Posts by bombastic bob 10812 publicly visible posts • joined 1 May 2015
"The only proposition more absurd than the big bang is creationism."
We were NOT created by UFO aliens then? What about the Anunaki? "Ancient Astronaut Theorists" believe yotta yotta yotta and I saw it all on the History Channel! (that makes it true)
heh.
BBC America has been playing a constant marathon of Dr. Who and it is my pleasure to recognize that in many parts of this article, the author did a pretty good impersonation of The Doctor's thought patterns, at least once or twice, or maybe 3 times... it doesn't matter.
And how many of those UFO pics were of a small blue box that said "Police" on it...
/me queues up theme song
"Of course how much energy you'll need to apply to what minerals you find to get that water is another question"
A well-designed regenerative process could probably do the job. The question is whether or not forming complex hydrates is endothermic or exothermic, and how much energy is needed to release the water.
From what I just read, CuSO4 5(H2O) is exothermic when forming the hydrate, having a negative hydration enthalpy [and apparantly they're ALL negative, so it's exothermic to form the hydrate]. So it requires energy in to release the water. I didn't research very long, so maybe that chemical formula is wrong. I haven't done that kind of chemistry stuff since 1979...
Still, if you have a large enough power plant (nuclear, let's say), producing sufficient heat to have a continuous process of extracting water from [and grinding up aqueous] rocks, and you use an efficient process that includes regenerative heat exchangers, it would probably be VERY practical.
I'd also be interested in seeing what it would take to melt the Martian planet core sufficiently to get a magnetic field back. OK probably WAY beyond our technology level, but still an interesting idea.
"The odd thing about Hindu mythology is that it describes so many concepts about the universe"
yes, if you cherry pick it. Vimanas and all of that. I like watching "History" channel too, quotes because it's sometimes less about history and more about 'whatever the hell they want to put on the network'. "Ancient astronaut theorists" and all of that. Sometimes it's palatable, and sometimes I can't stomach the nonsense. And sometimes they 'get it right' in between the "ancient astronaut theorists" parts SO well that I'm intrigued. So it's worth watching, if you can 'cherry pick' the good stuff from the weird/bad.
[not to say UFOs nor ETs don't necessarily exist, I just don't buy into the Von Donnakinism, and if they ARE manipulating us, they're HOLDING US BACK and not "helping", to 'keep us in our place' and NOT become a threat to 'them' - that would make MORE sense, to me... sort of like in "The day the earth stood still", the ~original~ one, not the re-make, which missed the point entirely]
Anyway... Mars still sounds like a great place to set up a permanent base or colony, if you can grind up and heat rocks for water and oxygen. That could work, using nuclear power. Sci Fi has suggested things like that for DECADES, and I think Sci Fi authors are pretty good at predicting what's possible.
"have you every tried to upgrade Viao"
yes. I installed Debian Linux on 2 of them, about 10 years ago. They worked PERFECTLY for what we needed them for. We chose Vaio for several reasons, including the NVidia displays they used.
And I'd gladly put Devuan on a Vaio. I might just do that, soon [the current OS is Vista on this one... and I've replaced the fan and it needs a new battery, but still works just fine for day-to-day stuff, even with Vista on it].
I think Sony gave up on Vaio because of Windows "Ape" and Win-10-nic. Too bad they didn't go with LINUX pre-installed, instead...
I've used an Intel BIOS tool, some time in the past, that booted and updated the BIOS from a USB flash drive. So it was OS-independent.
THAT is the kind of BIOS tool that is needed - not something that REQUIRES WINDOWS to run. Have it boot it's OWN operating system or not even bother with an OS. Even DOS would work for this kind of thing.
the proverbial crap is already hitting the fan regarding the 'dumping' of solar tech. I've heard ads on the radio regarding tariffs next year on imported solar stuff, "get it done now before the price goes up", that kind of thing.
(this was apparently done before, during the Obaka administration, and Trump recently adjusted the tariff amount, but not as much as some people wanted, nor so much that the industry is harmed).
