Posts by Kimo

Koch-funded group sues US state agency for installing 'spyware' on 1m Android devices

Just a quick reminder that the right to privacy was thrown out along with Rowe v. Wade. There are a lot of court decisions that relied on the same legal theory that the Supreme Court invalidated.

Elon Musk issues ultimatum to Twitter staff: Go hardcore or go home

The problem is Twitter users care. The blue check allowed them to follow the verified accounts of that they are interested in. It was exclusive, but that made it both more trustworthy and more valuable.

People use Twitter because they want to share their thoughts and follow people they are interested in. People don't join Twitter to pay money. We have PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, and a host of other platforms that people use.

Musk has blown up the niche Twitter occupied in order to enter a niche that is overcrowded already.

Tesla is down about 30% since Musk announced he was buying Twitter.

As a historian, i would say this is pretty accurate.

The fact that Musk thinks Twitter is a software and server company is why he is shedding billions of dollars. Twitter software isn't all that innovative. It does take a lot of work to run a microblog site with the volume of Twitter, but it isn't like creating self-driving cars (which his other company is failing at).

The value of Twitter is, or rapidly was, its community. He doesn't seem to grasp the social part of Social Media, and that's why he rolled out a subscription Blue Check program with disastrous results. The blue check was valuable because you couldn't buy it. Lots of people want to find Stephen King. Very few people want to find my account. Nobody wants to find Steven King (blue check mark). But if paying $8 a month prioritizes my posts and the fake King over Stephen King's, people will leave the platform.

The coding part of allowing people to buy a blue check was simple. They pushed it out in under a week. The social part of letting people buy a blue check was a disaster that led to impersonation of accounts, hid content people wanted to find, and destroyed the trust that Twitter spent years building in the community of users that joined Twitter to find content from authors, entertainers, journalists, and brands.

FCC takes on robotexts. Good news if your dad thinks IRS gives SMS rebates

Oh no...

How will they reach me about my vehicle's extended warranty?

Girls Who Code books 'banned' in some US classrooms

Re: The last sentence of the article has it.

Plessy v Ferguson was decided in 1896. That set the legal basis for Jim Crow. And all too often that "officer on a horse" turned out to be Nathan Bedford Forest, founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Those can be considered oppressive.

Re: The last sentence of the article has it.

I have done archival work for collections including SCV and UDC materials. They absolutely intended to oppress African Americans when they sponsored public monuments.

Florida asks Supreme Court if it's OK to ban content moderation it doesn't like

The United States is a Republic and a Democracy. The United Kingdom is a Democracy but not a Republic. The Democratic Republic of North Korea is a Republic but not a Democracy.

Meta, Google learn the art of the quiet layoff

Could be worse...

I worked at a state job once where there was a policy that if you were laid off, you could apply for a position currently held by a less senior employee. That boosted morale during layoffs.

BOFH: It's Friday, it's time to RTFM

Really Tenacious Ferengi Money Describes the cost of replacing all the software you own with subscriptions.

Re: The only one missing is . . .

Franz Ferdinand+Sparks. Excellent taste.

BINGO!

Filled in my Acronym Bingo sheet by the third paragraph, thanks.

One man's battle to get patent rights for AI inventors in America may be over

AI is a tool

We are not talking about a self aware intelligence that can make it's own decisions. If we get there, then we can have a different conversation. But right now AI is a tool. It can use inputs to process complex problems. A bunch of humans created the AI. One or more humans refined a series of inputs until they got a usable result. One or more humans selected which results to apply for a patent on. Humans switch the power to the AI on and off. Until an AI can create a design without nay input and without filtering the output, they should not have the ability to hold a patent.

Yandex speaks out from front line of Western sanctions against Russia

Re: Not Enough

"Mobster" is literally a description of the people Putin recruited on his rise to power and put into key positions in the Russian government. He co-opted organized crime as it was the largest source of power and biggest potential impediment to his rise.

Until the war started, Yandex was running a trial of food delivery robots on the Ohio State University campus. I hope my friend A078 has not been drafted.

Buying a USB adapter: Pennies. Knowing where to stick it: Priceless

Re: Seems ok

It took 15 minutes ON SITE. To which he travelled. that also took time. He quoted what it was worth to show up at their office and do the data recovery. It's not unusual to have either a minimum rate or a service call fee to cover the cost and time of travel.

FTC sues Intuit for false advertising, says 'free' TurboTax isn't always free

Re: It’s government tax

There is a FreeFile option from the IRS, but it takes some digging to find. If your gross income is over $68K that's the only free electronic option (unless you are a senior).

BOFH: Gaming rig for your home office? Yeah right

Re: Poacher turned gamekeeper?

If it comes from the IT budget, that's not for company use.

To our total surprise, Apple makes adding alternative payment systems to apps 'painful, expensive, clunky'

Preach. The Ohio State University is about to end our free iPad program for students just after they had us adapt our courses to using them, including buying up a bunch of servers for virtual Windows desktops since the 3D modeling software the College of Engineering uses doesn't run on iPads. Now we have to make the choice of revamping our courses again or having students buy their own iPads

(which will end up bring less powerful than the Pro versions we have been using).

It's only Contempt of Court if it comes from the Contempt region of California. Otherwise it is Sparkling Disobeying the Spirit if not the Letter of a Court Order.

Dutch nuclear authority bans anti-5G pendants that could hurt their owners via – you guessed it – radiation

Re: Ha Ha Ha

Almost as good as the devices that protect against WiFi radiation by putting a faraday cage around your router.

AWS wobbles in US East region causing widespread outages

Ohio State University spent years getting faculty to put everything into the online course management system, and then moving it from their hardware to AWS and Microsoft clouds. Yesterday was the second to last day of semester, with lots of projects and quizzes due.

