XP is garbage

[Joel Kolstad]

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news:Fje7e.2569$dT4.1202@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...

I wouldn't have bought it. With those things I tend to be a minimalist, in
the firm belief that if the old non-electronic scheme has worked mankind
probably doesn't need an electronic variety.

Very few 'electro-mechanical' toasters I've encountered do a good job of
maintaining 'browness' from one slice to the next... toasters strike me as
an age-old device that has very much benefitted from cheap MCUs!

 

[Joerg]

Hello John,

I know some people who program jet engine control units, the ones that
mount under the cowling. They don't use any RTOS... there's none
they're willing to trust.

I wouldn't either. Heck, I would even be uneasy about a C compiler for
an application like that. At least after I was on a flight in a
two-engine aircraft and one engine decided to quit over the Atlantic.

Some older Mercedes-Benz 500 series cars had a mode where you could
bypass the uC unit when it went on the fritz, so at least you could get
home.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Joerg]

Hello Joel,

Very few 'electro-mechanical' toasters I've encountered do a good job of
maintaining 'browness' from one slice to the next... toasters strike me as
an age-old device that has very much benefitted from cheap MCUs!

Our toaster does that wonderfully. Ok, for good results you can't
necessarily buy the $10 editions. Ours is from Walmart and was around
$20. Works nicely. I just don't see why I'd need a uC in that. It's just
something additional that can fail and it probably won't like the
flakiness of our power grid out here much. Every once in a while 10-20
cycles go AWOL. I guess they won't spring for a large enough cap to
bridge that and then the uC won't remember the state of the Wonderbread
slice. Can't write to flash that fast. In contrast, ye olde bi-metal
spring does remember...

Anyway, the best toasted bread comes out of the Weber charcoal grill,
along with a nice juicy tri-tip and a Pale Ale on the side.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[John Larkin]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 20:47:07 GMT, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Hello John,

I know some people who program jet engine control units, the ones that
mount under the cowling. They don't use any RTOS... there's none
they're willing to trust.

I wouldn't either. Heck, I would even be uneasy about a C compiler for
an application like that. At least after I was on a flight in a
two-engine aircraft and one engine decided to quit over the Atlantic.

Wow. How did it feel to be 50% dead?

John

 

Change from "learner@learner.com" to "learning@learning.com" in order to
avoid killfiles noted. Complaint sent to abuse@aros.net. I encourage
others to also send complaints. Morphing to avoid being killfiled is
net-abuse.

I am now killfiling anything with an IP address in the range
66.219.192.0 - 66.219.255.255 (the range assigned to aros.net) in the
NNTP-Posting-Host field or with "aros.net" in the Path field.

Ahhh, this is a shame. Poor man is so obsessed with not seeing a bad
attitude, or someone who disagrees with him, that he has taken to the
airwaves to explain his passions, while trying to get others to come on
board with him, and validate his existence here. He thinks whining to my
ISP about a mistake I made will get me in trouble or something.

"Attention all of usenet! I am now filtering this address! Pay attention
to me, and join up with me! I am important!" Oye....

Sadly, he will never see this post wherein I am confessing, and
explaining that the "changed username" which he decries as being abusive,
is really a dumb mistake on my part, as I posted once, or maybe twice,
from my laptop, rather than my desktop machine, and I admit, I got the
"clever" name wrong in the settings.

I don't hide my address to avoid people. Like everyone else, I use a bogus
one so the spambots cannot harvest the address.

Its hilarious to consider that someone thinks that I am so intent on
stealth, and on bypassing his pathetic filters, that I would change my
username, just so he would have to see my posts again......

When I look at the language, and the attitudes of a some of people here,
and I consider what goes back and forth, I can't help but be amused to
think that this man can deal with all of that, and I was the only one in
the group he hates enough to go to war with his filters over. In the end,
he has his panties in a bunch over an honest, careless mistake, which I
freely admit.

If anyone "sees" him around, let him know I really am sorry that he took
my inoffensive error in username so seriously. Who cares about stealth in
a newsgroup, and who cares enough to try and work around some sad person's
trash filter?? Finally, who comes to usenet and goes out of their way to
make a big deal over such a small issue? I guess some folks have no real
life, so usenet is all they have....

..

I look
forward to seeing you attempt to change those aspects of your posts.

And here we have to wonder what he is thinking, since I am now "cleverly"
filtered, how will he see any "attempt to change my.....posts?" If I am
intent on harrassing him, all I have to do is get an account somewhere
else. Does he think he is the only one who understands the nuances of
internet routing and posting? <g>

Gotta love usenet. It really is a microcosm of our society.