As long as China subsidizes its state-owned business [don't anyone be fooled; it's heavy socialism with a communist influence over there, so "state-owned" is as good of a description as any] and pay their employees 'slave wages' to make things, they'll always undercut EVERYONE on price. So a little bit of protectionism is acually a GOOD thing in this case. Because the NEXT step is to destroy all other competing manufacturers, like the 'Robber Barons' of the late 19th and early 20th century were doing, by making it economically IMPOSSIBLE to compete.
Still there are other problems with domestic production of solar panels, environmental regulations being one of them [these could be made more 'common sense' to alleviate THAT problem].
So there are things that can be done, things that should NOT be done, etc. but we cannot IGNORE that China is engaging in "unfair business practices" in a lot of ways.
You can't blame them entirely, but you shouldn't make it EASY for them to do it, either.
"Presumably he was coereced into doing what he was told, or the other two had something over the guy which acted as an...incentive to continue doing naughty things."
or maybe... JUST maybe... the case was heard before a liberal-leaning "feel sorry for them" judge, and the criminal's lawyers PLAYED HEARTS AND FLOWERS during the trial, to manipulate and "tug at the heart strings" and generate waterfalls of tears and sympathy for the "poor cwiminal, Awwwww" to get him off with a WRIST SLAP and ONLY threat of "kiddy jail" if he screws up again within the next 2 years.
I think my explanation is the more likely one to be correct. It's based on past history.
Using the SAME LOGIC of "he was coerced" or manipulated or whatever, MANSON'S WOMEN should be parolled. But I doubt ANYONE wants THAT...
I think CONSISTENCY in law enforcement is KEY to an orderly society. "We feel sorry for you" should *NEVER* (repeat *NEVER*) be *ANY* excuse for ultra-light sentencing or *ANY* kind of favoritism, just like economic circumstance, social status, or "who you know/blow" should ALSO be excluded from ANY conviction or sentencing.
Here in the USA we're running into a few problems with this last part... "equal justice for all" should be THE ONLY RULE, but you find many (OJ, Mrs. Clinton being 2 examples) who seem to "get away with it" ALL too EASILY! And *THAT* is *WRONG*.
And I don't blame the lawyers. They're actually doing their jobs. If they did not AGGRESSIVELY DEFEND their clients, the system would not work. Prosecutors need to be JUST as good, and judges and jurors need to JETTISON THEIR POLITICS AND FEELINGS AT THE COURT ROOM DOOR (and be TRULY impartial!).
article: "You were taken advantage of by those more criminally sophisticated than yourself"
and
"As facts are presented, I am not happy with the results."
neither am I. A _reduced_ sentence in "big boy jail" would have been appropriate, due to guilty plea AND maybe some assistance with prosecuting others. that's "standard operating procedure" in law enforcement.
Instead, the judge was subjected to "Hearts and Flowers" played on the world's smallest violin, "Oh, my heart, it BLEEDS, for YOUUUUUU!" etc. and this guy got off with a WRIST SLAP.
Sentencing is SUPPOSED to deter OTHERS from trying the same crap by MAKING AN EXAMPLE. you know, protect society and all of that. FEEWING SOWWY for the POOW CWIMINAL, Awwwww.... that's just *SICK*.
"there are a lot of FOSS projects struggling to get money to survive."
private businesses usually struggle to get money to survive, too. It's just the way things are.
Of course for FOSS there are ways to contribute that do not involve money, such as finding bugs and submitting patches (or at least detailed-enough bug reports that the dedicated engineers can fix it).
Regardless of "who funds Mozilla" there are a LOT of 'customers' out there that rely on Firefox. Many of them run open source operating systems like Linux or the BSD's. And so the success of desktop Linux is "somewhat connected" to having a decent browser that runs on it. Google puts a lot of effort into chrome for 'Chrome OS' and so they compete with Mozilla.
