Posts by Grunchy 919 publicly visible posts • joined 20 Mar 2015
A couple years ago I finally responded to the marketing suggestion that had been implanted into my psyche and I bought a Bose Wave radio, first gen, $50 off Fleabay.
I AM SUCH A LOSER ARRRRGHHHHHHHHHH.
I mean, it has nice bass response, but the reception kinda sucks.
A terrorist fights with aircraft security, presumably.
Think about what security personnel are doing: securing YOUR LIFE. You're going to fight those people and impede that process?
Rather than 'fight the system' like a dope, why not think of a technological solution.
For Instance: why does your mobile computer need a battery anyway, why not bring something like a Mac Mini that has no battery.
Whats all this BS about "innocent until proven guilty" that's only for the courts, who must be impartial if not "blind" to all matters.
People, sheeple -- we are allowed to think for ourselves. NOBODY is required to believe in "innocent until proven guilty", as a matter of fact, I personally believe in "Guilty the moment you do the crime".
With respect to A-hole Assange, sadly I know nothing about his case so I dunno. I am not such a fool to assume he's innocent though - he's definitely guilty of something.
Somehow or other, he deserves the scrutiny he's under.
What makes any of this worth anything?
I guess it's because Facebook can exploit that data to compel a certain portion of the population to buy something or other, for which Facebook demands a commission.
(Sorry, I remember there was some question from the 'social network' movie which was: what exactly is the value of Facebook, what is it that makes it a business - and I guess ultimately this is what it is? I'm actually not sure.)
Especially since the government & advertisers know for a fact that people pretty much cannot think for themselves.
This is the whole advertising game, you don't waste time & effort trying to convince people to buy smokes/drinks, you merely show images of people enjoying whatever poison you peddle (literally: poison) and let "freely thinking" people do the work for you.
Next thing you know, the addicts are doing the recruiting. For free!
Two nasty things about big tobacco, from top-of-head:
1. You can sue them for damages, and you can win billion$ or hundreds of million$ in damages, but they will never pay you. They will appeal and appeal and appeal until the day you die.
2. They advertise the hell out of the third world. They advertise the hell out of third world children. They go wherever the regulations are not - they have to, in order to survive.
Just because it's legalized, doesn't mean it isn't pure evil in its heart, and that's not bombast, that's a sober true fact (ha ha, "sober").
Elbow's up, lads! That's an order :)
Rich 11: there's a tragedy about democratic voting wherein one is allowed to cast votes only in support of one candidate; even though most often, none of the candidates are all that acceptable.
My proposal is to permit the choice of casting a negative vote. The premise is that if enough people are PO'd enough about a candidate that they achieve a net-negative vote (more votes cast against them than for them), then they are declared un-electable.
Here's the best part: let's say many people hate all of the offered candidates, let's say it was Hillary vs Donald. Well in this scenario, it is highly likely that BOTH candidates would generate net-negative results, and so both would be declared un-electable.
In other words -------
neither candidate would win, and the election would have to be a do-over, with new candidates.
And there's the possibility of a distant, third runner who somehow squeaks in with +5 votes, becomes declared King of the Kountry.
(I've had people tell me this idea is ridiculous, but I promise you, there is precedent: sometimes if you answer a customer satisfaction survey they allow you to craft your response on a scale from "highly satisfied" to "highly dissatisfied". Somehow this isn't too complex to judge your satisfaction with a burger stand; yet I'm told it's far too complex for selecting an elected official. Hmm, I'm not convinced.)
I agree.
I always thought Net Neutrality was an issue of contention between the 99% of users VS the 1% of internet service providers.
You would think (democratically) that the needs of the many would automatically outweigh the wants of the few (especially since the ISPs do not actually "own" the internet, it's certainly not their turf that the 99% majority are accessing).
I suppose so long as the marketplace is fractured & people have options, they will have to keep that in mind if their ISP isn't giving satisfactory service - and as long as all ISPs don't all start working together as an internet access bloc.
We had this innovation known as "baby wipe" which I have found is a good device to use post-number 2. This is my personal opinion, merely sharing for the benefit of others.
Anyways, they don't carry baby wipes at work, because they don't let anybody bring babies into work.
So what I have found is if I were to take a dry paper towel, and moisten it in the sink, why it has become practically the same thing!
Unfortunately that means that I'm that guy who tends to flush those. Because, come on, how do you chuck your TP (PT) into the garbage can.
Now I've never known the plumbing to suffer the subsequent 'backup failure'. The one rule I've seen about flushing matter is that you should ensure whatever you flush is capable of pretty much dissolving into water; which tends to not include such sturdy toweling (which you need to really get a pristine wipe; I tend to not only use both sides of the PT wipe, but also get a couple folds to open up new surfaces, as well).
