Posts by bombastic bob

Timely Trump tariffs tax tech totally: 25 per cent levy on modems, fiber optics, networking gear, semiconductors…

*NOT* Emabarrassed American!

I'm totally IN FAVOR of what Trump is doing!

1. China has been ripping off our tech for YEARS. At a 'used to company', one of China's "off the books" aka "4th shift" manufacturers _CLONED_ an antenna design, complete with the company's logo etched into the copper, which was then encased in plastic so it was hidden. It was a BLATANT RIPOFF.

2. China makes promises, then IGNORES THEM, like we don't matter. Except *NOW*, we DO.

3. The only thing that a communist dictatorship seems to understand is THE STICK, rather than THE CARROT.

4. It's ABOUT TIME a president had the CHUTZPAH to do what needs to be done to STOP them from blatantly ripping us off. It's NOT "free market" over there, it's GUMMINT CONTROLLED market, where their gummint sets the pricing and policies and keeps their people working for SLAVE WAGES.

5. A handful of hand-picked Chinese 'oligarchs' and political-types profit from their state-run manufacturing companies undercutting every other manufacturing business worldwide, while keeping their employees at the "slave wage" level, and controlling their lives via the 'great firewall' and 'social credit' scoring. And they BLATANTLY rip-off our tech! And they use *OUR* *MONEY* to do it! This is like paying the mob to protect us from the mob.

So while everyone whines and complains about the higher price of an i-device, perhaps we ought to look more carefully at the TOTAL COST of having China make these things. And when it becomes more profitable to set up shop elsewhere, maybe the Philippines, maybe Vietnam, maybe even The Congo, or if Kim Jon Un stops behaving like a BIG FAT BABY, in N. Korea, and China has to actually COMPETE which means RESPECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, then they'll realize that they have to actually KEEP THEIR WORD if they want to make our stuff and sell it to us.

Otherwise, the money spigot is gonna be throttled, and eventually SHUT, and they know it, and they had better realize that Trump isn't some wimpy Obama or Bush when it comes to foreign policy.

This won't last long. But if it does, there's still Taiwan...

Take my bits awaaaay: DARPA wants to develop AI fighter program to augment human pilots

quantum computing, or at least significant AI assistance, might be what's needed to turn every fighter plane into a remotely piloted drone...

and then the meatsacks will sit comfortably in a bunker someplace, piloting the thing from far enough away that latency actually matters.

Re: Visual Range Dogfights... a question for any air force experts out there...

"Are they still a thing in modern aerial warfare?"

yes

The idea of superseding close-in aerial combat was thought up back in the 60's, probably by LBJ's whiz kids and others like them [who excelled at killing people unnecessarily by making stupid "smart" decisions like that]. It went so far as to take guns off of planes. This may have been talked about in the Top Gun movie from the 80's as I recall, or maybe I just saw a documentary about the REAL Top Gun [which used to be here in San Diego, I live only a few miles from Miramar, which is now a Marine Corps air base]. In any case, guns were removed from F4's but pilots insisted they be re-installed, as missiles were inadequate for close-in combat which was still happening.

And I don't expect this has changed at all.

Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" applies again.

well if you're gonna take a lesson from Anime, there are the gundams, and also Eureka 7, in which (for some models) pilots were pumped full of drugs to keep them at a peak during combat, after which they had to be pumped full of even MORE drugs to "bring them back down" so the other drugs wouldn't kill them.

science fiction in general has come up with some pretty good, and sometimes pretty frightening, ideas. In one episode of Stargate (the TV series), the gang went to a planet where remotely piloted drones were being used in combat (one chair controlled several of them at once), except that the enemy planes weren't drones, and the enemies were actually more like freedom fighters. That kinda put diplomacy on hold...

Re: Hmmmm

I just imagined a moving missile graphic (like a sheet of paper) going from an enemy plane icon towards another plane icon representing me, with a slowly moving progress bar underneath...

Re: Predictable ?

"How can they even come up with an idea that evasive maneuvers should be predictable"

seed the algorithm with a crypto-quality random value?

Re: I'll see your General Adversarial Network ...

You deserve Corporal Punshment. To your Private Parts. With Major Pain. Or am I being Captain Obvious?

Re: Good and Bad News

like one of those 'joke' pistols that points the barrel towards the shooter's face?

"An AI program for negotiating peace would be most welcome."

Not possible.

1. The world has WAY too many evil people. When they can, such evil people take over a government (like Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, N. Korea) and do what they do BECAUSE THEY ARE EVIL.