It's just that Mozilla needs to make sure that FIREFOX HAS SOMETHING TO COMPETE AGAINST CHROME WITH. Making it LOOK LIKE CHROME isn't "that". But the delayed-spyware-load feature? THAT is something! [and they can make it EVEN BETTER by giving Firefox at least an *OPTIONAL* "classic" appearance!!! Hear *THAT*, ASSHATS? STOP it with the 2D FEELING FLATSO, DAMMIT!!!]
"If Mozilla's best still can't handle a simple screen reader for the blind"
You bring up a VERY good point.
I have noticed that the *ENTIRE* 2D FLATSO FLUGLY "pastel color" "poor contrast" UI trend, most likely driven by MILLENIALS who don't even need to use reading glasses (yet), who can stare at "light cyan on bright white" and STILL make out what the text says [while over 50% of the population can NOT, especially those of us who are old], are unnecessarily CRAMMING THIS CRAP-INTERFACE UP OUR ASSES DOWN OUR THROATS because *THEY* *FEEL* it's better.
[hopefully none of that text I just pounded out works poorly with a screen reader]
The readability and eye-strain issues CAUSED by pastel-contrast FLATSO interfaces really PISS ME OFF. It's a big reason (other than the FLUGLY) why I *HATE* *THAT*.
And MOZILLA needs to PAY FEELING ATTENTION to this. STOP IT with "the Australis", DAMMIT! And oh by the way, DO NOT force people to "upgrade the screen reader" to install. WORK WITH THE OLDER VERSIONS DAMMIT!
(and don't tell us that 'DAMMIT doesn't work here' either).
"the new FF is fast as hell. It's quite an impressive improvement."
I'm glad they spent ACTUAL TIME doing something USEFUL [rather than completely *FEELING* up the UI with 'Australis' and THEN taking away the ability to FIX IT BACK via legacy plug-ins].
I'm still PISSED OFF about the 2D FLATSO, the *FEELING* hamburger "menu", and the inability to FIX it now that the 'legacy' "classic UI" plugins can't work.
if I had time to do it, I'd fork it JUST for the UI elements, and do what those plugins do WITHIN THE ACTUAL CODE. And I'm sure *MY* fork would be MOST popular. it could still track FF's development for all of the security patches and REAL improvements, too.
How come *THEY* haven't figured that out?
If only they also banned:
a) anything with scripting or 3rd party cookies or user-identifiable URLs. Period. [if I click on the link and it tracks me on THEIR servers, that's their business. But the ad itself should be benign].
b) anything that has motion in it [especially flash and *shudder* HTML5 video, even WITHOUT sound]. Animated gifs are just as bad and should never 'autoplay' anyway.
c) anything larger than 100k bytes. yes, I'm being generous.
d) anything that requires a user interaction in ANY form, even if it's to stop the countdown early
e) anything that blocks the content if "not viewed" (including those for sites that give you 'forbidden' or other errors from nginx if you happen to have noscript running)
f) anything requiring downloads from a separate URL [script, CSS, whatever] - see '100k bytes' limit
g) anything that re-directs directly to ANY kind of installer - no exceptions!
h) anything that consumes more than 5% of the CPU over a 2 second period to render on an average device (mobile or desktop). Don't waste my battery either!
I call that "a good start"
[what, you mean shoving it in my face and blowing a loud horn until I press 'OK' isn't making me want to BUY your product??? That practice should have GUARANTEED sales attached to it!]
"The europeans have always had a way of describing each other using a food based item that is native to that country"
/me wonders what Americans would be... 'Hot Dogs' perhaps? But it really varies from state to state.
In Cali-fornicate-you it's easy: Fruits, nuts, and flakes [at least in S.F. and silly valley]. But here in San Diego I guess it could be "Fish Tacos". Rubios. Yum!
"the tax system as set up by FDR was what built America"
WRONG. FUD. CLUELESS.
