Posts by patashnik

Windows XP activation algorithm cracked, keygen now works on Linux

Re: previous times this machine has killed a drive

I might ask just how off-brand that machine was (one of those many Chinese companies with interchangeable, nonsensical names? or the similarly foreboding brand known only as Generic*?)

I might also ask what led you to buy prebuilt, if not for an employer/client, let alone from a dubious vendor.

What I must ask is how a machine could leave three drives borked consecutively - shoddy PSU perhaps barely capable of safely powering the system as sold? or the staggering luck of receiving three drives in that special category of 'not DOA but will be dead within the month'?

*Credit where due: I have a 'generic' 500 GB drive that's over a decade old and still fully functioning, which may not be unheard of bit remains a source of baffled wonder to me.

China rallies support for Kylin Linux in war on Windows

Re: Real Issue

My understanding is that the home market in China, as per most developing countries and East Asia especially, is considerably more oriented towards mobile than desktop - not just for reasons of end user cost, but physical space given the comparatively small square footage typical of the region, as Western expats are often keen to point out.

It's why the games industry over there is even more mobile oriented than it is nowadays in the West - games consoles, like desktops, generally require external peripherals and thus more cash and space.

Japan is something of an outlier, natch, given PC gaming continues to be dwarfed by the console market, but I digress. Despite the unwritten rule of Japanese commerce of favouring doing business with native companies over foreign ones, the country similarly continues to seemingly be content enough with MS offerings, to the point of receiving exclusive editions of Windows.

Why Japan's own homegrown Linux distro, which last I checked was still an active project, doesn't have a significant share of the domestic OS market would be beyond me if not for the fact that I'm sure MS has learnt how to Embrace, Extend and Extinguish in multiple languages and cultures.

Windows 11: The little engine that could, eventually

Re: Re-added need for MS Account to download from Windows Store.

Any software that doesn't adequately run via Wine or some derivative thereof (Proton, etc.) belongs on a VM running W7 or earlier or W10 at the very most. Such a VM deserves GPU passthrough but no virtual networking unless said software absolutely requires it.

To think there was a time not long ago when we were more concerned with malware on (especially post-EOL) Win systems rather than the system itself being as dubious, dysfunctional and ad-ridden as whatever dodgy app your old mum, aunty or dog had installed because 'the website said...!'

A pleasant minor side effect of MS's recent change of MO these past 5-10 years, and to a lesser extent the Fruit Company's ever-increasing focus away from the desktop, is a slightly greater uptake in Linux distros that in the past decade or so have generally become usable for The Average User, as illustrated by countless anecdotes to the effect of 'my nan just needed an internet machine, so I installed Mint, which she hasn't realised or doesn't care isn't Windows'.

We've all seemed to have moved past the 'year of the Linux desktop' nonsense, maybe because of all the above - that is, if it hadn't already come and gone long ago.

12-year-old revives Unity desktop, develops software repo client, builds gaming environment for Ubuntu...

Re: burn out

I certainly hope he and his parents, teachers, etc. realise this to grant him the upbringing well-rounded folks generally need.

Knowing a little of Indian culture (diverse as it may be) from a friend who returned to the country after living and working in the UK, however, academic performance and success (read: acquiring wealth) in general are apparently emphasised over personal welfare, perhaps moreso than in the West in current year.

(Needless to say, even if this is indeed the case and prevalent, we are talking about a population in excess of one billion that again is especially diverse culturally and otherwise.)

Re: What is there to say?

CRT has no place in our schools - not when LCD and LED is so readily available!

While I'm loathe to further the irrelevant political discourse here, it's worth pointing out that CRT (critical race theory, not cathode ray tube) as set out in its foundational texts decades ago is indeed Marxist according to those same texts.

What's also true, however, is that 'Marxist' and its variants (arguably as with 'racism') is bandied about far too often nowadays and usually without the speaker being able to explain why or even what these terms actually mean.

I'd ask no one in particular if we could now shift focus back to tech and the achievements of talented young people but fear the answer would be a hard no.

Fancy a remix? Ubuntu Unity and Ubuntu Cinnamon have also hit 22.04

Re: I disagree with the Author

I was very quickly put off by Unity myself with it being unreasonably resource hungry, clunky and sorely lacking much in the way of configurability (or am I thinking of GNOME 3? These 'modern' DEs feel the same that way...)

Very much a case of WYSIWYG in the sense that it was as impractical as it looked. When OSS projects chase the Fruit Company's design 'innovations' (which in itself is inadvisable given the evident goal to deemphasise the desktop and traditional desktop metaphor) they seemingly tend to fall on one extreme or the other in terms of value added.

Thus, we typically get either minor but legitimate improvements to the UX or needless form-over-function changes without clear purpose beyond keeping UX designers (groan) busy between projects of any significance. It's not unlike legal teams kept on retainer, affirming company rights to its trademarks via court action, the difference being that lawyers have a valuable role in corporate structures.

That said, the fact there's been (more than one) effort to revive Unity, even if unwanted by the majority of users, is to me a prime example of one positive to the FLOSS ecosystem: if for whatever inscrutable reason you desire this dire DE, it's yet another option available to you.

Natch, said positive is arguably also a negative depending on the individual's requirements/inclinations/desire to RTFM.

Feeling highly stressed about your job? You must be a CISO

It's oddly reassuring...

...to read this and other comments as someone who's gone back to school to (finally) get certified in the field. At undergrad level at least, the 'career in cybersec' hype is still very much alive... in sharp contrast to the humanities, for instance, as I certainly wasn't regularly reminded of all the opportunities awaiting me back when I studied for a BA in English!

I was already sceptical of that culture, perhaps better described as a meme, of this high-paying cybersec/networking industry with more openings than new graduates can fill, here, there and everywhere. It reached a point that what attracted me, as with many students, in the first place - cybersec, digital forensics, all those buzzwords - has become something I'm not particularly excited about the prospective of. Not after being honest to myself, anyway, about what I imagine it'd be like in practice to facilitate incident recovery or pulling irregular hours in general.

I've no doubt there are still ample opportunities, (relatively) meaningful work and a good living to be made, as the universities are thrilled to remind us. A job's still a job, though, so no denying the reality of turning up each day (even if only to your study wearing pajamas). A good old-fashioned network technician or sysop specialising in Linux is therefore more appealing to me as someone who seems to be growing older and more cynical faster than he can gain qualifications.

As another user remarked about the wave of faux techies entering the industry in the '90s only to find after some years that it wasn't really for them (imagine that!), I'm reminded of my rather diverse class. It's great seeing all ages, genders and backgrounds having the interest and ability to enter STEM, sure, but I can't help but notice how few are deeply passionate for tech (yup, IT classes with barely any nerds). Be that as it may - my less tech-inclined peers and the institution of further education can keep their cybersec hype and associated ideas about this IT rockstar career if it means leaving me to Linux servers and more regular hours!