Posts by bombastic bob

'No, we are not rewriting Office in JavaScript' and other Microsoft tales

Re: It'll be clippy all over again

"Clippy on Steroids"

"More like Clippy on Laughing Gas"

How about Cortana in Dominatrix garb?

"You've been a bad, *BAD* user!"

Re: AI requires an Internet connection

"Forget about Office 365, offline Libre Office is what we need."

fixed.

What can you do when the pup of programming becomes the black dog of burnout? Dude, leave

Re: Burnout isn't unknown in IT

"There aren't any prizes for being the bestest whatever in the company"

There SHOULD be. 'The Best' should have the highest pay rate. Either that, or he should QUIT and go elsewhere for more money...

(any decent manager would recognize this and try to retain 'the best' with cool assignments and higher pay).

And this 'culture' thing makes my stomach turn. I can taste my lunch coming up... *urp*

Google cloud VMs given same IP addresses ... and down they went

'The Cloud' - highly overrated

'Highly Overrated'©®�⍟☂☢™ since its invention around 2005 or 2006 (when AWS came out). Market-droids have been pushing it ever since.

US-CERT warns of more North Korean malware

I changed 'itok' to a profanity, and also removed it entirely, and it still worked. Also did it from a somewhat-sandboxed browser, just in case. Did you need to include the 'itok' part on the link? Or does it now always show up as "you" surfing that site when people try the link?

just wonderin'. strange graphic, black&white parody of U.S. flag [obviously]. What was the point, again?

Pwned with '4 lines of code': Researchers warn SCADA systems are still hopelessly insecure

SCADA systems running windows

well, THERE's your problem!

last thing we need is having them "up"grade to Win-10-nic as a "solution". Forced updates? "line stop" while we download 4G, spend 30 minutes installing, and add new features, on OUR schedule! Ooops BSOD!

A proper solution awaits! (see icon)

Boffins offer to make speculative execution great again with Spectre-Meltdown CPU fix

Re: Hard as I try...

"SafeSpec is actually viable"

At least one person proposed something even simpler, in essence saving the speculative state along with thread/task state, and restoring it on thread/task switch. That way it wouldn't really be possible to have "the same speculative state" across thread/task switches. Couple that with actual security tests on speculative memory access [at the time of access, not 'some amount of time after you did it'], and the leaks SHOULD be plugged.

you wouldn't need any 'shadow states' or anything like that. Just normal task state stuff inside the kernel would do. And if you don't want anybody accessing that info, you DO! NOT! MAP! IT! INTO! USER! SPACE!!!

Re: Hard as I try...

mandatory programming standards? who would enforce it? what's the punishment for violating it, 'whack my pee pee' or 'take away my birthday' ???

last thing we need is MORE regulations on software. say buh-bye to open source if that ever starts, because once gummint gets its grimy paws on something, it NEVER! LETS! GO!!!

Former FBI boss Comey used private email for official business – DoJ

It's a swamp!

It's a swamp. DRAIN it!

I bet Admiral Ackbar thinks so., too [he kinda looks like a swamp creature, heh]

(I invented a new meme! Oh, noze!)

Shatner's solar-powered Bitcoin gambit wouldn't power a deflector shield

Re: Too late...

Well, a 3MW solar array is still a potential money-maker so who cares WHO your customers are!

But then I read THIS in the article:

"Crypto mining has also wiped out gains from the vast investments made in solar and wind renewable energy in recent years."

'wiped out gains' - what the HELL does _THAT_ mean???

It's like this: If you're SELLING A PRODUCT (electricity), and MORE PEOPLE BUY IT (business is UP), you should be CELEBRATING the SUCCESS!!