FDR's socialism actually SLOWED DOWN the recovery from the 'Great Depression'. A few things, like deposit insurance, made sense [this kept most banks from making high risk loans due to regulation involving the insurance requirement, which is what caused the banking crisis of the late 1920's]. But *MOST* of what FDR did domestically was CRAP, and should be ABANDONED, starting with Keynsian economics and ending with the so-called "progressive" taxation of incomes [it keeps people from BECOMING "the rich"].
What ended the depression was the war-time economy cause by WORLD WAR 2, and the massive spending at the end of the war as soldiers and sailors and marines came back home and bought houses and cars and other stuff they'd saved up for.
During the 1950's tax rates were INCREASED with the top marginal rate being 90% (yes, 90%) and *TONS* of loopholes for tax shelters "for the rich" to go with it [to 'stimulate' certain pet areas of the economy], so as to *SLOW* *DOWN* the U.S. economy, most likely [from a 'globalist' kind of perspective] to "allow Europe and Asia to 'catch up' to the USA after having to repair all of that war damage".
By the 1960's, JFK saw how this was STIFLING the US economy, and basically laid out supply side economics and TAX CUTS to the New York Economic Society in December of 1962. This actually made him the BETTER choice over Nixon, who was pretty much the same as Kennedy on most points that were important to people at the time. [yes, I _JUST_ praised a Democrat!]
And so I conclude: FDR's policies *STIFLED* the US economy, by putting more gummint control over it. JFK's, and Regan's, and now Trump's policies *UNLEASH* the economy, by lowering the marginal tax rates.
Our current income tax was implemented (after the approval of the relevant constitutional amendment) during the time of Woodrow Wilson, a globalist, socialist, "chicken in every pot" type of Demo-Rat politician who NEVER should have been President of the USA. Only the top 10% of income earners were affected by the 2 percent tax. Now, look where it is _NOW_ !!!
And America was MOSTLY built without an income tax. BIG GUMMINT was built WITH it.
" there will be few left who will be able to afford the increased rates for health insurance that will result. "
WRONG. FUD. CLUELESS.
more like this:
Insurance companies will offer plans that people CAN afford and are willing to buy, because they do NOT have to comply with some ridiculous federal requirement. This includes "emergency only" and high-deductible catastrophic plans. Trump says he LIKES those. So do I. But you can't BUY them with OBAKA-CARE individual mandate in place. You _HAVE_ to pay 10 times as much for things you do NOT want, to "cover everyone else".
I say *NO* to Obaka-care mandates, and give it my upright middle finger. It's a "financial hardship" which allows me to NOT purchase it under THAT law [as it turns out] so I did NOT have to pay "the fine". And I did NOT buy it. And now, I won't EVER HAVE to! [I may get a high deductible catastrophic policy, now that I can, maybe like the old style 'blue cross' plans - for 1/10 the price - and for anything else, I'll just go to the neighborhood "doc in a box" or pharmacy where they can do things like flu shots without an exam first, things like that].
"Murder rate US - 4.88 per 100,000"
Trump still needs to un-do DECADES of failed policies that result in inner city high unemployment rates, to deal with the murder rate and crime problems. Yeah, he got BOATLOADS of good things done in under a year, but still has a long way to go.
But as for actually ARRESTING and INCARCERATING these bozos that commit crimes [like murder], a good portion of that problem falls in the hands of STATE and local governments, not the Feds.
Recently, Cali-Fornicate-You "relaxed" the crime level (felonies becoming misdemeanors, for example) of certain "non-violent" crimes, causing prisoners to be released, among other things. The 'petty crime' increase predictably followed. We had a 3-strikes law that was WORKING. Not any more. Thanks, Jerry "2nd time around [like eating vomit]" "Moonbeam" Brown and corrupt state legislature.
Trump can't control governors or state legislatures. MOST crimes involve state law, not federal law, and are prosecuted by individual states.
And don't forget about cases where ILLEGAL ALIENS (including MS-13) are the CAUSE of the murders... like a recent high profile case in San Francisco where the perp was ACQUITTED on B.S. technicalities, "the bullet ricocheted" or some such nonsense, when HE! FIRED! THE! BULLET!! Trump can't control THAT, either.
