Posts by Grunchy 1063 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Mar 2015
I bought a box with random 700 cds for $13.99 per hundred and I just rip em.
Hey it was funny people bought music libraries from iTunes and then passed away, and children tried to access the collection, only to find out Steve Jobs wanted all that for himself (and then died to spite em.)
I don’t buy Steam games any more because they don’t want to support that era of OS anymore, even though every game I have runs fine on Win7.
I’ve moved on to GOG for DRM-free games only.
I can’t believe anybody pays a cent for Microsoft anything. Libre Office is finally a decent alternative.
As for music & books: I do my shopping on FM radio & free little libraries. You know where’s a good place to buy content? Thrift stores. Or borrow from library and rip at will.
(I’m not paying any money for computer hardware anymore either. I can get amazing deals on cast-off equipment at the recyclers. I have six high end HP & Lenovo servers downstairs with hundreds of GB of ram each and the whole lot cost less than $500!)
I’m done with Apple, too.
I’ve moved on to Linux and run Proxmox server and virt-manager for other OS environments.
I’ve also reverted to Windows 7 for my legacy windows applications (minus the network connection, to avoid their security problems.)
Steam is dropping support for Win 7 so I’m dropping them first.
Somehow I got tricked into using “thorium” browser, and now I find out if has furry porn and circumcision images? I am trying to avoid google and microsoft spyware, and I got duped by “the individual” instead.
(If somebody ever tries to corner you into using their choice of pronouns, use “the individual” instead. Works practically everywhere.)
“The Cloud” is somebody else’s computer. They want your files in case you have some valuable information that can be exploited.
You know why google hosts everybody’s email for free? It’s so that an artificial intelligence can scrape everything that everyone is talking about, and then pose to it interesting questions.
(Such as, “hey google what is the stock market doing tomorrow, where are tomorrow’s 10-baggers,” or “who is getting murdered tomorrow,” etc.)
First of all, my personal data is pretty much worthless anyway!
Plus I keep offline backups, those are incremental and held on power-off servers (yeah, I’ve got quad redundancy).
Next, I work in VMs anyway, with ZFS raid and snapshots and all that jazz.
Plus some cloud account or two holding more backups. Plus a drawer full of old HDDs that were never deleted, and may still fire up.
Did I mention my data is completely worthless anyway? It really is, the only reason I have such redundant backups is because the local electronic recycler is practically giving away heaps of top notch equipment from just a couple years ago.
(It’s an interesting hobby.)
Thunderf00t already “busted” the idea that this research has anything to do with power generation. It’s actually nothing but weapons research.
(For example: to “harness” the heat energy you’d have to incorporate a steam generator, or some kind of thermal capture apparatus, and they don’t have the room in between all those super laser beams.)
Sabine Hossenfelder goes further into competing technologies, but even the most likely candidates use severely esoteric, sketchy techniques. Probably all 100% of this research space isn’t being commercialized in the next 50 years…
(It’s a wonder Musk isn’t mixed up in this too, if he were then we’d know for certain it’s just an elaborate scam.)
Moved up to Linux. Now I run “ghost spectre” win10 in virt-manager sandbox (no internet — antivirus no longer needed, nor are ‘updates’ since it’s just for legacy software anyway).
The nice thing is that vm “snapshots” actually work, unlike microsoft garbage “restore points” that always failed. Plus I became offended by microsoft snooping, stealing personal data, and unwanted advertising. That all ended just a few months ago, I did not realize how anxiety inducing that “experience” was — until I fired microsoft.
The forgotten cage match…?
I’m still waiting for the cave rescue submarine!
Musk promised he would deliver even though the kids were long since rescued!
You might laugh at my “faint hope,” but he did finally get around to delivering his abysmal cyber truck, after all.
(I’ve noticed that people seem to have extremely short memories about stuff like this. Does anybody remember, there used to be a company called “Pontiac?” Do people remember when they released their latest godawful truck, “Aztek?” Yeah.. that one.)
I remember trying to ask out girls (prior to Windows 1995, which is when the internet started in earnest) and every single one of them said they were suffering some kind of emotional crisis.
I was like, what gives with this???
The only thing they all had in common was that they all happened to be suffering nervous breakdown at precisely the same moment that I happened to be makin’ my moves on ‘em.
+*+ Mystified! +*+
I’ve got Proxmox on the servers and Virt-Manager (Qemu) on the workstation.
I tried out VMWare many moons ago, upgraded to VirtualBox, then settled on Proxmox & Qemu.
