Posts by oiseau 1157 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Feb 2013
... the next lawyer appearing before you and citing non-existant cases, or mis-citing true cases ...
There should be no such thing as "the next lawyer".
A 15K fine is not a deterrent.
Mark my words, there will be a great many more instances of this unprofessional behaviour as that AI shit evolves further.
The legal-asshole involved in this should be disbarred or have his licence suspended for a minimum of 10 years.
That will send the right message.
.
That might be is an overstatement.
There you go.
... volume of complaints may have moderated, they are still being expressed.
Moderated because (becoming wise to what systemd is) most of those complaining probably moved on to a systemd-less distribution.
Because, who in their right mind wants that crap in their OS?
... more receptive to systemd are the developers and maintainers.
Yes.
Incredible as it may seem, that may well be so.
There is a lot of moolah behind the push to systemd.
Where is the author of that abortion of nature working today?
Me?
Would not have systemd in my box unless hell freezes over, three times in a row.
.
Hmmm ...
The moon is upside-down, Orion's sword points up, and the sun tracks the wrong way across the sky.
No, you are obviously looking at it wrong.
The moon is right side up, Orion's sword points down (as intended), and the sun tracks the right way across the sky.
What really happens is that there's something definitely amiss down there.
Notwithstanding, have a couple on me. ---> |***|D |***|D
Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison later announced he was planning to build "a unified national health records database" on top of "thousands of separate hospital databases."
The last thing the world needs is something like this.
And if that were no enough, in Oracle's hands.
Just wait for it:
With respect to the NHS, Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison later announced ...
I tell you, we're all doomed.
A.
Long ago, in another life, I looked after an inherited NT4.0 file server built around the infamous EDS.
No RAID setup or adequate supply of back-up tapes, for reasons best known to the beancounter director.
What could possibly go wrong with that?
One day Murphy decided that a corrupt EDS and a worn out tape at the same time made for a lot of fun.
As a result, I had to stay in a Thursday till 03:00 and the succeeding long week-end to fix that.
O.
Have your bosses been lethally optimistic about IT?
In another life, I had a PHB/director who was a beancounter.
And a very dumb one at that.
I was in charge of maintenance of a couple of servers and ~60 desktop PCs.
On one occasion, when presenting my yearly budget plan, he actually asked:
Just why do you need so many of these expensive tapes for?
After I explained (as simply as possible), he insisted:
Wear out? Absurd. My tapes never wear out, I have been listening to them for years.
O.
$300 million may not be is not enough.
There you go, fixed.
Until regulators actually bite instead of just showing their teeth, this type of shit will keep going down forever.
5 billion calls? -> then the fine is $1.00 for every call call made, with the money going to the called parties.
Don't have the cash? -> a complete liquidation of all the offender's assets as well as a very hefty fine for the operators involved, as they are undoubtedly privvy to what was going on.
Not enough assets? -> pay up with porridge time.
O.
ps: what exactly does he MEAN by "lower productivity"?
Come now ...
Everyone knows exactly what "productivity" means when it comes from the mouth of dicks like Benioff.
ie: our shareholders are not getting a large enough dividends and I am not getting a big enough bonus.
The rest is nothing but utter bullshit.
O.
The devs want to redirect, belittle, blame theme designers, end users, and basically do anything possible to avoid having to address the issue.
Yes, been there/seen that.
And not only for that issue, happens with most anything that is not on their radar.
It's always some other apps' fault.
In the end, I got fed up and as a result will most probably move to an Openbox setup when I upgrade my Devuan Beowulf.
It's nice to hear that they are still adding bells and whistles to XFCE.
I beg to differ, I would much rather the devs undertake some much needed fix and polish before adding any bells. whistles or unnecessary bling.
Obviously, these are my 0.02 and YMMV.
O.
The users of [here your favourite social/commercial app] aren't its customers – they're the product.
To me, this has always been basic common sense and have been saying so for the longest while, only to be labelled as being an outdated technophobe.
Funnily enough, mostly by the same people who sought my help to fix the problems they were having with their PCs/laptops/cellphones.
I don't use a smartphone and do not send or answer text messages I may receive from anyone.
I can perfectly well answer the bloody phone and talk, which is what I have it for.
Even though I have enough spare parts, I realise that I will eventually not be able to use my Blackberry 9320 3G so I may have no choice to eventually get one unless the market provides a reasonable alternative.
eg: a 4G flip-phone with great battery range, signal strength, no camera and a good way to sync the address book to it's own application, preferably compatible with Linux.
