Posts by bombastic bob

The best way to screw the competition? Do what they can't, in a fraction of the time

when you charge more per hour

it's because the "net cost" of having YOU do the work saves money.

Or at least, that's what you want them to think.

Giving away occasional freebies that demonstrate this capability are helpful, yeah.

Should a robo-car run over a kid or a grandad? Healthy or ill person? Let's get millions of folks to decide for AI...

Re: Manual override?

can't trust the AI to make the correct decision anyway, even if it's "3 laws safe"

Re: You are thinking about it all wrong.

there used to be a 'points' system for running things over. Run over roadkill, 1 point. Smack a mailbox or nick a fence, 2 points. Pedestrian NOT in a crosswalk, 10 points. Pedestrian in a crosswalk, 50 points. If the pedestrian is using a cane, add 25 points. And so on. OK I'm just rectally extrapolating all of this but it was a real 'thing' back in the day, 1960's-ish.

then you have the AI calculate the 'points' and go for max score!

Grumbling about wobbly Windows 10? Microsoft can't hear you over the clanging cash register

Re: Ominous foreboding...

the only thing holding it together is the paint that's covering up the rust.

If it ever goes into drydock, the entire structure will collapse. then you can just sweep it all up into a pile or something...

Worrying Windows 10 wrecking-ball weapon weirdly wanders wildly on worldwide web

safe surfing

1. never surf the web logged in as an 'administrator' (group or otherwise)

2. never surf the web using a micro-shaft browser

3. avoid surfing the web from windows, if possible (especially windows 10)

4. use a white-listing script blocker such as 'noscript'

5. never read (especially preview) e-mails as HTML (or with inline attachments)

6. never just 'open' downloaded files. save to disk, first. Same with e-mail attachments.

7. Don't use the shell to open (i.e. double-clicking in a file browser). Use the correct application, and 'File Open'. (this avoids the problem of executable files hiding as something else via the extension)

etc.

yeah, THESE rules probably mitigate this particular 0-day, at least to SOME extent. That goes TRIPLE for the one about being an administrator. that was sorta mentioned in the bootnote...

Memo to Microsoft: Windows 10 is broken, and the fixes can't wait

Re: "Quality" is a structural attribute, not a bolt-on

"As the unit tests are generally written by developers"

about that. 'unit tests' aren't necessary in the majority of cases, especially when they're TRIVIAL. If the system is properly designed, i.e. broken into functional unjits correctly, you can test the overall functionality of the whole on a known dataset. This also means properly writing the thing in the FIRST place, to avoid all of the usual problems (memory leaks, buffer overruns, mishandled erroneous data, use-after-free pointers, etc.).

In other words, "unit test" for every trivial freaking thing is what JUNIOR coders do, because they can't see past their own noses and look at the BIG picture.

(as for making up some kind of test data to verify an algorithm, that's not the same... you use that to WRITE the algorithm, and once done, you NEVER! HAVE! TO! TEST! IT! AGAIN!!!)

Windows 10 is officially a shit show

BIG! THUMBS! UP! for that article!

jQuery? More like preyQuery: File upload tool can be exploited to hijack at-risk websites

Re: Bait much?

I've always *HATED* JQuery [and everything associated with it] anyway. I bit the bait. Schadenfreude, I admit it. I still *HATE* JQuery.

(I wish doxygen would quit using it in generated output files - if there were an option to shut it off, I'd use it)

BepiColombo launches, Russia ponders next lift-off, and 50 years since Apollo 7 got its feet wet

exploring Mercury

Mercury, it is theorized, has high potential for heavy elements, like gold, platinum, rare earths, etc..

Mercury could theoretically be mined at night since it rotates very slowly, 80-something days. Additionally, the radiation levels wouldn't be so bad on the side NOT facing the sun. But yeah you'd have to constantly move your mining equipment to keep from being scorched/burned/melted/irradiated.

I believe that the heavier elements will have higher concentrations closer to the sun. Planets that are farther away tend to have a lot of lighter elements (like the gas giants), but it's also possible that stuff REALLY close to the sun isn't any higher in 'heavy element' rocky components than, say, the earth is.

it might be useful to find out for sure... and hopefully that mercury probe is looking for them!

