Posts by LosD

Microsoft finally gets around to supporting rar, gz and tar files in Windows

"The apps often demand acquisition of a paid license after a few days' use. Also, criminals noticed the constant demand for decompressors, making them a target for ridealong adware and malware. Many a download site also tried to confuse those who sought decompression tools with dark patterns, luring users to unintended downloads.

But if you managed to find a legitimate download that didn't infect your computer, enslave you to the criminal underworld or harass you with advertising, the ads mostly worked just fine.

All of that will soon, hopefully, be behind us."

This seems unfair. 7-Zip is free and open source, available at 7-zip.org. No malware, no ads, and the first thing that pops up when doing a Google search (yes. also in Incognito mode, so not an artifact of my search history).

WinRAR OTOH is of course trialware, and should have been dead years ago. I have no idea why anyone would ever recommend it.

Two signs in the comms cabinet said 'Do not unplug'. Guess what happened

Re: Don't forget mischief

If you're willing to suffer one more press, it might be a good idea to wait with announcing it until after the idiot is identified and fired/billed/mocked.

Re: Physical Methods Trump Signs in Any Language

#metoo

Cloudflare hikes prices by a quarter, blames the accountants

Not reeeeeeeaaaally a price hike, unless you want to stay on a monthly cycle.

Firefox points the way to eradicating one of the rudest words online: PDF

You seem to have turned stuff on its head. It's a blessing when documentation is in a proper PDF instead of god-awful HTML documents (and worse, when there is no single-page version of that HTML)

Why the end of Optane is bad news for all IT

Amazing... But also a bit stupid

It's of course an amazing thing. But putting hardware on the market without a clear way towards using that hardware is rather dumb. You can't expect all abstractions to change immediately just because your have this REALLY COOL THING.

It was always going to bomb.

Problems for the Linux kernel NTFS driver as author goes silent

Re: Light on the issue?

BS. Garbage is garbage.

Should I also thank you if you dump a ton of manure in front of my house? It certainly has value to some, so I guess I should be grateful...

If you want code into the kernel, make an effort, don't just throw code over the wall and expect others to fix the mess.

Locked-in and hungry, Shanghai residents can't complain online

Re: Why are we blindly letting this happen?

Ah, yes. 100 year old events are very relevant today.

I guess Germany has no right to condemn anyone's behaviour today by your standards?

US, UK, Western Europe fail to hit top 50 cheapest broadband list

Re: Since when did a lot of Europe and the U.K.

Does it really matter? As long as it is the same currency used for all countries. This is like me whining that they're not using Danish Kroner.

There's plenty of issues with the study (not adjusting for income, not mentioning speeds), but the currency used is not one of them.

Square-shaped hole in workers' wallets after payment system fails at peak tip time

Re: I never get tired of saying it

Great, thank you. Saved millions over the years.

A bunch of apps will be able to bypass Microsoft's new store and use own update methods

Re: What could possibly go wrong?

I'd expect a certificate to be involved, so that won't pose a risk.

Not for children: Audacity fans drop the f-bomb after privacy agreement changes

Re: Depressing

"However, that's not a good model for larger systems that run continuously, are non-interactive, or span dozens to thousands of machines."

... Which in most is either under the ownership of the provider, or data can be assembled at a local node, that can in turn notify and request an admin if it is okay to send the report to the provider.

There is never a valid reason to just automatically track what is happening on other peoples devices.

Bribery charges against Apple's global security boss dismissed in iPads-for-gun-permits case

Re: Wow....

"Since when does feeling have anything to do with justice? I just listened to an interview of an attorney, who actually said that "unless you can be proven to be guilty you must not be convicted - even if you are guilty, and everybody is sure of that, including the judge". Nor should a feeling of "well, the transaction is there and took place, but I'm sure that it was in no way linked to the gun permit" make the judge sway."

Actually since most of time. Intent is one of the most important parts of many criminal cases.

In your examples, the core is that they're opposite situations. That there is a tiny chance that they wasn't linked should ALWAYS make the judge sway.

It's a PITA in many cases, as in this (I'm pretty effing sure that it was bribery), but it's the only way to have fair trials.

Big red buttons and very bad language: A primer for life in the IT world

Re: RM05s

The RM03s, also mentioned in the same paragraph, were 67MB. I guess it was those he was thinking of.

Google to revive RSS support in Chrome for Android

Re: forgive me

It's both, by most dictionaries:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disinterest

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/disinterest

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disinterest

Is this something that comes from long misuse? Maybe, probably. But it IS now the norm, even if you may not like it. Language evolves.

Open-source JavaScript project Babel 'running out of money' after employing paid maintainers, sponsors pull out

'A large part of Zhu's work was in publicising and raising funds, Ribaudo explained. "Henry is the one who contacts companies trying to explain to them why they should support us, the one who gives most talks at their internal events: he's the one working on fundraising for the team."'

And what a stellar job he's been doing!

'Funds to run out at end of 2021'

Oh... Nevermind.