JB

 

[Joerg]

Hello John,

I wouldn't either. Heck, I would even be uneasy about a C compiler for
an application like that. At least after I was on a flight in a
two-engine aircraft and one engine decided to quit over the Atlantic.

Wow. How did it feel to be 50% dead?

It wasn't that bad. Except that some folks needed to be assured that
it's all ok so far. We weren't that far from the Belgian coast, maybe an
hour or so. The landing was impressive. Not just that the pilot made
this a perfect "greaser" on one engine but there also was what seemed to
be all the fire engines and ambulances that Frankfurt could muster
waiting for our arrival. What impressed me most was that they cleared
the whole airspace around Frankfurt. Logistically that's no small feat.

A more scary one was after a start in a very maxed out old Dornier. The
otherwise calm and experienced pilot started to let of some expletives
as the tall pine trees came close and closer, the stall horn was blaring
all the time, and our parachutes wouldn't have done us any good because
we were barely 40 feet above ground level. We ended up just clearing the
tops but you could see the snow being blown off as we "flew" over.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

In <HQg7e.1360$J12.793@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com>, on 04/13/05
at 10:13 PM, Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> said:

I wouldn't either. Heck, I would even be uneasy about a C compiler for
an application like that. At least after I was on a flight in a
two-engine aircraft and one engine decided to quit over the Atlantic.

Wow. How did it feel to be 50% dead?

I recall the comedian on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour joking about a
similar situation, when the guy next to him asked how far he thought the
remaining engine would take them. His answer was "all the way to the crash
site"

Glad you are okay....

JB

 

[Joerg]

Hello JB,

I recall the comedian on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour joking about a
similar situation, when the guy next to him asked how far he thought the
remaining engine would take them. His answer was "all the way to the crash
site"

That's a good one. Here is another that really happened: A bunch of guys
on the way to a sports event didn't want to check in their expensive
parachute gear so they wore it on their backs before boarding. A curious
passenger asked why they had parachutes on. Answer: "What do you mean,
you don't wear one? With this airline?"

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Spehro Pefhany]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 21:05:01 GMT, the renowned Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote:

Hello Joel,

Very few 'electro-mechanical' toasters I've encountered do a good job of
maintaining 'browness' from one slice to the next... toasters strike me as
an age-old device that has very much benefitted from cheap MCUs!

Our toaster does that wonderfully. Ok, for good results you can't
necessarily buy the $10 editions. Ours is from Walmart and was around
$20. Works nicely. I just don't see why I'd need a uC in that. It's just
something additional that can fail and it probably won't like the
flakiness of our power grid out here much. Every once in a while 10-20
cycles go AWOL. I guess they won't spring for a large enough cap to
bridge that and then the uC won't remember the state of the Wonderbread
slice. Can't write to flash that fast. In contrast, ye olde bi-metal
spring does remember...

The old (almost) vertical mechanical toasters made better (more moist)
toast than the current units. Timing was manual, and it was even
easier than on current units to get into contact with the elements.

See the 1948 Toastess model on this page:
http://www.toastercentral.com/toaster40s.htm

Anyway, the best toasted bread comes out of the Weber charcoal grill,
along with a nice juicy tri-tip and a Pale Ale on the side.

Fresh thin-sliced light rye baked that morning from the Portuguese
bakery, toasted by a Krupp sandwich grill with roasted red peppers,
real cheese, mustard and honey-maple ham. Yum.


Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

 

[Ted Edwards]

learning@learning.com wrote:

I recall the comedian on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour joking about a
similar situation, when the guy next to him asked how far he thought the
remaining engine would take them. His answer was "all the way to the crash
site"

From personal experience:
Shortly after I got my instrument rating, I was going from Vancouver BC
to Victoria in my 1948 Cessna 170 under actual instrument conditions. I
was handed off to tower, cleared for approach and in my procedure turn
when a Canadian forces plane requested takeoff clearance. Tower
responded, "Please hold, Forces XXX(I forget his number), I have a
Cessna 170 on approach." After several seconds of stunned silence,
there was click followed by, "THIS I have GOT to see." Needless to say,
I was bound and determined to put one wheel on each side of the center
line.

