Posts by Getter lvl70 Druid

US proposes online IDs for Americans

It's not silly at all

Not wearing a seat belt has been law for some time but pulling you over because they cannot see a seat belt being used is horseshit. Why? Well I don't know... being searched while they got you, having your phone completely downloaded to a cop device - everything, pics, contacts, txts, email, and with a nice little addition of a password cracker built in. Michigan state police are doing this RIGHT NOW and have been since 08.

The point of this is that while I don't have anything to hide - it;s none of the fucking governments business! It's no ones business but mine and the increasing intrusions into my life, neither asked or wanted, is wrong and is really pissing me off.

It's not seat belts per se, it's the give them an inch and they take a mile every time thing I object to.

Not no, but....

FUCK NO! It'll be just another database to be:

1. Stolen/hacked

2. Used against you by the IRS

3. Made mandatory eventually by the US Gov 'for our own good" to 'protect citizens".

I trust Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Obama) half as far as I could throw him (can't use 'trust as far as I can throw" because he's a freaking stick man that apparently weighs a buck o'five). Lies lies lies.

One slick example: Years ago the guv promoted a seat belt law where yes, you could be ticketed IF you were in a wreck and you weren't wearing one and claimed 'It will never be used as a reason to stop/pull you over. Fast forward less than five years and bang! They WILL use a lack of seat belt as probable cause to stop you now. Mission creep... they ALWAYS change it up on the citizenry and it's ALWAYS for the damn children or for the poor or for the global climate warming change. Another for instance is that fucking Obamacare - if it's so fucking great, why did congress exempt themselves? Why are the Obamacare supporters like unions and various democrat organizations get exemptions? Why can't I get a 'Get Out of Jail Free" card?

I am greatly pissed off about that hack job recently where damn near everybody I do business with lost customer email addresses etc. My spam has jumped 400% since then.....and these businesses have at least token security - freaking Chinese are all over US government servers - the US Gov can't protect shit.

Tap, tap, tap...... I better go lay down for a bit, I've been avoiding the news cycle for my own good - and blood just shot out my eyes.... thanks El Reg!

owwwwwwwwwwwwwww! brain hurts.

Kindle beats Apple's closed book on choice

Saw two actually...

....last week. Of course I live out in the woods anyway - so what's your point?

Oh, and you may want something a little more powerful than a rock if you decide to 'commune' with them. Two years ago a couple of kids were killed by a bear a few miles down the road, rocks don't work.

Just pisses them off.

On topic: What causation? Apple is locked down hardware and software - always has been (eh, the mac clones did happen for a while before Steve killed those off after his return). Who won the desktop wars? Microsoft. Why? Simply because you could install it on damn near anything x86. Same principle here. Amazon will win the ebook war over Apple because Steve hasn't learned a damn thing and his ego demands that it be done his way.

Amazon has a superior product both with the Kindle itself and their marketing that mirrors what MS did in the 80's and 90's, only seemingly without the intent to destroy somebody (Netscape, Apple,etc).

Modern-day ninja in epic battle with riot police, robot

I wonder.....

...how a chain mail shirt would do against a taser? And could you create a feedback loop to send the charge back to the holder? hmmmmmmmm....

...why do they send a robot in to see if it doesn't have circular saws all over it so you can't mess with it? Robots are easy without some kind of self defense, just the application of a large enough hammer. Second thought: use a wireless jammer - thing just stops or they lose control of it - how interesting....

... pepper spray is what they use and believe it or not, you can get used to it. They don't use mace anymore due to possible permanent blinding and scarring from a liberal application.

... why a 12ga.shotgun beanbag round? They are notoriously hard to place a shot where it's most effective because their ballistic path cannot be predicted after 20 yards. Knee-knockers are hella more effective - six 40mm hardwood plugs in a gas gun that HURT and bounce all over a room striking everything at least once. Beanbags yes, knee-knockers no - I give up/take me in if I see/hear of a gas gun loaded with those things lol.

Good one though, I've been purposely avoiding what passes for the news lately - too damn depressing and then... from out of the blue....

NO ONE EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!

god love Monty Python.... world's gone bloody crazy when they make more sense than wtf is going on nowadays.

Westminster Abbey cashes in on Royal Wedding with ... App

google 'that scheming Kate Middleton"

68,900 hits.

Don't know folks, something is not right with that chick - I'm kicking back in mountains of Tennessee and even I can smell her bullshit from here.

You do realize this will be the biggest reality television show ever made, right? I feel sorry for the Prince, I really do, due to the drama he's going to face on a day-to-day basis from her.