2. You can NOT negotiate nor compromise with evil. You can only DEFEAT it or at least OBSTRUCT it.

3. The only way to ensure safety in the face of evil is STRENGTH. Hence, you have weaponry and tactics that are SO overwhelming, nobody screws with you.

I doubt AI could negotiate peace. At best, it would negotiate a cease fire, or even surrender. But peace? Once you appear weak to an EVIL DICTATOR, he's got EVERY reason and motivation to DESTROY you. You can't negotiate peace with THAT.

I'll stick with AI being able to KILL the OTHER guy fighting for HIS country, in order to keep MINE safe. Then, with any luck, we'll NEVER have to use it in war. Just having the thing will be GOOD ENOUGH.

Just in time for the Wiki-end: Chelsea Manning released from prison

"factors you can't comprehend"

You give Pvt Manning _WAY_ too much respect/credit. Pvt Manning was a TRAITOR as far as I'm concerned, trusted to keep secrets, and broke that trust. Whistle-blowing about certain things like mass surveilance should've gone to CONGRESS, first, or at least "up the chain of command" in the Army. But Wikileaks became "15 minutes o' fame", and that's how I see Pvt Manning's motivation.

There are military secrets I know from being the military, from decades ago, that I have not disclosed. I consider it honorable to keep them secret. I'll say no more on the matter. Others should be the same way about such things.

Re: Some background... and a little commentary

I'll add a little bit of insight when it comes to CLASSIFIED INFORMATION, and the cost of its disclosure.

First of all, the reasoning for classification is generally made by those who are trying to protect someone or something, including the government itself, from the results of disclosing that information. In general, release of such information would either endanger a person, endanger or embarass a nation, or create significant material loss. Or some combination thereof.

'For Official Use Only' is the lowest classifiication I'm aware of. In genderal, it's info that might be embarassing or would give an enemy an advantage in war.

'Confidential' is generally information that compromises something (like a tactical advantage in war) if it gets out, such as the design of a warship, or ongoing diplomacy. If it's released, it puts significant advantage into the hands of enemies.

"Secret" is (as far as I can tell) information that could GET SOMEONE KILLED it if got into the wrong hands. Example, the location of a submarine, or the identity of a spy.

"Top Secret" would be, I assume, much like 'secret' except "more so", perhaps large numbers of people would be in danger of being killed. Military operations, details about embassies, defense plans, etc. might fall into this designation.

And I think there are higher ones, too. In short, these secrets exist for a REASON, and they should be KEPT secret. Or, pay a SEVERE penalty for their disclosure.

Pvt Manning was apparently privy to this kind of information, or had access to it, and then BROKE TRUST by DISCLOSING it. Without any knowledge of the ripple effects, it was given to Wikileaks to be publically disclosed. Although there was at least SOME information there (about spying on citizens, as I recall) that SHOULD have been "whistle blown", THIS was not the way to do it. And so Pvt Manning went to prison for it.

However, Wikileaks itself SHOULD NOT be held criminally liable for publishing the disclosed information, particularly because Julian Assange isn't a U.S. Citizen. I expect the investigation is to prove whether or not Wikileaks was involved in any illegal activity that led to its publishing, like cracking into a computer or similar. There are similar legal precedents in the USA regarding "the press" so long as they're not doing any illegal things to GET the information. if someone simply tells them, hands over a document, etc., that is NOT illegal. Cracking a computer to get it, on the other hand, IS. But the investigation into Wikileaks is probably just another "witch hunt" just like the Muller probe on Trump, which concluded with "no collusion", rightfully so. I expect a similar conclusion of "nothing illegal done" for WIkileaks.

Amazon agrees to stop selling toxic jewelry, school supplies to kids, coughs up some couch change ($700,000)

Re: 'Top priority'

Question: If companies were NOT making money, would they be able to AFFORD to hire YOU?

Re: 'Top priority'

FYI - a company exists in order to make money.

It's just that to make money and STAY in business, you need to make sure your customers are happy enough to be REPEAT customers, and not because they're bound to you by some kind of enslavement (or monopoly). So yeah, NOT poisoning or otherwise endangering customers is ALSO good for business.

Still I suspect that in THIS case, no actual harm was done. It's not like the kids are eating leaded paint chips. As I mentioned before, lead paint chips taste 'sweet' because lead compounds act like an artificial sweetener. And didn't we used to put LEAD IN GASOLINE such that it was IN THE AIR EVERYWHERE?

