Posts by Pascal Monett 19424 publicly visible posts • joined 10 Apr 2007
I heard yesterday that that little enterprise had been shut down. Frankly, I think he should be put in jail for that. You have no right to claim something is a medical cure when it is verifiably not. Medical quackery should be a federal crime, especially and more so if it puts people's lives in danger.
Now that they are collectively demonstrating that they can indeed curate their content, they will have a lot of trouble avoiding being taken to task on other issues.
So we are going to be faced with the next problem : who decides what should be curated ?
Oh and, side remark, I've got the feeling that there will be no outcry from the rabid defenders of Free Speech in this case. How curious.
And there's the fact that, yes, a datacenter creates a lot of heat, but that heat is evacuated outside and server rooms are constantly cooled. The start of the article makes it sound like all the hot air is being ventilated around the building, carrying viruses with it.
Between the hot air being evacuated, the atmospheric control keeping humidity low and the constant cooling everywhere, I agree with the remark that a datacenter should be a pretty good place to work right now. Just keep that hand sanitizer ready and don't touch any doorknobs or door handles if you can avoid it.
One major point that makes this whole thing possible is the lack of atmosphere. If Mercury was massive enough to hold an atmosphere, no ice would be possible because the atmosphere itself would be hundreds of degrees.
But I guess it's only Jupiter-sized planets that can hold an atmosphere when the orbit is that close to a star. Any rocky planet that close will have the solar wind strip it bare in a few million years (a galactic blink of an eye).
Absolutely. Claiming that millions are checking their permissions means diddly-squat when your user base is measured in billions.
Besides, if you pre-empted GDPR and configured yourself to actually respect privacy first, then nobody would need to check their permissions because you would be waiting on them to grant you permission to their data.
If that ever happens, I'll bet my shirt that Google will be using popups and popunders to get people to give them permission to use their data.
But, since it'll never happen, I'll just keep on dreaming.
Spain has a full-fiber broadband network that covers 75% of the country and it is still asking people to cut down on their Internet usage ? How shitty is their fiber ?
I'm guessing that ISPs have once again let loose with "up to" claims and now they're in the obligation of, <gasp>, actually having to provide that bandwidth.
After the "Oh shit !" moment, they're now running around like headless chickens, reconfiguring backends and adding bandwidth capacity that will allow them to handle the load that they've already sold.
I have trouble shedding a tear, there.
Oh, I think we are firmly in Extend territory here. Microsoft has officially Embraced Linux for a while already and, with Github now in its pocket, it is in the process of taking control of the major code repository of most, if not all, Open Source projects.
The Extinguish step is going to be interesting to watch. Will Microsoft force all code to talk to Azure before executing ? Or will it find some less obvious way to control everything ?
Make your bets, the wheel is turning.
Oh I've heard the words all right, but the sphincter-loosening generally comes when I answer "Well, I guess you're data is screwed then".
That has happened a few times in my life, and once to person that I had personally counseled on backups prior to the incident. In any case, it's always followed by much gnashing of teeth, pulling of hair and some wailing about how life is unjust and can't I really do anything ?
No, I can't. You hard disk is dead. The solution is the backup I told you you needed. Now you know why you needed it. Now, you can still send your disk to a data recovery center. How much ? Oh, between $50 to $1500. You don't have that kind of money ? Like I said, a backup is the solution. Sorry.
I checked the pic and had somewhat the same reaction. It's really not tilted much.
On the other hand, liquid doesn't need much to start going down hill, so that tilt was certainly sufficient to have the coolant pool on one side, which means the other side didn't get cooled. It also obviously indicates that Google is not using pumps for its coolant system (saving on electricity), otherwise the liquid would not have a choice.
Yes, it is. Fake News should always be suppressed - and yes, that means that Fox News should be shut down. But the subject is games. Who is Apple to decide what kind of game is allowable when they allow fart apps by the dozens ?
If you want to impose certain standards, you can't cherry pick.
Which still means that they got there in the first place. Google's security needs to stop being reactive and start being proactive. Yes, that means that they should test apps before granting them a place in the Store. Yes, it will cost money. Google has the money. It can do it.
"you probably do not want every employee to be able to check out the location coordinates of everyone else"
I'm all for privacy, but your desk location in a company is no more private than your phone or email in the company. Anyone may need to talk to you and, if they have to phone Helpdesk to get a special permission slip to get your location, then that company is not lasting long.
You absolutely want to keep that information secret from the outside world. Having random customers phoning anybody in the company because they think they have a problem is the best way to keep your employees from doing actual work.
But keeping your location details secret inside the company ? That is not only useless, it is counter-productive.
