Posts by sisk

'Windows 10 nagware: You can't click X. Make a date OR ELSE'

Re: What date is good for you?

So, you can have Windows 10 now or anytime in the next five days ... love that MS have given me such a wide ranging choice of dates so far into the future :(

I don't have to deal with this particular headache (and let me say I've never been so glad to by a Linux user), but knowing the way Microsoft operates it seems likely that the date is set somewhere in the registry. Set it 5 days out to give yourself plenty of time to work then fire up regedit and find the date and change it. January 1, 3016 (Or in the unlikely event that it's a 32 bit system Jan 20, 2038) should give you plenty of time before the machine updates.

Of course that's a complete guess and could be completely wrong. I don't have a Windows 7 box threatening to update without permission to check it on.

Your mother has a smooth forehead, Klingon language lovers roar at Paramount

I once heard of a man who met his then-future wife at a Star Trek convention. He was American and she was studying abroad from France. The only common language they had was Klingon. Apparently that stayed true for several months before they picked up enough of each others native tongues to use them to communicate. They literally enjoyed a romantic relationship while speaking to each other exclusively in Klingon for the first several months that they were dating and it led to marriage.

If that's not proof that the language shouldn't be owned by anyone I don't know what is.

NASA saves Kepler space 'scope by turning it off and on again

You know, for once the problem really might have actually been caused by solar flares or alpha particles.

Bundling ZFS and Linux is impossible says Richard Stallman

Re: Stallman can change the GPS as welll...

He has, but unfortunately he can't force people to use the newer, even more restrictive version.

One thing that's always struck me as odd about the GPL. The whole point is to give users more freedom, but it does so by putting shackles on the developers. How is it free software if it restricts the person putting all the effort into it?

Re: Question

That point is interesting. Even if rms got his way in court, what damages could he claim?

Damages as in monetary damage? Probably none, at most very, very little.

Given that the properties involved here would be the Linux kernel, property of the Linux Foundation, and ZFS, property of Oracle, I'd guess he doesn't even have standing to bring a suit in the matter at all. I suppose you could make some tenuous thread between the GNU utilities being distributed along-side ZFS, but the actual, tangible link is only between the kernel and the file system, neither of which are FSF properties. I think any suit Stallman tried to bring here would get thrown out entirely.

But let's pretend for a moment that he did have standing to bring a suit or that it was Linus (who, as the public face of the Linux Foundation, probably would have standing) calling foul on Ubuntu. At that point the case would become a lot clearer and the possible end result would be an injunction, not damages.

Microsoft's bigoted teen bot flirts with illegali-Tay in brief comeback

Re: @ sisk

It might be because I've lived in the Bible Belt my whole life, but most folks I know are of the "baby from conception" camp of thought. I'd also point out that pregnant women almost universally refer to it as a baby from the moment they know they're pregnant unless they're planning on getting an abortion.

My personal opinion on the matter is that it's not a fight worth having. Just hand out contraceptives like candy and make the whole dang debate academic.

how do you program in a sense of morality in an AI interface?

That's pretty much the crux of the AI problem. If you answer that one then you also answer a lot of other questions about how to make good AI. But then the question becomes "whose morality?" After all, a certain breed of white supremacist meathead truly believes that it's immoral to not kill someone with darker skin should the opportunity arise and a whole lot of folks (of equally, but more politically correct, meathead status in my opinion) seem to think it's immoral to be born with white skin.

In a less obvious vein, take a look at abortion. Pro-lifers believe it's immoral to kill an unborn baby while most pro-choicers believe it's more immoral to take that option away from women, many while even agreeing that it's immoral to kill an unborn baby. Granted a few believe it's not yet a baby and therefore has no moral status, but from my personal observation such people are in the extreme minority.

So whose morality do you program into your AI? The obvious answer is the programmer's morality, but what if the programmer is racist or jihadist or sexist or a sociopath? Then what?

US bus passenger cracks one off for three hours

How in the hell do you 1) think this is a good - or even acceptable - way to pick up women or 2) fail to immediately notice that the woman you're trying to impress this way is not enjoying the show? Some folks are just too damn dense to be allowed to reproduce.