Billion-dollar US broadband bonanza awaits Biden's blessing – what you need to know

Re: another wealth transfer under the cover of good intensions

I know teachers in rural Ohio who are working on dial-up speeds. They want to stay in their hometowns and still help their students with current information and tools, as well as be able to do their 6+ hours of grading and prep a night online.

After last year, Zoom is high on the list of real-time applications.

Microsoft: Many workers are stuck on old computers and should probably upgrade

The most efficient kit

Anything offered by my University is crippled by IT policy and can’t be updated without a trip to campus since they don’t give users permission. Despite sending us nag screens to apply updates we don’t have permission to install. I am not sure what justification exists for preventing users to upgrade the security software that IT pushes out to us.

So I just use my own machine for anything important.

COVID-19 cases surge as do sales of fake vaccination cards – around $100 for something you could get free

Re: A long way still to go

Italy. Spain. New York. India. Florida.

People had immune systems and those outbreaks got ugly as healthcare systems became overwhelmed and people who could survive given adequate resources died.

Re: A long way still to go

A significant number of survivors have long-term health problems including breathing and neurological problems.

Re: A long way still to go

This happened to a degree. my wife, who does in-home elder care, was able to get vaccinated before it was widely available. her employer was given a web portal to register appointments.

Elementary OS 6 Odin released on a 'pay what you want' basis

This. New users expect at a minimum to have a web browser, email, and an office suite when they first boot (or a shortcut to install office software at the least).

Oh hello. Haven't heard much from you lately: Linux veteran Slackware rides again with a beta of version 15

Re: Super Stable

I bought a new tower shortly after Windows XP came out, and the original version was buggy as hell, especially with WiFi on USB. So I paid for a CD set of Slack (on dial-up at the time) and ran it happily until well after XP SP3 made it a stable OS.

Texas blacks out, freezes, and even stops sending juice to semiconductor plants. During a global silicon shortage

Connecting to the TVA and hydro power to the east and Arkansas' nuke plant to the north, as well as the solar and wind in New Mexico and Oklahoma might help.

Re: Wind farms

Which wouldn't be as much of a problem if the Texas grid could draw power from the Great Lakes or the Southwest. Texas is a big state with several weather zones, so they seldom have a state-wide problem of this magnitude. They intentionally bet on that when the grid was designed. Once in a while they lose.

Re: Probably insignificant when offset against the days they are working optimally

Out in West Texas, it can get damn cold for weeks at a time. I have seen few things sadder than ducks in Lubbock standing around on a pond waiting for it to thaw.

File format conversion crisis delayed attempt to challenge US presidential election result

Re: Oh FFS give it up already.

While Trump expects personal loyalty (and has dismissed people who followed the law against his wishes), the bulk of judicial appointments in McConnel's work, and he has pick people for their originalist legal philosophy and conservative views.

Re: Don't suck the joy out of everything

There is, however, a Federal budget item for Air Force One. It can be both a designation for the plane the President is currently in and a specific conversion of a 747 200B.

Re: Don't suck the joy out of everything

Yes and no. There are two planes that rotate the Air Force One designation (both 747-200Bs). There are a number of aircraft used by cabinet members and the first family that are nearly as secure as AF1, including the 757 that is usually used for Vice President Penis or the First Lady. The landing notice mentions a 757.

If the President were on board your Cessna, it would be AF1. But it would have to be fitted with enough security and communication gear that it would be rendered inoperable. Any airplane carrying the President is AF1, but the President does not fly on just any airplane.

Re: Don't suck the joy out of everything

The information points to a smaller plane than Air Force One. Could be Melania making her break.

Canadian uni blamed users after Workday HR switch, but some teaching assistants say they're still waiting to be paid

Ohio State just made the switch to Workday. Can’t wait to see what fun ensues.

One does not simply shove elephants on a ballet shoe point and call it an acceptable measure of pressure

While the Reg prefers to measure in skateboarding rhinoceri, it is worth pointing out that there are 5 species of that particular group still turning tricks upon the Earth, with a considerable range between the Black Rhinoceros (adult males ranging from 850-1600kg) and the Sumatran variety (about 700kg).

Bill Gates lays out a three-point plan to rid the world of COVID-19 – and anti-vaxxer cranks aren't gonna like it

Re: If Bill Gates has the technology to implant chips to control people's behavior

Reality as a Service.

Brexit travel permits designed to avoid 7,000-lorry jams come January depend on software that won't be finished till April

Re: "7,000 vehicles (about 60 miles/96km, end-to-end)"

1,056 American football fields.

Re: effective and simple to use

They can store the QR codes in the cloud using blockchain for maximum buzzword density.

Apple to Epic: Sue me? No, sue you, pal!

Re: Microsoft Has anyone else noticed...

What does that have to do with limiting app store purchases?

Re: Anti-Trust

If you play Fortnite on Playstation or XBox, you can buy in app currency anywhere and spend it in the game. If you play on iOS, you can only get in game currency from Apple. PC and console games do not perpetually tie in game purchases to their store.

Re: Monopolistic behaviour

The inability to negotiate can be used as evidence that Apple has a monopoly and is abusing it. If there were competition, Apple would have to bargain to keep apps on their store.

I honestly think Epic’s proposed remedy will include opening up third party app stores on iOS (and that is why they took the more difficult route of suing Apple and Google separately). They already have a working app store on PC with a payment system that undercuts Steam and they can offer devs using Unreal a simple route to publishing and payment.

Re: Hot tip for gamblers

While I hope Epic prevails, it is only because smaller devs would benefit from a more reasonable fee structure and potentially other ways to get their content out.