If push comes to shove and I have to get a smart-phone (most probable scenario), I would make sure it was absolutely devoid of all the crap the things come installed with these days.
And to think people do home-banking and make purchases on line with the things.
Ahh ...
Yes, of course, I forgot: because it is so convenient.
And free. 8^D !!!
O.
... with all this money being funneled toward oil producers would dwindle ...
... like a pole reversal in the Earth's magnetic field.
Indeed ...
Which is exactly the reason why we do not have a solution to all this yet and probably will not have it for the longest while.
There's still an unimaginable amount of money to be made from oil and an equal amount to be lost (or not made) by the transnational corporations who control oil, from production onwards, if a suitable energy production method were to be achieved.
Not to mention the unfathomable geopolitical consequences that such a discovery would have for the likes of Chevron, Total, Shell, Exxon, BP, etc. which would lose their power/value overnight and that all the scaffolding built during the last 100 years to back them up would crumble.
Or is anyone daft enough to think it has not already been found and properly shelved?
O.
... have about 1500 engineers* in the UK.
Which have to make a living while (unfortunately) working on stupid ideas/designs.
It is not really their fault, although the lack of grey hair is probably an impediment.
The real issue at Dyson is that there are a group of people, most probably of the marketing species that thought this up.
Once those abortions of nature pitched the idea, a few higher ups with an absolute lack of common sense thought this thing was actually a good idea and then some CXX that actually gave the go ahead because they are certified idiots, just like the destinataries of the new Dyson product.
Actually, I think thatthe engineers had no choice but to go along.
I have seen that sort of thing happen far too many times.
O.
And that's the issue.
Yes, very good point.
Rather elaborate and counter intuitive (legal matters do have a lot of that) but once you think it over enough, it makes sense.
The thing is that the judge should have known about his wife's holdings and then excused himself.
Seen as you say, the SC will definitely not want to set a precedent.
O.
Shouldn't there be a retrial?
Not a lawyer either but plain common sense tells me that the judge's wife being the owner of Cisco shares had no effect on the merits of the suit against Cisco.
Nothing changed so it is not an issue pretaining to the core of the matter.
And in any case, the judge ruled against Cisco, clearly describing their behaviour as “willful and egregious”.
Maybe the SC does not want to set a precedent for this type of technical issues and wants the lower courts to decide.
Or maybe not.
I'd like to see how the SC vote tally went.
O.
In other words: to keep Wall Street pleased, GlobalFoundries needs to sacrifice a good chunk of jobs.
That's very easy to fix.
So GlobalFoundries laid off 800/5.7% of their workers in spite of having record income and CHIPS Act subsidies?
Then the government will lay off GlobalFoundries and subsidiaries as a recipients of CHIPS Act subsidies.
Tit for tat.
See how fast they backpedal then.
O.
... given the taxpayer funding they've generously allocated through the years?
I was about to say the very same thing.
If I recall correctly, in the last 20 years Ireland has given Intel (and others?) absolutely huge tax breaks and incentives.
And this is what they get back?
Undoubtedly a cautionary tale to all other countries who think it is safe to make Faustian deals.
O.
The taxpayer ponies up the cash and the corporations ...
Should pay it back in 10/20 years from profits made instead of dishing out absurd shareholder dividends and huge payouts to CEOs, CFOs, etc.
This scheme would, quite obviously, need of careful vigilance of the accounts by regulators on behalf of the taxpayers.
Which would, also quite obviously, be adamantly rejected by the corporations as interference in their affairs.
That's Communism, not free-market Capitalism, they'd say. 8^D !!!!!!
This hoax has been going on for the longest while and just what has the taxpayer received in return?
No, never mind ...
O.
... think the poster didn't set out to be offensive ...
Of course he didn't. 8^*
What the holy fuck is going on at ElReg these days?
It is Friday and I was attempting (albeit not very successfully) to be preposterously facetious.
No matter ...
In my ledger, BJ is a total waste of good breathable air.
Air that could otherwise be put to good use.
O.
Friday at last.
... described AI algorithms that lead to polarizing rabbit holes of content as among the top dystopian characteristics of the internet.
... allows disaffected extremists to connect with one another.
Yes, reads/sounds like common sense.
But that is only one aspect of the harm AI can unleash on civilization.
It can also allow a great many more dangerous things to happen/be done. eg: armed dog robots anyone?
... usually means that the data is stored in lots of places, so your data is not going to get lost.
I beg to differ.
This would happen only if you sufficiently stress the adverb usually.
And if the phrase "lots of places" includes your own mandatory/secure on-site mirror.
... especially if your data is stored in a public cloud.