I think the NRA _ALSO_ has some interesting statistics involving states where gun ownership and/or concealed carry permits are being INFRINGED upon... showing that restrictive anti-gun laws actually INCREASE the murder/crime rates.
So, blame where blame belongs, please?
*ahem*
@handleoclast
rich people (and corporations) don't just stuff their mattresses with extra money when they earn it [exception: expatriated money stuffed into offshore banks, waiting for lower tax rates so it can be re-patriated].
they SPEND IT! You know, on houses, cars, boats, planes, vacations, "things"... and they HIRE people! "Hey I have more money this year, let's hire a contractor/butler/cook/driver/gardner/whatever - or invest venture capital into a NEW BUSINESS, because I can RISK IT now!"
(and of course, THAT creates JOBS and boosts the economy). So let rich people KEEP what they earn, because it's GOOD for EVERYONE when they do!
Do you get it now?
"The side effect of this is that your health insurance is likely to double or triple"
FUD. WRONG. CLUELESS. prices/costs already _DID_ that because of OBAKA-"Care".
I will continue to *REFUSE* to purchase insurance UNTIL it becomes "affordable". for ME. with the features _I_ want, and ONLY what _I_ want to pay for. Until then, if I need something, there's a "doc-in-a-box" a mile from my house, in a shopping center. I've used those before. They're reasonably priced, and it's easier to just use a credit card or cash than to deal with insurance-style bureaucracy.
It is _NOT_ the business of a _GUMMINT_ to _FORCE_ me to _BUY_ something! it's un-American, too, to even THINK that way. What part of "freedom" includes GUMMINT FORCING YOU TO BUY SOMETHING??? [oh, "for your own good", I forgot, duuuhhh... </sarcasm>]
"Why would corporations repatriate money and be taxed on it"
so they can effectively make the money WORK [and earn more] instead of [effectively] being STUFFED INTO A MATTRESS. Stagnant money is bad. Working capital is good. That sort of thing.
I would've made the corporate tax ZERO. I also would FLATTEN the income tax so everone pays the SAME RATE [with no deductions other than 'how many people in your household'], no special rates for married/single, no special deductions for children over others, ALL income treated the same, and a large enough personal deduction so that "poor" individuals pay NO federal tax.
But no politician has the TESTICULAR FORTITUDE to actually do that.
And what we have here is a "good first step". I expect even those whiners that can't deduct their state/local taxes [as much] any more, who NOW have higher 'effective' tax rates [they're all "super rich" anyway, not middle class, so class envy types SHOULD be happy they're getting 'soaked'], will actually take home MORE money than before because of the economic boon. So, in reality, it would help THEM too.
What I did _NOT_ see in the article is the repeal of the [unconstitutional] INDIVIDUAL MANDATE to PURCHASE health insurance that meets certain [ridiculous] requirements as specified by OBAKA-"Care". Buhbye!! THAT is probably the BEST news [to me].
In any case, "nice first step". I hope to see MORE of the SAME from con-grab over the next few years.
Oh - I also predict that the UK will benefit indirectly from this, as well as everyone ELSE in the world. You should be happy! "A rising tide lifts all boats". When the USA does well, so does EVERYONE ELSE. This is why I hated the globalist "hamper the USA so the others can catch up" approach. That's really wat it was, ya know? A nice recession followed THAT approach. I think the 80's method is BETTER. And so it will be, AGAIN, in the late twenty-teens and 20's
interesting quote, it forced me to google. Seems to be from 3rd season of the 'Mr. Robot' series.
After reading about it here I'm not sure I'd want to even SEE that show.
It's been my experience that hackers aren't anarchists, most aren't socialists (like Stallman), nor even anti-capitalists. The EFF is more like the ACLU than not, it seems, and doesn't really represent what [from what I've seen] MOST hackers think or do.