Sitting comfortably? Then it's probably time to patch, as critical flaw uncovered in npm's netmask package

Re: Not NPM again!

Sure, what I meant was that _this_ (netmask) issue has absolutely nothing to do with NPM. Left-pad is pretty effing irrelevant to this article.

Re: Not NPM again!

It has nothing to do with NPM. it's a package with a problem. Do you really think that third party Go packages has less issues?

You can bet your ass that most do simple string parsing, and has exactly the same issue.

While that may be true, it is also very standard across a lot of (most?) programming languages.

Yeah, because people aren't much more likely to make an error like that themselves... Now all those that DOES use netmask doesn't have that issue anymore(if they actually update their packages), but many of those that doesn't will not be protected.

The only real factor here is how quickly the package maintainers respond. And in this case it was quickly.

It's not easy being green: EV HTTPS cert seller Sectigo questions Chrome's logic in burying EV HTTPS cert info

"Newsflash: Seller of X doesn't like that no one cares about X"

Chin up, weary key workers: Google's pushing out a Workspace for frontliners

I just want my Chrome for Android to be able to use passwords and links from both my personal and work accounts. Not necessarily at the same time, but at least in an easy-to-switch way...

(you can add multiple accounts to Chrome on Android, but only the first seem to really _do_ anything)

NHS COVID-19 app is trying to tell Android users something but buggy notification appears stuck on 'Loading...' screen

Not only UK. I'm sitting with the exact same issue for the Danish Covid-19 app.

Red Hat defends its CentOS decision, claims Stream version can cover '95% of current user workloads'

Re: The RedHat corporate spinners won't fix this

90% of the difference on a server is the package manager (yum vs apt), the rest is rather minor. A few differences in default packages, and a few different configuration helper programs. Maybe also a few differences in how they structure larger service configurations, like the nginx folder.

Switching difficulty is down to how you use it. If you're just using e.g. a web server with PHP, it's pretty simple, especially if you have no special configurations. Just install the new server and copy over your stuff (this is definitely the best way for cloud services, if you're looking to do auto instantiations, where setting up a new server must be scripted).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the more complicated your setup and customizations, the more trouble changing is, and the more you will realise the differences.

Is Google fudging search rankings to benefit pages that embed YouTube vids? Or is this just another ‘bug’?

Re: "How I long for the old days when content was king..."

(Original title became too long with Re: and the quotation)

I, for one, has no issue with the web requiring JavaScript. But it needs to be safe, and the generated HTML should always be available and understandable to screen readers (both are mostly up to the developer)

Dumping old clients is a feature to me, though.

Ready to slip into your suitca... or not: Logitech wheels out new 'travel-sized' version of MX Master 3

So... The universal works with a Mac (I know. My boss uses the old Anywhere for his Mac), but they made a special version ripped out the USB functionality.

Why isn't it cheaper? You lose functionality (granted, that you might not use) and gain nothing. Why buy a limited-functionality version for the same money? Or am I missing something?

GitHub to replace master with main across its services

You seem to be the sensitive one here.

Bose shouts down claims that it borked noise cancellation firmware to sell more headphones

Anyone that has experience with in-ears, also expensive ones, would not blink before buying quality third party foam tips. They are a gazillion times better than anything that comes with the earphones (except many are now shipping Comply tips with their earphones). So buying third party cushions and expecting an improvement is not that far fetched.

Of course, tips are different since they can fit a large variety of earphones, while cushions has to be made specifically for the earphones, so it's hard to get anything quality from anyone but the original manufacturer.

Artful prankster creates Google Maps traffic jams by walking a cartful of old phones around Berlin

Re: Knew it.

You knew what was common knowledge ever since Google started tracking traffic? Well done!

If you never thought you'd hear a Microsoftie tell you to stop using Internet Explorer, lap it up: 'I beg you, let it retire to great bitbucket in the sky'

Errr... Internet Explorer is very much still in support, and there is no Window for retirement, according to the he very page you referenced. Internet Explorer _10_ will run out of support at det end of January.

The only thing that happened in 2016 was that only the latest version of Internet Explorer for each supported OS would still be supported.

It's a curse that they can't seem to kill.

Chrome suddenly using Bing after installing Office 365 Pro Plus... Yeah, that might have been us, mumbles Microsoft

Re: Phew!

And how is Chrome related to this, besides that being the current target? Firefox will come later, and so will probably any browser with a marketshare over 1%

'I am done with open source': Developer of Rust Actix web framework quits, appoints new maintainer

- Deleting valid issue reports

- Threatening to delete the project

- Claiming that no-one can take over

- General bitching about others

Yeah, totally sounds like it is everyone else that is the problem here.

Serverless neither magically faster nor cheaper, dev laments

Re: And people trust goo ...

It really depends. If you don't have that much traffic (e.g. a specialized solution), API Gateway is often cheaper than an always-on Load Balancer.

