Posts by bombastic bob

US airspace closures, lack of answers deepen East Coast drone mystery

Trump probably knows already

Trump has a history of revealing a LOT of things other presidents won't. He's big on transparency. He gets briefings and PROBABLY KNOWS ALREADY, but speaks carefully as he's not in office yet (so it might be a crime to "confirm or deny"). But he CAN say a lot, if it SOUNDS like an opinion.

Imagine the Trump admin NOT getting to the bottom (once and for all) of the Kennedy assassinations from the 60's, with RFKJr. as a member of his cabinet... you KNOW this is getting revealed if there's something to find. THAT and a zillion OTHER conspiracies. No need for tinfoil hats. "Deep State" is already on notice. Truth.

Re: The Idiocracy takes flight

Today I saw night vision videos on Fox News that identified a quadrotor drone in one panel (from Monday evening I believe) and a flock of geese from last night. So like always there are legit sightings and people who want to see something but it turns out to be something else.

In My Bombastic Opinion this may simple be a classified military operation, similar to development of the stealth fighter. "Drone War" is a distinct possibility and you KNOW the military industrial complex wants IN. If I am correct it may even be joint development, as these things are also being reported near UK bases and Ramstein DE. So if I take that to the next level, the US, UK, DE, and maybe Israel are developing drone-related tech in which they are capable of "going dark" and escaping (this was reported from a police helicopter crew) and operating over densely populated areas is part of the testing. For all we know, the PEOPLE are part of the testing...

Occam's Razor, they're "ours", it's classified, and gummint is lying about it, just like they lie about area 51 [where classified research like stealth fighter] haas been eveloped.

In any case, UK has a laser to shoot 'em down now.

Silent NASA lander gives boffins insight into Martian dust

NASA sends robot "red light squeegee guy" to Mars to wash Mars lander solar panels

As described in a (potential) "Babylon Bee" article

(are there Squeegee guys in UK?)

systemd begrudgingly drops a safety net while a challenger appears, GNU Shepherd 1.0

Re: 42% less unix philosophy

All sysdtemD does for ME is get in the way, especially on embedded things (like devices with an RPi as the controller). it's WORST feature is the default config, when you spend HOURS trying to figure out what it did that causes your serial port to get noise on the line (turned out some stupid MODEM SERVICE started and fornicated the serial connection and if I recall correctly I had to disable MORE THAN ONE THING to FIX it).

In any case if you are doing something OTHER than setting up Poettering's personal laptop (alluding to a similar comment in another post in this thread) it's QUITE POSSIBLE that something easily done with SysV init weil take bastardized workarounds or not be possible at ALL...

[try setting up the network to be either an AP *OR* a client, support scanning to set it up, AND optionally use an ethernet port instead of OR along with it, and see if you can leave systemD and it's minion processors to do it... so I shut them OFF and use the remnants of SysV networking and shell scripting invoked by rc.local]

Still I should have a look at the new GNU thing, find a distro that has it, test in a VM, etc.

Aliens, spy balloons, or drones? SUV-sized mystery objects spotted in US skies

If they flew over Texas, Louisiana, or Florida

If they flew over Texas, Louisiana, or Florida, we'd be finding their carcasses scattered all over the place.

Easy to get rid of: Just declare "open season" on the things, and let Bubba and Bo get out there with shotguns and blow 'em away!!!

[and STOP acting like a bunch of drenched female cats]

Facing sale or ban, TikTok tossed under national security bus by appeals court

Why don't all other countries take the same approach to US-cintrolled companies gathering data on their citizens?

Perhaps the data is being shared with them?

(GDPR helps, I think - we need something similar in the USA so we can see what's being tracked and control it individually, especially with 2FA more and more often demanding a CELL PHONE NUMBER)

Re: Not just TikTok

maybe not yet, but certainly possible I recall Furbies being banned in certain places because they used a microphone for certain functionality. And some time ago I visited a military base where they would not allow cell phones to be brought by visitors onto the ships that were docked there.

Re: US Constitution applies to the US Government

Limits are placed on the US federal and state governments with respect to CITIZENS and LEGAL RESIDENTS/VISITORS.