Picture this: An exabyte of cat pix in the space of a sugar cube of DNA

Re: A writeable CD left on window sill

The life expectancy of an optical disc in my house is directly proportional to how well I hide it from my kids. One left on the window sill wouldn't survive long enough to be damaged by UV. Seriously. As an example I've got a couple Veggie Tales discs that are coated with what looks to be a mixture of peanut butter and super glue. (In case you're wondering, they're in my fix-it pile until the kids forget about them so that I can throw them away without drama).

On the other hand, I can count on an optical disc in a case (be it a jewel case or a paper sleeve) in my non-environmentally controlled - and, even worse, non-dust-proof - storage unit to work regardless of how long it's been in there. I've got discs from the 90s that have been in storage except when I need them for as long as I've had the unit they still work just fine. In fact thanks to the recent death of my home file server I'll be pulling quite a few of them in the near future.

Illegal drugs and dodgy pics? Nah. Half the dark web is perfectly legal

Anyone without free speech would find the dark web very useful, as would anyone with an interest not considered socially acceptable but not necessarily illegal. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more than a few Ashley Madison style dating sites in there and I'd be downright shocked if there weren't a few sites where LGBT folks gather to chat away from the prying eyes of straight cisgendered folk and the bigots that walk among them. Other examples might be a Chinese anti-communist site, an anti-Islam site based basically anywhere in the Middle East except Israel (or an anti-terrorist pro-Islam site run by someone living in a Daesh controlled area for that matter), a site talking about how terrible Best Buy is run by a member of the Geek Squad...Basically, use your imagination and come up with reasons people might want to have a site that couldn't be traced back to them.

Re: How do they define Dark Web?

I'd go a step further and point out that the "Dark Web" uses heavy duty end-to-end encryption and some method* of location masking to ensure anonymity, where as the "Deep Web" is basically just a part of the World Wide Web that you can't get to without knowing the address and/or being on the correct side of a firewall.

*I say some method because I believe over time the methods in use now will be replaced. Location masking is vital to anonymity and the Alphabet Soups can currently break through the current methods. It's just a matter of time before someone comes up with a better one.

Re: So dark net is no longer dark

Er...wouldn't Tor Browser qualify as "specialized software" for these purposes? And aren't there some hidden services you can't reach by going to whatever.onion.to?

30,000 sites is actually quite a bit larger than I thought the dark web was. Mind you, I don't make a habit of hanging out in the dark corners.

PayPal freezes 400-job expansion in North Carolina over bonkers religious freedom law

Re: "male perverts"

A "fully male individual" in women's clothes is a transvestite. To become transgender you need to have gender reassignment surgery.

You're half right. A fully male individual in women's clothes is a transvestite. A transgender person suffers from gender dysmorphia. Usually they live as women for a couple years before going under the knife, but no one familiar with gender dysmorphia would classify a M2F trans as "fully male" even before their surgery.

Re: "male perverts"

_Real_ Doctors and scientists have yet to determine exactly what it is that 'makes someone gay'

Studies have found genes which influence sexuality. So unless your definition of "real" doctors is limited to those who reject rigorous, peer reviewed studies simply because they don't like what it says your statement is completely wrong.

Re: "...bathrooms across North Carolina were 'safe' again."

So that justifies letting male perverts legally enter female bathrooms? I try, but I just can't warp my mind enough to understand your reasoning.

Step 1: Stop thinking of transgenders as "perverts" and accept the proven science that shows that they truly do have brains that don't match their bodies.

If your mind is too small to do that then I'm afraid you'll never understand this issue. As with anything you're incapable of understanding you should embrace the advice of Mark Twain:

"Better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."

Full Linux-on-PS4 hits Github

Re: Puzzled

Exactly, now that you can run Ubuntu binaries on Windows why would you want to run Linux on anything.

I know you're trolling, but I feel like this is a question worth answering anyway.