Zip it! 3 more reasons to be glad you didn't jump on Windows 10 1809

Re: Who even uses Windows ZIP handling?

do it from the command line via Cygwin. Fixed.

Re: Regressions

"since Vista most of the stuff is being handled by .NET components which has well-documented APIs. Fuck knows why the stuff is blowing up"

you answered your own question. In a big way, I blame ".Not" and _EVERYTHING_ that came with it! It was, from my perspective, the *BEGINNING* of Micro-shaft's downward spiral.

I knew this when I observed the *PIGGY* performance of W2k3 server, compared to W2k server, on the SAME HARDWARE. No actual improvement in 'stuff' (other than maybe bug fixes and slight enhancements), but LOTS of *PIGGY* performance added! So grossly inadequate, I stopped using it immediately, even for evaluation purposes. I don't like 10's of seconds waiting for a mouse click response... that's one example!

And, it was obviously being caused by shifting the UI over to use ".Not" !!!!!!!!!

Re: Regressions

"What the hell have they been up to to introduce so many random bugs in existing functionality?"

My conclusion: they're re-doing things because, according to THE NEXT GENERATION at Micro-shaft, "It's _OUR_ turn now!" Like immature young-uns, they REJECT what "the old guys" came up with, in favor of whatever new, shiny PIPE DREAM they've excreted.

Because, "old is bad" in their eyes. It *MUST* be re-invented, re-written, and so on, because THEY know BEST [and will CRAM IT up the asses of EVERY customer to PROVE it!].

This pervasive "our turn now" attitude infiltrates just about EVERYTHING that the Halls of Redmond excretes these days. At least, from MY perspective, it does...

it's why they're so quick to use 'Modern' in a PEJORATIVE sense, to INSULT us ol' fuddy-duddy stick-in-the-mud 'refuse to change' 'refuse to learn' LUDDITES that STAND IN THE WAY of their 'greatness'.

And, they've been taught ALL OF THEIR LIVES that their OWN personal self-esteem is the MOST IMPORTANT THING. And, they *FEEL* *BETTER* about themselves when they IMPOSE THEIR WILL upon the rest of us like that!

Nearly all of the GOOD developers left Micro-shaft during the 2000's, I'd stake money on it!

Hubble 'scope gyro drama: Hey, NASA, have you tried turning it off and on again? Oh, you did. And it worked? Cool

might I suggest...

rotating the 'spare' units into service every few months, to keep something like this from happening again

(that was standard operating procedure when I was in the Navy - get the spare out of the supply system, and rotate it in, taking the next unit out of service and putting it back into 'spares' in the supply system).

SQLite creator crucified after code of conduct warns devs to love God, and not kill, commit adultery, steal, curse...

Re: I have a code of conduct

or one of my favorites:

"Tolerance means tolerating those who's actions/opinions you truly hate."

I wonder if this is covered by the Benedictine CoC ?

Maybe it was adjusted to fit the numerology beliefs of the day. 10 is a number of 'completion'.

Either that, or the other way around...

PC version of Linux 4.19 lands with PC version of Linus Torvalds: Kernel handed back to creator

Re: "You need to manage that anger"

Those who are wishy-washy and spineless and deliberately use 'feel' instead of 'think' (in my opinion) have a propensity towards seeing "passion + confidence" as "anger".

Using 'feel' because it's less assertive, or potentially offensive to poor widdle snowflakes, because CONFIDENCE 'offends' people (read: those who have self-esteem issues), is an example of what I mean here.

If you have CONFIDENCE in what you believe, and PASSION for getting things done correctly (etc.), those who are wishy-washy and/or the 'feel instead of think' types, are likely to *FEEL* as if you are *MAD* at them, even though what you REALLY want is for them to USE THAT BONE-COVERED MUSHY THING THAT IS LOCATED 3 FEET ABOVE THEIR ASSES instead of doing something 'bone-headed'.

