* Posts by bombastic bob

10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015

Oracle demands dev tear down iOS app that has 'JavaScript' in its name

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

what's next?

well, looks like the term 'JavaScript' ©®�⍟☂☢™ can't be used ANYwhere without permission and/or royalties. Does that include being embedded in a 'script' HTML tag?

Let's just change the name to something else, then. I suggest "Semprini".

Chrome 66: Get into the bin, auto-playing vids and Symantec certs!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

by-default blocking of auto-play content that includes sound.

what about by-default blocking of ALL auto-play content? I do _NOT_ want AD VIDEOS being streamed, EVAR, on ANY web site. A 'click to view content' replacement graphic is acceptable.

because, you KNOW it's coming!

I didn't see in the article where you can block ANY auto-play content with any kind of setting. Must I load a plug-in for this? Because, flash blocking is easy, javascript blocking is easy, HTML5 video blocking may NOT be so easy, and I _DEFINITELY_ want to do _THAT_!!!

Europe wants cloud giants to cough up data from anywhere in 6hrs

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

In the name of 'safety'

From the article:

"EU members knew this stuff was coming as safety is a legislative priority for the Union 2018-2019."

EU members knew this stuff was coming as safety MORE CENTRALIZED CONTROL and LESS FREEDOM is a legislative priority for the Union 2018-2019.

Fixed it for ya. (it's often like that across the pond, too)

It's US Tax Day, so of course the IRS's servers have taken a swan dive

bombastic bob Silver badge
Childcatcher

Shhh... don't get them started on the possibility of a MICROSOFT "solution" to this!!! [please, NO!]

Remember, these are ACCOUNTANTS we're dealing with. They're inevitably the ones who got the spear-phishing e-mail that took down every computer on the network. Hand their boss a "solution" with "Microsoft" or "IBM" or "Cisco" or "Oracle" (or even "Google") on it, and they'll be like WHEN DO I SIGN THE CHECK? [and will *BEG* Con-Grab to fund the grossly inflated price tag]

post-edit: I don't know what took the IRS net down, besides too much demand on it, but a spear-phishing e-mail would be ironic, don't ya think?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: you should get your taxes done just as soon as you can.

I try to set things up so I pay THEM at the end of the year. That way they won't b0rk up the refund and make me wait 2 months to get my money out of them for some bureaucratic B.S. reason. THEN, I e-file some time before the dead line (say a couple of weeks) and have the amount owee auto-deducted from the bank a day or two before "the deadline". Then I check the bank balance online to make sure they didn't b0rk it up. Generally it works without problems, but I have to pay a kind of 'toll' (turbo tax or similar) along the way to make it happen. I think it's still cheaper than a CPA for what I need to do...

BUT, _I_ have A SOLUTION to all of this! Just *SIMPLIFY* the tax code. Make it a FLAT rate, "you earn this much" "you pay that much" and END OF PROBLEM (something like the Forbes plan would be good, too). You can 'file' on a post card that way. And no more "progressive" (*spit*) tax rates and bizarre deductions! [they only empower politicians anyway]. In fact, make everyone WRITE THE CHECK 4 times a year, as in NO payroll withholding. We'll see how long tax rates remain as-is...

Cisco, Microsoft and 32 big vendor pals join ‘Accord’ to improve security by doing … security stuff

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

how many 'vendors' does it take to change a light bulb?

This reminds me of a bad light bulb joke...

"How many 'vendors' does it take to 'feel good' about web security?" Or maybe "how many companies from Redmond and Silly Valley does it take to change a light bulb?"

Apparently, it takes 32 + Cisco and Micro-shaft, and one electrician to find a new light bulb and replace the old one with it. Except they may have trouble as to what 'type' is the politically correct light bulb of the day, harumph harumph harumph .

Sorta like 'How many people from Marin County does it take to change a light bulb?' It takes 50. One to actually change the bulb, and 49 to "share in the experience".

Well I suppose those 34 companies are "feeling really good" about themselves, not getting a damn thing accomplished, but making a handful of people someplace overly proud, as if they have.