The current enviro-knee-jerk maximum levels are probably WAY TOO LOW, though I'm not complaining too hard because staying below that level shouldn't be THAT hard... unless your ENTIRE COUNTRY is horribly polluted. Like in China... ?

(again, I use leaded solder all of the time, for electronic work. I've done so for *YEARS*. It's not like I'm eating it or inhaling lead vapor. But I'm "exposed" to it. And people who own guns are exposed to the lead in the ammo. You kinda have to INJEST it to make it really bad for you... so wash your hands before eating?)

Re: The free market will fix this

I didn't vote up or down. I just facepalmed.

Re: If I were a betting man...

you're probably right, as they have less strict environmental (read: none at all) concerns over there.

I think we should export some of our wackier environmentalists to Beijing and let them protest the air quality, for starters.

In the mean time, a _LOT_ of the concern over these materials is more like PARANOIA instead of science. It is true that buildup of heavy metals is detrimental to your health. But there ARE safe levels of these elements, which occur in nature. I have been using leaded solder for electronics, and continue to do so. So I'm "exposed" directly to lead. And lead solder or just lead was often used in the making of jewelry, particularly the less expensive kind [normally I'd expect a silver solder to be used nowadays, which is also what I do, if I do anything with jewelry, which I have].

In any case, the source of the problem might be gross environmental contamination at those facilities (let's say in China) where EVERYONE is exposed to high levels of otherwise toxic materials, all of the time, and it ends up on what they make. That's my theory, and I bet it's true.

In the mean time, a bit of cleanup is in order. And I doubt any of those kids was in any REAL danger. It's not like they're eating lead paint chips because lead compounds taste "sweet" like a type of artificial sweetener. They're just "being exposed", which is far less likely to pose a problem.

And if "they" are THAT concerned about Hg, why is it still used on FILLINGS IN YOUR TEETH???

Hypocrisy, much??

P-p-p-pick up a Pengwin: Windows Subsystem for Linux boffins talk version 2

Re: Vaccine for Linux

at least it's not LIPSTICK on the non-oinky end of a BOAR [aka Win-10-nic itself] but hey, as long as we're going with the livestock comparison...

Re: Anyone want to guess ...

see my post above, Microsoft could make it 2020 as a viable alternative to Win-10-nic

it's what Windows _USED_ to be, right? Boot MS-DOS and run the 'win.com' to start it?

I'd _love_ to have a windows subsystem running on my FreeBSD box with a Mate desktop and X11 [not Wayland]. That would ROCK!

Re: intentional wording?

I have a better idea....

How about if Microsoft makes a "subsystem for Linux" that runs WINDOWS APPLICATIONS better than Wine, RELIABLY, and I'd actually PAY for THAT!!!

So long as they don't screw with the themes and appearance of window decorations, it'd be their BEST MOVE YET! You'd get Windows on Linux, or maybe even Windows on FreeBSD, and WIndows on Mac, and NO NEED to "Embrace Extend Extinguish" any more.

Yeah but when you have that "take over the world" mentality, SANITY is thrown under the bus...

Put a stop to these damn robocalls! Dozens of US state attorneys general fire rocket up FCC's ass

Re: No change

fine the company making the profit by ALLOWING the robocallers to spoof addresses, for example. A _MAJOR_ fine for NOT upgrading to prevent that, for example Yes,

Re: No change

a one-time fine for making calls, maybe THAT is 'toothless'. how about $1 million fine for EACH CALL MADE? _PER_ _CALL_! Now, *THAT* is what *I* am talking about!

Re: Spoofed ID

fixing THIS might do 90% of the job, right? So "get hot" FCC, and make it NOT possible to spoof caller IDs !!!

Re: Of course the FCC is doing nothing

while I agree these bureaucrats need a fire lit up their asses, Pai isn't like the "other party" of corruption, deep state, swamp, and deceit.

Re: Sad.

make the minimum penalty DEATH for anyone who:

a) spoofs a caller ID

b) violates the 'do not call list'

c) cold-calls *MY* phone.

I get to be executioner.

(my phone ringer has been OFF for 2 years. I either pick up when I hear who it is on the other end, and they know to say stuff so I can hear that or leave a message. phone message is 30 seconds long and starts with 'friends and family thanks for calling, and then lectures about how I get too many violations of the do not call list, so my ringer is off)

Re: No change

perhaps if they were FINED for each of them... ?

