* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Python joins movement to dump 'offensive' master, slave terms

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Daemons

there was a bit of a flap over 'beastie' the FreeBSD mascott. Some FUD went around [and I fell for it...] regarding the logo change, that it was some kind of P.C. thing. Well 'Beastie' is still 'the mascott' but yeah the logo changed to a ball with horns.

that being said there were a lot of us "spun up" over the potential of P.C. screwing things up for 'most people' at the benefit of a very small, vocal, minority of overly-sensitive SJW types. So yeah. Sick of it for over a decade.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: that's the point where things start to go downhill.

yeah I'd actually done 'Overlord / Minion' a bit further down. great minds think alike though

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"I'd like to see your alternatives, just in case I find any of them offensive."

I already posted my alternatives, and people might find them uproariously funny [as well as offensive]

to add to that list: Top / Bottom

(or you could do 'Top Dog' / 'Under Dog' - heh heh heh)

with careful consideration and a complete irreverance for this kind of 'social justice' idiocy, all *kinds* of fun 'equivalent' comparative terms may develop!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: The terminology is not the problem.

"until all such relationships are corrected to be consensual."

The safety word is 'pigeon'. Now we can continue

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Brain-dead

"How about 'exploiter' and 'exploited', instead"

or 'Overlord' and 'Minion'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

that's the point where things start to go downhill.

ack on the 'downhill'. P.C. and 'hurt feelings' don't belong in tech.

But if they don't like master/slave, how about:

a) dominant / submissive

b) sadist / masochist

c) Tori / Uke (Judo terms. Judo.)

d) Giver / Goatse

e) Boss / You

f) Microsoft / Everyone Else

and so on. heh.

It's September 2018, and Windows VMs can pwn their host servers by launching an evil app

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

round up the usual suspects

they've all got major vulnerabilities. again. patch patch patch! [and hope Micro-shaft doesn't cram some UI update at you that erases your preferences and/or jams some new UI 'feature' or spyware at you]

America-China tariff tiff could flip the switch on Cisco price hikes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: nope

I have to wonder what percent of the total cost of a Cisco router is affected by this...

But it _DOES_ suggest that relying on "single source" for parts is _BAD_ [even if it's cheap].

I've seen an illegal knockoff built in China before. An antenna company I worked at had an antenna that was potted in plastic. Cleverly they had etched the company logo into the antenna design (removing it would affect antenna performance). The knockoff had the same antenna logo on the copper, underneath the plastic, but it was kinda 'rough' like they'd used an X ray to clone it. The antennas WERE being made in China at that time, and so the existence of knockoffs were COMPLETELY undeniable. And this was around 10 years ago.

I suggest that companies in the UK get some 'lights out' factories built. As long as it's cheaper to hire "pile of bodies" in China to work for slave wages to build our stuff, companies will do that. When it becomes economically viable to NOT do that, i.e. with robots doing the tedious manual labo[u]r, and a lack of tarriffs, shorter lead times, cheaper shipping costs, etc. to go with it, using LOCAL sources for at least PART of the product will make a whole lot more sense.

I doubt China's chip foundries are any better than those in other places in the world, including Japan, UK, and USA, just cheaper cost. They've actually done things pretty smart, trying to get the entire supply chain 'over there' so they can reduce costs. Inventory is expensive. So having all of that 'in one place' shortens lead times and maximizes supply-chain flexibility.

On the other hand, what they're doing with their trade and IP policies is NOT smart. Angering your customers is bad policy. IP theft angers customers. 'Predatory practices' angers customers. 'Retaliatory tarriffs' angers customers as well. But the government ultimately runs the show, and they're not capitalists, they're neo-communists, and so their thinking process is tainted by their politics.

Maybe a clue-bat is required?