At times it's "all about the FEEL" and NOTHING about the ACCOMPLISHMENT, these days...

Facebook admits it does track non-users, for their own good

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Blocking FB cookies

in Firefox, this might help:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-whitelist-with-buttons/

there are others, too, but this particular one lets you go into "session cookie only" mode, where it acts as if it's storing a cookie, but when you turn it off, or exit the browser, they all go into the bit bucket. Whitelisted cookies are saved as usual.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Terminator

Re: Why?

"Start a hashtag campaign"

How about hashtag-BiteMyShinyMetalAss ?

/me needs a 'bender' icon

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Freedom of information?

LinkedIn are even more annoyingly insidious at this point.

I should delete mine. It's been a few years since I looked at it. After Micro-shaft took over I said "I'm gonna delete it". I've gotten occasional spam from it, too. Haven't logged in at all. Just too lazy I guess...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

"if the people who understand the issues just use a plug in and leave everyone else to be spyed on"

well, activism and politics aside, it helps at least to spread the word about taking up a defensible position online...

If you guessed China’s heavy lifter failed due to a liquid hydrogen turbo engine fault, well done!

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Translation...

part of the problem may be the use of H2 rather than kerosene. The Saturn V first stage used kerosene but all other stages used liquid H2.

As I recall some of the problems with using liquid H2 in the first stage has to do with the fact that it's at an extremely low temperature, which causes material problems. Metals get brittle at cryo temperatures, and lubricants "don't". It's not so bad when you're operating in a vacuum or near vacuum, at least as I understand it, but at sea level you have moisture accumulation and the engine nozzle is somewhat of a compromise since it has to operate at atmospheric pressure as well as a near vacuum, and everyplace in between.

To get fuel into the engine at the necessary volume and pressure, you need to have a high volumetric flow turbine-powered pump. And apparently that's what broke. I think they use reaction-style turbines.

(unfortunately this site requires javascript to view the content)

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/rocket-engine-turbo-pump-cutaway-f-1

Anyway, my understanding is "it's tricksy" and Elon avoided it in the 1st stage, deliberately. And so did NASA back in the 60's. Probably for the same reasons.

I would guess the fuel tanks would be smaller as well, though the 1st stage would weigh quite a bit more when fully fueled, using kerosene rather than liquid H2.

Google, AWS IPs blocked by Russia in Telegram crackdown

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: Iron fire curtain!

I just thought Pootie had his panties in a wad, after that little business in Syria recently. Looking for someone weaker than him to pound on, he picks a messaging service. BAN time! [now he feels better]

icon, because, Putin.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Coat

it's a pun waiting to happen

Silly Russians

Their tricks are for kids children.

(grabbing coat)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Big Brother

Re: MInor Correction

Spot the difference?

Nope. I do not.

Nor do I. Regardless of any alleged 'differences', it all has one thing in common: gummints using some kind of 'back door' [key escrow or other means], like a kind of master key or skeleton key, to ensure THEY can break in any time they want to.

And that's what's at issue here.

Net neutrality advocates freak out as lobbyists pull rug from California's draft net neutrality law

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: CA government is so corrupt

Cali-Fornicate-You's gummint is probably THE most corrupt institution in the USA, let alone half the world.

Lobbyists on the floor being consulted on EVERY bit of legislation. The best legislators money can buy!

And they keep getting RE-ELECTED, no doubt through FRAUD in the voting system. That, of course, is kept well-hidden. I mean, WHO would vote FOR Jerry Brown??? That guy's nuttier than any Lewis Carol imagined creature ever thought up, all rolled into one complete lunatic that happens to be in charge...

It may have started with those cultish EST seminars from the 70's

Windows Admin Center: Vulture gets claws on browser-based server admin

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: Maybe...

" I don't want yet another fing app I have to learn."

ack. How about "yet another F'ing":

a) API

b) user interface

c) subsystem

d) method for administration

e) command line interpreter

f) license license license

g) EULA EULA EULA

Micro-shaft: getting things horribly wrong throughout the 21st century.

