Posts by joed

What the Linux desktop really needs to challenge Windows

Re: Not just Zoom

"and not as good as the native app on Windows"? When was Teams any good and is it really native app? Sure it's serviceable but MS has cut all the corners to minimize development costs. It's an electron (webview whatever MS wanted tol call it) app. Resource usage is is second only to antivurus software. And feature creep makes is slower with every update. Plus, I'm getting an impression that the whole backend will topple over as people load it up with never ending stream of crap. It's surprising it's lasted this far but occasional issues in chat refresh/missing chat history is just a reminder of "solid" foundations it's built upon.

Re: snapflatimages

Careful what you wish for. You may end up with secure system but only useful to the gatekeeper that forces you into managing all your data through their walled garden (and controlling what you can and can't do). Akin to iOS. Even Android has become hostile to idea of users' freedom with both Google and handset makers taking another cut of what's left of the original concept.

Infinite Machine e-scooter is like the offspring of a Vespa and a Cybertruck

Re: What's new?

I'm not sure that UL2271 certification alone justified the premium but this may be the only worthwhile "novelty" for the e-scooter market.

US Navy scuttles Constellation frigate program for being too slow for tomorrow's threats

Re: Destroyers for bases in reverse?

"just hard cash..." - sorry to disappoint but we can only print $...

Why Elon Musk won't ever realize the shareholder-approved Tesla payout

corporate suicide?

I'd argue that most of Teslas board members should be subject to a sanity check. The only saving grace is the provision that sets some performance benchmarks before the nazi gets his payout. But to even consider 1T golden parachute...

Also, average "investors" should reconsider their engagement in stock market in general. Clearly the original purpose of getting funds to expand business is no longer true. It's just a shell game to benefit boards, CEOs and stock brokers (always) and should be treated as such for tax purposes.

Microsoft is building datacenter superclusters that span continents

Re: Later ….

Nah, they'll be turned into corporate prisons with all the persisted surveillance already built in. The only growth opportunity once we're past the final stage of the late capitalism.

Microsoft gives Windows 11 a fresh Start – here's how to get it

Re: Recommened section

This only sort of work. MS makes restoring good old apps as difficult as changing default apps

X2 Elite is Qualcomm’s latest attempt to bring Apple’s M-series magic to the PC

But isn't booting the problem? As opposed to uefi standard on the pc side, the arm side is at the mercury of Qualcomm. If I recall they were only so helpful in this regard.

Salesforce facing multiple lawsuits after Salesloft breach

Re: Ahh, The cry of "Not Our Fault"

Not to say that affected people may have no personal relationship with SF (that keeps the data swamp) or SL (or other vendors that facilitate use of SF's held data). Most have been volunteered by some sales drones.

Since SF (and other cloud vendors) have decided to be gatekeepers of the data, provide convoluted ways of securing the data (if possible at all) and in the end served data to attackers, they are to some extent responsible for any breach that followed.

Apple's 'Awe Droppings' fall close to the tree

Right. All I recall is piss poor battery life of my 6s if it was cooler than 10C. I know that it was designed in Cali but wtf Apple.

And no option to limit charge to 80%, just some smart charging bs excuse.

No real browser choice. No option to get apps without Apple id/blessings. Stupid face id. No headphone jack. No SIM card option. And no lube included with the purchase.

And let's not call something 5mm thick if the measurement did not include ugly sticking out camera lens. Make it flat for God's sake and fill up the space with battery. It has to get chunky cover no matter what, especially now that bot both front and back are made of glass (another dumb idea).

OpenAI's Stargate project to pave the world with AI datacenters announces five new US locations

leave Midwest alone

Hey openai, build your crappy barns in some sandy areas stay away from our lakes and electrical grid

Re: More lies

25000 mechanical Turks. It all checks out.

Microserfs ordered back to the office, given 10 days to appeal

2nd class corporate citizens?

So if one lived 50+ then he/she can enjoy the benefits (extra sleep, no risky commute, save $ on commute, housing or even taxes) while the suckers within the arbitrary range will carry the extra load for not even peanuts.

Makes sense.

Make Redmond angry by setting up Windows 11 with a local account

why rush to w11?