Wannabe Supreme Brett Kavanaugh red-faced after leaked emails contradict spy testimony

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

It could very easily been a response to various hypothetical questions

exactly. I think it proves how desperate that certain Demo[n][c,R]ats like Booker and Kamala are. Consider also how certain Demo[n][c,R]ats literally invited disruptive protesters to the hearings (it's the only way they could have gotten in; and 50 or so arrests were made as I recall)

Now they apparently have in their hands a "gotcha" e-mail [that isn't, but they're claiming it is], because they want to do what an aggressive prosecutor would do to someone using a "process crime" sting, i.e. trap someone into "lying" under oath ('I did not do this', followed by the paper copy 'evidence' and the subsequent 'process crime' arrest) in order to coerce a guilty plea to some low-level process crime, and THEN get that person to 'sing' or 'compose' against someone else, etc. to stay out of prison [what they sometimes do to members of organized crime syndicates, for example].

In any case, reading the El Reg article is the first I've heard of it. I think if it were a big deal, a big deal would've been made of this by now. [it's still interesting info, but not compelling]

Apparently the e-mail is real. That deserves an explanation [not fingers pointing and accusations]. However, I can't remember what I e-mailed last year, let alone 2001, and we don't even know what the context is! And without the context, you really don't have a "lie" if, as in the title, it was a response to various hypothetical questions.

icon, because, facepalm all of this. Booker and Kamala are way out in 'cloud cuckooland' as far as I'm concerned. Anything they say or do is tainted, by definition.

PPI pushers now need consent to cold-call you

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: If anyone

this reflects the same problems with the FCC and the 'do not call list' in the USA. My numbers have been on that list since it began. I still get occasional robocalls [which are illegal in their own right] in addition to what appear to be actual humans cold-calling me for what they believe to be a legit reason...

I do have one 'confirmed kill' though: a solar company in Orange County. I got the Better Business Bureau involved, and 2 months later an apology e-mail from them (via the BBB). They were caught, they knew it, I could've pressed it further (and their e-mail expressed minor regret and a lot of finger-pointing at their advertising/marketing firm) and unfortunately most of the calls nowadays are robocalls and only have a "press 1 to speak with an operator" and no other identifying information...

Y'know what? VoIP can also be free from pesky regulation – US judges

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

then it becomes their only method of communication not by choice

cell phones. nearly everybody owns one. or more than one.

just sayin'.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Shouldn't that mean that they're all free of regulations now "

I wouldn't mind THAT happening at ALL! With cell phone coverage nearly everwhere, there's sufficient competition for POTS to warrant more de-regulation. The only reason for regulating it before was that a single company typically served up an area, so it's a kind of monopoly in that sense. What you'd end up seeing is more cell phone carriers providing 'primary service' to residential and business customers, in lieu of physical phone lines, and the local phone companies busy trying to get their business back through more competitive options. Or I'd like to think so. [sometimes it's a crap shoot, but odds seem to be that you usually roll a 7 at the right time]

OK maybe SOME regulations need to remain, to keep land lines from being 'not fixed' for extended periods of time, like happened to me, 3 weeks without land-line nor intarwebs, due to a storm etc. (techs were just BUSY). THAT SUCKED. And it had happened a few times before, too. Turned out one of the splice boxes had a pinched wire in it, and it was MY wire, and it corroded to the point it just freaking broke. Naturally, it was the one my pathetic DSL is on. But I digress...

in any case if phone companies were required to hire consultants to get service calls completed with, let's say, 3 days, it might make things nicer, and possibly not cost more (since it is a rare occurrence). But a nice 'quid pro quo' would be the other de-regulation. So there ya go.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

FYI - in the USA, doing 'anti-competitive' things like "hobbling access to save their phone service", would get you indicted/punished under various anti-Trust and similar laws.

given that, a lack of what you perceive "net neutrality" to be isn't going to make a difference. These things will STILL be illegal. we don't need overlapping laws that have unwanted consequences to fix an incorrectly perceived problem that's already covered by EXISTING law.

FBI fingers the Norks it wants to pinch for Sony hack, WannaCry attacks

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: How long until a US Government hacker gets the same treatment?

if ANY of our intelligence and military hackers "get caught" like that, they DESERVE it. Just sayin'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: You'd be amazed at how many hackers ....

well, if our intelligence service is as good as I assume they are, it's theoretically possible to send a small team of people into N. Korea and just haul the guy outta there, and back to the USA. I'm thinking divers, submarine, Seal Team, etc.. That'd piss off Kimmy though, so the more likely path will be diplomatic, with that guy's face on the list of 'bad things you people in N. Korea are doing' for as long as necessary.