(note: I liked Microsoft things up until Ballmer's ".Not" initiative, around 2003, as XP was releasing. I didn't mind XP. But I _DESPISE_ ".Not", C-pound, and all of their 'new, shiny' since then [though windows 7 is 'ok']. If they'd stuck with the UI of Windows 2000, with its efficient performance even on a Pentium I machine, or even XP, I'd be VERY happy).

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

Re: All this to avoid installing ssh and usable command line tools

"What a lot of effort MS goes to to re-invent a wheel" (etc.)

yeah, they've had the 'command.com' square tires since MS-DOS days, and didn't want to shift over to something like csh or bash (an obviously superior, yet similar-enough way of doing command shells).

".Not" is a symptom of a paradigm that is ANTI-PRODUCTIVE, unnecessarily "detail-complex", monolithic, bloated, vogon-bureaucratic, inefficient, and BASS-ACKWARDS. And PowerHell is NOT helping by effectively "wrapping" it like a boar in a naughty nightie (and lipstick not even on the oinky end].

Give me something like bash, ps, awk, kill, grep, sed, and top, along with stdin/stdout piping THAT ACTUALLY WORKS, and it's a fair bet that I can admin your system without spending hours and hours trying to figure out the details and the nuances of PowerHell and bass-ackwards BLOAT like ".Not".

You know, like, maybe, CYGWIN???

(if, that is, CYGWIN could manage some of the windowsie nuances that seems to fight against it, things like permissions on files, for example... but Micro-shaft COULD fix this. They just DON'T.)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Great. Webmin for windows

"I've done 30 years of Unix coding and shell scripting and finding Powershell on Windows was such a breath of fresh air"

I would've used different words to describe Power[s]hell, with terms like "odious" and "stench".

And back in the Win 3.x days, I had written a really nice command line interpreter with some of its own enhancements. But after working with POSIX utilties for a while, and being HORRIFIED at the eldritch abomination known as ".Not", I can easily embrace the concept of MANY utilities that "do one thing, well" as opposed to a MONOLITHIC "shell" based on a bass-ackwards "wow, it has OBJECTS now" so-called object-oriented [read: bloated, slow, and inefficient] layer of accessing the otherwise REASONABLE Win32 API.

I mean, come on, Micro-shaft, wouldn't it be BETTER to just support piping more intelligently, and have a whole array of useful utilities to do 'cool things', rather than CRAM THEM ALL INTO THE SHELL with its 'way too much' approach? Well, you DID create ".Not", so I guess it was the next step in de-evolution...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"And how long before serious vulnerabilities are waxing lyrically?"

I'm sure they ALREADY ARE!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Great. Webmin for windows

title says it

Congressional group asks FBI boss Wray to explain Apple lawsuit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Can't unlock 7800 devices

and if a hammer has been taken to them...

(right Mrs. Clinton?)

/me ducks expecting howler monkey down-votes

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Still...

"I rather like those questions"

and so do I. Good job [for once], Congress!

Asking _THESE_ kinds of questions should help prevent legal overreach in the future [say 'mandatory back door']. Or, at least I'd like to think so...

FBI overreach, in-fighting, and dishonesty with Congress (and the American people, for that matter): these are ongoing "swampy" problems, soon to be "drained" we hope!

Go away, kid, you bother me: Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla kick W3C nerds to the curb

bombastic bob Silver badge
Facepalm

"insisting on plugins to implement the DRM"

nobody's heard of reverse-engineering? "security by obscurity" simply raises the bar a bit for someone to break the lock. Personally, I think JUST having an https connection for HTML5, with proper auth cookies (session-type of course, no storing on the hard drive) would be enough. You log in, you get a session cookie, and you can now access the content, using https. Like the way a bank does it. How hard is THAT ???

