Posts by Bakana 103 publicly visible posts • joined 30 Mar 2013
My first thought when I saw the headline was that they were putting the e-ink displays on each individual pill.
Of course, now that I've mentioned it, someone is sure to try to Patent the idea.
Maybe that will be Next Week's "Internet of Things" headline.
The week after that, someone will patent a way to put E-ink IoT displays on the inside of your Eyelids. With Bluetooth to connect your eyeballs to all your Internet of Things devices.
OK, this will just get Sillier from here on out.
How much of all this is driven by interlocking ownership of various corporations?
For instance, are the companies which manufacture TVs also owned by some of the same people who own the Power or Oil companies?
Not a Conspiracy so much as "Hey, lets not get Hasty and build something that hurts profits from my Other stocks."
Actually, try getting the same amount of Work out of today's "Modern" languages as that 64KB Mainframe used to perform.
In point of fact, some of the applications developed for those 64KB Mainframes are still running today because A) they still work & B) No one wants to spend the Millions of dollars and years of effort even Trying to replicate that software in a "Modern" language would cost.
I've worked on a couple of those "Modernization" projects and the Performance of the resulting software was godawful. Even when it "Worked", it usually took at least twice as long to perform the same amount of work and had "issues" that the developers Promised would be Fixed "any day now".
Then there were the "Enhancements" and "Extra Features" that the project managers just couldn't resist adding in. Suddenly, something that performed a critical job reasonably well did a whole Bunch of things, all of them Poorly.
Of course, in one particular instance, the Poor Performance turned out to be Designed In.
I didn't understand Why some of the design choices were made for the project until I discovered that the Consulting Firm doing the Development also had a contract to Run the finished application as a Service Bureau which would get paid for CPU time and Database Storage on a Cost Plus basis.
Suddenly, the poor performance and lousy data design made a Lot more sense if you knew it would be driving the company's Profits.
Most Consumers just want a Box that does most of the same things the box we Rent does (Except for the tendency to Crash a lot) but we get to Own the box instead of paying monthly fees forever.
So far, the only alternative anyone has offered is TIVO which has it's own Monthly Fee for whatever "Service" TIVO supposedly provides.
The Cable companies and TV industry in general seem to believe that we are not "Consumers" of their offering but something more like Property. Cash Cows whom they can "milk" until we die, and maybe thereafter as soon as they find some "Service" they can offer to run a wire into our caskets.
Personally, my biggest complaint is all the "Crap Apps" that Android has Baked In from the "Factory" by Google.
As far as I can tell, no matter what I do, there are a whole Bunch of "Services" that I neither Want nor Need nor Use but which will keep right on sucking up my battery power, no matter What I do.
I've tried disabling stuff. The list is so long that it would take me a Week. Then there are all the ones that Can't be disabled because the Phone somehow Needs them to function as a Phone.
And, to cap the futility, Android keeps automagically downloading Updates that turn everything back on just a couple days after I turn them all OFF..
The "Cloud", translated into Honest English means: Store your data on Our Server so we can browse it at our leisure and you won't even Know where the server IS. And sometimes, we won't be able to find it Either.
I have Never understood why anyone would want to store their data, particularly Sensitive data, on a Hard Drive that belongs to someone Else. And certainly not why they would pay the cost of a new hard drive every few months instead of just buying your Own and saving lots of Money.
Heck, the way the cost of storage has Plummeted over the last few years, I've got at least a Terabyte of Unused space on my own drives that I may Never fill up.
Actually, they Can sometimes "Speed Up" your packets.
The last time I had to have someone actually come to my house to fix my carrier's Internet connection, the guy casually asked why I hadn't been upgraded to the carrier's faster servers.
It turned out that the company had upgraded a bunch of servers, but the Price for that newer connection had somehow gone Down. Which might explain why "Marketing" had not bombarded me with an Avalanche of ads begging me to "upgrade" to the faster service.
Faster Service and a Lower Price? Why would we tell Customers about That?
I seem to recall that, a few years back, it was 500 high speed Unix Servers with One Mainframe box.
Remember that IBM commercial where the guy is standing in that Huge empty white room tearing out his hair and lamenting "They Stole all our servers!"?