No, the kind of details you want to keep secret inside the company is HR info, number of sick days, chances of promotion and so on. That is something you can make an app out of, and you will want to keep that secret.
Um, one question : how is it that a "backup" database was accessible through the Web ?
It is child's play for an experienced, competent administrator to firewall any part of his network from the Internet if he has the funding and the will of the Board. The fact that the backup was "external" changes nothing. Am I to understand that the admin in charge did not have those elements, or that he is incompetent ? Which is it ?
Taking a global pandemic for an excuse to not pass buy orders from one's computer. Wow. That has to be a first.
In this extremely volatile market, thanks to the OHSG who makes the stock market fall 1700 points every time he opens his lying maw, one would think it is exactly the time for a hostile takeover.
Well, it seems that the balls have dropped from Xerox, dropped entirely from the sack to the ground.
Or maybe this is just the excuse they use because HP has defended itself too well for their own comfort.
In any case, there is no chance for Xerox to start over. Such opportunities must be pursued when have been created, not put on ice. You pursue, or you fail. Xerox has failed.
Icahn must be incensed. I wonder what kind of reason he'll put in his lawsuit against Xerox ?
Entire countries are going into lockdown, other countries are shutting down the entire educational system, come on, isn't it time for all conferences and summits to declare forfeit and stop pretending that they can happen ?
Anything scheduled before July 2020 should right now acknowledge that they are cancelled and will find out if they can happen in Q3 or Q4 or next year.
Nobody is going to go anywhere with 500 other people at this point in time for the foreseeable future.
Hell, I was in a supermarket a few hours ago and the cheese aisles looked like the aftermath of a war zone. The cheese. I know it's France but come on, people, you don't stock up on cheese, you plunder the canned goods and maybe the chips. Don't forget the toilet paper. At the checkout the family in front of me had no less than 5 extra-large bags.
If this is the Coronacalypse, these people are all going to die because they bought chips instead of canned meat and veggies.
Okay, I admit, I'm exaggerating, but you didn't see the state of those aisles. I was wandering through in a daze when I spotted an employee. I went over to her and I asked "Did a war happen ?". Completely unfazed, and obviously a bit tired, she answered straight back "Yep. It's been like that all day. At one point, we could have just left the entire palette in the aisle, people were taking everything so quickly". She then told me that the aisles of canned foodstuffs were in even worse shape.
It was true.
So, summits ? Not happening. Period.
After which he promptly forgot all of that to go closed-source and do his damnedest to counter all possible rivals by inserting control code into his various OS versions to make sure everyone else's products would be as slow and unstable as possible.
Sorry, but even though I appreciate what he is doing philanthropically, the guy was an asshole and a machiavelic behind-the-scenes manipulator. The angel dust does not impress me.
Well, last night that's exactly what my President did on French television. He gave a long explanation about how difficult a decision it was, then declared that all daycare centers, schools and universities are closed until further notice.
He mentioned twice that health was our greatest asset and he would protect it "whatever the cost".
It's probably going to cost a bundle, but I think he did the right thing. And he was damn Presidential while saying it.
It's been a long time since I've been proud of my President, but last night I was.
Ah yes, the smug superiority of the Apple fan. Entirely justified, I must admit. Apple had the user interface down pat, back in the day.
Before it forgot how to make laptop keyboards, that is.
That said, there's one thing I can do with my Samsung that you cannot on your iPhone : I can swap out my battery on my own, in seconds, without any tools whatsoever.
I rather prefer that over copy/pasting from my phone to my computer - especially since I never do that nor have had the need to.
Replacing the battery, on the other hand, I have a need for.
The window icons on that command console look decidedly 95 to me. Or maybe XP, I can't really remember the difference between the two, icon-wise.
In any case, those are not the icons I have on my Win 7 command console window.
EDIT : it's XP, because of the gradient background at the top. 95 didn't do that, and 7 doesn't do it either.
Oh yes it can. It has largely enough money for that, and apparently it can repeatedly screw up its OS, its Office 365 and even its Azure - none of that makes people stop and wonder why they put up with the continuous stream of BS and productivity-halting shenanigans.
Oh well, at least Win 10X will provide a brand new reason to guffaw at how MS screws things up.
That will never happen. There are waaay too many people coding their Excel spreadsheets to do insane things for VBA to ever disappear. Last year I gave two initiation trainings for banking/investment types. I'm already slated to do another one in May this year.
Companies use VBA and they will not accept MS doing away with it.
Um, when you're selling over half a million units per year, I think it is safe to say that the market has been kick-started already.
What actually mean to say is that you want to kick-start growth in the market, or something like that.
And, apparently, COVID-19 means that that is not going to happen right now.
