the C and C++ communities as there is a lot of pushback from developers who don't like being told that they are not to use (often large) parts of "their" language.
Formal verification is a good idea,but only a relatively small number of programmers understand that it exists, and even less understand how to use it. There is also a concern that you can end up with a vacuous proof (you've proved something, but did you really prove that the software is correct?), <a href="https://blogs.sw.siemens.com/verificationhorizons/2017/12/06/formal-tech-tip-what-are-vacuous-proofs-why-they-are-bad-and-how-to-fix-them/>but that's another story</a>...
However, the use of tools is essential as they help to improve the confidence in a system, even when they cannot prove that it is correct.
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