For foreign entities there are treaties, and for foreign citizens there are visas. For foreign-owned businesses they can be allowed, restricted, banned or even confiscated. That's how "National Sovereignty" works. Any other interpretation, PARTICULARLY that which implies special (or any) rights imparted to foreign-owned companies and/or ILLEGAL residents/visitors is a RIDICULOUS "bleeding heart" *HOBBLING* of such national sovereignty that exists NOPLACE ELSE in the world. Like every other nation, FOREIGN people and entities are allowed access to the USA according to laws that do not EVEN have to be FAIR. The US Constitution cannot be used to argue ANY rights for foreign controlled businesses. Byte Dance is WRONG on this and may find their assets confiscated, but I hope they TRY and get way with it. SCOTUS is essentially the LAST word in appellate jurisdiction and as such can clarify this once and for all, most likely with a 6:3 majority.

NEXT might be a confiscation of all of that FARMLAND the CCP got away with snarfing up, which is PROBABLY used for hiding criminal aliens and drugs, and spying on our military (rather than growing food). WHY they were allowed to buy land in the FIRST place is beyond INSANITY, but WHEN the truth comes out the Feds are likely just to tear up their deeds and auction it off to people that want to grow FOOD.

.

Microsoft confirms there will be no U-turn on Windows 11 hardware requirements

Re: Can anyone clarify

Would that EVER translate into "FINGERPRINTS ONLINE" or create LICENSING ISSUES??

[asking for a friend - heh]

fixed it for ya

"What kind of insane person runs an email server live on the Internet using Windows ANYTHING"

FIFY

Re: Well...

I decided a while back (AFTER CANCELLING MSDN AS IT BECAME A TOTAL FREAKING WASTE OF $ WITH 11's TPM REQUIREMENT and VBOX NOT SUPPORTING VIRTUAL TPM - YOU ARE F'ing WELCOME, MICROS~1) that if, for WHATEVER reason, I MUST have 11 installed on something, I'd purchase the CHEAPEST PIECE OF CRAP I could find and just use THAT for that ONE PIECE OF CRAP SOFTWARE that DEMANDS 11...

*TOTAL* *BACKFIRE* !!!

(I hope you are happy, Micros~1, and I will LOUDLY recommend Linux and/or BSD solutions to D.O.G.E. while I'm at it!!!)

Elementary OS 8 'Circe' conjures Wayland magic

Sadly, in our testing, ... the Wayland session wasn't usable.

"Sadly, in our testing, ... the Wayland session wasn't usable."

(Obligatory Wayland-hate comment withheld)

Speaks for itself.

X.org : STOP WASTING DEV TIME ON WAYLAND AND STREAMLINE X11 INSTEAD!!!!! Linux and FreeBSD are NOT Micros~1 Windows, will NEVER BE Micros~1 Windows, and you are DIVIDING THE OPEN SOURCE COMMUNITY!!!

J U S T _ S T O P _ I T !!!

Wubuntu: The lovechild of Windows and Linux nobody asked for

2D FLATTY FLATASS FLATSO look still there - **WHY**???

You know, if the UI were to look like Win7, WinXP, or even Win2k, it would be a WHOLE LOT BETTER...

But NOOOOoooo. By "cloning" the look/feelz of Windows Ape/10-nic/II they've TRIPLED DOWN on Sinofsky's BULLSHIT FLATSO TIFKAM UI, once again.

When is 3D Skeuomorphic (what people REALLY want) going to be the DRIVING FACTOR again?

Remember Windows 2.x, vs 3.0??? 3.0 was SKEUOMORPHIC and THAT was *THE* revolution!!! I call THAT "PROOF"!!! 2D FLATSO FLATTY FLATASS is a REGRESSION!!!

Musk and Trump to fall out in 2025, predicts analyst

Re: Shocked

yeah the TDS venting in the comments is voluminous AND entertaining!

SO funny when none of "that" happens and DOGE gets to trim >$2TRILLION from annual gummint expenditure.

Elon can put factories wherever he wants. 10:1 he puts the new ones in Mexico, Canada, or inside USA with Musk-bots doing most of the work. CCP China is a passing FAD when it comes to manufacturing. Trump de-regulating will allow US minerals and energy to dominate again. We do NOT need the CCP to supply critical minerals despite their takeover and/or coercion as they corner markets around the world. Before long, they'll be BEGGING for US companies to consider them RELEVANT.