I'd say that majority of Linus' infamous profanity-filled rants reflect the *kinds* of frustration from "feelies" (and those who don't use their brains) that I just described.

Perhaps Linus will need to start saying something like: "So 'pretty please'. With sugar on it. FIX THE [insert Linus worthy profanities] PROBLEM!!!"

(I borrowed that from 'Pulp Fiction', yeah - similar context)

My favorite Linus rant was THIS one.

The (future lack of) drill sergeant 'abuse'

and now I'm reminded of that "Sarcasta-ball" episode of 'South Park'

Wimpification and emasculation at its finest!

/me points out that if I scream 'misandrony' I'll be looked at as one of those who sold out to the concept, 'cause it ain't manly to say 'misandrony'.

"The drill sergeant abuse is meant to break the individualism of rebellious adolescent males"

Actually that's not true at all. It's to ASSERT AUTHORITY in order to form a cohesive unit. Boot camp isn't about doing what you're told every step of the way. Soldiers aren't robots, and they don't run programs. It's about POSITIVE MOTIVATION. It's about the soldier being positively motivated enough to act correctly on his own, without the need of a drill sergeant breathing down his neck saying "WHAT is your MAJOR MALFUNCTION, NUMB-NUTS?" every time he goes outside the lines a little.

If you haven't actually BEEN in the military, you don't get it. If you have, you'll probably understand what I mean here. It's not a 'control' thing.

A really simplified explanation would be that the human mind remembers things by association. Certain associations, including humiliation and physical pain, carry with them a very STRONG association. The intent is to correct bad behavior early on by asserting authority, and demonstrating consequences in a way that's going to be remembered. And, the more STRONG associations there are with a memory, the more likely you are to remember it [especially if the circumstances are in any way similar to the one that stored the memory in the first place].

And that's why a DRILL SERGEANT is SO effective!

"Slave & Maser is out, I guess that means a complete re-write of the I2C buss spec then."

Masers on stun? [ok obviously dropped the 't' but I had to poke a little fun, heh]

Re: Anyone wanna take bets?

So, I have to wonder WHY they would WANT to force Linus out.

Right now, Linus stands in the way of the *kinds* of things many of us hate showing up in the kernel.

I have to wonder if the likes of GPLv3, Gnome 3, Pulse Audio, SystemD, DBus, HalD, etc. would infect the kernel as well as userland, if Linus were not there to prevent it.

So if there ARE rainbow-haired 'identity politics' SJW crowd card-carrying members out there just SALIVATING at the opportunity to take down Linus, it might be to do ACTUAL HARM to the Linux kernel by ALLOWING things like those I mentioned above to INFECT the Linux kernel, to the point where EVERYONE will be forced to embrace it, or switch to FreeBSD

(see icon)

and WHO would want to harm Linux?

Forgotten that Chinese spy chip story? We haven't – it's still wrong, Super Micro tells SEC

Re: More questions

4. how could it get power? parasitic power, depending on the usage. Or just run some power lines to it by adding 'inner layer' traces to the board.

5. how would one talk to it? I expect that it could load firmware by intercepting the FLASH ROM loadup, if in fact this is being done via SPI or some similar mechanism. Like Intel's ME, or some kind of hypervisor, it would stay resident and listen for stuff.

(didn't we discuss all of this in the comments for the previous article?)

Re: More questions

yeah 1 cent per board BOM cost matters when you want to be PROFITABLE, at least sometimes.

I suspect that only a handful of boards would need to be modified, especially if the destination is known ahead of time.

But if a gummint is involved, money isn't a concern so much in the espionage game. The actual cost was probably extorted out of the (alleged) compromised manufacturer in some way [assuming the alleged events actually happened].

And yeah the cost of the mods + chip wouldn't be on the official BOM.

Re: Conspiracy theory?

"some people wanting to depress the value of Super Micro" "some aggressive investor maybe"

I recall a well-known investor that once "broke the bank of England" through currency manipulation, etc. [and has done so in other cases as well]. This guy's billionaire rich, too, and interferes in politics a LOT, indirectly sponsoring MOBS of people that disrupt, etc. via well known 'charities'. No names mentioned, of course [probably don't need to]. And as I recall he was once known to have collaborated with Nazis during WW2. Yeah, THAT guy.