Most hackers seem to be (in general ) are libertarians, and somewhat conservative at that. In other words, it's less about legalizing everything (like drugs), and more about just being a "more free" society. After all, OTHER methods of governance take freedom (and/or money) AWAY. And most of them (us) are employed in fields where rapid thinking, problem solving, and creative solutions are key to making your customer/employer happy with you. You know, like I.T., engineering, software, ...
And I don't think you'll find too many hackers that are SJW's, either. Maybe, among the easily brainwashed n00b/s'kiddie types you'll find a few, but generally NO. Hackers tend to want their freedom, and freedom for everyone else, too [even if they don't agree with it]. You'll also find that hackers generally accept social change a bit faster than others, too, mostly on the 'live and let live' side, and not the "we have to change everybody who disagrees with us" side - as an example I had some interesting online discussions with a transgender hacker some time ago (about transgender-ness, lots of interesting resources referenced), and that particular hacker had no problem being accepted in the newsgroup, without the usual "suck-up" behavior that SJW's and the left typically give to people who are in 'SJW protected classes'.. yeah it's sad when "the new XXX employee" gets sucked-up to that way. EMBARASSINGLY sad, like they become instant 'celebreties'. I just treat people the same, regardless. I think that's what they want, too.
But, regardless of all of that, the 'alternative' perception of hackers makes for popular TV shows, I'd guess... so it's perpetuated. Thing is, hackers probably don't care nor don't watch the show. Hackers on shows like 'Bull' and 'Criminal Minds' and 'NCIS' are, however, pretty close to "the real thing" from my perspective. I mean, who doesn't like Garcia? Abbey? or McGee? Or that hacker girl on 'Bull' ?
Anyway, 'nuff from me now. I should get "work" done.
they can be 'proud of themselves' all they WANT to if they can get the product right...
But with things like Australis, breakage of legacy plugins (many of which "FIX" the Australis b0rk-up), 2D FLATSO HTML 'settings' pages, etc. - this "users are by default our beta testers" nonsense is JUST the icing on the arrogance cake of FAIL.
/me points out that PRIDE isn't necessarily bad, but when you're proud of something, and it's NOT deserved, it becomes ARROGANCE.
they should take a lesson from this and write "simpler pages" that use STANDARD HTML rather than all of that CRAP that typically ends up in web pages these days...
CSS is a necessary evil, but can be included in the <HEAD> section instead of requiring a 3rd party CDN [and then ONLY what is NECESSARY to display the page correctly, not "boatload of bloat" which generally ends up in a 'boilerplate' CSS]. Same with script.
It's those "3rd party bloatware load-it-all" script/style sites that REALLY screw intarwebs performance. And sometimes, if you want to make fixes/changes to the script files, it STOPS the change from working with Chrome on an Android... [even REFRESH didn't help]. Yeah, I was pissed off about that, and embedded "only what was needed" in the HEAD section. THAT fixed it!
" I write Linux software and am most productive on that platform"
ack - at first I didn't know how well 'gedit' (and then 'pluma') did as an editor, so I used VS. But within a short time, I discovered that syntax highlighting in 'gedit' (and then 'pluma') does a FANTASTIC job of making it posible to use those applications to edit things on Linux or BSD natively. I do miss "virtual space" though, which is why I'm [off and on] working on my OWN IDE. [I've got some time off for a month or so, maybe I can work on it some more].
It took a bit of a learning curve, to familiarize myself with autotools, to get the 'Makefile' syntax down pat [both for BSD-style and GNU-style Makefiles], to completely familiarize myself with how the gcc and clang environments work, etc. etc. but it's paid off and NOW very easy to set up an application that builds/runs under Linux, BSD, Cygwin, OSX, and maybe even Win32 if I bother to add the '#if' blocks for "the differences". And if I need GUI stuff, GTK and wxWidgets do pretty well for me.