What kind of SMUG, ARROGANT, HUBRISTIC attitude _IS_ this to COMPLAIN about people BUYING YOUR PRODUCTS? Oh, they're not using it the way YOU want it used? SO _FEELING_ _WHAT_ !!!

the fact remains that if you BUY ELECTRICITY, it BELONGS TO YOU. You can do with it WHATEVER _YOU_ WANT at that point. It is YOURS. You BOUGHT it. Any kind of ANTI-FREEDOM ATTITUDE that tells how WHAT TO DO with what YOU BOUGHT sounds like "Micro-shaft Electricity" to ME. You know. like WIn-10-nic except it's ELECTRICITY now, not just YOUR computer used THE WAY THEY MAKE YOU DO IT.

If you hate it when Micro-shaft jams THEIR WAY up your, er,down your throats, then why care how or how much ELECTRICITY people use? "Oh they're using too much." WHO is the one who determines THAT?

Out here in Cali-Fornicate-You, the Demo[c,n][r,R]at "super-majority" passed "yet another law to CONTROL THE PEOPLE" saying that by 2020, every person in Cali-Fornicate-You can't use more than 55 gallons of water per day per person. And that number drops to 50 gallons a few years later. *HOW* *DARE* *THEY*!!! This is not a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY here. If there is a SHORTAGE, you MAKE MORE! You *ENCOURAGE* the private sector to PRODUCE ENOUGH. (there is this ginormous water source out here on the left coast, called the PACIFIC OCEAN, and San Diego County *ALREADY* has a de-salination plant up and running - MAKE MORE and we NEVER run out!)

People forget what CONTROLS ON SUPPLY cause. There were GASOLINE LINES in the late 1970's, because the SUPPLY of gasoline was controlled by gummint. When Ronald Reagan became President, all of that STOPPED because he got RID of that nonsense! And, gasoline prices *DROPPED* as a result!

So what do we do about things like electric power and water? *MAKE* *MORE* and LET people use it HOWEVER THEY WANT, as long as they PAY for it!!! Otherwise, it's NOT FREEDOM!

Another Star Trek reference from 'Cloud William' - Freedom was a 'worship word' to his people. but they had forgotten its true meaning...

Microsoft tries cutting the Ribbon in Office UI upgrade

face-wall time

Article: "cut its “Ribbon” toolbar from three lines to two"

How about cutting it to *ZERO* lines, and putting a *REAL* menu back? (and NO HAMBURGER BUTTON)

"like adding paper to a blocked toilet"

paper? you sure that's what they added? (it smells a LOT worse than paper)

/me face-walls

Microsoft says Windows 10 April update is fit for business rollout

In the time it takes to update win-10-nic...

in the time it would take me to update win-10-nic (from start of downloads to final reboot), I could download the latest source for FreeBSD, do a build/install world+kernel from source (while the system still runs like normal), reboot one time, and THEN have it all back up and running without any "super+new+shiny features" to get in my way and FORCE me to "re-learn". I might even have to do LESS work.

Microsoft loves Linux so much its R Open install script rm'd /bin/sh

Re: Today's story...

"There we go, page clicks. All good."

it's a title that attracted MY attention, and the article made it worth the time to read it. It demonstrates (once again) what we all believe about Micro-shaft and their alleged "love" for Linux. And it re-enforces our opinions of giving Micro-shaft *ANY* decision-making authority in the Linux realm, because they do things *LIKE* delete whatever shell the OS installed [because doing that would NEVER break any OS shell scripts] and "sneak" A DIFFERENT SHELL in there, instead, WITHOUT telling you or asking permission.

This is _SO_ like Micro-shaft, for THAT level of HUBRIS.

As for the title - I liked it!

Well done to El Reg - BEER, sir!