Environmentalists won't complain about how CCP and 3rd world nations RAPE the earth for minerals, leaving open pit and strip mining scars and other environmental damage in their wake. If USA mines its OWN minerals, AND Canada, and maybe even Mexico, it can be done WITHOUT the environmental damage if NOT over-regulated into non-profitability, and THAT is the point.

Truth: pollute and rape the land "over there" and use SLAVE labor to do it - THAT (CCP) model MUST go away, swapped out for COMMON SENSE regulations in places where we CARE about such things.

It'll work. You'll see.

Bluesky keeps growing, and so do its problems

B.S. worst kind of echo chamber

Having not bothered to go there, I do not know. However, SOME evidence seems to indicate this is so.

For example, I have seen a couple of videos where someone signs up for B.S. (Blue Sky), then enters his first post with something frequently said on X, such as "there are two biological sexes", or "man made climate change is a hoax" (or similar).

Within 30 seconds an algorithm of some kind flat-out bans the user. [I cannot imagine what they'd do for a PRONOUN violation]

So if you like "safe" environments in which nobody argues with your politics and/or opinions, B.S. may be for you.

(Personally I call that *BORING*)

Win a slice of XP cheese if you tell us where Microsoft should put Copilot next

Copilot collar for Lemmiwinks

Copilot collar for Lemmiwinks

Seems to be one of the most appropriate uses

Both KDE and GNOME to offer official distros

daily-drivable general purpose OS.

Article: I would like to turn GNOME OS, GNOME's home-grown distro for testing and development of the GNOME Desktop, into a daily-drivable general purpose OS.

OK. Here ya GO:

* Stop forcing everyone top use ADWAITA (it SUCKS)

* Default to 3D skeuomorphic look, preferably "TraditionalOK"

* Put panel back the way it is in Mate (gnome 2 functionality)

* Fully support GTk2 and GTK3 existing simultaneously

* STOP IT with 'HAMBURGER' MENU ICON

* stop it with "moving targets" i.e. a STABLE API

* Screw Wayland, standardize on X11

* FULL SUPPORT of "NO SystemD" SYSTEMS!

Basically become Mate/Cinnamon, and especially default to 3D SKEUOMORPHIC and *NOT* that RIDICULOUS GOOGLE/MICROS~1 2D FLATSO FLATASS LOOK!!!

Trump tariffs transform into bigger threats for Mexico, Canada than China

Re: You keep using that word...

"Written on the back of a McDonalds napkin in black sharpie?"

I get my best ideas at the strangest times.... so a napkin with a sharpie could actually be a CROWNING MOMENT of BRILLIANCE!

(don't knock the napkin).

One day when I'm working in an office the supervisor, the manager, and the marketing guy were discussing ways of solving a basic mechanical problem, right behind me, while I was working on firmware. Existing solutions were less than adequate. I got a brilliant inspiration from nature and sketched it out on a notepad with "here ya go". They adopted it. Worked pretty well, cheap plastic sheet stamped into the right size and shape, less than 10 cents each, helped to sell the $$$$.$$ solution (several thousand of them). The system itself even has a patent [I had to put that hat on too, the original writeup for the lawyers and a half dozen review/edits], though I think the plastic sheet design just has a copyright. Yeah the fun things!

Re: I have no doubt you blame Trump for not controlling covid....

The ridiculous "inject bleach" hoax

Debunked LONG ago... (DO try and keep up!)

Snopes link

Re: Good luck buying fruits and vegetables then

Look at Central California and Salinas Valley and say that again...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanimura_%26_Antle

(Yes their trucks DO say T&A on them)

And getting Taiwan to build them (assuming CCP does not conquer the island) would be a nice MIDDLE FINGER to the MIDDLE KINGDOM GUMMINT!

"2nd source" NOT in China should quickly become the NORM, especially after what CCP did to us during the VIRUS SCARE!

Windows 10's farewell tour – not AI PCs – set to drive laptop sales in 2025

Re: Looks like people are buying laptops without all that A.I. bullcrap...

I wonder where they get the idea that "Businesses want to move to AI PCs".

Big WIntel Marketing droids. They SAID so, it MUST be true!

