* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Space, the final Trump-tier: America to beam up $8bn for Space Force

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

Re: Inner Space?

"Outer Space starts at 100km up, which isn't even past the atmosphere... so where/what is Inner Space?"

Somewhere in the vicinity of 'Uranus'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Star Fleet

"Actually, the problem being addressed here is that the USA already has a "space force" of sorts. The problem is that it is distributed over several armed services and government agencies with no central coordination."

Kinda what I was thinking too.

Back in the 80's I was indirectly involved with GPS development. The sub I was on had GPS gear literally "tie wrapped" on top of certain cabinets, wired into the ship's antennas and communications systems, etc.. GPS/Navstar was a Navy project as I understand it, but the Air Force was probably in on it as well.

In any case, having a single military service that's directly responsible for space-based "things" associated with the military is probably a good idea. The Army Air Corps became the Air Force in the 1950's as I recall. So now it's just another branch of the military service that specializes in space-based things.

Perhaps we'll see some actual space ships that can take off, orbit, land, refuel, and do it again, and again, on regular missions, like airplanes. With people flying them.

What do a meth, coke, molly, heroin stash and Vegas allegedly have in common? Broadcom cofounder Henry Nicolas

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

and this appears to be

yet another example of what's horribly, horribly wrong at the core of Silicon Valley aka "Silly Valley".

Surprise, surprise. Here comes Big Cable to slay another rule that helps small ISPs compete

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: Time for Pai to hold out for some more stock options from Big Cable

If a gummint official EVER profits from his position like that, he deserves the jail time for insider trading and unethical conduct. There's a Congressman who was recently indicted with charges over similar kinds of profiteering. I forget his name, just remember reading about it on Fox News.

Jokes aside, I doubt Pai will be profiteering from his position at the FCC. If he ever does, he'll deserve the consequences.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: So the FCC gets to make the decision.

de-regulation is usually better. I used to hear similar kinds of screaming decades ago when, in california, there were 'fair trade' liquor prices, set by gummint regulation, intended to "protect" liquor stores from those competing drug and grocery and even convenience stores that could ALSO sell liquor. Decades later, after the government-based price fixing was removed, and free market restored, I don't know of ANY liquor stores that closed because the grocery and drug stores could charge 'whatever they wanted' for liquor. In fact, I think it got BETTER for everyone, if I remember correctly. i was working in a drug store at that time, and remember the first "on sale" ad that went out after 'fair trade' went away. It was pretty much ALL brand-named liquor and wine and beer on sale that week. And the liquor stores didn't go belly up because of the "no more price fixing". In fact I wouldn't be surprised if THEY did even BETTER afterwards.

Point: free market works. gummint needs to get out of the way.

How evil JavaScript helps attackers tag possible victims – and gives away their intent

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: What if you don't allow JS at all?

"there are dozens of others."

Excluding things that exploit Intarweb Exploiter, (aka Microsoft's Internet Explorer}, can you name some please? Because the last time I checked, methods that use fonts or graphics files have been patched, long ago. At this point you would be required to actively visit an exploit site and enter information (like a phishing site), rather than having them run in background (using script or other 'executables') and harvest it somehow. Or steal your bandwidth. etc.

For the IE-specific exploits, the list may still be pretty long. It may no longer include ActiveX though. It's why I don't use IE. In fact, I don't web surf at ALL with a Windows OS. It's part of my 'Safe Surfing' rules, after all.

Safe surfing:

a) use NoScript or its equivalent, as restrictively as possible

b) NEVER use a Microsoft browser

c) Avoid web-surfing while running Windows

d) *ALWAYS* be logged in as a NON-PRIVILEGED user when web surfing

etc.

(not perfect, but generally effective)

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: What if you don't allow JS at all?

and THAT is why I *ALWAYS* run the 'NoScript' plugin, except for those SPECIFIC web sites that for some reason I must use (let's say certain electronics parts suppliers), and their clueless "developers" require so damned much scripting via so many different CDN servers (_AND_ google metrics shhhtuff) that it's pathetic, and hard to 'allow for this session' all of the time because I do _NOT_ want to 'permanently allow' anything from google, and so I have a 'special browser' [named in a pejorative sense] set up JUST for THEM, that runs in a 'special' login context and deletes _ALL_ _HISTORY_ when I close it.