From my collection:
A Canadian airline pilot wrote in his journal, a few years ago, that on
one particular flight due to strong crosswinds, he had unfortunately
hammered his ship onto the runway with a very hard greeting. The
airline had a policy, which required the first officer on the flight to
stand at the exit door while the passengers disembarked, to smile and
repeat "Thanks for flying our airline." His comments indicated that, in
light of the poor landing, he avoided eye contact with the passengers in
an attempt to avoid any smart comments that might result. Finally there
was only one little old lady left to exit the plane. Walking slowly up
the aisle with a cane, she approached the awaiting first officer and
said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am,"
said the pilot. "What is it?" "Did we land, or were we shot down?"

Ted

 

[Ted Edwards]

learning@learning.com wrote:

People like you, and jerks like me, deserve a heck of a lot better than XP

Agreed! It's called eCS 1.2.

Ted

 

In <Amk7e.27527$vt1.15338@edtnps90>, on 04/14/05
at 02:14 AM, Ted Edwards <Ted_Espamless@telus.net> said:

learning@learning.com wrote:
People like you, and jerks like me, deserve a heck of a lot better than XP

Agreed! It's called eCS 1.2.

I am one of you, but I can't get PADs and Protel, or the PIC programmer to
work in OS/2 so I had to bail for now. Its still on here, and I will
be using it way before I ever bother with Linux.

JB

 

[Mark Jones]

learning@learning.com wrote:

In <425d3971$0$73732$edfadb0f@dread14.news.tele.dk>, on 04/13/05
at 05:23 PM, "Frithiof Andreas Jensen"
frithiof.jensen@diespammerdie.jensen.tdcadsl.dk

Like I care - as if people who perpetually whinge and whine, all the
while still putting up with whatever they whine about are known to pay
attention; hell, they are not even listening to themselves fer
ricekakes.


If you don't care, why did you let me get under your skin, and get you to
drop down to my level? That was the plan, and you did good.

For all intents and purposes, you just admitted to Trolling.

...

Look, I have no idea what planet you came from, but I know A LOT about
XP/2k/98/95/3.11, and I'm NOT holding up M$'s products. I said I do not like the
fact that there is only one mainstream OS, but since there is no viable
alternative, I am forced to use it. You can say that you hate Windows, but if
your boss hands you a .PPT document and asks you to tweak the last frame, are
you going to politely explain to him how you can't, because you don't believe in
Windows?

If you can make my hardware, Proteus VSM, MASM32, and Sony Vegas Video run on
any flavor of Linux, then I might consider the [daunting] task of switching. But
as of right now, XP has been the greatest M$ OS I've seen yet. I think more than
half of the problems all you guys say are the OS's fault, are actually
hardware/configuration issues. When I say configuration, I'm not implying that
you must leave all the XP settings at the defaults - my system has had most of
the XP tweaks disabled to increase speed. But it has been meticuously tweaked
also, right down to obscure registry tweaks like the "offload LAN handling to
NIC processor" setting and the TCP parameters optimized for cable (yielding a
21% performance increase over standard MTU/RWIN.) I also use Norton WinDoctor, a
few registry and system optimizers, I defrag at least every 6 months or so, and
daily I sync all drives to an external HDD as backup. (FolderClone is a great
app for this.)

When I built my current box, I built the whole thing around a SolTek mainboard
- one of the best board manufacturers in existance IMHO. I really did my
homework; since I built a '486 system once from a cheap board and a fresh
install of windows 98 would not even run. That hardware was junk! It is possible
to build a worthless computer on which any OS will give you grief, just as it is
possible to build a great computer which will run fine. Even pre-built computers
are not immune to flaky hardware - does anyone remember the old Packard Bells?
Many a service tech has a story there, undoubtedly.

There are many factors that influence OS stability and performance, aside from
the actual hardware itself. Bus/memory/video timings are critical, also
temperature and even vibration play a role. For instance, when I overclock my
video ram and cpu, if I turn up either clock just 2MHz, I'll start getting
random lockups. I spent probably 15 hours testing various BIOS combinations
along with hardware and software diagnostics to achive the highest stability and
performance possible with my hardware. Yep, a whole day was sacrificed to
optimize the PC - before any apps were installed on it. It may seem pointless,
but just look at the end result. This level of thoroughness likely stems from
being a PC Technician supervisor for 5 years, but realistically all the details
on how to tune any new system can be found at a place like Tom's Hardware. You
just have to do it (when the system is built) so you don't find out about these
problems later.

That said, those who don't like XP's "stability" could always switch to CP/M...
or QNX for that matter.

p.s. I only recall seeing one processor exception error -ever- in Linux.

