
Re: Do You Know..
"What they call a quarter pounder in the delta quadrant?"
"Royal F***up" with cheese?
10507 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
"Kirk considered himself more familiar with the period he found himself in, certainly more than Spock"
Spok has a good excuse. After all, Spok had done "a little too much LDS" back in the 60's.
/me grabbing coat, now
Kill Bill - the whole 'O-ren' sequence. And Lucy Liu. Yum! Throw in some animation to tell the back story.
/me wonders if Lucy Liu would make a good Romulan... one who'd been repeatedly abused by the Klingons since she was 10 years old, and by the time she was 12, she'd killed over 1,000 of them (and eaten their livers, with some fava beans and a nice chianti).
"all on the Law enforcement side involved in this should be assessed"
Agreed - a clean sweep across the ENTIRE department, and review/removal/re-write/destruction of B.S. laws like those "broken" in THIS case.
Although outing officers AND their families, if he blatantly did THAT, is a bit problematic, LONG jail terms for doing so is ridiculous.
It's like the "process crimes" that are often used to intimidate people, such as General Flynn. Make ONE mistake in something you tell the FBI, and they can CHARGE! YOU! WITH! A! CRIME!!!
NOT a good thing. WAY too heavy handed. Swamp needs DRAINING.
embedded PDF viewing in a browser is nearly always IRRITATING. save the file, then read it with 'atril' or some other PDF reader [preferably one that's not built with MONO or ".NOT"].
[I always "shut that crap off" along with a few other irritating settings - but if I can NOT shut it off, that application will NEVER be used by ME]
this is why everything in a browser needs to be CUSTOMIZE-ABLE since there's probably enough people that disagree with MY preferences that they actually WANT viewing PDF contents in an iframe. There are also people who like the 2D FLATSO, unfortunately. Well, they all need to be SETTINGS, so that EVERY customer is happy [not just the fanbois].
" keeps on opening links in full screen"
That's a *MAJOR* deal breaker with ME!
I *HATE* full-screen windows popping up and TAKING OVER the desktop, like "you cannot do ANYTHING ELSE, because *THIS* is now *THE* *MOST* *IMPORTANT* *THING*!!!".
Might as well run "The Metro" CRapps on Win-10-nic if you want *THAT*
"The store only model seems to work for Apple / Google"
in Android, you can EASILY switch off the "feature" that restricts you to "store only" [cr]apps.
not sure about iOS.
And the "feature" in Win-10-nic S (which stands for something that starts with an 'S') apparently can NOT be shut off, deliberately, by design. Which makes it S. I guess it's full of S.
"they could easily reach planets with megatons of the stuff" (re: recycling v-ger for its gold)
right, heavy elements (like gold) are quite possibly more common on inner planets, and if you mine stuff at night, and at the poles, not unreasonably hot either. If I had the tech available, I'd certainly give it a shot.
the basic logic: outer planets are nearly all 'gas giants', inner ones are rocky. It seems to me that heavier elements collect closer to a star than farther away from it. Conclusion: Mercury probably has more gold than Earth.
asteroid mining would give you easier physical access to "everything", too, but how much gold, platinum, and other 'rare earths' being present in asteroids is still completely unknown.
Anyway...
"When you're going that fast, doesn't time slow down or something"
yes but the amount is negliglble. you'd probably notice if you're receiving radio signals that are supposed to be xx.xxxx Mhz, but end up being xx.xxxy Mhz [that kind of difference].
As I recall, on one of the Apollo missions, they had an atomic clock or something similar on board the spacecraft, and they actually measured the time difference. Since they were moving at ~50k MPH for the trip to/from the moon, there would be a measurable effect, even though it was pretty tiny. But, the scientists involved in the experiment DID find "that difference" and announced that Einstein WAS right. It was definitely worth doing, yeah.
You can figure out the effect on time when you consider that if you're travellng at 1/2C, then [simplified] from YOUR perspective, light still moves at C, which means that for you, time effectively moves 1/2 as fast as it is for someone who's not moving at all. It's actually more complicated than that, but discussing all of the details in here would be TLDR and *yawn*. NOT mentioning that would invite the anal retentive howler monkey types to nit-pick every word.
anyway, ~18km/sec compared to ~300,000 km/sec is a pretty small change in the flow of time, but it's in the neighborhood of 1/10,000 [unless I made a math error] so radio frequencies would be shifted in a measurable way [as I already mentioned at the top] but that's about it. What's interesting, however, is that the shift would probably be TWICE what doppler alone would cause, because the relative time would affect the RF oscillators, which would put out a lower transmit frequency, which would then be further time-stretched by the doppler effect as the craft moves away from earth.
[gravity wells, as mentioned earlier, notwithstanding]
What is this "retirement age" you speak of? There is no such thing anymore.