Javascript on the web is EVIL, NOT NECESSARY (use HTML5, CSS like a *REAL* developer), and RIFE with exploits, tracking, slurping, ad-targeting, yotta yotta.

FreeBSD has its own TCP-queue-of-death bug, easier to hose than Linux's SegmentSmack

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

high bandwidth sites

high bandwidth sites are probably the most effected. I expect those who have poor connection speed won't see any visible changes. Maybe a few spikes in CPU from some attempts to DDoS but that's about it.

The early fix simply surfaces the sysctl setting, apparently for this variable:

static u_int tcp_reass_maxqueuelen = 100;

by surfacing it as a sysctl setting, the sysadmin would be able to tweek it. However you'd need the first patch to be able to tweek it at all, and THEN the subsequent patch (which does not yet exist) to REALLY fix it.

Maybe I'll ask some of the devs on IRC - I hang out in a dev channel and do kernel-related stuff for FBSD on occasion. But by now I'm sure they're tired of being asked.

New age discrim row: Accenture, Facebook sued by sales boss for favoring 'new blood'

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"a long-term relationship with any new employee"

one that's easily terminated at the next layoff

One-sided deals are the worst kind. A win-win always works better, and 65 does *not* mean *retirement* ! It could mean that, but shouldn't, in my opinion, not when people live to be in their 80's.

(I'll still be working until I'm dead, and then contract out as a ghost, during my "retirement")

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Urban

"and pay them less"

and get what you paid for. So it's a question, to these Pimply Faced Bosses, do you want a bunch of mooks, licking your boots when you walk through the hall, or do you want people who are willing to say "no" and get things done RIGHT the FIRST time?

It's amazing how smart the older people seem once you're one of them, heh.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Difficult to stop

if the discrimination were PURELY based on age, I would agree. However, benefit of the doubt suggests several other factors also, not the least of which is the *type* of experience or the tendency to not work as many hours or want too much money. THAT being said, 60 isn't that far away for me. And those who hire me must pay me what I'm worth, and so I'm not willing to accept anything that I'd have quickly accepted 20 years ago [and at a fraction of what I'd earn now].

Then again, my own claim to fame is that I actually get things DONE, in less time. So as a contractor, paying me twice as much per hour is actually a cost SAVINGS... and that's because I've had a lot of experience, which tells me ahead of time what works, what doesn't, and what's a complete waste of time to try (even if it 'feels' ok). "Been there, done that, better to do it THIS way and get it done."

Ever seen printer malware in action? Install this HP Ink patch – or you may find out

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"They're probably addressed in a private range, but they're still exposed to the internet."

especially if some clueless intern went and enabled 'uPNP' on the router/firewall (so his torrents would work better?). Or, if your printer has IPv6 enabled... (and your ISP supports it, and your firewall cluelessly allows incoming print requests to connect to it - because in theory, [nearly] all IPv6 addresses are publicly visible and exploitable without proper firewalling to STOP it)

bombastic bob Silver badge
WTF?

Re: Not a printer I know...

I've got an older OfficeJet 'all in one' and there are newer versions with similar names and numbers listed on the patch page, but mine is NOT listed.

Does this mean my device is immune to this particular bug? Or does it mean that HP doesn't give a rip about me or my printer?

I keep buying cartridges for the thing, I have to bend the paper 'just so' or it won't feed, I don't use it much so I have to hand-clean the print cartridges every couple o' months, but the scanner works fine with XSANE on Linux+BSD systems and there are CUPS drivers that actually work properly.

And I've only ruined one printed check within the last few years due to a print cartridge that went dry just as I was I printing it. I had a spare cartridge handy, though. I knew it was going to happen eventually.

In any case, getting a NEW printer+scanner+fax not only requires additional $, it means dealing with driver incompatibilities _AGAIN_ and CUPS is a determining factor as to whether I'll even CONSIDER a newer printer model... and XSANE for scanners, too.

