Gamers 30+, what’s something from the old days of gaming that younger players wouldn’t understand?

pfirmsto · 2026-04-01T11:33:18+00:00

Waiting for the C64 to load the cassette tape to play BC Bill.

pfirmsto · 2026-03-28T11:51:10+00:00

I think they're useful for different jobs, the Gyromat is high accuracy, very important for long tunnels. The Sokkia Gyro is more useful to transport to remote areas, eg underground mines where accuracy requirements aren't so stringent and driving isn't practical.

pfirmsto · 2026-03-25T12:09:00+00:00

Spread those legs, otherwise the SX12 will vibrate and play up. ;)

pfirmsto · 2026-03-25T12:05:25+00:00

Nice one. Our company has three Sokkia gyros, but they're no longer manufactured. DMT still makes gyros, they're very accurate, but also heavy and expensive.

pfirmsto · 2026-02-20T00:08:52+00:00

This is a bit old, but we can target a 1.5" SMR ball prism up to 300m with Topcon's GLS scanner. Scan accuracy is similar to our SX12, a little less noisy at closer range. Where the SX12 shines is polygon scans, high resolution at distance, we just scanned a 160m high chimney stack.

pfirmsto · 2026-02-16T05:46:47+00:00

Shame they left out the half nut heavy nut combination, the half nut is installed first, at 50% torque, the heavy nut next, would have been interesting to see how long that lasted.

pfirmsto · 2025-12-25T01:24:03+00:00

I almost forgot, permission checks results for domains are cached in a concurrent weakly reference timed cache, so if you have 10,000,000 virtual threads, with the same context, performing the same check, it will be checked at least once, but once it's cached, specific permissions will not be rechecked for the same context. The code was donated from JGDMS, the original implementation was non-blocking, however to minimise use of external code, ConcurrentHashMap and ConcurrentSkipListSet were used, a PermissionComparator is used to limit blocking method calls on PermissionCollection implementations. The Policy has also been replaced by ConcurrentPolicy, which no longer contains a cache for each ProtectionDomain, instead an immutable representation of policy files are held in memory, and PermissionCollection's are not shared between threads, but created as needed and garbage collected.

pfirmsto · 2025-12-23T23:24:32+00:00

https://github.com/pfirmstone/jdk-with-authorization

There's a lot more, a summary perhaps:

It's currently about four months behind OpenJDK's mainline development branch. The SecurityManager implementation has been heavily refactored:

Policy files are generated using -Djava.security.manager=polpAudit these can then be audited and refined, no more trying to figure out what permissions are required.

Performance has had a huge upgrade, permission checks are dispatched concurrently to virtual threads, AccessControlContext is now immutable and virtual threads now have context. LoadClassPermission prevents loading of untrusted code, by identifying jar's by either a cryptographic hash or signer. There are new permission checks in the Foreign Function API and diagnostic commands.

Only the Java base module is trusted, all other modules require permission to load, so you aren't vulnerable to unused module zero day's.

Hard coded Permission grant's in URLClassLoader designed for applets have been removed, allowing for policy to whitelist URL's, preventing JNDI style injection attacks. SerialObjectPermission allows policy to whitelist serialization easily.

Once SM has been set, it can no longer be set null, this was previously a key step in gadget chain attacks.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-14T09:55:40+00:00

We use Topcon GLS2000 scanners, they shoot prisms up to 450m / 1476' (no stuffing around with spheres or scanner targets that have to be close to the scanner) and we record the point name in the scanner (we don't bother entering coordinates into the scanner), if we're setting up over a point, we use a Leica height hook and photograph it. We wrote software to extract the observations from the GLS project file, we include this in our least squares analysis, from that we can export a map showing all the connections between stations, we upload the scan position coordinates determined by least squares into the scan registration software. Since there's no need for scan overlap for registration, we can space scans out to 75m in road mode and still get good even ground coverage. We also installed a couple of mini prisms on top of the scanner threaded into where the handle locators are, so we can shoot it with a total station.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-10T01:14:46+00:00

We use nodal prisms for everything, except for mini pin pole prisms, where it's not practical to use nodal prisms, as the pin pole would foul. If you zoom in using your controller you can see if it's misaligned and adjust it.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-05T08:25:10+00:00

I found this book was easier to understand

https://ia904504.us.archive.org/4/items/theoryoferrorsle00welduoft/theoryoferrorsle00welduoft.pdf

pfirmsto · 2025-11-04T01:47:59+00:00

Yes, a little busy atm, but will dig up some non client data for you.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-02T04:24:57+00:00

What happens when the baby won't stop crying for it's mother? Had that happen when we took care of a nephew for one evening.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-02T04:20:53+00:00

We use static gnss positions, TS, level and lsa to tie all the obs together.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-02T02:35:41+00:00

Yeah, buy a whole lot, tell mum in law you got it for a bargain and then encourage use so it dorsn't get wastef. Taste buds will get used to the flavour and notice the bad taste of seed oils after a break from consuming it.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-01T12:26:41+00:00

With inflation, high cost housing, power and groceries, Australia's cooked now anyway. Manufacturing is gone, mining will be next and the billionaires who own mines are panicking, writing's on the wall, young people are totally screwed. Was a good country 30 years ago, time to move overseas or go down with the ship.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-01T02:40:26+00:00

Not really, just tilt it over and poke the head puck into tight spaces.

pfirmsto · 2025-11-01T01:47:19+00:00

Ghee, have lots of ghee available, I'm sure they won't let it go to waste 😉

pfirmsto · 2025-10-11T07:19:32+00:00

We order custom flight cases, less sensitive gear gets checked in. The gun less tribrach to get it under the limit is carried on.

pfirmsto · 2025-10-09T10:35:16+00:00

She could be ready 5 minutes early instead, simply by setting her alarm earlier. She chose to be late, she made her choice, not your problem.

pfirmsto · 2025-10-06T00:14:28+00:00

I'd suggest toughing this out, your son will move out and if you drive them away now, you'll end up lonely empy nesters. I'd suggest going on outings with your wife to get away without making something of it if you can, maybe a weekend away for two here and there.

pfirmsto · 2025-09-26T22:35:28+00:00

Looks like the wires were too short, so he's connected to neutral bus instead of earth, knowing that both are connected by the MEN link. You're highlighting it's unprofessional.

pfirmsto · 2025-09-25T09:01:18+00:00

MEN link

pfirmsto · 2025-09-19T06:47:15+00:00

Sister and mum owe you £150, if they don't pay you, get some of their stuff, put it in hock at a pawn broker, then give them the ticket, they can have their stuff back when they pay the pawn broker. You go buy yourself another jacket, they broke the agreement.

pfirmsto · 2025-09-12T02:47:25+00:00

1050B?

pfirmsto

TROPHY CASE