I plan on working until I'm dead. Many reasons why, not the least of which is that I perceive "retirement" to be a BORING concept. Now, infinite money and "I can do what the hell I want" sounds great but it would probably involve computers, electronics, and me running the show. "Retirement", however, is NOTHING like that. The words "fixed income" make me wanna lose my lunch. And gummint austerity is double-nauseating.
"women to be prosecuted for domestic abuse in the same way as are men"
heh, throwing things, kicking you, yelling/screaming/nagging - if MEN did all that, it would be "go straight to jail".
I think men just deal with all that by being strong/stoic because they're men. We just don't need other people butting noses in to OUR problems, right? Man up and DEAL with it!
Whereas, of course, wife-beating SHOULD be punishable by law. Maybe it's a self-imposed discrimination?
ponder, ponder, ponder...
"Do you also think that white brains are different from black brains"
Social Justice Warriors!
Always butting in, where ever they FEEL.
Social Justice Warriors!
Defending every "gender" race, and creed
(except for white men because they're EVIL!)
yeah, I gotta do a song like that some day... make it sound a bit like "Dennis Moore"
"Stop sexism, enjoy our differences, love one other."
but, but, But, THAT does not drive emotion-based agendas nor cause rage-votes and/or riots! It makes TOO MUCH SENSE, ya know?
</sarcasm> (in case it wasn't obvious)
/me makes 'captain obvious' point that every time these "discrepencies" over male/female hiring practices is presented "that way", it's SEXISM, just like it's RACISM to do the SAME thing with RACE. etc.
lies, damn lies, and statistics *indeed*.
"And if you think you can store more energy in a solid battery without turning it into explosive you're out of luck, next step up from lithium in energy density is a gunpowder"
I had a minor LiPo 'scare' the other day when I was doing some battery capacity/behavior testing on a device. I soldered up what SHOULD have been a simple current monitoring 'thing' that went between the battery and device, so I could do long-term measurements with a microcontoller. Unfortunately, even under the magnifier, I couldn't see a tiny solder finger that shorted out the LiPo battery. Within 10 seconds it swelled up like a balloon and started melting the vinyl covering on the table it sat on. I rapidly disconnected it, and when the swelling didn't go back down, I quickly ran with it to a nearby sink and doused it with water (and within a few seconds, it suddenly collapsed to being 'flat' again) until it was 'cool to the touch'.
Unfortunately the battery couldn't be charged any more (must've melted inside). I really didn't need the thing blowing up in my face, so I'm glad it stayed "contained". THAT was only a 400maH battery. I can't imagine what the battery of a vehicle would be like, if something shorted it out [like a traffic accident?]
icon, because, that's almost what happened. having a fire extinguisher handy is helpful, but I'd rather not use it. Having a shower nearby to wash the burning lithium off won't be that much help, either.
just putting it into perspective...
/me points out, safe LiPo disposal: cut battery in half with scissors, drop into plastic cup with water in it. When bubbles stop, you can rinse the lithium out and toss the rest in the garbage. at least, that's what I'm inclined to do...
"It is the Tropical ocean thermocline"
nice pipe dream, but just one problem: when you alter the thermal characteristics of the ocean, will it create YET ANOTHER ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM? I say "probably".
Keep in mind that MANY of those behind shoving electric cars up our as down our throats are really the elitist types that will ALWAYS "have theirs", but to feel good about their 'rich guilt' they foist their idealism upon THE REST OF US, like it's for our OWN GOOD or something.
The best potential technology for portable energy that can be easily transported, stored, and dispensed at a filling station, is hydrogen with fuel cell systems. Those would be electric, but the battery requirement would be significantly smaller, and efficiency WAY higher than a standard hybrid.
but fuel cells have some logistical problems _LIKE_ cold weather. and hydrogen has potential being stored as "complex hydrates" but the temperature extremes needed to extract and/or force it to store cause some problems.
In the mean time, before this tech becomes _absolutely_ _necessary_ (and not the 'artificial' 2040 time frame), why don't we just keep burning dead dinosaurs and dead prehistoric plants?
At some point, it will no longer be cheaper to dig it out of the ground or drill for it and frack to break up the rocks so we can extract nearly all of it [instead of just the first 50%].
When the price of gasoline is in the $5-$6/gallon range in the USA, it starts to become viable to produce fuel from GARBAGE. On an industrial scale, organic waste can be turned into oil, and then fuel.
Also, gummints and enviro-wackos need to STOP IT with their opposition to nuclear energy. Make it SAFER, sure. But stop getting in the way. We *NEED* the nuke plants if you don't want COAL and OIL and GAS plants to be producing electricity for those electric cars _EVERYONE_ will have to drive by 2040...