Nissan Leaf electric car

Actually it's blue

Recently did some research by accident (channel surfing at digg, which led me there, and then to here, etc and found fascinating stuff about US nuke accidents from the beginning of the Manhattan Project. Anytime they got a reaction from an awshit, there was a blue glow noticed by the scientists before they died. got sick then died, or 'just got sick'. They had one incident where this poor guy was doing maintenance on top of a reactor and got impaled to the ceiling of the complex after a accident - took them three days to get him down.

I did all this before Japan got fsckered, made it a hell of a lot easier to understand when it did happen though, I do not envy those folks - not enough compensation and I'd want my family to be set forever, something that won't happen.

That was a nice thought, thank you.

However_They_Won't_Sell_It_Here! Bastards!

The Fiat 500 is now being delivered BUT with the 1.4l 4-Cylinder MultiAir @37mpg - not even a turbo diesel. The US Guv made them turn it into a boat. Yup, the same lying, cheating, thieving, motherloving bureaucrats that are always up your ass about saving fucking energy won't let it in.

Excuse me. Did look at some of it's competitors from it's reviews and same story: Not Available In The US.

OMFG!

@Alex 0.1 @11:05

Seriously? VAT on utilities too? .83p a KWh? Again OMFG!

I knew intellectually folks across the way paid VAT, but didn't realize that politician's bottomless checkbook extended to utilities too. That right there is an emotional punch in the gut and I'm starting to hear talk of it here. Shit.

:(

Odd that. Sales tax etc you don't really think about but utility bills are right in your face and usually painful. I'm a happy camper when it;s under $250/month.

On topic: When they make an all electric that gets 300 miles a charge and can be 'quick' charged in under an hour - I cannot conduct business reliably until that happens. I would like a Toy Pius honestly, not going to be stranded anywhere and I'm doubting some passerby wouldn't mind letting me use their jumper cables for a few hours in a Volt or Leaf. I guess my biggest complaint lies right here: Many moons ago I owned a 85 Chevrolet Sprint (later became the Metro) with AC, a carburetored 1L 3-cylinder gas engine and a 5-speed manual transmission. It got 48-52 miles per gallon, lower number with AC on. Damn thing would do 120mph... shake you to death but ya could :) Why can I not buy such a car new today? A Prius, for all the tech, just equals it at 3-4 times the price and you get to consider battery life/replacement. What is up with that?

Facebook twins lose court case

Totally Creepy

Seriously googlesearch images of these guys - scarey as hell in fact.

It's as if somebody wanted to design the perfect Ivy-league college boy jock stereotype in a lab - and got two. <shivers>

<additional creepiness>

They also raise the hairs on the back of my neck and seemingly beckon a hit to the jaw to see if it's glass (known as the Justin Bieber Effect). A subconscious caveman thing. You know, like how animals freak when Death walks into the room? yeah, that.

</additional creepiness>

:)

Paris: Cuz they creep her out too... and that's saying something!

US Navy laser cannon used to set boat aflame

M1 Abrams Main Battle Tank

Mind you this was back in the early 80's but the M1 has had a stabilizing system for the main gun and coax M240 (7.62 Belgian-made machine gun) that works very very well. Shoots better on the move than stationary in fact. Very cool watching from the loader's position - turret moving and main gun moving up/ down gracefully and from the gunner's position, if you lase something for range, the computer keeps it within a meter or so of the target while you're reloading or moving around. So I can imagine the system they have now on a bigass Navy ship wouldn't have an issue with targeting.

Thinking about this, either I'm old or I've been way too busy.

:)

Facebook 'open sources' custom server and data center designs

Badgers.....

...are held against their will behind there until the Lvl2.01 GrandWizard Zuck requires them for an arcane ritual, held every month on the second Tuesday night in the local Apple Store basement, that removes their paws.

Where PETA is on this, I don't know....

;)

PS: Don't know why you got downvoted - upvoted you to even it out. Have a great day!

<evil> hehe

Back in the late 90's we were flashing our 33.3k US Robotics modem racks up to 56.6k (woot! that was exciting at that time!) and to do so, had to run down to our colo at Qwest facilities in Tucson. Security was not much and you got to walk by hundreds of modem racks separated by chain link fencing to get to your cage amongst all the other ISP's like AOL, Compuserve, etc.

You can't help but wonder how much damage one man with a supersoaker could do in that situation lol.

Open racks are easy to work with but damn! One awshit can really mess up your day/week/year/life. And ahshits are as likely as death and taxes.