Alaskan borough dusts off the typewriters after ransomware crims pwn entire network

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Matanuska-Susitna ransomware infection

yeah we all can pretty much interpret/know that the ransomware 'ran under windows'. however, it's worth pointing out that if you use a utility (one like rsync) to back up files to a Linux box, FROM WITHIN the Linux box, such that it reads files from remote systems but does NOT allow those remote systems to write TO it, and does so in a manner that can restore files 'to a 'point in time' (i.e. the July 12th version of that particular file, before it got encrypted by malware) then having live systems doing daily backups isn't so much of a security risk, keeping them "on all of the time".

However, I suspect in THIS case that such backup/recovery/disaster systems were, in fact, ALSO running windows...

So yeah the basic model here would be for a Linux box to use standard utilities, maybe Samba, maybe rsync, or maybe some 3rd party backup software, such that the backup server PULLS the data [and does NOT get data PUSHED to it], and then LOCALLY files it someplace in a manner that allows for getting back "the state of things on a particular date/time". Anyway that's my $.10 on it, and a Linux server running those backups with its own security context could help to prevent network-wide malware from infecting the disaster recovery backups.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Backups Infected

I can see the possibility of incremental backups turning into excremental backups if they don't do frequent "everything" backups in between...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Using Old Backups

"a network-wide share that housed executables needed to be read-write (or the applications used demanded it) "

Ack.

I've griped at Micro-shaft before about putting WRITABLE files *anywhere* within the 'C:\Program Files' tree... MANY TIMES before. At one time, they were doing this with SQL Server, actual database files within that directory tree. The problem of writable 'executable file' directories goes right back up to the source, at Micro-shaft, where they had DESIGNED IT THIS WAY.

In any case, that kind of hindsight won't fix the specific problem at hand (the ransomware encrypting things and spreading itself) nor get the data back. And if the machines hosting the various services are compromised, then malware with admin-access could simply do 'whatever' and not be stopped. So even with proper practice of "nothing writable in directories with executables in it" the admin-level access by the malware would overwrite things anyway and bypass all of that.

It doesn't stop me from figuring that maybe, JUST maybe, the original vector _WAS_ something so simple like user-writable executable file directories. There was an 'outlook express' virus/trojan that did something like that, a while back, now wasn't there? And MSN Messenger (on by default) spread the thing, as I recall...

Basic bigot bait: Build big black broad bots – non-white, female 'droids get all the abuse

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: I can see where this will lead

"Plenty of black/dark androids in Star Wars"

already done in "Rogue One", and THAT (reprogrammed imperial) 'droid was a total hero!

As for the "research" that suggests racist/sexist/name-your-bigotry behavior towards 'droids, I call B.S. on most of it. Without actually seeing the droids or how they interact with humans, I'd STILL say that "uncanny valley" is a BIG part of how people respond to them.

There is a somewhat natural aversion towards people who are different, a result of thousands of years of genetic predisposition that most likely caused races to form in the first place (and many millenia ago, was PROBABLY a survival mechanism favored by natural selection). Nowadays, people are generally taught to overlook this predisposition for obvious reasons. However, this predisposition ALSO results in the 'uncanny valley' effect when deailng with 'droids, particularly when the 'droid is close to human, but not quite.

I suggest that if the racial makeup of the bots is equal (3 droids, 3 different races), the racial makeup of the survey should ALSO be equally representative of the 3 droids. This is for the basic reason behind the 'uncanny valley' effect, that "being different" is behind the attitude people will have towards a droid of a given racial appearance.

If the droid is extremely human-like, enough to get past the uncanny valley effect, it shouldn't matter at all what race the robot appears to be. HOWEVER, if the droid is falling into the uncanny valley, AND appears to have a different race, genetic disposition may 'kick in' and cause humans to react MORE negatively towards bots that appear to be of a different race, especially if the racial features are 'hard' rather than 'soft'.