Yet, I'd hope that Bloomberg reporters would be smart enough NOT to fall for a plot hatched by THAT guy.

Selling short on Super Micro could've gotten a 30% or better return, maybe. I don't think he's been known to have manipulated STOCKS, though. But if he did, there's probably a record of it somewhere.

It's back to that old journalistic trope, "follow the money".

Happy 60th birthday, video games. Thank William Higinbotham for your misspent evenings

would you like to play a game? How about global thermonuclear war?

it's what I thought of when i read the bootnote...

GitHub.com freezes up as techies race to fix dead data storage gear

Re: Cloud based services

'The cloud' is once again overrated.

All eggs, in one basket [even a distributed basket] is not necessarily a good idea.

I like github but I don't stake my business on it always being there. A lot can go wrong between my computer and their servers. A lot.

Is this cuttlefish really all that cosmic? Ubuntu 18.10 arrives with extra spit, polish, 4.18 kernel

Re: Modern Interface, and other stupid comments

(a bit TLDR even for me)

But your comment about "Modern": I think it's more used as a PEJORATIVE to INSULT anyone who does NOT jump on that bandwagon. We become luddites, old fogies, sticks in the mud, who won't learn, who maybe even CAN'T LEARN, stuck in our ways, opposed to change, blah blah blah blah.

/me swings a clue-bat and a cat-5-o-nine-tails at ANYONE calling that so-called 'modern' 2D FLAT crap "modern" [and actually believing it]

no, NOT wayland...

"they should be doing their best to take X out of the baseline and defaulting back to Wayland would hasten that transition."

ugh, not that Wayland crap again. How about 'stay with something that we know WORKS' and 'stay with something that supports REMOTE SESSIONS' ??

Here's an example of why I can't use wayland:

I'm on an X11 desktop logged in as 'a_user'. But I want to run a desktop application as 'b_user'. So, how can you do this with WAYLAND? As far as I understand it, you can NOT. [this is especially useful when editing system files using a GUI editor while logged in as root].

Or, what if I'm running an application on a Raspberry Pi, a graphical editor, and that RPi is HEADLESS, so there's no GUI to run it on. How can I use the GUI editor with WAYLAND As far as as I understand it, you can NOT.

to avoid a length post, and the 'captcha' irritation, I'll summarize by saying it involves correctly setting the 'DISPLAY' environment variable, using teh 'xhost' application to enable a host to connect to the X server, using '.xserverrc' to enable the X server to listen for TCP connections, blocking incoming connectinos to port 6000 in your firewall, and then 'just run the GUI application' in the logged-in session and it works, remotely interacting with your GUI desktop on a different [or sometimes, the same] computer, using TCP to talk to the X server, and allowing for doing things like running a GUI app as root, when needed.

Re: Same old same old.

with respect to building an application from source that requires dependencies be installed...

For those of us trying to create those packages in the FIRST place, or use 'bleeding edge' or otherwise "unpopular" or "unsupported" software on Linux, it can be a bit of a chore.

However, if you find yourself doing 'make install', I would hope that you're familiar enough with the package system in order to be able to install any 'development file' packages so that your target will build. It usually takes me a few tries until I get them all, yeah.

And it's really not THAT hard.

Still, I'd prefer it if developers didn't use so many obscure packages for their "whatever". it can sometimes get irritating, and I don't blame Linux itself for that.

[yeah I've built a few deb packages in my day. It's been a while so I'd have to read the docs again, but there are really good instructions available from debian.org - I just look there when I need it]

Re: "the system has a more modern and 'flatter' look"

"Microsoft has had to go flat to lower CPU and GPU loads to help with battery life"

From a company that walks over dollars to pick up dimes, then. Even *IF* (and I highly doubt it) that this 2D FLATSO trend 'saves battery life', your computer is now LESS efficient because of ".Not" and UWP, and so whatever CPU efficiency is allegedly "made up for" by the 2D FLATSO FLUGLY has _EASILY_ been UN-DONE by the ".Not" "UWP" gross inefficiencies!!! Just watch the CPU during any application loadup involving ".Not" and you'll see what I mean.