Re: Typical installer written in a large company

"I'm actually encountering this on an open source thingy I'm writing. I can write the code, no idea how to get it installable (yet). *sigh*"

Here's my suggestion (assuming it's Winders):

a) avoid shared components. static link everything (including DLLs). Don't use ".Not" or rely on it being there.

b) install your application into a predictable directory. Allow it to be wherever the user wants it to be.

c) use only simple keys in the registry, all under HKCU (abbreviated), and only if you MUST. If the user wants a system-wide install, add an option to make it HKLM. Your code can check for both. Under NO circumstances do you need to pollute the registry with even MORE 'cruft' than it already has in it!

d) think "how would I do this on Linux". It's probably correct for Windows, too.

e) document type associations aren't all that hard, but I'd just look at a few examples to see how it's done (etc.). Fortunately they're all in the same place.

f) let the application do the 'setup things', not the setup application. I suggest a "/s" switch to the application (or similar) to do 'setup'. Similarly a '/u' to do 'uninstall'. The application can then clean up its own mess.

At this point the installer would be simple: a) copy the files to the right place, b) run "application.exe /s", create some kind of an icon [however THAT process works nowadays, win-10-nic being what it is], make a registry entry for 'uninstall' so it shows up in the list o' installed things, and you're done. Uninstaller could be a very simple application to run 'application /u' and remove the application registry entry and installed files.

Years, decades ago even, I wrote an installer for windows, which never sold. I guess people were willing to tolerate InstallShield because it was FREE, as well as other overly-complicated installers. It was worth doing for my own stuff and for this one customer, though. So eventually I open sourced the thing and put it in github. It's there, just look for 'setup' utilities for windows. You'll find several others, too. I'm not the only one who wrote an installer that's simple and makes sense. This is a VERY common problem for WINDOWS applications, after all.

On Linux and other POSIX systems, installation is very simple. You don't have a @#$% registry to deal with. (there may be a package system, but those are distro-specific). You can put things in your ~ directory and just add ~/bin to your path, and install 'whatever you want'. Sometimes '.local' or similar is supported for various settings files. It's really not that hard. You don't need 'root' to install something. You just need BRAINS. (and you DO NOT need to screw up SYSTEM FILES like '/bin/sh'!!!)

Re: Typical installer written in a large company

"instead of writing their scripts with #!/bin/bash at the top."

Or, how about THIS instead: a wrapper script that checks 'which bash' (or some similar query) and invokes THAT instead, and announces "you have to have bash installed" if it's not on the system [possible for a POSIX system, like FreeBSD].

very, very, very NARROW and short-sighted thinking was involved in the writing of that install script.

I also might add 'arrogant' 'smug' and 'superiority complex' but I don't know for certain what their motives were at the time... [however if I guess correctly, these should apply as well]

Embrace. Extend. Extinguish. Looking closer to TRUTH every day!

Re: Remember the rule

this used to happen with Windows back in the day, when they'd just change your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files, assuming they could.

It's the *kind* of thinking that Micro-shaft is INFAMOUS for.

(not to mention forced updates and Win-10-nic and your settings and customizations, etc.)

Which? calls for compensation for users hit by Windows 10 woes

Re: MS abandoning Windows??

"The only thing that will make MS sit up and take notice of it's (Windows) customers is that they start losing them. Losing money will do it."

You'd think so in a NORMAL world. And, as far as new computer sales go, this is probably ALREADY happening. Micro-shaft does not care about losing money right now. They have way too much 'spare capital' to do whatever THEY want. And it appears to be a LONG GAME strategy, which means they're driving "the masses" in a direction THEY want, because THEY CAN.

Think about the purchase of GitHub. Think about how developers "moving to Linux" has prompted them to "Embrace Extend Extinguish" a kind of 'linux clone' subsystem that runs in Win-10-nic. None of this is a coincidence, I'm sure of it.

In a normal world, they would care VERY much about losing customers, and do what they could to try and WIN THEM BACK. But they're not. They're smugly, arrogantly, even DEFIANTLY moving off in whatever direction they *FEEL* is right, DAMN the customers, full speed ahead.

Unfortunate, because in the 90's, I really liked what they were doing.

Re: If it was only security patches

well, 'Which?' has apparently documented a number of 'bad update' cases, particularly those in which money changed hands to get the computer back up and running again.

This sounds like "a good start" at forcing Micro-shaft to "JUST STOP IT" with the forced updates.