/me points out that my old boat had a 'diver chamber' on its back for YEARS throughout the 90's and 2000's, and there's really only one purpose for something like that: clandestine injection and retrieval of divers and/or Seal teams into a hostile area where you need to be stealthy getting in and getting out. So yeah.

A real shot in the Arm: 3% of global workforce surplus to requirements

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: They should never have allowed ARM to be sold

oh come on AC it's not all doom and gloom. INVENT SOMETHING!

It's not a few hundred UK scientists and engineers now 'on the dole' because they were laid off from working on ARM stuff... it's now a few hundred UK scientists and engineers available to invent the next 'cool thing', invested in by some forward thinkers that realize what a bunch of UK scientists and engineers can accomplish!

(you guys are at least as smart as us left-pondians, and you have British accents. If nothing else, it'll sound smarter when you explain stuff)

Pluto is more alive than Mars, huff physicists who are still not over dwarf planet's demotion

bombastic bob Silver badge
Headmaster

Re: It's a big round ball wizzing round the sun innit?

The IAU needs to *FEEL* important, so they wielded power and demoted Pluto. I guess it was being a pain in 'Uranus' or something. So they're being like 'grammar nazis' (see icon) about it.

OBVIOUSLY way too much time on their hands... [are they being PAID for that?]

$200bn? Make that $467bn: Trump threatens to balloon proposed bonus China tech tariffs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: The cost of theft

Thanks, AC, for a fresh voice of sanity amongst the obvious Trump-hate. Facts are SO much better than feelings and Trump-hate-media-driven perceptions!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

'understand' does NOT mean 'agree with socialists'

"a huge number of US citizens do not understand that"

a) socialism ultimately fails because it runs out of "other people's money"

b) high tax rates on "the rich" are actually on those trying to BECOME the rich [thus they keep middle class in their place, and lower class on the dole]

c) one-sided trade deals ultimately favor your competitors, especially if they engage in predatory economic practices such _AS_ government subsidized 'competitive' pricing and deliberate "dumping" to drive domestic industries out of business

d) Oba[k,m]acare is a COMPLETE fiasco, because it DOUBLED insurance costs and empowered government to "make choices for you", is anti-freedom, etc.

e) China is attempting to force U.S. businesses OUT of business so that it won't have any competition, and THIS is why they're behaving "that way". If they were so great, how come they pay their workers CRAP wages in order to corner the world market on everything? It's because they [their neo-communist government, anyway] think they CAN.

And I think the American people very MUCH understand the concept of an insurance pool. Many of us, however, don't want to participate in something that costs THAT MUCH, but has no real benefit. Example, you only care about emergency hospitalization, but are forced to pay for HMO-like coverage, except it has a deductible that is SO high, you never exceed that amount in a year. So what's the point of paying for "all of that" when you could get "just emergency care" coverage for WAY LESS??? And that's why Oba[k,m]a-"care" *FAILS*.

Or like me, say "F-that" to insurance, and just buy what you need, because THAT is what _I_ want to do. It's _MY_ life, not anyone else's, and the rest of the universe can PACK SAND if they *FEEL* I should do differently. They're not ME. _I_ run _MY_ life. *FREEDOM*

Microsoft tells volume customers they can stay on Windows 7... for a bit longer... for a fee

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

I would consider 'Windows 9'

if Micro-shaft would evar create it. It'd have to be 7-like in appearance and everything else (i.e. 3D Skeuomorphic, no spyware, no adware, no 'app store', no cloudy logon, NO FORCED UPDATES), with the updated kernel etc similar to 10.

But please no "you must have micro-shaft sign the kernel drivers" requirement. that's just wrong...