And while running, UWP applications have a tendency to 'spin' the CPU from what I've seen. it's somehow worse when you run it in a VM, worst of all when multiple UWP CRapps fight one another for CPU time while waiting for god knows what interprocess communications they're trying to do, between the 'start thing' cortana and all of that slurping.

Yeah, what a joke, to even REMOTELY try and claim that MS was trying to save on battery life by doing the 2D FLATSO. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Re: "the system has a more modern and 'flatter' look"

" I don't get the drift to flat interfaces"

It's like MS Windows with a chest wrap. Or a mastectomy. Whichever.

Some millenial "children" out there [and their enabling oldsters] *FELT* (not 'think' but 'feel') that THEY should impose a Windows 2.x interface upon THE REST OF US, with their "It's *OUR* turn now" twist upon it, because they *FELT* (not 'think' but 'feel') that it was somehow "better" because in the early noughties, this is all that SMART PHONE INTERFACES could manage. So, in the realm of "all devices are phones" and "all OS's must ACT like phones", they cram this 2D FLATSO FLUGLY eldritch abomination (read: zombie resurrection of the windows 2.x interface) entirely up the rest of our backsides JUST to make themselves *FEEL* better about being important or something...

Re: "the system has a more modern and 'flatter' look"

yeah 2D FLATSO FLUGLY makes me wanna hurl.

however, the mate release might be worth a try:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/18.10/release/

[should at least have 3D skeuomorphic themes available for Mate]

Core-blimey! Riddle of Earth's mysterious center finally 'solved' by smarty seismologists

Re: out of curiosity

"would the core be a liquid cooled iron moderated fission reactor in part"

Evidence of former 'natural reactors' does exist. It may be why the core is STILL molten.

And yeah, iron/nickel have stable atomic masses near 56, which is at the top of the binding energy per nucleon curve. In short, all fission and all fusion [that is exothermic] heads towards end products of iron 56-ish and nickel 58-ish. Cobalt too, but for some reason, not so much of it in the core.

So yeah earth's core is basically dead-star-stuff, with the highest binding energy per nucleon, basically the lowest potential energy with respect to fusion/fission reactions. By contrast, hydrogen has the least binding energy per nucleon, and the highest potential energy for a fusion reaction - like in the sun.

Sciency wikipedia article HERE.

also relevant, fissionable material would've all fissioned away by now, more or less, if it had a tendency to sink deep into the core and form a critical mass. which it probably did.

Re: So it's...

'Soft' solid - it might be metal in its 'plastic' state, that is, just at the melting point but not really liquid. Under pressure it would behave as if it were solid, and yet be a bit more like melted glass or slime... as opposed to a 'truly liquid' form like molten iron poured into molds and whatnot.

As for the earth needing the core to sustain the magnetic field... I fear the potential of this being politicized some day. Just sayin'. Never underestimate etc..

Apple boss demands Bloomberg Super Micro U-turn, Russian troll charged, NSA hands out cash, and more

paying $25k/pa for a Bloomberg terminal? [I'm guessing you're a news provider subscribing to them]

I think I'd prefer 'Fox and Friends' over Bloomberg, or better still, THIS guy. Lots more entertaining, at the least.

"Intel putting in a defensive move to dilute any stories about its management engine"

That's a NICE conspiracy theory! I like it! [conspiracy theories are fun - not like I necessarily believe them, but they're definitely fun]

/me ducks to avoid being seen by the black helicopters [see icon]

reporting got carried away with 'possibility' and reported it as 'fact'

sounds like a topic line to me. This (captain obvious says) is sometimes called 'fake news'. 'Fake news' usually consists of a ton of 'anonymous sources' claims, and click-bait headlines, surrounding a plausible story [or at least plausible to the audience].

Sometimes, this ends up becoming REAL news, over time, like 'Watergate' back in the 70's. Other times it turns out to be just pure B.S. and FUD, often just an attempt by press organizations to gain attention, drive an agenda, or worse.

