Posts by Gerlad Dreisewerd

Starliner to remain docked to the ISS into July – with no new departure date

Re: Thrusters

I work in aerospace. Boeing is running the old injector razor scheme.

The injector razor was a supposed improvement over the the double edge safety razor. The manufacturer reportedly sold the handles at a loss then charged more for the razor blades. Computer printers run a similar scheme. Printer manufacturers typically make very little profit on the printer but the printer locks user into buying the manufacturer's printer cartridges at exorbitant prices.

Boeing may lose money on the development of the Starliner but once it has been accepted, the profits from service and support would be enormous. Well, they would be except now Boeing has a competitor who can deliver the same services for less.

HP's CEO spells it out: You're a 'bad investment' if you don't buy HP supplies

Yeah, I used HP cartridges & still got screwed over

I ran an HP 3830 printer for years. Always used HP ink. Then HP decided to let Microsoft handle the drivers and the printer no longer worked with Windows. It would still work with my Linux laptop but I needed a working printer on my Windows machine. After a couple months, I bought an Epson.

Not even the ghost of obsolescence can coerce users onto Windows 11

Carrot! What carrot?

Windoze refused to update my previous computer from 7 to 10; they didn't like nvidia onboard graphics. Now they refuse to update my three year old computer to 11; wrong processor you know. More recently Microsoft announced that they are taking over printer drivers; I've already had a taste of how THAT is going to work. If there's a carrot in here I don't see it.

Microsoft to kill off third-party printer drivers in Windows

This is going to be "fun"

I can only speak to my recent experience with Microsoft taking over the printer drivers for my HP 3830 printer. A Microsoft update took over the printer drivers for my up until that point reliable printer. I was never able to run my 3830 on Windows 10 again. On the other hand, it was quite easy to install my 3830 printer onto my Linux laptop. I could print and scan there.

After a few months using my Linux laptop as a printer server, I decided I needed to upgrade my printer. My new Epson runs a whole lot better than my admittedly aging 3830. This sucks for HP; I won't be buying printer cartridges for that printer anymore.

So now the Microsoft collective is taking over my Epson printer? Microsoft should remember that they need me as a customer. The converse is not necessarily true.

Windows File Explorer gets nostalgic speed boost thanks to one weird bug

Who needs Microsoft

For those who haven't tried it, look into one of the Linux distros. I intend to go Microsoft-free in the next couple years.

Lawsuit: We've got the stats to prove Twitter ax fell unfairly on older, female engineers

Oh my! The committee of Karens is offended.

Oh my! The committee of Karens is offended.

California man's business is frustrating telemarketing scammers with chatbots

I did something similar. I had a rather persistent caller. After one call too many I handed the phone to my autistic son who entertained the caller for a solid hour. We must have hit the no call list after that escapade. That one never called again.

The FBI as advanced persistent threat – and what to do about it

I Don't Doubt That The Government can Read Any Electronic Communications

The answer is obvious. The government wants to monitor communications. So we give it to them. Lots of communications. Use AI to fill the monitoring channels with fiction and fantasy. Government has no imagination or creativity. Have you read Bruce Sterling's "Hacker Crackdown"? Take a look at the FIB attempting to decipher Peter Jackson Games. What a hoot.

Eco warriors sue FAA over Starship fallout, claim watchdog is lost in space

No big deal

Launch 1 simply showed that the launched pad had deficiencies. Solution. Build a a launch barge, tow barge & rocket into international waters. Give the freeway salute to the FAA & the eco-loonies. Problem solved.

Building your own private 5G is as easy as Wi-Fi

What I need is a 3G network.

Building a private 5G network is wonderful but I'd love the ability to build a private 3G cell so my CPAP can once again talk to the manufacturer.

IDC gets even more pessimistic about PC sales

November 2025

Is when I go Microsoft free. Things is the third time in a decade that good old Microslob has refused to upgrade my desktop ostensibly due to some sort of claimed hardware deficiency. Enough.

I'm switching my Win 10 laptop to Linux Mint and figuring out how to run my Epson printer using Linux. By November 2025, I can wipe my desktop and install Linux.

As for Microslob, I believe the correct acronym is FOAD.

Defense boffins take notes from sci-fi writers on the future of warfare

Look up David Drake's "Hammers Slammers"

This is not a particularly new idea. Davis Drake's "Hammers Slammers" has been quietly driving development in the defense industry decades. Some things are plainly fanciful but a lot is readily achievable.

Cheating carriers could cost web-starved Americans billions in subsidies

The FCC broadband map is an outright fraud. In my apartment complex, one building is identified as having fiber. My building is identified at an address that Google Maps says is an empty field. Plus the FCC map is missing no less than 6 buildings.