Are you a Nim-by? C-ish language, gentler than Go, friendlier than Rust, reaches version 1.0

"c-like" is pretty far from what Nim is. C-like, for example, would mean proper braces instead of that Python-like indentation hell.

He's coming for your floppy: Linus Torvalds is killing off support for legacy disk drive tech

It was not the Datasette itself that was the problem. It was the tapes you got from friends, with the head adjusted differently. So if you had a gazillion tapes from a lot of people, you had to change the head position almost every time you put in a different tape.

The Datasette of the C64 was much more sensitive than for music. If it was a bit out of whack, your programs weren't loading, especially if you were using turbo compressors/loaders which made it much more important to get right. Which makes sense, turbo compressors used a storing/loading method that stuffed data closer on the tape (later versions also did simple data compression on top, AFAIK), so being more sensitive is no surprise. BUT you could load stuff at amazing speeds; if I remember correctly, we're talking 10-15 times faster. Which is of course still ridiculously slow at today's speeds (and of course the compressing part also meant that there was much more room).

But, most turbo loaders showed the signal as lines, and as the sync signal in the start of a block usually consisted of reasonable straight lines, it wasn't that hard to sync with a bit of experience.

Cassette tapes and turbo loaders (though a bit after the PET) on the C64 was... Interesting

Sitting with a screwdriver to adjust the tape head, so that the lines looked good enough that the load would probably succeed, felt quite sci-fi in the beginning, but after doing it the 50000th time, you couldn't wait until everyone was using disks. What a PITA.

.... And I have a feeling that it wasn't necessary until someone started tinkering (IT'S FASTER THIS WAY. I KNOW IT!) or had a broken head, then when others got tapes from him they needed to adjust, then they lent tapes to others and THEY would adjust their heads, and so on and so forth. A bit like a very manual virus! :)

I feel rather old when my "full-on retro feel" IS an external disk drive.... Not the USB kind, but the kind that you could attach to the C64.

LightSail 2 successfully unfurls its silvery solar sails, prepares to become a truly solar-powered satellite

"After that the spacecraft's atmospheric friction will lead to it falling back to Earth, destroying itself in the process. "

Not much of a propulsion system if it can't even keep the spacecraft in orbit...

P-p-p-pick up a Pengwin: Windows Subsystem for Linux boffins talk version 2

Re: Hyper-V meh

Yeah, that completely ruined it. When I first read about it, I hoped that it would mean being able to ditch Docker for Windows and its Hyper-V dependency, but no such luck.

Beyond needs, Hyper-V being a pretty terrible desktop VM (partially due to it being type 1), and the need need for it to be the only running hypervisor (completely due to it being type 1), makes it terrible choice for basing anything running on a workstation on it.

Nokia reinstates 'hide the Notch' a day after 'Google required' feature kill

Re: And people trust goo ...

It's simply making the area around the notch black and featureless and moving the notification bar down. ... And you'd want that if your prefer to have a proper full-width notification bar instead of a tiny bit extra screen.

Microsoft commits: We're buying GitHub for $7.5 beeeeeeellion

Re: Hmm...

LinkedIn before MS: Complete shit, but necessary

LinkedIn after MS: Complete shit, but necessary

I don't see much of a change?

Facebook's democracy salvage effort tilts scale in Mississippi primary

He didn't mean THOSE elections, only the elections that he's part of matters, of course.

Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04: Make yourself at GNOME. Cup of data-slurping dispute, anyone?

Re: What will they do with the data?

You DO realize that a distro is much (MUCH) more than the kernel, right?

You DO realize that Ubuntu developers contribute to the kernel, right?

You DO realize that a lot of userspace tools interact with hardware, right?

Ubuntu sends crypto-mining apps out of its store and into a tomb

Re: Making Installations Easier

Wtf? Never. Installing dev packages by default just to satisfy your want for easier recompilation would be rediculous. It's not like it's hard to fetch them when you need.

Windows 10 to force you to use Edge, even if it isn't default browser

Re: Testing waters

Not even close to being new. They did this in various versions of MSN as well, which must predate this... 10 years or so?

Wondering why your internal .dev web app has stopped working?

Re: I must have missed the change in standards bodies.

It's their TLD. They can enforce any rules they want on it.

The big problem here is that it was decided that Google could have it in the first place.

Night before Xmas and all through American Airlines, not a pilot was flying, thanks to this bug

Re: And people trust goo ...

"and we are paying pilots who pick up certain open trips 150 percent of their hourly rate – as much as we are allowed to pay them per the contract."

That sounds... Odd. "Please note in my contract that I'm not allowed to be paid more that xxxx".

If it's added on behalf of the company, it both sounds like something put there for this exact excuse, as well as something that (at least from how I understand contract law) they don't need to renegotiate to change, as it's same or better terms.

High-freq trade biz sues transatlantic ISP for alleged spiteful cable cut

Re: You're kidding?

Errrr. This isn't your regular gigabit connection, but a micro-latency connection. They don't hang on trees.