So a more 'African looking' black female 'droid would be more likely to trigger this with white or oriental people, as opposed to a 'droid that looked like Condoleeza Rice or Michelle Obama, not because of "being black" but "being different enough" in combination with the already-present 'uncanny valley' features.

Someone should've done a few more studies on this, 'droids in general, etc. Give it a green face with purple hair, oversized ears, and thin lips, and see how THAT goes (still human-looking, but different enough to push it into the uncanny valley).

First low-frequency fast radio burst to grace our skies detected at last

bombastic bob Silver badge
Boffin

Re: Uh, am I the only one

"rare, fleeting, impossible to predict, rarely repeat, and yet intense enough to notice when you go looking for them in the data."

Just to point out, when you pass two frequencies through a non-linear situation, perhaps magnetic or gravitational lensing, you get the 'heterodyne' effect, i.e. 'beat frequencies', the sum/difference of the originals.

It could be we're getting bursts of THOSE. [added: the difference in thermal energy between 2 stars, for example, might end up as ~500Mhz]

As much as I'd like it to be an alien civilization using radio for communications, it's so ineffective across vast distances of space that an alien race capable of coming here OR even communicating with us would be using something a lot faster, maybe even a method based on quantum entanglement.

Click this link and you can get The Register banned in China

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Communist leaders and their sensitivities

Every leader, most likely, has *something* for which they _SHOULD_ be made fun of. Whenever there's a leader you can NOT make fun of (whether for political correctness or political oppression reasons) there's something *seriously* *WRONG* with that picture...

bombastic bob Silver badge

Seriously? I never knew that...

"the common man over there treats their censorship as much as a joke as we do."

Seriously, I never knew that... probably because it's *censored*.

Pentagon 'do not buy' list says нет to Russia, 不要 to Chinese code

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Protectionism vs. security

An "N.I.H." posture with respect to national defense should be considered 'prudent'.

And open source stuff could simply be 'hardened'. BSD comes to mind, in that regard. Linux too, if the GPL is simply ignored for national security reasons. But if it's kept a secret, nobody would know [or disclose it] so there ya go.

As for anti-virus and security tools, if it's closed source and NOT a U.S. based company, and/or phones home with any data, it's by definition 'insecure' and shouldn't be in use by the military or any government agency that deals with classified information.

Trump 'not normal' FCC commish reveals amid Sinclair-Tribune mega-media-merger meltdown

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Trump 'not normal' FCC Commish reveals

compared to 'normal' politicians, I'll take "not normal" *ANY* day.

The internet's very own Muslim ban continues: DNS overlord insists it can freeze dot-words

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Well....

how about .semprini ?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Playing with fire

wasn't that already done (sorta) with .onion ?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Too late

I'm sure there are other religion-based TLDs out there. I found '.guru' and '.yoga' but most likely they're not in reference to eastern religions at all.

One reference suggested 10 TLD's were "religious" but I didn't want to wait for their slow scripted site.

The place I searched was gandi.net but they don't have EVERY TLD (just the vast majority of 'em from what I can tell). Notably did NOT find '.christ' or '.zen' or '.buddha' or '.hindu' or anything similar.

But as for NOT registering '.islam' etc.: if terrorists and/or jihadists were to get '.islam' TLDs wouldn't it make it easier to TRACK them? Seriously someone isn't thinking very well...

/me points out that if believers in Islam use '.church' it would be just as applicable as a christian religion. And I saw several TLDs listed in foreign lingos and so I couldn't read 'em, so maybe they're at least slightly religious? Anyway, I think ICANN wanted to avoid this entire thing, but I say open the gates and let it all happen, equally.

UK 'fake news' inquiry calls for end to tech middleman excuses, election law overhaul

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

Re: 'Fake news'

"The Labour party recently held a workshop teaching its MPs to lie in order to smear opponents."

In the USA this is called 'politics as usual'. it's most common every other October. Surprise! I think it's been this way since the beginning. Extra points for mentioning "for the children" (see icon).