The ability to run Ubuntu binaries on Windows doesn't have any impact whatsoever on the factors that drove me to choose Linux. The biggest factor is that Windows doesn't give me the level of control over my system that Linux does. No matter how much you tweak it or deactivate services there are still blackboxes running in the background doing who-knows-what and taking up system resources to do it. On Linux I can (and do) know exactly what everything running in the background is doing. If I don't approve of one of those things or don't feel that it's worth the system resources it's taking up, I can get rid of it. It's also really telling that Windows takes up 16gb of hard drive space all by itself whereas you can easily get a fully functional modern desktop in under 4gb with Linux. Adding Ubuntu compatibility to Windows doesn't change that.

The other big factor is that I usually build my own PCs. Unlike when you buy prebuilt machines Windows represents an extra cost when you're building one yourself. That really hasn't changed. I still can't legally download Windows for free, and moving my current install to my new computer is a huge advantage when you're upgrading to a new machine with Linux.

Plus I've been running Linux as my primary OS for somewhere over a decade. At this point I'd need a pretty compelling reason to switch back to Windows. Being able to run stuff I already run doesn't cut it for that.

And at the most basic, just as Linux isn't for everyone, neither is Windows. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that Windows is not for me. I can run it proficiently (and have to for work), but for what I do and how I use my computer Linux is just a better choice.

Re: Puzzled

So where are all the hacks for running Linux on your smart TV ? Your fridge ? Your washing machine ?

Smart TVs, at least some of them and maybe even most of them, already run Linux*. As does any internet connected fridge. (Don't ask why. I'm still trying to figure out why internet connected fridges EXIST, let along why they run Linux). As for washing machines, I've yet to see one that has an actual OS at all.

Your [insert any device you "own" with embedded firmware that limits you to using the device for the manufacturers intended purpose which does not include general purpose computing] ?

I've heard about someone getting Linux onto a programmable coffee maker, but I remain skeptical about that one. I'm fairly certain the toasters are a joke and I know the dead badger is, though it's one that I quite enjoy to this day.

*That's Linux as in "Android is Linux". In other words, just the kernel and no GNU. For that matter there are smart TVs that run a fork of Android.

GeoHot gave them an excuse, nothing more. His crack never posed the security risks Sony claimed it did. All it did was allow Linux to fully utilize the hardware. Since it did not affect game mode it couldn't have possibly been used to pirate games. In fact I'm fairly certain than had they not yanked OtherOS entirely over it - and thus given the Linux hackers a reason to look for exploits - there still wouldn't be pirated games on the PS3.

It's really quite simple. The first link in the chain that leads to pirated games on a console is always an exploit used to install Linux. Don't give the Linux guys a reason to hack the platform and they'll never find an exploit for the less talented w4r3z dud3z.

I don't know what the current state of affairs is in this regard.

It's not, at least not as far as I can tell. Certainly my graphics performance on Mint 17 beats out my wife's on similar (not exactly the same, but pretty close) hardware running Windows 10. If AMD's drivers are in some way sub-par then they still shine by comparison to the train wreck of NVidia's drivers.

Re: Puzzled

I can see two reasons. First and foremost there's a camp of Linux geeks who want to see Linux running on everything from toasters to dead badgers. If you give those guys a device they'll hack Linux onto it just because they can, whether it makes sense to do so or not.

Second, and more real-worldly practical, if you can put Linux on a console then you can use it as a PC as well as a gaming console. Which effectively means that you have two devices with widely differing capabilities in one box. Which, I think, is pretty useful.

Former FBI spy hunter: Don’t trust China on ‘no hack’ pact

I'm seeing nothing in this article that's news to anyone in, or even on the edge of, the security field.

FBI: Er, no, we won't reveal how we unmask and torpedo Tor pedos

"The exploit merely enabled the government to bypass the security protections on Michaud's computer to deliver the NIT instructions,"

So....let me get this straight. They committed a federal felony (bypassing security is a felony now) in order to install spyware on his computer that forced it to phone home without informed consent on the part of the owner. All of which would render their evidence inadmissible in court.

I'm all for stopping pedos, but lets do it within the rule of law rather than allowing legal technicalities that a defense lawyer can drive a truck through to get them off.