I say this in full awareness of the fat-bergs they suffer down in the sewers. But in my defence, I'm not the guy rinsing grease, or non-soluble coffee grounds, down the drain.
I have an inkling that even sturdy paper toweling must dissolve, eventually. Am I wrong?
Omg, you folks are not aware of the new green "Paris Agreement" chemical bio-cremation method?
This one is practically built for the basement. All you need is a bit of alkaline hydrolysis, a flushing toilet, & 4 hours.
The benefit is saving all that natural gas from the combustors and being converted into CO2 or whatever.
This is a technology that evolved from the vet clinic to relieve us of our unwanted pet burden.
That's Swatch-Mercedes-Art. Utterly panned by Consumer Reports.
Who did they score: they scored ETA, Blancpain, Omega, Rado, Longines, Hamilton, Mido, Certina, Tissot; and more besides. Those crumb bums!
You cannot 'tick differenter' than Swatch Beat. However, they abandoned that stupid idea long time ago...
May 2015 accounting scandal - profits had been exaggerated by $1.2 billion over the previous 7 years. CEO Hisao Tenaka & 8 other senior execs (including 2 former CEOs) all resigned at the time. Chairman Masashi Muromachi took over until May 2016 when Satoshi Tsunakawa took over from the medical equipment division.
This Norwegian Blue ain't pining for the fjords, this is an ex-parrot!
Rude people on public jets shouldn't talk on cell phones, nor should they talk to their Siri & other helper services, and furthermore shouldn't be allowed to talk AT ALL.
You'll all sit back (up) & zip it. Press the call button if you want something, curs.
I was able to do all the stuff and get it installed and operating, but it always flaked out.
I 'updated' my Ouya to Cyanogen, but it's duffed. I can still access the install menu and all that, but Cyanogen totally doesn't work.
I've updated to Lineage as well, no luck.
It's Duffed!
This very thing happens to me All Of The Time and I totally blame Apple Operating System.
It has a nauseating habit of connecting to any old Wi-Fi and disparaging the cellular data connection, causing inexplicable dead comms while it hums and haws "whats that gov? yes I'm looking, just a mo - just a mo - just a mo - just a mo...", and even when I tell it repeatedly "forget this network", it will disconnect for a moment, then the very next nano-second connect right back up to the exact same faulty network. Apple is BROKEN, the only way to defeat it is to shut off the Wi Fi radio completely. I hate Apple - I hate them, I hate them, their smug condescending attitudes. I shan't ever buy an Apple, the only reason I have this junk is because I got it gifted via the Staples recycling bin.
For inventing the issue of FAKE NEWS.
The issue is irrelevant anyway, people by and large don't care about 'factually truthful' things. Sad fact of the Universe.
Us 'sheeple' mostly rely on trusted reporters to find out & interpret the facts for us, then we just follow who is the most impassioned & persuasive. That's the bottom line.
That's the entire reason behind the continued existence of things such as: alternative medicine; every kind of religion; multi level marketing schemes; every kind of voodoo fortune-telling mystics; gasoline additive companies; all 'luxury' marques; just about every crazy conspiracy theorist; the entire premise of Facebook; holocaust deniers; the list is practically endless.
The greatest power is the power of persuasiveness (which is fueled, incidentally, by 'intensely believing your own bullcrap'). You would hope people would temper that power, but we are each born into this universe a wee little person in an infinitude of possibility and a singular viewpoint, and intense self-serving instinct. I will murder you so I can eat that Taco, sucka!
Because the Gemini is going to come able to run some sort of Linux, which is good. Good enough for me, anyway.
If I ever need to telephone somebody, ohmigosh I can easily use any old flip phone. There's no OS and furthermore, instead of costing like $750 or whatever bonkers price, they're free.
It can also serve as a wifi modem or whatever.
Forgive me for observing, I don't need Microsoft nor Apple nor Google. I need none of the above for nothin'.
When NASA landed on the Moon way back when, I do believe they used rocket thrusters to do that.
The parachutes don't work well there.
However: I can imagine a helicopter technique being more reliably successful.
Because if you miss the first time, presumably you could swing around & have another go, maybe two.
If the rocket landing doesn't work out, that was your one chance.
This argument about whether the light was green or yellow or red is totally beside the point.
The fact is, the self-driving robot car did not detect (or anticipate) something in its path, or try to evade the collision.
Lets say for example you had a small child who got loose and ran into traffic - what good is the self driving car sensors if it cannot see something the size of a car? Presumably if it misses something big, it cannot sense anything smaller.
I fear the Uber self driving car is programmed with defeatist instructions: "collisions are inevitable; lets put this beta system out there and see what its flaws are". POOR SHOW UBER. DON'T LIKE IT. WON'T HAVE IT.