(On occasion I've gone with the side that's the least irritating with the negative ads)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Yup.

well, I'm of the position that people should be able to say whatever they want, as long as its not blatantly libelous and/or slanderous, or in any other way illegal [like advocating riots or other crimes]. But the grips on that kind of thing are rather loose, and so you'll see occasional things that might offend you. Oh well. Grow a thicker skin, I say.

The thing about Fa[e]ceB[ook,@#$%] being as large as it is, accused of filtering news in a way that favors their own interests [whatever that might be], is what's apparently at question here. I say 'no filtering' and leave the liability with the individual posters. That's the simplest way to avoid quelling speech while simultaneously giving FB [and others] the means by which they can do T.O.S. bans as necessary. If that means banning every conservative or right-winger off of their network, I say "their loss of revenue". I certainly don't need FB for _MY_ news, nor google for my searches. Or whatever.

But you know, business is business, and politics is politics. The smart business owner will realize this and NOT "play politics". Everyone's money is the SAME color. Welcome, valued customer!

Microsoft devises new way of making you feel old: Windows NT is 25

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: POSIX

Interix/SFU/SUA/whatever - I tried, REALLY TRIED, to make it work so I could build things with it. But X11R5 was just TOO out of date, and autotools didn't have the capability of handling the lack of compatibility. And writing those changes myself proved to be a frustrating (if not impossible) task.

Didn't even have 'tar' - only 'pax', and pathetically didn't support a lot of things (like compression).

I gave up on it. Cygwin just works better.

As for Windows NT needing 16Mb of RAM: compare that to Win-10-nic, which seems to run poorly with 100 times as much RAM... especially 'the Metro' / UWP garbage.

I had the unfortunate experience of having to create a virtualbox VM running Win-10-nic to test an application on. I had an easier time installing the latest ReactOS (multiple crashes, and looping in the 'OOBE WELCOME' menu thing. After (effectively) disabling audio (switched to the AC'97 driver, which apparently isn't supported at ALL), I was actually able to install it. Then I went to give MS feedback on how pathetic something worked, and the performance of the UWP text box was SO bad, I coudl type LITERALLY! TWICE! AS! FAST! as the text rendering of what I'd typed. Meanwhile, CPU on _TWO_ _CORES_ was being _MAXED_ _OUT_ the _ENTIRE_ _FREAKING_ _TIME_!!!

I'd take that old clunky NT 3.1 *ANY* day over CRAP-WARE like Win-10-nic.

Oh, and my windows application ran JUST FINE (even though I had to test it to make sure). I'll need to fire that thing up ocasionally to test it out AGAIN and AGAIN, of course. But I think I'll "unplug" the virtual network drivers when I do it, so that it doesn't spend unnecessary time and bandwidth UPDATING itself whenever I do it... and use a diskette or CD image to transfer the application EXE file whenever I test it. Heh.

FBI boss: We went to the Moon, so why can't we have crypto backdoors? – and more this week

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: "...True, but a REAL blackmailer would provide proof..."

I got one of those blackmail e-mails today, demanding 300 bitcoin or something. The FBI got a copy of it on their on-line complaint web site (with mail headers). Yes, NOTHING is too good for our new special friend!

It's the best thing to do with it, forward to whatever law enforcement agency has jurisdiction. And the "you can't find me I'm in another country" taunt at the end was laughable, at best.

[I wonder how many people received this e-mail, obviously a bulk mailing]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Re: @LeeE -- Man on the sun

RE: Tungsten melting point, temperature on the sun's surface

Well in theory as the metal vaporizes, it absorbs latent heat of fusion from whatever material it's attached to (and/or being heated by) - think of the heat shiield on the Apollo spacecraft as it was coming back to earth.

But other materials would make a better heat shield. And they would be consumed, rapidly. So there's an obvious time limit involved.

So it's possible, but not practical.

That of course is a complete distraction to the original point, the absolutely STUPID comparison of 'man on the moon' to 'back-doorable encryption'. How about this Mr. FBI dumb-dumb: FREEDOM. PRIVACY. SELF-RELIANT SECURITY. SELF-DEFENSE. yeah you don't want THOSE either, do you?