I'll give Bloomberg 'benefit of the doubt' on this and keep a skeptical eye on them at the same time. If they prove to have been guilty of spreading 'Fake News' they will DESERVE the lawsuits that are likely to follow.

/me points out that they're sometimes called 'Doomberg' within conservative media. heh.

Pull request accepted: You want to buy GitHub, Microsoft? Go for it – EU

Re: How about........

LinkdIn has become a bit Micro-shafty, but otherwise isn't as bad as I feared it could become. Still, I'll only run it from a sandbox'd browser. Too much script anyway. Not enough compelling reasons to kill a LinkedIn profile that I established a decade or so ago...

and I see the same with GitHub. Micro-shaft's influence on THAT will probably be obvious, and I suspect they may do things with it that are mildly irritating, but as long as I can use the legacy tools to do push/pull and clone, I'll just continue to do that.

But, if editing issues or the wiki forces me into an Office 365 environment, I'll terminate my repos and tell them how far they can insert their service into their collective rectums! Similarly if the github login causes me to be tracked, or to a lesser extent, if the site simply won't work with 'noscript' loaded.

London flatmate (Julian Assange) sues landlord (government of Ecuador) in human rights spat

Re: Lets Get Real

I think his concern (read: paranoia) about the CIA/NSA extradition may have been relevant at one time, but I think he's been locked up in the embassy too long. 'Statute of Limitations' most likely applies here. Also he should consider that self-imposed incarceration "time served".

Facebook names former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg head of global affairs

Re: Vacancy for a scapegoat

evil moustache - either a long waxy/twisty one, or a really really narrow one...

seriously this is no culture class from FB. Liberal Democrat fits right in with FB's natural political inclinations. They simply hired someone who's like-minded with the rest of their management.

F5: Don't panic but folks can slip past vulnerable firewall servers, thanks to libssh's credentials-optional 'security'

Re: Loads of places

apparently this advisory has been claimed for FreeBSD, although the 'base' version of libssh isn't affected (according to the devs). Apparently a ports version might be, however.

There seems to be a bit of FUD circulating around with respect to this advisory, but understandably so. I saw some reference to it affecting FreeBSD, but according to the devs, it's a different library in 'base'. Things using libssh from ports, on the other hand, may be affected. Not clear on whether or when it had the bug. Apparently patched now.

AWS apparently claims they're using a different version of libssh, so no problems there. I have to wonder if they're running FreeBSD or OpenBSD... (and that THIS is the reason why they're not affected - forked from the BSD version maybe?)

Silent running: Computer sounds are so '90s

Re: The Sound of Silence

"hatch a BOFH like plan to remotely silence the machines"

after hours, send the PFY around to poke a needle through the audio cable and snip off both ends with wire cutters. It'd take about 10 to 15 seconds per workstation, including the average time to traverse from one to the next.

Then you get a pile of calls and e-mails to "fix the audio on my computer" to which you can respond [robotically] "we have been receiving a lot of calls like this. With so many, it might be a virus. we are currently researching the cause, and will get back to you as soon as we have a fix." Follow this with a budget request to increase staffing to handle the work load. Throw a party instead of hiring someone new.

Re: PC noises

"most of the noise is from women's shoes"

'pock pock pock pock pock'

it's deliberately loud, so you notice them. Except in the P.C. office, you can't actually look at women walking, even though "the women's movement" is usually worth a look. Or two. So I guess it's not very P.C. to discuss this kind of "not so P.C." noises generated by women's shoes...

coat, please.

Re: Ringtones are cringworthy

the only ringtone _I_ use sounds like "vibrate".

And if someone's phone goes off in a meeting, I nearly always retort with "ball and chain call again?" or similar. [ball and chain needs to stop calling 'just to talk' during work hours; inevitably, it will be during an important meeting, where one call pauses 30 people for long enough to say 'Hello? Hi! What's up? ok. ok. I see. Yes. ok. I'm in a meeting right now. ok. yes. Is that why you called? Sure. uh, huh. I have to go, ok? yes. right. I see. Uh huh. Sure. I've really got to go, ok? Yes. I love you. Bye.']. So yeah, meeting policy should be "all phones off". It's not like everyone doesn't have voice mail.