So many feely "solutions" without thinking things through, and it's JUST gonna screw average people's lives all to hell... so a bunch of elitists can "stop feeling guilty" about having those things that make life easier (when the rest of us no longer can).
icon, because, SAD
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ножки_Буша
I ran that through google translate - "Bush's Legs"
(translated quote from the page)
The name "Bush's legs" appeared in 1990, when a trade agreement was signed between Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush Sr. on the delivery of frozen chicken legs to the USSR. Since in 1990 the Soviet counters were practically empty , "Bush's legs" were very popular.
in case nobody else bothered to check. Brilliant reference!
"would save my servers from having to deal with about 80% of the tens of thousands of malicious probes each is subjected to daily."
Well, you could set up 'fail2ban'. that'd cut down on a LOT of it. that way you only get like 5 failed sshd login attempts (then it auto-bans the IP address for half an hour or whatever) instead of hundreds over a period of hours. And it generates complaint reports that you can forward on to ISPs if you want. I do it sometimes, depending on how irritating the robo-crackers are. [they have to EARN a complaint because I'm lazy, but not so lazy that I can't give "special attention" to our "special friends", heh heh heh "Warner Brothers" style]
"With blackjack and hookers no doubt..."
no, they're the 'new moralists'. They can't allow pr0n, gambling, naughty jokes, fun, etc. on THEIR internet.
The "blackjack and hookers" will only be available if you have "special access" credentials... (i.e. THEM, but in a way that the general public won't find out about)
"that price cap will mysteriously vanish"
yep. I suspect Mercedes might be interested in making a competing model to the Tesla, for the same market.
Interestingly enough, those who can AFFORD these things DO! NOT! NEED! A! SUBSIDY!!!
(so why IS there a subsidy, anyway? yeah I know why, and it's stupid)
Asus would do BETTER supporting an article that talked about how they were shipping LOTS of reasonably priced Acer laptops pre-installed with Linux and a bootloader that bypasses Intel's "management crap"...
(I think THAT kind of 'sponsorship' would go over SO well, that enough El Reg readers would buy them to make it SPECTACULARLY PROFITABLE to do so... so GROW A CLUE, Asus, if you read this...)
"There is the Xbox if they want to experiment with AR, VR and stupid GUIs."
But I don't like it much THERE, either... (live ad tiles on XBox, for example). I skip that part of the "show" and just play the games. It's the only reason I own one (well, more than one, but they keep breaking, and I won't get an 'XBox One' and I want 100% compatibility - my NEXT gaming platform will probably be a play station, unless THEY get as bad as M$ is with the XBox One, then I'll be happy playing 'Star Ocean' and Final Fantasy XIII's for a while until "next box").
Big Thumbs Up for the rest of the post, though, specifically this:
"Stop with Flat and faffing around with wizards and removing settings."
"What's the AR/VR equvilent of W.I.M.P.?"
I think there was a good example of it in the third 'Matrix' movie when you saw the computer AI system that people with plugs in their heads were interacting with, move your hands and touch a virtual display that's suspended in midair, things like that.
But until we have a UI that makes _THAT_ possible, it's just more "new, shiny" to hype a sow with lipstick on it (and not even on the OINKY end) called "Windows 10" aka "Win-10-nic".
QUESTION: Why does Micro-shaft spend SO much time and money and effort on THIS (playing 'catch up' to Google and Apple, basically) while *SIMULTANEOUSLY* ignoring the *FACT* that their UNPOPULAR OPERATING SYSTEM has a *CRAP* *UI* that looks like it was designed in **1985** (like windows 1.0).
Micro-shaft: GET RID OF THE 2D FLATSO, the ADWARE, and the SPYWARE. When you get THAT right, people will like your OS whether it has 3D AR/VR or not.
icon, because Micro-shaft FAIL OS.
"A TLD for your own internal LAN should be doable without having to pay a rentier to do it properly."
yourname.local <-- try that. set up your DNS server using 'bind', hook it in with the isc DHCP server, and voila! works for me, since, like, forever, LONG before RFC6762 was written. May require Linux or BSD, to work properly.
I can't remember where I first read about '.local' though. It wasn't in the RFCs as I recall, but it may have been mentioned in IANA or ICANN documents someplace. It was related to the use of '.localhost' for ONLY the loopback, and '.local' for anything in a private address space.
A quick google search shows that Micro-shaft recommends it for domain controllers. Maybe THAT is where I first read about it, back in the 90's, setting up a windows NT 4 server domain controller for testing.
Worthy of note: according to SOME several-year-old intarwebs references, Apple's mDNS stuff attempts (or used to attempt) to resolve a "name.local" name differently than a DNS lookup, by assuming they're multicast-only, but "name.whatever.local" appeared to work properly. Just to point it out, anyway.