(yeah fat chance Micro-shaft would CARE ABOUT CUSTOMERS enough to DO that)

Brit teen pleads guilty to Minecraft-linked bomb and airline hoaxes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

"The rational part of a teen's brain isn't fully developed and won't be until age 25"

Does that mean his juvenile actions get him tried as a juvenile? [I hope not]

Yeah, he's going to 'big boy' prison. Good riddance.

And that bit about "running around the internet with our 1337 bootnet!"... could that 'Apophis' group be any MORE lame?

/me facepalms at the lame - hence icon

Not so much changing their tune as enabling autotune: Facebook, Twitter bigwigs nod and smile to US senators

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: "put a monetary value on the data that they hold on individuals."

subject to an inventory tax? ew... (yeah my love of freedom makes my anus pucker up over the thought of taxing it as if it were inventory, and I hate to see taxes used to stop bad behavior, but it'd probably work)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Self-restraint or self-regulation is going nowhere

"When has self-regulation ever worked?"

I might suggest that it works at a level where your customers are treated like customers. When they become "the masses", it tends to be shoved aside in the name of profit, power, and exploitation, kinda like "arrogance of power" from career politicians, only from a private sector viewpoint.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Why always the insistence on CEOs?

"they want the public to see them making the CEOs sweat"

Exactly, it's a dog and pony show, where politicians [some of whom are up for re-election in ~2 months] get to posture and make it look like they actually CARE about their constituents. They say the right key words and tricky phrases, get a photo opportunity, maybe a favorable writeup in some local newspapers, harumph harumph harumph etc.

If they'd only follow through with the GDPR-like protections, though, we'd be better off. And I'm not in favor of the ISP or content platform being responsible for how their customers use it. Liability protections for ISPs and content platforms need to remain intact. Otherwise, they'd have to police EVERYTHING that customers might do, to cover their own butts, and THAT could get *UGLY* really fast. It would effectively shut them down.

Sadly, no mention in the El Reg article of the practice of "shadow banning" - I heard a bit about that on Fox News last night, and also read an article on how conservatives are leaving Facebook (in large numbers) over this apparent practice, and other things like it. I don't know if any senators SPECIFICALLY asked the social media execs about it, though. I can't find any good quotes at the moment... but I recall hearing about something being brought up and the shadow banning was supposedly based on "who was following you" and not the content itself. [that's just what I remember, but can't seem to find the news reference]

Do you really think crims would do that? Just go on the 'net and exploit a Windows zero-day?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: So classic way to find an exploit.

"I wonder if the code to check was in a dev version but some PHB decreed 'Nah, that slugs performance, and it'll never be a problem IRL'"

more like "I don't want to do extra work to check for this" by some lazy overpaid millenial "child" since (it appears that) nearly all senior devs and QA people have left Micro-shaft over the last decade or so... maybe taking their stock options, or getting out while the getting's good, or being hit by a round of lay-offs that target the senior people because they earn more... [this has been somewhat confirmed by NYT and Forbes and other news sources, showing how average age at tech companies is much lower than you'd normally expect]

I surfed around a bit, which led me to the github site where the sample was posted, but it was deleted 3 days ago. Did a little commit history digging and managed to download the (otherwise deleted) RAR file containing source and binaries, a docx file [that I did not open], and an mp4 video. I just followed links from the article and applied some web-common-sense and voila!

a comment from the source says the following (for what it's worth):

"_SchRpcSetSecurity which is part of the task scheduler ALPC endpoint allows us to set an arbitrary DACL. It will Set the security of a file in c:\windows\tasks without impersonating, a non-admin (works from Guest too) user can write here. Before the task scheduler writes the DACL we can create a hard link to any file we have read access over. This will result in an arbitrary DACL write."

European nations told to sort out 'digital tax' on tech giants by end of year

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Tax the Turnover

"Don't tax the profits - the accountants are too sharp!"

Actually the I.T. department helps out a lot, in that regard. It was one of my tasks, back in the early 90's, working for a large non-U.S. company [as a contractor]. Their U.S. division (where I worked) _was_ a U.S. corporation, and they had this rebate thing and some rather interesting 'middleman' pricing. Part of what I did was to determine what the rebate amount should ideally be, so that the U.S. corporation makes "a little money" but not too much, to keep the taxation down. It's not illegal to do this, but it would make a lot of people unhappy to have it confirmed. I said something like "oh you want to..." to the executive, who then basically said "but we can't say it like that."