Of course Proxmox is a given, for the ZFS pool.
On the workstation it’s really unimportant, it’s just a sandbox for Microsoft Windows to be trapped in. It’s strictly for legacy stuff, I don’t even really have a use case for it.
(If I was running a cloud server I’d probably just use Proxmox, depending on the specific technologies needed, of course.)
That’s right, the artificial intelligence thing. Yes, one of the reasons I bought all this server equipment was because I wanted to set up stable diffusion down in the basement. But then I got way more interested in Proxmox, virtualization, and ridding myself completely of Microsoft.
(Well, I still have the Windows. Locked safely inside a VM sandbox. Mostly for legacy software, but also to observe Windows and Mac OS being brought to heel — utterly — inside Linux.)
“I might also mention that I'm somewhat skeptical of the drive for human spaceflight in general”
Yeah. Agree. Virtually the entire Universe is completely hostile to human life. There’s nowhere to go, and once you get there, there’s nothing to do.
I predict when Musk sends people to Mars they have a thoroughly awful time interrupted only when they die in thoroughly appalling circumstances. Luckily, they will be too far away to actually take any revenge against Musk.
(Much like Russian armed forces fighting in Ukraine, and will never be able to do anything against Putin.)
“Oh for the happy days of Windows 7 when the OS (mainly) did what it was asked and nothing more.”
Yup, I hear you. I actually set up about a dozen Windows VMs, each of which to run one particular app, and all of them using the same license key. Once I got GPU passthrough working, yeah let’s get several instances of that set up.
Not only Win10, but also Mac OS, Linux server, and even Solaris, Free BSD, whatever I want!
I admit I do have one Win7 setup (also Ghost Spectre) that I let online because I have it running Steam. Sadly, this absolutely perfect setup I only get to enjoy until Dec 31. Because Steam are foolishly dropping Win7 support on Jan 1.
Grr.
I upgraded to Linux and I only run Windows from within VM now. Furthermore, I don’t expose Microsoft to the internet anymore.
It’s just a setup to run certain legacy software, and absolutely none of it is ever gonna be tampered with, a.k.a. “updated.”
So that’s why I run the Ghost Spectre edition. No antivirus, no updates, no internet, no viruses, and no meddling.
Also, absolutely zero spying.
Ransomware has negligible cost to distribute, same as email spam. Even though both schemes only pay off in a tiny fraction of instances, and may be long periods between payoffs, they’ll never go away, or stop evolving.
All you can do is be aware of the problem, protect your interests, and live your life.
Keep a sharp eye for new exploits, because they will be coming…
Somehow they weren’t doing backup, or data security, or email rules. The virus got into the server and encrypted entire data sets. Plus you can bet the baddies kept a copy.
Cost $50,000 in bitcoins and about 5% was never recoverable.
(It all happened mere months before I started.)
Personally, I run Windows inside Qemu now, from disk images inside a ZFS data pool.
I’ve got snapshots and backups, including offline.
It took me decades to switch to Linux, I’m glad I finally got around to it!
It seems to me that Google has access to everybody’s email, all of which are exposed to an artificially-intelligent observer., which is owned operated controlled and queried by Google.
“Hey Google, what are the top 5 stocks on Nasdaq that are gonna jump in value today?”
Nice system.
You can’t even get out of the solar system in a reasonable time frame, let alone to another star system. Even just getting to the sun takes no less than 8 minutes — no matter who you think you are!
Any alien that’s gonna travel for centuries to get here, when they do show up they’re going to be real “slow talkers.” As in, not very stimulating…
Operating system is irrelevant now, no matter what software you want to run. Said from the perspective of, “if I can do it, pretty much anyone can.”
I’ve upgraded my CAD and engineering workstation to Ubuntu 22 and am running Qemu and Virt-Manager to run Win7, Win10, Mac-OS, even Solaris. I’ve even gotten these to work with full GPU passthrough acceleration (even HDMI audio, if that’s important.)
So, that’s it then. I converted to Linux for daily driver and any other operating system as a mere sandboxed environment, completely sheltered from the view (and control) of Microsoft, Apple, even Oracle.
“Arm” is great, I guess? I already have all the computational power I need or want, it’s all paid-for, and the electricity bill is quite affordable. I doubt I’m upgrading any time soon. Put it this way, I’m still going great with iPhone 4. What do I need a modern, clown-size phone for? Nothing!