Then another guy walks up to him and says: "No they didn't. We replaced them all with that." and points to a single Mainframe box about the size of a refrigerator down at the other end of the room.
Because the Electric bill alone was almost $100,000 per year less.
And the 500 high speed Unix Servers cost at least 5 times More than that Mainframe, especially after you added in the cost of all the Cables, racks and floor space they needed.
Not to mention the army of techs who got to figure out "Which One is crashing Now?"
So "never particularly good" that many customers didn't know they had a "Computer Problem" until the IBM Repairman showed up to fix the problem that the Computer had Self Diagnosed and sent an e-mail notifying the local repairman that he needed to replace whatever circuit board was failing.
It also sent a copy of the same e-mail to the Customer who owned the machine, but it's amazing just how many top executives don't bother to read their e-mail these days.
Or they DID read it and ignored it because "It was only a Warning" that something was about to go wrong Next week.
As if having a machine go down at a cost of $1,000,000++ per Hour was nothing to worry about. BTW, I'm not pulling that figure out of the air. I've worked on some really Large IBM systems that cost the corporation closer to $1,000,000 per Minute if they were down.
But, hey, a computer that's smarter than the CIO isn't particularly "Good", is it?
After all, you can get Fired for embarrassing the CIO like that.
One of the reasons the city might be doing better is that the extra Money subscribers have as a result of Dropping their overpriced lousy service will, with 99% certainty, end up being spent in various businesses all over the city's Main Street.
Megacorporations ship the money off to "Headquarters" and Wall Street.
Local Companies keep the money at home and often spend it just down the road at Other Local businesses. In Economics, it's called the Multiplier Effect.
From Wikipedia:
the local multiplier effect focuses on the greater local economic return generated by money spent at locally-owned independent businesses compared to corporate chains or other absentee-owned businesses. Localisation advocates cite the multiplier effect as one reason, of many, for consumers to do more of their business locally.
The Machine guns might be doable if you used a Long Barrel so that the larger parts are further back. You could even put the actual Gun inside the Doors with a carefully machined Barrel Extension.
Just be careful about Slamming the doors and knocking things out of alignment.
It's the Ammunition Storage that starts to really use up space...
There is one small problem with photocopying a book.
The last time I looked, it costs more to make the Photocopy than it would to purchase a new Hardback copy of that same book.
Certainly more than a Paperback copy.
Plus, Scanned copies make for Lousy reading on most E-readers.
Running the scan through an OCR translation program would then require someone to go through and Proofread & correct the thing for the errors inserted by the OCR translation.
Again, by the time you've done all this, it would have been a lot cheaper (in terms of what 2 or 3 days of your Time is Worth) to have just purchased a legal copy.
Personally, I've never heard a serious Science Fiction author claim that he/she was trying in any way to "Predict the future".
In fact, when journalists try to pin most SF authors down to predicting the future for some fluff piece, most will do their best to bow out. Because most have seen the sad results of that particular hubris trap.
The Real Goal of most successful SF authors is to write a story that Lots of people will want to Read. After all, most of them want to be "Successful" and if no one Reads your stories, you don't get to Be Successful.
They share that desire with almost all authors: "Please, Read My Stuff!"
If, by "Admiral Bob" you mean Robert Heinlein, that's quite a promotion.
Heinlein was discharged from the Navy as a Lieutenant because he contracted pulmonary Tuberculosis. Medical Discharge.
It was Very Necessary considering that an effective antibiotic for the disease was not identified until 10 Years Later.
Allowing an active case of Tuberculosis aboard a US Navy Vessel is Still forbidden although these days it just get you sent to the nearest Hospital with an isolation ward for the disease until the contagious period is over.
FWIW, I was exposed to tuberculosis when a shipmate came down with it.
Everyone who lived in that berthing compartment had to take annual tests for the next 10 Years, just in case, before the Navy finally decided that we probably Wouldn't come down with it.
I was lucky. I only had to take the annual Tests. Several guys went home when their enlistments were up carrying large bottles of Pills they had to take until they showed a "Clean" test.
The Lawyers get paid to convince the Judge that since the words "Computer" and "Internet" don't appear anywhere in the original Law that the Theft or Murder or any other crime isn't covered.
Never mind that, in many cases, just because a Computer was involved, doesn't mean that anyone who looks can't see that the Crime WAS Committed.