Admittedly I used to assign 'special' sounds to all of the mousie actions in windows. Most of them were cartoon sounds. My favorite was an edited version of the Warner Brothers "That's all folks" on exit. Admittedly, the startup sound for a laptop (running window 7, for things I actually need windows for) is a short clip from a Monty Python sketch - "My Brain Hurts!". [the rest of the noises, aside from startup/shutdown, are all off, now. I eventually grew tired of dog barks, train whistles, narf, poit, zort, slide guitar up/down, etc.]

X11 desktop managers can have event noises, too. But I usually disable them.

Equifax exec's inside trade shame: Software boss sentenced for mega-hack stock profit

Re: Justice

I think in his case, any kind of lucrative career in I.T. is now over.

Stroppy Google runs rings round Brussels with Android remedy

Re: Ha

@joekhul - I think you miss the point here. There's the appearance of anti-competitive behavior here, with the likelihood that it IS happening. A libertarian like me would agree that SOME government regulation is needed, and it's not "socialistic" to use anti-trust laws (and similar laws) to REGULATE a company that engages in anti-competitive and/or predatory behavior. It's why governments exist in the FIRST place, actually, to stand in the way of injustices *like* anti-competitive and predatory practices.

I don't believe it's socialist at ALL to want anti-trust investigations and/or prosecution here.

Re: Ha

"If people dont want android they wont buy it"

this is true, but what other choices do you have? iPhone, or nothing. At least, for now...

it's the same with windows, in a way. A du-opoly with Apple isn't helping. "Oh but you have a choice!" Really? I'm still hoping Linux will become more popular, but everyone says it won't. Sad.

If what Google is doing is KEEPING COMPETITION OUT OF THE MARKET (aka 'predatory' or 'anti-competitive' behavior), then anti-trust regulations should be usable against them. Same with Micro-shaft, a while back, during the 'browser wars', as was made reference to in the article. That went poorly for Micro-shaft.

What Google needs to do instead is clean up their ad revenue scheme so that it works on any browser without excessive tracking [like GDPR compliance] and does not slurp your life. then they can ignore the browser side and just rely on providing a good service with ads in it for revenue. Instead, they seem to be violating our privacy and locking us into "their solution" with greater and greater lockin and overreach and standing on the line of legality, practically taunting lawmakers and enforcers to come after them.

/me points out that if ads weren't so irritating and/or did NOT use script, people would be less likely to HATE and BLOCK them with non-Chrome browsers... but 'they' seem compelled to script them for tracking purposes, animate them, etc. DESPITE how much people HATE that.

Re: UK needs the EU

'Thank Thatcher [snip] for putting a stop to a lot of the union silliness'

I'm surprised you got THAT many upvotes! Here's one from me.

[I was in the U.S. Navy when the Falklands war broke out, generally cheering you guys on. We'd have helped but you guys didn't need it]

As for Google's silliness, our congress is looking a bit sternly at them these days. It might take 'an entire world' to stop this, admittedly. But if UK could do it on its own... as a signal... they might flinch! [then the snowball would roll downhill and EVERYONE would benefit].

I wouldn't count on Brussels fixing this any time soon. GDPR is a good start, but if that's not ENOUGH to stop this, and Google is going for the loopholes to exploit to their maximum, they'll have to be a HELL of a lot harsher with them before this can EVER be over. And our Con-grab as well, of course.

Existing anti-trust, anti-monopoly, and similar laws/regulations might help in this case. Expect 2-3 years tied up in court, first. I doubt Google will cave. And if EU can't stand the long game on this one, they don't DESERVE to be in any position of power. I hope they *CAN*. And UK, too, post-Brexit.

WD shoots out 96-layer embedded flash chips

Re: Fab time?

Fab cost as well. Is the fallout rate higher? Is the overall process more expensive?

maybe economy of scale and working out the bugs will improve this to lower prices, and maybe grow the capacity some more, but how long will we need to wait for this?