But yeah, tax minimization is a huge thing with corporations. can you BLAME them? I mean, would YOU deliberately NOT deduct things on your income taxes so you can go ahead and pay MORE taxes? In any case, I still call into question the whole idea of raising taxes anyway, because there's another factor that I haven't mentioned yet: if taxation reduces profits, even if its paid by foreign investors, it still affects hiring and wages in EU and UK. And 3% doesn't sound like much, until it's raised every year by a tiny amount until it becomes confiscatory, because "they can".

And you know if "they" taxed you at 100%, they'd beg for more, and want to go to 110%.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

taxation vs economic activity

If you want an economic activity to be IMPAIRED, tax it.

If you want an economic activity to INCREASE, cut taxes on it (or make it 'tax free').

Since one of the things 'at issue' here is the economics of monetizing people's personal data, then (if you really want to) TAX IT INTO OBLIVION [especially if that's the only way it can be stopped]. I hate saying that, but it would WORK.

As for getting gummint revenue, "making corporations pay their fair share" is a stupid way of getting revenue, and succeeds in dividing the haves from the have-nots even MORE than before.

"Corporations" don't pay tax. It's the people who OWN the corporation [through stock, equity, etc.] that pay the tax. Many of these people are regular working stiffs with a retirement portfolio. Think about it. And if a tax increase on a corporation causes them NOT to hire [or to do layoffs], you get what you deserve, more people demanding unemployment compensation.

["the rich" already HAVE their wealth; taxing income won't transfer it to "the poor" - they'll alter whatever behavior or investment, as necessary, to avoid the 'new tax'. What it *WILL* do is put yet another roadblock in the path of someone working hard trying to BECOME "the rich", who can't afford to do tax evading things]

Also gummint needs to CUT BACK ON SPENDING at least in proportion to ANY tax increases. If you force the people to tighten THEIR belts, you gummint weenies BETTER be SETTING THE EXAMPLE by DOING IT YOURSELF. But like all arrogant (corrupt?) politicians and bureaucrats, they'll *EXEMPT* *THEMSELVES* from the negative effects.

And 'austerity' needs to go, too (it's just a means to promise the moon to people, so that they will vote for YOU to get it).

Microsoft sharpens its claws to cut Outlook UI excess, snip Ribbon

bombastic bob Silver badge
Mushroom

Re: UI revamp

ugh, the WORST fat-finger-burger menu EVAR! [I am nauseated just thinking about it]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Cruft

I've heard that term for years, often used in engineering circles to avoid more profane terms that mean the same thing. It deserves an actual technical definition, like 'CRUD'.

In the nuclear industry, CRUD is officially "Corrosion and wear byproducts in a nuclear reactor system that have become radioactive and are deposited and accumulated in related equipment". 'CRUD traps' are places where it accumulates the most, and they often get signs posted on them indicating the last measured radiation dosage rate. Some are so bad they get lead shielding wrapped around them so that you can spend more than 5 minutes nearby when working on stuff, without exceeding your radiation limits at any rate. But yeah it's the side effect of neutron-irradiating Iron 59 which turns it into Cobalt 60. CRUD.

I suppose CRUFT could officially become "any bloatware or overly implemented feature that can easily be eliminated without adversely affecting the usability or functionality of a software application."

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Meet the Fockers

"There's someone in MS who knew very well what they were inflicting on the general public with the ribbon but they did it anyway."

That person no longer works at Micro-shaft. Maybe this is why it's starting to get a face lift? Same person responsible for ribbon AND "the metro" in case anyone wondered (see link), even though Sinofsky (allegedly) had taken the fall over 'the metro' and Windows 'Ape'.

Then again, "fixing" the ribbon (instead of completely obliterating it) is lipstick on a boar, but this time it IS on the oinky end.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: UI revamp

"Everyone must conform to the new UI standard."

How DARE they cram a new UI up our as down our throats like that!