If w10 ltsb/c will remain in support for years to come. Or even just stick to existing w10 setup with 0patch. Anything to spite MS.

W11 brings nothing of value while cripples any machine with extra cpu load and questionable UI choices.

AI industry's size obsession is killing ROI, engineer argues

Re: The 'Blindingly Obvious' has been noticed ... THEREFORE ... Spend more $$$ & make it go away !!!

It's no wonder. Create a gold rush, sell shovels. The more shovels they sell, the more $ they make. So they they are incentivised to push the most expensive models.

So you CAN turn an entire car into a video game controller

it's not all fun and games

Unfortunately bringing undue attention to these sort of academic exercises gives manufacturers excuse to lock down access to vehicle systems "for our safety" (and gullible politicians eat it up to "protect" their constituents). I do not know what's the solution, other than maybe keeping infotainment and traction systems autonomous or read only access at most. And not Internet accessible for sure.

I surely do not want my repair options to be compromised in the name of "security".

GM parks claims that driver location data was given to insurers, pushing up premiums

Re: My old chariot is as dumb as a log

No need for them use legal steps. All they need to is dump more salt on roads. Now it makes perfect sense.

China to probe US chip subsidies as export curbs rattle allies

Re: No problem!

well, most of US consumers will start blinking the moment we have to pay the price of artisan patriotic chips.

otoh, I'm surprised that counties like China keep underwriting our debt. it's time for the White House to block sale of government bonds to our enemies.

Parallels brings back the magic that was waiting seven minutes for Windows to boot

So basically they've done no better than my attempt using the qemu (couple years ago soon after m1 came out). With some massaging of config files it used multiple cores and was usable (for patient users). The only way to run w10 with Bex excel adding for the user that claimed to desperately need it. I was hoping for Parallels to do better. We've virtually (no pun intended) given up on using their otherwise decent product.

Pornhub lockdown and fact-free Zuckbots – welcome to 2025

Re: It's an easy go to

Also a "perfect" way to advocate for tax increases. No one will dare to vote against our "future". Right.

New Outlook marches onto Windows 10 for what little time it has left

bundlede with security update?

This makes sense. Just like when they pushed news and interests adware. Since they can't convince users, they just shove it onto their machines. In good old times users could pick updates.

First Foxconn, now Microsoft: Wisconsin town dissed by big tech

Or maybe just a tactic to weasel out some taxpayers' money. Or else they'll move. Corporate welfare.

Schneider Electric warns of future where datacenters eat the grid

If only the sources of electricity depended just on availability of coal or nuclear isotopes. Let's not forget that nobody really wants smokestacs or nuclear reactors in their backyard (power plants are expensive). Power transmission is another issue. And then there's an issue of water scarcity. It's needed for both power generation (nothing has changed here, it's just primitive other than more efficient turbines) and data center cooling. If only the AI could put food on our tables. I'd rather have electricity supplied to my fridge that AI blowing hot air at me.

Million GPU clusters, gigawatts of power – the scale of AI defies logic

Re: Reality will bite in the end

The quick fix of 5g internet access wears of just as quickly when you have to pay for bandwidth usage and nobody offers unlimited access (the same applies to cable but the pricing would likely be lower). And lets not forget about standing in just the right spot for this promised 5g to pass the test. "AI" has lots in common with 5g hype. Plenty of gimmick use cases but majority of population is unlikely to want or be able to afford to pay for it. We'll see what businesses do with it (and how much of the "benefits" will they pass down in prices of their products).

Microsoft Edge takes a victory lap with some high-looking usage stats for 2024

Technically their BS new tab page can be trimmed of the nonsense (easy) or completely disabled using fake mdm reg key (to default it to good old blank page or url of choice).

Still, what a crappy browser. Full of shit that MS slings onto their users/hostages (and some of it will stick).

And what other usage stats one could expect when all Windows users are constantly nagged into using it or forced by corporate IT. It's like celebrating communist party winning elections in Soviet Russia.

BTW, does anyone remember good old days when one could designate default app/browser with single click for all extensions and protocols? Sure that was too easy and bad user experience.

Microsoft investigating 365 Office activation gremlin

Re: If only anybody would unterstand that licensing.

I don't think they needed to understand. They don't need to care themselves and the onus is on customers to prove they're in the clear.