"Then don't use a domain name you do not own. Your own domain and .local are both good"
etc.
I've been using ".local" for my own domain since the 90's. Prior to that I made up my own TLD but after reading up on it, it seemed that it was a bad idea (even back then).
I'd had some problems with a customer VPN setup that used the registered domain for their web site as their "windows domain". That caused lots of problems when VPN'ing into their network (as well as their router and network setup in general - they insisted on using the common/default 192.168.1.x address space, forcing my private LAN to use something else in order to VPN into them).
in any case, it's welcome that there's an RFC for '.local' (6762) but it shouldn't be restricted to ONLY multicast at any point in the future, either. RFC6762 might need an ammendment RFC to clarify that '.local' should be reserved for "general use" and NOT assumed to be multi-cast.
anyway, "companyname.local" works VERY VERY WELL for a corporate domain (for internal network addresses). I expect zillions of BOFH's and IT specialists have done this.
"I hope it isn't a CEO vanity project, that would be really sad."
Most likely it IS.
I think that they should be hiring TEST ENGINEERS instead, to deal with NOT having the end-users as their beta testers.
And now, MY top 10 list of new names for the 'Redmond Campus':
10. Nutsy-Cuckoo-land
9. 'Hallowed Halls of Redmond' (I use that a lot anyway)
8. Spyware Heights
7. "The Store"
6. Adware Haven
5. Flatso Metro
4. BSOD
3. Lost Wages (due to various forms of outsourcing and hiring n00bs)
2. Snarf-ville
and the number 1 new name for the Redmond Campus is...
"You can't pronounce it, because it's that stupid sideways ASCII-smiley emoticon you often see emblazened in the middle of your flat-looking screen"
"Actually, a taskbar will be of help here since it can make you aware a browser window's still open."
a good point. There may be a way to have it display "iconless" though. I haven't tried. But if it's a top level window, it will most likely be in any task bar that has icon windows listed in it.
I run Mate with the upper panel having the CPU monitor in it. If I see unusual CPU activity, I typically kill that application and re-start it. Usually it's Firefox, due to garbage collection and being left open on 7 virtual desktops with 20 or 30 tabs for days or weeks on end. Sometimes it's something else. but if you see consistently high CPU usage, it's often a problem with the application. And if it's bitcoin mining, THAT would put a stop to it REALLY QUICK.
That, and running 'NoScript'.
"I'm old fashioned enough never to have been a fan of sudo"
well, if you configure sudo the way a BOFH would, you can lock out anything that's truly "dangerous" and require actually logging in as root for such things.
but most distros that have sudo simply allow any authenticated user to enter his own password to do "whatever he wants" with root credentials. It's convenient, yeah.
"but usually physical access is enough to set the root password on *nix."
not entirely true. On FreeBSD, at least, it is possible to require the root password for single-user mode by specifying that the console is 'insecure'. And, Shirley, you COULD also boot a "live CD" (assuming that hasn't been locked out) or "live USB" image, and then mount the hard drive's root partition and do a password reset THAT way (jumping through necessary hoops to do so via the command line) but you can do this in Windows as well.
Or, if you're really desperate, remove the hard drive and plug it into a different computer that has the correct utilities on it for a password reset.
(I'd much rather make miscreants go through that last step)
"How do you create a really secure password?"
Having forked FBSD's userland, it should be possible to create a random root password with command line tools (like 'pw') assuming those tools exists on a mac...
then you can just do the 'sudo su' trick when you want to do things as 'root' for a while...
"By that definition every state in the USA is a nation"
correct, and the constitution is 'supreme law of the land' (in case there are any deviations).
It's supposed to be hierarchical, the concept being that individual states and localities should have as much power and authority as possible, because they know best how to deal with their own people properly.
THAT being said, there's always overreach, because, gummint. Fixing that probably means electing different people, who (hopefully) will 'fix it'. [good luck, yeah]
Worth noting, the 'Native American' (aka American Indian) tribes are also separate governments, under the U.S. government (like a combination of state and local governments). So if you commit a crime on an Indian reservation, you're subject to THEIR laws, too.
(worth noting, I have an ancestor from 3 generations back who was a member of the Taos tribe in New Mexico, but I don't claim it on any forms to get 'affirmative action' because it would be stupid)
"s it actually illegal to hack a government that routinely violates it's own Constitution, spies on people in all jurisdictions without evidence, breaches the local laws of all countries" etc.
Unfortunately, YES. That's why a LOT of us over here in the U.S. want to "drain the swamp" and fix the REAL problem. It beats ignoring the laws and going to jail.
As for extradition - the UK court needs to decide that. If it's NOT warranted, he won't get extradited.
(if I were the UK government, I'd want to be rid of the expensive trial and incarceration anyway)