Well, more like Richard Grant. He's famously unable to metabolize alcohol, thereby rendering him by necessity a life-long teetotaler.
Anyway I looked through the linked article, they say it's an observational study so no firm conclusions can be drawn regarding cause & effect.
So, the Reg has blown this out of proportion. Click bait article. Fake news, even!
Personally I don't drink, I don't even care about alcohol. The only reason I'm participating at all is to point out, yeah the actual report doesn't conclude what the Reg says.
I've heard of airplane bombings, believe me, they are real.
My gosh you people, how long is your flight? Can you not curb your electronic addiction long enough for a snooze on board?
Just check the bag, you'll be fine. If you ever watch "border security" (North American show) you'll find out that customs agents the world over can cheerfully snoop through every single thing you've got with you, to their full satisfaction. If you 'forget' your access password, they've got a center that can crack it - and you might even get your device back afterward, too!
Sadly, you only have right-of-entry to your own country. Everywhere else they make you ask permission as if you're some kind of 'visitor'.
There were two "camps" being TI-85 vs HP-48gx. You either understood & appreciated RPN and used the HP, or you hated it and used the TI.
I couldn't afford neither, and furthermore, both were prohibited from any exams because of the potential to sneak in exam data in their memories & graphical displays. One guy put in all the steel phase charts, for example...
So I picked up a Sharp EL-531Q and that was it. Cheapest they had at campus bookstore.
Works to this day, except I have to remove the caseback with a screwdriver in order to change the battery.
I did get an Atari Portfolio, which was cool because it utilized DOS commands. However it was sluggish & primitive and my landlord stole it, I think.
I'm getting me a Psion Gemini off Indiegogo! well, maybe :)
There was one TI-99 in high school, but it wasn't worth the time. Too underpowered, too lame. The physics dept had it, but I never saw anybody doing anything in earnest on it.
The business education dept. had an entire lab of Commodore Pets !
(We made the very first malware there - by rapidly POKEing the video adapter into different modes, we got the video chip to overheat - we ran this on every PET in the lab over lunch break, afterwards the lab teacher came back to a room full of smoke and pricey machines seemingly destroyed - off/on and back to work with yew! No lasting damage, that's how good Commodore equipt. was back in the day.)
The *real* retro machine was the Vectrex. I actually got one, years & years after they had been discontinued, and bought the combo cart (with every single game ever released on one menu-accessible cart).
A few years later I was like "man what's up with this old junk" and pitched it.
Moving on ....
If GCHQ only denies wiretapping while Trump has been in office, that's clearly an admission of wiretapping before he was elected.
Very clever lads.. a full admission, hidden in plain sight.
Meanwhile, you (meaning: anyone) are allowed to wiretap my personal residence. I do not use phone lines no more.
Wire tap away!
Ok first of all, I thought Disney already made "Beauty and the Beast" which I still never got around to watching, because, hey I'm busy alright?
Also as for the homosexuality in the show, we already had that for decades now with Bugs Bunny. Who seems more transgender than anything.
Anyway -------------------- WHY would anybody buy this google device. I already got Google glass for a song, 2nd hand, which I studiously ignore on a daily basis (because its kinda useless & hokey).
I have switched to "duckduckgo" because it doesn't track me, I'm thinking of a good free webmail that I can use instead of gmail; and I'm thinking of converting my tablet device to a flavor of Linux instead of Android.
I think I am un-googling!
Had my fill.
A self-driving car is nothing but a robot.
Robots are inherently dangerous machines. You never turn your back on a robot, or dare tread into its operating envelope.
Letting them loose on the streets with several HP of power, let alone hundreds, is the height of foolhardiness.
I'm predicting tragedy followed soon after by massive lawsuits...
Oh gosh, now is the time to mention this.
What means "portrait" and "landscape" modes, every time I see or hear this I have to take a moment to figure it out.
I wish to heck we had named these modes "tall" and "wide" instead.
Is it too late to do this? Are we allowed to rescind old nomenclature?
I use a cellphone "tall" and I use a tablet "wide" like any normal non-infuriating person is apt to do ! !
Eh? What, did they disappear or something?
It says back in 2003 they developed a clock with accuracy 10^-15 which is superior to their 2001 model which only had accuracy 10^-14.
BUT AT WHAT COST, seems its a bit more finicky as a consequence. After which point the whole group was disbanded in disgrace, wot?
Even better, lease a shop, pick up some ovens from the auction, and develop your own recipe.
Be a entrepreneur & hire the help. Guess what language your web dev will use to set up your online pizza ordering app?
The answer is, it doesn't make any difference as long as it works. Fire the ones that don't succeed.
It's funny to hear web devs argue about nonsense while you're counting stacks of pizza loot :)
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