(yeah "they" want to try and control things beyond that point, well TOO BAD, there are "ways" to pirate everything, and if you simply make streaming and ownership inexpensive and desirable enough, nobody of significance will bother with the piracy)

bombastic bob Silver badge
Meh

Who are these unnamed large companies (which are not Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Mozilla - ok, Mozilla's not that big) that are driving the W3C?

someone already suggested Fa[e]cebook...

bombastic bob Silver badge
FAIL

Re: "altruistic standards bodies "

There are no "more altruistic standards bodies".

that's not necessarily a BAD thing...

THEIR altruism isn't necessarily MY altruism, nor the kind of altruism that OUGHT to be implemented. If "the rest of us" are HELD BACK because of 'politically correct issue of the day', for example, it's not helping.

I _ALSO_ have to wonder if "the big 4" got together one day to "2D FLATSO" 'teh intarwebs' and got away with it... because right now, there's no significant presence of a BROWSER that doesn't have an Australis-looking UI with a hamburger button instead of a menu, FLATSO elements, and fat-finger-friendliness that can't be taken away. And WEB PAGES that _SHOULD_ have 3D skeumorphic elements _INSTEAD_ of flat-looking BOXES that ACT like they're buttons... FLAT BOXES like the "buttons" labeled 'preview' and 'submit' at the bottom-right of this edit thing [and with font text that is almost UNREADABLE because the FONT is WAY TOO SMALL!]. "Standards" made THAT happen, maybe?

So it would seem to _ME_ that "the big 4" running "the other standard" from the W3C's "Standard" are JUST AS BAD, but in a different way. And I don't believe that ANY of the motives behind these things is helping ANYBODY.

[as for me, I use OLD SCHOOL HTML, rarely use script, and use PNG and JPEG files for buttons so they can retain that nice 3D SKEUOMORPHIC look, instead of being a FLAT BOX that ambiguously "looks like a button". I also deliberately pick text vs background color schemes that are easy on the eyes and high contrast, NOT like grey on white [for example], or light blue on white [even worse, MICRO-SHAFT, _YOU_ do this ALL of the time!]. And the bandwidth requirements are _SMALL_]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

"The test isn't whether disabled people can access content, but whether content and agent comply with standards which themselves are inaccessible to and unrepresentative of disabled people"

Using tiny grey text on bright white background should be PUNISHABLE by DEATH!

That, and ads that have moving content. or use script. or track me.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: W3C dead?

just don't make me STREAM _AND_ WATCH ad videos, or pop CLICK-THROUGH SCHTUFF up into my FACE when I visit a web site... even with HTML 5 and no scripting!

it might not be too late for that...

Super Cali's frickin' whiz kids no longer oppose us: Even though Facebook thought info law was quite atrocious

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: 'harder for lobbyists to kill off new laws (etc. title too long)'.

just to point out, if this is a ballot initiative, those kinds of things don't need to involve politicians. In fact, they can be used to STOP politicians [since vote fraud seems to keep them in office, the only plausible explanation at any rate]. There's currently one in the works to REPEAL a ginormous gasoline tax increase, for example (because NO crooked politician EVER dislikes a tax increase, especially if it increases THEIR power and control over citizens' lives, "for the children" or roads or whatever, it always gets diverted into their pet projects and buying votes, and then they *BEG* for *MORE* and do it *AGAIN*).

On the other hand, these ballot initiatives are sometimes often de-railed by the courts [which are also pwned by the 'political class'].

And as such I'd expect any ballot initiative that attempts to empower the people to first be EMASCULATED, then MADE IRRELEVANT, by 'twisty' legal action combined with political lobbying and corruption in general.

Cali-Fornicate-You's state legislature has been called one of *THE* most corrupt institutions in the world, with lobbyists on the floor at all times, regularly consulted on EVERY piece of legislation before any vote. Cali-Fornicate-You legislators are therefore some of the WORST crooked politicians on the planet, the best that lobbyist money can buy.

And considering this, Google and Fa[e]cebook will find "a way" to circumvent ANY will of the people. Don't doubt me! Sacramento needs an ENEMA, starting with the legislature.