I still don't know why they're doing 'forced updates' like that. Why so much smugness/arrogance/hubris to FORCE us to COMPLY with their WHIMS ???

Hey Micro-shaft - whatever happened to "The CUSTOMER is ALWAYS RIGHT" ???

Judge on Microsoft gender discrimination case finds 'flaw' in class grouping argument

"women pay gap myth" (search it)

@kain preacher

'sauce' please. Just because you say it does not make it true.

Here's a nice 'sauce', one of many articles that showed up from searching "women pay gap myth":

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-gender-pay-gap-is-a-complete-myth/

from linked article: "The data is clear that for the same work men and women are paid roughly the same. The media need to look beyond the claims of feminist organizations."

Everybody that _I_ know would be VERY unhappy if their company or one of the managers were engaging in the kinds of wage discrimination that is alleged to be happening in this case. I would expect that, at Microsoft, their managers might be even MORE outraged by such things (they're mostly lefties, or so it appears, and lefties are supposed to be more 'politically correct').

What you have in THIS legal case, I believe, is a bunch of people with hands out going after "deep pockets". And I think the plaintiffs have shown their hand a little too early, based on the Judge's response to their arguments [i.e. they're arguing both sides and their arguments conflict].

Devuan ships second stable cut of its systemd-free Linux

awesome - RPi image!

I'll have to download the Devuan RPi image and see how it compares to Raspbian. Well, it would be WITHOUT systemd, so that's +100 right there.

I'm happily running the previous Devuan on one development box, and one VM at the moment. But I wonder if I can just use 'apt-get dist-upgrade' or not (after modifying sources.list). Probably can.

And I would be stoked if the Raspberry Pi Foundation gave Devuan some recognition.

Microsoft pulls the plug on Windows 7, 8.1 support forums

Re: I concur with those above!

"Like the good old days of being told to reinstall Windows at every turn."

well, if you're going to HAVE to re-install something...

(see icon)

Korean cryptocoin exchange $30m lighter after hacking attack

Re: Speculative bubble bursts, economy fine

here's a thought: follow the money.

If you want to know who cracked the bitcoin exchange, and made bitcoin value TANK, look for someone(s) who just made a killing by SELLING SHORT on bitcoin...

or some other such quick-turnaround scheme that would indicate possible stock manipulations (or insider knowledge of commodities, yotta yotta).

that's right - I'm suggesting that the purpose of the crack-in was to drive DOWN the price of bitcoin, because THAT is how you REALLY make money off of this. Bitcoin value dropped more than $10k from what I heard on the radio, now less than half its previous value (from what I understand). That's a hell of a price change per bitcoin. Careful short sale or pump/dump tactics would make a killing off of it.

Just like stock/commodity manipulation. who'd a thunk it?

Worst. Birthday. Ever. IPv6's party falls flat

Re: IPv6 weekly spikes

"Anyone care to postulate a reason?"

"Do Russian bots prefer IPv6?"

Probably not, unless with all of the EXPOSED PORTS on PUBLIC IPv6 ADDRESSES caused by PROMISCUOUSLY INSECURE Windows boxen (especially "Ape" and Win-10-nic, which add several NEW ports to the number of listening things on 'all adaptors' that don't ever change what port they listen on).

Such Windows boxen on IPv6 addresses are as bad as an unfirewalled Windows box on a DIALUP, as far as security is concerned.

And I wouldn't trust any MICRO-SHAFT firewall to block it, either. Not with their SLURP priority.

So the potential for 'Russian bots' on IPv6 would be AMPLIFIED by the "Promiscuous Insecurity" of Windows machines that have services listening ALL OF THE TIME on ALL IP ADDRESSES on KNOWN PORTS, which would be easy to scan for, and relatively easy to CRACK if a zero-day exploit exists for them.

here's a list of listening ports (from a 7 box) using 'netstat -a'

TCP 135, 445, 554, 2869, 3389, 3587, 5357, 10243, 49152, 49153, 49154, 49155, 49156, 49157

UDP 123, 427, 500, 3540, 3702, 4500, 5004, 5005, 5355, 56409, 56410, 58188, 58189

All of these are listening on all IPv4 (and IPv6) addresses, meaning that for IPv6, they're publically visible. Unless you SPECIFICALLY firewall them (like me). Being windows boxen, they're vulnerable "out of the box".