Even Netflix struggles to identify and understand the cost of its AWS estate

snake eats its tail?

At what point the effort exerted to measure the cloud spend becomes equal the usage it's trying to evaluate. Win win or lose lose?

Microsoft won't let customers opt out of passkey push

a vendor lock-in trap

MS surely hopes to "safeguard" all your secrets even if against your will. Hard to leave their walled garden when they keep all your keys. Apple's copycats.

And while offering no portability, I bet that they serve their passkeys with AI.

Apple Intelligence summary botches a headline, causing jitters in BBC newsroom

Re: iPhone improvements???

Not unique to Apple. Samsung does the same BS.

Just give me simple list of photos, no albums, no "helpful" grouping. Actually the same in Windows Downlads folder, some decider keeps fixing default file sorting.

Japanese orgs now paying salaries direct into e-wallets

Next will be company store.

What could go wrong.

As major web browser makers snuggle up to AI, these skeptical holdouts remain

Re: A.I ?

What Al stands for? Automated logic, if that much.

Google is a monopoly. The fix isn't obvious

And what about MS?

Too big to deal with? Hypocrites.

Intel prepares to cut 'thousands' of workers

your tax money at work

No meager handouts to proles, only golden parachutes will be provide to the worthy

Smartphone is already many folks' only computer – say hi to optional desktop mode in Android 15 beta

My experience differs. Dex may not be the best experience but way ahead of what iPhones could offer (unless something has changes since they got forced to use usbc). Dex works with any usbc/tb dock. Supports all attached peripherals (input devices, monitor, Ethernet port) and works pretty well. It may not offer 1 to 1 pixel mapping I'd expect on proper desktop (or maybe other graphics limitations made this impression) but it's more than usable.

No way I'd give up real desktop though. So many other things are crippled on mobiles. Thank you very much for the walled garden mentality.

And calling a bt mouse a non proprietary solution is msomewhat isleading. It's not not an open standard, just a common one. And it suck for mouse/keyboard and even audio (lipsync issue renders it unusable for most video media).

Tesla shareholders agree to pay Musk staggering sum of $48B

This were definitely not shareholders who agreed to pay the confidence man. This looks more like you'll scratch my back, I'll scratch your back deal (and what else to expect from boards where members are usually entitled pricks with with all the formal and informal connections to support this sort of dealings). Or is this an exit scam for our space hero? Hopefully with this, he'll be able to afford one way ticket to Mars or other distant place.

when one has a gun

everything looks like a foot.

shoot, it had to be said

Intel, AMD take a back seat as Qualcomm takes center stage in Microsoft's AI PC push

Re: Not necessary to beat Apple

"As anyone who has run Windows under Parallels on an Mx Mac knows, performance and emulation should be fine." - not to a pedant, but afaik Parallels does not support emulation, hence once MS had pulled the rug on W10 for arm64 so was W10 done for on new Macs. I setup W10 x64 vm in QEMU - after some tweaks I had it running but nowhere near arm64 W11 speeds. Proof of concept for sure and it worked if someone really needed tools available for x64 platform but this was about it.

There's quite some hype about Mx performance. Some of due to MS' choices to cripple Windows with useless crap. Otoh, trying to use Mac as media center proves how much necessary plumbing (and resulting CPU overhead) Apple platform was missing. Probably the same in more aspects than this one.

Apple says if you want to ship your own iOS browser engine in EU, you need to be there

Re: Cunning move?

Hopefully they'll get a taste of the Streisand effect.

As for me, I jumped the ship onto platform that let's me use proper firefox. I like green bubbles.

CoreWeave debt deal with investment firms raises $7.5B for AI datacenter startup

renting to Ms and open ai?

No idea why MS (or even open ai) would like pay the middleman. Embrace and then extinguish is not exactly best business strategy for a startup.

Rivian crawls out covered in $1.5B of red ink, panting that it's still alive

Leccy car maker ships bunch of vehicles, losing around $39K on each one

And so so their customers.

And let's not forget about taxpayers chipping in to help the rich "save" the planet.

Lose lose seems to be the name of the game though in the end, an invisible hand of the "free" market has to funnel that money into someone's pocket.