Western Digital wonders why enterprise isn't keen on its solid-state drives

bombastic bob Silver badge
Holmes

lower prices, higher quality

this will nearly always help with your sales figures. 'business 101'

icon because it's obvious

Hurrah! Boffins finally discover liquid water sloshing around on Mars

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: That conclusion seems a bit fast to me

"Elon had better make sure he takes a shovel in 2025 when SpaceX is supposed to be going to Mars."

he left one in the trunk of his car...

Politicians fume after Amazon's face-recog AI fingers dozens of them as suspected crooks

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Congress

"Where did the ACLU find '28 innocent members of Congress'?"

in the same place you find Unicorns and Leprichauns and other mythological creatures

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

being politicians, I thought that meant 'crook' by definition?

Microsoft celebrates a bumper financial year ... by making stuff pricier

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"It's a trap" - Admiral Ackbar was/is right!

Micro-shaft's strategy seems all about "the trap" and/or "the lock-in". It's followed up by subscription pricing, where you must pay annually for 'whatever' rather than one-time only.

Transparent, obvious, and (unfortunately) not very customer-friendly.

It goes hand-in-hand with 'Embrace, Extend, Extinguish'.

IBM - you guys used to be ALL about the customer, so maybe it's YOUR turn to show them up?

Swan dive: Intel shares dip under interim CEO Bob as 10nm processor woes worry Wall Street

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

Re: General overvaluation

if you think China and the U.S. President have anything to do with Intel stocks, then you're greatly mistaken. Either that, or you merely WANT it to be so because the alternative disagrees with your world view or something. Whatever.

Intel's current problems are based on a few things:

a) Meltdown and Spectre, and their somewhat 'lackluster' responses to it all

b) Effectively hitching their wagons to Win-10-nic to sell new computers. THAT right there is a BIG part of it.

c) Moore's Law not doing what it was doing 10-15 years ago any more; i.e. computers aren't perceived as being 30 percent faster each subsequent year. [so people are more likely to hang onto what they have]

d) Features like 'Management Engine' or whatever it's called, and the inability to canonically DISABLE it.

None of these things are helping their bottom line. Getting 10nm processes going is just the latest excuse, I say.

To fix the problem, they need to do the following:

a) properly fix Meltdown+Spectre, including for older CPUs [when possible to do microcode updates]

b) properly document (and support) SHUTTING OFF the 'management engine'

c) Promote other operating systems, including Linux and Mac, _ESPECIALLY_ including marketing for new affordable non-windows computers, software ports of existing applications to Linux and Mac, and other stuff necessary to get people to switch to a non-windows OS so they don't have to hitch their wagon to Micro-shaft's poor decisionmaking.

d) Promote and develop multi-thread algorithms that actually MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the perceived speed of applications. This COULD include a client/serer model for the GUI (you know, like X11) which inherently could take advantage of multi-core.

But yeah, moving away from relying on Win-10-nic to sell computer chips is a BIG one. They should get serious about that.

Enterprise Windows 10 users, Microsoft has some 'quality' patches coming your way

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: There was a time

there was a time when Micro-shaft actually (seemed to) CARED what the customers wanted, and NOT merely "herd them" into a lock-in to whatever THEY decide to excrete.

that was back in the Windows '98, NT 4, and Win 2k days, for sure. XP too, for the most part, up until the ".Net" initiative. After that, everything went awry. Micro-shaft's attitude about customers and the direction of their company slowly changed to what it is today.

/me points out: Change is NOT always a good thing. When change is for the WORSE, it's sometimes called "rotting"

In the Win '95 beta program I had a lot of online conversations with MS engineers over features, performance, and so on. I'd like to think I had an influence over the quality and perception of the UI and the software that was bundled wtih Win '95. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't as bad as it COULD have been... and they were pretty cooperative and even mailed me a replacement CD ROM drive [I sent them mine so they could figure out why it wasn't working, even with the DOS drivers]. THAT is how they USED to do things.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Widnows 10 "Enterprise" LOL

"until they finally throw in the towel on that Metro UI disaster zone."

ack, but they've already gone and jumped in with both feet, hit the bottom, and started diving deeper with UWP and every OTHER excuse to "not let go" of the "Sinofsky and Larson-Greene" production often known as "The Metro UI".