I'm guessing that, given that it was in a hotel, the equipment was regarded as about the same as the vacuum cleaner. Even though the hotel would not function if the server didn't, it still didn't twig anybody to treat it with care.
I'm wouldn't be surprised to learn that hotel receptionists today would do practically the same.
He wasn't hired as director for compliance, he was hired as rubber stamp director for compliance.
The fact that the company spouts the good old "we take ... very seriously" clinches it for me. They will fight the charges vigorously until they settle of court to not be officially noted as guilty.
Yeah, back when it had a 5% share of the market.
Back then, it had to differentiate, to 'think different".
Nowadays it's surfing on its base, doesn't need to really think things through. Sometimes, you get bitten like that. This is one of those times.
You are correct to outline that, but given that China counts for more than two thirds of cases, the impact of the USA's failure to properly manage the crisis (which is, apparently, slowly being reversed) is likely unimportant at this time.
When the US Government has pulled its finger out and gotten down to business, the actual numbers will probably not change more than if it had done its job properly in the first place.
The WHO Situation Report 51 states that there are, as of yesterday, 118 322 confirmed cases, and 4 292 deaths worldwide.
That is a mortality rate of 3.6%.
Not 1%.
Not 0.1%.
I thought it might be useful to say that, because there are some people out there who still think that COVID-19 is nothing more than the common cold.
It isn't.
Oh, and by the way, it's not getting better. The sitrep from a month ago had 2 560 new cases to report. Yesterday, there were 4 623 new cases. That's over 50% more new cases.
In one month.
Which is blocked by NoScript.
Again, NoScript to the rescue. Frankly, NoScript should be considered as a must-have, receive a Public Utility Award as well as a Keeping The Internet Safe Award, and be enshrined as a tool that defends Democracy and Privacy.
Oh, and somebody give its author a million bucks. He deserves it.
Meanwhile, a Flash Update ? Really ? And "high interest" people fall for that ?
I wonder what the malware guys will do when Flash has been eradicated from the Internet. Are they going to try to push YouTube updates ?
And there never will be, because if there actually was some hard evidence, someone would have leaked it by now. A motherboard is not a state secret, and there is enough Huawei hardware all over the world that, if someone had actually spotted something truly fishy, it would be all over Twitter in a heartbeat.
This whole thing is simply due to the fact that Huawei is eating Cisco's breakfast, and getting ready to eat Cisco's lunch as well. So the OHSG is doing the only thing he knows : kicking up a stink based on a gigantic lie to try and preserve Cisco's market share.
That's all it is, and that is why Huawei's situation can be "negociated". Because if it were actually true that Huawei equipment was talking to Beijing, you can bet your bottom dollar that its equipment would have already been banned and existing equipment would have been literally torn out by ISP and telcos everywhere.
A giant helicopter to "catch" a falling rocket stage "in midair". Great idea, that. I'll sure be interested to learn how exactly a helicopter of any size is going to maneuver to get close to the falling rocket stage, wait until it falls below the rotor blades, then reach terminal speed to catch up to the rocket stage and "catch" it, all the while having enough height to not crater the whole thing.
Not to mention that helicopters are rather limited in their cargo capacity. Or that they are rather inherently unstable, and suddenly adding an ungainly, gigantic, non-aerodynamic lump to its mass is not going to help any either.
Edit : okay, parachute. The drawing does not show that, you have to get to the second paragraph before it is mentioned. With a parachute, it just might be feasible, but I'll wager it would still be very dangerous. It's not hard to find videos of helicopters with cargo underneath tipping and crashing, and the cargo isn't a rocket stage either.
That sounds quite impressive, however there is one problem : most of the time, you only have one CPU.
There are motherboards that can work with two CPUs, but they are rather rare. I haven't found any motherboards, including server types, that can have more than two CPU slots. GPUs on the other hand can be slotted in up to four at a time and that, even on rather cheap motherboards.
I'm not convinced that focusing on CPU speed is the best idea - you've got less hardware to work with.
Why is it important for a website I visit to obtain knowledge on my Chrome installation ? I come with a browser, they serve the page, that's the deal. Why is it important that they be notified of any extensions I have ?
If I ever have the chance of meeting someone from Google, before shaking their hand I'm going to ask them the brand and size of their underwear, their shoe size, what deodorant they're wearing and how old their socks are. Let's see how they like that.
Indeed you are, and by 2045 you will probably have finished upgrading your laptops to Windows 7.
Congratulations.
Oh, and I sincerely hope that all your bluster about the security you have means the biggest darn firewall in the country, because if you think you can secure an XP laptop, you're going to be in for big, unpleasant surprise.