The very First thing a Lawyer is taught in Law School is "Swallowing Camels and Choking on gnats."
" if you find your car hijacked " the First question you should be asking is:
What Idiot thought connecting my Car to the Internet was a Good Idea in the first place?
GPS? Doesn't need an Internet connection.
Brakes? Why?
Steering? Why would you want someone in Russia steering your Car?
AC? What's wrong with an old fashioned Thermostat?
Software Updates? That's really something that should be done at the same time as an Oil Change and only by Trusted Professionals. Over the Internet, You Can't Trust it.
I was a programmer for Years and don't remember EVER being allowed to "Do as I pleased".
A lot of the stuff I worked on would have worked a Lot Better if I'd had just a tiny bit of input into the actual Design. Managers who know Nothing about Computers or how they work come up with some really Gawdawful ideas at times.
For Example: "You can't make the Key to that file Unique because That would be telling the Customer how to run his business."
"But, if it's Not Unique, we'll be forcing them to wade through 30 or 40 different files searching for the One they want. Besides, I'm going to bet that they already have a system of Unique IDs in their Paper filing system that we are replacing or they'd Never be able to Find Anything."
Sadly, that argument fell on deaf ears and, after the application went Live, the biggest complaint we Had from customers was:
"Why didn't the system Flag the Duplicates? If I'd known these files were already out there, I'd have been saved a bunch of work."
Because, guess what?, in an office where 5 or 6 people share the same job, sometimes they don't always realize that someone Else has already begun working on the same file.
Although there Was one time when I was ordered NOT to fix a coding problem that I'd identified because the guy trying to order me NOT for fix it was one of the people responsible. I decided that, since he wasn't actually my Boss, I'd fix it anyway and see how well it worked. Besides, it was only 12 lines of code. It cut processing time for that application by more at least 60%. After it was implemented, the guy who tried to order me Not to fix it went around to all the bosses and claimed Credit for the fix. The bosses, not knowing any better, gave him a really Nice Bonus for my work.
Yeah, being able to "Do as you want" is so rewarding.
99% of the time, you do it the way it was Designed or find some way to talk someone into Changing the design. And then, you have to TEST the daylights out of it until you expose All the idiotic things the Managers inserted into the design because, after all, they have MBAs and always know best...
Most of the comments here seem to b e missing the point of just What was decided in this case.
The appeals court didn't decide whether or not the woman should Win her lawsuit.
They simply said that the argument the website was using to try to get the lawsuit dismissed was Bogus and has no application to the Facts of the case.
The Law says that the Website is not responsible for other people's Free Speech.
The website's lawyers tried to twist that into Shielding them from a lawsuit over actions the Website Failed to take, which has nothing to do with "Free Speech".
The section of the law that the Website tried to use reads:
"No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."
The woman is suing under a California law which says that, if the website was aware of Criminal Conduct on the part of the rapists (They WERE, they had Multiple Complaints) they had a "Duty to Warn" their users of the danger.
Now, the original court will have to go back and allow the Jury to decide the case on its merits which is what the owners of the Website were trying to Avoid because, they will most likely Lose.
A Lot More.
The DOJ pattern in this sort of "Settlement" is to settle for between 5 and 10 Percent of what was actually Stolen.
Congress has cut the DOJ budget so severely that they can't afford to actually bring anyone to trial. Plus, their are no Federal Judges with any openings in their schedules any time in the next 4 or 5 years because Congress refuses to Confirm any of the Literally Hundreds of Judges nominated to fill the empty seats in the federal courts.
It's not because of Political Considerations, no matter how they play that angle up.
It's because Corporate America pays them to keep those seat vacant so they can continue to get "Deals" like this.
One of the First Government contracts I ever worked on was Paid for by the money paid in Fines by the Previous contractor. It was a two year effort.
The prior contractor not only Failed to deliver a working product, they were caught red handed trying to Sell software they didn't Own to other state's agencies. Software they had been Paid to develop for the State my contract was with.
It never occurred to them that the Other States they were trying to sell the software to might just call and ask if it Really Worked as wonderfully as the company was claiming. And this was a firm which claimed to have an International client base.
Really? No one ever before called to check the truth of your "Sales Pitch"?
