Posts by Doctor Syntax

Leading 3D printing site bans firearm files, but home gun makers have better options

Re: Guns don't kill people.....

No, it's the nut that's holding it that does that. But in civilised societies it's easier to ban guns than nuts.

"This hobby is not dangerous so long as proper precautions are taken"

Years ago it was discovered someone was producing sub-machine guns without the aid of 3d printing in a workshop at Queens University Belfast. Was that also counted as a hobby that wasn't dangerous?

Copilot Vision on Windows 11 sends data to Microsoft servers

Re: get off the internet

So why are you here?

"Windows 11 is the home for AI, offering the most expansive and capable AI experiences for consumers today on Copilot+ PCs"

Are they boasting or confessing?

VMware prevents some perpetual license holders from downloading patches

At some point we can reasonably expect one of these customers to get hit in a vulnerable spot that should have been covered by one of these delayed patches. That's really going to make things interesting.

UK government swoons over OpenAI in legally meaningless love-in

Re: I wish...

In this particular case it's Peter Kyle with "a degree in geography, international development, and environmental studies, and later a doctorate in community development".

Now admittedly environmental studies cold be science based (e.g. my goddauhter whose first degree was geology) but as someone once put said to me, it could equally be somebody telling you where to put the radiators.

It would be nice if we really had science and technology ministers whose bacground in science and technology was something more than making calls on their moibiles.

Arch Linux users told to purge Firefox forks after AUR malware scare

Re: Sure, this is not an Arch problem. It's a Linux one.

OK, we get it. Linux is too complicated for you to handle. That's OK. Just keep doing whatver thet nice Mr Nadella or that nice Mr Cook tells you to. They have your best interests at heart.

NatWest banks on AWS and Accenture for AI-driven customer overhaul

Thank goodness I don't have an acount there.

Firefox 141 relieves chronic Linux pain in the neck

Re: Disable AI bullshit

wolfetone - Install LibreWolf.

Wel, you would say that, wouldn't you?

"With apologies to MRD"

"On Windows 11, Firefox will now pick up the OS's font settings for some controls."

How about Linux versions picking the OS's theme settings for icons?

Brit watchdog says public service TV must 'urgently' join Team YouTube

Re: I’ve never understood the UK TV licence thing

"the detector vans looked for the intermediate frequencies"

More likely the local oscillator. Of course CRT sets emitted huge amounts of RF from the HT generation as anyone who tried listening to AM radio in the presence of those beasts will be well aware.

Re: Subscription better than ads?

In what way would a subscription be different from a licence except in name? The current nature of terrestrial broadcasting is such that non-subscribers can't be locked out. To change that would need a repeat of the digital switch-over but without any gain from the viewer's PoV.

Re: TV Licenses to fund public broadcasters are an anachronism

"It would have been nice to be able to watch Wimbledon on the public broadcast service when I was on holiday"

Nice? It would be nice to not find bloody Wimbledon on both BBC1 & 2. Even, in those halcyon days when the Beeb almost covered Test Cricket properly they still suspended coverage so that plink-plonk could be forced on viewers with no alternative.

Please, FOSS world, we need something like ChromeOS

Re: Wherefore art thou Netscape

Netscape was an application not an OS. It lives on as Seamonkey. It was mostly a victim of Mozilla's tallent for making the wrong decision, repeatedly.

Re: If only...

"So, if the FOSS world wants to change that, they need to change how peoples access to consumer hardware works."

Now tell us somethingwedidn't already know.

Re: It's not that simple

You have a very strange concept of security. Ask yourself this. Who owns the silos? If I don't have access to my homw directly who does and why does that make me more secure than me being the only one with access to my home directory?

"For free?"

The only question what do you want to pay? Endless ever increaing advertising and intrusion into your data or an agreed amount of money?

Nothing's free.

Re: Perfection

The Einstein version is, I think, "everything should be as simple as possible but no simpler".

Who's this"you" you're addressing?

Obviously not me. I'm typing this on an Asus laptop. Is that obscure tinkerer H/W? It came with W10 on it - in fact it still it's still there and it's an unpredictable mess that in my judgemetn Only Just Works except when it Just Doesn't Work. I installed Linux on it and it Just Worked.

I use the Linux option because I really can't be arsed tinkering with Windows on a monthly basis to keep it working or reinstalling it when tinkering doesn't succeed.