ExoMars probe narrowly avoids death, still in peril after rocket snafu

Re: It's not "Rocket Science"

They are able to put people into orbit though, like USA...oh, wait.

Hey, we can put people in orbit. It's getting them back alive that's a problem right now.

Glum, depressed ... and addicted to Facebook, Twitter? There's a link, say medical eggheads

Hold on. I gotta go post this on Facebook....

Flash – aaah-aarrgh! Patch now as hackers exploit fresh holes

Another day, another Flash vuln.

Completely unrelated I'm now in the mood to watch some cheesy 1970s sci-fi for some reason.

Don't fear PC-pocalypse, Chromebooks, two-in-ones 'will save us'

I still say the PC is going nowhere. The sales will decline, yes, but there are two sectors in which the PC's dominance will never go away. Businesses are not going to trade most of their PC based workstations for Chromebooks or tablets. Hardcore gamers, as always, will be split between the console market and the high-end PC market. Neither of those facts is going to change in the near future.

Microsoft has made SQL Server for Linux. Repeat, Microsoft has made SQL Server 2016 for Linux

*YAAAAWWWWN*

Err, I mean....um....yay....and stuff.....I guess.

Seriously though, why would I use this? If I've got Linux then MariaDB and PostgreSQL are both just one command away and there's really not anything MS SQL does that's a big enough difference to justify dropping money on a license, let alone the extra aggravation of installing a product not endorsed by my disto of choice.

Bill Gates can’t give it away... Still crazy rich after all these years

Re: "Gates for President"

He was asked about it in an interview leading up to 2000 or 2004. He said he wouldn't run because #1) he wouldn't be very good at running a nation and wouldn't like the job and #2) people wouldn't vote for him. I don't think either of those things has changed since then.

I gotta say I'd vote for any of the tech nerds on the list, even those I consider to be evil, soulless abominations of human beings, before I'd vote for Trump. Even Bill, who has admitted in the past that he doesn't think he'd be very good at the job. Then again I'd vote for Bubba J over Trump, so that's really not saying much.

This program can detect if you're bored – which is going to make annoying ads, articles so much more annoying

"Further ahead it could help us create more empathetic companion robots, which may sound very 'sci fi' but are becoming a realistic possibility within our lifetimes."

I, for one, welcome our new boredom detecting pleasure bot overlords.

FBI v Apple spat latest: Bill Gates is really upset that you all thought he was on the Feds' side

It's unlikely that Gates did not have an intimate understanding of exactly what the FBI is asking of Apple and what the broader implications of that are.

I'd say that, given that he claimed that Apple has the data the FBI are asking for when they've already handed over all the data in the iCloud account indicates otherwise.

Carolina cop cuffed for 'carjacking'

I'm not at all certain this would be newsworthy were his name not "Hardin".

Yes, yes, I'm going.

Bill Gates denies iPhone crack demand would set precedent

In what way is what you just described not a tool to crack the encryption? And if you think it'll work only on one specific phone you're kidding yourself. If you think that the FBI won't make damned sure that they have a copy, legally or not, then you've not been paying attention as far back as when Kevin Mitnick's exploits.

Well there it is.

Bill had earned quite a bit of my respect for his humanitarian works since handing over the reigns to Microsoft. He just lost most of it.

First, if he were actually paying attention he'd know that Apple handed over everything they actually had (basically what was in that phone's iCloud account) months ago. What the FBI is asking for IS a backdoor.

Second the fact that he says Apple should give it to them indicates to me that he would. Which, given that he still has his fingers in Microsofts business, is scary.

Bill has not done due diligence on this case. If he had he'd know that Apple has already handed over the data that they have and that what the FBI is asking is for a tool to crack the phone's encryption. Anyone who's been paying attention knows that the US government cannot be trusted to use such a tool appropriately.

Linux Mint hacked: Malware-infected ISOs linked from official site

What happened to the "Linux is malware-free" claim?

It's only quipped by idiots. That's been true for a while now. We know there's Linux malware in the wild. It's still rare, but it exists, and any knowledgeable Linux user knows it. That's why we have things like ClamAV.