[and lobbyists won't be able to 'kill off' this law, they'll just emasculate it and render it irrelevant, like they always do, as soon as "the right people" are in office]

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Surveillance Capitalism

especially when NOT on the oinky end? [someone else on El Reg said something like it before me, so credit where due]

Facebook scandal: EU politicians should aim for straight answers, not star witnesses

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: is Zuck best one to grill?

Yes, but a consistent diet of such could cause a condition similar to 'rabbit starvation'...

Roasting and eating REAL weasels (i.e. the actual animal) would be healthier.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Get the engineers in

autism: another name for GENIUS

(same with 'assburgers' I might add...)

Anon biz bloke wins milestone Google Right To Be Forgotten lawsuit

bombastic bob Silver badge
Alert

Re: Does this cover all search engines - or just Google ?

"They already actively piss around with the way they return results anyway."

And, THIS case with NT1 and NT2 justify them doing it even MORE...

"But, but, but we HAVE to tweek our search engine results, because, because, EU laws, that's why!"

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: regressive evolutionary step towards goldfish

NT8 and NT10 are the ones to REALLY be forgotten. Or perhaps just left out back someplace to rot.

Whois is dead as Europe hands DNS overlord ICANN its arse

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

so who do you report abuse to, now?

1. fake rolex/handbag marketing

2. spammers

3. blatant violators of the law

4. defamation and slander/libel

5. 'copycat' domains

ALL of these will NOW be made EASIER.

thank you, gummint overreach.

"unintended" consequences? or not?

/me points out that an 'abuse@' e-mail address that is ignored and/or filtered won't be able to receive complaints. A valid mailing address and/or phone number also guarantees that the owner isn't trying to HIDE from authorities. Anonymizing services are available. I use them as well as most domain owners. Why do we need to "GDPR" the domain name registry?

Donkey Wrong: Arcade legend Billy Mitchell booted from record books amid MAME row

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

Re: Kaliber

"Just wondering how you guys know what urine tastes like"

probably had something to do with 1) a diaper changing accident, 2) a dare while intoxicated, 3) a night with Hurricane Hessie (those tropical rains) [I can't screw in this kind of weather] 4) a combination of an overfull bladder and a morning stiffy that won't go away in time 5) survival training [they say that drinking your own pee is 'a way' to survive severe dehydration, possibly extending your own life for a few days]

OK is this getting way too graphic now?

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: get a life?

"Nothing better to do?"

Touche! [I love it when people REALLY get the humor!]

I'm surprised about the downvotes, though...

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

get a life?

it's the first thing that entered my mind

Backpage.com cops to human trafficking, money laundering

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: Is there a Haggard's Law for SWERFs?

Haggard's law... https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Haggard%27s_Law

Seriously I'd never heard of that before! But that might be a corollary of something I've definitely observed (and I think there's even something like that in the bible, something about a log in your eye), and from church people no less. Another example of moralist activists once again not reading the thing that defines their morality. Who knew?

But what's funny about THIS case is how a bunch of 'sex worker' feminists are all SELF-RIGHTEOUS about this, claiming that shutting down the web site was some kind of DISCRIMINATION against women or something.

OK lemme get a straight answer to this [as someone who's apparently X-chromosome-impaired by having only one]: Is prostitution the EXPLOITATION of women, or THEIR RIGHTS as women?

Or, are men just FSCK'd no matter what!!!

From Bangkok to Phuket, they cry out: Oh, Bucket! Thai mobile operator spills 46k people's data

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Naughty Limberick-Sounding Title

the cadence isn't quite right, though... Still, not bad. I cracked a smile.

The first rule of maths class: Don't start a fight club

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

"In hindsight, he was probably just a bit of a psychopath"

don't believe the liberal touchy-feely brainwashing. Your first assessment was correct.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Joke

the cause was imaginary, but the effect was real. [or would that be electrical engineering?]

