Posts by asdf

Intel has driven a dagger through Microsoft's mobile strategy

Re: The war has been over for some time

>I can't speak for the others, but you got my downvote for claiming that ANY phone OS has any serious support. Apple deliberately break older hardware with new updates, with 'older' defined as 'three years',

Ok I can agree phone support long term is pretty much garbage but my point is so will be Windows OS support as well. Your OS is just like Facebook now, ready to be changed at the whims of Redmond as you are the product and no longer the customer. The one good thing at least if you get Nexus devices beyond warranty cheap you can find plenty of aftermarket open source roms to get cheap support but as you say ridiculous this is the only way to get long term support.

Re: The war has been over for some time

>no-one is seriously looking at dumping laptops or desktops in exchange for just tablets and phones

Wow haven't looked at the financials of any of the PC makers lately have you? Intel laying off thousands is just a coincidence. Wintel will dominate forever so saythe Naselus. I do agree there will be a mature market for some time to come but growth is not a word that will be used much if ever again.

Re: The war has been over for some time

Wow someone agrees with me at least lol. Took a lot of downvotes on this article. Guess that's what happens when you start pointing out all the bullshit of the major players these days. Piss off all the tribes.

Re: The war has been over for some time

As for WinPhone well about the time they maybe got their stuff together with the OS (haven't followed much if that has even happened yet) the market share rounded down to zero. Network effect does matter even for phones.

Re: The war has been over for some time

I agree Microsoft OS support has actually been quite good in the past but then they basically decided they weren't going to just sell the OS any more and get out of the way but instead will data mine you ala Google and give it to you free (at first like a drug dealer but soon comes the OS as a service subscription noise). Makes Apple even with their stupid hipster premium look like the only sane choice at least for phones under warranty.

not to be a dick but

I was going to throw poop about that unnecessary jarring Samuel Johnson bit but seeing the author is AO ah hell I am still throwing poop at it. I am not a writing critic usually and my own writing often hints at barely literate so that bit must really suck if I groaned at it.

Re: The war has been over for some time

>'m pretty sure that there is only a Chinese wall between the associated horrors that I get from the app store and total control over my device.

Well then run with F-Droid with no accounts on the phone then you have can be reasonably sure of whats in the app store.

>My PC also gets automatic updates, which my phone doesn't.

Not buying the right phone then. Need to stay away from the off brands who don't really offer software support.

>The war is not over. It's not even clear that the major players are fighting the right war.

Pretty sure the old guy luddite market is not on top of most the major players battle plans.

Re: The war has been over for some time

Not having all this in place when windows 8 shipped is why the war was lost. Years are almost like decades in the computing industry. Something that asshat Ballmer cost them which is why he is poo-pooing the idea even now.

Paying a PoS*, USA? Your chip-and-PIN means your money's safer...

Re: The most frustrating thing to me

For the record US banks are now required to issue chip and pin and have even started enforcing it with a new chip cards even if your current one doesn't expire for years. Also being I haven't been in Europe in almost a decade I was talking exclusively about the US (sorry didn't make clear). Maybe it gets better but currently instead of a one second swipe followed immediately by the time it takes you to enter your pin you put your card in and have to wait at least 15 seconds and then still enter your pin, be sure not remove the card and wait some more and finally remove it and if you don't wait wait you start over. Also one difference I think between the US and UK in mindset is at least in the US you are only responsible for at most $50 at least on a credit card for a fraudulent purchase made by someone else.

Re: The most frustrating thing to me

Funny the most frustrating thing to me is that it now takes a few minutes longer to check out but you can bet the end consumer is not going to see any savings from the reduction in fraud. Maybe if you own lots of stock and even then it probably will get eaten up as management bonuses rewarding themselves.

F-35s failed 'scramble test' because of buggy software

Re: @ASDF ...This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

If we were going to bring the hurt on an advanced foe would probably be using ICBMs (in extreme cases) or cruise missiles launched from ships, subs or perhaps aircraft (likely off a carrier) but even if it needs be aircraft off land the Army could handle that.