 

In <WemdncPBot6xQMDfRVn-ow@buckeye-express.com>, on 04/13/05
at 11:00 PM, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1> said:

learning@learning.com wrote:
In <425d3971$0$73732$edfadb0f@dread14.news.tele.dk>, on 04/13/05
at 05:23 PM, "Frithiof Andreas Jensen"
frithiof.jensen@diespammerdie.jensen.tdcadsl.dk

Like I care - as if people who perpetually whinge and whine, all the
while still putting up with whatever they whine about are known to pay
attention; hell, they are not even listening to themselves fer
ricekakes.


If you don't care, why did you let me get under your skin, and get you to
drop down to my level? That was the plan, and you did good.

For all intents and purposes, you just admitted to Trolling.

Not even close, my friend. I am around here learning from intelligent
engineers, and I get a kick out of watching people get bent out of shape
over nothing. That ain't no more trolling than "fuck man" or any of the
other people here who speak their mind.

Quit trying to twist things to fit your agenda.

If you want to be the group cop, you have to get a hat and a badge.

People who love Microsoft are never going to change the minds of those who
think it is just a bit short of being any good. People who believe in God
aren't gonna change the minds of those who don't accept God. Nothing you
can say will change one person's mind here.

JB

 

[John Larkin]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:00:32 -0400, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1>
wrote:

Look, I have no idea what planet you came from, but I know A LOT about
XP/2k/98/95/3.11, and I'm NOT holding up M$'s products. I said I do not like the
fact that there is only one mainstream OS, but since there is no viable
alternative, I am forced to use it. You can say that you hate Windows, but if
your boss hands you a .PPT document and asks you to tweak the last frame, are
you going to politely explain to him how you can't, because you don't believe in
Windows?

Power corrupts; PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

John

 

[Keith Williams]

In article <425dd9c5$1$woehfu$mr2ice@news.aros.net>,
learning@learning.com says...

In <Amk7e.27527$vt1.15338@edtnps90>, on 04/14/05
at 02:14 AM, Ted Edwards <Ted_Espamless@telus.net> said:

learning@learning.com wrote:
People like you, and jerks like me, deserve a heck of a lot better than XP

Agreed! It's called eCS 1.2.

I am one of you, but I can't get PADs and Protel, or the PIC programmer to
work in OS/2 so I had to bail for now. Its still on here, and I will
be using it way before I ever bother with Linux.

I dropped Warp4 about four years ago when I needed NT for work, then
moved to Win2K, which I found to be acceptable. I went to Win2K
telling myself that it was the last (and only) M$ OS I'd ever buy and
with the expectation of jumping to Linux at some point. I'm now pretty
much Linux at home, though have the old Win2K system on a KVM switch
for some apps (which aren't working now either).

BTW, I'm surprised you folks haven't discussed XP's EULA. Nice work
that!

--
Keith

 

[Keith Williams]

In article <d3sr51l0ahmbvftetbttib8uaa2f67u5r9@4ax.com>,
jjlarkin@highNOTlandTHIStechnologyPART.com says...

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 23:00:32 -0400, Mark Jones <abuse@127.0.0.1
wrote:


Look, I have no idea what planet you came from, but I know A LOT about
XP/2k/98/95/3.11, and I'm NOT holding up M$'s products. I said I do not like the
fact that there is only one mainstream OS, but since there is no viable
alternative, I am forced to use it. You can say that you hate Windows, but if
your boss hands you a .PPT document and asks you to tweak the last frame, are
you going to politely explain to him how you can't, because you don't believe in
Windows?


Power corrupts; PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

<spit!> Damn, my laptop's screen has all sorts of sparkley dots on it
now. Consider that one stolen! The PHB's are going to hear this one.

--
Keith

 

[Bob Monsen]

On Tue, 12 Apr 2005 12:13:10 -0400, Mark Jones wrote:

What the hell are you guys doing to corrupt your WinXP installs? I've
heard bad
reports about the SP2, but other than that XP is more stable and robust
than 2K.


Agree completely. XP is the first microsoft OS I've actually trusted.

Versions with the old kernel, and the FAT32 file system, are simply too
likely to fail and take your file system with it. XP allows FAT32, but if
any of you are still running it, CONVERT NOW! You can easily convert to
NTFS, which is head and shoulders above FAT32, in terms of reliability.