Intel's green dream is chips without any dips in Mother Nature's health

yet another example of greenwashing

There's no way an energy and resource intense process left no mark on environment. The process can be less dirty but even "green energy" use means that another business processes (or just common people) have to resort to not so clean energy. Not to mention that building energy capacity is not green, no matter the final energy source. Even something as mundane as transmission lines result in huge swaths of deforestated areas with power companies giving zero f...s for the impact and esthetics of "trimming" greenery along lines (them EVs get even greener as result of this).

The whole talk of net zero while aiming for economic growth is just BS. Sad but true.

Microsoft catches the Wi-Fi 7 wave with Windows 11

Re: does anyone

more like - has everyone even moved on to wifi 6 (or cared to move)? It's not like an expensive and often huge "spider" of fancy wifi router would magically upgrade ones internet connection (definitely not without addition outlay of money). Not only this, some of the promised speed can only be realized within short range/same room and even then, anything past 50Mbps is irrelevant for normal use. I bet that tech giants would love if everyone was on Ggps+ plan but most have different priorities.

Microsoft adds more AI to Photos in Windows 10 and 11

but does it even matter any more?

Some time into 22h2 update cycle MS has made most of their crApps removable (with no need for powershell). Why would anyone keep any of them is beyond me. One can't even trust the old Notepad either (now also hijacked by "search with bing"). At least there's the option to just run LTSC build and forget about most of the nonsense MS it trying to trow onto their hostagebase (I could care less for the watermark in the corner of the screen).

Microsoft kills off Windows app installation from the web, again

M$ always leaves barn door open for "business"

On one hand how nice of M$ to not require signing apps by their own CA (for a fee of course), on the other hand how the hell they allowed zero touch installs of all appx packages instead of restricting them to ones signed by specific CA (as defined by a group policy pushed by a business that cared for this sort of app deployments)?

Firefox slow to load YouTube? Just another front in Google's war on ad blockers

4k and no ads. I did see the nag once buy it's been working after brief youtube detox.

Microsoft unleashes Copilot preview on Windows 10 insiders

Everyone on w10 will be snapping theirs taskbar to the right to fix the "feature" that nobody'sasked for.

Could this really be the reason why MS locked the Taskbar position in 11?

Microsoft pushes Azure Government Cloud as homefront defender

Re: "There are a couple of problems that leap out here"

It's worse than "Microsoft sees what you do on your machine." MS can track you between all the systems you volunteered to sign in with your personal account (or were tricked into doing so on more recent Windows versions) and system where you had no choice whether to sign in or not (like your employer's computer that's more than likely running some MS product with - just as likely - misconfigured privacy policies). Managing both work and personal accounts/systems gives MS an opportunity to map true identities (and activities) of users. Google (and others) at least need to work to get that sort of details and don't asks for money for the privilege of being spied on (MS taxes every product and service, including these provided by governments).

Mozilla tells extension developers to get ready to finally go mobile

Re: Finally!

I had to double check phone - I've been running FF (standard channel and beta) for almost a year now with ublock and noscript. None of them has been installed through F-droid. I'd not use Chrome for regular web browsing.

Microsoft's 11-year itch: The uncelebrated anniversary of Windows 8

Re: There's no 'benefit of hindsight' required.

It's worse than that. The whole metro abomination had no place in desktop environment but MS managed to make it also utterly crap in the tablet mode. I gave their useless grove (?) media player a chance to shine as a head/media unit in a car. Absolutely useless UI with buttons fit for mouse cursor interaction but almost impossible to deal with using touch. Pointless exercise that annoyed Windows users. And not like MS has relented since in destroying Windows (sure they'll pretend to restore some user interface features every other generation but the writing is on the wall and so the enshitification continues).

Tenfold electric vehicles on 2030 roads could be a shock to the system

rolling blackout on wheels

And yet US - effectively - encourages monstrosities on wheels (the bigger and more expensive, the larger the tax write-off for those who can afford them).

Great for the grid, environment and other taxpayers /s.

Let's just wait till the trickle down economy passes them used but properly greenwashed trucks to dirty masses. One day we may all be driving "clean" electric vehicles but our fridges will be running off gas powered generators (to keep food from spoiling when neighbors plug in their fleet of monster trucks).