Re: @ASDF ...This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

No actually the Air Force came into existence at the start of WW2. Probably made sense at the time due to facing an immediate existential threat from nearly equals (often better) in technology and more so after WW2 when aircraft was the only game in town for delivering strategic nuclear weapons. That was a very long time ago though. My whole premise is the Air Force is run by incompetent shit birds and exists today solely as pork trough for the Pentagon, defense contractors and their lackey enablers in Congress. They are a relic of the cold war and what value they do bring to the modern battle field with the goat herder foes we face today would be enhanced under Army leadership thus my premise for them to be once again the Army Air Corp. Granted we may face more capable foes in the future but again my belief those foes will have ICBMs and or drones (or swarms of) at least as combat efficient as this shitty aircraft means the Air Force will probably just embarrass themselves or be irrelevant anyway. The days of massive manned dog fights are over. More likely our hypothetical advanced technological foe will just make our crappy electrical grid shit itself anyway and wtfpwn all the SCADA devices we have put out on the internet for convenience.

Re: @asdf (was: Dumbasses.)

>>"The key question is get what done which is also the answer in this case."

>Is English your second language asdf? Please find a translator, I'm intrigued, you might actually have a serious point there!

Others spell it out for me but basically it boils down to you seem to be saying quick go get the requirements while I start coding.

Re: Operational delays

Blame Canada. Never forgive never forget.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

>I hate to burst your bubble. but land-based aviation is inherently more capable than naval, since it is not limited to a short runway (or need the strengthening/equipment for carrier ops).

Which is why we still need the Army Air Corp. The Army I guarantee can handle all the strategic roles of the Air Farce for a hell of lot less pork.

Re: @yank ...This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

>This is a major difference between Russian and US policy planning.

Yeah internal opposition to policies in the US don't wind up with rare fatal isotopes in their blood.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid

>'nuff said........

James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle (December 14, 1896 – September 27, 1993) was a reserve officer in the United States Army Air Corps,

Ok again what about this raid says we have to have a stand alone Air Force? Oh yeah because its still 1964 and we are still fighting the cold war.

Re: @Mr Xavia...This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

>You do realize that there is more software involved in a drone than in a fighter jet right?

Yes of course.

>If the US can't get the software right for a jet, what makes you think that they can fix a drone?

What makes you think it will be the US AF that gets it right? Some countries defense contractors and employees are actually required to be competent (some countries might actually for example hold a billion dollar failed virtual fence against Boeing). If the F35 has proven anything its that even nearly infinite resources can't polish a turd.

Re: @asdf ... This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

>The Air Force and Pentagon is being run by a bunch of bean counters who look at the logistics and costs of running a fleet of aircraft.

Then they have failed epically at their jobs as this will be a case study for how not to do a weapon system for a very long time. As much as I do blame the AF and the Pentagon a clusterfsck this epic takes a significant number of elected ass clowns to pull off.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

>IIRC the US Marines are really to blame for the F-35 being a dog,

Actually whomever thought one airframe could handle all services should be the ones shot (looks like as usual it was a merger of several small clusterfscks into one giant clusterfsk to make it easy for the pork politicians). Still even on the V/Stol stuff you can't totally blame the Marines.

In 1992, the Marine Corps and Air Force agreed to jointly develop the Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter, also known as Advanced Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing (ASTOVL).

The JSF program was the result of the merger of the Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter (CALF) and Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) projects.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

Ok so the Army and Marines thing wasn't fair (am biased lets say) but I stand by the Army Air Corp idea so they understand their place instead of simply as poorly ran pork factory.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

> There is no reason why every service needs planes,

Except for the fact that historically the Navy pilots have been the best (that whole having to take off and land on carriers thing). Naval aviation is just as much about the naval as the aviation which is why they have their own planes. The Air Farce obviously takes off and lands on land which is why they are the Army Air Corp. As for redundancy between Marines and Army all I will say is somebody has to be able to deploy in 48 hours with lighter gear and fight the battle and somebody needs weeks to deploy with heavy gear often not needed, always fighting the last war, botch it, and have the Marines fix it anyway (cough Fallujah). As for the Army Air Corp's other mission based on what a half ass job the Air Force has done with the ICBM crews lately (see cheating scandal, and drug dealer ring) they should be fine under the Army.

Re: Dumbasses.

The key question is get what done which is also the answer in this case.

Re: God Bless America!!

>Do you think it's not being leveraged for all it's worth in China?

Pretty sure most of that debt is Chinese though. Yeah its going to fsck them over hard as well as the whole world's economy wait what as the point again?

When greed is a virtue encouraged by society

Guess this also helps explain why our space program looks so impressive if you follow the time arrow back to Apollo. Too many people with their hands out to get anything done right.

Re: Operational delays

>Soviet Union could have won a war in Europe.