Blame Canada! Zuckerberg subpoenaed to face Cambridge Anal. probe from Canucks

Anal y sis

it's how you spell 'Analysis'

Can I get a RHEL yeah? Version 8 arrives at last as IBM given go-ahead to wolf down Red Hat

Re: Centos 8

I've never been disappointed by CentOS, just sayin'.

Re: Gnome, wayland and systemd ...

you actually *FEEL* that? no WONDER you posted as A.C. !!!

('feel' instead of think, worst mistake EVAR, as evidenced by "that")

Re: Gnome, wayland and systemd ...

I'm hoping some _SANITY_ from IBM will put those 3 things back into their place... er, the bit bucket.

Re: Too much damned javascript ...

ack on that one. OR... if you are _NOT_ using wayland... you can do the following:

a) enable -listen_tcp or similar option

b) xhost +localhost from an X11 command shell

c) su - otheruser then export DISPLAY=localhost:0.0

d) run firefox or other browser, config it to DUMP ALL HISTORY AND COOKIES ON EXIT

then if they DO track you, it's not tracking anything that isn't THEIR stuff in the FIRST place. And all of those cookies and scripting and blah blah blah goes INTO THE BIT BUCKET.

And, related, THIS from the article:

"Red Hat prefers the security model of Wayland, but the desktop will drop back to X.org if you try and use the Nvidia binary driver."

A reason to use NVidia and their binary driver... to NOT HAVE TO USE WAYLAND, so you _CAN_ use the trick I just described, which I do a LOT, actually.. that and [for example] developing RPi stuff and having pluma running on the RPi directly, as an editor for c source [example], but displaying and interacting WITH MY FreeBSD DESKTOP!!!

X.org ROCKS. Wayland SUCKS. and all that tracking can GO INTO THE BIT BUCKET using X.org and a separate login context, g'head and enable the B.S. and then DUMP IT ALL on exit!

I see you're writing an app... Microsoft nudges AI Clippy-for-Code out the door, turns machine learning onto Word

Re: Please, stop spoiling us

strangely enough, I'm more productive using Pluma as my code editor...

Re: Clippy For Coders drives another nail in humanity's coffin...

more CRAP to shut off by default...

The Year Of Linux On The Desktop – at last! Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 brings the Linux kernel into Windows

Re: But why?

WInXP-tan was anthropomorphised as a roundish (in all of the right places) female with plenty of jiggle (also in all the right places), but always demanding more food (RAM, storage).

I suppose Win-10-nic-tan is a BIG FAT BOAR with lipstick on the non-oinky end, seriously gorging itself on whatever resources you might have left... and DEMANDING MORE!!!

Either that, or "The Blob"

*pop*

Beware of the Blob it creeps, and leaps, and glides, and slides cross the floor... (classic Burt Bacharach from the late 50's)

Re: MS SOP: Embrace, Extend, Extinguish.

and, I noticed the screenshot - looks NOTHING like my Mate desktop...

it's still 2D FLATTY McFLATFACE Win-10-nic in other words.

And from others' comments, still subject to forced updates, etc..

How long before it's "Extinguish" phase? I say, not long at all...

Personality quiz for all you IT bods: Are you a chameleon or an outlaw? A diplomat or a high flier? Vote right here

Re: I chose outlaw

I think that was supposed to be 'chameleon' but, like the description for 'Outlaw', it's flawed and inaccurate.

Re: where's the button for whingers?

it's over here... by the window!

Re: I declined to pick one ...

at least Myers-Briggs has an actual TEST you can fill out.

(oh I'm an ENTP of course!)

/me goes off mumbling about inventing something...

A true 'old fart' learned in grammar school that the use of 'he' in the English language can also mean 'she' when the sex of the subject is not known. All of this P.C. alleged sexism by NOT saying "he/she/it/thing/whatever" in place of a SINGLE F'ING PRONOUN 'he' is nauseating. GET OFF MY LAWN!

(it's bad grammar to be a P.C. sexist with pronouns)

Re: "But I still have all my hair"

I got a nice wicked widow's peak, but the rest is still thick and black [while my beard is nearly all grey]

Re: All of the above just proves what we all knew already...

"Job sites and 'agencies' just don't have a clue about us or our industry"

YOU are _SO_ RIGHT! I can't thumb you up enough!