Windows 11 still not winning the OS popularity contest

Bleep em

I ended up replacing my desktop machine because Micr$oft didn't like on-board video and refused to update my machine to 10. Now M$ doesn't want to upgrade the new computer to 11 because it doesn't like the processor. I'm no longer using the app I was using on 7. Maybe it's time to make a clean break and switch to Linux.

Windows Subsystem for Linux now packaged as a Microsoft Store app

Re: So what's the improvement in the store version?

Oh they're quite intelligently pushing all their software to the Microsoft store where they hope to charge for previously free software.

Meanwhile intelligent computer users are learning Linux. M$ screwed up the drivers on my old HP 3830. The printer & scanner worked fine on Linux butI needed a printer on the M$ machine.

Windows 11 runs on fewer than 1 in 6 PCs

What again!

I replaced my Win 7 computer because Microputz didn't like the on board video. Now they don't like the TPM chip in the replacement. Yah know it just may be time to go to Linux

DuckDuckGo tries to explain why its browsers won't block some Microsoft web trackers

This is a surprise?

Duckduckgo made its chops on honest search results and private browsing. I kicked them out when they abandoned both.

The ideal sat-nav is one that stops the car, winds down the window, and asks directions

Google Mapis ok to a point

Google Maps does well enough in urban areas but using Google Maps in a rural setting is a real adventure. I joke about Maps using cow paths and deer trails but there are some locals one trusts Maps only if feeling suicidal. You really need to know where you are going and how to get there which obviate the functionality of Maps in the first place.

Google's 'Be Evil' business transformation is complete: Time for the end game

A Third Way

The business of Big Tech is data mining. Slurping your data to be bundled and sold to whoever has the cash. Data is only valuable so long as the buyer has some confidence that the data is at least 90% good. What is the value of data when it's only 50% good or 25% good? Is it worth a hacker's effort to hack into a site when 90% of the usernames & passwords are fictitious and can be used to track down the original hacker's? What use is location data when the phone is reporting that it's in Hell, Michigan USA? Will the targeted ad industry start sending ads for burn treatments, fire extinguishers & fire resistant clothing? Create accounts for dead relatives. Maybe they'll get ads for lawn care services. The idea is to create so much bogus data that it becomes difficult if not impossible for an outsider to discern what is real and what is garbage.

Dell won't ship energy-hungry PCs to California and five other US states due to power regulations

So how much carbon was consumed writing these reams of regulation?

Maybe it's time to decarbonize government by reducing the size of government and reducing the amount of new regulations they're allowed to excrete annually. Maybe we need a requirement that two existing regulations must be voided to impose a new one.

Facebook gardening group triumphs over slapdash Zuck censorbots

Facebook algos are so frustrating

I've had great fun mocking Facebook and the various causes they support but since I write it to appear that I'm supporting the cause I've avoided Facebook jail to date. The only post that Facebook removed mentioned MeWe.com

Windows 11 still doesn't understand our complex lives – and it hurts

Get rid of the crapware

I would be profoundly thankful if Microsoft gave up on uninstallable software like Microsoft Edge, Weather, X-Box support, etc. I don't mind the option but I heartily object to software baked into the OS and cannot be removed.

How do we combat mass global misinformation? How about making the internet a little harder to use

It used to be called propaganda

As a teenager I built a Knight Kit shortwave receiver and discovered news reports from around the world. The one thing that impressed me was that the same news story would be reported from around the world in very different fashions. One soon learned to sort out propaganda from the actual story by locating where the event was happening and listening to their reporting. The modern Internet is no different. There is a cacophony of voices on anything and everything. One has to learn to apply the propaganda filter to whatever is found on the the Internet.

The PCR test has been problematic from the first. The test works by growing any organisms found on the sample swab. When set to a high number of replication cycles the test found high numbers of COVID-19 cases in asymptomatic people. Kary Mullis, the inventor of the PCR process, said the test was unsuitable for detecting COVID-19. Remember when Tanzania tried their COVID test kits on a goat and piece of fruit and the tests came back positive? Remember the stories where medical personnel submitted unused test swabs that then tested positive? Yet this didn't prevent the medical bureaucracies from seizing on the PCR test and identifying asymptomatic carriers far and wide. Here in the states, they are quietly turning down the number of replication cycles when testing vaccinated people then proclaiming the vaccines are working. I grew up on a farm and know that smell.

Problems already

The search engines are already having issues. Many relevant bits of information are simply disappearing from the Internet. One of my favorites was a series of articles by a business consultant. His series was titled Big Organizations That Act Like Idiots (BOTALI). It's unclear if these have disappeared due to lack of interest or that they don't fit someone's narrative. I can name several other such articles and websites that have simply disappeared. Let me make this clear; knowledge may become outdated but it should never disappear.

Why did automakers stall while the PC supply chain coped with a surge? Because Big Tech got priority access

Failure to follow past practices

In past times, auto makers often had two and even three companies supplying the same assembly. One hiccups. The other can pick up the slack. Unfortunately this means the automaker buys a set of tooling for each supplier. It's much cheaper to select a single supplier, often called putting all your eggs in one basket. This works until it doesn't.