[yeah maybe this time it'll actually be an IMPROVEMENT]

Mikrotik routers pwned en masse, send network data to mysterious box

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Vulnerability is overstated

yeah that's definitely different from the one I saw [I followed the rabbit trail to a github site with the python code demonstrating the PoC - it's that old yeah]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Is that the one I noticed this morning?

unfortunately it seems nothing's been done about the 'izuku.sh' file, though my logs show different IP addresses hosting it now. Yeah, they ignored me. Well that server _IS_ in Poland... they probably can't read or understand the information properly and/or just ignore it because they regularly host criminal services or similar. [I've had 'confirmed kills' before, wtih responses, just not that often - usually it is silently fixed or seems so because the activity stops]. Another possibility is that they leave it on the server to see what IP addresses download it to track the thing. Well I won't interfere with law enforcement if that's the case.

( I also posted the actual URL on USENET, and described it even better there, so not like it's invisible any more, and anyone can see it in web server logs )

Back at the turn o' the century, Code Red lingered for several years after the initial infections started. Someone (allegedly me perhaps?) allegedly had an auto-responder that would allegedly shut down the Code Red infected web server remotely (since it was attempting to spread a virus) via the Code Red back door command/control channel and (allegedly) leave a file on the administrator desktop that said something like "you are an idiot" and explained why the web server was shut down remotely. Both of those factoids should frighten any clueless admin into patching the thing (as it was most likely some old unpatched "oh we have a web server running?" Win2k box in a closet that nobody thought about. But I digress...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

Is that the one I noticed this morning?

Since June there have been a number of requests for '/login.cgi' in my web logs (several hundred) with an obvious code injection exploit in the URL, that wget's a file on a server with a specific IP address (several of these observed, looks like they change periodically) which then loads a binary image for MIPS or ARM processors [as appropriate] into /tmp or one of several other directories that it might be able to download something into...

in any case the script it first downloads is called 'izuku.sh' . I reported my logs and findings to several ISPs who either hosted the machines doing the request, or WERE the host for the downloading.

Not sure if this is the same one the article talks about, but the one I saw has been around since June (according to my logs) and always tries to download that script file which then attempts to download the binary into one of several directories, then load/run it. And I think if you disable remote management on your router, this (apparent) virus won't infect it. But it could be a different one, not the one the article is about. I don/t know. So I mention it anyway, just in case. Details are sometimes useful...

Anyway, if you have a web server, look for access attempts for /login.cgi and you'll probably see it (the one I'm talking about). Again, dunno if it's the same as the one in the article, but is similar, probably.

(the first log entry is 15-June at 14:36, in case anybody wonders)

Roskosmos admits that Soyuz 'meteorite' hole had more earthly origins

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

ok this is why you might drill a hole and seal it with goo

Let's say you do testing, and you discover a leak. you know it's "around here". The drawings say there shouldn't be a leak, but you have one anyway. So, to access the leaky zone, you drill a hole. THEN you inject some sealant goop into the hole, and the leak stops. YAY, you FIXED it! But it doesn't hold, and so now your hole is in a photograph blaming you.

less funny than the other explanations. I'll get my coat anyway for the buzz-kill effect.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Not only Russians

A sub with a hole 'above the water line' so it's ok... uh, huh.

well I don't think sub builders [in this case, probably Electric Boat, or perhaps Mare Island] would be so brain-dead stupid as to actually do that. My guess is it's just a funny urban legend... or it may have been a hole that was drilled for some other reason (to attach sonar gear via a cable that penetrates the hull?), and someone was funnin' with the civilian. [yeah maybe the cable stuffing box hadn't been attached yet]

In reality sub hulls are thoroughly x-rayed and re-welded if any flaws are found. I was semi-involved in that process once, a long time ago. Standard practice for Navy ships at any rate.

Gitpod git-bolts git-IDE onto GitHub for in-browser code git-editing

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

is this going to perform like google docs?

Is this online direct editing (apparently) javascript eldritch abomination "editor" going to perform like GOOGLE DOCS and be SO SLOW as to become VIRTUALLY UNUSABLE? Because, I don't think you can get around the latency and network performance issues by WISHING for it.