Off topic and meandering memories coming back.... sitting in that colo with the lights out and watching thousands of people connecting and disconnecting to the racks, seeing your call fallover work repopulating cards after flashing firmware... kinda profound wondering wtf they are all doing at 3am in the morning. Good stuff.

Verizon iPad 2s suffer 3G blindness

You're Right

However I thought/considered a tablet as a replacement for a laptop, used on the job to download whatever software I might need atm to correct whatever deficiency the suspect machine might have. Network scanning yada yada. A tablet would be giving up cd burning but can be rectified by a trip out to the truck for a usb burner. In any case I am near to a connection be it wireless or wired almost at all times.

As an entertainment device, you're pretty much around you own wifi at the house or pre download something you want to see before you leave via thumb drives and sd cards.

For things I need RIGHT NOW, that's why God made my Blackberry :) One data charge right there.

As far as finding a PDA? easier than you might think. Old school client of mine did something to his pda and it would not sync with the pc calendar anymore - finally took it's last fall to the ground I'm thinking... Anyway, he found a brand new in-the-box Palm M515 online! Says he might have to upgrade to a smartphone in a couple of years lol.

Ya know...

I still don't see the point of having 3G on a device that cannot (could if carriers allowed it) make phone calls. Call me crazy but those data fee/plans start to add up after a while for each damn device I might use.

I'm just looking for a laptop replacement, tired of hauling them around in my work backpack when a tablet type thing would lessen the load to a notebook sized leather folder.

I'm thinking the TF101 Asus Eee Pad Transformer... droool.................. me wants....

Paris.. because it's Friday night and she needs her 3G (three guys).

Apple's 'App Store trademark': A farce of Jobsian proportions

And again....

Guy I worked for back in the early 90's had a shop called "Al's Computer Shack" and after about a year got a cease and desist letter from ol' Radio Shack. I moved on to admin duties at a local ISP, not sure what happened to Al - was doing some work for the mob and disappeared for some reason.

Evidently the mob needs programmers too lol.

Here's to Big Al, wherever he may be!

Steve Jobs screws my wife (out of $944)

Re: Marvin the Infidel

We don't come in here dissing the Manchester Silly Nannies Futbol Club now do we? Show a little tolerance for things you just can't understand, Ohio State is evil...

Go Vols!

"Rocky Top, You'll always be, home sweet home to meeee.

Good ol' Rocky Top, Rocky Top, Tennessee!"

On a Side Note: How Dare You show Your face here after failing to destroy the Earth so many, many times? Like anybody would listen to you.....

:)

Apple iPad 2

Actually it's 'Getter'

And I posted this yesterday morning - mods took the day off yesterday evidently 'cuz the post count remained at 36 until after 8am London time.

Again, like the hardware, not the software, and no, others do not. Yet.

;)

Swings......

....and misses. Read again and think it over. Hint: I like the hardware, not the software.

Cry of Pain

I would like one. However, I_Don't_Want_Fscking_iTunes_or_Any_isoftware!

Why is that so difficult to understand? Why does that seem so hard to accomplish? My home PC, laptop, servers, etc I can quad-or-more-boot the damn things for whatever OS I feel like or need that day if I want to. It's_just_x86/intel_based_kit! So what is the damn problem?

Steve Fucking Jobs - that's who.

Egotistical bastard has only gotten worse as he has grown older - At least Bill retired and is now actively trying to get into heaven with his charities. Locking Mac hardware down early in Apple's history almost killed them, getting into schools at a discounted rate was freaking genius - if only their machines were less expensive outside of education and were more common like IBM-based kit was/is. People wonder where/why there is so much poison between the Apple/PC crowds, the reason is right before you in a black turtleneck shirt. I won't discount Apple's success in more recent years, starting with the iPod due to that same man in the Black turtleneck , but he will probably want to be buried with his company and programmers mummified to serve him in eternity.

My Windows machines monkey-copy OSX's GUI layout, it's actually more intuitive to use. It's the control/lock down I rebel against. I am not a fucking cow and while I can do some pretty stupid things - I did them all by myself, not because somebody fucked up at Apple in Mordor, California. (Google too for that matter)

Can't Apple open up just a little? I do like the hardware/design and would buy it for_my_own_mad_schemes, not theirs.

Sigh.

Ok, I'm done bitching - let the flames begin.

Avanti's bird plumps up feathers

riiiight...

I have Hughesnet now because I'm in that five percent in the US without broadband wire or wireless.