Re: Lack of commitment

@Multivac

all COBOL and FORTRAN programmers are *DEAD* ? (is THAT what you meant?)

I think NOT. I've done both, for money even, and I'm still here.

There is still a lot of scientific stuff out there written in FORTRAN. A couple of years ago I translated some of that into Python by request from a customer. Last year I translated the Python code into C because the Python proof of concept code was grossly inefficient by a factor of 10 or more, compared to C code. I'm sure the FORTRAN code would have run about the same speed as the C code. That's an education for the younguns out there. Don't trash FORTRASH because it's old. Heh.

(gcc does FORTRAN by the way)

icon because it looks like an old guy

Re: Follow the $

"An example of the hassle with this is for LAN servers that you'd like to be static"

Correct. When I got my tunnel from he.net I had 2 consecutive /64 blocks assigned to me. One of them has the "public face" and the router [on their end] has :1 . The other one is mine to use as I see fit. Both have public visibility. So what I do is use the first one for web services and DNS, and the 2nd is served up using DHCPv6 and so on (I also statically assign a couple of them). All of the computers and devices I've plugged in [or had other people access via my pathetic intarweb connection] seem to work fine with it.

But it did take a bit of reading and some technical expertise to set it all up.

It's probably worth pointing out, in a 'Captain Obvious' kind of way, that a /64 is BIGGER than the entire IPv4 address range (by BILLIONS of addresses), and there are NEARLY AS MANY /64 netblocks available for consumption. Think population of the world, squared, and that's kinda the magnitude of it. if they went to smaller allocations that could still include a MAC address [for automatic IPv6 address assignments based on the router info], you'd have even MORE.

It may not make sense to have permanently assigned FOREVER IPv6 blocks. but it would make sense for an ISP to assign fixed blocks to their customers. IPv6 more or less NEEDS that to work right.

I expect for now you'd have to type the prefix into an entry box on a router config screen, but there might be a way to automate that process. then the home router would do the DHCPv6 and route-based assignments for the LAN, and we're done!

Re: Who in their right mind wants cloud based...

run the DSL modem "bridged" and manage the IPv4/v6 stuff with a FreeBSD or Linux machine. Then YOU have complete control, and if you ever want to wireshark "teh intarwebs" you can do it! Well, for everything on YOUR network, at any rate...

(then you can see for REAL what kind of slurping Win-10-nic is doing)

very little out there runs IPv6 ?

"very little out there runs IPv6"

you wouldn't mind explaining that, would you? I don't think that means what you think it means.

a) All Windows versions beginning with XP are capable of doing IPv6. W7 made it a bit more sane.

b) Many (if not all) Linux distros appear to be configured for IPv6 out of the box

c) some old NAT routers seem to have problems doing it right but this could be fixed with firmware updates

d) free IPv6 tunnels are available for when ISPs don't support IPv6 [some may work better if you have a fixed IPv4, however, and may require a bit of technical expertise to set up]

The uptake problem does seem to be at the 'last mile' or 'first mile' (whichever). What _I_ believe is that it's related to ISPs not wanting to SUPPORT it.

There are a LOT of open ports on windows boxen that would be "on a public IPv6" if it were adopted by ISPs. They need to get those PROMISCUOUS WINDOWS BOXEN under control somehow. A normal NAT won't do it. They don't want the responsibility (not even REMOTELY being responsible) for unleashing all of this. So they drag their feet, make "hmmm" noises and do NOTHING.

The fix: Tell MICRO-SHAFT to FIX THEIR CRAP and stop listening on ALL IP addresses with their LOCAL services [they should ONLY be listening on LOCALHOST, but NOOooooo... can't do THAT, it requires one or two EXTRA lines of code to make THAT happen...]