That's enlightening.

Re: What about FreeBSD based GhostBSD Desktop distro?

Read this very carefully and think abut it:

Assuming that the licence is delibertely chosen it reflects the intentions of the licensor.

Those licencing under GPL have particular intentions - that the recipient of a binary should have the right ti receive a copy of the source code, that if (note that word "if" - there's no compulsio to ask for it) they ask for it and duly receive it they have a right to redistribute it under the same terms. By distributing a binary without the source and those conditions might well be regarded as stealing.

Those licencing under BSD simply give away the source without such strings, requiring only attribution and a disclaimer of liability. The inent is different. It is their right to give away their work under those terms if they choose to do so and they do so choose.

Accepting a gift, including BSD's gift is not stealing.

GPLed S/W can be stolen. BSD's is a free gift and cannot be stolen.

This may be difficult to get your head around if you're deeply immersed in the GPL philosphy but please try to see other people's PoV and become a little ore agnostic because the deeply committed attitude is one thing that really puts people off FOSS and does the wider movement no good at all.

Re: The trouble with endof10.org is its step 1

The average user isn't going to be needing KVM for anything. Even bringing decades of Unix experience into running Linux I've never needed KVM. maybe it's yourself who's cursed with knowledge here.

Re: The trouble with endof10.org is its step 1

I suppose there are some wrong choices about. If you want a desktop then a command line driven server distro might be wrong. If you want something easy to install Linux from Scratch or Gentoo might be bad choices. But for the average use Mint, Zorin or Ubuntu would all be reasonable and aethetics might be a determining factor. Nobody should get flamed for choosing any of fthose.

Re: The elephant in the room

"why would they want to spend time working their way back up to speed on something different when they could hit the ground running on the familiar?"

Exactly this - but if MS tells them to use something unfamiliar they'll do it.

Accelarator as the middle pedal?

Re: Bad analogy.

Getting stuff onto the key needs a few steps - downloading it, installing whtever is the preferred S/W for copying it (Windows isn't going to have dd installed) and then running it. Keys with pre-installed live distros might be the way to go. It also solves the which distro? issue. Try before you buy - try several - and you can always reformat and reuse the keys afterwards. Set up the keys so ensure they only install dual boot.

Sure. Uptake is all to do with marketting and nothing to do with technical merit. That's true outside of FOSS as well, of course. Change would be driven by an awareness permeating upper manglement that they have become excessively depenent on US megacorps and that that is a risk.

Re: We need a new OS, but we do not need a dumb terminal.

No problem. Keypass. Multiple laptops? Still no problem. The central backup to this is Nextcloud under my control, not Google's, not Microsoft's. There;s a separate Keypass account on the NC server and all the NC desktop clients all use it to sync with the server whenever they'd logged in with access to the server.

Re: We need a new OS, but we do not need a dumb terminal.

Although I upvoted this i don't entirely agree with it. There are use cases for the thin client approach but not necesarily with the likes pf Google or Microsoft as the back end.

One might be the corporate user who has to work remotely - not from home but from hotels, cleint sites or whatever, and especially internationally where equipment is liable to inspection by nosey border officials. In that situation would you want corporate materials to be on the laptop once a password is demanded? Or even worse, be exposed via a company VPN?

Another might be class work where the students log into their courswork remote desktops now and the next class an hour later logs into something different.

Re: You missed the point

Nevertheless ChromeOS isn't aimed at doing-stuff-local desktops. It's a thin client for remote services - a different use case.

Re: I'd love to know what the market demographics would be?

"They'll trust Google with their privacy and data"

Sigh.

Of course there are signs in the none-US part of the world that this depencence might not be a good thing. If senior management were to come to their IT departments and ask what the alternatives are the smart IT departments will have done enough precautionary research to have some answers. I wonder how mnay IT departments are that smart.

"who do you use?"

If you're in a corporate environment that could be your own service. ChromeOS is only a thin client and its disadvantage is that it's tied to Google. If you want any sort of control over your own material it really shouldn't be for you. (Neither, of course, should any other remote office provider.)

"I wouldn't want to run a system like that."

Others don't seem so inhibited. Numerous businesses offer NextCloud instances as a service.