Exactly my point.
"... its clear who to blame when things go wrong ..."
"... someone to answer for the system’s problems."
Right.
No need to explain or cite the many past examples to understand that this is not so.
Once the Shit Hits The Fan ® what you want is your bloody data back, not ASAP but right now.
Not to know the name of the dickhead that let things slip or the beancounter at the cloud facility who, in the name of shareholder dividends, decided to cut corners and caused the problem, among many other possible/usual causes or culprits.
Because once your valuable data went south, it is gone.
How much is that worth?
O.
Blame the management ...
Not only the management, they are just the tool to do the work.
There are CEOs, CFOs and shareholders involved.
Back in another life (1995), working for a multi-national telco, I saw it first hand and also suffered it.
The company started firing/laying-off or offering voluntary retirement type deals to experienced employees in their late 40's to late 50's only to replace them in a 2x1 and 3x1 ratio with early to mid 20's interns who, being still wet behind their ears, barely had clue about anything much.
All this to take advantage of some hairbrained neo-con goverment scheme where the company could hire these young chaps, pay them a pittance and get steep tax breaks from the government for creating new posts.
The new hires were then then replaced with others after six months as the tax breaks were only for hiring new employees and only for their first six months.
And then it was rinse and repeat, over and over.
O.
... if a power failure needs serious effort or hardware fixes to get it going, its a shit system.
Exactly my thought when I was reading the article.
And if it isn't in the manual it ought not to happen.
Well ...
Reality/fate/chance or serendipity do not look at manuals to get their cues as how to proceed.
Shit just happens.
20+ years ago I was involved in the set up of all the hardware at a local election vote-tally data entry centre.
It was a 300 PC, 2X heavyweight mirrored Compaq servers, industrial size UPS + automatic start generator gig.
The very short deadline and the usual opposition rabble with daily accusations of vote tampering did not make things easier as the team were in the papers every day.
Not a nice scenario and as it was my first job after a very long dry spell, I was not going to let anything pass.
When everything was set up and all the individual parts of the system were duly tested and approved, a dry run was scheduled.
It was with the 300+ staff working on mock/simulation vote tallies and in the midst of it all, just to see their faces, I asked them all just what would happen if power went out at any moment.
A flurry of explanations were given, all very correct pointing out what should (according to manuals) happen in such an event.
I replied that the proof was in the pudding, that it had to be tested without notice to anyone.
Protests ensued but I refused to budge from there, clearly stating I would not sign off on anything if not tested as I required.
Not at all happy, all parties involved finally accepted and all went as expected.
That's the only way to know if things work properly.
O.
... not nearly as easy as you seem to think to get a handgun.
Seems not.
... white people are more likely to be shot by the police than blacks ...
Well ...
Not according to The Washington Post in their (ongoing) seven year statistic (updated 21/11/2022):
---
Black Americans are killed at a much higher rate than White Americans
Although half of the people shot and killed by police are White, Black Americans are shot at a disproportionate rate. They account for less than 13 percent of the U.S. population, but are killed by police at more than twice the rate of White Americans. Hispanic Americans are also killed by police at a disproportionate rate.
---
ie:
- Black: 42 per million
- Hispanic: 30 per million
- White: 17 per million
- Other: 5 per million
As you will surely gather, White victims of police violence have been 17 per million while the rest ie: those not considered White by the police or the Washington Post, have been 77 per million.
The victims are overwhelmingly young and male (>95%) and the shootings happen all across the US.
That's over 4.5 times as many.
Granted, the study is not making any distinction between Black or White police officers, but I doubt it is relevant in any way.
Truly, a very sad state of affairs.
O.
... and deciding to pull out a gun and get themselves killed.
Hmm ...
Yes, bound to happen where to most anyone over 18 purchasing a Glock 22 is as easy and straightforward as just asking for one.
But there have been many more situations where police pulled their guns and shot (rpeatedly) a pedestrian/driver because they had reached for something which ended up being nothing at all.
Not to mention the infamous no-knock warrants, it is mind bending.
Granted, most if not all affected were US citizens which were not pale enough to qualify as white.
Maybe that should also be taken into account.
Armed robots will only make it worse.
O.
... and the ability to run Linux GUI apps under Windows 10.
Hmm ...
And why on earth would you want to do things the wrong way around?
Run a systemd-less Linux distribution and a VM with as much M$ stuff you want on it.
You can then run M$ apps and also have a decent OS. 8^D
O.
She's 12 and has been a Slackware user her entire life.
Good to see she has accrued three very important things at an early age:
- common sense.
- a good education.