When the dust settled, the state got back All their money plus Fines and Legal Fees.
It paid to restart the project from Scratch with a totally new team of contractors, all of whom were told Precisely where the money to pay for the project came from.
Yep. Because, repeatedly over the years, the DOJ has gotten into the habit of "Settling" with corporate thieves for somewhere between 5 & 10 Percent of what they Stole.
With, as noted, No Admission of Guilt.
That last part is Very Important because US Law forbids corporations which have been guilty of Felonies from getting any New contracts. And, I believe that Current contracts are also in jeopardy when guilt is either admitted or determined at trial.
What is really going on is that the US Congress refuses to Give the DOJ the money or the People necessary to pursue these cases. That's why Half the Federal Judgeships in the USA are Vacant: It keeps the Federal Courts from accomplishing much when looking at Corporate Criminals.
If the DOJ actually had the People it Needs, the Fines they could levy would More than pay the cost of getting a Guilty Verdict because, guess what? the Cost of the Trial is part of the Fines they face.
What many users might prefer is a way to not "Block" unwanted features but a way to set up a profile that tells the browser to just Dump the code that will never be executed because that "Feature" is Never going to be used.
Allow the "Blocker" to simply Remove (or never download in the first place) the code that the User objects to.
Add me to that list.
I keep mi phone in Ultra power saving mode 98% of the time because, Hey, it's a Phone and that's what it works as in that mode.
The only time I take it Out of that mode is when I'm using it as a Music player in my car.
And all That music is on the MicroSD Chip inside the phone.
I'd add the Music player to the apps that are allowed to be On in power saving mode, but there doesn't appear to be any way to do that. It's one of the apps that Google has decided, in their "Wisdom" needs internet Access even though I never download music to the phone from the internet. I purchased the CDs instead.
A personal favorite.
Went into the local computer store one afternoon and found the owner displaying the Problem he'd just fixed for a customer.
Floppy Disks would not Load into the drive.
When opened up, the problem turned out to be a small Lizard that had apparently crawled in for the warmth and was Crushed by subsequent attempts to insert a diskette.
He placed it in a plastic bag and thumbtacked it to the store's cork board along with a photo showing where it was found. It was on display for a week or so. Then his wife removed the plastic bag into the trash can.
Ay of the Judges involved in this case over the years Could have done that if SCO's lawyers had managed to ANNOY him/her enough.
It's a Legal "Nuclear Option", though so very few judges allow themselves to get That Annoyed.
It's My Computer.
How could it possibly be Illegal for me to deny an Advertiser the opportunity to use MY CPU and My processing cycles to force me to watch an Ad that I have no interest in watching?
If the Website has a problem with me blocking the ads, they have the option of denying me access to their site. I have no problem with that. If their content isn't truly "Free", that is Their choice. They have available to them the option of dumping the ads in favor of a Subscription Fee for Ad Free Content. If their Content is truly compelling, people will be willing to Pay. Unless their subscription is too expensive, then the Market will respond by Ignoring them.
I agree with the people who say the Advertising is Ruining the web.
I first installed an Ad Blocker because I experienced Major Slowdowns and saw my browser displaying messages that told me it was WAITING for web sites with names containing the word "AD" that took minutes to respond.
After I installed the Ad Blocker, I took the time to Block any site that spent enough time Waiting that I could read & remember the name of the site it was Waiting For and add it to the blocker's list.
My Browsing has been very much Improved by this.
Where are the Senators crusading for the Right of the Cities to tell the State Legislature to Go Pound Sand?
They get all weepy eyed over keeping Government "out of our business" and the Overreach of "Big" Government.
So, keep the State's Big Government out of the Small City's Business.
I believe that most of those "Harmless Activities" you referred to (The Various types of Fireworks) actually ARE Illegal in most cities in the USA.
Because, contrary to what you stated, people have Died or been maimed for life by just those sorts of activities.
And, in most states, if you fire a weapon even into the Air, you CAN be charged with Reckless Endangerment because, Guess What? People get Killed every Year by shots "Fired Into the Air".
Most of the Killers are never Identified, but when a Shooter IS Identified as having "Fired int the Air", most jurisdictions DO tend to take it seriously.
.
Make that Mis-Identifying his Gun.
