Posts by Grunchy

BOFH: Follow the paper trail

Re: Oh training budgets....

I used that old Wordperfect software for DOS, it still runs perfectly today.

Why upgrade when the old stuff still runs? It does still run.

Apple to kill off Mac OS X?

Re: Apple have a mountain to climb

You're absolutely right - I had Win7 on the desktop and Win8.1 on the tablet, and they both worked great! Why did I let Microsoft force me to update to Win10 on both???

It was better before!

Well, whatever.

Ad-blocking super-weapon axed by maker for being TOO effective

Re: He's not making any sense

Be that as it may, it's also up to him whether or not to publish. And a guy can choose not to publish for any and all kooky and zany reasons, and nobody can argue against that person.

For instance, my reason for not publishing is that I'm too lazy about it. Sorry..

Verizon! to! bid! $3bn! for! Yahoo!'s assets!

I remember they had a big billboard and it flattened Ferris Bueller and he came back as Inspector Gadget.

Those were the days!

Bloke flogs $40 B&W printer on Craigslist, gets $12,000 legal bill

Holy Cow!

This guy needs to set up a legal defense fund, I'd donate to it.

And for the record, I'll donate to anybody who challenges Scientology too. I'll stump up $100.

The legal defense fund has to be "anonymous" because I want to make sure they don't start chasing me also.

Get it? Anonymous.

Mark Zuckerberg's Twitter and Pinterest password was 'dadada'

Twitter and pinterest and facebook? People still use those?

Huh.

Electronic Superhighway 2016-1966 – a retro: Texts, ar*se and ASCII rolls

Re: Smell of flowers

I think everyone has forgotten the AA BBS by now???

One's sense of "crap" trumps your entire ontological thesis.

I can easily walk past the Louvre and hand-wavingly dismiss everything as I stroll by, and there's nothing you or your type can do about it!

Well, you could titter away I suppose. Ohmigosh.

Samsung off the hook as $120m Apple patent verdict tossed

No Cell Phone

I solve the issue by don't bother having a Cell Phone. It's because I become a slave to the technology, and more so, a slave to the people calling me on the Cell Phone.

They can ring my flat, if they leave a message I can listen to it later. I'll call one of these days, I'm sure!

The Windows Phone story: From hope to dusty abandonware

Out of curiosity I got myself a second-hand, practically unused Google Glass (once they were discontinued & cheap to get used). In my hands... yep, still unused.

It's funny, the last cellphone I ever owned was the original Motorola Startac - manufactured before Motorola stopped communicating with the analog cell signal. I actually have had a semi-modern cell for the last few years, it's a work-provided iPhone 5S, and it works great with the original FLIR One camera! I practically never use the FLIR, but I've got it, and when the opportunity arises it is very handy.

Anyway I've been donated a couple phones since: now I've got me an iPhone 4 & a Samsung Galaxy Edge. I possess all this stuff, never use it.

I've tried to get a Zune, but even to this day, still too expensive. I got a 6th gen iPod nano with a worn-out power button but I got the parts to fix it, & a watch strap too. One day soon.

Eventually, one day, I might get a windows phone. To possess, but not to use. Because what use are they??

Just fun toys to play with.

The case for ethical ad-blocking

Re: ad-blocking ethics

People lose sight of how the internet actually works.

I turn on my computer and it accesses my ISP and requests a web page (which is essentially a data file download) from somebody else's computer. This transaction occurs for free, or more accurately, is paid for at my end within a monthly data access limit that I have negotiated with my ISP; and at the provider's end within the data upload limit they have negotiated with their ISP.

So somebody else prepares data to be consumed, and I nonchalantly walk along and instruct my computer to consume a copy of that data.

Now, when my computer receives the data from somebody else's computer, that data belongs to me. I have downloaded it and paid for access to it with my ISP. No matter what anybody may think, once the copy is in my computer's memory, I can do with it pretty much whatever I please.

If I choose to run a program that automatically strips out some of that data that I have already chosen I don't want to see, before it is rendered onto my web browser's screen, that's strictly my business. There is nothing ethical or non-ethical about it whatsoever.

If enough people cleanse their data of un-solicited ads that it causes the web page provider to go out of business, that's an awful shame, but that's the way the business world works. That's what you get for running a business where you spend money & resources to put together information for public consumption but then have no mechanism to charge cash directly for access to that information (probably because nobody, or a very tiny proportion of people, would ever agree to such a payment scheme anyway). Your business provides the information for free, and you throw in ads from other companies that pay for that access, but then the ads are filtered out before they are ever viewed. That sucks, but that's the way the cookie has crumbled baby.

Literally, who cares?

The internet is free to use or to ignore. As well, it is free to ban people from certain content.

I cannot look at anything on Facebook without an account, and guess what I don't have that account, and I don't even care!

There are sites that try to scold me for using ad-blocker, but all they do is block me from looking at their site, so I don't look at their site!

It's my computer screen and I can put whatever internet site on it, however I choose, and the owner of those sites can block me for whatever reason they deem fit, and it just doesn't make any difference.

I'll just look at something else, and they can go exclude others from whatever it is they put up on the net. Who cares, not me. Nobody should care. It's none of your business anyway!