And yeah, subscription pricing is next, right? (if I read the tail-end of the article correctly, it is)

Somehow I think a good old-fashioned "git pull", local edit, and "git push" would do better. There's already an editor of sorts for merging, and I'm not amused by it. It's kinda "piggy" and not impressive in the least.

But I suppose it *could* get worse.

/me thinks: just because you CAN does not mean you SHOULD.

Microsoft Azure: It's getting hot in here, so shut down all your cores

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: How Does Cloud Work Again?

the cloud would work better if Micro-shaft could write EFFICIENT CODE like they USED to.

Compare ".Net" and "UWP" to how snappy Win '95 was, by comparison. In 16Mb of memory even!!!

And that pretty much explains it all. Micro-shaft, STOP it with the BLOATWARE! Abandon ".Not", "UWP", "The Metro", C-pound, and THE SPYWARE!!! [then you might find your servers won't overheat because they're no longer working against themselves, ya know???]

MS fanboi downvotes welcome. heh. But, you *KNOW* I'm *RIGHT* about this!!!

Excuse me, but your website's source code appears to be showing

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Always pick the right tool for the job

using a git repo for web-side code that [at one time] had keys or other information embedded in it [think something similar to DJango 'template' files, where server-side code could be embedded in the actual pages themselves, or more specifically what .git has in it] could, in a misconfigured system, reveal the '.git' directory and allow it to be downloaded. And if you don't have the keys embedded it it NOW, maybe they were there 'for testing' in any version of the code EVAR, and that's the security hole [in this case].

I am pretty sure DJango's default implementation doesn't allow access to '.git' directories. However, if you bring it up in 'debug' mode, or allow 'generic' file downloading on ANYTHING, it just might...

[there are many reasons I dislike DJango, easy to misconfigure due to its overall confusing nature being one of them]

Some additional experiments (by me) showed that default apache will serve up those '.git' directories unless you tell it NOT to. I created one for grins (as a symlink) and re-directed it to "the usual place" along with all of those other things that crackers and web viruses always want to test downloading. And after checking some web logs, I discovered that there's another bit of virus/malware out there looking for '/login.cgi' and apparently attempting to inject a wget command to download something from a rogue server at an IP address that I shouldn't mention here. If you want that IP address, check your web logs. It's probably there. It's also pretty recent.

Anon man suing Google wants crim conviction to be forgotten

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: But even before the first transistor was invented ...

"Think if traffic violations data were freely available, and you can easily match people with plate numbers, for free."

oh you just gave me *SO* many *EVIL* ideas... !

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Let me get this straight...

"How can anyone think this is reasonable?"

you are confusing 'reason' with what happens in a court room. oops.

[supposedly this is why we have judges and juries]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Right to be forgotten

'Shirley' these things will all be tested in court. Sadly that means common sense could be lost along the way...

(or did the people writing the laws want to enrich their la[w]yer buddies with the inevitable endless parade of litigation?)

Black holes can briefly bring dead white dwarf stars back to life

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

'source level' reactions and reactivity addition

Just to add a little physics here...

The problem I see with eddy currents 'kick starting' a reaction in the white dwarf is that the sudden addition of reactivity [i.e. the gravitational compression] is *ALSO* likely to cause an uncontrolled reaction and *EXPLOSION* rather than a 'kick start' of the star.

Here's why:

Fusion and fission share a few similar *kinds* of parameters, reactivity being one of them. In the case of fusion, a major part of the reactivity consists of heat and density. The fusion reaction in a star is stable because the expansion force from the fusion reaction is balanced by gravity. Too much of one, the star goes 'boom', or collapses onto itself and goes out.

