Some years ago we had a BBB server set up that interfaced with our Moodle implementation. BBB was (is?) a mishmash of OSS, including using FreePBX for media switching and compositing. If you're not familiar with WebRTC, SIP and the plumbing behind that then it can be a bear to troubleshoot. It think that's one reason why it doesn't have the following of, say, Discord.

We ended up going with Zoom later on as it was cheap at the time and the end-users took to it like ducks to water. Now we're looking at other options because Zoom got caught up in the whole AI thing.

Wouldn't THAT be a hoot? Starlink also being a secret ABM system, with the orbital vehicles sacrificing themselves to fill their orbits with clouds of debris to intercept missiles in mid-flight...

C has had the "unsafe" declarator since its inception. It's very easy to see: if the file name ends in ".c", you know you're looking at potentially unsafe code and should be careful.

Not even local news? I get the attitude but there are some good news programs out there, still. Of course, you may think you already know everything so what's the point of digesting any news programs, right?

Outside of sports and news, there's little reason to watch linear programming anymore. Personally, I like that my cable provider bundles most of the streamers that I like to access as it actually lowers the cost vs. individual subscriptions.

You also get to ditch the cable box for a bring-your-own-Roku and have some DVR functionality (rewind and somtimes fast-forward...nice for watching live football) built into the cable "app".

I think that there's a growing market for providers that can bundle streamers in a cost-effective "one-stop" product.

It's really quite simple if you've ever gone elbows deep into a modern engine...

To meet new CAFE numbers, you have to get your engine as small and light as possible for the parameters it needs to meet for the product. So, all aluminum 3 or 4 cylinder blocks, under 3 liters of displacement. These don't produce great power naturally aspirated so you add some form of forced induction. Turbocharging tends to be the most efficient and easiest to control to provide variable boost so you bolt one of those on, with all the plumbing and controls.

Forced induction leads to higher chamber pressures. Add direct injection and you start getting some rather "dynamic" effects during combustion. All this energy gets transmitted down the conrod to the main crank. What's protecting the crank? Soft metal bearings that expect a certain amount of oil film of a certain strength to be between the parts to cushion, cool and lubricate the crank and conrod.

Thanks to other parts of CAFE and EPA regulations, the oil specified by some engine manufacturers is light...very light. 0W-20 or even 0W-18. And, it has fewer "old school" additives like zinc sulfate or similar, that act to protect against metal to metal damage, should the oil film get too thin.

Finally, your average car owner in the US is not the best when it comes to maintenance and will run an engine long past its oil-change point. This is where the trouble starts. These thin oils don't have great additive packages because they have to be thin to keep the lubricating friction losses down to meet efficiency benchmarks. As the engine racks up hours they tend to overwhelm the oil detergent packages (detergents suspend fine particles swept up by the oil, hopefully to be filtered out) and start shedding ash and other particulates. At this point, the oil isn't meeting the lubrication requirements, and you start seeing bearing damage. Keep this up and eventually you'll trash a bearing as everything's been engineered down to the Nth degree with little margin for slop.

Incorrect in the US. You can call yourself "engineer", or your company can designate a position as an "engineer" position if you're engaged in a non-regulated activity. We have things like "Process Engineers", which are internal to a company so are not regulated. Sound Engineers may hold privately issued certifications but are also not regulated so not licensed.

A true engineer in the US is called a "Professional Engineer" and holds licenses in the states that they work in. PEs usually start out as a degreed Engineer (the degree diploma grants the Engineer title), works for some period of time as an EIT (Engineer in Training) under a PE, then sits for some exams (like the bar) to obtain a license.

Software development is currently unregulated so you can't get a license for writing code or designing software systems.

And, back on topic, I agree that C should be a foundational language that all programmers should know, especially if you're going to do anything with hardware. I've personally helped a few folks that were doing some bit-banging on Arduinos via Python and getting frustrated with the experience of having to deal with an interpreted language in a real-time environment. Getting them to use C wasn't too hard and allowed them to meet their design goals with cleaner code.

You kinda of missed the point of your own header: Email was never secure. Encryption of the contents doesn't help as SMTP can bounce all over place, including through relays that bad actors have access to and keeps a record of where it's been, right in the header.

Anyone needing real secure comms won't use email, regardless of how "bulletproof" the provider claims to be. Use something E2E like Signal. OSS E2E platforms are also significantly easier for people to set up and operate on their own vs. email. Hopefully this little incident opens up some of these journalists' eyes. Too many of them rely on email too much.

With WSL2, it's on my Windows 11 desktop and has been for a few years, working side-by-side. I get the steak AND the salad.

Slashdot: Get Off My Lawn, You Kids!

They're great if they're curated and controlled like what Microsoft does with its "AKA" service. I know of a few organizations that run OSS shorteners like URLS for managed short URLs to what would otherwise be horrendous symbol salads to type into an address bar.

Very informative, thanks. I know that pretty much every turbine engine, industrial or aircraft, has a fuel cutoff before the FADEC and a dump valve after the FADEC so that one can instantly cut fuel flow to the burners.

I'll start worrying about AI-generated code once it submits the winning entry to the Obfuscated C Code Contest.

Maybe "C+=1" works? ;-)

Purloined Purple, Stolen Silver and Burglary Blue.

My understanding is that most of the work phones issued to LA City political staffers is in Retard Red for easy identification.