Yeah but they would just now be able to occupy it. Pretty amazing how many in the 1960s US defense establishment not only accepted a nuclear war was imminent but were almost looking forward to it.Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary, the missiles are flying Hallelujah. Hallelujah

Re: I think there is a wonderfull message behind this

>It's good to hear that they are not dedicating their minds on how to kill people more efficiently.

No they are all on Wall St. inventing complex derivatives to hide money from regulators and share holders. Too big to fail baby.

Re: God Bless America!!

Yeah but the Chinese at least didn't borrow the money to do that (I think). Our pivot to China was a big fail because first rule of war is don't borrow money from the country you want to go to war with. Second rule is don't go to war with the country that makes all your stuff. Makes your tough guy posture look pretty p_ssy.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

F22 isn't good for say close air support. The F35 was supposed to be a jack of all trades but its just a trillion dollar albatross empathizing why the Air Force is irrelevant these days (another great thing given to us by the cold war) and should be folded back in the Army where it belongs. Yes other services were involved as well but its the AF that is king of lobbying for pork projects and the one service that doesn't need to be standalone.

fscking F35

If the government wants to have a trillion dollar jobs program fine (not really with our debt but don't mind that man behind the curtain) but could we at least get some new infrastructure out of it? Our current stuff is falling apart.

Re: This is how the US is preserving its air superiority

> I'd say the US isn't so certain about air superiority against anyone but stone throwing desert dwellers.

Anybody that has a chance of matching the US in the skies already has ICBMs. Drones will rule the skies about the time the F35 becomes truly combat ready as well.

MongoDB on breaches: Software is secure, but some users are idiots

Re: Convenience

Wish I could upvote this several times.

I am Craig Wright, inventor of Craig Wright

Re: null output

>Real life is indistinguishable from satire.

Real life is actually a bit funnier if it wasn't you and yet usually no one else is privy to the joke and that is often for the best.

Engineer uses binary on voting bumpf to flag up Cali election flaws

Re: It's not California

>Then stir in the worst Supreme Court decision in history, Citizens United

It seems bad now but long term Plessy v. Ferguson will probably always hold that title (one can hope for the future). Its fairly safe to say Citizen United won't remain the law of the land for the next 60 years. Good chance we are a few years away from seeing it altered pretty dramatically. Hell one might even argue its not the worst SCOTUS decision during the Obama administration. That one striking provisions of the Voting Rights Act probably did more to fsck up the politics even in the near term. Money has always been in elections one way or another (before Citizens United it went to the National Partys instead of SuperPACs which is hardly much better) but allowing Maricopa county (Phoenix, AZ) to come up with its own primary election plan so far went swimmingly. The DOJ would never have allowed them to do it so obviously on the cheap (far too few polling places) with the end result being up to 8 hour lines to vote.

>Translated to UK terms: government by Daily Mail.

Made even this yank laugh.

Re: Shades of Friday by Heinlein

Also the more I think about it Phillip Dick more about military/police type sci fi stories. No doubt the Cold War affected that dude to the bone.

Re: Shades of Friday by Heinlein

> who saw him as a liberal free thinker

He was a free thinker and didn't really glorify war but definitely thought it was necessary.

Re: Shades of Friday by Heinlein

Honestly though when it comes to voting and Heinlein I take it with a pinch of salt. That man had militarism build into his character (funny that being in the military) like few other sci fi writers.

Hold on a sec. When did HDDs get SSD-style workload rate limits?

Re: You can never have too much disk space (or too much memory)

>Really not sure why you think SSD's in laptops are a bad idea?

Probably due to yet another employer being penny wise but pound foolish. Take the taste test. Buy yourself a fairly cheap $70 ssd drive (can get 240gig for that online) and use it as a boot drive for a week on any Winows 7+ machine (or Mac or even shudder systemd Linux) and you will never want to boot off spinning rust again. It makes hibernation unnecessary.

Linux greybeards release beta of systemd-free Debian fork

Re: Also systemd is the svchost.exe for Linux

There you go John Hughes satisfied? Took a fair amount of work but I still stand by statement. Assuming no other post from you at this point so consider this the mic drop.

Re: Also systemd is the svchost.exe for Linux

In fact http://ewontfix.com/14/ for the high level overview and http://blog.darknedgy.net/technology/2015/10/11/0/ for the down and dirty details do more to explain why systemd design is fundamentally broken than almost anything out there.

Re: Also systemd is the svchost.exe for Linux

Credit due to http://ewontfix.com/14/ - for the idea Do away with everything special about pid 1 by making pid 1 do nothing but start the real init script and then just reap zombies.