Linux Mint

Yep! Maybe with wine you don't NEED windows at all.

how about using Linux or *BSD instead, and avoid the potential "breech" fallout? That assumes that OTHER necessary protective measures are being employed when it comes to data intefrity and security.

I bet RHEL is cheaper and would run on the older hardware. And Rocky Linux if you do not need paid support.

Will scout for used laptops on sites like e-bay

Once windows 10 laptops go EOL on the OS *and* can NOT run 11, I should be able to get a bargain price for something that works JUST FINE with Linux and/oe FreeBSD on it!

I might even find something interesting to use as a spare server or NAS, same idea.

RECYCLE those Non-11 CAPABLE BOXEN, please!!!

Trump appoints Musk associate Brendan Carr as FCC chair

Re: At least it's not Ajit Pai

when you draw attention to identity, and then treat people differently because of that identity, regardless of whether or not it is better or worse, it is STILL racism, sexism, or some OTHER form of bigotry.

That is what D.E.I. is: bigotry!!! (apologies for the thread decay)

Re: At least it's not Ajit Pai

Well the best news is that the D.E,I. will D.I.E. - it's ABOUT FREAKING TIME!!!

(That 'Afuera' video should be required viewing for DJT's new cabinet, etc. - when I first saw it I let repeat at least 3 times)

EU buyers still shunning pure electric vehicles, prefer hybrids

Re: Increased tariffs on imports from China are unlikely to help matters.

You sure they're not equipped with something like ATMOS? [obligatory Dr. Who reference]

OK CCP, not Sontarans, but still...

Re: Plug in hybrids

we probably need (needed) to think of lower carbon transport options

No. we don't...

Re: Plug in hybrids

It should be a trivial software update to make your preferences "sticky", but they probably won't

Gummint regulators forcing it on you anyway? Just a thought...

[also liability l[aw]yers may have influenced this]

LXQt packs Wayland punch with 2.1 release

Re: Third or Fourth?

defaulting to wayland is both IRRITATING *AND* unnecessary.. When you do embedded development it needs to be X11.

export DISPLAY=linux-workstation:0.0 <-- it's how work gets done

Rust haters, unite! Fil-C aims to Make C Great Again

memory safe version of std

perhaps all that is really necessary is a memory safe version of 'std', though memory safe headers that re-define common utils with memory-safe versions might also work.

Or people could just roll their own C++ objects with validation (where needed). Some of MFC classes could easily be written this way.

It makes me wonder if a new 'bounds' instruction (or modifier) might be useful in the CPU itself, to auto-apply bounds checking in the microcode and branch on fail (or set a flag in the status register, "bounds exceeded"). If you did this maybe you could do MOV (EAX),EBX BOUNDS base-address,size [or something like that]. Or a bounds register would have the base address and size, and you'd just mention it as part of an instruction so that the bounds check values are cached. Anyway, stuff for CPU designers to consider.

I had considered a sub-allocator to do this with pre-allocated chunks which reserved the first 4 ir 8 bytes as the chunk size.. Useful for string manipulation, for sure. Never implemented it, though.

Air National Guardsman gets 15 years after splashing classified docs on Discord

Re: First mistake

thread decay. Almost like Godwin's Law

Re: First mistake

you got someone living rent free in your head?

Re: First mistake

TDS detected. get over it.

China's Volt Typhoon crew and its botnet surge back with a vengeance

unusual (secure) SMTP activity in the last month or two

I've been seeing unusual (secure) SMTP activity from some specific IP address ranges. They connect as if to relay mail via the secure SMTP port and simply try to log in with dictionary names. For some reason fail2ban did not have a script that I could use to detect these, so I just block the IP addresses with firewall rules. One of the ISP's had several IP addresses assigned to it and is located in London [yes I did notify them]. One other is in the US but I haven't sent an e-mail about it yet. I do not know if this is anything connected with the group from China but appears to be searching for user/pass information on Linux systems since all it does is attempt to log in to relay mail. Could also just be a spammer. I was simply thinking that it is a possible side-channel attack, if successful at relaying mail, it might try ssh next.

though in my case I use FreeBSD, they are probably looking for a Linux system, my guess, like older Cisco routers and firewalls.

Mozilla Foundation crumbles as third of staff cast off

Re: Wait ...

how much of that "fluff" was political donations in the recent USA election? Interestingly enough the announcement came a couple of days after the election was 'called' for the next US Prez...