I would expect that because one fusion leads to another, you'd have a lifecycle time, delaying effects, and 'reactivity' (related to the effective neutron multiplication factor for fission; for fusion, it would be related to the ability of the energy from one fusion reaction to trigger others). When you have a sudden increase in reactivity, it's likely in a fusion reaction (as it is in a fission reaction) that you get a sudden 'jump' in the reaction rate that's somewhat proportional to the reactivity addition rate (this would be due to various factors that would be common in the reactivity equations of both fusion and fission). When the power levels of a nuclear reactor are unstable [a lot of chaotic activity, like a shut down fission reactor or a 'brown dwarf' star] then sudden spikes in the reaction rate might trigger an unknowable "super power level surge", high enough to explode instead of 'just starting up'. Or not.

The SL-1 incident (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1 ) was a case where a shut down fission reactor went 'prompt critical' due to sudden reactivity addition, and experienced a 'prompt jump' in power levels (followed by 'prompt criticality' where power multiplied in microseconds instead of 100's of milliseconds) from a shut down condition to a 'thousands times maximum' power level (20GW according to the article, in a 3MW reactor) in a few milliseconds, burned nearly ALL of the nuclear fuel in that time period, and caused a 'water hammer' when all of the cooling water covering the core suddenly flashed to steam and pushed the remaining water up like a big piston, faster than you can blink, forcing the reactor vessel and attached components to jump 9 feet into the air, etc. etc. very very bad contamination, core meltdown, dead people, yotta yotta. Yuck. Photo of what was left of the the melted/sploded core on the web page.

Assuming that sudden dwarf star restarts might act *like* *that*, because of the addition of reactivity by tidal forces and other 'black hole' things, if it's too quick, dwarf star go *BOOM*. My opinion.

Microsoft gives Windows 10 a name, throws folks a bone

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: May I humbly suggest...

but I like dragons... I don't like Win-10-nic.

How about 'icebergs ahead' ?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Obviously...

"I making a point of immediately binning any CVs submitted as a .odt file"

That's why smart people submit PDFs instead, to get past the H.R. weenies and middle managers who think 'that way'.

Besides, who'd *WANT* to work for a snooty anal-retentive person that throws out a resumé simply because it's in an open source format? Or, worse, a company that HIRES such people in the H.R. department? [H.R. is the worst part of working on-site for any medium to large company - it's like they live to justify their own existence or something, nearly as bad as OUTSOURCED H.R.]

Fortunately, at this time, it's a "seller's market" (edit, I'd said 'buyer' but it's really 'seller') for employment opportunities, at least in the USA. It's pretty 'great'. [yeah I _did_ mean that, actually] So go ahead and toss my resumé so I don't hear back from ya!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

use of 'goto'

FYI - 'goto' is a legitimate way to program although it should be used (mostly) for things *like* error cleanup [see lots of Linux kernel modules for examples - 'error_exit' and similar labels].

In the world of userland-only coding, you can afford to be snobby about 'never use goto'. In the kernel world, you use it because it works better. Just pointing that one out, for those who don't know.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: >> I do not need DropBox Plus, nor OneDrive.

"The problem are the people on the other side who cannot live with, work with, or correct the minor issues"

yeah, those other people need to get Libre Office and quit whining about it. Not like it would cost them anything...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Crashy McCrashface?

I was thinking Flatty McFlatFace

Hello 'WOS': Windows on Arm now has a price

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Intel sueing in 3... 2... 1...

"After all few Windows-only Software actually uses anything that came out after 2000."

I wish this were true. Unfortunately, some *EXTREMELY* unwise software developers (for business applications) drank the Micro-shaft coolaid and either use C-pound, or (nearly as bad) ".Not" with C++.

If the application you use falls into this category, you're *B0NED*.

However, if the developers were SMART, they used Java [Oracle does this] or MFC/C++ *without* ".Not" and targeted XP or 7 [and not 10]. Yes, it's STILL possible to do that. And very, very wise.

/me points out that with a little effort, MFC applications can be modified to use wxWidgets to run on Mac or X11 systems. There's effort for sure, but it's not "that much" and worth doing. Then you can have a single code base for everything. Yes, _I_ do this.

Once business applications are commonly available for Linux and Mac, people will *STOP* "needing" Windows, and developers will have even MORE reason to make their applications run on non-windows OSs.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: I Wish You Luck

does it come with Linux instead?

Mate desktop, please, and *NO* 2D FLATSO themes!