I keep MSDN anyway because, you never know when you'll need it for something. [getting my IDE and toolkit to build cross-platform for winders would be a good reason]
"one day maybe someone will post a story about Microsoft that wont get usurped by the penguins"
Micro-shaft would have to roll back their business strategies and internal policies NEARLY TWO DECADES for *THAT* to happen. Their current stupidity began when Ballmer took the helm, with the ".Not" initiative [which eventually morphed into the 'windows logon' that Win-10-nic practically STRONGARMS you into], which was originally called "Passport", and all of the big "dot com" people laughed hysterically at [as in 'why must we pay a toll to Micro-shaft for what we do already for FREE???'].
SO... as long as Micro-shaft continues to do STUPID THINGS and make STUPID POLICIES, I'm sure that the ratio of unfavorable to favorable articles will continue to be a value significantly greater than one. And "the penguins" (I guess I'm one too, even though I'm running FBSD for day-to-day things) will continue to point out, as a public service, the ~superior~ choice of alternative (and free) OS known as Linux.
From the article:
"Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate HTML and JavaScript engines provided by the Windows Platform"
and (quoted from post I reply to)
"This is another decision, in the long line of recent MS decisions that are pushing users away, the users who are most easily pushed away are those with somewhere else to go"
The first quote (from the article) shows that "The Store" CRapps are [out of the box] *AUTOMATICALLY* *HOBBLED* by being forced into using a potentially *INFERIOR* system of HTML and JavaScript rendering/execution, with NO hope of providing your own tweeks and benefits [and filtering i.e. anti-spyware anti-malware] such that NOBODY can effectively compete with that "Edging" browser. So Chrome is _ALREADY_ on their "excrement list". But they wanted a presence in "The Store", so they made an INSTALLER instead. I totally get that.
And the 2nd quote is a BRILLIANT assessment of where Micro-shaft currently is.
I have to wonder if Micro-shaft is *ALSO* *HOBBLING* "The Store" UWP CRapps by (essentially) forcing them into having 2D FLATSO FLUGLY interfaces.
Some recent experiences between me Micro-shaft have shown me that the rank/file people are REALLY TRYING to make customers happy and be reasonable. But their overall infrastructure AND bureaucracy, *ESPECIALLY* dealing with "The Store", has shown me that it's a *COMPLETE* *CLUSTER* *BLANK*. What used to work (let's say renew MSDN), but now *MUST* be done through "The Store", has broken, in a bad way. And though good people at low levels do their best to try and "fix it", and I most definitely appreciate their efforts, they are up against an INTERNAL BUREAUCRACY that is as OPPRESSIVE as [here comes the politics] a SOCIALIST DICTATORSHIP.
But I've commented on that MANY times before, and I've experienced the effects of it first-hand. I've interpreted the results of "decisions from on high" within their corporation, and seen how a small number of "activist types" are driving the ship towards the rocks. I've seen (and then pointed out) specific people who are KNOWN to be responsible, none of whom seem to work for the company any more. And yet... STILL, the problems remain, and Micro-shaft CONTINUES to go down the SAME road to HELL as they were when they horked-up "The Metro", Win-10-nic, GWX, UWP, and "The Store".
Yes... those who HAVE an alternative already are moving towards it. I pity those who do NOT.
/me runs FreeBSD most of the time, with Linux and 'some windows' thrown in their, though I _still_ keep my MSDN subscription alive... I guess I'm nostalgically hopeful or something.
"If the US government successfully defends this, an ugly precedent will be made:"
you mean a precedent like NOT having to bow to every WHINER out there who BITCHES that the gummint isn't buying THEIR products, for "whatever reason" ?
don't tell me that YOUR boss (or I.T. department) doesn't say you can't use "certain software" on work computers... that would be VERY rare, from what I've seen.
"to call out one specific company was just asking to be sued"
maybe, but to call it "unconstitutional" is completely ridiculous.
Any corporation or government has the authority to decide what products it wants to use. Otherwise, they'd be using public money to appease EVERY WHINER OUT THERE just because the gummint didn't purchase THEIR products. Like some form of 'political correctness' I guess...
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