[3 guesses on which candidates the "allegedly laundered" money might have gone to, and the first 2 guesses do not count, but being based in SAN FRANCISCO with satellites in Beijing, Toronto, and Berlin should give a pretty big hint...]

Moving to Texas or Louisiana or S. Carolina or similar would cut the employee living expenses in half, and because of "progressive" and state tax rates, Moz could reduce wages to 1/3 of what they were (for employees inside the US) without affecting anyone's net disposable income (after paying for necessities) - just sayin'. SF living expenses are some of the HIGHEST, ANYWHERE.

maybe Elon can fix it

Maybe Elon can fix it?

First, reduce costs to a fraction of what they were like he did with Twitter (now X)

Then integrate with X search, and call it the X browser with extra privacy settings, a PROPER UI, and maybe built-in secure VPN access for posters who do not want to GET ARRESTED for speaking out online...

Aaaand move the operation to TEXAS.

Re: RE: why?

(living/working in a tiny software-dev bubble world where customers cannot 'bother' you)

This is a common problem in software development, EPITOMIZED by Micros~1 since "Windows APE" and TIFKAM.

/me now goes off and continues working on a customer-requested mod that will take days' worth of my time, and costs the company more money than it earns from it, but preserves the business relationship... which is sometimes MORE IMPORTANT

My browser of choice is still Firefox, even though I preferred the GUI of many redesigns ago.

I very much wish it were not so...

Your first instinct was the correct one

If Mozilla were to fall apart, maybe we (developers) can TAKE OVER the project and do a retro UI and "feature freeze" and just keep it up with the CONSTANTLY moving DOM/CSS standards, fix bugs, and make "lean and mean" performance enhancements.

Too many too frequent releases, and "up"grading is HIGHLY OVERRATED!!!!!

Seriously, the ad/script/etc. blocking, add-on, and privacy features are WAY superior to chrome!!! OR is that why they're being (quite possibly) DRIVEN! OUT! OF! BUSINESS!!!???

If Trump gets elected, get your tech buying done asap

NOT paying the lazy to "NOT work" is a tax savings. If working they're no longer mooching from everyone else.

You want everyone working. That is enough in and of itself.

Re: chicken little was an optimist?

did not forget. I was totally serious. Well here it is so remind me of it next year if you think I was wrong. Trump got elected. If I'm right, next year we're ALL better off!

No need for doom and gloom,

Re: chicken little was an optimist?

you still get an upvote for the humor

chicken little was an optimist?

one year from now, the Trump economy will be making UK great again, too, along with the USA.

No worries. The sky is NOT falling.

"Don't Panic".

Japan's wooden cube-shaped satellite rockets to space

shielding can be estimated by "10th thickness", i.e. how thick to reduce radiation to 1/10 of what it was.

Thickness depends on radiation type. For alpha (He nucleus) and beta (electrons emitted by a nucleus) it's usually a millimeter or so.

For gamma it's about 1 inch of lead, 2 inches of steel, 1 foot of concrete, and 3 feet of water (if I remember correctly). Mass and density are major factors.

For fast neutrons it's different. You need hydrogenous and other light materials (carbon helps some) to slow the neutrons down so that they do way less damage. For water, it's about 1 foot. Plastic containing boron 10 reduces that down to an inch or so because boron 10 absorbs neutrons, but it depletes (becomes boron 11) so wears out over time.

So to shield gamma you need dense material, and to shield neutrons, hydrogenous material [like water, plastic, wood, oil, ...] and/or absorbing material (like boron 10).

Re: What sort of wood ?

Article: "The wood used in its construction is Honoki, a type of Japanese magnolia tree"

details like that are easily missed, though, and also they did not specify particle vs ply vs regular as far as I can tell.

wood is better at shielding neutrons, but you'd need it to be 2-3 feet thick to shield 90% of them...

However that may work out, a wood shell is necessarily thicker to provide equivalent strength as metal, so maybe THAT has something to do with it.

[/me cannot get wooden cyberman image out of my head]

Microsoft tries out wooden bit barns to cut construction emissions

Re: Hurricanes

Steel buildings are often prefabricated (in many cases that I am aware of), greatly reducing cost and construction time