Actual control of Windows 10 updates (with a catch)... and more from Microsoft

Re: Windows ID IoT

Using windows for embedded is kinda silly anyway, ESPECIALLY when Linux is FREE.

/me points out that if you have issues with GPL, then you can use FreeBSD instead. It's also FREE.

(even if you obtain it with a 'free' license, you can see that Micro-shaft is crafting new ways for a 'free IoT' version to actually COST you)

"Why doesn't MS see reliability as a marketable feature for normal PCs?"

You're asking the wrong question. Micro-shaft sees SLURP and TRACK and ADS and FORCE-YOU as a strategy to PWNING you and CONTROLLING you, which (as THEY perceive it) pays BETTER than providing something that the CUSTOMER wants.

And if you PAY EXTRA (this includes 'Enterprise' editions as well as this new IoT pay-for-it option) you can "opt out" of SOME of this.

Re: Nice embedded device there...

"As with desktop Windows, LTSC is the way to go."

You forgot the "For a FEE" part...

(sounds like EXTORTION to ME)

In defence of online ads: The 'net ain't free and you ain't paying

Re: Advertised at.

"It's the underhand, illicit collection of personal data and personal usage of the Internet that's wrong."

If not for that [and malware] I would not need to run 'NoScript' . ElReg with non-scripted banner ads [when NoScript is detected] might be an interesting change. Just sayin.

Better still, NEVER! SCRIPT! ADS!

Re: Penny for the guy?

it's more fun to obfuscate your real life by trolling the trackers to think that you are interested in lots of bizarre fetishes, regularly engage in illegal activity, and never buy ANYTHING. Then watch the fun spam arrive at your e-mail inbox, along with some rather fun targeted ads embedded in web pages.

(OK, I've only trolled google searches this way - heh - a simple script involving nc or curl, with carefully constructed referral and identification headers, running intermittently for a few days, would do it)

Re: The thing is... it's nothing new.

"The news and magazine stand at our local supermarket as a special bin right next to it into which you can dump all the loose adverts"

and all of that stuff is easily recycled, so it's convenient as well.

I worked at a drug store when I was in H.S. and college, and there was a box bailing hydraulic press that was used for recycling all of the boxes. Similar deal, just have them pick up the contents of the 'loose advertising' bins at the same time. Everybody wins (except for the ad slingers).

Re: happy for adverts if....

"Why is everyone so against tracking?!"

you forgot the 'troll' icon.

Re: happy for adverts if....

I've been using the 'youtube-dl' script for a while, now, to download the actual content rather than view inline with HTML5 or anything else. then block scripting fo youtube in the browser. use its search capabilities and when you find what you want, just DOWNLOAD it. works for me. avoid a lot of irritation that way (including video stuttering)

Re: If only I could pay

singular: you

plural: y'all

fixed. heh.

Re: If only I could pay

I don't find enough content on 'teh intarwebs' that is WORTH paying for.

That's especially true when the "payment" is my privacy.

Have to use SMB 1.0? Windows 10 April 2018 Update says NO

Re: Fix it, don't disable it

It's called "being expressive" by use of punctuation, capitalization, etc.. I think it is MUCH better than "monotone" and puts the emphasis where _I_ want it. (NOT putting emphasis on the right words changes its meaning, JUST a bit)

facepalm icon for various reasons.

Re: So for a while now...

"Imagine it: Win10 accessing a mapped network drive like a *nix client and treating it like a native MS server share."

sounds like HELL to me...

Imagine this instead: dumping ALL of the Win-10-nic clients for LINUX.

Re: Fix it, don't disable it

"Why not just patch the vulnerability rather than disabling it?"

Because, THAT is NOT how "The Borg" operates. They are in control. Your distinctiveness will be added to the collective. And you will be assimilated.

Re: smb 1

SOLUTION: dump Win-10-nic, install XP. problem solved. heh.