Activist millionaires protest outside Jeff Bezos' homes to support tax rises for the rich

Tax us more so we can raise prices

Actually the little millionaires are asking for more taxes so they can collect more taxes for the government and claim more special privileges.

Appeals court nixes online blueprint sharing ban on 3D-printed 'ghost guns'

Idiot signalling at its finest. The government can no more ban plans and models than King Biden can command the tide. Anyone who believes this is a fool and belongs in a home for the mentally bewildered.

Pirate Bay co-founder criticises Parler for its lack of resilience

Not looking very hard

If they're looking for evidence of planning the capital invasion on Parler they are certainly looking on the wrong site unless someone slipped something in at the last minute. Parler was a rather stuffy version of the book of faces. There were a number of media figures but not much for the average subscriber. It wouldn't surprise me to find that Parler was ban-bait for big tech. Just enough to get banned by wokerati. Now the lawyers appear to bayonet the survivors. I expect the commercials to soon appear, "Were you censoredby Amazon? You may be eligible for compensation."

Ad blocking made Google throw its toys out of the pram – and now even more control is being taken from us

A simple answer

Remember garbage in, garbage out. Google wants data. Let's give them data. Think of botnets churning out terabytes of absolute gibberish by the minute to the point that Big Data has no idea what is legitimate data and what is garbage.

Remember Ask Jeeves? It's still alive, kinda, and Google seems keen to show it the door once and for all

So who uses Google or Chrome?

I know that I don't.

Can we stop megacorps from using and abusing our data? That ship has sailed, ex-NSA lawyer argues in new book

They want data. We'll give them data.

What we can do is create apps that create random data and feed this into the data collection system. Yes they have my data but it would be so flooded with gibberish that it would be useless.

Google screwed rivals to protect monopoly, says Uncle Sam in antitrust lawsuit: We go inside the Sherman parked on a Silicon Valley lawn

Rivals?

So how does the chocolate factory explain their jihad against Gab other than the fact it's not Twitter? This implies measurable collusion in the tech country club.

What if everyone just said 'Nah' to tracking?

Re: But How ?

Just a thought. How about an app that feeds erroneous data to tracking apps. All of a sudden you're in New York and Peoria at the same time.

EFF warns of 'one-way mirror' of web surveillance by tech giants – led by Google

They want data

So let's give them data. Lots and lots of randomly generated data. Your real browsing data is still there in a dump truck load of gibberish. Knowing what's good data and what's bad data will be problematic.

FYI: Yeah, the cops can force your finger onto a suspect's iPhone to see if it unlocks, says judge

So somebody write an app that triggers bleachbit with a fingerprint scan.

They're BAAACK: Windows 10 nagware team loads trebuchet with annoying reminders to GTFO Windows 7

Phuque 10

!0 refused to update my desktop because it had, gasp, on-board video. It promised to update the netbook then never got around to it. One of my laptops made the transition from 8 to 10. One of the first things I saw on 10 was that damnable Candy Crush Saga. I installed Linux on the netbook and I'm still wondering why I didn't do the same for the laptop.

Pwned with '4 lines of code': Researchers warn SCADA systems are still hopelessly insecure

Re: SCADA systems running windows

A friend running a startup machine shop ran into this as well. Got a CNC on a bargain but it required an obsolete CAD program to run. The CNC manufacturer could care less; they wanted to sell new machinery. Ditto for the owner of the CAD system. He finally asked me what to do. I hoisted the Jolly Roger and found a copy of the CAD system on a computer in the Middle East. All I can say to the CNC manufacturer and CAD publisher is that your support will be remembered when future purchases come along.

Five things you need to know about Microsoft's looming Windows 10 Spring Creators Update

Microdaft Free

Well, Microdaft refused to upgrade my desktop. It's still running 7. It promised to upgrade my wife's netbook but never did. I installed Linux. My laptop upgraded to 10. I've been looking for an excuse to go Microdaft free since.

Microsoft's done a terrible job with its Windows 10 nagware

Nasgware

The Windows 10 Nagware has been an exercise in frustration.

My laptop upgraded without incident.

My netbook has been telling it is going to upgrade soon practically7 since the Windows 10 upgrade was announced. Hear that Bill? I'm waiting!

On my Win 7 machine, the nagware says I need to upgrade Windows 10 then informs me that my hardware will not support it and I need to upgrade the hardware to update. Any sensible company would then uninstall the nagware knowing that when I upgrade to my next desktop, it will have Windows 10 on it. Not Microsoft. I have to manually uninstall the nagware then hide the upgrade until Microsoft sneaks it onto my computer again. Is this an operating system or malware?

Next Windows name unveiled: Windows 7

Alternative Name

And I had my heart set on Windows WS for Windows Wallet Sucker.