You'd think they'd acknowledge their mistake and go back, but NOOooo. I guess the 'children in charge' "have decided for us" and we'll keep their lipstick-on-the-non-oinky-end-of-the-boar indefinitely, as it is now UNDEAD and can't be beaten to death any more. And THEY like it, so WE MUST AS WELL! [or they'll forcibly insert it into a body orifice for our own good]

Boffins: Mixed-signal silicon can SCREAM your secrets to all

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Impressive!

sometimes separating the RF devices prevents their power amplifiers from overloading the input circuitry of the other device. more 'screaming' yeah. put a meter between them, at least, maybe that'll help.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"Chips usually have completely separate analog and digital signal grounds"

And also, power supply lines. As an example, ATMega CPUs have an 'AVCC' and a 'VCC'. Same grounds all around, but separate power for analog circuitry and 'the rest of the chip'. Generally, however, proper use of bypass capacitors (etc.) are needed to pass FCC "unintentional radiator" limits on the CPU itself.

There's also proper board layout, use of ground planes [as needed], bypass capacitors located near the devices that generate RF spikes, occasional current limiting resistors on switched signals, and so on.

So I also have to wonder, why wouldn't normal FCC bandwidth and modulation tests NOT pick this up? Or are the 'artefact' signals being generated all within the tolerances allowed by the BT/Wifi/whatever spec?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: Not Unexpected

"Someone with a reciever and fancy gear within a few metres of you, though, isn't in most people's threat models, fortunately."

"not that fancy" of gear I expect, and in theory, anyone sitting near you in a wifi hotspot. As for BTLE, I'm not sure how that's relevant for AES keys, since its speed is way slower than wifi (making it suck for any kind of networking) so why would anyone be using AES keys like that over BTLE? [ok maybe someone knows, but I don't see it]. Unless it's some kind of "log me in" authentication BTLE dongle that sends passwords or something...

Another German state plans switch back from Linux to Windows

bombastic bob Silver badge
Black Helicopters

Re: The problem is not Linux itself...

When you consider OTHER decisions that have been made by German government agencies, such as "where will Germany be getting its energy resources from", you have to REALLY wonder what the motivations are behind "change", especially with all of the PEOPLE'S MONEY being spent to DO it!

So: Are politicians (or former politicians, or their friends) raking in some dough over this? Yeah, maybe some non-profit corporation getting "contributions" on the side or something... or being placed in charge of the project (as a CEO or something) now that you're no longer in office.

I know that U.S. gummint politicians are often "the best that money can buy". Not surprising if OTHER countries have similar problems. Yeah, just pointing out the obvious. Some journalism in this area would shed a LOT of light on the topic.

I doubt very seriously that "efficient use of the people's money" is behind ANY of this.

Windows 10 Insiders see double as new builds hit the deck – with promises to end Update Rage

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Whats wrong with

MS can't let users have ANY control. We're too stupid [in their eyes].

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

"What kind of shitty old computers"

The kind that would run JUST FINE with 7 (or earlier) on them. but NOOoooo, Micro-shaft just HAD to remove THOSE OS options from the market. Now we're stuck with Win-10-nic and all that comes with it.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Predictive Fuckups

"Why not just let users choose when they want to apply updates?"

"Because they might choose 'never' because their machines are running nice and stable."

Micro-shaft quite obviously feels [not thinks] that THEY should be in control of YOUR computer. After all, they're smarter, younger, more 'hip', etc. etc. etc. [fill in whatever possible excuse they might come up with for such *evil* *b0rg* behavior that they're engaging in by forcing updates upon us].