I'm pretty sure Glock doesn't Make a 40 MM Pistol.
For a very simple reason: That's an Anti Aircraft Calibre.
You see them in old War movies.
One or Two barrels a couple Yards long, 5 man team to Fire them.
Sometimes called Ack, Ack or Pom Pom Guns.
The Bullet is a bit larger than the average salt shaker and can weigh between 2 to 4 Pounds.
Cram That round into a Pistol and you're going to need Both Hands to lift it and probably break your arm if you pulled the trigger.
Anyone who owns a gun ought to At Least know the Calibre and correct name for it.
...
The first part of this article reads a lot like a Sales Brochure from a Vendor.
Is there any relationship between the Author and a "New" storage vendor.
Also, is the "new" product really New or just a New Name for the Same Old, Same Old?
Or, like the "Cloud" does it translate to:
"Ooops, we forgot Just Where we Stored Your Data but, don't worry, we can still Access it. And we know it's in One of these countries..."
DICE.com lists several Mainframe vacancies in my area.
I've been retired for a couple years now, so I haven't been paying a lot of attention, but almost ALL the Major Banks still own Multiple Mainframes.
And, if you are located near them, most Government agencies still own Theirs as well, in spite of all the ex-Used Car salesmen who keep trying to convince the Politicians that Windows can do anything a Mainframe can do.
(BTW, I understand Microsoft also still runs Their accounting on a Mainframe, too.)
Because, for the Universities there are Two major obstacles:
1) Many professors don't Want to teach Mainframes in the "Publish or Perish" environment because there just really Isn't much to say about COBOL that wasn't said years ago.
It's a bit of a Career Killer.
2) The University's Bean Counters long ago embraced the idea that, if you require every student to purchase their Own Computers, the University doesn't need to purchase a dedicated computer for the Students to learn on.
Because only an Idiot would allow the Students to log on to the same computer used to perform the University's accounting or store student records.
But, at $1,000,000 each, teaching Mainframe programming courses is Huge expenditure.
Something IBM used to address by offering FREE Mainframe access to students and professors at universities which Did teach Mainframe courses.
Sadly, most of the Universities which Accepted IBMs offer were located in India.
US Universities were long ago taken over by people who went to the First Church of Microsoft or the Universal Church or Unix.
Religious Heretics are seldom welcome.
One place I worked at a few years ago actually went to the local University and offered a deal: We'll Hire several dozen of your graduates each year if you teach them COBOL.
The University accepted the offer on one condition: The company had to pay the University an extra $2000 per student, above the normal costs of Tuition and books.
Some days, you just can't win.
The First (and so far Unbreakable) Rule of Computer Programming is:
You Cannot program a Computer to do Anything you do not know how to do Yourself.
So, yeah. Until we figure out how WE Think, we're unlikely to get "Artificial Intelligence" by anything except some sort of hugely unlikely Accident.
It's like that old Math Cartoon with several blackboards full of equations with a small section in the middle of the equations that reads: "And Here, a Miracle Happens".
One mathematician is pointing to that section saying:
"I think this part needs a little more work."
.
Clarification of term request.
By "Body Shop" do they mean that the government is trying to Save a few sheckels by Hiring the Good people so they don't have to keep paying extra to the Contracting Corporation?
That can be a nice chunk of change since, the last time I got a look at what I was being "Sold" for as opposed to what I was getting Paid, the company was getting the Better side of a 60/40 split.
It's like that because everyone involved just Ignored the fact that, during the 2000 election, the CEO of Diebold was the State Chairman of the GW Bush Campaign and Declared Publicly and On the record that he would "Deliver Ohio" to Bush.
AT a time when His Company was in charge of the "Care & Feeding" of all the Voting Computers in the state.
AS far as "Hackability" was concerned, blackboxvoting.org at the time was able to demonstrate at least 5 Different ways to rig or alter the results using those machines.
The Simplest one was the Memory Cards used to hold the vote totals.
Wehn the Election first starts, the supervisor is supposed to run a "Zero Test" on the card to "Prove" that it is "Empty". It checks and all the Vote Totals are reported to be ZERO.
What they discovered was that, if you entered 50 Votes for Candidate A and Minus 50 Votes for Candidate B on those memory cards, they would Pass the "Zero Test" because the Total Votes on the card added up to Zero.