Cryptocoin investors sue Chase Bank for sky-high credit card charges

bombastic bob Silver badge
Stop

The Bank is RIGHT

a) it's a CURRENCY - so it's a CASH ADVANCE

b) using a BANK loan as investment capital for currency speculation is probably ILLEGAL in the USA. [I know it is illegal to buy stock with a loan]

Now, if you wanted to pay for something WITH a crypto currency, and the bank offered you an exchange rate, that would be perfectly acceptable, and they could THEN charge an 'exchange fee'. Anyone purchasing things with a credit card overseas (whether you're there or using the intarwebs) knows about those transaction fees. It's not much, but yeah.

Additionally, when you purchase something with a credit card, there's a transaction fee for the seller. But if you do a cash advance, YOU pay for all of it.

I expect that the bank's policy already indicates ALL of this. And it's NOT a purchase to buy crypto-CURRENCY with your credit card. Personally, I think it's FOOLISH, but there ya go.

And, because currency speculation would be considered a form of INVESTMENT, it might actually be considered ILLEGAL.

Boffins find new ways to slurp private info from Facebook addicts using precision-targeted ads

bombastic bob Silver badge
Pirate

microtargeting

I wonder what kinds of nefarious things can be done with THAT...

a) spear phishing

b) harassment

c) manipulation

d) blackmail

e) evil gossip

f) get target to show up someplace at a given time

g) get target to take pictures doing specific things

h) all of the above

I can think of many ways to do "all of those", if given the ability to make this happen. Good thing I'm a 'white hat' [ok maybe a slight touch of grey]

consider what 419eater has been able to do, for example, with 419 scammers. And I really liked that 'Africa' video with the song 'Africa' by Toto. It was a crowning moment of awesome!

It's April 2018, and we've had to sit on this Windows 10 Spring Creators Update headline for days

bombastic bob Silver badge
Happy

Re: Revamped user interface

"7 start menu needed to be made easier"

step 1: turn off sort. then you can drag stuff around.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Up

Re: Revamped user interface

don't forget 3D Skeuomorphic instead of the 2D FLATSO!

bombastic bob Silver badge
Trollface

Re: Win 10, the NEW Vista!

you shouldn't insult Windows Vista by comparing it to 10.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Devil

Re: cant win

"and has been for decades"

I'd say "nearly a decade" (since 'Ape' released). 7 was 'ok'. I'd call it 'moderately acceptable'. Everything _SINCE_ then, however, oughta be burned as toxic waste.

bombastic bob Silver badge

Re: Because the 'new' Microsoft under SatNad is all about maintaining the hipster image

it was always about hype and marketing

"We are excited" <-- like a dog when you grab the leash

"will share" <-- psycho-babble speak for "let you know"

etc.

I actually had someone tell me to use the word 'feel' instead of 'think' because 'think' sounds too strong. It's based on THAT kind of *FEELING* (not thinking). Touchy-feely psychobabble PAP.

And Micro-shaft's upper management is FILLED with that kind of "*FEELING*" apparently.

Mark Duckerberg: Second Congressional grilling sees boss dodge questions like a pro

bombastic bob Silver badge
Thumb Down

WHO endorsed Diamond and Silk - ZUCK? NO way, F.B. silently *BANNED* them from sending updates to their subscribers... then Zuck LIED about it!

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/04/10/diamond-and-silk-accuse-facebook-discrimination-censorship-over-unsafe-label.html

And, saying things that are a) politically incorrect and b) going against the expectations of the left (based on things like race, sex, etc.) is _NOT_ _DIVISIVE_!

What's divisive is things like: ANTIFA, "hands up don't shoot", and THIS.

bombastic bob Silver badge
Unhappy

Re: Personal information is the Internet Dollar

"it should be a crime to allow the smart to trick the stupid into throwing elections."

and if it were a crime, the Demo-Rat party would all be in jail (for getting OBAKA elected - TWICE). Mrs. Clinton notwithstanding of course.

Or else corruption in the FBI and DOJ would declare them all 'innocent' before the investigation even starts, whichever. Yeah, THAT would never happen, right?