- sense of independence
Maybe it would be a good thing for her parents to go and have a word or two with the dumb school principal.
Kudos to her.
O.
It's much more feasible that there will be ...
Indeed, downright stupid if you ask me.
There's a long list of things that can/will affect it before it starts to melt down, among them:
- man generated space rubbish
- small/tiny undetectable meteorites
- solar flares/radiation
- etc., etc.
... and last but not least, a strike from a weapon.
O.
... if I have time, I will give it a try and report back.
That would be great!
Thanks a lot for considering it. 8^)
Devuan Chimaera 4.0 and here are the Release Notes.
Best,
O.
We threw various OSes at it to see which would stick.
Is there a valid reason for Linux Devuan not being on that list?
Save BSD, the OSs on the list all use systemd.
Why not Devuan, it is also Debian based but does not use the systemd virus for init.
I'm quite sure it would stick. 8^)
Best,
O.
The big issue/problem with Linux:
---
The Linux ecosystem is home to literally tens of thousands of highly qualified coders/programmers, a rich pool of talent which could be harnessed towards the same goal and put Linux firmly on the desktop.
But ...
If they all want to be able to shout "Look Ma!!! I rolled my own [fill in here]! and be a primadonna for all of 15', that is certainly not going to happen.
Ever.
---
In the name of the Holy Option®, any/every Tom, Dick or Harry wants to be the next Linus Torvalds (or, the gods forbid, the next L. Poettering) and have his own home rolled/forked distribution or version of [fill in here].
Had a look at how many Linux distributions there are today? It's mind numbing.
Check and see how many dead/abandoned forked distributions fill the Great Distro Cemetery®.
Dead/abandoned istributions that, in many cases, were to all intents and purposes practically identical to the one buried next to it or to the one it was forked from.
Save some innovative theme (?) or dubious concept like being appimage based, just enough to say it is different.
A long time example: just how many bloody packaging systems does Linux need?
I don't have the data but I am confident that if I say that none of the aspiring primadonnas I cite above ever thought about contributing to the Linux effort by pitching in as a maintainer/developer or contributor to some part of the OS.
No ...
They could not picture themselves as part of a team, of a larger purpose: they had to roll their own.
And here we are today: slowly being corroded from the inside by MS with no one having much of a clue.
So much waste ...
Have a good week-end.
O.
... doesn't need to take over logging, cron, device management, DNS, hostname provision, network management, interprocess communications, home directory management, ntp, container management, and everything else ...
Indeed ...
Like I have said before:
---
Systemd is a virus, a cancer or whatever you want to call it. It is noxious stuff.
It works just like the registry does in MS operating systems.
It's a developer sanctioned virus running inside the OS, constantly changing and going deeper and deeper into the host with every iteration and as a result, progressively putting an end to the possibility of knowing/controlling what is going on inside your box as it becomes more and more obscure.
Systemd is nothing but a putsch to eventually generate and then force a convergence of Windows with or into Linux, which is obviously not good for Linux and if unchecked, will be Linux's undoing.
There's nothing new going on here: it's nothing but the well known MSBrace at work.
Now go and tell me that Microsoft has absolutely nothing to do with how systemd is crawling inside/infecting the Linux ecosystem.
---
This started over 25 years ago and was finally put out into the light thanks to the infamous 1998 internal MS report.
Like if the browser wars were not enough to catch it.
It is in many ways understandable that the problem at hand is still absolutely transparent for the every day home user who only wants to browse, chat, send web mail, watch porn or play games.
By the time it is evident to them it will be far too late to do much about it.
But anyone else ie: involved with their PCs/servers/etc. installations and with a modicum of experience with their hardware who at this stage does not understand what has been/is going on has their brain-box either buried in the sand or up their ass.
O.
... gratuitous ad hominem attacks, shall we?
Yes, you're right.
But it's not only a question of competence or allegiance anymore.
It is way beyond that now.
Poettering's incompetence has been there for all to see for the longest while, not news and examples abound.
I've always suspected his allegiance, been criticised for saying so but now that is also now out there for all to see.
Poettering is the brainchild of what will be the end of privacy/independency for all of us wanting to use a computer.
He first screwed up Debian and now he wants to screw up everything else.
He knows what he is doing and why.
So, ad-hominem or not, I want him to get his bloody paws off my #$"&= computer.
O.
Lennart Poettering proposes tightening up Linux boot process ...
Yes?
Well ...
How about I propose he tightens up his bloody mouthhole?
... and for those who don't want others, or corporations, to be able to control their computers.
Yes, I am and will always be one of those.
What about it?
O.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