The only possible exposure would be a candidate who lost so badly that there would have been no Need to rig the votes in the first place.
And, in subsequent elections in a few very small races, candidates DID "Lose" with Negative Vote totals after the elections.
Voting officials brushed it off as "Computer Glitches".
Actually, it sounds like the Pizza shop has managed to make more Money from one afternoon of Bigotry than they would have gotten in several years of selling Mediocre Pizza.
The fact that so Many bigots were willing to go on record (Do GoFundMe contributors get IDed?) as supporting these Bigots is a bit disturbing.
Well, that might just mean Wind Farms.
One of the Best places to put a wind turbine is on top of a Mountain and Japan has Lots of those that waren't being used for much else.
Being a Long, Narrow country probably Increases the potential because of the tendency for wind patterns to flow from Sea to Land in the daytime and Land to sea at night.
There are also companies working on a Hybrid wind & Tide system that would be anchored offshore and use both Wind and Tidal action to generate electricity.
My personal experience with a failure of this sort: Mainframe communicating with a Network when an Interupt occurred and Communication was Lost turned out to be good old fashioned Human ID10T error.
It took quite a while to track down because Management.
Within Minutes after the interrupted server was back Up & Running, it was confirmed that both Mainframe AND the entire Network were Up and functioning perfectly, but Communication was Not Happening.
Much Unproductive and Unhelpful arguing and Finger Pointing later, it was finally determined that the Mainframe URL for the network was Missing from the DNS Server.
A bit after that, someone revealed that the DNS Server had been Rebooted during the outage. Finally, someone Checked the Backups for the DNS Seerver and discovered that the Mainframe URL had been entered Manually, many months earlier and Never made "Permanent".
For all those months, the DNS Server had operated as if the Mainframe connection was a Temporary connection that would Go Away as soon as the "Session" was complete.
6 Months Later, the Same Problem occurred AGAIN.
The Same ID10T had reset the URL in the Exact Same manner and not managed to rub together the two brain cells that should have Fixed the problem the First Time.
Mainframe hardware has, for many years, included Self Diagnosing circuit card which constantly test themselves and Duplicate Fail Over hardware in Each CPU.
This is WHY Mainframe Failures are so rare.
When a failing circuit card is detected, the OS passes control to the Fail Over card and sends E-Mail notices both to the System Operator and to IBM's Service Facilities. There have even been instances where the IBM Hardware engineer arrived at a Client site with the repair parts Before the System Ops got around to Reading their E-Mail.
Systems of this nature perform so well that the Worldwide Average for Unscheduled Mainframe Downtime is less than 5 Minutes per year. This averages real problems where downtime lasting several Hours bangs against systems that have operated for the entire Life of the installation without Ever experiencing downtime.
The actual problem is that the cable companies are Colluding to avoid any sort of Competition.
Just as Jophn Oliver said: They do business like a bunch of Drug Cartels which agree not to "Trespass" on each other's "Turf".
They don't regard subscribers as "Customers".
The way people are treated makes it obvious the cable companies think they OWN the subscriber. IOW, they treat customers the same way Slaveowners have always treated slaves: With Utter Contempt.
If you want to Really find out just how bad Word can be, take a document created in Word, make a COPY of it. Rename that copy to a .TXT file. (Don't SAVE it, Rename it.)
Then, just for fun, open that .txt copy with notepad and browse through it.
Your will be Amazed. You will also find out just Why a one page document with only 2 or 3 paragraphs can use up as much as a Megabyte of memory when saved.
I first did this myself with an E-Mail from a friend that included a Word document as an attachment. I didn't Have Word on my computer at the time and my word processor didn't want to open theWord document. As a last resort, I tried the "Rename" trick.
I not only found the Text of the document she sent me, but a Whole Bunch of stuff that belonged to Other Documents she'd been working on in the recent past. Seems Word saves all it's Work Buffers along with the Document.
I let this friend know that she had unintentionally sent me large chunks of several Legal Documents she had been working on for Clients of her Law Firm in those "Work Buffers".
She and her Co-workers had to change their work habits to Close out Word completely and Re-open word when changing from one document to another.
No more just clicking on the "New Document" button on the menu.
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