I’ve been upgrading my 2017 “budget build” went from Ryzen 1800x to 3800x, still pleased with my SX8200 1TB “pro”. Main slot has the Vega56, secondary has the GTX1050-Ti. Just yesterday splurged $300 Cdn on 4x 32GB DDR4-3600 modules.
The *big* upgrade, however, was from Win10 to Ubuntu22. Now I run Virt-manager with Qemu, and pass-through the Vega56 to my compartmentalized instances of Win7, Win10, and Mac-OS (which no longer run any form of anti-virus, since they are unfit to be exposed to the internet. Nothing but legacy offline apps.)
Even though my rig is already 6 years old, I doubt I’ll be upgrading anything else before 2030, if ever.
“It all has to do with monetizing the user after the sale. Create a Microsoft account just to install, now they know who you are. Send you a text to your cell for MFA, now they have hooked in your mobile device as well.”
Seems that Microsoft has become a peddler of “shitware.”
I haven’t tried KVM, but I am using QEMU with successful passthrough. I also set up a Hackintosh (despite there being zero use for that) but also a creaky old Solaris installation.
I’m having way more fun just monkeying around with abandonware. I don’t care what Microsoft does anymore, they are irrelevant now.
Since I’m running Ubuntu now and I can run any Windows I want as a virtual machine, I’ve ditched Windows 10. I’m back on Windows 7. (By the way: with full GPU passthrough. I solved the puzzle!)
Virus protection is irrelevant since Windows isn’t used for internet anymore. Just for legacy software, which is also prohibited from any more “update” meddling. Everything works good enough the way it is!
I run Windows VM in only a 40GB sandbox qcow virtual drive which could be completely destroyed in seconds. On the other hand, I could recover my last “snapshot” even faster than that, so who cares?
Good luck getting to it since it runs 100% disconnected from the network.
Good luck getting to my NAS backup device, which is literally powered off every second it isn’t tasked with backups. “Off,” as in unplugged from the wall power outlet.
Nice try, hackerz! But think again.
I finally, Finally! upgraded my Windows PC to a certain Debian distribution, and using virt-manager configured a Windows VM running Ghost Spectre with all updates halted until the year 2077. It is running sandboxed and isolated and is used for nothing but legacy apps that are also prohibited from all future updates. I set up another Monterey Hackintosh VM in the same manner.
The meddlers are totally locked out.
Meanwhile, I have embarked (emborked?) on a separate “voyage of discovery” into the vast sea of Debian. So far, clear weather…
(I am just so tickled at the power of snapshot! The proprietary OS’s will angrily sabotage themselves in response to some new liberty I am exploring, and each time it’s like the ultimate “undo”. Refreshing! Microsoft and Apple are literally powerless now. FREEDOM!!)
YouTube is dead, my friend. The only worthwhile way to access their upload library is with NewPipe. Google is rapidly becoming irrelevant… Microsoft may as well not even exist anymore, as far as I’m concerned. As for Apple, I haven’t bought any Apple equipment since the 1990s.
Wow, 3% market share? But what difference does it make: nobody pays any money for a browser, they’re not making anything from sales. I like Firefox because it is NOT constantly upheaving everything all over the place. It’s an information appliance and that’s good enough for me. As for the “app” store, I bought exactly one app ever and that was Star Chart on the iPhone: a very clever “augmented reality” view of the sky. I have never found reason to pay $5 for any other app. I got my Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email, voip, sms, instant banking, gps mapping. Good enough!
(I used to do web browsing with Emacs on the Vax terminal at Uni, Mozilla still seems like the “new thing” in comparison. Shrug.)
Since computers are so cheap and software solutions have become so mature, companies are resorting to subscriptions and obsolescence schemes to churn software and maintain revenue. PCs used to cost big money for much less horsepower than you can get in a $60 Raspberry Pi 5 today, and not all that long ago. People like me pay pittances for cast-off hardware from recyclers and run abandonware for $nothing. I remember being offended how outrageous expensive PS3 was, now people scrap them as junk and the entire game library is freely downloadable. Being a natural scrounge & cheapskate, I don’t pay ‘nuthin for anything !
They finally called me up to switch me to fibre optic since they are spending megabucks to convert the entire city of Calgary. So I asked the lady “why” I am getting monthly bills for $0 owing for the last decade. She says that’s cause I still have access to my Telus.net email address (even though no service!) because they ditched that server way long time ago and it’s been operated by google mail ever since then, which retains your data for at least 99 years after your demise, whether they caused it or not. So I’m all, “ok how do I access that defunct account then,” and she’s all, “well are you buying fibre optic service or not.” Check Mate.
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