The dish and the 2watt modem cost around $800 up front, then there is the $99 a month charge for the 'small office pro' package which gives me 500MB a day download limit with speeds up to 250k/sec down, mostly a lot less. It sucks and it's only redeeming characteristic is that it's somewhat faster than dialup. I'm not even getting into latency... or weather issues. If you go over your limit, you're downgraded to LESS than dialup speeds... I can't even imagine what they would charge to reinstate your connection if you whipped through your 3GB the first week of the month - Hughesnet charges $12.50 to 'recharge your fill bucket' per 500MB 'day'. if you go over. Oh yeah, they do let unlimited downloads occur without impacting your daily limit if you download from 2am to 7am.

The article seems to paint a rosy picture but in reality, satellite sucks ass. Just like back in the dialup modem days, they will oversell the hell out of it and will never hit the advertised 'up to' speed (which was most likely one whole connection from one computer to test speeds). Hell, I'm on a commercial-only bird and I can tell when the Pacific Coast gets up and gets busy just from the degradation of speed.

Where am I going with this? I don't know. I just do know satellite is the next best thing to dialup (like crawling opposed to being dragged) and you will pay big time for the privilege.

Landlocked Bolivia seeks legal route to Pacific

Interesting.

While I know American history and quite a bit of Asian and European history, but next to nothing south of the Panama Canal.

Oversight on my part... kinda like the quote from Stewie Griffin, "So which of the Latin countries are you from: the one with the civil war, the one with the cocaine, or the one with the fancy hats?"

;)

Big union loving for AT&T's T-Mobile plan

Five Percenter here...

...and I say fsck 'em all!

Have to keep a phone land line, satellite TV, satellite internet (w/500MB 24hr limit), and have enough cell signal for texts.... Then they hit you for a data charge for your smartphone, another for a damn tablet (which still makes me wonder), and want to charge YOU for a signal amplifier that really only changes it over to VOIP through YOUR already paid for connection if you're lucky.

Ghod I extremely dislike comms companies... grumble.... been on waiting list for five years for DSL.... bastards..... 900-1700ms sat latency..... $428+ a month for what? ....... grumble... duplicate services....argh.

:(

Monday, Monday... tra la, la, lala, la.....

I floated a site into the cloud, and it didn't rain down in chunks...

meh...

Same difference....

Heh...

...another reason I recommend that my clients to use https: for those many, many Facebook users that can't seem to stay off the damn thing during work hours.

Part of my evil .plan to bankrupt Facebook, one penny at a time.

:)

While I do profit from the crapola Facebook exposes users to, I'd rather be doing useful things, ya know?

Oracle kills Sun.com after starvation diet

US Robotics

Is the one for me - there is nothing that would be more exciting to me(1)(2) than to actually produce robots under that company name. About came unglued when 3com almost sold it to China. Sun is right up there.... spent more time looking through docs than I care to remember during my pizza box/Solaris x86 phase lol. It's hateful to see some of these old school brands fading away and crapola like Facebook/Twitter/Jobs rule the roost.

(1) The passenger transport I was on experienced drive trouble after hitting some NASA space trash just outside this system. It exploded and I was shoved into an iescapepod (as much as Steve would like it, his patents are not enforceable off this planet so ha HA!). I was found by my step-parents and ever since then I await rescue.....

(2). Yes I can be a total geek, however I have sex regularly so it hasn't been that big of a deal since I was a teenager. Helps if you marry a geek lol.

Dim Brits think TARDIS IS REAL

Pretty Deep Question

Just to touch the surface of it, I would think it's because 'kids' have the ability to think anything is possible and most adults have had reality(1) beat into them until that ability is dulled into almost nonexistence.

(1) The world is not fair and does not particularly care about you. Rent, mortgages, utilities, food, transportation, kids, etc are foremost in importance. For example, I have a software idea that could net me some cash and would be fun to develop, but instead of working on it today, I'm going to be spreading 11 yards worth of gravel in my driveway by hand (making some pathways too - it'll look nice lol). I'll probably be too tired after that to work on my idea - another day lost because Real Life sometimes gets in the way of creativity.

Maybe a little simplistic, but I just don't have the time right now to expound on this subject - that 11 yard pile of gravel is waiting.

Apple security update leaves iPhone 3G users unprotected

Apple invented the mouse too... right?

I used to get system updates on my Nokia 6110 waaaaay back in 2000 over the AT&T network..... try again fanboi.

iPad 2 sales kick off in dead of night

Meh.... wake me up when...

RIM puts out a Storm-type 4G phone with one of those flip/slide-out keyboards that's not out of spec at launch and I may get excited. Or not.

Where's the IT angle?

Seriously, this article is on par with "where can I get the latest Tickle Me Elmo doll for Christmas"... Lord of the Rings be damned... they have so many Precious' new shiney's out there Sauron would have won already....The One App Store binds them forever.... oooh scarey lol.