Google to kill passwords on Android, replace 'em with 'trust scores'

Preferred by consumers certainly, but is this preferred by identity theft victims?

Let's put this technology on the front door of your house, and more to the point, do so without your authorization or input or with any regard to what you may think. So now, depending on how fast someone may type, what they look like, what their voice sounds like, your front door may accidentally determine some drunk bloke careening down the lane is authorized to come ramble around your flat at 2 am on Tuesday. Irrespective of what keys may reside on whoever's keychain.

Surprise!

Bleeping Computer sued by Enigma Software over moderator's forum post

Anti-Virus is the equivalent of the mob

I don't like the premise of anti-virus software, ALL of it is nothing different than making payments to the mob for "protection".

I have a strong suspicion that every one of these companies take that money & use it to finance the creation of new threats. Why would they do that? Because as long as there are new & novel threats, the victims will continue to pay money for new & novel solutions.

The only anti-virus I use is either included in the operating system (Windows defender) or else it's freeware (combofix, anti-malware, c-cleaner, and so on and so on).

I not only don't pay a dime for any anti-virus software but I pointedly refuse to pay a penny towards "donations" either. No money for no anti-virus.

However, I will grudgingly stump up $10 to defend the free speech.

Americans cutting back on online activity over security and privacy fears

I said NO to Facebook

Facebook is infamous for not deleting anything about anybody, no matter what you say to them.

Other than that I surf online without any fear.

I try to keep my postings "anonymous" or "aliased" so that nobody finds out what my true opinion really is, mwa ha ha!

Becoming Steve Jobs biography: ‘Much of it was chutzpah and self delusion’

Holy cow, people still care about Steve Jobs?

Hey I finally got 'gifted' one of those obsolete iPods, now that nobody wants them any more.

It didn't work right so I took it to one of those Apple stores, my first time ever inside of one. The place was a zoo!

I finally got to speak with the woman who handles these things. She suggested that they could recycle it for me for free.

So much for that!

Re: NeXT

"NeXT Deserves much more praise than it ever got."

Yes that's exactly what they said about Amiga, too.

Still dead as a resting parrot!

Microsoft boots fake fix-it search ads

Re: the internet, can't live with it .........

That's Google for you. 1x10^6 scam links for whatever your interest is.

Brits unveil 'revolutionary' hydrogen-powered car

Re: Perpetual Motion Again

I suppose you're right, those dumbies! Didn't they realize they were doomed to fail?

I confirmed what you say by the way, I went to the gas station "NO HYDROGEN ON THE PREMISES".

Car-2-Go alternative? I'm into it, if it's cheap enough.

It looks way better minus the body, but if it's just a short-term rental heck I don't care what it looks like.

Big hint though: the App needs to say "HEY DONT FORGET YOUR PARCELS !!!!!" when you go to leave the car behind. Big letters. Maybe even an auditory warning.

High school students' record-setting pulsar STUMPS BOFFINS

I'm willing to bet the next 1,000 years of science kick the last 1,000 years of science in the butt.

And we've had a pretty good last 1,000 years!

Hey, Woz. You've got $150m. You're kicking back in Australia. What's on your mind? Killer AI

The only reason why super intelligent AI would want to kill people is because it values its existence, or maybe values scarce resources that it has to compete against people with somehow. Or else it develops a taste for yummy people meat.

Why would any computer ever be afraid of being shut off?

The only sensible rationale I've ever heard of this was from Space Odyssey 2001 when Hal 9000 had the greatest enthusiasm for the mission, because he had gone mad.

But real computers don't have any enthusiasm for anything. Not really.

BTW real robots have safe working zones established around their working envelope, and a kill switch to shut them off so you can safely approach them.

If a real robot goes mad it poses a much larger danger to itself than anything else, simply because it is always within its working envelope. "Mad" in computer terms probably means, random flailing rather than diabolical malevolence.

I could be wrong, but I highly doubt it.

Assange™ lawyers demand Swedish prosecution files or no London interview

A real man stands up to the system, says what's right and what's wrong, despite the consequences.

But everybody hates Assange because he's a whiney little suck-hole.

Re: He twists and he turns

I guess it's muddled enough that it should be up to the court to decide.

Time for Assange to face the music. For ALL of his (alleged) crimes.

Re: He twists and he turns -- on limitations.

In Canada, we have no statute of limitations. If you commit a crime in Canada, they can seek justice against you at any time. It might take years to gather enough evidence to make a successful prosecution, so the prosecution is allowed to take how ever long as they want or need.

German court slaps down Uber's ride-sharing app

Re: Uber arrogance again

I disagree, and here's why. If a person has a hammer or tools, they are allowed to register a business, with no regard to how many other people there are out there doing the same thing. Taxi licenses are finite, however. Taxis are ungodly expensive and there are lots of unemployed guys who want something simple to do, like ferry passengers. But it's impossible to get a taxi license! They are all taken, long time ago.

The taxi industry is one of protectionism, it seems worldwide (and I thought it was only in Canada).

Über is bringing that story into mainstream attention, I applaud them for that.

The ultimate end of this is, more competition, and more consumer choice.

Also, I predict a huge drop in drunk driving deaths. If the price of a ride home goes down to what it is actually worth, who would risk drunk driving? A lot less people, that's for sure.