NOW... how do we get them ALL to come "over here by the window"... [which will solve SO many problems]

(somehow these clueless asshats have INSERTED THEMSELVES into the job-finding process and DOMINATED it, overly-complicating and delaying what USED to be relatively simple, and involved an envelope and a stamp and an answering machine. NOW you have to TURN YOUR RINGER OFF because of robo-calls and cold calls regarding unrelated positions paying way too little, on site in Timbuktu, like it's the most important position you'll ever have, and NOTHING relevant)

"For a lot of recruiters, this should be the default."

For MOST of them (recruiters), who seem to want to offer you positions in Timbuktu mopping floors and wiping someone's ass instead of writing code, and filter your resume (or even try to re-write it) based on "key words and tricky phrases" and stick-up-the-ass adherence to whatever some H.R. dweeb "felt" that the position requires, by COLD CALLING YOUR PHONE while you're in the middle of something important, the default is simple:

"It's over here... by the window."

99% of them should be invited to have a look down, followed by a timely accident.

Re: Impossible to answer

I usually thought of myself as more of a pirate or privateer...

(if it weren't for needing the money, I'd stay at home doing personal projects that I find interesting)

I generally contract "at a senior level" and stick with clients for long periods of time, only because THE JOB FINDING PROCESS SUCKS ASS BECAUSE THE RULES CHANGED AND I DO NOT PLAY _THEIR_ GAME (recruiters, headhunters, H.R. departments) BY _THEIR_ RULES!!!

*ahem*

so I don't fit into ANY of those, really.

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin successfully lobs another capsule beyond the edge of space

Re: Bell-curve of driving ability

yes. the road S curves and this one driver crossed lanes twice to make it straighter, causing me to grab onto things...

and the sidewalks, for pedestrians and cabs.

Re: Bell-curve of driving ability

'Hi, I'm Johnny Cab"

just thinking that about now...

Re: Amazon Prime Air

anywhere on earth in 4 hours?

I wonder what the shipping charge would be...

Microsoft slaps the Edge name on SQL, unveils the HoloLens 2 Development Edition

Re: Stop naming things after things that aren't those things!

This reminds me of a scene from Chobits... the one where Chii called everything "Hideki"

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

good point about banking. this is what computers started their main business uses in (and where a room full of people adding up numbers all day justified spending zillions on an IBM mainframe to do it better).

To properly analyze the evolution of the tech, you also have to look at the way data was traditionally stored back in the beginning, on tape and cards and things of that nature. So you had sorting machines for cards, and tapes ran sequentially. You can actually do a merge sort by writing things out sequentially, and use sorts to combine data. SQL is a YUGE improvement on the "sort and combine" technique that allows you to arbitrarily define relationships between things, plus the transaction stuff.

So SQL is NOT going away any time soon. It's just way too useful.

A while back there was this attempt at an 'object oriented database' called 'PoET'. Working with it was too difficult. That project (that used PoET) was abandoned, but taken back up later using regular SQL, which worked great and didn't require extra hoops to jump through. Sometimes that "new, shiny" is just a distraction away from getting things done.

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

"For the first time AI-parsing is proposed to replace the old n-gram parsing"

I recommend that you take a look at Arthur C. Clarke's "Superiority" before further comment. You're welcome.

Re: SQL technology is obsolete

I'm old enough to remember someone mentioning "sequel server" and I couldn't find any information on it anywhere because it was spelled "SQL" and some _IDIOT_ at IBM (probably a marketeer) decided to pronounce it 'sequel' which caused nothing BUT confusion...

Then of course there's the "Es Queue El" language, which is pronounced the way I stated it.

But when people pronounce 'MySQL' or "PostgreSQL" with 'sequel' in them, or the language name as 'sequel', I cringe like a cat getting its hair stroked backwards. And of course I'm obligated to CORRECT them and waste 5 minutes of otherwise-work-time doing so.

Also wondering, why anyone would bother with SQL Server (which I do _NOT_ pronounce with 'sequel' in it, since it's not a sequel to anything, and it uses 'Es Queue El' and I rebel against "the other pronunciation") when you have PostgreSQL which is totally free and extremely reliable??

So what would be next to make SQL "obsolete" ? Probably nothing. because it won't be. Just like a screwdriver isn't obsolete, nor is a hammer. Or a knife. Or a window [in a BOFH kinda way].

Cali Right-to-Repair law dropped, cracks screen, has to be taken to authorized repair shop

Re: Lobbyists

I have a better idea: just put it all into a youtube channel where we get to watch them do their dirty dealing.

Then let their opponents fish through it at election time.

Re: Lets see what happens when Ford, GM and VW try to enforce that type of shit onto their customers

John Deere already does...