Before I switched my kid's machine to NTFS, it would crash on a monthly
basis, and take the g-damned file system with it. That would mean a total
wipe/reinstall. When I decided to switch to NTFS, the system got much more
stable. It hasn't crashed since. (2 years ago...!) It runs constantly,
with lots of wierd downloads, kazaa lite, etc. My eldest daughter likes to
install whizzy graphical thingies. It is stable as a rock. The main
problem was spyware, but I've now got that under control.

I have tried Mandrake and a few other 'nixes. The Matrix screensaver
was cool,
but I couldn't run most of the M$ power-apps on it like Proteus VSM or
Sony Vegas Video and there is no comparible equivalent.

Linux is now sporting an app called 'wine', which allows many applications
to run. You can install a windows environment, and it'll run under linux.
Or, you can just install wine itself, and many applications (LTSpice, for
example) will run just fine. For the windows environment, however, it must
be a FAT32 formatted disk, since linux doesn't really like NTFS all that
much. The write support is unusable.

If another OS
existed which could do what Winblows can do or better, then I'd be
interested. It sucks that M$ dominates the marketplace... but they don't
HAVE to be dominating the marketplace - I don't see anyone else stepping
up. That said, I'd love to code a new OS, knowing what we know now. The
new 64-bit processors include many new registers, making software
development a whole new ballgame. It is true that Windows OS's just keep
getting bigger and more bloated. But it has to, to retain backwards
compatibility. Eliminating that bottleneck alone, would be a
revolutionary improvement. Of course, that means all new apps, and
nobody would buy a new OS (even if it was the greatest on Earth) if no
apps were made for it. Oh well.


People buy Mac OSX... however, they spent lots of money getting things to

work reliably in compatibility mode, which allowed users to keep using
their old apps. I believe that Mac OSX is the best OS out there, by far.
It's based on the mach microkernel and the BSD utility set, and has a
great object oriented graphical runtime environment. The only real issue
is that the Next guys Jobs hired decided that objective c would be a great
implementation language. Those Apple products always seem to have an
Achilles heel. It's because of their secret love of smalltalk, I think.

-- "I can conceptualize what infinity is, but I cannot imagine it." MCJ
200406

 

[Frithiof Andreas Jensen]

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news:Fje7e.2569$dT4.1202@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...

Hello Frithiof Andreas,

Yes. I am just thankful that my car does not need an operating system to
work.

Probably does - if it has an ECU or ABS

No ABS, only ECU and that has a micro controller in there. uC firmware
programmers tend to be a bit more thorough. One of the reasons for
thoroughness is the rather limited memory space. They can't leave memory
leaks or create bloatware.

What I used to do, before throwing whatever amount of RAM and MIPS it takes
on embedded Linux'en was to *always* use an RTOS on the assumption that most
of the "wheels" one needs (timers, locks, threads, messaging) are already
invented by people more clever than I - people familiar with the how the
compiler works on the hardware - and have gone through the hands of many
more people;

So by using an RTOS I can reduce the amount of my code in there, thus
raising quality ;-)

Having said that, it is always a good idea to allocate things statically in
embedded things - much more predictable that way.

I wouldn't have bought it. With those things I tend to be a minimalist,
in the firm belief that if the old non-electronic scheme has worked
mankind probably doesn't need an electronic variety.

Luddite ;-)

I only noticed the deviancy of the toaster because a button fell off and
there was a micro-switch underneath;

It is *hard* to buy anything without software these days - my USD 29,95
Braun hand mixer has a CPU in it - discovered when dropped on hard floor. As
far as I can tell it handles the speed control in such a way that the noise
level is reduced. It is *very* quiet.

 

[Guy Macon]

Mark Jones wrote:

learning@learning.com wrote:

If you don't care, why did you let me get under your skin, and get you to
drop down to my level? That was the plan, and you did good.

For all intents and purposes, you just admitted to Trolling.

Every day, a troll goes hungry. These are not trolls just in some
third-world country, but right here at home. The growing rate of trolls
is alarming. In the United States alone, the number of hungry trolls is
expanding at a rate of 1 troll for every 5 AOL CD's.

For example, take little learning@learning.com here. On his favorite
Usenet newsgroup, he does not even gain enough responses to fill a
3 1/4" floppy. He has been forced to go into Yahoo! chat rooms and
pose as a woman, just for enough food to last the night.

Sponsoring a troll is easy. For the cost of sending just one email or
Usenet post, your contribution (along with others) helps keep one troll
fed for a month. If you include your email address, you can get weekly
or daily letters from your troll. Think of what one post from you could
mean to a hungry troll.

Please. Feed a troll today.