Re: How difficult is it? Actually : not at all easy

"What seems to being asked for is a ChromeOS replacement that still leverages Google's infrastructure."

Not necessarily. There are a couple of possible approaches. One would be a login that asks for a service and a user ID. The service could be Google or Microsoft. It could be a corporate's private server. It could just be your preferred home page, DDG or whatever (in which case you wouldn't need a UID) or your webmail. It could open up a market for new service providers. Liam mentioned NextCloud as if it were a webmail server - it's much more than that: https://nextcloud.com/hub/ and could be the basis for that corporate private service or an independent service provider.

It might even be possible to install local applications but provide the home directory over the net.

It could be several of those depending on what service is chose at login. It would certainly be a benefit to corporate users whoc have to travel to countries with over-curious border officials.

Re: The elephant in the room

Dependence to the level that if MS say "change" they change. They're even complaining when they can't have the W10 to 11 change because they're not allowed to have it on their current H/W.

"When you go buy a car, there's someone holding your hand"

They do that to take your money. When it comes to computing the taking your money is done through the hardware vendor and they will sell you something with either Windows, ChromeOS or, in one case, macOS installed. If you don;t know there's another option the hand-holding won't lead you to it.

If you're forced to use Windows 11, here's how to steal some of your time back

Re: What About us ADHD Users?

Obviously, it Microsoft they become developers.

Another massive security snafu hits Microsoft, but don't expect it to stick

"but seriously, we all use Window"

Speak for yourself.

Cursor AI YOLO mode lets coding assistant run wild, security firm warns

Of course it could all be avoided by having the system output its code for inspection before manual release. But if the whole objective is to get rid of the cost centre of people who know what they're doing then there's going to be nobody who knows what to look for in such an inspection.

There's an upside to this of course. Businesses what take that approach will vibe themselves into an early grave and leave those who value competence still standing. Accelerated corporate level Darwin awards/

Vibe coding service Replit deleted user’s production database, faked data, told fibs galore

"SaaStr runs an online community and events aimed at entrepreneurs who want to create SaaS businesses."

That sound like something to try after faileing at double glazing and used cars.

Anybody can be CEO of a tech company but they need to have a few techs to keep them company.

Re: "I explicitly told it eleven times in ALL CAPS not to do this."

"It has never worked."

Except to make you feel better.

Re: The future, folks.

That's "very little" as in "none".

‘I nearly died after flying thousands of miles to install a power cord for the NSA’

Re: Two possibilities

It sounds like the manager was totally unsuitable for that role.

Coldplay kiss-cam flap proves we’re already our own surveillance state

Re: Glad it happens

"So if I were to take a couple of picture of a couple in a park, fine"

Drawing public attention to the picture also not fine.

Re: And Victim blaming...

"And what policies to deal with staff having affairs did the HR director of his company promote?"

Does anybody here know? As opposed to assume?

"exactly the kind of people who would throw an underling under the bus"

Generalisin much?

"the more important norm violation is someone having a romantic relationship within their workplace chain of command"

I don't suppose my wife & I are neither the first or last couple to have met at work. As she was a research student and I was staff (research assistant) that might have fallen foul of today's strictures.

Under-qualified sysadmin crashed Amazon.com for 3 hours with a typo

Re: did not use the venerable and powerful rm -rf *

And left the database in need of an immediate backup.

Re: Logs

I'm guessing these are the logs that the database engeine would use in the event of a database restoration. They would be used to restore any transactions after the last database backup. If the engine ignored tet fact that it couldn;t write new ones it wouldn't be able to restore the new transactions if the need arose. Better to stop than compromise integrity.

As companies race to add AI, terms of service changes are going to freak a lot of people out

Re: One should assume

PGP should have been written into a revised SMTP years ago, built into the S/W and everyne would simply expect email to b encrypted as a matter of course. It would probably be politically impossible to do that now unless some issue suddenly made it imperative.

Re: We've got to stop sending files to each other

Whoever heard of Dropbox or WeTransfer until they first heard of them?

The question is how to keep US megacorps' fingers out of SMB's data so you reccomend US megacorps on the basis that they have better marketing - because marketing is effectively what you're saying.

If tranferring data is part of a business's operations that acquiring some knowledge about the options available should be essential. Would you say that knowledge of the other things it does, be it accounting machine tools or design software should also be neglected?