PETA calls for fish friendly Swedish street signage

we need to save endangered species by coming up with a REALLY GOOD recipe. Then people will want to buy 'canned banana slug' (for example) to spread on their sandwiches! You'll never run out, when they're DELICIOUSLY PREPARED! (and, raised in ranches)

Re: Let's go with PETA...

Soylent Green - new, PORK flavor!

(I had to read 'Typee' when I was in college)

coat, please

US regains supercomputer crown from Chinese, for now

Re: Recycling

e-waste recycling is reasonably profitable from what I understand. Once you grind everything up into tiny bits, you can extract things like gold, silver, copper, lead, aluminum, and other materials that are recyclable in one way or another. The oil-based stuff could be recycled the way you recycle any kind of plastic, I would imagine. In any case, the extracted materials have enough value to make it worth doing.

better to recycle than fill up landfills with this stuff at any rate, especially when its more profitable to recycle.

https://www.industryleadersmagazine.com/recycling-e-waste-becoming-big-profitable-business/

Dems push Ryan to vote to help save America's net neutrality measures

86% of Americans agree with *THEM*? Since *WHEN*?

I think the Demo[c,n][r,R]ats need to stop it with the DISHONESTY.

Trump will NEVER sign such a bill. He wants to DE-regulate. And the Demo[c,n][r,R]ats are misrepresenting what alleged "net neutrality" means anyway.

What it REALLY was (prior to Trump): something that large intarweb (liberal politics) companies like Google and Facebook bought and paid for, which isn't 'net neutrality' at ALL.

If they want to protect citizens from having their data misused, they can legislate that (maybe like GDPR). But STOPPING people/companies from BEING ABLE to pay extra to get better bandwidth, quality, etc. is just SOCIALISM being crammed up our, er, down our throats. "all equal" becomes "equally mediocre". (There are ways to do this right that would have NO negative consequences, and competition is one of them, instead of playing the 'class envy' game because one person has a nicer something and paid extra to get it)

The reason telcos and cable companies want what Pai did: it gets GUMMINT off of their backs! [this should be a GOOD thing, getting GUMMINT out of our lives as much as possible]

icon, because facepalm, because this should be OBVIOUS. but apparently, many can't see it with their political motives in the way.

Microsoft will ‘lose developers for a generation’ if it stuffs up GitHub, says future CEO

Re: Hotmail

some time ago I had problems with my intarweb connection, so I tried using a dial-up to access an old hotmail address, which I normally access via the POP server. To say "bandwidth strangled" is a gross understatement. Outlook Webmail is IMPOSSIBLE with anything running at dial-up or even cellular speeds.

Icon for the BIG THUMBS DOWN to Micro-shaft's bandwidth-intensive scripty CDN circle-jerking web pages.

Expect this to happen on github. Multi-click-throughs where one should have been sufficient.

Re: No worries about losing developers

"But that's only three DEVELOPERS!"

they must've lost one already

Re: ROFL

"Lose the trust of a generation of developers?"

It's been slowly happening ever since ".Not" C-pound Silverlight "The Metro" and UWP.

Why should THIS be any different?

I _am_ concerned about my GitHub login becoming a "microsoft logon" though, with their EULA...

Re: "Plans integration"

"It is the "Embrace" in the Embrace, Extend, Extinguish triad."

That it is. That it is...

This is how freedom dies. With resounding applause.

NASA finds more stuff suggesting Mars could have hosted life, maybe

Re: Suggestive, but nothing more

we need something more compelling. bones would be nice. fossil deposition on mars may be completely different than on earth, however. Most of earth's fossils seem to be from catastrophic burials, like from volcanos and floods and stuff like that. Mars has sedimentary rocks as well, and so there may be similar deposits. Not sure if they had the kinds of dino-killing meteors that Earth had, though, to create really significant fossil layers in the rocks.

So finding fossils might be really difficult, regardless of the presence of ancient life there.