Re: Also systemd is the svchost.exe for Linux

>If one non-critical functions fails, it should not mean that the entire system becomes unusable as it has been on Windows where svchost.exe is used to run almost any arbitrary process and each of those svchost.exe processes can "host" several sub-functionalities. (ie - Grouping multiple services into a single process conserves computing resources However, if one of the services causes an unhandled exception, the entire process may crash.)

And this is the crux of his argument (though I admit spelled out implicitly). PID 1 is special (it can't fail or your system shits itself) and should being doing as little as possible not as much as is possible. The following link shows what can go wrong with having a kitchen sink PID 1 - http://blog.darknedgy.net/technology/2015/10/11/0/

Re: Also systemd is the svchost.exe for Linux

>What is the similarity of design (and philosophy) between systemd and svchost.exe?

Sorry in advance for length. Stolen from http://forums.funtoo.org/topic/626-my-2-cents-on-systemd/page-5 but hits my points better than I could.

"It's simple really: systemd is wrong for Linux.

It may be right for something else, but not (default) Linux.

It violates the "UNIX Philosophy", which is best summarized by the famous quote from the inventor of the UNIX-pipe, McIlroy:

Quote

This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.

This is important for very many reasons.

If one non-critical functions fails, it should not mean that the entire system becomes unusable as it has been on Windows where svchost.exe is used to run almost any arbitrary process and each of those svchost.exe processes can "host" several sub-functionalities. This results in that if any of those sub-functionalities "goes nuts", even if it's one that the user does not care about at all, the entire process with all its hosted sub-functionality is immediately affected. Also made obvious by the svchost.exe example is how it makes granular permissions management impossible even with third party tools like anti-virus and firewalls as if you have even ONE svchost.exe sub-functionality requiring network access to do its job, you must grant network access to the entire process and thus to everything else hosted by the same binary and this can lead to very undesirable security implications.

I use svchost.exe as the example because we Linux- (and UNIX- in general) users used to laugh at Windows' poor design in this regard for these reasons... but now when Windows is moving more and more away from this design, Linux is moving to it.

What's even worse is that there used to be several alternatives to chose from regarding system init provider, but now there are only two main ones and one that is being migrated away from, so if any major flaw is discovered in for example systemd, there is now effectively only ONE choice left.

With software now increasingly being made specifically designed for systemd, they build bi-directional dependencies so that the user can not really choose individual components anymore, which again can cause very bad security results as well as very much waste in system resources.

Imagine for example if there is a bug that causes the boot process to take half an hour each time using systemd and OpenRC can't be used because the core functionality of the system specifically depends on systemd... This can cause very expensive fines for corporations with Service Level Agreements to honor.

The migration to systemd results in user-unfriendly, bloated, unnecessarily restricted and potentially very costly systems.

It could be AN option, but should definitely not become the ONLY option as it is becoming now.

If you want a Windows/Mac-like system where the user is put out of control through the assumption that the programmers will be able to predict every usage scenario and never write flawed code so no options are needed, then it should be considered as an option.

I could go on, but I fear I have already passed the wall-of-text/TL;DR-threshold.

P.S.: The example scenarios in this post are all ones that I have personally encountered, so not at all hypothetical."

>That's why things like SELinux exists (although the vast majority of people find it "too hard" and just shut it off).

Funny how that happens after you spend nearly a day diagnosing why a user can't run X apps remotely through ssh and then find out SELinux is silently not allowing sshd access to .Xauthority (not an admin but do help users around my workplace alot). Failing shit silently and in weird ways and wasting users time is why SELinux sucks balls. Yes maybe for an out of the box internet facing server I can see its use but even then you are most certainly better off using OpenBSD whose developers also believe code correctness in a tightly audited base along with proper UNIX permissions and best practices beat the shit out of bolted on RBAC systems which generally just end up locking the door after the horse as bolted and fsck over normal users 1000x more often than the baddies.

The EU wants you to log into YouTube using your state-issued ID card

Re: To be fair

>Nothing to do with that empire thing then? Well, thank you America!

Hollywood and mass media did at least as much as the UK Navy. Point granted though.

Intel loses its ARM wrestling match, kicks out Atom mobe chips

Re: "ultra low power x86"

>This might have something to do with their penchant for trying to solve issues by increasing complexity

It has more to do with x86 being one of the worst instruction sets you can imagine for low power use (even if efficiently emulated). I can agree though complexity is what kills. Intel has tried to move away from x86 in the past but being a victim of its success its a chain that may eventually drag them down.