ReactOS 0.4.9 release metes out stability and self-hosting, still looks like a '90s fever dream

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Try out the UI

"Also UI90 is better for reducing eyestrain from all the sloppy blur / fade effects."

and eyestrain from the following:

a) poor contrast colors (light blue on bright white - what idiot thought THAT up?)

b) poor UI 'cues' for what is a button, etc.

c) uber-thin window borders that make resizing difficult, if not impossible

and the NAUSEA from the 2D FLATSO, in general

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: "Last century called. They want their UI back, please"

"The snarky comments and cheap shots about the "dated" interface demonstrate that the author of the piece has fallen into the trap of thinking that a UI is meant to be pretty and stylish, not functional and useful."

yeah but the Win-10-nic and "Ape" "The Metro" and "UWP" interface is anything *BUT* 'pretty' nor 'stylish'.

It's more like what Micro-shaft arrogant+smug "developers" decided to SHOVE INTO OUR COMPUTERS without permission. Because it's "modern". And we're LUDDITES for *HATING* it.

nothing 'pretty' nor 'stylish' about THAT. It's more like 'the few' imposing their will onto 'the many'.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Megaphone

Re: Modern UI

Article: "Last century called. They want their UI back, please"

"This Century" can *KEEP* their 2D FLATSO FLUGLY Win-10-nic and Windows "Ape" *CRAP*!!!!

_I_ _WANT_ _THE_ _RETRO_ _UI_!!! You know, 3D skeuomorphic, what basically *SOLD* everyone on windows in the FIRST place!!! (compared to windows 286/386 and so on, it was a HUGE improvement)

So thanks, ReactOS, for not giving up. More o same, please. I would like to do my accounting stuff on YOUR OS instead of "what micro-shaft did to windows out of smug arrogance" (with forced updates and slurp and UWP and 'The Store' and that HORRIBLE 2D FLUGLY UI).

I predict a riot: Amazon UK chief foresees 'civil unrest' for no-deal Brexit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Vogon

"Hence the confusion at the highest levels WRT to Brexit"

I agree with a lot of what I'm reading so far, things like produce sent to France, or JIT manufacturing deliveries affected by new inspection requirements. Many of your concerns are valid, for sure (the doom/gloom FUD however, isn't). Politicians need to get off of their collective asses and get some work done to keep negative effects down to a minimum.

So, how about a 'Brexit' that actuall ADDRESSES these concerns in a sane manner before 'Brexit Day'?

OK that would make too much sense for politicians. But I think the USA is already working on forming proper trade deals with UK (at least, that's the perception). EU should be doing something similar. (or they COULD address the reasons why 50.1% or so of UK voters chose 'leave' but that would make too much sense as well, wouldn't it?)

Anyway, it's "change" so you should EMBRACE it, right? [I know _I_ am expected to embrace 'change' when it's the OTHER way...]

Quantum, Linux and Dynamics: That's the week at Microsoft, not a '70s prog rock band

bombastic bob Silver badge
Linux

Re: Powershell on Linux

bash on windows works really well in Cygwin. So do the other POSIX tools.

If MIcro-shaft would simply support a built-in X11 server for windows, with Cygwin pre-installed, a LOT of compatibility and cross-platform problems would be solved (they used to go the 'subsystem' route for things like OS/2, why not POSIX and X11 and use Cygwin rather than INTERIX/SFU/SUA ?). But NOOOooo, they have to go down the "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" path. 'Power Hell' for Linux is exactly _THAT_. If it weren't so obvious that Micro-shaft is trying to take over the Linux environment, so they can control, extend, and then DESTROY what it used to be [in favor of some subscription-based spyware infested 'adware or paywall' version], maybe Micro-shaft might get away with it.

But the "Linux community" knows better, especially those of us who WENT TO LINUX (and other POSIX systems like FreeBSD) because of what Micro-shaft was up to early this century (the '.Not' initiative being the first of the worst, and it goes downhill from there).

I'm like a "former windows fan" who was BETRAYED back at the beginning of the century, when Micro-shaft took a wrong turn beginning with the '.Net' initiative. So I saw the writing on the wall, and learned how to work with POSIX systems instead, seeing as Apple also went with POSIX for OS/X, so there were really just two kinds of operating systems to learn and master.

(and I wonder how many OTHER betrayed windows fans switched to POSIX / Linux operating systems?)