Microsoft rallies IE6 death squads

Hey now!

I loved the look and feel of Netscape Navigator! They have yet to bring that back to any browser IMO. Sigh... the big N and shooting stars icon while surfing at 14.4k... memoriiiiiiieeeessss!

Besides, don't speak ill of the dead. Netscape was murdered by Microsoft and everyone knows it.

Yep

Place I worked for years ago had a contract that was subcontracted through IBM from HP originally about 4 subcontracts ago. I think they ended up with about $70 for the service call I trotted out to. Anyway they have Ghost disk images for each model of desktop, laptop etc in the contractee's place with all the proprietary, XP and IE6 using, interconnected mess required for whatever the client paid for that is written in figurative stone. No changes allowed without written authorization from God. User data be damned.

Somebody, somewhere, is putting a Vista version together by now lol.

Ford punts prang-prompted auto cops-calling kit

Sync fscking rocks!

We have it in the little wife's 2010 F150 - works as advertised except for one minor issue.

The voice txting part of it ONLY WORKS WITH THE FREAKING PRECIOUS!

Since we have Blackberries, that kinda sucks... hmm might have to run down to the stealership to see if any updates are out....

Other than that, I'd like one for my GMC.... Onstar bites and GM supposedly is losing the spectrum in which Onstar operates sometime soonish.

Apple to Microsoft: 'App Store name is not generic'

Amen Brother!

genericness.... owwww... hurts brain....

<knock on door - walk out there>

<opens registered mail>

Well dayum... That was quick.... bloodsucking lawyer says Hulk Hogan owns that title

<reaches for wallet>

(Fsck me! I typed 'registered"!)

iPhone 'Death Grip' effect is real, plastic cases don't help

"Holding The Precious"

You owe me one, buddy!

OMG!

Remember the stories of vibrating cellphones placed in odd areas of the body? By accident of course but what_kind_of_antennae_did_they_use? Enclosed by a body, yet still able to receive calls for that vibrating effect?

Yeah, conduct THAT test! (I pick Chris 19 - since he didn't submit the proper paperwork for the research grant to get paid for his typing and subsequently gave his work away)

AC@12:19 - depends. FM you become part of the circuit, AM you're a big resistor. Wavelengths and stuff I don't want to look up right now - it's complicated lol

Paris, cuz she knows where to hide stuff.

Apple under siege: Antitrust probes and product delays ...

The Point is....

..that the iPhone is no longer popular with the high school set. Which is a big demographic that carries on into the college set. Which also has everything to do with Apple and not the 'industry'. as a whole. Which also means you can't see past Jobs' halo if that's all you took from my post.

My own experience is that more iPhones are generally being carried by grandma and grandpa now - therefore no longer 'cool' lol.

Can't think of one... a ramble perhaps?

So I ask one of our twin 16 year old boys, 'Verizon has the iPhone now.. want one?' He says, 'iPhones are gay...'

I just laughed. Told me everything I needed to know.

Moving on.

Love my BB Storm2 and wouldn't mind the Storm3 when it comes out... however the specs on RIM's new offering in that kind of format is already dated, Droids that out-perform it are already on the shelves. iPhone is out of the question, if I don't have enough sense to determine what I want or should have on my phone - I'm better off with a dumbphone in the first place. Microsoft... bah, out of the question because who the hell knows how they will screw it up, and they will, I do have confidence in that lol. Android is my next best choice, but here again while I don't think Oracle can kill it off with their BS, it'll probably cost Google some time and money to rectify it. No hurry so might as well see how it shakes out.

I think Apple remembers the lean years and want to cushion any blow they might take when the fad runs it's course or competition catches and surpasses them. Lots of smart people in the world with great ideas and they all don't work at Apple. Added stress for Apple is Steve Jobs wearing out, AAPL stock will probably freak when he goes.

Obama woos Masters of the (Tech) Universe

What the hell is this?

Is this not an article better suited for Politico?

Seriously, one could go off early on a Saturday when all I was wondering was what they may have talked about, you know, the IT angle.

What an ass. As in you, the author, for just exposing your political views covered as a news article. Not newsworthy IMO.

On a side note: I just got my birth certificate replaced(1) by the state of Ohio. Did it online, cost $21.50, and got here a week later. Why can't your man do the same? He's already shown he doesn't mind spending OPM(2) with complete abandon.

Good Day Sir!

(1) ex-wife had a bonfire, paperwork etc as fuel. Lovely person.

(2) other people's money.