D&D geeks were right – their old rule books ARE worth something now

Sell my books? Sure, in a heartbeat. They've not seen the light of day in 20 years now. But destroy them so someone else can pay me less than a fraction of what they're going to make selling digital copies? Not a chance in hell.

Even Google is abandoning Google+

Hardly suprising

Google+ is, when it comes down to it, little more than a clone of an early version of Facebook with a few added features. It launched at the height of Facebook's dominance when everyone likely to subscribe to such a social network was already on Facebook, as was everyone they knew. As I said when Google+ launched their only road to success was for people to be on Google+ to get people to leave Facebook for Google+. They were in a catch 22 the whole time. How do you get people to leave the dominant social network so that their friends will leave the dominant social network when their friends are all on the dominant social network? Google has failed to come up with an answer, somewhat unsurprisingly.

Bitcoin burrower biz Butterfly Labs billed $38m for 'bilking' buyers

Math

So they took $50m in orders, used the machines to generate BitCoin, presumably a mountain of BitCoin with $50m worth of ASICs to throw at it, and settled out of court for $38m. So out of this scam they may $12m in profit plus whatever BitCoin they managed to squeeze out of the machines they were supposed to be shipping. And the we're supposed to believe they're broke? Yeah, not buying it.

Then again when it comes to BFL I never bought it, so, you know....

Helpdesk? I have a software problem. And a GRIZZLY BEAR problem

Unless you count the odd literal computer bug (as in "a fly shorted out my power supply", which I see at least once every couple years for some reason) I've only had one computer critter experience.

I once got called in to help repair the damage after a friend's ferret managed to squeeze through an uncovered bay which was awaiting a new DVD drive. Somehow the critter managed not to injure itself while stuck inside the case. It did, however, destroy several cables, a stick of RAM, and the CPU heat sink mounting. By some miracle the motherboard survived the ordeal.

FBI iPhone unlock order reaction: Trump, Rubio say no to Apple. EFF and Twitter say yes

Re: Why is this even necessary?

"Uncrackable" encryption doesn't exist. Given enough time and computer power they can all be cracked. "Enough time" might be a million years, but it's still there. Plus in another 10 we'll have quantum computing tech reliable enough to render all current encryption useless. Really we need something new, and soon given the progress Google's making with their quantum computer.

If they don't support Apple they tell a billion potential customers that an Android phone will hand over your data to the cops but an Apple one won't.

I disagree. It just indicates that they're staying out of it. After all the situation doesn't involve Google at all. Anyone saying that silence means they support the FBI is making assumptions based on hating Google. After all, Samsung isn't weighing in on the matter either, nor would you expect them to.

As I said, publicly siding with Apple means supporting their competitor and siding with the FBI clearly puts them in the wrong. Why would the bother to comment on it at all?

Re: Not quite that partisan

Yep. The Republicrats are showing their true colors a bit more strongly than usual on this one.

Re: Founding fathers rolling over in their graves

So much for the Republicans upholding the constitution

Like Democrats they're quite good at ignoring the Constitution when it's inconvenient to their political agendas. Just look at the collective temper tantrum they're having at the thought of Obama getting to appoint a SCUSA justice, despite the fact that the Constitution quite clearly states that it is his job and right as President to do so.

Re: Why is this even necessary?

Basically if you take anything out of the device then it no longer has its necessary relationship with other components in the phone.

Could that not be counterfeited in a virtual machine once you've extracted and read the flash memory?

I don't think Google's silence is indicative of anything really. If they side with the Government on this one they provoke a tidal wave of criticism that they'd no doubt want to avoid. If they openly side with Apple that means publically supporting their biggest competitor in the smartphone market. Honestly what have they to gain by weighing in at all either way?

Debian 6.0 about to take flying leap off long term support cliff

My guess is that it would be an exercise in frustration anyway. Could it be done? Possibly. Could it be done in a usable fashion? Almost certainly not.

When asked 'What's a .CNT file?' there's a polite way to answer

Doubtless the boss in question was suppressing a chuckle as he delivered the stern warning.