Enterprise Java caretakers float new rules of engagement for future feature updates

Not evolving fast enough?

Sometimes I think things are evolving TOO fast, and the least-likely-to-survive "mutation" is being artificially selected, as opposed to NATURAL selection. You know, like 2D FLATSO. And ".Not". And NodeJS.

Java has a LOT of potential as cross-platform development environment, and always did, which is why Oracle uses (or used?) it for their front-end GUI applications, as well as the Arduino IDE and Eclipse itself. For a lot of things, it makes SENSE.

What Micro-shaft did with C-pound [part of their failed attempt at embracing and extending Java] is an example of "evolving too fast" and "artificially selecting the winner" [instead of NATURAL selection].

What we do NOT want to see is a Java spec that circles the drain with "new shiny" after "new shiny" to the point where developers CANNOT POSSIBLY KEEP UP, *ESPECIALLY* if it means abandoning old things for new, or you're just simply LEFT BEHIND.

Evolving TOO fast, particularly without supporting the OLD stuff properly, is a recipe for FAIL.

I'm not saying don't evolve. You see Linux (kernel) and the BSDs "evolving". You also see what Gnome and Firefox have done to themselves, and what Poettering has excreted for Linux userland. They're chasing FADS and effectively saying they are "evolving". WRONG. That's not evolution, that's rogue mutations that are ENDANGERING THE SPECIES.

It's bad enough that my Java experience only includes Android and making tiny modifications to the Arduino IDE. I admit I'm no expert. I also don't want Java to become "the next Gnome 3".

Love Microsoft Teams? Love Linux? Then you won't love this

Re: "Vanishingly Small"

embracing the competing products... in this case Linux and POSIX in general.

Yeah, MS definitely _IS_ embracing. Next will be extending. Then extinguishing. *EX-TER-MIN-ATE*

VS Code running on Linux is NEVER designed to actually build Linux applications. It's for ".Not Core" applications. The 'Extend' part of 'Embrace Extend Extinguish'. And it was written with NodeJS which is a complete joke. And I'm not laughing.

So what they've done with 'Teams' is apparently what they've always done: EXTEND to the point where you can't use the old system any more, you MUST adopt the 'Microsoft XXX' or you can't use it. I have no doubt that the reason ONLY Chrome 59+ works is because of MS and 'bleeding edge' - if they're not driving it themselves, they'll use it to FORCE users onto "new, shiny" as a path to 'Extinguish'. They're making use of some 'new, shiny' feature ONLY found in certain browsers and rejecting everything else. And Chrome looks like Win-10-nic with the 2D FLAT and also 'big Google', etc.. I'm considering the black helicopter icon now...

Yes. They're manipulating you. Unless you've abandoned them. In which case, they'll ISOLATE you.

Deeper dive with GitHub Actions: One config file to rule them all and in the darkness bind them

Microsoft's influence

I smell that (see topic).

What I see: Yet another overly-complex market-speak technology being touted as the 'new shiny' that everyone MUST embrace, which really targets a tiny percentage of customers/end-users, and probably complicates more things than it de-complicates in the process, and will likely be abandoned later down the road for YET ANOTHER new, shiny. But other git services won't have "this", so it attempts to keep people from migrating elsewhere...

Yep. Smells like Micro-shaft's influence allright. I'm predictably underwhelmed.

Just how much 'automation' do we need from git repos anyway? I've seen one attempt at integrating the git repo stuff into 'things' before, and it resulted in a virtually unusable [because it was SO pig-slow] google doc spreadsheet that was trying to track hours to issues in a private github repo. I've seen better performance on a swap-bound windows '95 system with 4Mb. Example: waiting 30 seconds to a MINUTE for a change I typed in to 'take' so I could move the cursor (due to the formulas copy/pasta'd throughout the spreadsheet). Yeah, it was THAT bad. Do we need MORE things like that? I suspect NOT.

(I tracked hours manually and it was a lot easier, and probably a lot faster, by storing a draft e-mail on an IMAP server that had the hours and issues in it, as simple plain text)